Guatemala: Antigua-2006: Adolescent Day Care

The town of Antigua seems to be the place where American parents send their high school teenagers to get them out of their hair. These kids are everywhere. The whole town sometimes has the feel that it's an after school day care center for American adolescents.
Yesterday I found myself sitting in a cafe, drinking my cafe americano and losing my battle to NOT order a delicious looking pastry. I further found myself in the unenviable position of unwillingly overhearing the loud conversation of several nearby teenage American girls.
All the females seemed to come equipped with cell phones. Probably as a result of cell phone over usage, they were also sadly hearing impaired. At least, I suspect that's the reason why they talked so loud. One girl's contribution went something like this:

"Its like, you know, like I just can't handle it. You know? I like told her, you know, like I totally don't think it's fair, like, you'd think she was my mother, you know? She like told me, like, I had to tell her like what time I had to be back, you know, like she was totally my mother! And I met like this awesome guy and you know......... "

Well, you get the picture. I would consider supporting federal legislation that requires prospective passport applicants 1) to speak at normal or subdued volume and 2) to pass some sort of maturity test. No wonder the European tourists blanch at the sight of these children and run away from them in disgust!
In the middle of one conversation that everyone in the cafe necessarily had to overhear, a cell phone, set at maximum volume, went off issuing an appalling rendition of two bars of the 1812 overture (I've also heard parts of Beethoven's 9th, and some other outworn snippets....is there nothing sacred??). One girl announced with loud disgust, after looking at her phone, "Oh, God, like it's my mother!" The rest immediately commiserated with her. Then for the benefit of her tablemates, she appeared completely disgusted with this interruption and in a tone of voice completely at odds with her facial expressions and body language, gushed verbally with enthusiasm while talking with Mom.
It remains an ongoing unfathomable mystery to me that the US has risen economically, politically, and militarily to the position it's attained in the world. I can easily foresee an American future where the government consists of a president the caliber of George W. and the congress is made up of the equivalent of adolescent females. Its like, you know, totally a bummer!