Moving In and Starting School

Monday was my first day of language school and also the day I moved in with my homestay. I decided to stay an extra night with Kristin, so the man at my homestay, Juan, picked me up at the end of class. He and his wife, Marianna, live with their daughter, her husband, and her three year old daughter, Sesia, who is very cute and very talkative. She turns four tomorrow. I see Juan and Marianna at mealtimes, and while we don't have much to say to one another, they are very patient and helpful with my very limited Spanish. I don't have pictures of the house yet, so I'll do my best to describe it. There is an outer gate that leads into a cement courtyard, surrounded by all the individual rooms. As far as I can tell, there is no common room other than the kitchen/dining room. I have my own room with my own key, so I have a good amount of privacy and security which is nice. I will however need to replace the curtains because you can see through them at night if the light is on, which is not so great for changing clothes. This week there has been a German girl living with the family, but she is leaving on Sunday. I will miss having her because she speaks much better Spanish than me, so she helps with communicating with the family, and I feel much less isolated having her.

Speaking of which, it is incredibly isolating not to be able to communicate. It's frustrating to have thoughts and ideas and feelings more complex than the weather or simple sentences, but be totally incapable of expressing them. Politics completely aside, I have a newfound respect and sympathy for anyone living in a country where they cannot speak the language. It is so frustrating and incredibly exhausting! It is also very humbling to be a well-educated person reduced to sentences as simple as, "The dog is under the table," "The man is fat, but the girl is thin," "The shirt is for Maria." Sometimes I feel like I'm never going to learn all of this, and I have to remind myself to be patient. Today was only my third day of class, and I already feel like I've learned a lot, so we'll see how I feel in a few weeks.

A couple people have asked me about the meaning of Quetzaltenango since I gave a brief explanation of Xela's. From what I have found (mostly on Wikipedia, I'll be honest), it comes from the name in an Aztec dialect for the city that was here before the Spanish came. The Aztecs are mostly from the Yucatan and central Mexico, and were the rival civilization of the Maya. Taking advantage of an already standing antagonism, the Spanish fought with the Aztecs against the Maya, and replaced the Mayan name for the city with the Aztec. It is commonly thought to mean "the place of the quetzal bird," but may have originally been closer to "place where there are erected walls" or "in the quetzal fortress." The quetzal is the national bird of Guatemala, but I've heard they're more commonly seen in countries futher south.

It has been really great to hear from some of you. It helps with the homesickness and feelings of isolation. Keep them coming!