Sunday, May 20, 2007

antigua checklist


with my time here coming to a close, i thought it'd be a good idea to take stock of things i've done/learned, and then marginalize those accomplishments with a list of things i didn't do/learn. dice...

did

1. learn a bunch o' spanish
2. scale an active/lava spewing volcano
3. make some great purchases at bargaintown in chichi
4. learn to pilot a motorcycle
5. see a man shoot a gun at another man (oh i never wrote about that)
6. meet great folks, make friends, drink pineapple soda
7. learn about the human culture in contrast (central american & beyond)
8. watch a local soccer match...picked up a few spanish explecatives
9. learn how to do that pen spinning thing really well!


didn't

1. catch any kind of parasite or flesh eating disease
2. fall in love, some folks prognosticated that one
3. eat tortuga, about to have turtle soup, but the kids adopted it instead
4. most regretably, see a real live cockfight, there were chances
5. much less regretably, learn the salsa
6. burn through all that much dough

2 abby's 2 luiz's, velvit, tifani & a pizza place

 


i probably could've made this a blogpost much sooner but never got around to getting a pic with the whole family. nevertheless, here we go. this is the excellent family i've lived with for the last month and a half. from the left goes abby, abby, luiz, luiz, velvit, and tifani (the girly dog) is tucked in there too. you can't get much better people. pops protects detainee's rights that are arrested and occasionally 'roughed up' by the police. mom works a lot in the house, but also works for a nonprof that helps women that have been victims of violence or marital issues, and she still makes time to take evening classes at the university. velvit (20) is on her way to becoming a dentist, abby (18)is a bio-chem student working toward med school and little luiz (15)is studying like a G to be a pilot. on top of all this, the family rents a phone at the front window to folks saving cell minutes or just needing to make a quick call and not use the pay phone. everyone works together to accomodate the students and they only speak spanish. no one ever seems to get angry or have an argument which lends creedence to my theory that the school keeps the family heavily sedated at all times.
Posted by Picasa

Saturday, May 19, 2007

limo tint rearview...that's how i do

 


my friend dominik (hails from germany by way of s. florida) and i decided to throw back a few saturday night. and, after walking by one too many gringo bars we decided to dumbrush riki's. almost immediately we met this charming group of guatemaltecos in town from guate (the capital). donald, the big guy, actually lived in germany for a year, so on top of some decent english, mano spoke german too. i was speaking with his wife larita about all kinds of stuff...antigua, the economy, crime & punishment, etc. all in spanish! they seemed eager to flex some english so big dom and i spoke spanish and miraculously the conversation was great.

the catalyst may have been the liters of dorada ice on the table, but this is what lead me to a great realization. if you wanted to learn a 2nd, 3rd or whatever number language and you could find someone else that knew that language and wanted to learn your language, then just meet for happy hour once a week and presto! the cool thing was that it was just effortless barchat and when we or they hit a bump we just helped each other out or said it in the other language. this is a completely different mode of learning from the school which only provides spanish...for this reason many abstract concepts have to remain hidden until you can adequately describe in spanish what you'd like to ask. i also non-begrudgingly got tricked into taking a picture with a delightful group of ladies from finland, guatemala, ireland, and who knows where else. that was thanks to angel, el abogado, not shown. the other pic with dom, donald & larita also has the frontrunner for mayor of antigua, complete with 8X10 glossy. it was kinda cool and worth noting that one minute we were just trying to make our way to the bar and the next we were rubbing elbows with the guatemalan aristocracy.

anywho, we also went to café no sé for the closing hour and it felt like we were just on top of the world...mainly because we rode over to this place in a clean benzo with limo tint, even on the windshield. (by the way, that's what everybody does here, cuz it's not illegal) overall, it was a nice prelude to a departure with a group of friends, none of whom i knew 24 hours prior.
Posted by Picasa

Friday, May 18, 2007

la despedida


F I E S T A


EL VIERNES 18 DE MAYO 2007


ANFITRIONES

LA ESCUELA SEVILLA

Y EL ZANMAN


VEN A LA ESCUELA A LA UNA PARA UNA EXPERIENCIA MUY DIVERTIDA


LA DIVERSIÓN INCLUYE:

MÚSICA, ALIMENTO, BEBIDAS, CHISTES Y PROFESORES VERDADEROS DE ESPAÑOL





friday the 18th, zanman put together a small afternoon party to commemorate my last day of class. and look what these fools did, they went and got a piñata, a cake and signed a winnie the poo card for me. about 50 people showed up. (the bulk of the series, i mean school) i purchased all the carne, aguacates, tomates, tortillas, frijol, arroz, cerveza y barcadí and my friends milton y yolanda and few of the teachers piched in and helped prepare all the food. we had a pre and post meal dance party and a pingpong tournament to close things out. i lost in the final 27-25 to gianca, short for giancarlos. the guy in the tyedye t-shirt goes by the apodo 'shusha' and is now officially the funniest person i've ever encountered. goodtimes and goodbyes to the teachers and staff made for a somewhat emotional afternoon tipsy time. oops, the flyer i made for the party didn't transfer very well from google.doc to blogpost...but it looks cool, so the kid stays in the picture!

