playing catch up from Antigua

Last night Wednesday was a bit different than I thought it would be. In ¨La Sala¨ we played Trivia (Trivial Pursuit in a way with different categories) which was actually fun. Our goal is not to be last and to beat the boys. Camilla and me were dead tired and had problems focusing on the questions in Spanish since the translation wasn’t always correct. We left around 11pm. Before I left Mattheo was asking what is wrong with me being so tired etc. so I told him also that I needed to be fit for the next day for climbing the volcano. He said in that case sees you tomorrow. Got a tuc-tuc straight away and went off to bed.

Thursday: It was a normal school day. Some days depending on the topic I have the feeling that I understand more and all but at others it is same old same old. Feels like taking one-step forward and taking 2 back. Frustrating! The funny thing is though that although my Latin is buried in nowhere land it comes to surface first before the Spanish - go figure! Playing games though is always entertaining and being able to talk about any topic of interest as well. Here they don’t use the ¨vos/ vosotros¨ it is not existent in written or spoken Spanish. At first it was weird but now it is fine just means one thing less to learn. After lunch which was a very quick one and I had asked Ema if she could prepare me a little snack to take along on the way. I was off to the bus station where Vilma was collecting us all to take us to Antigua. There the others from Appe (mother school) were waiting for us. In total we were something like 30 people. Mattheo spotted me and we started chatting. He introduced me to George (Dutch guy) who is really nice as well. They were such unbelievable little geeks playing chess in the bus. Please! The rest was chatting away happily. The bus was an American school bus and in good shapes also the seats. When I heard two rows across from me Dutch I was like wow I can still understand it. I got told that lots of Dutch people are around here but hadn’t bumped into before. I understood them but when I wanted to answer the first thing that came to my mind was Spanish - guess that is a good sign o,) We arrived after more than an hour due to traffic at the volcano Pacaya which is a bit more than 2550m high. We weren’t able to climb the way to the crater since it had erupted 3 days before and had created a new crater and destroyed the normal footpath so our guides were taking a different way. It was great! In the beginning it was wood than plains than rocks and lava. In the beginning we were all sweating in no time since the climb was exhausting on the plains the wind was freezing and at top it was hot. At the top we were like 1m away from flowing lava that was great but very hot and the sulphur in the air made you cough (those with asthma had coughing fits non-stop). Groups formed quickly as to different levels of fitness and liking. I took some great pictures and once I can download everything on CD than I have to find a place to make the image smaller and download them onto my site. Mattheo and me chatted all the way down which of course got rumors started. He will leave soon one of those who are only here for a month that is nothing basically but work is calling. We were all sweaty and covered in dust and had a good time. I was surprised that I wasn’t aching that day or the next day guess although there is no sport to be done here I am still fit o,) That night I thought that I would be beat and only want my bed but after having had a bite and a shower I was fit to go out. We were a group of 10 including some host brothers. We went for a drink an afterwards to ¨La Sala¨. They had live music and dancing. We had only walked in when the first guy was already asking me to dance. I have already forgotten his name but he was nice. I will see him today (Monday) and since he speaks no English I finally get to practice more Spanish o,) Chelsea was holding my jacket and bag so I had to find her since I wanted to have a drink. Instead he bought me water and we danced some more. Every time I disappeared he found me again and we spent all evening dancing. He was really cool and arranged a tuc-tuc for a very good price for Chelsea and me. Home finally by 2am - had calculated an hour earlier!!!

Friday: In the morning I had a very early shower since I had to pack my bag for the trip. At this point it wasn’t sure if we would get the tickets for the trip or not. Therefore we were already formulating back-up plans. School in the morning was exhausting because to get my brain around those stupid irregular verbs takes forever. The second half was better when we teamed up with Stephanie and her teacher to play games. We had lots of laughs and time passed quickly. At home a quick lunch than Camilla came by to pick me up to go to Antigua to meet Chelsea. She was doing the entire running around and chasing since we couldn’t get a hold of Marty who had to give us the tickets for the trip. Chelsea found us at the post office and gave us the thumbs up. JIPEE! We still had some time and walked to Parque Central for the pick-up. Alex had phoned to tell us that he was on his way to meet us. We saw him for a bit over half an hour than he went to meet his sister and we were on our way to Coban.

Mum, no need to worry my health is just fine and I am doing a lot better than some. My theory is anyway having some drinks (alcohol) kills anything unwanted!!! o,)
Time to head off for my date and I’ll write later more about how our trip was!