After 6 hours on a flight and being in the minority who´s Spanish is definitely more Spanglish, I decide it a good idea to enroll in Spanish School, upon getting to Antigua, Guatemala. Besides, my hand gestures, aren´t that good anyway...
Somehow I manage to get to a hostel called the Ummagumma. My first official review of a hostel: Don´t stay here, there are bed bugs, big ones at that.
I´m swiftly sized up for spanish school by the hostel manager and I get swiftly enroduced to Marco a local "headmaster", more accurately more of a Delboy Business man than a head teacher. Marco has more bling on his teeth than most hiphop stars, and after a while, I realise not all Guatemalans are doing too badly out of tourists who can´t speak spanish...
The next day and Spanish School starts and I meet my teacher, who comes up to my armpit. I´m not a tall man, but Julio definitely isn´t. But what he lacks in the vertical, he certainly makes up for with patients and the ability to teach as I soon discover Spanish the way Michel Thomas was trying to teach me isn´t quite the way it works... not sure if that´s a Central Amercica thing or not. Julo is a nice bloke about 49 with more kids than you can shake a stick at, and very keen to redirect me when I commit the odd conversational faux-paz. For instance, describing your self as hot with the Spanish, "Estoy caliente", is a sure fire way of getting yourself slapped as it means "I´m horny",where as, "Estoy calor", means ,"I´m hot". Julio also quickly informs of how to call some one a Gay in Central America - as any other bloke with a mind of a child will agree...a skill I´m glad I´m not with out. Also after my escapades in Venice Beach, I´m sure to accidentally end up in a gay bar again.
Apart from thefirst day, school recommences in the front yeard of the family I´m living with, which I quickly learn is Marco´s family and quite a family they are too.
Marco: Delboy with a head for getting the family asmuch money as he can (and often at the expense of the teachers).
Maria: Marco´s wife or ex-wife (I think), my favourite of the family, she´s 62 and the head of the house, cooks all our meals except Sundays and always spoke her mind. Every meal was delish and on some occasions when she was feeding 4 young male students on top of the family this was no mean feet. She always spoke with us at dinner time and was always keen to tell us the country and her family´s problems! Who cares about missing East Enders, when you´ve got Maria?
Julio (not my teacher): Marco´s son, a teacher in his late thirties with over 6 children with a crazy obsession with computer games and he female students. He´s also keen to tell us the local history of Guatemala and tell us all the rude spanish words the other teachers won´tell us!
Alehandra: A grand daughter of Maria, she´s 19 years old and the mother of Jose (2 years) and Nacho (9 months). She´s quiet and always seems to be trying to control her two sons, the oldest of which was either sick, throwing a tantrum or trying to nick his uncle´s tuk-tuk.
Julio´s brother: A recovering alcholic and coke fiend, I´m annoied I can´t remember his name. He drove a tuk-tuk like every other tuk-tuk driver in Antigua; at speed and firmly relying on God not to crash.
Marco II: Marco´s son, in his mid-forties and I could never work out what he did aside from run errands. My teacher Julio promptly told me he was a bum, but he take me and the other students to a football match one Saturday so wasquite good fun!
Jose: A little tyke who took a liking for Tom´s ukele and anything he couldn´t have. I also think he liked to rehome the family tortoise in front of my door, so that I kicked it first thing in the morning. Little scamp
Nacho: 9 months old and owner of an awesome mobile contraption that meant he could bounce aroundthe kitchen to his heart´s content!
There were several others, but they were all good fun and aside from not being able to remember their names the PC I´m on in northern Guatemala is awful...
On one Saturday afternoon Marco II took us to an over 35s football match up the road. A great afernoon out with the other students as most of the local supporters seemed more keen to feed us rum that let us watch the football. There were some awesome teams, mostly playing in combination of Chelsea, Portugal or Argentina kits and on a surface you´d win a prize for being able to spot a blade of grass on.
On one of my last days of study in Antigua Julio (Marco´s son) takes us all up to the look-out oint over the city as it´s just behind the school. A great local guide, Julio proceeds to tell us that it was an incident 15 years before at this place that involved teachers and students from the school that resulted in Guatemala having to have Tourist Police. In the incident, one teacher was killed by banditos when a group of students and teachers were looking over the city. The area many years later is now very safe and police are always not far away.
Antigua is the Guatemala´s old capital city, because it was devastated by an earthquake over 200 years ago. The capital was relocated to what is now G-City and the town of Antigua was re built losing a lot of it´s original character. Its a lovely place but a far cry from what most Guatemalans would call Guatemala but none the less with it´s colonial style and it´s surroundings of two volcanoes its still a wonderful place to try and learn Spanish.
for far too many photos check out flick: http://www.flickr.com/photos/richsmith/sets/72157625158231993/
Somehow I manage to get to a hostel called the Ummagumma. My first official review of a hostel: Don´t stay here, there are bed bugs, big ones at that.
