Its been six weeks of working half days, so its time for vacation. Ill be traveling for about 16 days to the north towards Nebu and Todos Santos for some hikes in the countrys biggest mountains and then to the east. When time runs out Ill return to the lake to go to work on the construction of a new three story, bamboo hotel in Tzununa. Updates will be unlikely in the interim. I hope everyone is well and thanks for the notes Ive received.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Monday, October 21, 2013
On Language
A lot of people asked me if I spoke Spanish before I flew down
here. I would answer 'yes' and though I took 5 years of Spanish in
high school, it felt like a lie when I was saying it. About six
weeks later it doesn't feel like a lie anymore, and that's a better
feeling. The five years of class did count and so did a couple
vacations over the years and so did working at Sealed Air and so did
Dan Montagna live-translating song lyrics into Spanish here and
there. A lot of vocab has come back to me or I can pick it up in
context. The tough part is remembering that word the next time I
need to use it myself. You can pick up vocab all over the place.
Something I'd been trying to recall for the last few days was the
Spanish for 'to show'. I was using my friend Cat's cellphone to call
my friend Tim and 'mostrar' was the option for one of the buttons,
Show. As far as conjugation, I'm pretty good with present, present
participle, past and future. I need work with pronouns. Sentences
laden with la, le, les, me, te, and se usually throw me for a loop
even when I'm on board with the subject, object and verb.
My attitude with speaking Spanish is much the same as it is with cooking. I'm happy to let someone else do it if they know how, but I can do it, and I will if need be. That said, I do very much enjoy and practice listening in Spanish. My cooking and Spanish hover around the same skill level as well. There's a strong base but I could stand to sprinkle in some flavoring around the edges. I'm certainly not dreaming in Spanish yet but I did inadvetenly address one of the animals in Spanish. I was excited for a swim we were to have in the lake and I asked one of the dogs "¿Quiere nadar?", "Do you want to swim?" I have realized there is a distinct on/off switch in my head for listening to Spanish. I must either actively focus all my concentration on translation or it's all a bunch of garbaldegook in the background.
While in Thailand, Cambodia and India, I was resigned to not speaking the language more than hello and thank you. I enjoyed those countries immensely despite the barrier between myself and locals when it came to any real conversation. I never had a problem navigating around and I certainly had no trouble getting fed. Being able to add to a warm smile a variety of greetings and further exchanges depending on the circumstance certainly adds worlds to the travel experience. I chat with locals about anything and everything and take impromptu, informal Spanish lessons wherever I can find them.
My mother reminded me it was possible that the locals here may speak with a thick, difficult to interpret accent. It turns out the opposite is true. Around Lake Atitlan live mostly Mayan people. There are 24 Mayan languages in use in Guatemala. I'm not sure how they're divided up, but in certain places, they're quite localized. In San Marcos de la Laguna, where I've been living, the people speak X'Chi Kel. The next lake town to the west is San Pablo de la Laguna and it's a 15-minute trip in a tuk-tuk and less in the boat. In San Pablo, the people speak Chi Kel, a different language with some overlap.
I'm guessing at the transliterated spelling of X'Chi Kel and I don't have internet, it's pronounced kek-chee-kel and the language uses lots of throaty clicks and stops. Just about all the locals speak both X'Chi Kel and Spanish. For the Mayan people here, Spanish is a second language and as such, they speak very clearly. The Spanish is much easier to understand here than in the Sealed Air break room populated with Puerto Ricans and Dominicans. I've heard people say Guatemala is the best place for learning Spanish. As I was beginning to feel a little better about my skills, we got a new Yoga teacher, Lilliana, from Mexico. I have to try a lot harder to pick up what she's saying.
I couldn't say if some of my favorite expressions are unique to Guatemala, but here they are nonetheless. For money, 'la plata' is preferred over 'dinero'. Buenos Dias, Buenas Tardes and Buenas Noches are standard, and you'll often hear one of these shortened to simply 'Buenas' with the first syllable more drawn out for this abbreviated greeting. After I wish the tienda clerk a good evening, she will often reply with 'igualmente'. In Xela, also known as Quetzeltenango, I learned a nice way to address someone is with either mi reina or mi rey, my queen or my king. This is very charming with our lunch cook, Petrona. With Petrona's husband, Noe, he is more of a 'vos'. "Mire, vos..." is like "Look, man..." or "¿Que piensas, vos?" is like "What do you think, amigo?".
I very much enjoy absorbing the idioms and lingo from the English speakers of the world as well. My friend Cat is from England and has spent a lot of time in Wales. Understanding her can be worse than Spanish. Several times a day, she "can't be asked" to do something like climb stairs or yell at Petrona for serving lunch late. Usually, she hasn't been asked and does the job anyway. I love hearing another English buddy, Tom, exclaim "Bloody hell, man!" especially when he's speaking with a woman. Raisins are sultanas, a flashlight is a torch, a period is a full stop, I am lo Maximo, a vest is a singlet, a hoodie is a jumper, sneakers are trainers and eggs are eggs. An Australian friend Laura described bagels as "morish" and for Tim, from Maryland, and myself, this invoked Shakespeare and Iago. Bagels are morish because you always want more of them. In the internet cafe, two women were on computers to my left. The closer one got up and told her friend she was going to go get chocolate. The other lady was too facebooked to hear her and the first woman repeated herself and the second woman laughed and said "Oh, you're going to get chocolate." When she said chocolate, it sounded exactly like Laura. I said, "You're from Melbourne." and she said "That's right." Without using any colloquiallisms, sometimes Australians just say ridiculous things like, "The Rock is an amazing actor."
Hasta later. I must vamos.
My attitude with speaking Spanish is much the same as it is with cooking. I'm happy to let someone else do it if they know how, but I can do it, and I will if need be. That said, I do very much enjoy and practice listening in Spanish. My cooking and Spanish hover around the same skill level as well. There's a strong base but I could stand to sprinkle in some flavoring around the edges. I'm certainly not dreaming in Spanish yet but I did inadvetenly address one of the animals in Spanish. I was excited for a swim we were to have in the lake and I asked one of the dogs "¿Quiere nadar?", "Do you want to swim?" I have realized there is a distinct on/off switch in my head for listening to Spanish. I must either actively focus all my concentration on translation or it's all a bunch of garbaldegook in the background.
While in Thailand, Cambodia and India, I was resigned to not speaking the language more than hello and thank you. I enjoyed those countries immensely despite the barrier between myself and locals when it came to any real conversation. I never had a problem navigating around and I certainly had no trouble getting fed. Being able to add to a warm smile a variety of greetings and further exchanges depending on the circumstance certainly adds worlds to the travel experience. I chat with locals about anything and everything and take impromptu, informal Spanish lessons wherever I can find them.
My mother reminded me it was possible that the locals here may speak with a thick, difficult to interpret accent. It turns out the opposite is true. Around Lake Atitlan live mostly Mayan people. There are 24 Mayan languages in use in Guatemala. I'm not sure how they're divided up, but in certain places, they're quite localized. In San Marcos de la Laguna, where I've been living, the people speak X'Chi Kel. The next lake town to the west is San Pablo de la Laguna and it's a 15-minute trip in a tuk-tuk and less in the boat. In San Pablo, the people speak Chi Kel, a different language with some overlap.
I'm guessing at the transliterated spelling of X'Chi Kel and I don't have internet, it's pronounced kek-chee-kel and the language uses lots of throaty clicks and stops. Just about all the locals speak both X'Chi Kel and Spanish. For the Mayan people here, Spanish is a second language and as such, they speak very clearly. The Spanish is much easier to understand here than in the Sealed Air break room populated with Puerto Ricans and Dominicans. I've heard people say Guatemala is the best place for learning Spanish. As I was beginning to feel a little better about my skills, we got a new Yoga teacher, Lilliana, from Mexico. I have to try a lot harder to pick up what she's saying.
I couldn't say if some of my favorite expressions are unique to Guatemala, but here they are nonetheless. For money, 'la plata' is preferred over 'dinero'. Buenos Dias, Buenas Tardes and Buenas Noches are standard, and you'll often hear one of these shortened to simply 'Buenas' with the first syllable more drawn out for this abbreviated greeting. After I wish the tienda clerk a good evening, she will often reply with 'igualmente'. In Xela, also known as Quetzeltenango, I learned a nice way to address someone is with either mi reina or mi rey, my queen or my king. This is very charming with our lunch cook, Petrona. With Petrona's husband, Noe, he is more of a 'vos'. "Mire, vos..." is like "Look, man..." or "¿Que piensas, vos?" is like "What do you think, amigo?".
I very much enjoy absorbing the idioms and lingo from the English speakers of the world as well. My friend Cat is from England and has spent a lot of time in Wales. Understanding her can be worse than Spanish. Several times a day, she "can't be asked" to do something like climb stairs or yell at Petrona for serving lunch late. Usually, she hasn't been asked and does the job anyway. I love hearing another English buddy, Tom, exclaim "Bloody hell, man!" especially when he's speaking with a woman. Raisins are sultanas, a flashlight is a torch, a period is a full stop, I am lo Maximo, a vest is a singlet, a hoodie is a jumper, sneakers are trainers and eggs are eggs. An Australian friend Laura described bagels as "morish" and for Tim, from Maryland, and myself, this invoked Shakespeare and Iago. Bagels are morish because you always want more of them. In the internet cafe, two women were on computers to my left. The closer one got up and told her friend she was going to go get chocolate. The other lady was too facebooked to hear her and the first woman repeated herself and the second woman laughed and said "Oh, you're going to get chocolate." When she said chocolate, it sounded exactly like Laura. I said, "You're from Melbourne." and she said "That's right." Without using any colloquiallisms, sometimes Australians just say ridiculous things like, "The Rock is an amazing actor."
Hasta later. I must vamos.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
On Meditation, with Ceri the Yogi
We had an excellent Yoga teacher at the Yoga Forest for a week. She was scheduled for longer Her name was Ceri (pronounced just like Carrie) and she came from the UK. I think she was the most advanced teacher I've ever had. She introduced a half dozen binds I'd never seen before. If you don't know what a bind is, just know they're really hard and
A few days earlier, I had taught a few friends a favorite card game from back home, Pitch. My hilarious buddy Blake was very taken with the game and was always trying to drum up a game by asking in his native Australian English, "Pitch?". Timing is everything here.
A few days into her stay, Ceri was laid up with an eye infection that rendered one eye swollen shut. Charlie the architect recommended using chamomile tea bags to be placed on the eye (after steeping) as a remedy. This did the trick and the next day she was much improved. This happened to be first big day of the Africanized Killer Bee attacks and Ceri was stung twice on her exit from a respite in Cat's quarters. She made her way over to Cabana #1 where six of us had taken refuge from the angry pollenators. She seemed in good spirits upon entry and asked "What's up with these bees?" Around then, a bee in her hair and one on her leg began buzzing. Ceri completely melted down. How can I say this better? Ceri absolutely lost her shit. She screamed "Get them off of me! Get them off of me! I can't take it here anymore." etc. She shook and convulsed out of control. I was so grateful there were four women in the room who could take a hold of her, remove the bees and try to calm her down. She eventually stopped screaming and her sobbing was the only sound in the room.
"Anyone for Pitch?", says Blake. I experienced uproarious laughter on the inside while Blake accepted scornful reproach from several of the women.
Ceri, who stayed in the other bed on the ground floor of Cabana #1, told me in the morning that she would be teaching Yoga that day. After Yoga, she informed everyone that she would be leaving that day. We've been asking Petrona to present a bigger salad at lunch, because it's a healthy crowd that likes to eat a lot of the fresh salad picked on the premises. She sent out a good haul, but nine people made a pretty big crowd at lunch that day. As often happens, I served myself first what seemed like maybe 1/9th of the salad from the soup pot. Ceri served herself thereafter taking scoop after scoop after scoop piling up on her plate about half of what was left for her and the other seven people. Ceri chewed really well and ate even slower than Uncle Gusti. Long after everyone else had a clean plate, Ceri still had more salad than everyone else started with. This was a big topic of conversation after her departure and it was hard to imagine how a 34 year-old woman who's been traveling for 13 straight years could've performed this blunder but maybe Blake was right when he summed it up by saying in perfect Australian English, "She's a total dick."
