September 19

What a few days I have had! Tuesday, after meeting James in the Miami airport, we flew to Guatemala City, where we arrived around 8:30 PM (they are two hours behind US time). Our driver from the school who was supposed to pick us up was not there when we walked outside the airport after picking up our bags, even though we were about half an hour late. I was quite concerned that they had forgotten all about us and we were going to be abandoned in Guatemala City to find our own way for the night. After one very awkward Spanish phone conversation with Delia, our homestay mom, in which I understood about half of the words she was saying, I decided that she was saying “he’s on his way you should just wait a little bit more”. So we did, and sure enough he showed up, an hour late but quite prompt for “Guatemalan time”. So off we went to Antigua.
Antigua is a beautiful “city”, built in colonial style with cobblestone streets and flowers decorating the streets. Delia’s house was simple but beautiful as well, with all of the rooms opening onto a courtyard in the middle of the casa. She welcomed us with open arms and immediately made us feel at home. Another student from Germany, Anna, was staying at Delia’s house as well and gave us a lot of good insights into places to check out in the city.
Unfortunately after a few days into our stay with Delia she told us she has to go to Guatemala City for either a surgery or a checkup of some tumors in her spine (since she speaks no English whatsoever I’m not sure exactly what it is). So James and I relocated to a small “apartamento” (but really a small house) located on the language school’s property. It’s just fine for our purposes and actually it has a certain homey feeling to it.
As far as the language school goes, things have been wonderful so far! Four hours a day of intense one-on-one conversation in another language is quite draining but really rewarding too because I’ve seen my Espanol improve so much! My teacher for this week was really great and I’ve learned a lot about Guatemalan culture and attitudes from just speaking with her.
I’ll update again soon, for now I’m going to try to run home from this internet café before the afternoon rain hits! Adios amigos!