Xela (Quetzaltenango), Guatemala
This evening I'm blogging comfortably from the corner internet cafe, just down the street from my new apartment, and at any time my new Guatemalan cell phone might ring. For the first time in nearly two months, I'm settling in.
It didn't take long, once I had decided that I wanted to stay in Xela, which is officially known as Quetzaltenango. (Pronunciation guide: Shay'-luh.) When I got here on Monday, I was instantly taken in by Steve, a long-time friend of my aunt and uncle's who has been living in Guatemala for 29 years. I couldn't ask for an English speaker who knows this country and city better than Steve, and he quickly oriented me to the structure of the city (all the streets are on a numbered grid, which makes it easy) and let me take his couches apart for three nights to arrange them on the ground into some semblance of a bed.
So much has happened in Xela in the past few days that it's difficult to summarize, but I rented an apartment today at Sol Latino, one of the dozens of language schools in the city. I have a room that can best be described as "big enough" and has a dresser, a desk and a double bed. I also share a bathroom, kitchen and common area with the other two residents, currently a Dutch girl who's taking a year off before heading to college and an American girl whom I haven't sat down with yet. I'll post some pictures of the place later, but what I really like about the place won't be captured in the photos. First of all, the price is right; I'm paying only 950 quetzales, less than $120 a month. Second, by living here, I'm instantly part of a community of native Spanish speakers and students who want to practice the language. This lets me hit the ground running and keeps me out of situations in which I'll revert back to English.
My language is coming along nicely, and people are often impressed when I tell them that I only studied Spanish for one semester. My Romanian is helping me immensely, but I often substitute Romanian words for Spanish ones, leaving people wondering when I say that the water is cald instead of caliente. But I experienced a breakthrough today while I was thinking about how I would describe my new apartment to my old Moldovan host family. I thought that I was thinking in Romanian and explaining it to them, but then I did a double-take when I realized I had been thinking in Spanish. It's a step in the right direction.
In short, things are stabilizing here after a turbulent and tiring first three weeks of the trip. My next focus will be to get a job or two, and hopefully find something that will pay enough to offset the rent.
It didn't take long, once I had decided that I wanted to stay in Xela, which is officially known as Quetzaltenango. (Pronunciation guide: Shay'-luh.) When I got here on Monday, I was instantly taken in by Steve, a long-time friend of my aunt and uncle's who has been living in Guatemala for 29 years. I couldn't ask for an English speaker who knows this country and city better than Steve, and he quickly oriented me to the structure of the city (all the streets are on a numbered grid, which makes it easy) and let me take his couches apart for three nights to arrange them on the ground into some semblance of a bed.
So much has happened in Xela in the past few days that it's difficult to summarize, but I rented an apartment today at Sol Latino, one of the dozens of language schools in the city. I have a room that can best be described as "big enough" and has a dresser, a desk and a double bed. I also share a bathroom, kitchen and common area with the other two residents, currently a Dutch girl who's taking a year off before heading to college and an American girl whom I haven't sat down with yet. I'll post some pictures of the place later, but what I really like about the place won't be captured in the photos. First of all, the price is right; I'm paying only 950 quetzales, less than $120 a month. Second, by living here, I'm instantly part of a community of native Spanish speakers and students who want to practice the language. This lets me hit the ground running and keeps me out of situations in which I'll revert back to English.
My language is coming along nicely, and people are often impressed when I tell them that I only studied Spanish for one semester. My Romanian is helping me immensely, but I often substitute Romanian words for Spanish ones, leaving people wondering when I say that the water is cald instead of caliente. But I experienced a breakthrough today while I was thinking about how I would describe my new apartment to my old Moldovan host family. I thought that I was thinking in Romanian and explaining it to them, but then I did a double-take when I realized I had been thinking in Spanish. It's a step in the right direction.
In short, things are stabilizing here after a turbulent and tiring first three weeks of the trip. My next focus will be to get a job or two, and hopefully find something that will pay enough to offset the rent.
posted by Peter Myers at
5:41 PM
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