how did i end up here?

Third Day’s a Charm

Day three in Antigua has been one of the best so far. Although it did start out with cereal and warm milk…I am not a fan. It was a little more than I could handle at siete en la manana. However, after that, the day picked up quite nicely, I must say. School was great! I feel like I’m learning a lot with Carmen. She’s very patient and is always eager to explain things to me and she gives me great examples. I really look forward classes with her.

After school and lunch (which was a very delicioso sopa de tomato y carne y arroz,) I set out to meet a few new friends. Kristen (friend of Quin’s from college who lives in the DC area) grew up in Guatemala and has several friends in Antigua, not to mention her parents are still in Guatemala City. She was kind enough to send a few letters with me to give to her friends so I could meet them too. I first went to meet Desire who owns a shop here in town. Places are not exactly easy to find here. While the town is set up on a traditional grid, exactly none of the streets are named, nor are the houses marked. That makes it difficult to find any place in particular, to say the least. After walking for 20 minutes, I finally found Casa de Artes, the store Desire runs. I was lucky enough to catch her (I understand she is a very busy woman) and we chatted for a good while. She is very sweet and we planned to have lunch sometime next week. I can’t wait!

After saying hasta luego to Desire I set out to find Annette, another of Kristen’s friends who is getting on in years. Annette is a painter by trade and still has a studio for her work. I found her house and rang the doorbell twice. Her housekeeper answered the door and between my horrible Spanish and her little knowledge of English, I figured out Annette was taking a siesta but she said I could come in and talk to Annette’s esposo. So I sat and talked with Johnny, her husband, for about half an hour. Such a sweet man! I just want to take him home with me!! In his past life he was a pediatrician and worked with USAID for years in Guatemala. He had tons of great advice and even told me I had the Spanish accent down (he and Annette are both from Great Britain). Why, thank you Johnny! While we were talking, Annette woke from her nap, but had to get to a doctor’s appointment. Johnny asked her to come in and meet me, but she couldn’t be bothered because she was late for her appointment. Those two…I tell you what…adorable. I gave Johnny my email and asked him to contact me. I really hope he does. I’d love to get together with him again. And maybe this time Annette could join as well.

All in all I’d call today a great success. And I can’t wait for class on the beach tomorrow! I just hope I don’t blind all these Gualtematecas with mi muy blanca piel.

posted by taiautumn @ 7:02 PM