La Verdad

Este es la verdad: Yesterday, I had to stop myself from writing a blog that screamed: I want to go home and it´s only day 1! But now that I can honestly say that Antigua is lovely and continuing to grow on me by the hour, I can tell the truth.

I arrived in Antigua yesterday morning (after two hours of sleep on a red-eye with a layover) and wanted to hop on the first plane back home. Based on all the travel guides, I expected Antigua to be a lovely and beautiful colonial town. But the first impression it gave me was that of a worn, run-down colonial town with dangerously jagged cobblestone streets, seriously rude men that stare, ogle and comment inappropriately, no street signs to give you any idea of where you are situated....and to top it all off, a homestay in a run-down, dank room with an unpleasant musty smell and squishy uncomfortable bed and a smelly shared bathroom with inconsistent lukewarm water. I already felt homesick and all those factors only intensified my homesickness. Also, I felt isolated and distant from my real life at home. And alone.

30 hours and 10 hours of sleep later: Antigua is a lovely and beautiful colonial town. Yup, the cobblestone streets are still dangerously jagged and uneven. The men are still rude. There are still no street signs. My room is still run-down and dank and the bathroom still smells and has only lukewarm water. Really, nothing has changed. Except that it´s all starting to grow on me (well, not the dank room or bathroom).

I think it´s hard to avoid going through an initial shock when you arrive in a new country by yourself. I don´t speak the language. I´m alone. I am very, very conspicuous (there are lots of crunchy white backpackers but very very few Asians, and I still haven´t encountered any other solo Asian females).

But after an afternoon of acquainting myself with the streets and learning to figure out where I am based on historical sites, finding Korean, Thai, Chinese and Japanese restaurants, accepting the fact that people will stare or make comments as I walk by and finding a hotel I can move into for the rest of my stay starting next week, things are looking up. Antigua really is quite lovely. Four hours of Spanish conversation with my instructor each day is grueling, but interesting.

And the best part of it all? I wake up with no responsibility other than to do whatever I want that day. Which might be absolutely nothing at all except to get lost in the streets of Antigua.

Priorities in the third world are so different. Punctuality goes out the window (it´s always mas o menos). There is not one single brand name store in Antigua (although there is a Burger King, McDonald´s and even a Subway in Antigua, and in Guatemala City there is pretty much every chain restaurant or store imaginable). My Spanish teacher´s engagement ring cost $150 and she explained to me that it is as expensive as it is because gold is more expensive than silver. You learn not to be picky about food (well, at least if you´re at a homestay) - you eat what you are served, even if that means cereal with full-fat milk for breakfast or a simple dish of rice and beans for dinner. You learn to take 3 minute showers because even the lukewarm water is inconsistent. No one bats an eyelash when the internet connection in an internet cafe is lost for an hour. No one else is frustrated that their blackberry isn´t working because no one else has a blackberry. It´s not better or worse than my real life...just utterly different. I feel worlds away from San Francisco.

I am slightly kicking myself for not taking a friend´s advice to bring tabasco sauce, sugar substitute and pepto bismol with me. No need for the pepto yet, but I sure could use some gochujang or sriracha sauce, and I think I put real sugar in my coffee for the first time in 15 years.