Oh beautiful for spacious skies...

I’m on the airplane as I’m writing my last entry. I can’t wait to get to America!

The night that we took a motor boat to Livingston, we had a great dinner, and there were dancers and music with African influence. The culture is different over there, but they’re just as Guatemalan as anybody else. Besides, there’s really no ONE Guatemalan culture. Anyway, as they were dancing, one cute little boy who was probably about 4 came up to me and tried to bring me out on the dance floor to dance in front of everybody with him. Ummmm…..no. There was no way that I was gong to go and try to dance African style. The poor kid…I broke his little heart, but I pointed out other people that I knew would dance. Oh, and later that night, I went out on our balcony to see the awesome view we had, and the first thing I saw was a big old scorpion climbing the wall. I’m so glad it was outside.

The next morning, we took the boat back, but we made a stop on the way to someone’s home/store. The first thing I saw was this little creature that this man was holding. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was like a mix between a raccoon and a rat, but it was really cute. They also had a baby monkey there that was seriously depressed. They had taken him away from his mom, and he was just sitting there, laying on the ground all curled up with the saddest eyes ever. It was so sad. I wanted to take him home. The rest of the boat ride was pretty entertaining. One of the people in our program was standing at the front of the boat with her arms out like in Titanic. The ENTIRE ride. It was pretty dangerous, and she almost fell out of the boat a few times. But this woman is a little off her rocker…very strange.

After that, we headed off to Tikal, way north in Guatemala. Tikal was a Mayan city from a few thousand years ago, and it’s pretty incredible. We stayed in the only hotel that’s inside the national park. Many people weren’t so lucky with having scorpions outside of their rooms, rather, in the bathroom sink and in the shower. The crazy boat lady even got stung by one I believe. We only had some kind of lizard in our bathroom, but he was cute, so we let him be. The next day in Tikal was the day to visit the ruins. It was soooooooo hot and humid. I couldn’t even believe it. I didn’t feel so bad about how much I was sweating because every single person that I saw was pretty much completely soaked in sweat. Since I knew that would happen, I wore a shirt that you can’t see sweat through. It just stinks that in all my pictures from Tikal, we all look so gross. The Mayans really fascinate me though. It’s so hard to wrap my head around the fact that they built all of that. I would love to go back in time to see how it all looked in all it’s glory.

After visiting the ruins in the blazing hot sun, we couldn’t wait to get back to the hotel and jump in the pool. Of course, the second that we got to the pool, the sun went away and it started pouring rain. From this whole trip, I only got a little bit tan on my arms and chest, but my tan lines are ridiculous. So disappointing! We still swam, and it felt so good. We decided to go in and eat a little lunch, and guess what? The sun came out again for about 1 hour while we were eating. So once again we put on our bathing suits, and when we got to the pool, it went away and starting raining again. And when it rains there, it pours. One of the most fun parts of staying there was watching the monkeys. There were monkeys all over the place swinging like crazy in the trees. I have a cute video of them that I’ll try to upload on facebook. We probably watched them for about an hour. They were so entertaining!

During this whole final trip after our classes, the head professor kept saying that there were going to me multiple surprises along the way, so as I wrote before, we were hoping to fly back to Guatemala city. On Tuesday, we got on the bus, and we were told that a normal bus ride back to the city without stopping would last 9 hours, but obviously we were stopping. Well, we definitely didn’t take a plane. And we only made one stop to eat lunch for an hour and another stop to use bathrooms for 20 minutes. Guess how long it took us to get back? 14 and ½ hours! This is no joke. It was the most miserable trip ever. Soooo many people were sick. A couple were throwing up in the bathroom when we stopped for lunch, and poor Esther was still throwing up after arriving to the hotel in the city. I wasn’t feeling the greatest either. We were zigzagging through mountains almost the whole way back. At the end, everybody was extremely grumpy, sick, and hungry….not a good way to end the program. From a certain point, we had cops escorting us from behind. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I felt safer I guess, but nervous at the same time because that must have meant that the route was unsafe for tourists.

De todos modos, I’m alive, and I am now back home in Michigan finishing this entry. It’s great to be home. I will always have fond memories of Guatemala, and maybe one day regresaré, because I would love to know Livingston and Flores more!

