Just like any woman, I can and will change my mind. I wanted to give a quick update on my teaching plans for China. I have backed out of the deal. It just wasn’t feeling right for me. I could not relate to the material. Heck I never remember in school having to remember the structure of a sentence. Of course I remember the biggies……….verbs, nouns, pronouns, prepositions, and adjectives. But I just don’t recall learning what an article, a determiner and a quantifier means in a sentence.
I was informed that I would be teaching 5-classes each day and the students would range in age from 4-14 years old. Not so bad, but one class might be 4-6 year old, then next 7-8, and then the next 12-14 year olds, and so on; all requiring different material. I didn’t feel doing an on-line course would give me the confidence to do this job well. And I don’t do anything unless I can excel at it.
I love my life here in Antigua! I feel I will return next year and possibly set-up a spa/massage business.
Now I am looking at a 3-week in person training TEFL Class in India, then immediately follows a 3-month internship. I want to do a short internship program so see if I do really like teaching. This way I don’t have to find work on my own and expect to get a one year contract, when I don’t even know if I will like being an English teacher. So this makes perfect sense to me. I feel the in-person training will make a world of difference verses just on–line training. I have planned to go to India anyway, so this might be the class for me. I’m looking at returning to Houston in late July for about 3-weeks. I’ll get my visa all sorted out then take off to India by the last week in August. I plan to stay in India for 6-months. From there, I may go to see an old friend in Brisbane, Australia.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Look out Rachel and Julia
Oops….....Julia Child is dead already! Tom, my best friend and I started cooking class at a new restaurant called Chef Pierre’s Bistro and Bread. We have committed to 4-lessons for the next month.
The cost amounts to approximately $18.50 per class or a total of 600 Q for the month. It's a deal! The restaurant is closed on Mondays’ so we had it all to ourselves, the two of us plus Chef Pierre. I brought a lovely bottle of Malbec for the night. I drank most of it myself being the lush I am, but the chef did have one glass.
Pierre has this new restaurant. Tom and I were one of his first customers. Chef is from Montreal, and was professionally trained in Toronto. He was here on vacation and was discovered by an affluent family while traveling. They loved his cooking and set him up in business in Antigua. I have to admit, he does some pretty creative dishes. When was the last time you had an iguana burger?
The evening lasted over 3-hours. For our first lesson, we learned French Classic Cuisine. We started with learning to make a basic chicken stock. Then a pesto sauce, a virgin tomato sauce, balsamic oil and vinegar dressing, Eggplant Napoleon, and the finale was a vegetable soup. I had so much fun and the dinner was delicious. We even got our own apron’s to take home. Several comments were made about my abilities with a knife. I I complain becuase there are no left-handed knives! hehe I've always been afraid of knives because I got cut a few times when I was a child. I have the scars to prove it. I also was not so artisitc with my garnishing. I'm good with colors and creativity, but once again, if I have to use a knife, I tend to butcher things. For others garnishing techniques, we poured cream and pesto sauce from a plastic like ketchup bottle, but for me the opening was too large and I made a mess.
One of our additional lessons will be traditional Guatemalan Cooking. I’m excited about my new hobby.
My life here is pretty full and rewarding. I am blessed.
The cost amounts to approximately $18.50 per class or a total of 600 Q for the month. It's a deal! The restaurant is closed on Mondays’ so we had it all to ourselves, the two of us plus Chef Pierre. I brought a lovely bottle of Malbec for the night. I drank most of it myself being the lush I am, but the chef did have one glass.
Pierre has this new restaurant. Tom and I were one of his first customers. Chef is from Montreal, and was professionally trained in Toronto. He was here on vacation and was discovered by an affluent family while traveling. They loved his cooking and set him up in business in Antigua. I have to admit, he does some pretty creative dishes. When was the last time you had an iguana burger?
