Arriving at night with a weary head, one doesn´t really take in one´s surroundings. But whilst sitting in the roof garden of the GVI house on Sunday morning, one thing became apparent: in Antigua, there are volcanoes. Three, as it happens. One of them is constantly smoking, and apparently had a small eruption, if there is such a thing, a couple of weeks back. Oh and there was an earthquake, measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale. It´s at this point I ask that someone go to check on my mother in case she´s read this and passed out.
In addition to the volcanoes, there are plenty other, less lava-loving mountains. All are lush, covered as they are with greenery and the promise of breathtaking vistas (a promise which I shall verify in due course). Antigua es muy bonita.
After staying in a hotel the first night, I moved in with my host family on Sunday. My adopted mother, Christina, is lovely, though she speaks less English than I speak Spanish. It is fortunate that she´s great at charades. She is also clearly a lover of animals, and has a parrot 44 years of age that speaks more Spanish than I do, which is somewhat embarrassing. There is also a dog, which I had heard about but whom wasn´t around when I moved in. Upon returning to the house after exploring Antigua I met the dog in the hallway, but evidently someone had to forgot to inform her of my arrival. She was not very welcoming. Christina probably found me just in time to prevent a new brand of dog biscuit made of yours truly. With the dog and I formally introduced, she became suddenly a very cute sheepdog. Turns out her name is Lucky. I hope the irony isn´t lost on you people.
Monday saw the start of my experience in Spanish school. Nine hours - with a cumulative two hours break - of one-on-one Spanish. It´s utterly exhausting; there´s no point at which one can stop concentrating for even a second, as the teacher talks at you entirely in Spanish whilst you nod your head and say ´si´over and over. My teacher for the mornings is particularly intense, and speaks little English. In the afternoon however I learn with Miguel, who seems to speak more English and has different teaching methods. After studying in the school for two hours, we went for a walk around the square, culminating in us sitting on a park bench whilst we discussed myriad subjects from life in Guatemala to English football. I understood quite a lot considering it was all in Spanish, but I´m still not able to bring much to the conversation. Miguel also confirmed my suspicions that the Guatemalan coffee is mostly exported, and that whatever good stuff remains in Antigua can be found in the tourist shops at inflated prices. It´s still cheaper than Starbucks.
Having had a long day of desperately trying to understand Spanish as it was hurled at me, I found myself in the same situation at dinner with Christina. By the end I was of the opinion that if I heard one more word of Spanish that day I would scream. It was fortunate therefore than my fellow volunteer housemate returned from her weekend excursion to El Salvador; she´s American, speaks good Spanish and as it happens is Jewish, which makes makes me want to toss out an old favourite like ít´s a small world´, except that having travelled all this way I´m quite sure that it isn´t.
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