Wrapping up

Soooooo close to being done! I've already taken my literature final (yesterday), and I'm not quite sure how it went. It was hard. I got a B+ on the midterm in that class, so I'm hoping this one is just as good. I'm about to take my linguistics final, and I'm a little more nervous about this one than I was for the midterm. I actually had to study this time. On the midterm I got 199/200, but I have a feeling this one won't be as good. Oh well. As long as I pass! Tonight at 5, I have my presentation for my culture class, which I'm not looking forward to. Our group presentation is surely to be the most boring. All of the other groups have Power Points, and we don't. That's only because we asked him if he wanted us to do a Power Point, and he said no. There wouldn't be enough time for each group to do one. But now I feel stupid because we're just going to be standing up in the front, talking for 20 minutes. At least we're going first!

I forgot to mention that on Sunday, Esther (my roommate) got her wallet stolen. She was with her boyfriend (he came down to visit on a last-minute decision) in the Central Plaza when it happened. She had just paid for something, and then walked about 1 minute to another place, and when she went to get her wallet out of her purse again to pay for what she was buying, she realized it was gone. The thief had cut a huge slit in her purse, and she didn't even feel it! Luckily that was the only thing that fell out because there was nothing in there but her ID and a few Quetzales (the currency here). She thinks it was a little kid because she noticed one watching her carefully while she was paying at the first place. They're pretty good at what they do.

Tonight we have a little gathering to say goodbye to our professors who won't be going with us on the last part of our culture tour. I'll be so tired that I don't know if I can even stay an hour! We leave tomorrow morning at 7:30 to head over to Livingston on the Caribbean. From there, we head to Tikal so see some amazing Mayan ruins. It's soooooo far away, and I'm really not looking forward to the bus ride. On Tuesday we're going straight from Tikal to Guatemala city, which is probably a 12 hour drive. But the head professor told us there was a surprise along the way. Last year, he said the same thing, and the surprise was that we were taking a high-speed train to arrive at our destination 5 hours quicker than by bus. We're thinking that we may be taking a plane somewhere....maybe from Tikal to Guat. City. That would be a good thing, since the trip on a bus would suck, but it would also be bad because I hate flying, and I'm sure it would be a tiny plane. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Side-note: Lindsay and I saw a man urinating in the street yesterday, and then 30 seconds later, a dog stopped in front of us and urinated. Why do we always have to witness these things? I mean, the dog is normal, but I can't tell you how many times I've seen people using the street as their toilet. We're thinking about making a documentary on the lack of bathrooms here.

Anyway....today was our last day at the gym here. I loved that gym, and I was pretty sad to leave. The classes were so much fun, and I just loved the atmosphere. I would get up almost every morning at 5:45 to head over there. That's how much I loved it. I went 12 days in a row! That's definitely a record for me.

Leaving is always bittersweet. I really do love Guatemala. It's beautiful, and most of the people are awesome, but I really am ready to go home. I've been ready for a long time. So I'm sad and happy to be leaving. But I need to be with my husband and children and I can't wait! I also can't wait to throw toilet paper down the toilet where it belongs and not in the trash can that's sitting next to the toilet.

Story

I must share about the rest of my weekend. On Sunday, there was a parade celebrating the anniversary of the foundation of Antigua. It was mostly just schools and churches in the parade. The marching bands were pretty good. After that, I went with the Great Lakes crew to a place called “Café no sé” for an all you can eat pancake breakfast. Oh…..my……gosh, it was amazing! I had blueberry pancakes and macadamia pancakes. Between the 6 of us, we finished an entire bottle of syrup that was brand new. It was amazing. I mean…I guess the bottle wasn’t that big, but still…quite an accomplishment.

Now, for the greatest story ever. On Monday, when Lindsay and I were walking to class, I noticed a woman on the other side of the road on the sidewalk in the distance. Actually, at first I thought it was a man, but anyway. …Her pants were down to her knees and she was bending over. I said, “Oh my gosh, Lindsay, is that lady poohing?” And she said, “Yeah I think so. Let’s just walk by and ignore it.” We walked by talking as if nothing was happening, and we saw that she had a roll of toilet paper and she was wiping! EWWWW! What was going on? We walked far past her, and then we just busted out laughing because we couldn’t believe what we had just seen. Then, Lindsay turned her head to say something to me, and ran smack dab into a window corner that was made of concrete. Karma.

