FINLAND 2009: Americans in Finland – Three Days in August 2009
Paiva — or Hei Hei
Hope you are all doing well. I’m writing this from Helsinki… Arrived last night at about 11:30 pm… more about that in a minute.
I did forget to mention that in Besancon we visited an amazing little museum, called the Musee du Temps… Museum of Time.
Anyway, we left Basel on Wednesday at about 1:00 after walking around the absolutely charming quintessential Swiss town — with its incredible red city hall complete with hand paintings on the walls outside (lots of photos)… The drive to Frankfurt where we were to get a plane to Helsinki was noted as 3 hours (although given the speeds on the autobahn, we actually assumed would go faster)… In any case we had 6.5 hours to get to the airport once we got on the road.
All went well for about 1.5 hours and then (while I was behind the wheel) all traffic stopped.. went from going about 80mph to a dead stop.. and we were literally stopped for a total of 90 minutes due to some horrific traffic accident — no wonder, since people were literally speeding past me as I drove 80mph.. and motorcycles were going faster than anyone. We never saw the accident. .. just the emergency vehicles that sped past us… By the time we got to the spot we only saw police and clean up crews.
But that meant that we were 90 minutes behind schedule and worried about getting to the airport, finding the rental car return, checking in for the flight… and actually making the flight… We did OK (thanks to Fidel’s phenomenal directions which actually took us on some back roads – avoiding rush hour traffic – and arriving at the gate with at least 10 minutes to spare). The Finn Air flight was easy — and we arrived in Helsinki just fine, although tired… caught a taxi and got to the Hotel Linna — a recently renovated hotel in the part of Helsinki where we had lived many years ago… But here is where it all started to go bad — making the day not just stressful, but downright awful.
As we approached the reception desk (almost midnight by now) we could almost sense that something was wrong. I stated my name and the fact that we had a reservation (actually a prepaid reservation).. and the young woman (whose English was adequate, but not totally comfortable).. told us that there was no room for us. Yes, she had our reservation; yes she knew it was prepaid.. but “Somehow there weren’t any rooms any more,” she said very politely. We continued to say that could not be possible because we had a reservation. She continued to acknowledge the reservation, but also kept saying there was no room; they were booked full. After a few minutes of this, both Mike and became a bit unglued. She politely offered that they were holding a room for us in a hotel in Espoo which she said was 10 minutes away and which we knew was a minimum of 30 minutes away…Unfortunately for her, we know this city pretty well. She then said she could get us a room at the Airport Hilton.. We said we wouldn’t go…
To make a very long story (2 hours of it) short.. we wound up demanding to talk to a manager and she phoned the manager of the Kamp (a companion hotel of the Linna, but much more upscale).. I talked to him and he repeated what she had told us. We said we were coming to the Kamp and that he had to find a room for us… We took a taxi there, and stated that we would sleep in the lobby if they did not find a room for us in one of their three hotels (all located in close distance to one another)… Then it got worse, as he explained that there was not one single room in the entire city of Helsinki available.. He blamed Internet booking for the problem.
At one point Mike said that we knew “very important people in Helsinki” and that they would address this issue the next day. I said we’d call the Helsinki Sanomat (the newspaper)… I was actually doing quite well with the manager, continuing to say that we were not leaving… but then he made a big mistake.. He told us he was holding rooms for some executives of JP Morgan Chase, who were arriving at 2 a.m. So Mike got a bit unglued as to how come no one was giving away their rooms when they had no problem giving up our room … There was something said (by us) about capitalism.. etc. etc….
Anyway, they gave us a room here at the Kamp. We were slightly appreciative.. but obviously quite pissed… We got to the room at about 2 a.m. But at least we were settled, could unpack, and we could stay here for the entire 5 days we are in Helsinki…
Yesterday when we returned to our room, the Linna had sent over a bottle of champagne, a bowl of fruit, and an apology including a gift of two nights to be used within a year (which is highly unlikely)… The manager of the Linna also called to apologize and say they were having a staff meeting to review what went wrong. I also heard from the online booking agency and they apologized…
So — yesterday, waking up a bit later than usual — we strolled around Helsinki (it’s overcast and it rained a bit yesterday) — up and down streets that were familiar and ones that we probably never walked on when we lived here. It was nice to visit a city that we know fairly well and can maneuver easily. Everyone and I mean everyone now speaks English quite well, and most people greet us in English .. indeed even if I start to speak in Finnish, everyone quickly flips to English. Of course they are all very facile with languages and most Finns speak at least 4 languages now — all quite well.
