Home sweet home in Antigua

We were ready after the weekend for a full week of studying Spanish. We had agreed with our teachers that we would study 6h1/2 per day so that we could have our Friday afternoon off. We were indeed expecting a visitor for the end of the week that would join us for a couple of weeks in Antigua: Eleonore, a French girlfriend of Caroline, who was also taking a year off to travel South and Central America and Asia, was flying in from Ecuador to Quito. We were very exciting that we were able to coordinate our trips and spend time together. We would also benefit from each others' tips as we were each going to the countries the other just had visited.

Getting to know our local family

Everyday of the week, we get to enjoy our three daily meals with the Monroy family. Dolores gets our breakfast ready in the morning so that we can be fed and ready to learn some Spanish at 8am. We have been enjoying her morning treats, always delicious and different: fresh fruits like papaya and pineapple, cereals with banana and sugar, crepes with honey, bananas and marmalade, eggs and frijoles, bread (French or Dulce) with butter and marmalade. We now also have gotten used to drinking coffee with milk, which awakes us in time to go to school. Lunches and dinner are delicious alike and she has introduced us to many local specialties. The meals are simple and tasty and we have learned to enjoy our daily conversations with the family, which has contributed to improving our spoken Spanish and understanding of the local culture. The only thing we may miss a little are sweet as a traditional meal in Guatemala does not include a desert.

Chad after over a week of school is now able to build nice sentences in the present tense, really impressing the family with the progress he has made. All the adults are so patient with us, especially Edgar, the son of Dolores and Agusto, who makes it a point to speak with us during all meals and in the evening when we return from school. No English spoken here which completes our immersion in the local culture. We also have gotten to know the girls much better, Adyson,10 and Melany who will be 12 in a week. They have come quite a few times in our room in the evening to spend some time with us. We have shown them pictures of our trip on the laptop, they asked us a lot of questions about the sites we visited and where the things we have visited were. What is really cute is that they often correct our Spanish or help us find the words we don't know or can't remember. It is amazing how children can be patient with learning adults. Chad loves to joke around with Adyson and they tease each other a lot. Caroline spends more time with Melany, talking about her favorite TV shows like the H2O Mermaids and searching for pictures on the net of her favorite celebrities. The girls also love asking about our homework and what we learn at school; they have looked a few times at the exercises we do, always having encouraging words. It has been a lot of fun learning and being able to spend time with the girls. They have asked a lot about our bikes, currently parked at the school, and seem to be fascinated by them. We have promised them that we would take them out for a ride next week.

Wandering in the streets of Antigua

Once we are finished with school at 4pm, we usually take a walk in the nice and clean streets of Antigua. Sometimes we have a well defined purpose, like running an errand or visiting a certain site, and sometimes we just like to walk around, to get a better feel for the atmosphere of the city and enjoy the warm afternoon sun. Antigua has a lot of closed doors which open in the afternoon to beautiful secret gardens, usually a cafe or a art gallery or just a private house, or convents revealing amazing ruins and water fountains. We have been also relaxing in the Central Plaza, in the shade of the trees, looking at people going by while enjoying the refreshing sound of the fountain. The center is always a bustling place, where locals and tourist mix well in a coordinated ballet. Antigua has this relaxing but busy pace that makes it such a unique place: it feels alive enough but not that much that you feel rush. It also is very secure and with the amazing weather we've been having, we can hardly think of a better place to be in right now. Every street corner unveils a unique piece of architecture like an ancient theater, an old church in ruins, a colorful arch above the paved street... It is a constant pleasure for the eyes. We also have been amazed by local women in traditional clothes, carrying big and heavy things on their heads. Modernity and tradition get along very well here.

This is the first time we have been in the same place for such a long time since we left. We have found some stability here, able to discover some of the more secret places of a town and also feel so integrated into the life of a family. It has been so nice and we are getting again that feeling of being home, even if in a totally foreign country. We have not touched our bikes for two weeks and have not really missed it so far, enjoying the mundane rhythm of being a student, going home to the “family” for each meal and studying in the evening or getting to spend some quality time with the girls. It is nice to have a home again:)