As I type these words, it's about 9:00 and I'm settling in for my first night in Antigua. Though a little overwhelmed, I am honestly so happy here. Even with everything that's so new to me, this place already has a feeling of 'home.'
Travel went by without a hitch. Though we almost lost one of our guys in Atlanta, everyone got here with all of our luggage and no big issues with customs. [Side note, my suitcase was a mere 47 pounds...I packed lighter than some of the people only going for three weeks, and, knowing me, this is a serious accomplishment!]
We spent last night in a nice hotel in Guatemala City. I'm not a huge fan of the city, just because of how congested and loud things are. Antigua is my preferred city, by far. Then this morning was breakfast and jumping in the car from La Capital to Antigua. We immediately went to La Union (school) and put in a few hours of school work before getting back in the vans and meeting our host families.
My "guatemamá" (as she signed the card she made for me:) is the biggest sweetheart, and she makes sure to speak slowly and clearly so we can follow along. She's also a fabulous cook and enjoys off-key karaoke. I believe we're living here for the next three weeks, then possibly somewhere else for the semester?
Aside from Reyna and I (that girl is a hoot and I'm so excited to be living with her!), there are two other girls living here, though they're both leaving fairly soon. Julia (I know, what are the chances, right?) is from Canada and Helen is from Norway. We're all varying degrees of capable of holding coherent conversations in Spanish, so it's been a lot of fun to be in a place that feels 'safe' enough to string together grammatically-poor phrases and learn on the fly.
My teacher at La Union is named Gloria, and she's a gem. I've found that I'm able to remember a lot more Spanish than I thought that I knew, and apparently my pronunciation is pretty good (until I constantly kept mixing up dolores and dolares... let me tell you, those pesky vowels).
Antigua is beautiful. Volcan Agua is to the south and El Cerro de la Cruz is North, which is helpful when it comes to orienting yourself. For how small it is, Antigua is surprisingly confusing. Pedestrians never have the right of way, there is no space between houses, sidewalks, and streets (all of which are cobblestone), and pretty much nothing is flat.
Basically, all is well. I'm a little overwhelmed by how new everything is, but I guess that's to be expected. I'm learning so much and for how hectic things must look from the outside, I'm feeling at peace.
Evidently my brain is starting to transition to using Spanish more, because I have to correct myself from using Spanglish in this post. (A phrase in English, a phrase in Spanish, a few words of gibberish, a little more Spanish, with English to tie it all together...it's how I'm starting to think and talk to myself, too:)
Travel went by without a hitch. Though we almost lost one of our guys in Atlanta, everyone got here with all of our luggage and no big issues with customs. [Side note, my suitcase was a mere 47 pounds...I packed lighter than some of the people only going for three weeks, and, knowing me, this is a serious accomplishment!]
We spent last night in a nice hotel in Guatemala City. I'm not a huge fan of the city, just because of how congested and loud things are. Antigua is my preferred city, by far. Then this morning was breakfast and jumping in the car from La Capital to Antigua. We immediately went to La Union (school) and put in a few hours of school work before getting back in the vans and meeting our host families.
My "guatemamá" (as she signed the card she made for me:) is the biggest sweetheart, and she makes sure to speak slowly and clearly so we can follow along. She's also a fabulous cook and enjoys off-key karaoke. I believe we're living here for the next three weeks, then possibly somewhere else for the semester?
Aside from Reyna and I (that girl is a hoot and I'm so excited to be living with her!), there are two other girls living here, though they're both leaving fairly soon. Julia (I know, what are the chances, right?) is from Canada and Helen is from Norway. We're all varying degrees of capable of holding coherent conversations in Spanish, so it's been a lot of fun to be in a place that feels 'safe' enough to string together grammatically-poor phrases and learn on the fly.
My teacher at La Union is named Gloria, and she's a gem. I've found that I'm able to remember a lot more Spanish than I thought that I knew, and apparently my pronunciation is pretty good (until I constantly kept mixing up dolores and dolares... let me tell you, those pesky vowels).
Antigua is beautiful. Volcan Agua is to the south and El Cerro de la Cruz is North, which is helpful when it comes to orienting yourself. For how small it is, Antigua is surprisingly confusing. Pedestrians never have the right of way, there is no space between houses, sidewalks, and streets (all of which are cobblestone), and pretty much nothing is flat.
Basically, all is well. I'm a little overwhelmed by how new everything is, but I guess that's to be expected. I'm learning so much and for how hectic things must look from the outside, I'm feeling at peace.
Evidently my brain is starting to transition to using Spanish more, because I have to correct myself from using Spanglish in this post. (A phrase in English, a phrase in Spanish, a few words of gibberish, a little more Spanish, with English to tie it all together...it's how I'm starting to think and talk to myself, too:)