Antigua, Guatemala: September 2004

How are we doing?

We are doing well.... we are learning a ton and exercising every day. We are eating 3 square meals a day....the food is really good but we are served lots of carbs so who knows if we will lose any weight.

We've met people here from all over the world, such as Australia, England, lots from the US, and Germany. Yesterday a man said to us: are you from Italy or France?

All we could think about was how proud our mothers would be that he couldn't tell we are from the US!

We are being very careful. This weekend we will hang out with Bob, the catholic priest staying with us at the Perez home. He's going to show us around a little, and we might go to his mass to hear him give his homily. It's really nice to share all our meals with a priest, since he can say grace in spanish! His spanish is much more advanced, so he helps us communicate properly with Hilda (our house mother) if we need to say something complicated. Maybe God sent Bob to watch after us! Who knows?

Antigua, Guatemala

It's absolutely gorgeous today. There are only a few clouds in the beautiful blue sky and the Pacaya volcano (inactive and just south of the city) is looming over us with a small ring of clouds around the peak. From reading the news it sounds as though living in Washington State might be more dangerous than living in Antigua these days.

Branson is finally learning how to "want" things (quierer)...which is a dangerous thing. One thing we know is that our dog (el perro) quiere a warm blanket. The nachos haven't cured his shakes yet.

While Branson and his teacher fall deep into conversation about what color the pencil and book is (el lapiz y el libro), Cristy has been having menial conversations about spiritual gifts, God, and the significance of dreams with her teacher. How boring.

We have been working out every day in a little gym that plays techno music really loud. And of course we walk everywhere we go, so don't be surprised if we look like supermodels upon our return.

We're still working on getting our pictures up on the net, but in the meantime you can see some great pictures of the city and what we see everyday right here.

Nice, huh?

Some spanish for you

Estoy Soy Tengo
estás éres tienes
está es tiene
estamos somos tenemos
estais sois tenais
estan son tenen

No hablo the español...yet

Another great Guatemala website by some of the residents in Charlotte

Today we started Spanish school. Our teachers (Sylvia and Catalina) are very good. We took an initial test for placement. Branson was placed in the beginner book and Cristy is in the next placement up. Branson decided to quit the test around page 2 because it was utterly futile. Consequently, he couldn't understand much of what Dana commented in the previous post...but thanks anyway.

Our family only speaks Spanish, so we are learning very quickly! There is a priest from Boston staying with our family also. He has been her for one month (of 4 months total) and is helping us get around. The city is so quaint and colorful!

We also met several folks from America, Europe, and Australia who have retired here. They gave us some tips and said they have had no problem with safety. (Although we will be ultra careful!) We will always be home before dark (dinner is served at 630pm), so this will also help.

As for the shaking dog...we will feed him as many nachos as we can get our hands on. In fact, it's possible that he's going through some sort of withdrawal to something, hence the shaking. I doubt it's anything illegal since he's a dog and probably can't get his paws on stuff like that. We'll see if he perks up with some queso and salsa.

We are wearing our bug spray, watching carefully for potential dangerous situations, and staying together at all times, so please have peace that we are okay.

We made it!!

We made it safely to Antigua, Guatemala! It´s beautiful here. The cobblestone streets are very charming and there is a spanish school or European hotel around every corner. It didn´t take us long to find our first internet cafe.

When we were dropped off at our family´s house (where we´ll be staying for the duration of the 4 weeks), they came right out and greeted us with open arms! Very warm and friendly. They only speak to us in Spanish, but they do so slowly and try to teach us with every conversation. Of course, Cristy does most of the talking at this point while I stand off to the side and say, "Gracias...bien...gracias...ok". It´s a good system so far.

We have our own room and bathroom with two double beds. We even have toilet paper! There´s a tiny little dog (looks like the Taco Bell dog) named Calicia. She´s so small that she constantly vibrates to stay warm (not that it´s cold here...and don´t worry mothers, we won´t touch the dog).

The mother is named Hilda and the father is Magno (we think). There´s also a 1 year old baby named Andre in the house...that´s all we know so far.

The school is a block away and we start at 8am tomorrow after breakfast with the Perez family (our host family).

So adios for now! We´re off for las cervezas (wearing our bugspray, of course)!

don't let the pictures fool you

elsewhere in the world

So, these are not actually Guatemala (I don't think have elephants but I'll be looking for the alcoholic monkeys...They're everywhere.)

They are pictures from our other travels in the world-so that you can see how much fun we've had before!!

I don't think we'll be able to post pictures when we're there, but we'll try.

Gotta go to bed now. Our plane leaves at 6:30 tomorrow morning...

bp