Last night we were picked up by old friends and we went to their place for dinner, a few miles from downtown — a nice quiet meal (with champagne, compliments of the Hotel Linna)… Took the train back to the center (the metro system didn’t exist when we lived here… but we’ve been on it many times in recent years)…
Today, it was lots and lots of walking.. I strolled around the Senate Square (Senattori) and what is now considered the “design district” (but was a run down neighborhood close to where we used to live; now it’s quite hip and I’m sure that our apartment is renting for a hefty sum)… This particular part of town has a lot of Finnish Art Deco..
The city is still wonderful — lots of hidden charm; walking streets; parks sprinkled everywhere; and people are friendly, gracious, and somewhat unstressed.
Tonight we head to Espoo (about 40 minutes from downtown) to the weekend house of friends.. for dinner, sauna, and lots of catching up. Conversations have all been circling around Obama (and now Kennedy) and the US’s political and economic mess. I’ve given up on looking at prices because the dollar is so weak that everything you look at is expensive.. A simple ice cream cone (2 scoops) is close to 7 dollars… one scoop is slightly more than 5 dollars.
Hope you are all well — Nakemiin/ Tervetuloa
Fern
SWITZERLAND 2009: Americans in Basel
PHOTOS TO COME
Guten Tag from Basel —
Gosh don’t know where I left off or where to begin…
Spent the morning in Besancon, walking around — it is truly a charming city… walked across the river and up to the Citadel. Had some interesting conversations regarding the LIP watches… When I was in Paris in May, I purchased a watch whose brand was LIP… which has a very long and complicated story about worker cooperatives.. Anyway, I knew the company was founded in Besancon, and I really wanted another watch like it… Turns out no one in Besancon sells the watch…
We decided at the very last minute, as we were getting into our car in Besancon to drive to Basel — to make a detour and visit Ronchamp (Corbu’s famous pilgrimage church — which we had seen many many years ago)… Ronchamp was about a 30 minute detour.. OK maybe an hour.. so we drove to Ronchamp — through many wonderful French villages — and it was worth the extra time.. especially since there were very very few people there as opposed to the first time we saw it.. Then at about 5:00 we left Ronchamp and headed to Basel.. which was uneventful.. until we tried to find our hotel.
We got to Basel at about 6:30 pm.. We had two GPS systems and we had a map and also directions from Google Maps printed.. I will spare you the details, but the story is that we didn’t get to the hotel until 8:30 — two hours — and all that time we were within one kilometer of the hotel… We had it plotted on the GPS.. and we could never find the hotel… we couldn’t find the street it was supposedly on.. and every time we tried we wound up somehow past it and would reset the GPS and start again.. After an hour and 15 minutes of this, we actually called my office in Oakland and had them try to look at the map on the computer since they could blow it up in more detail than we could see on the little iPhone or Blackberry screens… We then called the hotel and they didn’t speak much English (our German is not very good)… but I did come to understand.. as I told the receptionist all the streets we had been circling .. that we had actually been in front of the hotel many times and that the direction that the GPS was taking us was not necessary as we could enter more easily from another side.. but she couldn’t explain how to get to that side.. and of course we never actually saw the hotel.
We circled this old part of the city so many times we know the area well enough to live there.. In fact, there was one building with bay windows.. and Mike totally despised the design of these bay windows.. and we wound up sitting in front of that building six different times as we recalculated the GPS…
We decided maybe we should go to another hotel (as opposed to this older, quaint hotel — which we couldn’t find), and spotted a Hilton.. Mike was determined we just stop this nonsense and get checked in to the Hilton and have dinner.. But when we called the Hilton rooms were $500.. so we thought it was better to try to find the hotel again…
Then Mike got the very clever idea that we get a taxi and I become the passenger and he would “follow that taxi!”.. but naturally we couldn’t find a taxi… so we persevered again.. This time I told Mike that when we got to a particular intersection — where I thought the receptionist was referring and — he needed to just stop the car.. even if there was someone behind him.. because we needed to look very very carefully at that intersection.. By now, my GPS was out of power.
