Can I Speak Spanish?

Wow... Where to begin? I´m realizing (just in trying to envision what to write) that so much will inevitably be edited out and the question is... What stays and what goes? For starters, a quick thank you to all of you who filled my in-box with suggested items to add to the itinerary! Wooo Hooo!

And now, before I go on... Let me first say that this keyboard alone has me completely confused. Forget Spanish, a new city, compeltely unknown faces, being tired, and all that. Well get to that eventually, but right now - I want you to know I cant figure out how to do an apostrpohe. So there...

As for the trip - Ive (See? No apostrophe) been here for 10 hours and I already could talk your ears off (though not in Spanish - yet). The school provided a ride from the airport to Antigua. A part of me (the part expressing experienced-traveler-snobbery) had me wondering if that{s (oh wait, found it: ' ) the woose's way out: its the first time I've been greeted at an airport by a driver with my name printed on a sign. I soon got over it and I was so glad for the quick connection from Guatemala City to Antigua.

My driver (fun to say that), Carlos, took me to the school where I met too many people and promptly forgot all their names. After a bit of registration stuff, Carlos showed me to the home where I´ll be staying and introduced me to Jaunita. By this point, I was exhausted, so a nap was in order...

Then, my house mom (Juanita - SP?) served up lunch. Yum. It was a quiet meal. Aside from where am I from and how long I'm staying, I don't think we talked about much. Oh and after trying to translate 'editor' into Spanish using various words I found in my dictionary (all of which were useless)... I finaly realized the reality of the ol' 'Spanish for Dummies' trick... Just say the word with an accent and add 'o' and hope. It worked! So there, I work in television and film and I'm and editor from Los Angeles. Whew... That was tough.

However, it's amazing what 4 hours with Freddy (my teacher) did for our dinner-time conversation. Yup, right after lunch I started school. Why wait - right? Normally, I'll be attending school in the monrings, but on this first day - I started in the afternoon.

Freddy spent a lot of time just asking about me (but I think he was really just trying to guage my Spanish - or lack thereof). For the past 2 weeks, I've been 'studying' in Los Angeles by listening to CDs while I exercise. You may laugh - I give you permission. But you know what - it soooooo helped. Anyhow, we talked about where I'm from, my family (2 sisters, no brothers, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc...) and where they live, how long I'll be in Guatemala, what I do (I knew the answer this time), what shows I've worked on (he knew American Chopper, but not the Bachelor - go figure), etc...

Anyhow, point it - I kept laughing as I realized I could (in a very limited way) actually speak Spanish: given a very patient teacher and very simple, present tense subject matter (as long as grammar isn't THAT important). But, if you ask me what I did yesterday or what I'm doing tomorrow, well... I can't do that yet. Present tense only thanks.

And then, if I try to talk too fast... French and Korean come blurting out of my mouth. Yup, I can't help it. 'Amma' in Korean is kinda link 'um' or 'maybe' or 'sortof' in english. So, when I stutter in Spanish, I say 'amma.' It's embarassing, but somehow not as much as when I say 'le' instead of 'el' or 'pour' instead of 'para.' You'd think that the Spaniards and the French could have avoided this whole problem 1000 years ago, but no...

So yeah, here we are: My high school French fading quickly and my 15 year old missionary Korean is slowly hiding away as well. However, the shool has 5 or so Korean students, so the temptation to talk to them in Korean is pretty strong (though not as strong as the urge to talk to other Americans in English).

So anyhow yeah... I got here safe and sound; I've started class; I'm having all sorts of fun and giddy about how things have gone so far.