www.patchesweaver.com
30.01.2009
I get by with a little help from my friends
category: Work
tags: ,

So I´ve begun to meet architects and other creative professionals.  This is a good thing.

Otto´s aunt introduced me to her friend Antonio Prado Cobos (Tono) who is an architect in Guatemala City (thanks Carolina).  He has been more than helpful and is constantly introducing me to people.  He is a great person to talk to and has alot of very good advice .

At the beginning of the week, Tono took me to the School of Architecture of Universidad Francisco Marroquin.  I came at the right time because this was the school´s first “Architecture Week”.  He introduced me to his friend Roberto who is the dean of the school.   Roberto is very nice and invited me to come back any time during the week.  Francisco Marroquin seems like an excellent school and I look forward to visiting again…

I met with Tono again today.  He wanted to show me one of the restorations that is currently in progress in Antigua.   He took me to the Palace of the Captains General, a very large palace right off of Parque Central.  The palace was built in 1549 and has suffered from many earthquakes since.  It was a great opportunity to visit the palace since it is not open to the public.  Tono explained how he has lived in Guatemala for over 60 years and has not been able to enter into the building until 1 month ago.  So yes, it was a great opportunity…

dsc05601

dsc05602

dsc05596

dsc05592

dsc05619

dsc05603

dsc05598

dsc05593

dsc05605

dsc05604

dsc05607

After going the palace, Tono took me to an amazing restaurant for lunch.  He told me that changing scenery will be a good thing for me and that I should be excited about living differently and thinking differently.

After lunch, Tono took me to his house in Antigua that he is restoring.  He explained that he would like me to come every day to take photos and to supervise what is being done.  Not sure if this will be a paying job yet, but either way, it seems like the perfect job while I´m taking spanish classes.

dsc05644

dsc05640

dsc05646

Tono´s house is beautiful.  I am really looking forward to spending time there.  I will meet him on Monday to talk about what needs to be done.

28.01.2009
College Fund
categories: Family Life, School
tags: ,

So I have decided to contribute to Carla and Faviola´s college fund. 

Since Stella corrects me about 3 times per sentence, she suggested that I need some sort of motivation for catching my mistakes before they happen.  She proposed that I put 25 quetzale centivos (about 3 cents US) into some sort of piggy bank every time she catches me make the same mistake. 

Lovely

Lovely

After searching for a few minutes, she returned with this little gem… a bank para niňas. 

She suggested that I get a lock for it… because pretty soon this things gonna be loaded.

And how practical, it even has a handle so that I can carry it around with me.

26.01.2009
Milton´s Birthday
category: Fiestas
tags: , , ,

So the partying did not end with the wedding.  On Sunday, Marti, Carlos and I, along with the majority (it seems, but I have a feeling this is not the case) of Otto´s family went to Marti´s sisters house for a party.  This included massive amounts of food, fireworks, and alot of questions for the gringo… 

Marti lighting the cake. She is a pro, note her gameface

Marti lighting the cake. She is a pro at this kind of thing, note her gameface

Milton is the one with the camera

Milton is the one with the camera and Olga is the woman to the left of him. She is hilarious.

26.01.2009
A Beard Trimming and Dance shoes
categories: Fiestas, Travel
tags: , , , ,

So I went back to Guatemala city (via comioneta/”chicken bus”) for the weekend.  To my dismay, upon arriving, Marti informed me that I would be getting a haircut with her son Giovanni on Saturday.  Rather than turning down the offer, I felt that it was maybe necessary to tame the twirlygigs that had begun to form at the base of my future mane.  Although this has seriously set me back with my hopes of attaining the super beard of a beatnik vagabond, I feel it is sometimes necessary to take one step backward to go two steps forward…