Anyway, we got to that particular corner.. where Leonhardplatz merged with Leonhardstrasse and led to Leonhardgraben!!!!!…. and we turned into a tiny alley that said no cars were allowed.. It was a little tiny square (By now we had actually driven on several streets where cars were not allowed…) There were some young people in this little park. We asked if they knew where the hotel was and we told the address, but they did not know.. so we started to back out of the square… Just at that moment, a woman approached us.. and we rolled down the window.. She was the receptionist from the hotel. We were directly in front of it.. but alas no sign on that side of the hotel.. Those young people were literally sitting in front of the building, but they were unaware it was the hotel.
OK.. we got here, we checked in; we had a great dinner.. bad news, we had to move the car out of the little square to a parking area few blocks away.. and tomorrow we need to get ourselves to Frankfurt to board the plane to Helsinki…
If you want to move to Basel, check with us; we know the city very well.
Guten abend…
Fern
FRANCE 2009: Americans in France – Day Two
PHOTOS TO COME
Hi All —
August 24, 2009 (Besancon, France)
Started out fairly early this morning in an effort to make it to Besancon (about 500 kilometers/300 miles ±) from Cairanne by early afternoon.
Naturally, getting out of the area took longer than calculated (and we were a bit tired from the very intense socializing last night until the wee hours)… But the drive was fairly smooth — passing through cities and villages we’ve been to in the past — Lyon, Dijon, Beaune, etc… But the drive was also definitely longer and more trying than we expected, and we didn’t arrive in Besancon until about 5 pm (We were shooting for 3!).. Lots of traffic; lots of construction on the roads (maybe France got our stimulus money); a bad decision to stop in a very cute small village, Apse, for a quick lunch (forgetting that the French don’t do anything quickly — especially food); a few detours due to construction; and a very very long tunnel around Lyons where about 5 lanes (cars are practically riding on the bumpers of the cars in front) have to merge into two lanes (where it is required that you keep certain distance — about 3 car lengths – from the car in front — it’s marked on the road and there is a big fine for being closer)… Anyway, made it to Besancon.
Took a long walk around the town; it’s totally delightful — tomorrow we’ll leave a bit later than originally planned for Basel (since we’ve been there before) to see more of Besancon. .. several walking streets, bridges connecting two sides of the town and an amazing citadel at the top of the hill that we’ll attempt to hike up to..
Had dinner at a rather chic (but casual) restaurant.. outside on a plaza (there are many plazas in the town).. Food was great, but at about 10:30 it started to rain.. complete with lightning and thunder… The restaurant — rather efficiently — opened the awnings.. and we all continued with dinner… unaffected by the rather strong rain (except for the noise).. but the rain “dampened’ our intention to take an after dinner walk through town to the river… so instead I phoned the office and caught up on some lingering work that I know people are expecting from me.
Take care —
More tomorrow.
Au revoir
Fern
FRANCE August 21-24 . 2009: Americans in France – Day One
Hi to everyone from the south of France.
It’s been a busy few days; feels like I’ve already been gone a week … We arrived in Frankfurt on Friday morning and then had the usually “delightful” experience of sitting in the Frankfurt Airport for 6 hours before boarding the flight to Marseilles. We knew this in advance, so it wasn’t a surprise…
Anyway, flew to Marseilles, got the car and drove rather uneventfully to Violes where we are staying and then on (about 4 kilometers only) to Cairanne for dinner (rather late — fashionably European dining time at about 10 pm) with Mike’s brother and sister-in-law, at their house which is quite wonderful — situated in the medieval wall of the town — at the ring of the town circle at the top of the hill.. overlooking vineyards and beautiful French countryside..
On Saturday, we started out fairly early and explored a bunch of other medieval towns and villages — most notably Vaison and Sablet (although the others weren’t too shabby either)… eventually looping back to Cairanne for dinner at the house again… Today (Sunday) we explored the area with them more and drove south to Provence to see the Pont du Gard — an extremely long Roman bridge from the Roman era — that is now preserved as an international landmark… We walked around the area which has been turned into a park and there is now swimming in the Rive Gardon… Then we headed to Ouzes — yet another medieval town where we had a wonderful lunch in the patio near the town square, sitting under a Romanesque roof structure…
Tonight we are headed back to Cairanne for dinner with family and some neighbors…
Our hotel is tiny — cute — and no one speaks any English, so we are getting by on my high school French. The rooms are fairly basic, but the setting is nice and we have breakfast each morning out on the patio…
1 a.m.
