Guat's up, Antigua?

I must have temporarily forgotten that I had satiated my case of wanderlust after going to Ecuador, because I've found myself once again in Latin America--returned this time to Guatemala.  I´ll be here for a month, and will be welcomed back to Amerricah amidst a slew of fireworks on July 3rd.

New sights and new food for thought provided by Antigua, Guatemala.  I arrived planless, and remain so!  My only goal for this trip was to have one genuine and interesting conversation each day, making a stronger connection with someone, anyone.  I hadn't considered which language this person would be, but as it turns out internationals really have the most to say.

So, my few and cherished readers, let's get you up to speed.

• I caught a ride to Antigua from this photographer from the University of Miami who sat next to me on the flight from Atlanta.  He works full time snapping photos for the medical school, inches away from open-heart surgeries and abdominal infection operations, and has gone to Italy, New York, California, on business.  I couldn't think of a more fortunate position for someone who grew up in Guatemala.  Anyway, good thing he wasn't a kidnapper, although his friend drove like a crazy person in the maniacally-operated streets of Guatemala City, because now I can still accept his offer for me to visit him later in my trip, when he returns for a longer visit to Guate.
• I must address a syndrome of mine, more severe than traveler's sickness, but less bathroom-related.  On the first day of any journey, I get a strong WTF did i get myself into feeling.  In this case, it was a WTF am I gonna go in a country I've already been to, whose language I already speak, for a MONTH?  The trigger is the realization that nobody in a thousand mile radius is aware of my existence, or, worse, that some people are aware but generally the world doesn't give a shit.  Luckily, that really is a one-day reaction, and I've since been having a really lovely time.
• I can't tell if it's mold invading my nose in the room of my homestay, or asbestos from the peeling walls, but the bare bulb shedding dim light as I type is enough to tell me that I have everything I really neeed here.  Since Tuesday I've been staying with a Guatemalan family with three kids, whose eyes are glued to the TV at all seconds that the day has to offer.  The little zombies occasionally take a break to play a car-racing video game on the computer, but it's safe to say that this place, like Ecuador, is a very TV-oriented culture.  Books?  What are those?
• The agua caliente of the shower is actually caliente!  Life is filled with many pleasant surprises 
• Watched the Celtics at a gringo-bar owned by Bostonians, que suerte!  Met a bunch of chicas here to "learn Spanish."  This place, however, is probably the most effective way to *not* learn Spanish, with hostels filled with gringos, and Spanish schools reaching enrollments of 60 students.
• I don't want to talk about my 3 days taking classes to rewet my Spanish tongue, mainly because the experience was subpar and there was some drama with the director that you're better off reading about in my review of the school online!
• Antigua is beautiful, despite the fumes of the pimped out school buses transporting heaps of people through the cobblestone streets.  Colonial architecture, all walls pastel-colored and connected until the block ends.
• There are bajillions of travelers coming through Guatemala, and somehow everyone's Spanish sucks!  That's okay, they more than make up for the painfully wrong verb uses by having had fascinating lives.
• My first travel buddy here is a 36 y.o who I thought couldn't be older than 26, originally from the Philippines but has been living with her Aussie husband in Melbourne for 6 years.  She is what I'd call a real traveler, with strong knowledge from experience in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore etc., Europe, with highlights in Turkey and Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and the States, including many of the best national parks and even Alaska!  She is just about starting her 10-week trip through central America.
• Apparently, in Singapore, you get the death penalty for having drugs on you, regardless of whether they are for consumption or for sale.  An Aussie got caught at the airport, and despite her insistence that they weren't hers, she is currently serving a life sentence.  Well, at least while court is in sentence regarding the death penalty.  The Embassy is freaking out, and the Aussie lawyers unable to do very much.
• Visited a cooperative that gave us a free tour, beginning at the pueblo whose school buuilding supports three schools--elementary school starting in the early  morning, middle school during the afternoon, and high school during the evenings.  Social workers from this NGO select kids based on their poverty and proximity to certain neighborhoods to take part in the Common Hope program, which builds a house for the family and supports the child from 1st grade until graduation.  They'd normally not make it through middle school.  We saw an example of the "house" built by CH--basically a 4 X 5 m room made out of plywood that has a collapsable  floor so the entire thing can be transported.  They build it in two days.  Around this house, given to the lucky, eligible family, are houses with tin roofs and most likely dirt grounds.  They use a system called sweat equity to prevent giving out free handouts.  Basically the family needs to work a certain number of hours 160-360 hrs, depending on the nature of the work, to get this house.  CH used to build before the hours are up, but families stopped working once they got what they wanted.  Education just doesn't take priority.  At another one of CH's sites, social workers must convince the Mayan indigenas of the importance of education.  It's part of the culture for 15 year-old girls to get married, and on top of that any time that their kid spends in school is time they aren't working on their farm.  Doctors at the CH clinic volunteer for one year. OMFG a whole year, unpaid, when doctors could be making so much!  Apparently they're in need of a new doc to replace the young guy from Massachusetts who left last week.  What an enormous heart, or something.  I don't know of a single person who could have that much potential income of a doctor and choose this life instead.  There are so many "mission trips" I've heard about while here, people in the medical field who work for a week and feed their ego by saving poor kids.  Stay a year!  Then I'll be humbled by your selflessness.
• Underestimations are awesome.  I've met people here who I might have originally written off, but with whom I've heard the most interesting perspectives.  I'm learning more and more that the friendliest, most traditionally relatable (same general age, outlook, etc) are worth trading in for conversations with people at different stages in life, and different locations.  Canadian perspectives on US politics, Amsterdam mother-daughter's commentary on Europe's route to catch up to the US in obesity, Guatemalan host mother's descriptions of the gringo invasion making property rental and ownership impossible for locals.  Behavioral economics and how our decisions are not really our own, life after marriage, all travelers "in transition," raw food diets, faulty education systems vs successful ones, and which cultures seem to do it right, corrupted governments feeding the vicious cycle of poverty, glue-sniffers refusing the opportunity to work in lieu of handouts, homeless on the streets next to children who in turn cannot play, young dudes vowing chastity for the lord, couchsurfing successes, etc etc etc etc beats staying in pajamas all day, although the Hunger Games was worth the hermit lifestyle.
• It's cool to hear the latino perspective on gringos.  We seem so silly.
• Beautiful handicrafts at the market, spending hours sending offers back and forth
• Previously I had no interest in visiting southeast Asia, but now, once the bountiful (lol) paychecks start rolling in I'll be happy to begin saving up for a trip to Singapore!  If anything, cuz even the descriptions of the food had me drooling.  Or maybe because dinner that night had left my stomach growling.
• I wish that the US would:
• create central social areas, like the majestic Parque Central, so members of every city have somewhere to just coexist and appreciate the ambiance of a community.

I'd love to continue these bullets, and I will, since I haven't even gotten to the most recent days, but this is not my computer and I don't know how paranoid this computer is being when it screams low battery at me.

Adios, chicos!