Saturday came as a very busy day.  It began with helping Giovanni and Tono assemble a complicated desk (without directions).  This proved to be a good test for newly learned vocabulary (above, on top of, below, etc).   After desk assembly, I drove around town with Marti and Carlos running some errands.  While driving back, Marti and Carlos asked me if I would like to go to a fiesta.  To this I replied, “Si… cuando?”.  “Ahora” they said.  Giovanni and his wife were basically ready to leave back at the house.  They then asked me if I had nice clothes… Of course I did not.  I ended up wearing Carlos´s.  The shoes were a bigger problem since nobody in the entire country of  Guatemala has a size 10 or 11.  I ended up using Giovanni´s father in law´s.  They were a ·tight· fit, but did the trick.  Everything besides the shoes and sportcoat fit well (if I stretched my arms out in front of me, the cuffs of the shirt would pass the sleeve of the sportcoat by about 3 inches).

The fiesta turned out to be a wedding at one of the nicest Hotels in Guatemala.  The driveway for the hotel alone snaked up a mountain next to Antigua for (literally) 2 kilometers.  The road alone was beautiful and the view was accentuated by a guard with a shotgun.

dsc05402

The hotel was nice and the view of Antigua wasn´t too bad either

dsc05415a

There ended up being alot of people at the party

There also ended up being alot of people Dancing and Dancing (click)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb1dYwisA9M[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBoUk2Re3Ps[/youtube]

Needless to say, my dance “skills” are pretty weak, even when aided by the powers of alcohol.  The moment the music started, it became very apparent to me that I will need to work on the dance moves.  Learning to dance has now become a priority that is 2nd only to learning spanish (and probably getting a job).  I was also told that a pair of new (dance) shoes is a must since there are so many fiestas in Guatemala.

23.01.2009
Photo Page
category: Uncategorized
tags:

Keep your eye on the tabs above the postings (home, about, etc.. ), I will be adding pages as I go along.  If you have not checked it out already, take a look at the “Photos de Antigua” page. 

As per Caitlin´s request, I have now tweaked things a bit so that comments can be added to different pages.  (Thanks Otto)

23.01.2009
Climbing Pacaya
categories: School, Travel
tags:

So I climbed a Volcano yesterday. 

During class, a man named Robert came up to me with a proposal.  He explained how he and his family were planning on climbing Pacaya today and how he had reserved a shuttle bus and a guide.  Robert said that his wife was feeling a bit sick and didn´t feel like going anymore.  He wanted to know if I was interested in going.  Since I wasn´t doing anything, I of course accepted his offer.   

We ended up taking a shuttle with Robert and his family, a couple from Australia, and a couple from Madrid. 

dsc05304

dsc05369

dsc05321

This is our guide.  While walking up, he picked up a few pieces of dry wood.  We really began to feel the heat once we got the area that was completely covered with volcanic rock.  At one point our guide threw a few sticks down into a crevis, waited a few seconds, and then up came the fuego…  and then people started roasting marshmellows… seriously. 

dsc05344

dsc05360

dsc05366

The volcano was absolutely beautiful.  It had many different landscapes; forest, open grassy areas, and volcanic rock.  Every 5 minutes or so the volcano would rumble and spew out another plume of smoke. 

21.01.2009
Family Life
category: Family Life
tags: , ,

The family I am staying with is awesome.  There are 6 of us in one house.  The mother and father are Stella and Neri and the 2 daughters are Clara and Faviola.  They are all really cool.  Yesterday I spent the majority of the day (and night) talking to Stella and Karla.  I basically talked to them until it was late and my head hurt.  After hours of Spanish, I at one point asked Carla how her English was (in English) and for the first 2 or 3 sentences proceded to fumble the words of my own native language.  I am not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing…  Karla is an interior design student and an English teacher at a local school, so hopefully soon we will be able to jump into architectural powertalk.   

