Leaving Antigua

I´ve had the worst of days and the best of days. Thursday found me hungover - from insomnia rather than drink; anyone who suffers from sleep problems knows that a post-insomniatic night is as bad as a bender - miserably forgetful and self-conscious in my Spanish class. Doing immersion classes in Antigua, Guatemala is incredibly popular and there are usually a thousand plus students in this city, taking one-on-one, and sometimes group, classes with Guatemalan teachers. My teacher, Gloria, is fantastic. She´s incredibly sweet and organized and patient, and we´ve talked about everything from Spanish verb tenses (I´ve finally gotten comfortable with Ser and Estar, the two forms of ¨being¨ in Spanish) to the uselessness of the British monarchy, the effects of stress on the human body (Gloria also suffers from insomnia), to political corruption in Canada and Guatemala.

After climbing Volcan Pacaya on Wednesday, my cortisol (a stress hormone that also gets raised after intense exercise) levels must have been really high, because I had the worst sleep that night. Twitchy, itchy, waking every half hour. I didn´t do any studying either, so I was useless in class. I´m pretty sure I´m also premenstrual; after class, I just kind of moped around the student house, listening to Miles Davis and John Coltrane and worrying about my cortisol levels and the excess adrenaline coursing through my body.

In the early evening, I wandered out to find a cheap bottle of wine. I´d found a store just down the street from my student house the other day that sold a big ol bottle of Santa Carolina for 75Q ($10 USD), but I couldn´t find it again on Thursday.

While walking back to the student house, I crossed a street and was almost hit by a car. Dude driving said car was mezmerized by something in his passenger seat and didn´t even notice me as he turned the corner and nearly ran into me. If I hadn´t skipped outta the way, I might have been turned into Guatemalan street meat.

After dinner, I went to Cafe 2000, a really cool bar in Antigua that shows bootleg films for free (rightly so, obviously). I finally got to see The Last King of Scotland and discovered a great Guatemalan dark beer called Moza.

Friday, meanwhile, was fantastic. I had my last Spanish class in Antigua with Gloria, and it was one of my best classes by far. I feel that, after one week of Spanish lessons, I´ve learned some useful vocab and have gotten quite good at conjugating verbs - the problem is, I´m not good at conversation. Because Gloria spoke so slowly in class, I was able to follow nearly everything she said. While interacting with Guatemalans, however, things are much different. When I´m by myself and I need to ask for directions or inquire about the price of something, I get by, but when hanging out with other folks who´ve studied longer than I have, they usually take over the conversation. I´m very grateful to have studied with Gloria, though; I was really sorry to say goodbye.

After class on Friday, I called David Marriott, a professor at UC Santa Cruz that I´d like to work with should I decide to do a PhD. He emailed me last week to tell me that he was really excited about my application and that he wants to work with me! He also asked what would make it possible for me to attend Santa Cruz, and told me that he would tell the program director to look into offering me a fellowship! This is all very exciting because the History of Consciousness program at Santa Cruz is really competitive (they only accept 8-10 students every year). David wanted to talk to me on the phone, so I gave him a call Friday, and we talked about the school and the program.

After this phone call, I decided to explore Antigua a little bit more. I considered checking out a gallery or museum (I still know very little about Guatemalan history), but I decided to hike up Cerro de La Cruz with Eva (from Germany) and Paul (from Montana). Cerro de La Cruz is up a hill facing Volcan Agua, and provides a great view of the entire city (and can be picked out while on the ground in Antigua by the big cross that sits atop the hill).

After hiking to the cross, Paul and I walked to the market to buy some cheap oranges. The market felt and looked exactly how I imagined Guatemala to be. It was cool because there were hardly any other tourists around and I finally got a sense of what Guatemala is like for its inhabitants when they´re not catering to gringos.