Vivo en una burbuja

The thing about living in Antigua is that it´s so far removed from la realidad that I honestly have trouble processing the fact that life is going on as normal outside of Antigua. The US economy is tanking. Spitzer is involved in some prostitution ring. Friends at home are waking up each morning to go to work. The problems in the Middle East are still there (my ex-housemate mentioned some recent bombing in Israel but I had no idea...I don´t read the news here). To be honest, in Antigua I feel as if I stepped into a time warped movie screen of some old dusty town in the 1950´s and when I step out of the movie back into my real life, everything will be exactly as I left it. Even as I receive news from home, it´s hard to imagine that I am in the same time period or universe as the folks at home...that´s how far removed I feel from home.

But this morning I received a piece of news that really drove home how far removed I am from real life. My dad emailed me to inform me that his doctor has diagnosed him with angina pectoris. Based on my very basic wikipedia research, it appears to be a constriction of the valves that lead to the heart, and can result in heart attack. He told me not to worry and that it isn´t a big deal, but also mentioned that he will be undergoing surgery next week....which seems like kind of a big deal to me. Being here when I received the news has been good and bad. I had my last day of Spanish class yesterday so today I had all day to just walk around and let myself absorb the news. It was nice to have the luxury of not having to think about other things (i.e. work, world news, economy, etc.). But ultimately I felt really helpless. Not that I´d be any more useful back at home, since he is in Korea, but still...I feel worlds away here.

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Based on my conversations with other travelers, it appears that there are three primary purposes for which people travel to Antigua: 1) to learn Spanish at one of the gazillion Spanish schools in town, 2) to adopt Guatemalan babies and 3) Semana Santa festivities.

I´m here for 1 and 3, but I can´t blame people for coming for 2....the niños here are sooooo cute. One of the greatest luxuries I have here is endless amounts of time to sit in the park and just watch the local kids.

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Antigua reminds me in many ways of Hanoi or Luang Prabang or Oaxaca...a gringo tourist magnet, especially those on the backpacker trail. In a local magazine, a local restaurant owner and musician is quoted as saying that ¨living in Antigua is like traveling around the world, but instead of you moving around the world, it´s the world that comes to you.¨ In many ways this is true - I´ve met Australian, British, Swedish, Israeli, German and Canadian travelers. Then there are the most annoying group: American backpackers. Actually, just all American travelers in general. There are several different types here: a) the retirees (lots of 60-70 plus Americans), b) the tourists from Bumblefuck, USA with their bleached hair, gaudy makeup, high heels and Southern accents who think that speaking English louder in a foreign country is equivalent to speaking the local language, c) the older artist-hippie ex-pat types (Middle-aged Americans who eschew everything America stands for and/or has turned into and have moved to Antigua or its environs indefinitely, but instead of appreciating Guatemalan culture or people, basically look down on the locals and really only choose to live here because they think they are better than the locals (i.e. to be a big fish in a little pond rather than a teeny tiny fish in a big pond). Like the crazy gringo owner of the macadamia nut farm or the random dude at the bakery that tries to tell you which breads he recommends) and d) the young hippie-backpackers that get drunk at the gringo bars every night and basically have the attitude that whatever happens outside of American soil stays there. Americans are so annoying!!