Feliz Cumpleanos, Abuelita!

At 5:30 yesterday morning, I woke out of a sound sleep to the sound of (what I assume is) Spanish opera. At full volume. After somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes of hoping I was mistaken, I dragged my sorry self out of bed and stumbled out of my room to find the source of the noise. Finally, I tracked it down - a radio in the window of the house across the street. Yes, someone was playing opera full blast before six on a Thursday morning.

At breakfast, our host mother (who we call "abuelita", meaning "little grandma") explained that it's tradition on the street for this particular gentleman, Juan, to wake everyone up on the birthdays of the residents on the street. Fair enough, although warning would have been great.

After school, I returned home to learn that it was actually ABUELITA's birthday! The house was filled with old, smiling Guatemalan folks, and I was ushered to the table to have a birthday drink. Yep, I finally take a day off from the pub only to drink rum at lunchtime.

It was quite the fiesta - Daniel, Abuelita's grandson, and I tracked down a cake at the pastelaria (cake shop), we had a traditional holiday salad for lunch, and everyone had a grand time. It was Abuelita's sister's birthday, too (they were born exactly three years apart), so we relit the candles and sang a second time. While I couldn't really talk to anyone (besides Daniel), it was definitely a great and welcoming atmosphere and an interesting window into Guatemalan society.

Also, the cake was delicious.

El Lago de Atitlan

I'll be in Guatemala for eight full weeks, so it seems strange that I feel this drive to see everything RIGHT NOW. I'm fighting against it for the coming weekend - I plan to bum around town, take a few pictures, and actually study some Spanish - but last weekend Arizona Girl (my new friend from Phoenix) and I decided to take a trip west to the lake, which we were told was a beautiful and (relatively) tranquilo place.

It was definitely that. We made some new friends, met up with some slightly older ones, did a bit of hiking and a lot of relaxing, and generally had a great time. Now Arizona Girl is off on other adventures (although we hope to meet up in a week or so in the highlands), and I'm back in Antigua, where I might finally be able to get some work done! :)

(If you look really closely, there's a monkey in the bottom picture!)

El Volcan de Pacaya

On Thursday last, I joined some of my fellow Spanish school students for a trip up the Pacaya volcano. I wasn't too excited about the excursion initially - it was raining like nobody's business, plus I hadn't really made friends with anyone who was planning on going - but the weather was bound to be worse the next time the trip was offered, so German Guy, the other student living with abuelita, talked me into it.

We spent an hour and a half in a rented van on the way to the volcano, the final half hour of which was up flooding roads through sad little villages on the side of Pacaya. I was regretting my decision and imagining my nice, dry room and the nice, warm dinner I'd be missing. I did not feel any better once we arrived at the base of the trail - not only was it still raining cats and dogs, but our van was swarmed by a pack of small, dirty children selling walking sticks and ponchos they had reclaimed from past climbers. I seriously considered asking to wait in the car, but in the end my pride got the best of me.

DEFINITELY a worthwhile experience. It stopped raining as soon as we hit the path, making the dirt and stone path more passable, albeit only slightly. My walking stick (cinco quetzales) was definitely a great investment, since my old, worn Puma cleats aren't really made for trekking. We clambered up the side of the volcano, slipping in a mix of mud and horse shit, as the day got clearer and a bit cooler and the sun slowly headed towards the horizon. I was afraid my heart was going to jump out of my chest - my expectations were more along the lines of 'leisurely stroll' than 'strenuous hike' - but then we made it to the top. The vista was amazing, a huge crater surrounded by lush green forest, filled with lava rock, with steam rising from cracks through which active lava could be seen flowing.

And then we went IN. Yep, in the crater. Clambering over piles of lava rock, I was kind of afraid my shoes would melt, but it was a spectacular - and toasty - experience. Above are only a few of the great pictures from the hike, but they should give you some idea of what Pacaya is like - beautiful and ancient and filled with a few too many tourists for my liking, but still a great way to spend the afternoon.

Mi Casa

Just to give you all some idea, here are a couple of photos of the inside of my house for the next couple of months. I haven't yet learned enough Spanish to ask abuelita if she's okay with me posting a picture of her on the internet, but once I make it to that stage I hope to get a picture of her up as well. It's a pretty comfortable place to live, and with three square meals a day and someone to clean the bathroom while I'm at school, I have nothing to complain about!

