Day Twelve
We're deep into the rainy season now. The weather's nice until 1 or 2, then the thunderheads roll in for the afternoon. It makes it tough being in school until noon. I feel a bit like a kid in summer school staring at the clock, then out the window, aloof to studies and responsibilities.
I'm not the best student. I try to get my maestra away from the text book as much as possible; the ejercisios orales are pretty tedious, and you find yourself adopting an affected tone on the canned responses:
Penso que sus ninos le gustarian sus maestras?
SI, pense que ellos le gustarian MUCHO.
We got out of the class today for a birthday party at Cerro de la Cruz for one of the students (see pictures of this beautiful locale in our photostream). I had rope duty on the piñata, quickly regressing to wild childhood as I tried to drop the piñata on the head of whoever was taking a swing. The weather was beautiful, the games divertido, and there was ample opportunity to slip away from your maestra and chat in English with our diverse and interesting group of classmates (by my count, representing 8-9 countries). I mentioned before how novel it is for Erik to hear the experiences of an early 20-something on a post-college/pre-death culture sojourn for 6-7 months or whenever the money runs out.
There's a line in the book I'm reading, The Sheltering Sky, comparing tourists and travellers. When tourists grow weary of a place they are eager to return home; when travellers feel the same weariness, they long to move on to someplace new. The tourist accepts his own civilization without question, while the traveller constantly compares it with others and rejects elements he doesn't accept.
We're tourists, definitely, but a nascent traveller is awakening in each of the boys.
Tomorrow's our last day of class, then it's off to Panajachel and Lake Atitlan for the week. Our turnaround on the homestay has been the most pleasant surprise of the trip; no way would the boys have picked up as much Spanish as they have in these 2 weeks simply from class. The earnestness and warmth of the family has made the occasional discomforts not just bearable but worthwhile (vale la pena!).
Still, as an unabashed tourist, I look forward to something like privacy for a week (if four people on vacation together can ever find privacy!).
