Last night was a pretty interesting experience. Our school goes from 8:00 am (sharp) to 1:00 (less sharp, depending on how the conversation’s going—the teachers here are all young and extremely enthusiastic) with a 30-minute break. During the break, I casually asked my teacher about where I might find a pick-up game of footie (the universal language). He went to ask Flory, the woman who runs the school (and we found out she also owns it—we’re very happy to give our dinero to a woman-run school as business women in Guatemala are rare) and there was a flurry of conversation that I didn’t completely follow, but the bottom line was I supposed to show up at the school at 7:30 pm and it had something to do with Xelaju MC, the town’s pro soccer team. Curious.

Flory drove me to a small outdoor comlex that had five mini-fields for “futbol rapido” which is like indoor, only it has a smaller field, only four field players instead of five, and no walls to bounce the ball off. As it turns out, this was no informal kick around with Xelaju’s youth team, like I was expecting: this was a league game with ex-professionals. Xelaju MC won the Guatemalan league last year, the first time in about 30 years. The guys I was playing with? They were those champions. It’s a bit like asking if there was a place where you might shoot some hoops and winding up playing in a league game with Dr. J and Magic Johnson.

An American on the futbol rapido grounds caused some interest. An American playing on the football rapido grounds? Muy extraño, they might say—very odd. Happily, I turned in a respectable performance. My team mates were between 40 and 55 years old, but they were ex-pro athletes who kept in pretty good shape. Xela is over a mile high in altitude and I only lasted ten minutes or so before needing a sub. A couple guys were reluctant to pass to me at first, but after I went back into the game, I had a couple sharp one-touch passes and scraped the post with a good shot after juking a defender. Unfortunately, the game ended shortly after so I didn’t get a chance to cash in on their growing confidence in me. I think they all got a kick out of me playing and the coach (who happened to be Flory’s brother) invited me to practice with them the next day—at 6:00 am. I politely declined… But I did learn a new word: futbolista. It’s a person who plays soccer, usually professionally.

I’m sad that school will be half-over tomorrow. Amy tells me I am speaking much faster and I’m definitely able to comprehend more. I’m actually able to have in-depth conversations with my instructor about advanced grammar and nuances of the language. Like a lot of skills, it’s difficult to gauge how well you’re doing because you always feel like there’s an infinite amount more to learn. But Lesly, the woman we’re staying with, said that most students have a hard time expressing themselves, yet over dinner the three of us talk about differences between the US and Guatemala in food, culture, health care, education, and more. When I stop to think how much we can say, and that I can have meaningful conversations with strangers in the street, it’s pretty amazing.

And the people of Xela are incredibly nice. And it’s genuine, too. From waiters to shop keepers to strangers in the street, we have felt nothing but warmth. People here are quick to smile and are extremely patient with all the extranjeros (foreigners) in their city. Our school, La Democracia, is about a mile north than other schools, which are primarily clustered in the downtown area. The cafes down there are full of gringos and we like being a little further out where you can really mix with the locals.

I could go on and on about all the great stuff I’m learning (like the differences between using verbs the imperfect and preterite tenses and why reflexive verbs are trickier than you might think) but it would not be that interesting. The question is going to be what to do after this trip in order to build on it. Ability to communicate effectively on a variety of subjects in the past, present, and future? Check. But I’m still lightyears away from being fluent, or even close to it.

Enough for now. Safe to say that we’re having a great time. More later.

Current Mood: Bien |