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

anatomy of a chicken bus


as promised, the highly anticipated chicken bus issue. so, what are they? the c-bus is your traditional thomsasbuilt or bluebird school bus, most of them are late '80s, early '90s models that have been brought down from the states. you still occasionally see one that hasn't been 'pimped' that has crawford i.s.d. in good old black and yellow. once these buslines here get a hold of them, a metamorphisis occurs. they paint the whole thing with flashy colors, blues, reds, oranges, throw mudflaps on the back, put the trite and true sexy girl silohuetes everywhere, a luggage rack on top, luggage cages inside, and a sobriquet in bold text on the winshield for good measure. you'd think every bus would have a different name, but i've seen 3 esmeraldas and 2 ruiz's back to back. i think those are the most popular names for their respective genders. now then, each chicken bus is equipped with a driver and what i call 'the steward' or the 'déleman.' the driver drives, but the steward collects money from the passengers, fastens large cargo to the top of the bus, helps women off the bus, and most importantly navigates close quarters turns and reversals. for example, in antigua, most of the roads are narrow, one way or limited access. almost always the buses have to pull into the intersection, backup, and then cut the wheels again to make the turn. i call the steward the 'déleman' because he yells ¡déle! all day long as the bus backs up and readjusts. (i hear this from my window as early as 5am) as for the one-way and limited access dilemma , to save time, the buses will pull onto the street and then back up for a block or more to get to the stop. (to me this destroys the purpose of having 'limited' access or 'one' way, but hey) this segues well to the next piece. these buses are perpetually in a hurry. my understanding is that the driver pays a flat fee for a day's worth of bus use, anything over that goes into the pocket. this system is the motivation for both the driver and steward to lay on the horn in busy intersections, practically throw people off the bus, collect the money in transit, rather than at the stops, and to overtake slower traffic going uphill on blind turns. you'd hope i was exaggerating for sake of an interesting post, but truly these guys are crazy. maybe in a sporty muscle car i'd be brash enough to try some of these maneuvers, but these guys are doing it in a 40' over-capacity, lumbering rectangle. most of the time they actually get back in their lane in time for the oncoming traffic, but i've been in buses or microbuses that have been essentially run off the shoulder during these traffic violations, but it seems like everyone drives like that here. oh! and here you go, they pack these things deep! they'll have 3 people in a seat and the isle completely full of standing passengers and still pick people up to stand in the front between the driver and the door. the cool thing i guess, is that you can go pretty much anywhere for 2.50Q, this is like 30 cents, but you put your life in their hands. you regularly hear about overturned buses, or búses volcados, and usually the driver flees the scene to avoid questioning or charges from the police. but still, what a bargain ride! and these things go everywhere. i have yet to be on any road for more than 5 minutes and not see at least one chicken bus fly by. and lastly...the name chicken bus, called so because it's not uncommon to be in the bus and see chickens stowed in the luggage racks and when those are full, folks just carry them upside down with their feet tied clucking around all the while. sometimes after a firey wreck, i'm like hmmm, something smells good....ok, bad joke.

Monday, May 14, 2007

la fábrica

 

 


i found out about this place with only a few weeks left in my stay here. it's no 24hr fitness, but this open air local gym has it's charm and a super friendly staff. i learned a lot about the international aspect of fitness clubs and will take back some helpful insight to my gym back home. it was interesting that for a gym that sees maybe 2500 workouts a month, 1800 of those are from the same 12 or 15 people, me being one of those. i also saw again and again exercises and lifting techniques that were just begging for injury along with some equipment that's been on borrowed time for some time. on the other hand, if i can get a 3 week membership for less than $20, i understand why there's not someone wiping my brow after each rep...heck, there wasn't even a waiver for me to sign. ah, countries not prone to senseless litigation are the cat's pajamas.
Posted by Picasa

Sunday, May 13, 2007

me gusta la moto

i hit up the local motorcycle outfitter, CATours, today for some lessons. i now know all there is to motorcycling and the guy threw a bounus, that back wheelie thing, i can do that too! next to do, conquer the world of competitive gluttony. but seriously, the welshman that got me acquainted to the basics and subtly of the moto was a patient, insightful instructor. he also leads tours all over guatemala which i'm thinking about bringing back some friends and taking a weeklong excursion one of these days. the guy has a pic of me looking pretty ridiculous and as soon as he sends it to me, i'll throw it on here.