I am also staying with 2 other gringos.  The first is Henry, a Canadian guy who owns a greenhouse business about an hour outside of  New York state.  He is taking spanish so that he can communicate better with some of the Mexican help he has in the greenhouse.    The second is Jaime, a man of about 75 who has been living with the family for more than 10 years.   Jaime is a bit elusive but I will try my best to get a photo of him…

dsc05386

Nery, Stella, and Henry

Karla and Huesito

Karla and Huesito. Huesito es stilo con sus camisas para niños

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdjYugIG1L8[/youtube]

Stella egging on Huesito

 

Oh ya, and the food is amazing…

Tostadas - it is impossible to exhibit any form of self control around these things

Tostadas - it is impossible to exhibit any form of self control around these things

Pollo, guacamole, y arroz

Pollo, guacamole, y arroz

21.01.2009
Spanish School
category: School
tags: ,

So Spanish school is going well.  I have 4 hours a day of one on one Spanish with Clariza.  She is really cool, and half of the time, we basically just hang out and chat it up (en espanol). 

Yesterday we watched Obama get sworn in (to the  sound of motorcycles and tuc tucs – picture and description to come) .

dsc05180

I wanted to get a portrait shot of her but she suggested that, for effect, she write on the whiteboard (even though we never use it).  The picture is blurry but I think it represents her pretty well.  Note that she is “writing” on the whiteboard with a ballpoint pen.

dsc05578

Here is one of the many activities at the school.  Today we had to buy 3 different kinds of “Dulces Tipicos” (typical Guatemalan sweets), research them, present what we learned about them in Spanish, and then eat them.  The two kids were all about this one…

18.01.2009
Antigua
category: Travel
tags: ,

So its my first day in Antigua.  As it stands, the plan is to take 2 to 3 weeks of classes in Antigua and then go to Xela for about 2 to 3 weeks of more classes. 

We dropped Otto off at the airport this afternoon.  I am now flying solo in Guatemala.  I spent the rest of the day with Marti and Carlos visiting the surrounding areas of Antigua (San Fillipe and Ciudad Viejo) and honing my gringo spanish. 

I am staying in hotel Don Quijote for the night.  I will start class tomorrow and meet the Guatemalan family that I will be staying with. 

dsc05120

Here is a view of Antigua.  It lies between the “water volcano” (to the left) and the ”fire volcano”  (to the right).  Needless to say, the volcanoes are huge.  Carlos and Marti drove me up a winding backroad passing massive potholes, women carrying fruit on their heads, and stray dogs in order to see this view.  The road leads to Antigua, but we had to turn back after somebody informed us that the road ahead had been blocked by a landslide. 

dsc05146

I spent a few hours walking around the city at night.  Its beautiful.  I will add more to this description later…

17.01.2009
Searching for a Spanish school
categories: Fiestas, School, Travel
tags: , , ,

Otto´s uncle Rodolfo and his friend Christian drove Otto and I to Antigua two nights in a row in order to scope out the different Spanish schools. 

I think that looking for spanish schools seemed like a good excuse for Rodolfo and Christian to show us around Antigua.  By this I mean eating massive amounts of food, spending most of the night in a bar, and then heading to a discoteca.  This was basically how it went on both days.  And of course, going to a discoteca isn´t any fun if there isn´t a street fight (about 8  people) to cap the night off.   No need to worry, we were at a safe viewing distance…

All of the bars in Antigua need to close after 1:00, but its common that there is an “afterparty” after this certain discoteca closes.  As soon as you walk out the door, people are handing out flyers.  Rodalfo explained that everybody is in on the afterparty.  Apparently this is true, because after driving for 5 minutes, we had to ask a random guard for directions and he knew exactly what we were talking about.  5 minutes later, we asked a kid who was probably 14, and he not only showed us where the party was, but helped us park…   

Christian, Roldalfo, and a bucket of Gallo

Christian, Roldalfo, and a bucket of Gallo

Despite how they may sound, these two days were definitly productive.  On the afternoon of the 2nd day, after looking at a few other schools, we found one that seemed to be the one.  The school is called ¨Probigua¨ and is a non-profit spanish school.  It includes activities (movies, salsa lessons, field trips, etc) and also offers the ability to volunteer in a small school that is close to Antigua.