Accion! Cortela!

Some one needs to say a few Hail Mary's for breaking her vow of silence...(andrea). Although I realize my embarrasment shouldn't smother a good story. So how can I sum this up... Well one day before we were allowed to leave our school all the students were forced to be shot (with a camera) and give info to this lady from a Modeling Agency. When 2 weeks passed I recieved and accepted a "job offer." The few details I understood in spanish informed me where to met for a shuttle, and that we were going to the beach for a photo shoot.

When beach day came Andrea, myself, and 2 other models were wisked away to Puerto San Jose. About a 2.5 hour drive. We ended up spending the day in this incredible resort/conference center. We were provided with 2 fabulous meals, drinks all day, and access to pools and beach.

Yes there were beautiful girls, but the most interesting part was the camera crew and process. They were shooting a tv comercial for the tourism industry. The title of the ad campaign was something like "taste the fruits of Guatemala." This crew shot a dozen locations with different models, hoping to sell it when its finished. My role was to look happy drinking coconuts with my "sweet heart." They shot photo stills, and movie film. So I smiled for about 2 hours, which was easy believe me, and made bank! It was a long 12 hour day, but other than losing feeling in my leg for an hour or so no complaints! Stay tuned for Andrea's turn modeling...

Luke

HOWEVER

yeah, so luke has reason to gripe as we deal with difficult people or watch everything break - and in truth we feel more vulnerable here with less cushions, barriers and thin safety nets

however, the good and bad come hand in hand

just as we found out that our rent was going to be doubled again and for no fault of our own, we were spept off to a georgous black sand resort for luke´s latest photoshoot.... now that is a story you need to ask him about. I´m suprised he didn´t mention it! Sitting in a hammock with a blonde German girl, drinking coconuts, being fanned with a gigantic palm leaf and making crazy money just to smile

absurb blessings

Buenas Tardes Chicos,

Porque no photos nuevos? Because now our memory card has turned its back on us. Let that be a lesson to all you bargain hunters out there. When you see a 2g memory card for $40 it is to good to be true. However, I am crossing my fingers it wakes up muy pronto.

I have to admit I was planning on writing a big run-on sentence complaining about how freaking sick I am of dealing with a new pain in the ass each week and/or how something that seems so easy to do ends up being nearly impossible to do. Ahh.... i feel better already. Thanks for listening family and friends, if you know me well you realize how much I love to gripe! Interested in the nitty gritty, lets have a vote. I'll wait and see the count. Although I am fairly sure you all will tell me to shut up.
Sincerely, Luke

The Long-Short of It

Hello friends.
How nice to feel like I am temporarily sharing the same cyber space as you

I have just recently achieved a new contentment as I imagine our next five months here in Guatemala. It has taken me these six weeks to calm down and slow down. I think I am learning patience more than anything- from laundry drying time and language learning to my idealistic expectations. For our first month it felt like we were dealing with a different catastrophe everyweek but even those situations have calmed and we are growing tiny roots. Still no fix for computer of yet but thankfully computer geeks all speak the same language. We also experienced nearly 10 rainless days which was really nice in retrospect. I think I actually used lotion twice last week. We are still in hurricane season and the clouds seem to be making up for lost time. They say only one more week and then we will be wishing it would rain. I doubt it.

Waves of stuents come and go every week but our first and closest friends will all be leaving this week. I was really dreading it but am actually at peace about it now and looking forward to inviting the new crew over to our place for BBQ this Sunday. Funny note: there are a lot of DCers here in language school. I even met a girl that knows Rivendell and common friends. Sometimes it is a small world (but thankfully without the corney disney music).

Antigua is a city of 30,000-ish but we haven´t outgrown it in the least. A few times we have been identified as the gringos with the red scooter. Everyweek we make new discoveries including: Dyslexia bookstore for the reading black market, the worlds best banana bread and granola mana from Doña Luisa, focaccia bread from Y Tu´Piña Tambien, and last but not least- the monkey´s *ss smoothies (banana, chocolate & pbj) at Cafe No Se. I am keeping my eyes open for job options but most places pay about a dollar a hour. There aren´t really Starbucks like jobs floating around. It has been recommended that we consider the hostal route as a way to have jobs for food and lodging with travel to boot. Hmmmm...

Luke and I both have dropped down to four hours of Spanish class a day. We have drained dry every pen we brought from the states and are each on a second notebook. We are progressing bit by bit. Last week I looked over at luke´s class to see him banging his head on the desk. Today was my brain wilting /resolve crushing day with the perfect tenses. There are those fleeting moments when the clouds roll back, casting Thomas Kincade rays of light upon my efforts. Then, Spanish flows in a land of milk and honey. Alas, in the next moment, it is all lost and I am once again only a sputtering wooden doll. I estimate that I have reached the age of 5 in Spanish years. Horray!

