Arachnophobia

So, still no pictures on the old posts. I blame it entirely on Ryan for closing the web browser accidentally while my pictures uploaded and before my blog entry had been saved or published. It was a soul-crushing end to an hour of work in Campero (which is essentially Guatemalan KFC and also happens to have free wireless internet). This weekend, I guarantee more pictures.

Wednesday was significant for finally discovering Luke. As we ran in slow-motion through Parque Central, our arms outstretched and our faces disfigured with rapturous joy, all previous frustrations at his absence melted away. It was a glorious moment. We hung out with Luke and our Australian friend Chris (Aja, his girlie, being incapacitated by some stomach ailment) at Gaia, the excellent hookah bar that I've mentioned. It was a really fun night and confirmed our suspicions that both Luke and Chris were top-notch fellows with whom we'd be sure to have a good time in the future. Chris and Aja are an interesting pair. He's a cameraman and she's a journalist. They've lived for the past three years in London, working for the BBC and, before that, working for various Australian broadcasting companies. At first we didn't realize it, but we started to figure out that they've done some pretty incredible stuff when they told a story that involved Prime Minister Howard. Also, Chris was taken hostage by a rebel group in Fiji some years ago. Basically, they have awesome stories. More to come. Ryan and I returned to our casa at around midnight and hung out in his room for a while before bed. I was worried about going into my room because The Smell was especially strong that night due to heat and humidity and I remembered that I'd foolishly left my window ajar.

After an hour or so, I went to my room to go to sleep. The first thing I noticed was that The Smell had indeed penetrated into my personal space and was pretty unbearable. Crestfallen, I turned on the light and beheld one of the biggest spiders I've ever seen on the wall over my bed, next to the window (which, by the way, I have closed and will not open for the rest of the summer due to both The Smell and the invader). Shuddering, I grabbed my hiking boot off the floor and slowly crept toward the monster. It was probably four inches in diameter (including legs) and had a shiny, terrifyingly well-defined thorax and abdomen. In position, I reared back and struck it with the heel of my boot hard enough that I was concerned I may have woken up others in the house. Direct hit. It fell from the wall and lay on the floor next to my bed for a moment, before coming to its senses and, as though I hadn't just slammed it with a hiking boot, skittering under my bed with preternatural speed. Horrified, I backed away and considered my options. It didn't take long for me to change into pajamas, shut off the light, and exit my room. I woke Ryan up and insisted that he let me sleep on the spare bed in his room. After he finished laughing at me, he let me in, and I slept on the dust cover of the spare bed (no sheets). I submit these events as evidence of my extreme masculinity. Try not to be intimidated. Oh, the next morning it was waiting for me in my shoe. How's that for tactics? But I had anticipated this possibility and it scurried out when I shook and kicked all my footwear. As if its unlikely survival of my previous assault was not sufficiently disturbing, it expertly dodged my first swing at it, but I was ultimately too great a foe and it expired beneath my well-placed heel. Unfortunately, in my zeal I mangled it beyond recognition. Otherwise, I would have documented the monstrosity for my records.

Thursday, we had school as normal. I've gotten much better but I'm going to try to spend some time studying verbs and vocab this weekend as memorization is the real bottleneck for me at the moment. I had my first exam and did very well (as did Ryan). I'm excited to start making real conversational progress. Oh! I did have a major breakthrough on Thursday. My class time is generally spent either going over grammatical rules, studying vocab through games, or learning through conversation. The conversations are (obviously) one of the best ways to learn, but we've already started to run out of topics for which my limited vocabulary is sufficient for actual dialogue. Having discussed our favorite music, movies, and books, the practice of medicine, my allergies to fruit, the practice of Santeria, Christianity in Central America, and "What did you do last night," we began discussing Claudia's hobbies. It turns out that she and her mother cook food and sell it for a little extra money (this is very common here). We talked about this briefly before (insert angelic trumpets here) I was struck by my epiphany. My eyes widened and I grabbed my dictionary, furiously turning pages, while she looked on with confusion. Finding my quarry, I turned back to Claudia and whispered with barely controlled passion: "recetas." Recipes. Since then, conversation time has been 75% composed of her teaching me how to make various authentic Guatemalan dishes. I can now make Salsa Picante Verde, Salsa Picante Roja, Chiles Rellenos, Tamalitos, and Chuchitos. Life is good. When I get home, I will make a feast.

Also of note is the craziness associated with being in Central America during the World Cup. It doesn't matter where you are; when a goal is scored, you know it. The screams of "GOAAAAAAAAL" are inescapable. The more advanced students at the school, occasionally including Ryan, often just watch the games and talk about them with their teachers. Folks here are all about Brazil, which seems like a cop-out to me but whatever. It's fun to be in a Latin American country during the tournament though, if only to get a taste of World Cup fever.

Thursday night, we went out with Luke, Chris, and Aja. We basically just got really drunk for very little money. There's a bar/internet cafe near the school which has a drink special called the 4-4-2. It's 4 tequila shots, 4 little beers (like 12 oz), and 2 liter bottles of beer. It costs 111 quetzales, which comes out to about 15 dollars. We had three (with extra shots to fill the gap) plus a couple more rounds of shots. It was pretty ugly by the end, but Ryan, Luke, and I left satisfied since Aja forced Chris to admit that the Americans could drink. It was a really fun time. Chris and Aja are visiting Coban for the weekend so they're out of town now, but I'm looking forward to their return.



We have today (Friday) off from school for a holiday so Ryan and I have been wandering around town looking at historical sites and into indigenous markets.


Some purchases have been made, but no secrets shall be revealed in these pages. Aileen, the fourth Columbia student who's going to be in Antigua during our stay, arrived last night or this morning so our circle is now complete. We're all (Ryan, Luke, Aileen, and I) going to meet up tonight for dinner and then head to Cafe 2000 (that bar/cinema) to watch City of God. Should be fun.

Again, apologies for the slow picture posting. We bought a CD-RW today so I'll no longer need to carry Ryan's laptop all the way to Campero just to get pics online. Sometime this weekend, I'll get the visual aspect of this blog up-to-date. Until then, adios.

p.s. One more thing, for the record, to you filthy-filthy-really-just-disgusting-I-could-never-say-such-foul-things comment posters: my parents have been instructed that the comments section is officially off-limits now, but they're notorious liars and scam artists of laughable integrity (hi, mom and dad), so if you can restrain yourselves, try to keep it just a little bit family friendly. Just a little bit. There. Due diligence done.