First Weeks in Xela

Here I am, halfway through my third week in Xela, yet to write about my first two weeks. Here's the recap:

Our group from CSB|SJU, which includes 13 women, 3 men, and our two trip leaders, Dennis Beach (OSB) and John Van Rooy, arrived in Xela on January 2nd--Saturday night. I was dropped off at my host home's doorstep by the van which transported Billie, Becky and myself from Atitlán. That night, I met my host parents and three of their four children, all of whom live outside the house and have children of their own (or at least have children on the way!). I was given a tasty combination of nachos and chicken soup, and entertained a number of my host family's questions with semi-passable Spanish before promptly falling asleep.

The group spent Sunday orientating ourselves with Xela. I found that I have the longest walk from home to Celas Maya, our language school, with a roundtrip requiring about half an hour.

We began 5 weeks of morning classes at Celas Maya at 8:00 A.M. on Monday morning. The classes are in the courtyard of the building, which also hosts an internet cafe, travel agency, two outdoor gardens (one of which I refer to as the courtyard), a patio, and a ping pong table. Boom.

Classes run from 8:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M., with a "pausa" from 10:30-11:00. Each student is paired with their own teacher, or maestro/a. My maestro for the first two weeks was R

onaldo, a fun, well-dressed 23 year old Guatemalteco who alternates between living in Spain and Xela. I had a lot of fun working with Ronaldo in the first few weeks, and he also proved to be a great teacher. I feel that my Spanish has really begun to formulate the basic foundation it's never had.

The highlights of the first two weeks were definitely the mini-excursions.

Every week, Celas creates a schedule of different trips and events. In the first week, we hiked up a mountain for a fantastic panorama of Xela and the surrounding cities, drove to and relaxed at Las Fuentes Georginas (hot springs), and

on Saturday, hiked up the side of Santa Maria, a large inactive volcano, to watch the eruption of Santaguito

(spell?), an active volcano on the side of Santa Maria. The creation of Santaguito as a volcano in 1998 signaled the end of Santa Maria's fiery existence, and a large lake now sits on the top of the larger, dormant volcano.

On the hike, we were joined by two furry companions.

Oh, I should also mention that I got sick the first week. Because there are different bacteria that reside here in Central America, it's almost a given that a foreigner will at some point become sick. I was happy to get mine out of the way in the first few days in Xela. After catching around 14 hours of sleep Tuesday night, I was good to go.

The second week of classes, I started going to a gym (Pro Fitness) close to Celas. It's the same gym that Ronaldo, my maestro, now goes to, and I went with him on Monday. It turns out that the owner of the gym, Roberto, has been looking for a way to improve his English. The way it's turning out, I'm going to have free access to a weightroom with a personal trainer for free, in exchange for helping Roberto with his English. Great connection, ya?

Also on Monday, John (trip leader), my friend

Geno (in the picture with the dog) and myself went to a small bar, Utz Cana, and heard some great live music. A four-piece, comprised primarily of an electric guitar, Mayan flutes, a djembe, small congas, and a tambourine, was rocking some great Mayan folk tunes. After they finished their first set, I sat in on the congas, and had my first opportunity in Guatemala to play music. It was a

lot of fun, the highlight being a Mayan folk-rendition of Stairway to Heaven. After playing, we chatted with the other musicians, and it turned out that one is the owner of the bar. He welcomed us to come back and play whenever. Another great connection. I have since went back to Utz Cana one time, and got to play again.

Our main excursion the second week was to another hot spring, this one called Aguas Amargas (Bitter Water). These hot springs weren't as natural or pristine as Las Georginas, but you can't beat the tranquility of a warm pool nestled at the base of mountains covered with lush forest.

This is all I'm recalling from the first two weeks, prior to our trip to Antigua (Guatemala's tourism capital), which I'll cover in my next post.

Oh, also, I watched Avatar in Spanish.