¡Hola Guatemala!

We did it! We are here! We flew into Guatemala City around noon yesterday. Getting through immigration was quick and easy and we all found our bags! We walked outside of the airport to a huge crowd of Guatemalans. They stood waiting for family, selling food, and offering to help with luggage. I loved the excitement! Right away we had a little boy come up to us, pushing his brother in a wheelchair. He tapped one of our girls on the shoulder and then just stood and stared at us. It was frustrating to not be able to communicate with him!

Our instructor Paul had a shuttle driver that he knew well come pick us up. Our bags fit tightly into the back of the van and then we were off! Driving through Guatemala City was eye opening. We drove very fast. The cars, buses and motorcycles did not seem to have personal boundaries-it was not uncommon to be driving right next to a bus and then have a motorcycle somehow fit right in between you! Mountains and a volcano were the background as we sped through the city. We passed trucks with kids lying in the back, sitting on piles of construction material. We passed Chicken Buses that transported many Guatemalans, quickly picking up and dropping off people in some sort of system that seemed to work for them. We also saw a lot of tiny homes, tucked away in the trees or lining the roads, with tin roofs and crumbling walls. It really makes you think about how this huge space filled with poverty is only one city, and there is still so much of the world that is exactly like this as well. It's super frustrating that despite the rest of the world being like this, the majority of Americans (myself included) sit at home and do nothing.

We stopped at Pollo Camparo for lunch. I ordered my first meal in Spanish! I was told that Quisiera is the most polite way to say "I would like..." I really enjoyed learning just that little bit. We also learned that public bathrooms didn't provide toilet paper. Luckily, most of the bathrooms we will be using will have toilet paper. Still, that is yet another aspect of life in Guatemala City that is really saddening.

After lunch we drove 45 minutes to Antigua. It was incredible. We were flying by all of these tiny homes and stores, and suddenly we were turning onto a cobblestone street and it was like a different world! Antigua is beautiful. It is really old and completely mesmerizing. We passed many shops and restaurants--apparently the town has about 350 restaurants serving all different styles of food. We drove by a crowd of people walking with a torch, beginning their celebration of their independence day that we will all celebrate next week. We arrived at the girls home stay first, and boy is it incredible. The only way I can describe it is it's an inside outside house--you open the door and suddenly you are in a gorgeous courtyard, that is outside, but still enclosed in the home. The rooms are all accessed outside. It is amazing. Our host mom Cindy is super nice and very hospitable. She has a son named Anderson who is 12 years old but very mature for his age, and a dog named Leo that won't stop trying to hump us. It's okay though, we're happy we have a dog.

We had a quick orientation where we went over Safety tips, class schedules and the calendar of events at our instructor Paul's house. Right now I am feeling nervous about maybe being robbed, but I think once I adjust here I will feel a lot more comfortable, and understand how cautious I need to be.

At 7pm we had dinner with Cindy. It was a simple meal of rice and black beans, but so much more delicious than what we eat in the U.S.! One of the girls in our group is really good at speaking Spanish, so she did the most communicating with Cindy. It was fun though, because we would work together to figure out different things to say to Cindy, even if it was just 'Esta cena es muy bien' (This dinner is very good). Every little bit of speaking Spanish we do is helping us to become more used to using it!

As always, thank you all for your encouragement and excitement over this adventure! I will do my best to continue with updates :)

Our host-dog, Leo! We're convinced that he only understands us when we talk to him in Spanish, so we might speak English to each other but we use a lot of our Spanish on the dog.

The outside of our homestay! So beautiful!

The inside courtyard of our home! I love all of the plants.

On the streets of Antigua!

A picture I took right when we landed in Guatemala!

-Kara