One more week!

This last week is definitely going to be the most stressful. I still have yet to read the last book for my literature class, and honestly, I probably won’t finish it. Our professor usually just tells us what happened in the stories anyway. Our exam for that class is Thursday instead of Friday, and I’m very nervous for it. There are only going to be 2 parts to the test: for the 1st part, she’s putting a small piece from one of the works we read on the test, and we just have to write about it. For the 2nd part there’s a concrete question from the story that we’re reading this week. I’m nervous because I’m really not good at BSing, and I’ll have to for this test because I’m not good at analyzing. For my culture class, the professor decided that he wanted a change of pace, so instead of our final being extremely easy like the midterm was, we had to form groups and we have to do a presentation on Friday…each person speaking for 5 min. The best part is is that he’s not giving us the topics until Monday. Great, right after the weekend when we could actually have time to work on it. I hate presentations with a passion. I’m so embarrassed to be speaking in front of people who speak so much better than me. I’m already stressing out.

Friday night was fun. First, we went to a party for the language school that our host mom works for (it’s also the school that hooked us up with our families). It was kind of sad because about 30 people from our program RSVP’d saying they would come, but only about 10 people came. The school director was really upset about it and started talking to Miguel (one of my housemates) about how we think we’re so much better than everybody else since we’re doing our master’s program. It was really weird because it was like he wanted to start a fight. He went on to talk about how all gringos are the same, and how we’re pretty much bad people. We ended up leaving quite early and we went to another place called Personajes (where they have karaoke once a week), and there was a live band there that was pretty good. I had a good time, but come 12:30 AM I was ready to go, and so were my two other housemates. Miguel wasn’t ready, and since we didn’t want to walk home alone, we called a taxi. I have a few trusted taxi drivers numbers on my phone. He came super fast, and we made it home safely.

Early Saturday morning, Krista, Lindsay, and I got up early to go to a coffee farm called “Finca Filadelfia.” We got a tour, and it was so interesting to see and hear about what all has to be done just to get that little coffee bean the way we like it. The farm was ENORMOUS, and so gorgeous. Of course I didn’t try the coffee at the end for fear of getting sick even with just one sip. On the trip to the farm (there was a vehicle that came to pick us up), a lady who worked there sat by us and we talked. It’s really fun talking to locals. She was very impressed with our Spanish and said that we hardly had accents, which I know was a huge lie because we definitely do! After we were dropped off in town, I went to the gym because I’m trying to go every day before we leave (I’ve done 7 days in a row!).

In the afternoon we went to the market (when I say we, I mean the Midwest girls that I always hang out with), and of course I bought a few more things. I just need to stay away! There are so many cute things here! For dinner, we went to this Italian restaurant that was super good. On the way there, we passed this dude who we’ve passed by twice before who must be from the Caribbean or Africa or something. He always is trying to advertise something and hand out a flyer, but every time, he’s speaking in English, and we just answer back, “No, gracias.” Then he says, “I speak English, darling…English, not Spanish.” Well, this time, after he said that, one of the girls said in Spanish, “We’re in Guatemala…where they speak Spanish.” He then got super mad and called her a “f-ing b*tch”, to which she just said “wow.” Then he goes, “Yeah, NOW you understand English, huh?” I’m not sure if it’s just me, but does anyone else think that’s kind of a bad way to get business?

Anyway, at the restaurant it started pouring rain, and the electricity went out for a good 15 minutes. Afterwards, we started heading home in the pouring rain, and we were already soaked after a few steps. Umbrellas don’t do any good here. We decided to call that same taxi as the night before, so we started heading to shelter where we could wait. Well, as we were walking, a taxi drove by, and we recognized the number. It was the driver who we were about to call! We pounded on his windows and I think we scared the crap out of him cause he slammed on the brakes, probably thinking he hit someone. He was actually on his way to pick someone else up, but he took us home anyway. I just can’t believe he happened to be right there in that moment when we were about to call him! The taxis are so cheap here. We each only paid a dollar to get home.