Just returned from dinner where we were joined by another American couple who live in Cairanne 6 months of the year and 6 months in DC.. and two British couples.. One is a dancer and choreographer but they both turned to video and had some pieces in the Venice Biennale; the other couple are artists who work in some program in the schools (sounds a little like Oakland’s MOCHA).. 5 hours of chat chat.. American politics, global politics, 9/11, Obama’s current situation, and of course the daily shenanigans of the British Royal family.. which is always a topic of conversation with Brits.. So, all in all, lots of gossip.
I’m tired; will pack now so we can head to Besancon early tomorrow.. hope to be on the road by 8:30…
Best —
Fern
UK Summer 2008: Beware of the UK . July 27, 2008
If anyone has any doubts about our economy, just venture to England for a short stay. Make sure its very short because you will go bankrupt if you stay any longer. As you know we have traveled overseas at least twice a year for many years. And we’ve seen the decline of the dollar and increased value of the euro and the pound first hand. But this is all now magnified by the soaring prices – especially in England. Examples: round trip in a single zone on the underground (like bart) – $11 Int’l trib – $3 Hotel room about as luxurious as motel 6 but without AC and it was very hot. (Ok. This was London) – $250. (Even in NY this room would be $100 max, probably less; room in bath hotel – no lift, no AC — $300 per night) Dinner for 4 at nice (but not any big deal 4 star place) lebanese restaurant – 3 appetizers 3 main courses. 2 bottles of lower end Wine. 2 desserts. – $600!!! Gin and tonic – $18 Smoothie – $8 Gas to fill tank of small car – $100. ($10 per gallon) Rent paid by Mike’s nieces for flat – each of them have roommates, but their share equals 70 percent of their salaries. Need I say more? We’re at Heathrow Airport waiting for delayed flight to DC. Looking forward to being back in our little developing nation. By the way. Obama is big. No one even knows who McCain is.
Ciao Fern
ICELAND July 21, 2008: Americans in Iceland – Day Five
Greetings from Budir, Iceland
Today we lucked out for part of the day — the sun actually came out and it was spectacular.
Following a wonderful breakfast, complete with a grand variety of fruits, fish, cheese, and breads and jams.. Mike and I borrowed the car and set out to drive the tip of the peninsula.. we started by going over the mountain ridge to the north side — mostly a gravel road that we shared with many sheep (we decided they were the ‘locals’ and always gave them the right of way. By then it was raining and windy (the typical weather condition in Iceland, we are learning).. but we reached Olavfsvik (one of the ‘larger’ communities on the peninsula (population about 1,000) with a harbor and center for fishing.
From there we headed west, stopping several times to see small villages and settlements and to marvel at the craggy coast. Getting out of the car was not always easy as the wind was pretty fierce. Kept thinking this would be a beautiful place to visit in the summer… and then realized this is summer. But as we traversed the coast and started heading south east.. the sun appeared and everything truly lit up.. colors changed drastically.
We came back to pick up Richard and Elizabeth and headed for a town called Hellnar only a few kilometers from here — year round population is three (3)… summer population really swells to about 100 – a true metropolis. Here we hiked along the shore and to various caves which appear to be havens for birds… also drove up close to one of the glaciers..
We’ve learned that Icelandic is truly impossible to pick up as a language and that much of the pronunciation is totally counter intuitive.. when two Ls are together one of them is pronounced with a “t”.. when f and n are together it’s pronounced like pn (open)… rm is pronounced like tn in button… get it? We don’t.. .
Only one minor setback so far.. which I hope clears up quickly… While climbing onto a section of rock and very high grass and moss.. I managed to take a step into what appeared to be grass, but was a deep hole that was covered by grass… and I seem to have bruised my big toe… Right now I’ve got it covered with ice in the hope of quickly eliminating any additional problems.. (hope it’s not broken)… slightly swollen.. and hurts when I walk, which will become a problem for these next few days of travel.. but I’m optimistic that it’s just a bruise.