The evening lasted over 3-hours. For our first lesson, we learned French Classic Cuisine. We started with learning to make a basic chicken stock. Then a pesto sauce, a virgin tomato sauce, balsamic oil and vinegar dressing, Eggplant Napoleon, and the finale was a vegetable soup. I had so much fun and the dinner was delicious. We even got our own apron’s to take home. Several comments were made about my abilities with a knife. I I complain becuase there are no left-handed knives! hehe I've always been afraid of knives because I got cut a few times when I was a child. I have the scars to prove it. I also was not so artisitc with my garnishing. I'm good with colors and creativity, but once again, if I have to use a knife, I tend to butcher things. For others garnishing techniques, we poured cream and pesto sauce from a plastic like ketchup bottle, but for me the opening was too large and I made a mess.
One of our additional lessons will be traditional Guatemalan Cooking. I’m excited about my new hobby.
My life here is pretty full and rewarding. I am blessed.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Exciting and scary news
Boy, what a difference a week makes in my life! I have been contemplating getting TEFL Certified. (Teaching English as a Foreign Language). I have researched this for 6-months. I thought this may be a good way to travel the world and have some of my living/traveling expenses paid. Learning a new skill set I feel is a good idea. Now I have this incredible opportunity to go to China on a 3-month long internship program starting August 1st. I am to take 80-hours of on-line courses, then remaining 40-hours once in China. I will be teaching 25 each 50-minute English lessons to 4-14 year olds. Now after reviewing the material, I am scared to death and having second thoughts. The material is not resonating with me. I am struggling to read the material and find it incredibly boring and dry. Maybe teaching English is not for me. I can’t fathom having to write 25-lessons per week.
So I have worked myself into a dither. I really need to do some soul searching the next few days and make my final decision. Part of me feels this is an incredible opportunity and run with it. The other part of me says, nope teaching English is not for you and don’t waste the time, energy and money.
I love Antigua and am still considering opening a spa business here next year. I want to wait for the election outcome and see what kind of impact it has on the country as a whole and for the violence ad crime at large. I still plan to go to N India by the end of the year and help a friend start a hiking lodge from the ground up.
I am blessed o have such a wonderful life. I have so much freedom its s scary and often difficult to make the best decision.
Stay tuned……………………
So I have worked myself into a dither. I really need to do some soul searching the next few days and make my final decision. Part of me feels this is an incredible opportunity and run with it. The other part of me says, nope teaching English is not for you and don’t waste the time, energy and money.
I love Antigua and am still considering opening a spa business here next year. I want to wait for the election outcome and see what kind of impact it has on the country as a whole and for the violence ad crime at large. I still plan to go to N India by the end of the year and help a friend start a hiking lodge from the ground up.
I am blessed o have such a wonderful life. I have so much freedom its s scary and often difficult to make the best decision.
Stay tuned……………………
Monday, May 9, 2011
Lanquin & Semuc Champey
Whew…………………one hella of a ride! After dealing with bouts of diarrhea for 10+days, I went on a journey to Semuc Champey.
It was an exhausting 8-hour shuttle ride to Lanquin. I swear I’ll never take a shuttle for more than 3-hours again. They jammed packed us in and they only make 1-20 minute potty and lunch break unless you ask. Luckily, llomotil plugged me up. The scenery was on the most part spectacular. I was disappointed to see all the slash and burn. They are destroying the land and their way of life just like the ancient Mayans. History is repeating itself.
We arrived at a cheap, but new place with only four rooms. We had two single beds in our room with nothing else. The walls only went up ¾ of the way to the ceiling. Luckily we had the only two occupied rooms. Never thought I’d have conversations with someone two rooms over. No fans, No fluff. The bathroom was a notch above an outhouse. It was quite hilarious to have conversations with your travel mate while we both sat on the toilet! But what could I expect for $60 for a 3-day, 2-night trip? The shower was cold water and just some plastic tubing with lots of pressure. When I turned it on the entire tubing wiggled out of the two nails holding it up. It was like a huge white snake was after me in the shower. You could hear me scream and giggle all the way to the street! My friends came running after me when I screamed, but when they heard me giggle they knew I was alright.