My mosquito bites are really itchy. Ouch.

Beginning of week 3

Yesss! We’re half-way through classes. My linguistics exam was so easy that it was almost a joke. I actually could have probably given that test to my high school students. Yet, surprisingly, many people thought it was hard. I can’t understand that, especially since he told us EVERYTHING, and I mean everything that was going to be on the test. It’s just basically comparing English grammar with Spanish grammar, but it’s mostly Spanish, which is why I don’t understand why people don’t get it. This is the stuff we teach to our students. You should know what a past perfect subjunctive verb is or what a present perfect progressive indicative verb is, right? Can anyone give me examples in Spanish or English? Anyway, my second exam wasn’t so great. It was the literature one. I actually think I did pretty terrible because I didn’t know the answers to some of the questions. But it turns out that everybody in the class thought that they did poorly because it was so hard, so I don’t feel so bad. The culture exam was also kind of a joke. He gave us 15 minutes to take it. He had a list of really broad topics that we had talked about in class, and we had to choose one and write about it, using only the lines he had drawn on the paper…no more than that. We were able to use our notes, so I just copied down exactly what I had in my notes.

After that last exam, Rigoberta Menchu came to talk to us. She’s kind of a big deal in Guatemala, and she came with body guards and all. She won the Nobel Peace Prize, and ran for president in the last election. There’s a book written about her life, but it’s kind of controversial because apparently some things were exaggerated by the author who interviewed her. Regardless, she’s had a rough life growing up Mayan. Her whole family was killed violently when she was younger. She taught herself Spanish, and she speaks it like a native. It was pretty cool to hear her speak. In that culture class, we’ve actually had a total of 3 speakers…all authors of books we’re reading. Last week, we had a female poet named Ana Maria Rodas come in and read some of her poetry and answer questions. She was extremely interesting. I hope the next two are good too. I have yet to read their books. I probably won’t since I have so much other reading to do.

Monterrico was alright this weekend, but I kind of feel like I wasted my entire weekend. When we got there, it was hot, humid, and sunny. But we had to eat first, and the service was extremely slow. It took us two hours to finish eating, and by that time, the sun was behind some thick clouds. I still swam in the pool. The water temp was perfect. The ocean was different there. It’s the Pacific, but the sand is black. I’ve never seen anything like it. The waves were enormous, and it was pretty dangerous to go in the water, but I just dipped my feet in, and it was soooo warm! I’m not used to that. It’s always so cold in CA. Anyway, we were looking forward to sun the next day. Sunday comes….zero sun, not even for 1 second. It was rainy and windy, and we all just wanted to go back to Antigua. Very disappointing. I’m as pasty-white as ever, and I didn’t get anything done this weekend that I needed to get done. The biggest excitement on Sunday was seeing a big sea turtle. I was just sitting by the pool when suddenly I saw a lifeguard sprint toward the ocean. I thought someone was in trouble because some other hotel workers started running too. Then, the guy came up holding a huge turtle, and he plopped it on the sand closer to our hotel. We were all oohing and aahing over it, taking pictures until we realized it was dead. Poor thing…it still looked alive. She even had eggs that she was going to bury in the sand. It was so sad.

Anyway, on that note, I’m off. Bye!

Update

Ok, so 2 people were killed on that bus, not 10. What a relief, huh? (sarcastic)

Incident

Well, there was a little scare this morning with a girl from our group. She was leaving her house alone at 9:30 this morning, when she saw a car driving really slowly near her. They stopped, and a man came out with a hanker chief covering the bottom half of his face, and started coming at her. Before he could do anything, she screamed like crazy and started running back to her house (which was really close). The car drove away, and nothing happened. Her house is pretty much right next to ours, so that's wonderful.

Things like this just make me want to go home. Apparently yesterday in Guat. City, some thieves got on a bus and killed 10 people. Why?.......Why? I just don't get it. Once again, I'm living in fear constantly. August really can't come fast enough.

Tomorrow is exam day, and I have 3 of them! Wish me luck! Then it's off to the beach for the weekend.

