Language School and Beyond

I have had a week of spanish school now and huge regrets for not sticking with spanish in high school. Throwing spanish books out windows freshman year has finally come back to haunt me. I am able to construct some almost understandable phrases though, and my host family is very patient.

There are two kids that are seven and nine in my family that are always around and generally another thirty adults and their kids will storm in the house around five at night. I learned quickly from the swarm of people chanting outside my door and the many chairs in rows for a ceremony, that my house´s second purpose is a evangelical church. It adds intrest every night, but means dinner may be delayed to 9:15 and then is only apple sauce soup or beans that you have to shell in a salty liquid. Besides the family antics, there is much to do at the school. On any given day there is a political conference, salsa dancing lessons, news in Guatemala from the week, a graduation feista on friday, and trips to surrounding areas.

An hour ago I learned the basic steps to salsa, although not with extreme grace. I was corrected many times by the teacher, once being not to jump so much. To get the point across, she pointed at her boobs said ¨no¨ and jumped. In the end I was left with much hope and desire to be a pro by the end of three months.

The day before we went to one of the surrounding towns which beautiful in some areas but quite run down and scattered with trash in others. After leaving Antigua it became clear how the extreme poverty still seems to be in a similar state as before the war. While standing in the field where weaving was being done, a little boy just pulled down his pants and squatted to use the bathroom. We meandered on to the oldest in church in Guatemala which had dogs and fruit in the old cement work. Last stop was a large loom in someones house along with wine and spoodi taste testing.

Wednesday we headed to Fuentas Georginas hot springs which can be best described as natural steaming hot tubs in a rainy cloud forest. The hotest pool had water drizzling down rocks peaking out of foiliage that felt boiling if you were to touch it. The second and third pools were moderate luckily and allowed us to soak for a few hours.

The begining of the week was just as full of adventures and talks, but it is almost time for the fiesta so I am off.