Well then… Tuesday, 8th of October 2013,
was the big departure day.
As ready as can be, for my last night in Suiza, I was staying over at my new
official home in Zurich… with my dear friends Juerg and Ada, who have kindly agreed to add my name to their
mailbox, so I can still remain registered in Switzerland.
My flight was at 13.20h and my plan was to be at the
airport at around 10.00h. If you know me, you know that of course that was
never going to happen. Even though I got up at like 6.00h and I had practically
everything packed already beforehand. Well, I did still have a few things to do,
like going to the Registry of the City of Zurich to change my address and …
actually, I am not really sure what else I did, but I only left the house shortly
before 11.00h.
At the airport I checked-in my two nice suitcases and
then proceeded to go to my bank. I still had to get one of those travel cash /
credit cards as well as take care of a few other things. Then I went to the
gate, bought a few gifts for Nancy’s family on the way, and off I went.
After 10 hours of SWISS Economy Class (which is not so
bad after all), a few movies and a little bit of comida, I arrived at Miami, Florida. Lovely Sarita – who was going to host me for the night - was already
waiting for me at the gate and we directly went for dinner at ‘Sushisamba‘ or
‘Sambasushi‘ – a Japanese / Brazilian fusion place as you would guess.
Barbara and Patrick, a very nice couple I had already met once or twice before,
joined us for what was going to be a short night out… I was just too tired.
The next day, after some 8 hours of mentally preparing
for my new life to come, I got onto the flight to Guatemala City. First major
challenge: I was flying American Airlines.
With a slight delay, but – despite the airline – no other
issues, I arrived at 21.00h on Wednesday night in the country that is now my
home. GUATEMALA.
Happy, excited and also a little nervous, I was picked up
by my always very beautiful Nancy.
It was so good to see her again. We got my stuff into her
car and embarked on our first common activity … dinner at her family’s place.
Everyone was going to be there… her parents, her brother Eddy, her sister Laura
plus boyfriend Bernardo as well as two dogs, Osama aka Negrito and Bin Laden aka Bin.
No comment.
Admittedly, I had been a little hesitant about this
dinner as well as the fact that I was going to stay with Nancy’s family for the
first few days. I thought, that because I had never met them, things might be a
little awkward, cos I wouldn’t know what to say.. and since of course Nancy was
going to be working for the first two days, too, I was potentially going to be
alone with parts of her family, etc., soooo yeah, I just didn’t really feel all
excited about this.
In hindsight I don’t really know what the F* I was
thinking!!!
I could not have wished for a better start into my
adventure than to stay with this lovely family. Immediately, I felt welcome and
everyone was very warm, hospitable and nice with me. The food was excellent and
even my modest attempts to participate in the conversation during dinner were
greeted with patience and slow enough responses. What’s more, the dogs seemed
to like me, too.
On my first morning, I already did the unthinkable and
went on a little excursion with Nancy’s mom, Doña Norma.
YES, only with her. Again, very lovely. We were chatting
away and had a pretty good time. Who would have thought… :)
In the afternoon, Nancy surprised me with a half day off,
so we spent a few hours in a really nice place at the edge of the city..
drinking a good coffee and catching up. Just perfect! In the evening, we went
for drinks and a small dinner to a bar/restaurant called ‘La Playa’ .. not sure
what part of it was supposed to be beach-like, but it is a very nice place with
very nice Caipirinhas nonetheless.
Friday was a lazy day with not much activity on my side.
I blamed it on the jetlag and slept in until like 11.00h and then really didn’t
do much other than a few pages in my book and maybe a bit of watching TV. At
some point in the afternoon, Laura informed me that ‘today is an ice cream day‘ , so we went and bought ice cream and
you would not believe the amount of toppings that can be found in the family’s
fridge. Delicious. Oh and dinner with my partner in crime Nancita at this Italian place that I think I’ll need to go back to.
Really good pasta!!
On Saturday, the plan was to bring all my stuff to
Antigua .. so that’s what we did. HA!
After a short run around the neighborhood, I had a bit of
laundry to be done and then set out for the roughly 60mins drive to Antigua.
Once arrived – and after a snack at a very famous place with typical local food
(don’t remember the complicated name) – I met my host mother, Elsa. A lovely 65-year old
(approximately) that will surely be an integral part of my life here in Antigua.
I unpacked my stuff, talked to Elsa for a little bit, had
dinner with her and then Nancy and I decided to stay in Antigua for drinks and
a bit of dancing. At the local Irish pub, we had good fun until around 00.30h
before we headed back to Guatemala City. Early you think? Bars and clubs close
at 1.00h here.
On Sunday, Nancy’s father had planned to make it a Churrasco day. Well, what can I say:
he’s a proud BBQ master, so I couldn’t miss this! It also gave me the
opportunity to spend some more time with the entire family.
Let me summarize the day in short: excellent meat,
excellent food in general and a lot of fun. My learning of the day was: I need
to improve my table tennis (or as they call it here: pin pon) skills!
In the evening I then took a taxi to go back to Antigua.
Keep in mind: it’s a good 60mins drive. I paid roughly CHF 21.--.
Nestor – the
family’s and now my cab driver of choice – will probably do this trip quite a
few times in the next months.
When I arrived, Elsa was still awake and we ended up
chatting for a while, before we both went to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment