Mi Cuarto (y más)

Aquí está mi cuarto pequeño guatemalteco. Me encanta.
This is my tiny Guatemalan bedroom. I love it. I have a bed, a desk, a chest of drawers, and a funny little nightstand sort of thing that my host mother said was "para los zapatos." Lo que sea. It's just enough and nada más. Unfortunately the "hot shower" is anything but; however I expected as much. In general the living arrangement here is very comfortable, and certainly couldn't be much cheaper. The cost of my home stay, including 3 meals a day on every day but Sunday, is included in the $150/week for the language school.


My daily schedule consists of getting up at around 7 am, taking a shower (if I feel brave) and brushing my teeth and whatnot, and heading downstairs for desayuno a las 7 y media. Then I head to school, which is about a 10 minute walk from la casa. I have a solid 5-hour one-on-one tutorial with a local teacher (and they're all pretty excelente), with a little 30-minute break thrown in for good measure.

Celas Maya seems to have been the best choice. I've seen the other schools, at least from the outside or through their doors, and they seem all but abandoned. Celas Maya is the biggest in town and has a great mezcla of people from all over the world. I'd say about half of us are U.S. Americans, and another quarter are from other Anglophonic countries (e.g., England, Australia). There are also some Germans and Dutch folks, and a Swede who left this afternoon. Greta, the international coordinator, says that the busy season doesn't really start until late June and July, and then we'll have up to 100 people at one time. I can't really imagine it. I don't know where they put all the desks. Anyway, it's nice to spend my time staying busy, either learning and using Spanish or meeting interesting folks from all corners. And it's also good, I think, that everyone tries to speak in Spanish even when we share a first language.

As far as actually learning Spanish, I think this was definitely a good choice. I'm already feeling caught up to where I left off with my last Spanish course, and after a couple more weeks at this rate, I hope to understand conversations even between Guatemaltecos who aren't speaking slowly for me. Last night I had the chance to correct my host mother's Spanish... she said "nuestra sistema..." while we were discussing the new law that requires schools to offer courses in the children's native language. But I decided I'd best let that one slip by. Don't want to anger the host mother :)

Guatemala celebrated its Mother's Day on Wednesday. It was pretty interesting... my host mother has 3 sisters, and they all came over to help put together a big lunch with grilled chicken and veggies and a strange salad-like mix of boiled potatoes, apples, and pineapple. Anyway, seeing the whole family gathered around and the abuela at the center of it all reminded me of Christmas with my own family. And the abuela (grandmother) is really a character. She wears traditional clothing, which is absolutely beautiful, and she got up and started dancing around with her grandchildren and generally having a good time.

Tomorrow I'm meeting up with a couple of girls from U-Texas to explore the city and find some gifts for my own Mother's day. More to come...