Well, we only have one week left of language school. That's good and bad. We are ready to get home to Honduras but still feel as if we haven't learned as much Spanish as we had hoped. Brad passed his test for Grado D on Friday and Cindy takes her test for Grado D on Monday. We won't have time to finish the next Grado so for the upcoming week we are not sure what we are going to do in class. Cindy is pushing her teacher to take some time and review what she's learned over the past 11 weeks. She is also going to watch a movie with her teacher - in Spanish of course. Brad is thinking about looking through the next Grado and asking his instructor to cover some topics of interest. (the truth is all the topics are interesting since we want to learn all the Spanish we can).
We did experience the chicken bus again today. We went to Pastores today and got to really experience the "Chicken Bus". When we got on the bus all the seats were already taken so we had to stand up for the ride. We were in the back of the bus and the guy standing beside was leaning on the back door when the door decided to open itself. Thought we were going to lose him. Didn't seem to bother the guy too much.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Monday, June 16, 2008
June 16, 2008
Know what we are finding very difficult? Dealing with stress and frustration. Not because we are overloaded with them. The problem is the normal ways we dealt with them in the States was to get in a car and get out of the house. Maybe go for a drive. Maybe go somewhere to eat. Maybe just go hangout at Borders, Barnes and Nobles, Starbucks, etc. Or, maybe just closing the doors to our house, closing the windows, not answering the phone, and just closing out the world for a few hours so we could re-energize. Just having the freedom to do these things was one of our main methods for relaxing. Problem is - in Guatemala we don't even have a vehicle to get in and go somewhere. In Honduras we have a vehicle we can use but the driving is not what you would call relaxing and being out after dark is not the best idea. In both locations closing the doors to our home and closing out the world for a few hours is not an option. So, we are having to learn new ways to handle stress and frustration. May sound small but over the course of several months it can continue to build and create problems. A little prayer in this area would be greatly appreciated.
June 16, 2008
Maybe this Spanish school thing is working a little. We are able to sit around the supper (cena) table and joke and participate in the conversations without the big knot in our stomachs - hoping nobody will ask us a question. It's a long way from the first day we arrived at our house and Lesbia was explaining to us about the house, where we would stay, what time the meals would be, and some other house guidelines (we think). We understood just about nothing that first day. Now, we can at least get the basic idea of about 60% of the conversations in the house. Well, except for when Estuardo gets going and talking rapidly. Then we are completely lost.
June 15, 2008
Today Estuardo and Lesbia (our host family parents) had to the spend the entire day at a church retreat. So we had the three girls for the day. Ok, not like it was a lot of hard work. We took them to McDonalds for lunch and then for ice cream afterwards. The only catch was we had to walk (which is what we do every day). But, the girls are used to riding in car so on the 20 minute walk home we had to stop at a local tienda (small store/quick stop without the gas) for some refreshments and then again just to rest. They were a little tired when we got back. But it seemed everybody had a good time. We know we did!
June 14, 2008
Today we went with our host family to Guatemala City (the capital) for the day. It's about a 45 minute drive on a nice four-lane road. While in Guatemala City we visited the university Majo (the oldest girl) will be attending in a couple of years. Just like being on a university campus in the States. It was beautiful. We also visited a mall (four stories plus a hotel above the mall). It was rather nice. Our final stop was PriceSmart. It's the Sam's Club of Central America and when you're inside you would really think you were in Sam's Club. It was a nice break from the normal routine.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
June 9, 2008
The past week has just been normal. Spanish classes Monday through Friday with homework in the afternoon and evening. Last Monday Brad passed his grado C examen and today Cindy passed her grado C examen. So, we're both on to grado D. Joy of joys. More verb conjugations. We are into our tenth straight day of rain. I think we've had enough for awhile.
Tonight after supper (cena for you Spanish speakers) the oldest daughter of the family we are living with decided to practice her homework at the table. She is learning lines from Hamlet and she needed some help so she enlisted her sister. We were allowed to witness a short production of Hamlet by the two girls. Of course, it was Hamlet in Spanish. We are somewhat embarrassed to say we got just as much out of the Spanish version as we've gotten out of the English version - not much.
Tonight after supper (cena for you Spanish speakers) the oldest daughter of the family we are living with decided to practice her homework at the table. She is learning lines from Hamlet and she needed some help so she enlisted her sister. We were allowed to witness a short production of Hamlet by the two girls. Of course, it was Hamlet in Spanish. We are somewhat embarrassed to say we got just as much out of the Spanish version as we've gotten out of the English version - not much.
Monday, June 2, 2008
June 1, 2008
We are sitting in our room Saturday night. It's about 5:30 pm when the oldest daughter comes into our room with the phone in her hand saying her dad wants to talk to us. All the family but Majo (the oldest daughter) are visiting relatives. Estuardo (the dad) tells Cindy (Cindy took the call because she speaks the best Spanish and Estuardo talks very fast) that they will not be home for supper and do we want "carne" (meat) or Domino's. All Cindy really understood was "carne" and Domino's. She deduces from the situation the family will not be back in time to make supper and he is offering some options for supper. She chooses Domino's because she understands the meaning of Domino's.
