Mi Escuela de Espanol (spanish school)

Studying spanish is soooooo cheap here! An hour of one on one class costs about $5. A week of homestay or guesthouse cost $75, with three meals a day included. no wonder it's one of the most popular destination for learning Spanish (only second to Quito, Ecuador in Latin American I believe). Almost every school here has the same format, the class takes place in the corutyard of the school (upper right picture), tea and coffee are provided and the school organizes many activities during the afternoon. Spanish teachers are high in supply here so you can always walk in and start the class right next day.

Spanish is probably not the most difficult language in the world, but it's challenging enough especially when i am still at the stage of "thinking" in English. First of all, spanish words have gender, it's just not very rewarding when I spend the whole afternoon crunching vocabulary and in the class next day, can't even get 50% of the gender right. (oh well, if i just guess, i have 50% chance getting it right anyway, why bother?!....... i guess it's not the right attitude). And the gender is not what really drove me crazy. the irregular verbs are evil! They change their forms all the time, based on the subject (you, i, he, she, they, we) and the tense and often look nothing like its original form, or verbo infinitivo. And there are 26 tenses in spanish, for Buddha's sake! And better yet, sometimes it's necessary to put the object is IN FRONT OF the verb and the subject is often omitted, which is so unlike english. for example, the sentence "I give you the book" will sound like "you give the book", of course the verb "give" changes its form according to the tense and the subject and "the book" is a masculine word. so much to consider just to say a simple sentence like this. no wonder i am always so tired after the class! :)

with that said, i am really glad to see the improvement since day one. although it is still far from being fluent. i can at least get by most survival situations and carry simple conversations. it's nice thinking that with every new language you learn, you open the chance of communicating with many more people in the world.

today is our last day in Antigua, we are taking an overnight bus north to TiKal, stay a few days there to visit the Mayan ruins and cross to Belize early next week. Wish you all have a wonderful weekend.

more on the pictures: the logo of the school (upper left), my teacher and me (lower left), a taiwanese flag painted on the wall in the school (lower right).
[edit] i forgot to mention that there were so much drama going on in the guesthouse, which i won't comment publicly. i'll save those anecdotes for later and tell you over a cup of pearl tea when i get back.

Weekend getaway at Lago Atitlan

We just came back from a wonderful weekend getaway at Lago Atitlan. The beautiful lake is surrounded by three volcanoes and many indigenous villages with distinct characteristics. Being here made us feel so relaxed... and lazy. we did practically nothing for two days, just sit back and enjoyed what the nature has to offer.

I do want to take a little time to talk about our hotel. Lonely Planet said it´s the most magical hotel in Guatemala, i haven´t stayed at enough hotel here to endorse that but it sure is a WONDERFUL place, one I´d recommend to all my friends in a heartbeat. The hotel is built on a hill right by the lake (in fact, it even has a private dock! main picture), there are beautifully maintained trails that lead to the rooms, hot tub, terraces for sun bath and napping on hammocks, (middle and right picture)and a wonderful cafe and restaurant. Every room in this hotel has amazing lake view, yes, EVERY room! In the evening, family style dinner is served at the dining room (upper left picture), where guests are seated closely for mingling and exchanging their traveling experiences. sometimes the owner even join us! He´s an American who married a Guatemalan lady, fell in love with the lake and built a house here. For those adventurous type, there are many activities around the lake that the hotel will gladly arrange for you.. OK, i should stop here before it sounds too much like a commercial!.... oh, and best of all is that all these for only $27 a night!

the road to get there is bumpy though. Two hours of bus ride from Antigua through winding mountain road, followed by 30 minutes of crazy lancha (small boat operated on Lago Atitlan) ride on the lake! The lancha was seriously over capacity, it couldn't´t even leave the dock until four British girls jumped out and then back in afterwards. the water was choppy and we all got soaked by the time we arrived at the hotel.. a bit like a jurassia park disneyland ride in reality. i think that explains why we were so lazy over the weekend.

now we are rejuvenated and back to Antigua, ready for another week of intense spanish studying! I´ll post some picture of the school later this week. wish you all have a good weekend too!

Semana Santa in Antigua

Antigua really came to live during the week of Semana Santa. Many people came here to participate, and to witness the said-to-be the best in the America. It was a little crazy, being waken up in the middle of the night by drums and trumpets, walking out of the guesthouse and coming face-to-face with an array of roman soldiers, getting up at 4am to see THE procession on Good Friday, and things like that. By the end of the week we are really, really tired of the processions and we started running away from it instead of walking toward it like earlier during the week. :) but it´s a really really special experience not to be missed. Especially seeing those people making beautiful street carpets for the processions (lower middle) in the middle of the night (upper right). it´s very moving.
I have a album posted but here are a few close-up shots to show you how beautiful the carpets are (lower right). they are usually made from dyed, colorful sawdust and fresh flower..sometimes carved wooden panel is used to make patterns (upper left), it is not an easy job!! And all these work is for the short glorious moment when the purple carriers finally come to the front of their houses or stores (lower left). They are so unbelievably easy to destroy, look at where the purple carriers step on. and what do they do after that? they make another carpet for another procession. And no two carpets ever look the same! It´s a beautiful combination of devotion, art, and faith.
now the holy week is over and Antigua has its tranquility back. we are enjoying the original flavor of this city and looking forward to taking our Spanish up a notch before moving on.

Crossing to Guatemala

pictures speak a thousand words-
upper left: border of mexico and guatemala. the crossing was very smooth and i entered Guatemala without any visa!! the only adventure was we didn't have any cash left and had to borrow from other travellers to pay for the border tax. but somehow in a chaos they forgot to charge us. :)
lower left: twelve of us are packed in a van, thirteen including the driver, 12 hours of ride except for a few short stops to gas up and change transportation. It wasn't the best day of my life. :)
upper right: we stopped at a random gas station to refuel. colorful buses with "trunks" on the roof, bumper-to-bumper traffic, and endless honking. welcome to Guatemala!
lower right: It started to rain, so the driver stopped in the middle of nowhere to move our backpacks inside. Look at the size of the van, and imagine there are ten of us (two people got off earlier.. )with our backpacks....and two surfboards! By then it had been ten hours of crazy ride. oh, did i mention it's winding mountain road most of the time? the scenary is really beautiful though....
and here we are, in Antigua to witness Semana Santa (holy week). There are activities going on everyday of the week. some say it's the best semana santa in the America! the whole town is packed with tourists and hotels are double the price. Guatemala is supposed to be a cheap destination, but we are paying more than ever for the accomodation. guess we'll just have to suck it up and hope that it's living up to its fame. :) it'll tell you later.