1 week down, 3 more to go

Ah, week 2.…one of the most stressful weeks. All of the midterm exams are Friday, and there’s so much “unknown.” What will be on the tests? What’s the format? Well, I already know that they’re all essay style, but I’m pretty worried that I won’t know what to write. I’m really trying not to stress out, so I‘ve just been doing the normal routine: Get up early, go to the gym, shower, eat breakfast, go to first class, come home and eat lunch, go back to 2nd and 3rd classes, come home and eat dinner, talk around the dinner table, read a little, then go to bed earlier than any other student in the program. Notice there’s not much time for studying in there. I really should be studying or reading right now, but this only takes about 5-10 minutes to write. I usually just write these in word documents the night before, then copy and paste them online the next day.

One of my housemates, Lindsay and I have been doing a lot together. She’s the one who always goes to the gym with me and we have all of our classes together. She’s from Ohio, near where my aunt and uncle live. It’s funny how us Midwesterners kind of stick together. My good friends here are from Chicago, Indiana, and Ohio. We all went out to the big market that they have here on Saturday. That place is dangerous…as far as spending money goes. I vowed to not buy anything here because I don’t have room in my suitcase, but I kept seeing cute things and I just couldn’t help it. Later that night, everybody in our house went to a Cuban restaurant for dinner, and they had live salsa music. We were pretty much the only ones there…or so we thought. There was a loft above, and who came walking down the stairs to leave? Our professors! Really? Of all the restaurants in the city, we all ended up at the same one? But unlike high schoolers, we don’t think it’s weird to see our professors in public. We actually realize that they are people too, and do things outside of a classroom.

Us Midwesterners went to a buffet brunch on Sunday at an amazing café. Afterwards I wasn’t feeling so well, so I decided to go home while the rest of them found a place to watch the World Cup final. On the way home, I was craving a McFlurry from McDonald’s because I had seen a commercial about a new flavor: Mint chocolate chip! So even though I wasn’t feeling well, I stopped and ordered one, with Oreo crumbs in it too! This McDonalds was amazing. It’s like a nice restaurant with flat screen Tvs, a huge garden and fountain with Ronald McDonald sitting on a bench nearby, and of course a play land. It’s probably the nicest restaurant in Antigua, and it’s by far the nicest McDonalds that I’ve seen. Anyway, I called Mom and talked to her while I ate my McFlurry. Afterwards, needless to say, I felt even worse, but it was soooo worth it! I haven’t been able to eat many sweets since I’ve been here, so I was craving something sweet for so long.

Well, this definitely took me longer than 10 minutes…oopsie! Sorry, but most of my journal entries from here on out will continue to be about nothing. I could make it more exciting by telling about some drama and scandal going on here, but that wouldn’t be very nice of me, would it?

Earthquake!

Last night at exactly 1:20 AM I was shaken awake, not by Esther but by an earthquake! It wasn't too big, but it's always a little scary when you wake up to that. For the two girls in the house from Chicago and Ohio, it was their first earthquake. You don't really want to be in a third world country when one hits. Anyway, about 10 min. later I texted Jordan and he looked it up and it was a 4.7 about 20 miles away, so it wasn't that bad.

I've had two days of classes so far. I really love my linguistics class. The professor is super nice, and I just love grammar, so it's super easy. I can't say the same about my two afternoon classes (4 hours in a row of torture). I hate literature, and my Guatemalan culture class is disappointingly boring. I love learning about the Mayan culture, but I just can't pay attention in his class. It's two hours of him talking at us with Power Point slides. I'm nervous about the tests in these two classes because I don't really know what they would test us on. I'm nervous about not passing. I think maybe I have some form of ADD because I REALLY can not pay attention in those classes. We get out at 7:00 PM from the last class, and it's really dark out, and scary to walk home even though we walk in a big group with the 3 guys who live in our house. At the end of the day I'm just so exhausted and in a bad mood.

In other news, the food is great here! Our host mom really knows how to cook! She's super nice too. Her sister comes to help her out during the day since there's so many people to cook for.

Yesterday, I went with a housemate Lindsay to a gym to get a month membership. We went this morning, and wow, I feel so out of shape. There are classes every day, and we're planning on doing tae bo on Tuesdays. The classes are right in the middle of the gym and the machines are surrounding that area, so it's kind of awkward with everyone watching you. The gym is small, but it's bigger than the one I went to in Spain, and there are lots of elliptical machines instead of one.

