For my non-Spanish speaking friends, the title of this post is Finally...the weekend!!!
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| View of my home from the street |
This was a great week. I tried many new things, made some new friends at my school, and I have settled in nicely in Antigua. I have lots to share, so let's first start with my apartment. I am so lucky to have found this place. The landlord, Margarita, is so nice and helpful. This is almost like a very big house or small building divided long-wise into thirds. She lives in the first townhouse, un hombre lives in between us, and I live in the third townhouse. All you really see from the street, Callejon (little street) del Burrito (donkey) is a long wall with a few windows and a big wooden door big enough to be a garage door. In fact, it is a garage door that opens out into the street instead of lifts up like a normal garage door in the States, and in one of those doors is a smaller door with a lock that I normally enter like any other door. There is a small driveway that leads to the back of the place where there is a grand garden, a pergola, and a couple of parking spaces. Each townhouse has a nice small porch with a couple of chairs and a sofa underneath the balcony from the main bedroom. I have a small eating area and a large kitchen overlooking a small living room. The tv, cable, and internet are included in the rent as is all the furniture, dishes, etc. There is also a full bathroom on the first floor. I have a very charming spiral staircase that leads to the second floor where I have a rather large master bedroom with sliding doors out to the balcony, a second bedroom with 2 beds, and another full bathroom. The place is decorated very well and has combined modern technology with quaint features. I have to say my most favorite part (and the thing I feared most that I wouldn't have) is the hot water. I can take long hot showers if I want to, and I have, but I do try to be conscientious and not wasteful. I even have one of those "rainshower" shower heads.
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| My townhouse |
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| The entrance of the garden (door is behind me) with the pergola in front |
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| View when you first enter |
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| My kitchen (concina) |
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| This is obvious |
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| View of my townhouse from the pegola |
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| Mountains in the background |
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| My bed |
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| Sliding door onto my balcony |
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| Second Bedroom |
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I'm really enjoying my school and my teacher. We talk all day in Spanish, and so far it has been mostly review. The most fun and interesting part of this week was when she took me to the market. There are a couple of supermarkets here in Antigua, but they are still very tiny in comparison to the supermarkets in the states. It is on "market days" on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday when you can find so many different kinds of fruits, vegetables, grains, breads, and even pirated music and movies. They have textiles, clothes, shoes, dishes, and just about anything you can think of. I bought a phone charger there Monday for my temporary Nokia telephone for only Q25, which is about $3.50. I told my teacher I wanted to find some chicos and zapotes, which are my new favorite fruits, but I also said I wanted to try lots of new things. So yesterday we went to the market. I bought lichas, pitayas, chicos, nances, and a couple of really great avocados that are a tiny bit different than the ones you find in the states. They tasted the same, but were more round and the seed fell out easily. We couldn't find any zapotes, but I will keep looking because it's almost like eating pumpkin pie! The lichas almost look like animals to me with the spines coming out of them. Either that, or they look like they could be a character in a cartoon or video game. I didn't know how to eat them at first, but my teacher showed that you just pierce the flesh with your thumb nail and peel back the skin. It's actually very easy, and there's a white fruit in the middle with a small seed inside. The pitaya has such a beautiful dark pink color inside. They taste almost like a kiwi! The nances are ok. They look like tiny apples with a decent size seed in the middle. They are not very sweet, and remind me of a green apple because they have that crisp taste to them. They're not my favorite, but I am glad I tried them. One of the teachers at my school said that nances make a very good wine. Maybe I'll try the wine next time. Chicos are incredible. They are very sweet, and I would have to say the flavor is almost like that of a date. It is very sticky, and in fact, it is from these fruits that the Mayans first invented chewing gum (Chiclets...from chicos).
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| Lichas | |
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| Pitayas | |
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| Chicos | |
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| Lances | |
I have been on a mission all week to find chuchitos. Mission accomplished. I brought some of my school friends with me to a panaderia for lunch, and we each bought a couple of chuchitos. They are very similar to a tamal. It's made up of mostly ground-up corn baked in a plantain leaf with some carne inside. On the outside is usually a sort of salsa or some other type of tomato sauce. Que deliciosos! We bought a couple of chuchitos each, a Gallo (local beer), and walked to the Central Park where we ate and drank for lunch. You don't need to worry about having a beer in public, which I have to admit is pretty cool. Since I'm pretty familiar with Antigua and the surrounding area, I am going to take them up Cerro de la Cruz tomorrow.
I have learned a lot and practiced for hours every day speaking Spanish, and it still surprises me when I realize I spoke Spanish all day long. I look forward to learning more verb tenses, but I seem to be getting along nicely
. I have more to tell you all, but I think I'll save some of it for another day. In the meantime, yo creo que yo tengo mucha buena suerte. Adios por ahora.
I'm really enjoying my school and my teacher. We talk all day in Spanish, and so far it has been mostly review. The most fun and interesting part of this week was when she took me to the market. There are a couple of supermarkets here in Antigua, but they are still very tiny in comparison to the supermarkets in the states. It is on "market days" on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday when you can find so many different kinds of fruits, vegetables, grains, breads, and even pirated music and movies. They have textiles, clothes, shoes, dishes, and just about anything you can think of. I bought a phone charger there Monday for my temporary Nokia telephone for only Q25, which is about $3.50. I told my teacher I wanted to find some chicos and zapotes, which are my new favorite fruits, but I also said I wanted to try lots of new things. So yesterday we went to the market. I bought lichas, pitayas, chicos, nances, and a couple of really great avocados that are a tiny bit different than the ones you find in the states. They tasted the same, but were more round and the seed fell out easily. We couldn't find any zapotes, but I will keep looking because it's almost like eating pumpkin pie! The lichas almost look like animals to me with the spines coming out of them. Either that, or they look like they could be a character in a cartoon or video game. I didn't know how to eat them at first, but my teacher showed that you just pierce the flesh with your thumb nail and peel back the skin. It's actually very easy, and there's a white fruit in the middle with a small seed inside. The pitaya has such a beautiful dark pink color inside. They taste almost like a kiwi! The nances are ok. They look like tiny apples with a decent size seed in the middle. They are not very sweet, and remind me of a green apple because they have that crisp taste to them. They're not my favorite, but I am glad I tried them. One of the teachers at my school said that nances make a very good wine. Maybe I'll try the wine next time. Chicos are incredible. They are very sweet, and I would have to say the flavor is almost like that of a date. It is very sticky, and in fact, it is from these fruits that the Mayans first invented chewing gum (Chiclets...from chicos).
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