My second and third weeks in the Gwat

So 356 days of blogging came and went, and I didn't even realise it. I've been going out pretty much every night, and travelling for the past two weekends.

First of all, I love it here in Antigua. It's a relaxed tourist town, and there is always something to do, and someone to meet up with. The picture to the left is of the volcano, Agua, and was taken near my language school. It's a nice enough photo, but it'd look a hell of a lot better if it erupted, and lava started flowing down the streets... fingers crossed.

Towards the end of my second week here, my morning teacher (I have one in the morning, and another in the afternoon) had a sore throat, and so her voice was pretty husky all morning... verb conjugation has never sounded so sexy. It was especially funny when she then turned to me, looking at me with concern in her eyes, and in her deep, titillating husky voice asked me "Do have a goma?" Not knowing what a goma was, I looked it up in the dictionary... turns out it means "condom". I stared back at her in disbelief... never have I been asked if I have a condom at 9.30 in the morning by a teacher. I pointed to the dictionary, confused, wondering what she would say if I said "Yes, I do have one." She looked at it and burst out laughing... turns out that goma is another word for "hangover" over here... After this moment of frivolity, she asked me again,

[Her] So, do you have a goma?
[Me] Yes.
[Her] When you say yes, do you mean a hangover or a condom?

I wouldn't tell her...

Anyway, here are some more photos from my time here. I hope to write some more in a few days time.

----------A cathedral in Antigua--------------

------The resort I went to 2 weekends ago---------

--The Antiguan sunset seen from the roof of my local pub--

First week in the Gwat

One week of my three week stay here has come and gone pretty quickly, and I'm still loving it. I'd say that the only 'stain' or 'smear' on my experience in Guatemala thus far is that we're not allowed to flush toilet paper down the toilet - either its a unique quirk of the plumming here, or the Guatemalans have a wicked sense of humour and like tricking the gullible foreigners. Either way, the bin located next to the toilet to be used for disposal is like footprints in the sand of a beach, telling you about all the people who had been there before you...

Getting to Guatemala from Tokyo was an exercise in patience that tested the very limits of my sense of humour. I left at 3pm on Tuesday, and arrived at 10pm on Tuesday... Either this means that yes, I can in fact bend the fabric of time and space, or that crossing over half a dozen times zones has screwed with my sense of reality.

At any rate, I had crap all sleep that night, and ended up being subjected to a full day (7 hours) of Spanish language classes. Not the most intelligent move I ever made. On the second day, in my less fatigued state, I managed to amaze and astound my teachers with just how much I failed to remember from the previous day. I was so moved by their exasperation and hair-pulling that I redoubled my efforts, and by the end of the day I was well ahead of schedule.

The house I'm staying at is great (will post photos soon). I share it with half a dozen other language students. The house and its surrounding walls are carefully adorned with statues of jesus christ, assorted Disneyland memorabilia, and skin-shredding glass shards and cardio-shocking electrified barbed wire. I can't decide whether it's designed to keep people out, or to keep people in. We just had a bunch of new people move into the house, and we've decided to institute a hazing ritual where they're only allowed into the house if they make their way over the electrified wall. If they make it inside, they can stay. If they make it in alive, all the better... I fooled one of the new people by telling her that we (the other students and I) always say grace before dinner and that it's customary for new people to say grace on the evening they arrive. The girl was distraught and mumbled her way through something unintelligible... and so my reign of terror continues.

In addition to the orchestra of birds, barking dogs, church bells and the occassional explosion of fire crackers, it turns out that my neighbours are budding musicians. I know this because they're reasonably proficient at playing the same few bars of "Stairway to Heaven". I say 'reasonably' because they're getting a few chords wrong, and their either woefully oblivious or they don't let it dampen their enthusiasm and continue droning on, paying no heed to my now tenuous grip on sanity.

That's all I have to report for now.

Gwatamahoola

I'm off to Guatemala. I know, it's pretty random, but I'll be bumming around Antigua and the surrounding areas for just under a month. This means that my posts will be fairly erratic. Wish me luck.

Skiing with Ostriches

Look! It's a bird! It's a plane! NO! It's SUPERM..... no, wait, sorry. I was right the first time. It is a bird. An ostrich, actually. On skis. Slip-sliding down a ski slope in Japan. Tricky little bird just did a 360 in the air... smartarse!

Now consider the ostrich - a flightless bird, native to the endless, sunburnt savannas of Africa. A place that is not entirely unlike the Australian outback, if we ignore the occasional elephant, giraffe and lion. But forgetting fauna disparities for a moment, no matter how you look at it, an Ostrich is about as likely a natural skier as.... shucks, I dunno... an Australian?

True - Australia managed to get both a gold and a bronze medal in the Winter Olympics this year (kicking Japans arse... again!). In fact, in the 2002 Olympics, we scored 2 gold medals - the most memorable being the one for the speed skating event when everyone else in the group fell over, like a bunch of bright-coloured dominoes in spandex, leaving the Australian (who was coming dead last) to cruise past their crumpled bodies, first over the finish line, and in the process became the epitome of a "bloody legend" to all us Australians. And yes, it is also true that we have a few ski resorts in the south-eastern part of Australia, but I don't think we can really call ourselves "snow people" - you only need to see how stupid I get when it starts to snow as evidence of this.

As so it is with this mind that I leave for a 2 day ski trip today. I phoned my host mum last night to tell her about my travel plans, at which point she warned me to be careful, and look out for avalanches... huh!?! How are you supposed to be 'careful' not to get caught in an avalanche? It's not like I can get up in the morning, look out onto the slope and say "Yup. That looks like avalanche weather to me. Reckon I might wear a extra jacket today, just to be careful...".

Anyway... if you're looking for me, I'll be skiing with the ostriches and racing avalanches down the slopes.