Saturday, November 08, 2008

from the ¨it´s no fun being a legal alien¨ dept.


[San Pedro la Laguna, Guatemala]

After much delay I have finally started my Spanish classes at the Cooperativa Spanish School here in San Pedro. It´s four hours a day of one-on-one instruction with a local teacher. My instructor is Marlon, a Maya who thankfully speaks English as well as the local language and Spanish.

I started on Thursday and have now had eight hours of instruction, not to mention homework. And boy, is it hard.

I find that at this initial stage I am overwhelmed with verbs and rules and accents that go here and there. Let´s not even discuss the rolling of my R´s.

At this point I am more confused that bilingual. But Marlon is patient and encourages me at every stumble.

I´m far from putting a sentence together, but I do know more words. And I can count to 100. Woo hoo!

Elsewhere: the odd dynamics continue at the Hotel Peneleu. It is truly a collection of some of the oddest people imaginable. There are characters for a book here, the only question is what setting to put them in. Maybe they just remain at a Guatemalan hotel.

The dynamic is about to change soon however. The sketchy former Guatemalan soldier is moving out, as is the messed up 28-year-old Canadian tattoo artist. In their place: Christian missionaries. Oh boy!

If I hear any prayer circles, I´m going to start singing Motorhead tunes from my window.

And finally, in the weather:

One word: Fantastic.

Cool and clear at night. Hot and sunny (but not humid) during the day. And no rain. There hasn´t been any for 10 days or so.

And that´s it. Time for some lunch...

Cheers!

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