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Feb - Mar 2002: My friend Priscilla and I took a trip to Guatemala (and briefly into Honduras).

Guatemala, week 3

Jennifer Radcliffe
2005-11-11 11:49:41

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Week two brings changes

We started our second week of classes today, this week we're at Ixchel and we are enjoying it. It seems to be a better deal than La Union, and our teachers are nice, so we're happy. Ixchel is the name of a Mayan moon goddess and is pronounced Eesh-ell or Each-ell, dedending on who you talk to. My teacher told me a story about the Mayan rituals today, and about how they sacrificed humans to gain luck in war. Pretty gory stuff.

It's funny how much, yet how little Spanish I've learned in a week. It's a wierd thing to say so let me explain. These days as I sit in a restaurant or walk down the street, I'll catch random bits of conversations here and there, and some of it makes sense to me. I don't even have to think about it, I just know some words. But as I try to translate my thoughts into Spanish, as you inevitably do when you're learning a new language, I find that there is very little that I really know how to say! But I've decided to take classes at the community college back home this fall, because I want to learn to speak perfect Spanish - so I have to remind myself not to stress about learning everything now, and just to enjoy where I am. Everything in due time, little grasshopper.

**We also changed locations this week - we're staying at the Hostelling International now. We were staying with a family last week, but we didn't feel quite comfortable there, and this is a much better value. We pay 30q a night for this room each, which is just less than $4 each, and we were paying twice that with the family. Also, privacy was a cherished commodity there, and it's much quieter here. The only drawback to staying at this hostel is that there's no hot water, but we've already paid for memberships at the gym in town (95q for 2 weeks each) and their showers are the best I've had in all of Guatemala! ...