We think, no problem, we will be having pizza tonight. About an hour later Majo returns to our room with the phone and ask if we will call Domino's and order the pizza. While we are trying to find out if Domino's speaks English Majo hands Cindy the phone with it calling Domino's. No time to plan what we want or how to place an order in Spanish.
Domino's answers and things look good - they speak English. Well, sort of. They know some English words. And what is the first question pizza delivery places ask? What's your phone number? We have no idea the phone number. So Cindy is asking Majo the phone number. Majo gives Cindy the phone number in Spanish. And, Cindy relays the info to Domino's in a combination of English and Spanish. Then they want the address. This time Cindy gives up and hands the phone to Majo. Then the phone is returned to Cindy and she proceeds to place the order. Except we don't know what kind of pizza we want. Majo suggests tropical (Hawaiian). Sounds good, Cindy places the order plus one 2 liter coke and one 2 liter diet coke.
About 10 minutes after placing the order Cindy and Majo tell Miguel (the young man from Germany staying at our house) about the pizza order. Guess what? Miguel doesn't like Hawaiian. So Cindy proceeds to call Domino's and order an additional small cheese pizza. She thinks they told her they would include it with our other order.
Now we realize we need to come up with the money to pay for these pizzas. Woops, didn't think of that before we ordered. It normally wouldn't be a problem but it was raining today and so we decided to wait until tomorrow to go to the bank and exchange some money. We're a little short on quetzales (the money of Guatemala). We scramble around and come up with various denominations of bill and coins - hoping we have enough when the pizza gets here.
About 15 minutes later the gate bell rings and it's the Domino's pizza man on his delivery motorcycle. Cindy and I go out the front door and up the steps to the gate. The Domino's man only has the large pizza and two regular cokes - not one regular and one diet. He is telling us he will go back and bring the diet coke back with the other pizza. We agree pay him for the pizzas and drinks. Now we still have no idea how much the other pizza will cost so we're debating how much we should tip and still have enough left to pay for the other pizza.
Problem solved. A second Domino's pizza motorcycle shows up with the small cheese pizza. Ah oh! The box looks really small. We pay for the pizzas, take both regular 2 liter cokes, tip Both delivery guys, and still have 22 quetzales left (that's about $3).
Problem is the small pizza is more of a snack size pizza and it's suppose to fill up and 21 year old young man. Fortunately Miguel was a good sport. Before he ate his "snack pizza" he even went and got his camera to take a picture to send to his friends. We're not sure we've ever seen a pizza that small.
Ah, the joys of not speaking the language well. Never boring and many times amusing.
We think, no problem, we will be having pizza tonight. About an hour later Majo returns to our room with the phone and ask if we will call Domino's and order the pizza. While we are trying to find out if Domino's speaks English Majo hands Cindy the phone with it calling Domino's. No time to plan what we want or how to place an order in Spanish.
Domino's answers and things look good - they speak English. Well, sort of. They know some English words. And what is the first question pizza delivery places ask? What's your phone number? We have no idea the phone number. So Cindy is asking Majo the phone number. Majo gives Cindy the phone number in Spanish. And, Cindy relays the info to Domino's in a combination of English and Spanish. Then they want the address. This time Cindy gives up and hands the phone to Majo. Then the phone is returned to Cindy and she proceeds to place the order. Except we don't know what kind of pizza we want. Majo suggests tropical (Hawaiian). Sounds good, Cindy places the order plus one 2 liter coke and one 2 liter diet coke.
About 10 minutes after placing the order Cindy and Majo tell Miguel (the young man from Germany staying at our house) about the pizza order. Guess what? Miguel doesn't like Hawaiian. So Cindy proceeds to call Domino's and order an additional small cheese pizza. She thinks they told her they would include it with our other order.
Now we realize we need to come up with the money to pay for these pizzas. Woops, didn't think of that before we ordered. It normally wouldn't be a problem but it was raining today and so we decided to wait until tomorrow to go to the bank and exchange some money. We're a little short on quetzales (the money of Guatemala). We scramble around and come up with various denominations of bill and coins - hoping we have enough when the pizza gets here.
About 15 minutes later the gate bell rings and it's the Domino's pizza man on his delivery motorcycle. Cindy and I go out the front door and up the steps to the gate. The Domino's man only has the large pizza and two regular cokes - not one regular and one diet. He is telling us he will go back and bring the diet coke back with the other pizza. We agree pay him for the pizzas and drinks. Now we still have no idea how much the other pizza will cost so we're debating how much we should tip and still have enough left to pay for the other pizza.
Problem solved. A second Domino's pizza motorcycle shows up with the small cheese pizza. Ah oh! The box looks really small. We pay for the pizzas, take both regular 2 liter cokes, tip Both delivery guys, and still have 22 quetzales left (that's about $3).
Problem is the small pizza is more of a snack size pizza and it's suppose to fill up and 21 year old young man. Fortunately Miguel was a good sport. Before he ate his "snack pizza" he even went and got his camera to take a picture to send to his friends. We're not sure we've ever seen a pizza that small.
Ah, the joys of not speaking the language well. Never boring and many times amusing.
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