Ok, time for class. Later.

In Antigua!

Hoe-leigh-kow! We made it to Antigua! What a bus ride. I wasn’t sick this time (yay) , but some other people were sick. We drove through a huge thunder storm. It was so cool since I haven’t seen lightning in a while. We also saw more mud slides. Man, those things are crazy. We saw someone’s house that had collapsed, and it was pretty sad. Also, when we were almost in Antigua, we went by this area where I think the road actually collapsed and dropped down a hundred feet or so with the mud. It was scary because the drop-off right next to us was huge and the road was extremely bumpy.

Anyway, when we got here, we got our family assignments. I found out that not only am I with Esther, but with 5 other people in the same house….. 3 of them boys. Uhhhh….what? I wasn’t too happy about that. I didn’t sign up to live with boys. Then I saw that the woman who we are living with had a little girl with her. I specifically put on the housing form that I didn’t want a family with little kids. I mean, yeah, they’re cute and whatever but I didn’t want any little ones bugging me to play while I studied. I was really angry on the crammed van ride to the house, and praying that there was more than one bathroom.

So we get to the house and….it’s freakin HUGE…like incredible. It’s just one woman and her daughter that live here. Each group has their own room (me and Esther, two other girls, and the 3 boys) with a bathroom connected! We also have a tv in each bedroom. I haven’t checked for cable yet. It’s seriously like a hotel here. I’m just sooooo shocked, and I feel extremely lucky. She even has a water purification machine thing in her kitchen, so the water is safe to drink here. Also, there’s internet! Can this get any better? Well, yeah, I guess if it were Wifi it would be better, but still! We’ll have to share it between all of us, but the hotel where we are having classes has Wifi, so no biggie. We all sat down and had tea and biscuits and talked to our mom, Ana Lucia. There are seriously no rules except don’t bring boys or girls home that don’t already live here. Oh, and guess what??? We have HOT WATER!!!! AHHHHH! I can’t believe it. I’m gonna pass out because I am so excited as I’m writing this.

Later, as Esther and I were organizing the room, two people came to our bedroom door and introduced themselves. They are this Asian couple from Boston that are living here too for about 3 more weeks. They look so young, but they can’t be as young as I thought because they have their masters degree and have been working for a while I think. They don’t really know Spanish, but they wanted to learn so they came down here for 4 weeks to go to the Spanish school that our host mom teaches in. Oh, and guess what their names are? Apple and Moses ….. Does that sound familiar?

Tomorrow we’re getting a tour of the city, so I’m excited for that! I just can’t believe all of this!

My head was in the clouds

No, really, my head was literally in the clouds. On our bus ride today, we got up to 11,000 ft. I think. Either that or 10,000. We drove through clouds and it was magical. This bus ride didn't get me sick, but don't worry, I was already feeling sick before I got on. By the end of the 2 1/2 hrs, I thought I was gonna die. When we were 4 blocks from our hotel, I almost got out to walk there (the professor told me to). But I figured that I would get there after the bus even though it wasn't moving at the time. I was soooo happy to be in our hotel room! But I'm really sick right now, like the kind of sick I didn't want to be while here or while travelling....the embarrassing sick. I just don't think the food here is agreeing with me. Most of it is really similar to what I normally eat, but maybe it's the way they prepare it? I don't know, but I probably shouldn't have eaten what I ate at lunch today. It was a "ham" and cheese sandwich, but I actually think that it was a Spam and cheese sandwich for real.

Anyway, the highway that we were on most of the time was pretty nice. The only bad thing is that there were some pretty serious mudslides covering two whole lanes. Oh, and something kind of off topic....I have a really hard time seeing the dogs here. They're like wild animals and I saw more dog road kill than I ever wanted to see. I think the saddest one was when we were driving through the clouds, 3 dogs ran across our two lanes to the other side of the highway where there was a car coming right at them (but it didn't hit them). I noticed that the dogs stopped in the middle of the road and when we went by, we saw that they were sniffing what was probably a buddy of theirs that looked like he was hit recently. Maybe he was still alive and they were trying to help him. :( Everybody on the bus sadly said, "Awwwwwwwwww." I wanted to cry. Dogs (and cats) are like humans to me as many of you know.

