Preparing for a new Adventure

Jan 19, 2011
Preparing for a new Adventure

Looks like it’s time to rev up the Excellent Adventure blog. Jeff and I are busy packing and arranging for house-sitting and stopping the paper and all those things that need to be done before we head out on our next adventure: 4 weeks of Spanish Immersion language school in Guatemala.

So originally, the idea was we run away from the cold MN winter to the warm climes of Mexico to study Spanish. Then we got to thinking that Guatemala would be a better place to study since we’re active in our Sister Parish, which is in Guatemala. So far, so good. We contacted the Executive Director of Sister Parish, Inc. who lives in Guatemala and asked for suggestions of which school we should attend. She came back with the recommendation of PLQE – Proyecto Linquistico Quezelteco de Espanol in Xela (also known as Quetzeltenango), the second largest city in Guatemala, in the Western Highlands. What we like about PLQE is that the schools are managed by a collective of teachers and the profits do not go into the pockets of a single owner--as is the case in many other language schools (go to http://www.hermandad.com/philosophy.html for more about the school’s philosophy).

Great. We’re all about supporting a school that supports its staff and has a history of working with human rights organizations. That’s right up our alley. Sign us up! Oh… Xela is at an elevation of 8,000 feet and it’s going to be cold while we’re there. Well, damn. So now we’re making piles of long underwear and turtlenecks, sleeping bags and slippers, to be crammed into our backpacks. Also, we have added two weeks on to the end of our trip to visit Belize and Mexico to toast our buns and warm our bones. The pile of clothes for the last two weeks is considerably smaller than the pile for the first four weeks – a swimsuit and pair of shorts is much less bulky than those other things. I’m digging out my oldest, rattiest warm clothes with the plan of leaving them behind so we don’t have to haul them with us once we leave Xela.

Of course, all things are relative and even “cold” has to be considered against the current conditions in Minnesota. The weather we can expect in Xela could be as warm as the low 70s during the day, dropping to the 40s at night. The lack of central heating is really the main concern here. Compared to the Minneapolis temp of 1 degree this morning, 40 will be a real improvement. And 70 will be like a heat-wave.

We are looking forward to learning Spanish. Over the years I have cobbled together lessons with my sister-in-law, Jessica, who is from Peru, community ed classes with teachers rattling off Mexican style Spanish, and a friend who spent many years in Columbia, contributing her accent to the hodge-podge of my education. During our previous trip to Guatemala, I was able to communicate at the most basic level – first person singular in the present tense. My goal is to move past that pretty quickly so that the next time I visit my Sister Parish family (or they visit us) I can have a genuine conversation with them… something beyond “very cold today” or “mmm, beans good.” That’s the hope anyway. So wish us luck!