Bienvenidos a Antigua!

Well, it's been awhile, but I'm back! I apologize for the long silence, but really I just wasn't doing anything interesting! Aside from a couple of trips to Washington, DC and a few days in New York City over spring break, I've been staying pretty close to home lately. I graduated from law school at the beginning of June, took the New York state bar exam at the end of July, and spent the first week of August packing up my apartment (thanks, Mom!) ... and now I'm in Guatemala, where I plan to study Spanish until the beginning of October!

I arrived on Sunday afternoon, landing in the Guatemala airport after a pleasant and uneventful flight on TACA airlines from DC. As planned, I was greeted at the airport and, one bumpy 30 minutes later, was dropped off at my host family's home. The drive itself was plenty surreal, starting with the Chuck-E-Cheese right outside the airport (seriously), but as we got up higher into the mountains, I got increasingly more excited about getting to Antigua - the area is green and beautiful and very very humid, and Antigua is a beautiful little town in a valley surrounded by countless mountains and three (ACTIVE!) volcanoes. The streets are super-old cobblestones, and the homes are a cacophony of bright colors that wouldn't be allowed by any homeowners association in the states. The center of town is El Parque Central, a beautiful park surrounded by old colonial-style buildings now housing banks, cafes and countless tour operators. The entire city is probably less than a mile across, and I walk everywhere (although never alone at night, of course!).

So, as I said, my ride dropped me off on the doorstep of my host family. After a brief minute of panic (there was no answer the first two times we knocked - Araminta, my host mother, is hard of hearing), I was ushered into a lovely house by a tiny woman with steel gray hair who doesn't speak a word of English. The house was otherwise empty, and home stays don't include Sunday meals, so after unpacking and settling in a bit, I set out on a quest for a restaurant that takes Visa card. I wound up in a popular little bar/restaurant called Reilly's, which claims to be the "Best Irish Pub in the Americas." I don't know if I agree with that, but after a day of traveling to a country where I don't speak the language, my burger and Heineken really hit the spot!

While sitting at my table, I noticed another tourist sitting alone, and we struck up a conversation. She's an accountant from Phoenix, traveling Guatemala for five weeks before she has to go back to work, and is sticking around Antigua for this week. We wound up staying at Reilly's for Sunday night trivia (we placed an embarrassing 4th out of 12th, and we only did that good because a teammate cheated), and have returned every night for a beer and some American-English conversation, which is just what an exhausted brain needs sometimes. We've also made friends with most of the bar staff, which means that when she leaves at the end of the week, I'll probably keep going in ... that just makes me social, and not an alcoholic, right?

But yes, I am technically here to learn Spanish. I'm attending a school called APPE in the northeast of town, which came recommended by Rotary International (the organization sponsoring my studies in New Zealand next year). In all reality, though, I don't know that a recommendation is necessary - there are over 70 language schools in Antigua alone (a town of around 45,000), and the quality really varies teacher by teacher, since the lessons are all one-on-one. My current teacher is a middle aged man named Fredy, who has been at APPE for the past 18 years and seems to be a pretty good teacher. His English is good, not amazing, but we do fine together for the most part, and he's really patient when it takes me two minutes and ten corrections to form a complete sentence! I get nightly homework in a little workbook, and tonight I even have to write a (short) composition about my family.

Perhaps learning a language isn't as relaxing as I hoped ....

All in all, I'm pretty excited about this experience. The school organizes excursions, and while I haven't joined in any yet this week (they repeat every three weeks, so I'll have plenty of time), I'm scheduled to climb one of the nearby volcanoes tomorrow afternoon. It should be a great experience, although I'm sure I'll come home soggy, cold and miserable (the afternoons tend to be rainy, and climbing the side of a volcano likely doesn't offer much cover). And this weekend, my Phoenix friend and I hope to travel two or three hours to Lake Atitlan, which is supposed to be absolutely beautiful - then she'll continue on her adventures and I'll head back for another week of studying and exploring.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures yet, but hope to prowl around town in the next couple of days and get some photos up - it really is a beautiful place, and I'm excited to share it! Much love to everyone at home - I'm off to do my homework!