student protests.

so! i wanted to write about friday night (friday was my first full day in xela). the heart of xela is el parque central (central park) a park of about two blocks in the middle of the city surrounded by a gazillion banks, a museum, a shopping center, some fancy hotels, and a two churches. inside the park is this odd greek-styled rotunda (apparently it´s called a kiosk?) thing made out of cement. the most common building material here seems to be cement. anyways, lots of exciting events go down in el parque central, and the first weekend i was there had a lot going on, because it was the first weekend of the month. so, even though the streets around the park are one way anyway, half of one of them was blocked off as there were vendors everywhere with food, snacks, drinks, crafts, and so on. in the back of a blocked off street, there were also rides for kids. anyways, during my first day of classes, i walked around with angelica, and she told me about the city and showed me a bunch of different places, things, etc. in addition, she explained that i really should attend the student protests that night; so i did.

so i arrive, and the entire park is filled with people. the atmosphere is like a fair, there are families snacking, teenagers drinking in the shadows, and people milling about everywhere. there´s a huge stage set up and people talking so quickly that i couldn´t figure out what words i was hearing, nevertheless translate them. so i look up at the stage only to see...a mass of people standing (and passing through the crowds) in robes like the kkk. oh my, if you can only imagine my shock. todos the students were wearing robes, of different colores, covering their entire faces and bodies that are shaped..... exactly like KKK robes. except, they are different colors - blue, black, purple, lavendar. but, to boot, most of them are also carrying a short stick, like a baton to beat people with...and i´m thinking to myself what the hell?! well, anyways, both robes and batons are symbolic because in years past students were killed, tortured, persecuted and so on for speaking out against the government. and even though now in theory they would be fine, it{s an added measure of protection and of tradition to show up disfrazados (disguised/costumed) in order make their very long, swear-ridden, but mostly truthful condemnations and statements about the local and national governments, recent events, and various candidates for office. the different colors represent various deparments of the university (the public university here is called san carlos; most of the public universities lean quite heavily to the left and the private ones to the right), but still nonetheless, it was quite a shock and quite interesting. there were so many people there, and the protests are regular every friday night, although they change location depending upon which weekend of the month it is. so anyways, it´s a goal of mine to actually understand what the students are saying while they are saying it (instead of slowly translating their little pamphlets) by the time that i leave - if i can understand words spoken so quickly and so distorted by amplifiers as theirs, then i will be able to understand almost anything.

as for my new teacher: his name is marvin, he´s 24, a student at san carlos, quite short, and he enjoys making jokes that just barely make it over my head (ie, i usually catch on about 40 seconds later). he´s only been teaching for about a year, but he seems to me to be a good teacher. it´s quite difficult for me to figure out what i need at this point in order to improve. i want to make sure that i´m getting my money´s worth out of school, but i have no idea wha that, in practicality, means.

it´s like i have this giant cesspool with a mix of different stuff- verb agreement, various articles, verb tenses, and some vocabulary that sloshes around a lot in my head. at times, i´m able to pick out the right parts and use them, but for the most part, it´s all kind of a big mess. miraculously though (and this is what surprised me and the teachers i have had) buried deep down in the murky depths of my brain, i have all of the elements of correct grammar stored (who knew?). i do know all the tenses, i know their uses, i know the differences between estar y ser, between por y para, etc, but all this knowledge surfaces only when it feels like it. i also think there must be something akin to a layer of velcro in my head, that, through the years has been covered with cat hair. consequently, only some vocab sticks, and some, no matter how hard i try, keeps falling off. so, in total, i have this really random assortment of words that i know and use, words that i understand, and words that look or feel somewhat familiar to me but i can´t quite place. the end result is that i´m not quite sure how to go forward with my studies. everyone seems convinced (teachers, friends, family) that the vocab will come with time from listening to people, watching tv, etc, but i´m not sure.

i guess at this point i worry that i don´t have enough homework or that my spanish will stay at the same weird skill level that it´s at now. after class, i spend usually around 2 hours at some point during the day reading other texts in spanish, and i try to talk as much as possible with my family (although difficult), but i´m just not sure what´s best. there are definitely different styles of teaching, and i could most definitely switch schools (i´ve only paid for 2 weeks so far) and there are some odd 40 schools in xela, but it´s hard to tell what i actually need.

moving on, there are only 4 students in my school: a german girl of about the same age, a girl from tenessee who just finished nursing school, an older italian man that is a bit full of himself but quite hilarious and good with his words (spanish and italian are very similar), and me. tonight the school activity is to go to the futbol game between the municipal (the xela team) and the capital (guatemala city). it should be quite the adventure; i´m pretty siked for it. as our teachers told us, ohhh you´ll learn such new words! so many swears! haha. so, we´ll see.

and finally, my funny moment of the day. one of the teachers told me not to worry about missing the dinner with my family tonight (because of the game), because i can eat hot dogs and hamburgers instead. in response, i explained i was a vegetarian and wouldn´t eat those things. so, she told me, well...good thing beer is vegetarian! hah. and good thing, i won´t be taking her advice!

hasta luego.