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!