We immediately walked to the caves just before dark. The humidity was killing me and I was drenched. The caves were slippery and dark, but fun. One it got dark, they turned the lights off to the cave and you could see bats flying around in the camera flashes. We had a non descriptive dinner at a local comedor. I wasn’t impressed with the dicey town of Lanquin.
The next morning we were off to Semuc Champey. We took an open aired pick-up ride for 45-minutes. You hang onto the built in racks. It was a fun but bumpy ride. We arrived at El Portal Lodge to wait for our guide for the day. I kept wishing were staying there. The surroundings were beautiful.
We walked into the entrance of the park right next door for a grueling 50-minute hike straight up to Mirador. With improvements over the years, they had some board walks and ladders which made the hike less slippery. The view of the seven pools below was spectacular. They water comes out of a cave system and are at varying heights from higher to lower before it flows and becomes a river. We then hiked straight down to the pools. We swam for over an hour! You could see little fish nibbling at your toes. It tickled! The water was sparkling clean and a delicious temperature! We would scooch on our rear needs across the licken rocks to the next pool below. My scooch became a full blown slide down the mini waterfalls. I ended up bouncing ten feet below on my bum. Ouch……..I bruised and scratched my tailbone on the rocks, but laughed the whole way down. Finally the third time, we all decided to purposely slide down in to the final pool below. Our guide gave us instruction on how to do this safely. We hiked another 30-minutes back to the lodge where we were given inner tubes. We walked a short distance to the river with inner tubes in hand. We got in one by one for our leisurely float down the river. Several others had joined us so we were about twelve people by now. All that was missing was an ice chest full of beer or cocktails. It was delightful! We saw several groups of local children and adults swimming in the nude and enjoying the day too. A pick-up truck was waiting for us to take us back to the lodge where we finally had a late lunch. Pablo and Emily brought stuff to make veggie sandwiches for the four of us.
We then walked again for a unique caving experience. I’m not even sure how to describe this. It was an adventure. Maybe you could call it “Cave Swimming”. We were given a candle to navigate our way through the dark cave system led by a local guide. The currents were strong, the water freezing, the rocks were sharp, and waterfalls were over our heads. Sometimes you had to climb up a slippery ladder to the next level with water running swiftly over your head yet navigating the candle with your other hand being extra careful not to let the flame extinguish. This sort of adventure would never be allowed in the USA. It’s too dangerous! Later I heard stories about the number of tourist injured or killed every year on their holidays here.
We then took another 45-minute pick up ride back to Lanquin to our dingy lodging. It was an eight hour jammed packed day. I could barely move due to exhaustion. But I managed to keep up with my Dutch friend who is in is 40’s and in good shape and Emily and Pablo who are in their 20’s. They are fearless and they did a couple of things I did not do. Like riding a water shoot in the cave, climbing up a rope under a waterfall and doing a cannonball in the cave! Emily hit her head on a rock going down the shoot in the cave. She could have really gotten hurt.
On the ride back the shuttle company over sold the number of seats. We were jammed in like sardines. My friend Pablo had to run back on a bucket with a pillow most of the way home for 8-hours. He was a good sport. For two hours, I had the high middle seat next to the driver. I had to it sideways and all I could see was his face in the review mirror.
The things I do for an adventure. I have to remind myself I’m not 20 any more and I wonder why I do it. All and all………………a worthwhile and memorable trip to Lanquin and Semuc Champey!
It was an exhausting 8-hour shuttle ride to Lanquin. I swear I’ll never take a shuttle for more than 3-hours again. They jammed packed us in and they only make 1-20 minute potty and lunch break unless you ask. Luckily, llomotil plugged me up. The scenery was on the most part spectacular. I was disappointed to see all the slash and burn. They are destroying the land and their way of life just like the ancient Mayans. History is repeating itself.