1 a.m. and it is still light out.. sort of like 9 p.m. in California in the summer. Just finished dinne .. It was Richard’s birthday… no year will be mentioned.. but he wanted the chef’s surprise 5 course dinner.. so it was… along with the chef’s since selection for each course.
So for those of you who are really into food here goes or at least this is what I remember:
1. scallops and tiger prawns on bed of aoli and balsamic with watercress served with French champagne
2. smoked eel with mango and greens served with new Zealand white wine (pinot gris I think)
3. halibut (about as tender as you can imagine) with some veggies I cannot remember and a lobster fish stock.. served with a white Spanish wine
4. baby lamb chops au jus served with baby carrots, baby asparagus, and some kind of potato shredded very thin and piled into some geometric shape… served with a Spanish red wine
5. a medley of desserts.. including a chocolate souffle cake thing served in a tea cup, berries with some kind of berry sauce reduction, and cream.. and maybe there was something else on the plate.. served with port..
Needless to say, I’m stuffed, feel like I gained a few pounds, despite all the walking.. and while it is after 1 a.m. it feels like 9 p/m/ We leave after breakfast for Rekyjvak and London to Bath… The rains have stopped; it is beautiful outside.. calm and light… and much warmer..
It’s a beautiful country — rather cheery given the climate — quite interesting politically (the first real democracy)…
I’d like to return and learn more.. without the encumbrance of the language…
See you all stateside in a few days.. Will only write if something fascinating occurs since the remaining few days are in England and I doubt that’s of much interest to any of you.
Best —
Fern
ICELAND July 19, 2008: Americans in Iceland – Day Three
1:00 am in Budir, Iceland
After a rainy morning and a short walk in Reykjavik, we met up with Richard and Elizabeth and headed for Budir, one of the western peninsulas… about a three-hour drive from the capital… rained the entire way — which was unfortunate, but also intriguing as it cast an interesting light and mood over the countryside.. which is spotted with thousands of waterfalls coming out of the mountains. The landscape is spectacular with every conceivable shade of green and black/grey that you can imagine… acres and acres of volcanic rock strewn along the way and a simple one lane in each direction ring road that goes all along the island for about 3,000 kilometers.
We stopped a few times — once to see a typical church (there are hundreds of them — they have a state religion (Lutheran) and every few miles there’s another little church (probably from about 1800).. Each must serve a radius of only about 25 miles and maybe 25 people. We also stopped for lunch (Gee this is beginning to sound like an article from Gourmet magazine… maybe my next career) at a little roadside place — but like much of Europe the menu isn’t fast food. We had an assortment of herrings that were to die for.. four different kinds (in mustard, in freshly stewed tomatoes, pickled vinaigrette.. etc.)
Iceland is the least densely populated country in the world… 3 people per square mile… and frankly from where we sit tonight, I’d say that 3 per mile is pretty urban! Anyway, the church was delightful.. with a royal blue arched ceiling painted with silver stars.. and stained glass windows with simple but bright graphics (no religious depictions whatsoever)… Naturally the church was empty, but open.. with a little envelope to put a few coins.. (and no one steals the coins!)
We arrived at Hotel Budir (check it out. http://www.hotelbudir.is) which — like everything, especially the architecture in Iceland — is quite spartan on the outside (modest and simple) and a total surprise inside. It’s an extremely tasteful elegant and upscale hotel — right here in the middle of nowhere. The rooms and service would make it four star in the middle of Manhattan.
We took a hike (in the rain) to the ocean along craggy volcanic rocks and moss and grass — past another church that seems to exist for the hotel since there isn’t anyone else around… Came back totally soaked.
Had a spectacular dinner at the hotel’s 4 star restaurant… whale carpaccio for appetizer.. followed by cod on pureed sweet potatoes..
And after some conversation in the bar and lounge around the fireplace, came up to bed.
Having Elizabeth along is great as she has a wealth of knowledge about the country — its politics, the landscape, and the people. She also (to my great surprise) speaks Icelandic, among the 6 or 7 languages in which she is fluent.
It’s an amazing country with a strong economy, humane approach to social services, an excellent public education system, libraries everywhere, and what appears to be a very congenial, (very homogeneous), happy population despite a gloomy climate most of the year. It’s never very cold, but it does rain regularly…
I might not have mentioned that the other night we had dinner with one of Elizabeth’s nieces who is about to leave for architecture school in Glasgow. She was quite impressive. Apparently Iceland’s university just began an architectural program and they only accept 15 students each year (and that includes both Icelanders and foreign students) so she opted to leave for Glasgow (which has an excellent program).
Tomorrow we explore the region — it will be our last full day in Iceland. We head to Bath on Wednesday late afternoon.
Hope all is well. We’ve been watching Sky News here so we’re pretty up to date with politics and what’s going on in the US. Barack got good coverage here and they announced that if Europe would be voting in the US election he’d win by a landslide — about 85% in France and over 75% in England and Germany. It’s looking better and better over here. But much as I really like Iceland.. just don’t think 300,000 people could do it for me.
Tak –
Fern
ICELAND July 19, 2008: Americans in Iceland –Day One
Well it’s nearly 1 a.m. and it’s still light out.. sort of like it is at dusk in California. We’ve lived in Finland so we thought we were accustomed to these lands of midnight sun.. but this is unbelievable. Anyway, we arrived in Reykjavik yesterday afternoon (Friday) although that seems like days ago, since we are cramming so much into each day. Our trip here was long and complicated, but otherwise uneventful. Checked into the Hotel Borg — which is totally delightful and right on the town square. It was built in the 30s but underwent a significant renovation and it’s quite modern, tasteful, definitely upscale, and situated perfectly.
Although we had been up for nearly 30 hours by then, it was bright and sunny and the city was so inviting that we set out to walk for a few hours, and then met up with Mike’s brother and sister-in-law (the real purpose of the trip — a bit of a family reunion) for dinner at an Icelandic restaurant with an Indian flair! Quite good. By the time we finished dinner and walked back to the hotel it was about midnight and it was still light outside and the square was hopping.. music, cafes, young people “clubbing”… etc.
This morning (Saturday) we started a bit late since the previous 40-hour day was a bit taxing.. Strolled around town in the morning.. to the lake a few blocks from the hotel, on which the city hall sits, and around the center of town. The city is filled with corrugated metal buildings painted bright colors, which are spectacular against this very very blue, cloudless sky… We’re told that we are experiencing unbelievably great weather.. as it usually rains several times each week. We’re keeping our fingers crossed we continue this streak of luck. (Maybe the rain gods are with me since I had rain every day in Guatemala earlier this month.) Met up with Richard and Elizabeth to drive south east to “the beach”… actually to a charming fishing town .. We strolled along the shore.. put our toes in both the North Atlantic and the Arctic Sea.. and then had an incredible lobster lunch sitting outside this very funky bar/restaurant… looking at the ocean.. We managed to get lost several times on the drive, but that just gave us a chance to see more of the countryside.
En route back to town we stopped at a few geysers that just gush up from the ground — providing much of the geothermal power for the country.. and heating all of the geothermal pools scattered around town where people swim outside year round. Pretty amazing! Got back to the center around 7 pm, which felt like about 1 pm based on light and sun… and then reconnected with Richard and Elizabeth at about 9:30 for a light dinner at the house of one of Elizabeth’s half brothers. Gave us a chance to see a somewhat typical home of a professional.. quite impressive.
A few statistics: Iceland has a population of just over 300,000 people (that’s 25 percent smaller than Oakland).. and about half live here in Reykjvik (about the population of Berkeley. It doesn’t snow much and the winters are no where near as cold as we Americans picture.. It rarely gets below 27 degrees Fahrenheit.. Weather these past two days has been delightful… about 60 during the day and about 50 or so at night.. but it feels colder if there is wind and generally there’s lots of wind. For which they have numerous words to describe different kinds of wind The language is impossible.. but everyone speaks English so that helps. It’s really difficult to read a street sign so it’s better not even to try. It’s a very literate country so imagine publishing and maintaining theater companies and newspaper industry and films for so few people with this language. Signing off.. Tomorrow we are going to the art museum where the current exhibit is titled “Too F…ing Peaceful!”
Best, Fern
Forgot to mention that the streets are totally immaculate. We haven’t seen a single piece of litter since we got here…
Hi all —
Hola del hotel circa del aeropuerto Guatemala. Hoy fue mi ultima dia en Antigua y en las clases de espanol. Es obvioso(?) que no hablo tanto espanol como deseo y que una semana no es sufficiente tiempo para aprender hablar (o escribir) bien. Pero yo trai(?) mi mejor.