Here's a bonus photo attesting related to the killer bees, though it's myself, not Ceri:
Now to the meat of the post: here's what Ceri had to say, paraphrased, when I inquired on how a newbie should approach meditation:
"Do it after Yoga. Yoga is only the body breaking through physical barriers, which are also mental barriers, in preparation to aid in meditation. Sit in a comfortable, seated position with your spine as straight as possible. Do not try to fight against thoughts coming into your mind, but let each thought that comes float away like a passing cloud in the sky. Try 10 minutes and try not to move."
I do appreciate that advice and the rest she offered me. I liked Ceri more and more the longer she stayed and I think the salad event was just an abberation caused by her multiple ailments. I wish her much better luck in all her future stops than what she had with us.
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Monday, October 14, 2013
Dear Outhouse,
I love you. I love your solitude and tranquility. I love your open view of the lake and mountains beyond. I love arriving to your doorstep to find the outer latch engaged, indicating vacancy. I love finding the bamboo rod stocked with eco-friendly toilet paper. I love your sink.
It's not your fault that my new vegetarian, and largely vegan, lifestyle causes all my shits to escalate from nonentities to dire emergencies in the space of four minutes. You didn't choose your location a three-minute, uphill walk from my cabana. That's not your fault. I don't blame you for the time I couldn't make it back from town all the way to lift your Rastafarian/Yogic themed lid to eliminate therein. It really is not your fault that I had to duck off the trail to relieve myself in an exasperated, sweaty and degrading act of desperation. As a plus, I learned that using the shiny leaves of a coffee tree are just as effective as not wiping at all and leaves the tree a little less happy.
Outhouse, I speak for everyone when I say I love you. Please keep up the great work and I will see you soon.
Most Sincerely,
Max Bramson Benjamin
It's not your fault that my new vegetarian, and largely vegan, lifestyle causes all my shits to escalate from nonentities to dire emergencies in the space of four minutes. You didn't choose your location a three-minute, uphill walk from my cabana. That's not your fault. I don't blame you for the time I couldn't make it back from town all the way to lift your Rastafarian/Yogic themed lid to eliminate therein. It really is not your fault that I had to duck off the trail to relieve myself in an exasperated, sweaty and degrading act of desperation. As a plus, I learned that using the shiny leaves of a coffee tree are just as effective as not wiping at all and leaves the tree a little less happy.
Outhouse, I speak for everyone when I say I love you. Please keep up the great work and I will see you soon.
Most Sincerely,
Max Bramson Benjamin
Friday, October 11, 2013
Book Reviews 10.11.13
Disclaimer: These reviews are not necessarily trustworthy. Read whatever you want.
A Long Walk to Freedom
The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela
1994
Great book. Excellent history lesson about the freedom struggle in South Africa from the start of Mandela's life with some prior history mixed in. It is fascinating to go into the mind of an amazing freedom fighter and politician and understand the logic behind decisions made by leaders of the African National Congress. Mandela writes beautifully while simply and used a few handfuls of English words I did not know. He also employs a unique array of sentence structures I can't remember encountering elsewhere. He presents the information unbiased and mixes in a surprising amount of humor. There are plenty of times in history when white people have been unfair dicks, but I didn't know much about this really awful one; I'm glad I do now. Big, beautiful book, must read. One thing that comes to mind is that for the ~27 years Mandela was in prison, he was only photographed once, when late in that period he left to visit with the South African president.
The Life Before Us
Romain Gary
1986
Translated from the French
Nice book, pretty quick read. This was the Cornell University summer reading book for incoing freshman some years back. I have a terrible memory for books, this one included. I remember it being written in the voice of a 10-year old orphan. Plenty of humor, if you have the chance, you may like it.