We arrived at a cheap, but new place with only four rooms. We had two single beds in our room with nothing else. The walls only went up ¾ of the way to the ceiling. Luckily we had the only two occupied rooms. Never thought I’d have conversations with someone two rooms over. No fans, No fluff. The bathroom was a notch above an outhouse. It was quite hilarious to have conversations with your travel mate while we both sat on the toilet! But what could I expect for $60 for a 3-day, 2-night trip? The shower was cold water and just some plastic tubing with lots of pressure. When I turned it on the entire tubing wiggled out of the two nails holding it up. It was like a huge white snake was after me in the shower. You could hear me scream and giggle all the way to the street! My friends came running after me when I screamed, but when they heard me giggle they knew I was alright.
We immediately walked to the caves just before dark. The humidity was killing me and I was drenched. The caves were slippery and dark, but fun. One it got dark, they turned the lights off to the cave and you could see bats flying around in the camera flashes. We had a non descriptive dinner at a local comedor. I wasn’t impressed with the dicey town of Lanquin.
The next morning we were off to Semuc Champey. We took an open aired pick-up ride for 45-minutes. You hang onto the built in racks. It was a fun but bumpy ride. We arrived at El Portal Lodge to wait for our guide for the day. I kept wishing were staying there. The surroundings were beautiful.
We walked into the entrance of the park right next door for a grueling 50-minute hike straight up to Mirador. With improvements over the years, they had some board walks and ladders which made the hike less slippery. The view of the seven pools below was spectacular. They water comes out of a cave system and are at varying heights from higher to lower before it flows and becomes a river. We then hiked straight down to the pools. We swam for over an hour! You could see little fish nibbling at your toes. It tickled! The water was sparkling clean and a delicious temperature! We would scooch on our rear needs across the licken rocks to the next pool below. My scooch became a full blown slide down the mini waterfalls. I ended up bouncing ten feet below on my bum. Ouch……..I bruised and scratched my tailbone on the rocks, but laughed the whole way down. Finally the third time, we all decided to purposely slide down in to the final pool below. Our guide gave us instruction on how to do this safely. We hiked another 30-minutes back to the lodge where we were given inner tubes. We walked a short distance to the river with inner tubes in hand. We got in one by one for our leisurely float down the river. Several others had joined us so we were about twelve people by now. All that was missing was an ice chest full of beer or cocktails. It was delightful! We saw several groups of local children and adults swimming in the nude and enjoying the day too. A pick-up truck was waiting for us to take us back to the lodge where we finally had a late lunch. Pablo and Emily brought stuff to make veggie sandwiches for the four of us.
We then walked again for a unique caving experience. I’m not even sure how to describe this. It was an adventure. Maybe you could call it “Cave Swimming”. We were given a candle to navigate our way through the dark cave system led by a local guide. The currents were strong, the water freezing, the rocks were sharp, and waterfalls were over our heads. Sometimes you had to climb up a slippery ladder to the next level with water running swiftly over your head yet navigating the candle with your other hand being extra careful not to let the flame extinguish. This sort of adventure would never be allowed in the USA. It’s too dangerous! Later I heard stories about the number of tourist injured or killed every year on their holidays here.
We then took another 45-minute pick up ride back to Lanquin to our dingy lodging. It was an eight hour jammed packed day. I could barely move due to exhaustion. But I managed to keep up with my Dutch friend who is in is 40’s and in good shape and Emily and Pablo who are in their 20’s. They are fearless and they did a couple of things I did not do. Like riding a water shoot in the cave, climbing up a rope under a waterfall and doing a cannonball in the cave! Emily hit her head on a rock going down the shoot in the cave. She could have really gotten hurt.
On the ride back the shuttle company over sold the number of seats. We were jammed in like sardines. My friend Pablo had to run back on a bucket with a pillow most of the way home for 8-hours. He was a good sport. For two hours, I had the high middle seat next to the driver. I had to it sideways and all I could see was his face in the review mirror.
The things I do for an adventure. I have to remind myself I’m not 20 any more and I wonder why I do it. All and all………………a worthwhile and memorable trip to Lanquin and Semuc Champey!
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