Antigua

Lovely Antigua. Two Saturdays ago, Esa and I celebrated (I don't know if celebrated is quite the right word!) the end of his vacation by taking a trip to Antigua. It was as beautiful and as full as memories as ever...


In the Central Park in front of the fountain. Not at all far from the park bench on which I first fell in love with him. (By the way, the second time I fell in love with him was also in the Central Park. If things go sour, he knows where to take me!)

I simply can't set foot in Antigua without visiting the McDonald's there. You wouldn't think of McDonald's being a haven, but it has been for many a hamburger craving American. When I my mom and I were in Antigua with the boys for the month I stayed with her, we made many a trip to the play place. :) Jonathan in his Baby Bjorn, Victor walking, all eagerly anticipating Oreo McFlurries (me), playing (Victor), a break (Mom), and nothing (Jonathan).

The inside is waay to classy to be a Micky D's.

How to eat a Big Mac: First you ketchup it,

then you smoosh it,

lift it (while salivating a little),

and enjoy! as the Big Mac flavors burst and zing through your mouth delighting your senses.

By the way, it was seriously good. We shared the whole thing bite for bite until it was gone. He was very fair.

Ronald was going through picture withdrawal, so we helped him out.

These two little boys came over to check out Ronald, and Esa asked them if they wanted their picture taken. They complied, of course. :)

Then, after doing a considerable amount of walking, we went to the restaurant of my choice, Cafe Condesa. Esa was quite disappointed in his sandwich, but the tres leches cake almost made up for it. And I was more than happy with my minestrone.

And that finishes out our evening in Antigua!

Laura's Birthday

I'm a little bit behind on my blog posts. :) January 28th was Laura's birthday, so we showed up at her door with flowers and pizza! We had a very enjoyable evening of cookies, conversation, and Set. (I finally found someone who can easily beat me at "my" game. Esa was delighted.)


Laura with her flowers that I agonized over before finally deciding on. Flowers, decorations, anything that involves color combinations and lots of options is bound to take awhile!








This is night number two now. Her birthday was on a Wednesday, and on Thursday we of course had to celebrate a second time after meeting. In Esa's family it's tradition to eat supper together after meeting and invite everyone to stay. I made a chocolate cake topped with chocolate pudding. It turned out very yummy.



And this is everyone who was at meeting... Starting from the left: Juan Carlos, brother Alex, uncle Nectali, sister workers Francis and Noemi, Esa, and dad.

Flowers (finally!)

Just the other day the thought flashed into my mind, "it has been an awfully long time since Esa has brought me flowers. I guess what they say about the romance wearing off with time is true." A few hours later I heard a knock on the door. After he chatted for a few minutes with one hand hidden behind the wall, I went in for a hug and got a glimpse of the reason behind the secrecy: flowers! A beautiful sunflower bouquet... I guess the romance is still safe for the time being. :)

Marina's Birthday

Last Friday we went to T.G.I Fridays again (2 days after our last visit) to celebrate a birthday. Fridays seems to be the restaurant of choice for birthday celebrations, maybe because of the free dessert or possibly because the waiters make you get up on your chair and dance while they sing. Marina, a long-time friend of Esau's was a very good sport... much better than I would have been!


Marina on her chair. (For those of you interested in couple news, her very cute boyfriend Pablo is sitting next to her.)


Esau and I. I swear, there's nowhere Esa sparkles more than in Fridays!

Job Search

Now that Esa's going back to school, I decided that maybe I need to find a job. I'm not sure if anything will come out of it, but we looked through the yellow pages and sent off a few emails. Now that it's done I'm thinking, "I'm crazy! I have the opportunity to vacation for four months, and now I'm looking for a job?" But the thing about vacation is that it's not vacation unless there's some work in there somewhere. I am the "too much vacation" equivalent of Sister Bear in the "too much birthday" Berenstein Bear book.





Esau basically just looked through the yellow pages and ripped out anything that was in English. If I do find a job, knowing English will be my ticket!

If looking through job ads was that tiring, imagine how bad the actual work would be... :)

I have a friend!

This is my friend Laura Lundell. She's originally from Alaska, but goes to college in Wyoming. She came to Guatemala to student-teach and will be staying until May 3rd. You have no idea how wonderful it is to have a professing friend from the States just 20 minutes from my house! And I couldn't have ordered up a nicer one. She is a lovely person, inside and out.



Outside the Escobars' house after Sunday morning meeting.

Laura's beautiful apartment that she shares with another teacher.

Exchanging blog addresses, I believe. :)

T.G.I. Fridays... "In here, it's always Friday!"

A couple of Wednesdays ago (they have Thursday night meeting, not Wednesday), I invited Esa to eat at T.G.I. Fridays, his favorite restaurant. His eyes lit up like Christmas tree bulbs and off we went!

Amy called me, and as a result, I have the phone pressed to my ear in most of the Fridays pictures. Take note of my fabulously yummy dessert.

And to finish the story, we were supposed to call Esa's dad when we wanted to go home, but I ran out of minutes on my phone. After ordering dessert, doodling on the back of the placemats, and deciding what we would order the next time we went to Fridays, we could no longer put off the inevitable, and Esau worked up the nerve to ask the waitress if there was a phone we could "rent." She willingly lent us hers free of charge and good ol' dad showed up a few minutes later.