Hola. Me llamo Beernenia. Estoy una estudiante en la escuela Proyecto Lingí¼ístico Francisco Marroquín. Mi profesora se llama Silvia.
Today I met my teacher for the week. After introductions and groundwork, we walked through town, passing by these two little boys with their friends Sara (the dark one) and Maria Mercedes. Five quetzals would have bought me an on-demand glass. Maybe another day. If I were Sara I’d be hoping for a customer very soon, judging by the looks of her.
Lulu: Remember how you laughed your barbed laugh two years ago when you were chosen for Grado B and I was a mere Grado A? All I have to say to you is now neener neener neener. My teacher said my comprehension is very good. So there. (Never mind what she said about how well I speak.)
My classroom is el arco pequeno built against the wall of La Iglesia y Convento de Nuestra Seí±ora de las Mercedes (familiarly known as La Merced). What you see here was first built in 1749, knocked down by earthquakes, rebuilt, knocked down by more earthquakes and so on.
There’s one little thing I wish I hadn’t forgotten to pack in my last-minute rush: money. The silly school requires it. So I’ve been hitting up ATMs to the daily limit since I got here, and the solitary check I packed by mistake turned out to be a life-saver today.
I don’t think I’m a very good student. Silvia patiently tries to get me to conjugate verbs, but my brain keeps wandering away and I ask about other things. However, every word of our conversation is in Spanish, so that counts for something. I learned that:
- George Bush wanted to visit Antigua last year but there was an outcry so he axed it from his agenda.
- Bill Clinton, however, was welcome.
- Overall, Antiguans favor Hillary.
- Young Antiguans prefieron Barack.
And I was intrigued to learn that the Guatemalan government has an official, country-wide presidential election specifically for children, to prepare them for adult voting. They choose from the two real candidates. Results are tallied and announced nationally. According to Silvia, kids don’t automatically vote as their parents do. Their criteria include how guapo or feo the candidate is, how interesting to watch, and who’s got the best theme song. Pretty universal, really.
When I ran home for lunch, my landlady intercepted me with an important question: she and the English family had had a disagreement over how to pronounce my name. For the sake of simplicity, perhaps I should change it. How about Maria Mercedes?
Ahora necessito estudiar los verbos regulares in el tiempo presente y preterito, and I need to memorize rules governing boy and girl nouns.
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