For the past three weeks (and for the next three months, too), I've had the pleasure of spending at least 5 hours a day in this beautiful place learning Spanish. It's certainly easier to go to an 8:00 A.M. class when you're greeted by smiling faces, cups of coffee, and sheer beauty in the courtyard. I swear, there's a geranium there that is taller than me (no, really, it can happen!). Between the beauty of the school, the people, and the wonderful time to mingle with maestras and other students during la pausa (the break), my first three weeks here have been a joy.

My maestra for the first three weeks is named Monica (tomorrow I will have a new maestra - sniffle). We had quite a lot of fun together, I must say. So much fun, in fact, that a few other students actually commented about it to me (whoops). For instance, we watched this one day in class, and then sat there giggling for at least 5 minutes. :D

In addition to spending plenty of time on grammar (5 hours of Spanish a day is a LOT!), we spend quite a lot of time just having conversations. Monica and I have talked about history, poverty and other forms of social injustice, abortion, and the civil war in Guatemala to name just a few topics. One of my favorite topics so far? Rigoberta Menchú. Feminist that I am, it figures that I would like a strong, female, peace activist. The Wikipedia page linked above doesn't necessarily have the most complete information, but it gives you some idea. La vida interesante!

I'm almost to the end of my second week here in Guatemala, and it sure has been difficult to have time to update the blog!

My flights to Guate were uneventful, which was nice, and I was able to get through Customs and Immigration in Guatemala City without any problems and without losing my bags. In my book, that's an awesome ride!

Once I made it to the outside of the airport, it was slightly crazy. most people were shouting at me "Antigua $10," and it took me a moment to find the others in my group in the huge crowd that was waiting. Once we were all assembled, Our director called up our bus, and we were on our way to Xela!

It's hard to describe how terrifying it is being a passenger on the highways of Guate. Think riding in the front of an Irish bus, but on the side of a mountain, and with the traffic rules of India (a.k.a. none to speak of). It was like living through an episode of "Most Dangerous Roads." This picture looks so tranquil, but we were speeding along so fast, it was actually very hard to get a picture to turn out nicely. The speed, uncertainly, and sometimes outright danger combined with the altitudes made the ride quite exhausting. Not to mention the smell of burning garbage, which is quite pervasive in the countryside because frequently los campesinos don't really have much wood to burn, so they burn their garbage. It's hard to describe the images of extreme poverty that are so apparent here in Guate, we definitely live in a privileged existence in the U.S.

About 4 hours after leaving the airport, we were finally arriving in Xela with a police escort (because, you know, police escorts aren't conspicuous at all...), and we got our bus stuck. Yup, stuck. In the street. Between a car and a pole.  My favorite was the Guatemalan ingenuity that got us unstuck: gather 20 or so random men from the street (as well as the six Johnnies we have with us on the trip) to physically pick up the car and move it. Memorable, to say the least! After that we were able to make it to the language school without any more problems and meet all of our host families.

I'm living with a younger family. I have a host mother (of course!), an abuela (grandmother) and a host brother and sister who are 14 and 4, respectively. So far, I've really enjoyed living with them, It's quite amazing how four year olds can make games out of almost anything - yesterday we (my host sister and I) spent twenty minutes walking/running back and forth down the hallway. It was, apparently, hysterical. Ah! La vida guatemalteca!

 Jose Martí was a Cuban poet, but it really is an appropriate quote for the moment... "I am art among arts, in the mountains I am a mountain."*  Fitting for a high altitude destination, right? 

After a semester of preparation, including several group meetings, a paper, a research proposal, reading guidebooks, and lots of $$, I'm about to head off for four months in Guatemala. My destination is Quetzaltenango, or Xela as it's known to the locals. I'll be living with a host family and taking intensive Spanish classes, as well as a theater course and a Guatemalan history course.

Until recently, with the exception of the money, all of these preparations have seemed somewhat abstract. Then came the part about packing. Amusingly, the packing list reflected a side of Guatemala that was downplayed during the application process...

Ehuh, that's right - written between those lines is the implication "you will most likely be sick!" at one point on the list they recommend packing an extra pair of underwear when you go out - admittedly wise. I confess that I'd thought of this before, but the sheer quantity of pharmaceutical type products suggested for packing kind of floored me. Take a look...

Yup, that takes up about a third of my pack. The only luggage I'm bringing along is a 60 liter hiking backpack, and my anti-explosivepoo (and other health) products take up about a third of it, and this is sans the prescriptions, like anti-malaria pills, that are all packed in my carry-on.

Now, this is what I call an adventure! :D

Next challenge? Getting my entire life for the next 4 months to fit into one 60 liter pack and only weigh 50 lbs. Challenge Accepted!






* Translation is my own, and probably quite crappy!