Sorry for updating when nothing's really happening! Btw....we have a 9-hour bus ride on Saturday! :)

Chi Chi's

Let's see....how can I describe the trip over here to Chichicastenango? Insane?...yeah, that. I'm so car-sick right now. The roads are crazy and this land is so mountainous that you're constantly going up and down 1,000s of feet on the mountains. The drivers are insane. Apparently you can just pay to get your license here, so most drivers suck at driving. They were constantly passing us on curves. Not really smart when there's a thousand foot drop right next to you. And these were public buses too, not just cars. We had to go though a couple of small towns, and we couldn't make this one left turn. The bus driver was going back and forth and back and forth and we just couldn't make it. We created a huge traffic jam for about 30 minutes....seriously. I was trying to imagine if that happened in LA. People would be shooting each other. But nobody got upset here. Nobody's in a hurry, and it must be normal for buses to get stuck trying to make a turn there. People got out of their cars, came out of their shops to help direct the bus. Anyway, we ended up having to go the wrong way on a one-way street in order to make it through the town. That was quite an adventure. We ended up making it to our hotel alive thankfully. I was so tense that whole ride. I think I'm going to take a nap and try to chill out. The thing is, we'll have to do this all over again tomorrow when we leave!

Post #2

I posted two today that I had written on my computer before I got the internet. Read below for the first one.

Today was a great day to get to know some people. There are 44 of us this year, compared to 33 last year. Many students are first-year students, so I've been trying to learn names and get to know them a little. There are actually a few people who look so much like other people I know. This one guy, Miguel looks so much like Chad Craig...just more Mexican. It's crazy! And there's one girl, Jessica who looks just like Nikki Francek. Another girl looks like Amanda Buschlen.

This morning we took the boat out on the lake to go to a small town, San Juan, Laguna. The ride was about 30 minutes long, and the view was incredible. The lake is literally surrounded by volcanoes. San Juan was very cute. We went to this weaving place, and this pretty little 16 yr. old girl explained to us the process of weaving. It's a crazy art. It takes so much patience. The people were so nice. It wasn't like in Mexico where the people bug you to try to get you to buy their stuff, and nobody asked for money. When you'd walk down the street, everybody said hi to you. Also, in all of these little pueblos around the lake, the women have their own unique clothing. It's very pretty.

We also went to an elementary school, and many of us brought stuff for the kids: candy, pencils, bracelets, etc. Someone probably should have thought of a more organized way to do it because the kids were attacking us. I had some candy in my purse, and once I gave a piece to one kid, a huge herd of them flocked to me saying, "Just one, please." Then when some started reaching into my purse, I had to say that there was nothing left (although I had plenty left). They were pushing into each other and into me with their hands out, and I didn't have enough for everybody. It was kind of like having a piece of bread in your hands with pigeons all around you....scary.

We got back on the boat and went to another larger town called Santiago, Atitlan. It was very different there, and much like Mexico with the vendors. They would actually follow you around with their stuff trying to get you to buy it. I didn't like this place so much....maybe it was because it was pouring rain the entire time there (the weather was fine before that) or maybe it was because there were older teenagers walking around carrying machetes. Anyway, we ate there and watched part of the Spain soccer game. By the time everyone got back on the boat, we were all soaking wet. My shoes and socks and the bottom of my jeans were soaked. I hope they all dry before we leave tomorrow. We'll be headed to Chichicastenango tomorrow, which is famous for it's market apparently. Well, 'tis all. Must get back to reading!

Arrival

This is what I wrote on 6/28 on my computer when I didn't have the internet:

Well, I made it to Guatemala safely! On the flight from Atlanta to Guatemala City, I was sitting next to two men who were on separate mission trips, so I talked to them a little. As the plane was going down to land (we were a few hundred feet off the ground maybe), we felt it suddenly go up. That was the steepest I've gone up in a plane, and we ended up thousands of feet above the ground again. Everybody was wondering what happened because it was so sudden. It turned out that something just needed to be cleared off the runway so we had to circle like 5 times through the rainclouds.

