unfettered

Saturday, June 24
Happy birthday, Christina!

Okay, today I’m officially missing the comforts of home. It’s a rainy Saturday with dark skies that look endless. At this moment I would like to be in my cozy and well-appointed little apartment, listening to NPR and drinking coffee. I miss my ginormous TV and box sets of Buffy. The Slayer is always good company on rainy afternoons. I may have to break down and download an episode or two off of iTunes.

This morning I packed up all my stuff to take over to the house I'm moving into. Tomorrow I’m leaving at the crack of dawn for the Mayan ruins of Tikal and returning to Antigua on Monday evening. I have been to the house and I haven’t seen the room yet, but I know it has a private bathroom. That means no more having to go outside and potentially getting rained on in order to make a trip to the bathroom. What a luxury.

The trip to Tikal should be really great. I’m going with Ester, the KLM flight attendant from Holland. We have a 6:30am flight out of Guatemala City, which gets us to Flores within an hour. From there we are taken to our hotel, where we will be met by an English speaking tour guide who will take us on a 4 hour hike through the ruins. The factor that is supposed to make Tikal so stunning is not just the height of its steep-sided temples, but the fact that the whole area was carved out of the jungle and is still thick with vegetation and all kinds of wildlife, like tree frogs, howler monkeys and toucans. I’m hoping the rain does not follow us, but regardless it should still be impressive.

Friday, June 23, 2006
So I finally got my act together and invited an assortment of friends, family and colleagues to join my blog. I have always been a bit hesitant to create such a thing as I have no desire for self-promotion and I consider the much of the blogging world to reflect a certain degree of self-absorption. But since many of you ask similar questions or have asked me to keep in touch during my sabbatical, I figure it’s the most efficient way to communicate without having to repeat myself. That way when I send personal emails, they can be of substance instead of your having to listen to me blather on about the details of my day to day.

This week I finally started to get it. I can't explain why, but for the first time I am able to have complete conversations in Spanish, albeit very slowly and with a limited vocabulary. At the very least, I am better able to understand what people are saying. I suppose 2 full weeks of 5 hours daily instruction have to eventually teach me something.


I am also taking private salsa lessons with this instructor, Miguel who has a studio across from my school. I am not so crazy about salsa music, but I figured that since it’s the thing to do around here, I might as well try it out. Miguel is Guatemalan, but grew up in Utah and lived in Japan for a number of years, so he is trilingual. I am also having some salsa shoes custom made, which is terribly exciting. They will be black leather with double wrap ankle straps and a peek-a-boo toe. In fact, I think the shoes may have been my primary motivation for the lessons. I have never before had shoes made uniquely for my feet and I can’t wait to get them. There is a teacher at my school who is also a salsa instructor and offers private lessons on the premises, so there is a lot of salsa music blaring into the street from open windows. It’s pretty much like my neighborhood in NY, only there the source is usually from a stereo of a parked car, which serves as the background music for families who host their barbeques on the front stoops and public sidewalks. I am missing the prime summer barbeque atmosphere on 109th Street where people camp out on lawn chairs, block the sidewalks and allow their little kids to run around in streets until midnight. (Cheryl, you can tell me what I’m missing.) At least I have a similar soundtrack in Guatemala. There is a screaming kid who lives in the house next door, so it adds to the ambiance and makes it feel more like home.

Oh, and here’s a milestone; I haven’t had a new mosquito bite in almost a week! Thank God for DEET. I don’t like to think about the toxicity of what I apply directly to my skin everyday, but it’s better than having itchy ankles.

posted by Angie @ 11:26 AM