Loads more- but another time
thanks for listening.... and feel free to write

#27. luke

• Luke´s 27th birthday found us standing 8 deep in the back of a beatup pickup chugging aouround switchbacks above Antigua
• to Earth Logde- rustic hostal /avacado farm / three dogs / natural sauna/fab-o food-o
• Stayed the night in a tree house- the outfacing wall was glass allowing spectacular views the entire time. I woke up from a nap to have clouds swirling inside the cabin - at night silloutees of the volcanoes with the flikering lights of the towns below
• Celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with a feast and ragtag group-o-expats complete with stuffing and to-die-for apple pie. I am already counting down to American Thanksgiving.
• Campfire cumbyaying until it rained then played worst case senario (I hope I never have to use the infomation I learned).
• Hot chocolate, books, and candlelight wrapped in a Christmas themed comforter- of course!
• Slept in and skipped class in the morning
• Browinies and drinks at Monoloco with friends at night. We enjoyed another round at the bar waiting for the rains to subside
• Soaking awesome ride home- huge cobblestone puddles, no traffic, just us, laughing

Spanish Lesson 101.b

fun to say
acabab- to have just
juzgue- [who´s gay?] - I judged
¡ojala!- [o.ha.la]- I hope so!
desafortunadamente- unfortunately

of interest
the place of purest poo- a remote location
inundacion- a flood (lit or fig)
albondiga- meatball
paraguas- (for water) - umbrella
flexed bicepts (guns) = cats (gatos)... as in, if a rat crawled up my arm it wouldn´t get past this cat!

proceed with caution
no tenga pena- a common phrase similar to ¨de nada¨meaning no pain taken but if you change one letter you omit an important body part

el dia vs. la dia- the day or the human parasite that lives where the sun don´t shine. Don´t be fooled! even though dia ends with an "a" it is a femanine noun and needs to be proceeded with the artlicle "el".

Por al fin de semana pasada Andrea y yo fuemos a la playa!

So we left our house last friday morning with bags packed ready to have an incredible weekend roadtrip! It was going to be an unusual day in general. It was the "Day of the Children" holiday so our school had planned a fun filled morning for 2 primary schools in nearby towns. After lunch we were going to leave town with 4 friends up to Rio Dulce. We were invited up by someone connected with our school. Well i'll cut short the details, lets just say...motor-cross, ocean, kayak, giant river, wicked cheap. You get the picture. We arrived at our school only to find out terrible news. The travel agency we booked our shuttle through for Rio Dulce didn't seem to remember booking us at all. As a matter of fact the lady we spoke to face to face swears the conversations never took place, and she doesn't know us. Ahhh! Whats that all about? Luckily we hadn't payed yet.

The day of the children was an exhausting, fun, and smashing good time! I wish i had pictures, but i forgot the camera. We decorated the school yard with balloons, posters of cartoons, and tons of pinata's! There were lots of games played, and of course the climax of the day was the destruction of Sponge Bob, Pink Power Ranger, and 2 dozen random animal pinata's! I love this tradition. Pinata's at all my parties in the future i promise!

So i'm coming around to the beach photos. 4 of us made a spontaneous decision to reclaim our weekend. We booked a shuttle for Monterrico! Its a black sand beach on the Pacific, approx. 2 hours south of Antigua. Corey, Mat, Andrea, and I arrived at the beach saturday morning, found a great crumby-but-good hotel right on the beach for $6 and settled in. It was the weekend we all needed. Body, soul, and mind. Perfectly hot weather, crushing waves with a wicked undertow, and incredible tasting cheap food! We also took a boat trip in mangroves to bird watch at 5 am sunday! Thats how you do it, thats how you show your love for nature!

The volcanoes/ mountains sit beautifully on the horizon behind the beach. And every beach front hotel had a grass roof area with hammocks to beat the heat.

Come visit! Luke

A lovely glimpse of the iconographic arch here in central antigua.

We finally bought a scooter! Isn´t it pretty, bright red with all the trimmings. Its a 125cc 4 stroke little thing, but perfect for cruising the cobble stone streets of antigua. The biggest advantage of haveing our own wheels is of course flexibility with our schedule, and sleeping in... Now we can meet friends out at night, and carry ice cream home before it melts, its fabulous!

Don´t worry moms, we are extremely safe! Its the other psycho´s we have to worry about. My first night out was a God send, i remember thinking ¨I´m driving my own scooter at 1am in Guatemala!"
Luke