Our professor was waiting for us (there was another student on my flight) outside the airport, and we were shuttled over to the hotel quickly. It was a super nice hotel called Barcelo. It used to be a Mariott. Now, we're in a hotel right on Lake Atitlan. The drive over here was something else! It's been raining pretty hard all day, so the roads are pretty bad. There are miniature mud slides everywhere. Also, we always seemed to be driving on the edge of a 5,000 ft. drop-off. It's so mountainous here, but pretty (even in the rain). I don't mind this cool weather, but it would be nice if it stopped raining so that the clouds wouldn't be in the way of the pretty views. I hear it rains almost every day here, but usually in the afternoon.

Tomorrow we'll be taking a boat on the lake to some villages called San Juan and Santiago Atitlan. We'll be on foot most of the time so we should expect to get dirty from all the mud!

In other news....I'm dying to know what's happening on the Bachelorette right now! I don't feel like paying for the Internet yet, so I can't watch it. I've already read the spoilers, so I know what's going to happen, but I still want to watch it. My roommate, Esther just told me that she met Allie (the bachelorette) a few weeks ago when she was in San Francisco. Apparently they have a mutual friend of a friend of a friend or something, and they all went to some bar together. Allie even lent Esther her jacket because she was cold. How cool is that? I think it's totally rad!

Alright, it's off to dinner then reading time! Yay!

Nerves

I have been very on-edge these past few days. As the time comes closer to leave, I can hardly concentrate on anything. I just realized that I should have started reading for my classes like a month ago. I don't know how I'm going to do well in my classes when we have to read a novel and a half each week written in ancient Spanish.

I was stupid again last night and searched about safety in Guatemala, and I am now absolutely terrified to go. It's more real now that I know that I will actually be there in 5 days. I thought to make myself feel better, I'd go to the US Dept. of State's website on Spain. If there were just as many violent things listed there as on Guatemala's page, I wouldn't feel so scared because I didn't really feel unsafe in Spain. But, there was actually nothing listed. Pick-pocketing is the most common crime in Spain where as armed robbery and rape are quite common in Guatemala to foreigners. Oh, and it's on the rise in Antigua too, which is where I'll be staying for 4 weeks. Awesome. I think I'm most scared for when we're traveling on the tour bus because I keep reading about 5-7 armed men hijacking tour buses, taking them to remote locations and robbing everybody and raping women. This happens on the main roads, which is what I'm assuming we will be taking. I just don't want to go. I hate leaving Jordan, and I just have a really bad feeling about this trip.

Why does there have to be so much violence in this world? I don't understand it. I also don't understand why our program is taking us to such a violent country. I feel like we're going to Afghanistan. They should have just stuck with Costa Rica, which is where we were originally going to go. In two years, we're supposed to go to Mexico. If so, I'm skipping that year. Mexico has a big piece of my heart, but it has become so screwed up recently, and I have no desire to go there right now. I never thought I would say that.

Anyway, if you think of it, please pray for our group's safety (we have about 40 people). I just don't want anything bad to happen to anyb0dy.

Going to Guatemala

So it's summer #2 with my grad program at Sacramento State, and we're going to Guatemala. We'll be staying in Antigua for 4 weeks, and traveling all over the rest of the country for 10 days. I'll be leaving on June 26th and arriving on my birthday. Here are some pictures of what's been happening in Guatemala recently:



There have also been some massive mud slides. So yeah, hopefully that excitement dies down before I get there.

I have been getting more and more excited to go as I keep talking to people who know somebody that's been there and loved it. As many of you know, I've been a little nervous to venture into this country. I've learned not to go to the US State Department's website because they make it sound like you have a 10% chance of surviving and a 100% chance that everything you bring there will be stolen. Take a peek at the website and you'll see what I'm talking about: http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1129.html

Anyway, I'm not sure how often I will update because I'll be taking three classes instead of two (like I took in Spain). I'll be rooming with the same roommate I had in Spain: Esther from Brazil, so I'm happy about that. I'm just very excited to be able to use my Spanish every time I speak for 5 1/2 weeks. My skills can only improve from that. I love being forced to speak Spanish because many times that's the only way I'll do it, and that's the best way to get better.

So, leave me comments as you read. I love hearing from you all! Have a great summer!