OK.. back to ingles!
Today was the last day of my studies with Rafael, and we spoke only in Spanish.. actually it’s been mostly Spanish because Rafael’s English is not all that helpful. But it’s tiring for both of us. We talked a lot about my work and about how the language school works and about whether or not the US is in a recession and how this impacts other countries.
I learned that Rafael’s house has 8 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms and that he rents many of them out to students who come from places like North Dakota to learn Spanish and to build houses por la gente pobres… They stay for one or two weeks and Rafael’s wife cooks two meals a day for all these kids.. (ranging in age from 14 to 20).. I think the groups that come might be church-affiliated, but Rafael didn’t seem to know. They fit 5 people in one bedroom, 3 in each of two rooms and the rest are doubles! All of the instructors at this language school have several gigs!.. One came with lots of jewelry today to try to sell to students — which Rafael thought I should buy as I’m sure all the teachers get some kind of kick-back.
We also talked about hobbies and collections. Rafael collects key chains (llaveros) and also canceled stamps from all over the world. I explained a lot about California (and also Arizona)… that California could be four states.. He was fascinated about the town of Guadelupe (near Phoenix) which is nearly 100% Hispanic. He found that very interested.. (me too) also the plan of Guadelupe which I drew for him, complete with the square in front of the church.
I grabbed a very quick liquado de pina which they were able to produce during the 30 minutes I have for lunch.. but barely… After saying our goodbyes, I walked to see the convent that trains indigenos to be capuchinos… and just like clockwork it rained when I was half way there.. I trudged along and it was worth it.. The building and plan is quite wonderful with lots of gardens and courtyards … immaculate and totally well maintained. I think there might be a catholic high school attached to the convent as some girls were walking in with me but they quickly disappeared and seemed to know their way around. The convent is located in another part of town so walking back to Meson Panza Verde was through a different route — definitely a poorer side of town.
One more Antigua description I omitted from my earlier emails.. The sidewalks are about 3.5 feet wide.. and get more narrow when utility poles and other protrusions occur.. most houses have windows and sills that protrude as well.. so often the walk area is only 2 1/2 feet.. maybe less.. And as most houses have lush courtyards.. vines climb over to the street site.. and even when neatly cut they are about 5’5″ above the sidewalk.. maybe 5′ 7″ at most… so the scale is great for me, but I pity tall tourists.. I think they mostly walk in the streets and not on the sidewalks.
Late in the afternoon I took a taxi to Guatemala City and as we rounded the mountains and approached… it was clear this was another world.. giant fast food restaurants and corporate buildings.. I saw the largest Taco Bell I’ve ever seen in my life.. two stories of eating area.. lots of parking.. quite ironic… Traffic and pollution galore… But I got the hotel close to the airport.. a giant Marriott.. two towers! and here I sit.. My plane is at 7:30 a.m. tomorrow and I need to be at the airport to check in by 5:30… Taking the 5 a.m. shuttle.. So it’s early to bed..
Hasta manana en California
Fern
GUATEMALA 2008: ¡Hola! Dia Uno en Antigua
Hi all
Arrived in Guatemala City at about 5 a.m. No longer sure what day that was, but I believe it was yesterday. Juan Carlos was there to pick me up and drive me to Antigua. I got to Meson Panza Verde at about 5:45 a.m. The place is delightful, with 12 rooms surrounding a totally lush courtyard. Unfortunately no one knew I would be there quite so early so my room was not ready.. but they gave me a little room to take a nap and shower… I woke at about 11 and set out to roam the city where I had not been in more than 19 years.
It’s changed.. They have McDonald’s and bagels now, but other than the strange commercial shops situated in quite old and historic buildings, the town is as I remembered.. just more tourists. The dollar is still worth something here.
Meandered to the mercado and checked out crafts and foods.. and strolled through marvelous courtyards. It seems to be overcast most days and drizzles in the afternoon, but the temperature is about 70 and dips to 60 at night. Feels a bit warmer during the day because of the humidity, but colder at night (less than 60).
Had dinner at Meson which is considered one of the best restaurants in Antigua and it did not disappoint. That made for an easy entry.
Oh.. when I returned from the market, I was moved to my first real room.