I´m swiftly sized up for spanish school by the hostel manager and I get swiftly enroduced to Marco a local "headmaster", more accurately more of a Delboy Business man than a head teacher. Marco has more bling on his teeth than most hiphop stars, and after a while, I realise not all Guatemalans are doing too badly out of tourists who can´t speak spanish...
The next day and Spanish School starts and I meet my teacher, who comes up to my armpit. I´m not a tall man, but Julio definitely isn´t. But what he lacks in the vertical, he certainly makes up for with patients and the ability to teach as I soon discover Spanish the way Michel Thomas was trying to teach me isn´t quite the way it works... not sure if that´s a Central Amercica thing or not. Julo is a nice bloke about 49 with more kids than you can shake a stick at, and very keen to redirect me when I commit the odd conversational faux-paz. For instance, describing your self as hot with the Spanish, "Estoy caliente", is a sure fire way of getting yourself slapped as it means "I´m horny",where as, "Estoy calor", means ,"I´m hot". Julio also quickly informs of how to call some one a Gay in Central America - as any other bloke with a mind of a child will agree...a skill I´m glad I´m not with out. Also after my escapades in Venice Beach, I´m sure to accidentally end up in a gay bar again.
Apart from thefirst day, school recommences in the front yeard of the family I´m living with, which I quickly learn is Marco´s family and quite a family they are too.
Marco: Delboy with a head for getting the family asmuch money as he can (and often at the expense of the teachers).
Maria: Marco´s wife or ex-wife (I think), my favourite of the family, she´s 62 and the head of the house, cooks all our meals except Sundays and always spoke her mind. Every meal was delish and on some occasions when she was feeding 4 young male students on top of the family this was no mean feet. She always spoke with us at dinner time and was always keen to tell us the country and her family´s problems! Who cares about missing East Enders, when you´ve got Maria?
Julio (not my teacher): Marco´s son, a teacher in his late thirties with over 6 children with a crazy obsession with computer games and he female students. He´s also keen to tell us the local history of Guatemala and tell us all the rude spanish words the other teachers won´tell us!
Alehandra: A grand daughter of Maria, she´s 19 years old and the mother of Jose (2 years) and Nacho (9 months). She´s quiet and always seems to be trying to control her two sons, the oldest of which was either sick, throwing a tantrum or trying to nick his uncle´s tuk-tuk.
Julio´s brother: A recovering alcholic and coke fiend, I´m annoied I can´t remember his name. He drove a tuk-tuk like every other tuk-tuk driver in Antigua; at speed and firmly relying on God not to crash.
Marco II: Marco´s son, in his mid-forties and I could never work out what he did aside from run errands. My teacher Julio promptly told me he was a bum, but he take me and the other students to a football match one Saturday so wasquite good fun!
Jose: A little tyke who took a liking for Tom´s ukele and anything he couldn´t have. I also think he liked to rehome the family tortoise in front of my door, so that I kicked it first thing in the morning. Little scamp
Nacho: 9 months old and owner of an awesome mobile contraption that meant he could bounce aroundthe kitchen to his heart´s content!
There were several others, but they were all good fun and aside from not being able to remember their names the PC I´m on in northern Guatemala is awful...
On one Saturday afternoon Marco II took us to an over 35s football match up the road. A great afernoon out with the other students as most of the local supporters seemed more keen to feed us rum that let us watch the football. There were some awesome teams, mostly playing in combination of Chelsea, Portugal or Argentina kits and on a surface you´d win a prize for being able to spot a blade of grass on.
On one of my last days of study in Antigua Julio (Marco´s son) takes us all up to the look-out oint over the city as it´s just behind the school. A great local guide, Julio proceeds to tell us that it was an incident 15 years before at this place that involved teachers and students from the school that resulted in Guatemala having to have Tourist Police. In the incident, one teacher was killed by banditos when a group of students and teachers were looking over the city. The area many years later is now very safe and police are always not far away.
Antigua is the Guatemala´s old capital city, because it was devastated by an earthquake over 200 years ago. The capital was relocated to what is now G-City and the town of Antigua was re built losing a lot of it´s original character. Its a lovely place but a far cry from what most Guatemalans would call Guatemala but none the less with it´s colonial style and it´s surroundings of two volcanoes its still a wonderful place to try and learn Spanish.
for far too many photos check out flick: http://www.flickr.com/photos/richsmith/sets/72157625158231993/
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