Day Four in Antigua
Day Four:
The next morning I awoke to bird noise and the sounds of a town
waking up and coming alive. The Senora started fixing breakfast
around 7:00 a.m. I got up and dressed and sat at the table and
she served me. She had a handful of eggs and it appeared that
she was going to make an omelet, or at least scrambled eggs with
chilies for me. I stopped her after she cracked the first egg
and explained that I preferred coffee and rolls. After breakfast
I brushed my teeth and left before either of my "brothers" woke up.
I was the first student to arrive at the Spanish School. I
waited and many (20 or so) other students came and were matched up
with their teachers. Finally, Mary Cano, the director called my
name and introduced me to Delila. She was a very pretty and
petite girl about 25 years old. We spent the morning more or
less just talking so she could assess my ability. I could
understand her almost perfectly and she was very patient with me
as well.
When lunchtime came, at 12:00 noon, school was dismissed and I
returned home. I wanted to have a run and then shower before
lunch but the water was off in the house, in fact in the entire
town! Seems the water department was working on the pump. I
just sat around and waited for "almorezo" the big lunchtime
meal. It was bean soup with a big lump of beef in the middle,
some rice and some bread.
I returned to school after a 10 minute rest on the bed and again
waited for the introduction to my new teacher. This time it was
a young boy. I think fresh from school judging from the 1995
class ring on his finger. This time things did not go so smooth.
I could not understand what this kid wanted me to do. He
insisted on counting down several rules of grammar and then
giving me examples and then asking for me to give him examples.
After doing this twice, he started asking me questions about a
previous trip in Guatemala, which was more pertinent because it
gave me a chance to practice the grammar. We had a coffee break
halfway through and I went to the store for a can of condensed
milk for my coffee and when I returned, we started the drill all
over again. Again a rough start.
I returned home and I really can't remember what I did. The next
day went pretty good. In the evening all three of us student
went into town for a beer. It was a pub of sorts, at least it
smelled like one. It was called Mancando. Dan and I had Mozas
on draft. A very dark and somewhat sweet beer and Hiro had a
Cubra Libre, a rum and coke. We actually were going to have
another but the barmaid never came back so we decided to try
another place.
Nothing struck our fancy on the walk home so we just went to the
little tienda about 5 doors down from our house. It seems
anyone can open a little tienda in the front room of their house.
Usually there is a metal-bar door where the front door is and you
sort of order through this fortress. It is kind of the Latin
American version of the corner market or 7-eleven. We ordered
three beers and drank them out front while we talked. Then we
just went home and went to our rooms.
The next week went by pretty much the same as the first day.
Sometimes Dan and I would go into town at night speaking in English
totally. Wednesday, my afternoon maestro and I went to Cerro de
la Cruz, or the Cross on the hill overlooking Antigua. Although
the guidebooks warned about frequent robberies on the hill, we
went, but I left everything at the school including my watch.
On Thursday afternoon we went to the traditional Mayan music
museo. I had been there before but wanted to see it again. On
Friday, I overheard a German girl say she was leaving. I was
interested if she was going to leave via the states to see if she
could drop a couple of postcards in the mailbox in America. She
said she wasn't actually leaving the country but her roommate,
and American was and he most likely do it and she would return
during my afternoon class and pick up my post cards for me. I
had to ask Carlos, my afternoon teacher to give me an hour or so
to write my postcards so I could get them done before she arrived
and Carlos agreed (like what else would he do?)
