Day 8

Woke up with a bit of a hangover this morning after 2 beers and 2 shots of tequila spread across the evening before.  Slow to get going and out of the house.  No meals for the home-stay students in this city on Sundays, we're on our own for the day.  After figuring out that my Guatemalan phone was dead, I was finally able to contact my friend Adriana who had come down from Coban with her husband, brother-in-law, and his wife for the weekend.  We met for breakfast.  It was a bit awkward as it had been almost 10 years since we had known each other in Germany.  She and I caught up a bit on our lives since in English but her companions at the table seemed to only know Spanish.

Afterward, I went to get some notecards for the flashcards my teacher assigned me to make.  She said I could buy them at a store across the street from the school but I couldn't find it.  I felt bad about sending my money back out of the country and into the states but knew that the Office Depot would have what I needed.  While I was in the store I heard some scary sounding noises (someone yelling then and a struggle) from the wall opposite where I was shopping on the outside of the building.  I decided I was safe if I just stayed in the store and it eventually quieted down.  When I left there were still people gawking and I saw that two men were holding down another guy, but I'm not sure what actually occurred nor did I stay on with the gawkers.

Back at home it was quiet and there were no other students so I decided to stick around and do some work and correspondence there.  My host mom came in and informed me that I needed to pack up my things so that a new student could come but that my new room wouldn't be available for an hour or so.  I stuck around with my stuff and switched houses.  My new room is a bit bigger and in the main house with the family.  However, another student never returned the key for the room so it doesn't lock.  I guess you can't have everything, there are positives and negatives to every situation.

I met up with some other students that were studying at a cafe and after a bit we went to have dinner.  It was so interesting because 2 of the people I had just met that I was having dinner with seem so connected.  I'd asked them how long they had known each other and they stated that they'd only met that morning at the youth hostel that they were staying at.  It was then that I realized that almost all 6 of us sitting at that dinner table were solo female travelers from the states though there were also two solo men, one Canadian and the other German.  And we were all traveling for months at a time.  One girl stated that she had done something similar in South Africa several years prior and knew she just had to do it again.  In her describing it and being there with all these people I'd just recently met I felt a strange connection to I remembered the value of this way of traveling solo rather than with a companion.  If I were with a friend, boyfriend, or father I wouldn't be meeting nearly as many people.

I suppose the city that we are in also adds to the ability to connect so easily to so many other foreign travelers.  So on this Sunday evening, my one week anniversary of being in Antigua I'll tell you a few things about this city.  First and foremost, this city is teeming with foreigners!  This is not to say it is not filled to the brim with locals either, but you also can't go too far on a street without running into another gringo.  The locals are very proud of their city and given the time of year, their Christmas celebrations.  It is an old colonial city and was once the capital but had to move several times after being destroyed by one natural disaster after another, "earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and floods" according to my guidebook.

It is characterized by cobblestone streets and ruins and is surrounded by hills and three volcanoes, one which is still active.  Volcano Fuego can often be heard rumbling (much like thunder) and one student told me he saw lava coming down the side of it at night.  The cobblestone streets and old colonial charm remind me of two other UNESCO World Heritage Sites that I have visited (Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay & Quebec City, Canada).  But it's living structures and style of the people also remind me of many of the small towns I visited while in China.

The many Spanish language schools (probably over 50) appear to be it's main infrastructure.  In my school alone, Antiguena Spanish Academy there are at least 45 students at one given time and even more teachers waiting to have a student assigned to them.  Since we all have our own private tutors and there are so many students it is hard to really get to know too many people.  I have been going to the free activities offered by the school in the afternoons and have found myself connecting to other students similar to myself.  You certainly observe many little cliques in our half hour break each morning.  It's all very charming and welcoming, but I think I might be ready to move away from the tourist hub and onto somewhere a little larger.