100 Years of Solitude
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
1967
Translated from the Spanish
I'd skip it, but make sure to read Love in the Time of Cholera by the same author. Florencia, a traveling Argentine woman I met here described Marquez, or Garcia, as "a delightful writer", which I absolutely agree with. Here, Marquez presents a book with a bazillion characters most of whom have some version of the same name, Jose Arcadio Buendias. The family tree on the opening page is proof. The pages turn without any real hardship as the writing is always delightful and the creativity, or possibly truth, behind the anecdotes is marvelous. I didn't perceive much of a story or grander meaning and felt my reading pace slow a bit when it came to finishing this book. To this day, I wonder at how our AP Spanish teacher at Berkshire could have thought to assign this book in Spanish for summer reading. I had well enough trouble in English. I hung in for about three sentences then threw in the towel. He never mentioned it that year in class.
Daughter of Fortune
Isabel Allende
1999
Translated from the Spanish
Sadly, I've read very few books by women and I was excited to get into this one. I'm about 3/4 of the way through right now. The upshot here will be that I'm enjoying this book very much, but with a few comments. It's extremely accessible and the pacing is perfect. It feels a little light on real character development and also a little light in terms of education. I love when I learn a topic from a book, like learning about apple farming, cider-making and old-school obstetrics in Cider House Rules, and I'm blanking on more examples. This book seems to graze over the topics, around the mid-1800's, of maritime travel, Chinese medicine and the California Gold Rush but it seems to lack the expertise of the author on these subjects. It is a strong eye-opening look at upper class Chilean society of the same period. That all said, I look forward to sitting down with this book to finish it and wouldn't hesitate to grab another Allende book.
A Long Walk to Freedom
The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela
1994
Great book. Excellent history lesson about the freedom struggle in South Africa from the start of Mandela's life with some prior history mixed in. It is fascinating to go into the mind of an amazing freedom fighter and politician and understand the logic behind decisions made by leaders of the African National Congress. Mandela writes beautifully while simply and used a few handfuls of English words I did not know. He also employs a unique array of sentence structures I can't remember encountering elsewhere. He presents the information unbiased and mixes in a surprising amount of humor. There are plenty of times in history when white people have been unfair dicks, but I didn't know much about this really awful one; I'm glad I do now. Big, beautiful book, must read. One thing that comes to mind is that for the ~27 years Mandela was in prison, he was only photographed once, when late in that period he left to visit with the South African president.
The Life Before Us
Romain Gary
1986
Translated from the French
Nice book, pretty quick read. This was the Cornell University summer reading book for incoing freshman some years back. I have a terrible memory for books, this one included. I remember it being written in the voice of a 10-year old orphan. Plenty of humor, if you have the chance, you may like it.
100 Years of Solitude
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
1967
Translated from the Spanish
I'd skip it, but make sure to read Love in the Time of Cholera by the same author. Florencia, a traveling Argentine woman I met here described Marquez, or Garcia, as "a delightful writer", which I absolutely agree with. Here, Marquez presents a book with a bazillion characters most of whom have some version of the same name, Jose Arcadio Buendias. The family tree on the opening page is proof. The pages turn without any real hardship as the writing is always delightful and the creativity, or possibly truth, behind the anecdotes is marvelous. I didn't perceive much of a story or grander meaning and felt my reading pace slow a bit when it came to finishing this book. To this day, I wonder at how our AP Spanish teacher at Berkshire could have thought to assign this book in Spanish for summer reading. I had well enough trouble in English. I hung in for about three sentences then threw in the towel. He never mentioned it that year in class.
Daughter of Fortune
Isabel Allende
1999
Translated from the Spanish
Sadly, I've read very few books by women and I was excited to get into this one. I'm about 3/4 of the way through right now. The upshot here will be that I'm enjoying this book very much, but with a few comments. It's extremely accessible and the pacing is perfect. It feels a little light on real character development and also a little light in terms of education. I love when I learn a topic from a book, like learning about apple farming, cider-making and old-school obstetrics in Cider House Rules, and I'm blanking on more examples. This book seems to graze over the topics, around the mid-1800's, of maritime travel, Chinese medicine and the California Gold Rush but it seems to lack the expertise of the author on these subjects. It is a strong eye-opening look at upper class Chilean society of the same period. That all said, I look forward to sitting down with this book to finish it and wouldn't hesitate to grab another Allende book.
Friday, October 4, 2013
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