I departed on September 7th and, with no troubles getting through security and customs, arrived in Guatemala on the same day! The view flying into Guatemala City was much like you may see in a movie, with many mountains and dozens of small villages built on the tops of mountains. It was an amazing sight!
Waiting at the airport to greet us was our "Papa en Guatemala," Elder, who will be our host for the next three months. He is a great man who has done an excellent job of making us all feel welcome in his home. From the airport, we took a bus from Guatemala City to Antigua, where we will be studying and living. After a brief greeting from the staff at the school, we went to our host homes for the first time!
Our home is very beautiful, with a small courtyard in the middle and rooms surrounding it, common in Guatemala. We are fortunate to have wireless internet in our home, allowing us to communicate a bit more easily than our classmates in other host homes. Our "mama," Marina, is an excellent cook, and we have eaten very well since our arrival. There are two other students that live in our home, and it is cool to be able to meet new people. The four of us are split between two rooms, one in one room and three in the other. Our room is small, but very comfortable. Below is a short video we put together of our living situation.
Something amazing about Guatemala is the climate. They call this the land of eternal Spring! This is not an exaggeration. Perfect weather is the expectation every day. We are in the middle of the rainy season, which consists of, perhaps, thirty minutes of rain every day. Hardly what I would call a "rainy" day. Otherwise, we enjoy sunshine all day with little to no humidity, allowing very cool temperatures in the shade. Basically, the weather is perfect.
Communication is a challenge, as we have not started Spanish lessons and I am in need of some practice. I find that I am comprehending everything well, but it takes me longer than I'd like to formulate sentences. What makes matters a little more interesting, none of my three housemates speak any Spanish! So I find that when our hosts say something to us (they don't speak any English), I listen, take a second to process, respond, and then go about my business, missing the blank stares coming from my compadres. I then quickly remember my duties as a translator. It is very encouraging, however, that each of my friends are very enthusiastic about learning!
A tip to friends thinking about going abroad: Study the language of the country you will be visiting before you get there. I am here to learn Spanish, but there are things I wish I would have brushed up on!
So far, we have enjoyed Antigua as tourists and have not started classes. They begin tomorrow, and everyone will take at least three weeks of Spanish. Language majors, however, will be taking Spanish the whole time. I am excited for classes to start, as well as a bit nervous. The style of the classes will be one-on-one tutoring. More on this next week.
Perhaps the only part of the trip that I have not enjoyed (not including missing friends at home) is when I was very sick on Friday. Early in the morning, I woke up with stomach pains and everything that goes with them. Throughout that day, I was unable to enjoy the beautiful ruins that we visited and could not help sleeping through a very interesting guest speaker we had. Headaches, neck-aches, and an upset stomach made it hard to enjoy the day at all. We believe that the sickness was caused by a general need to get used to the food and new bacteria. Three of the four of us got sick, while none of our female counterparts, to my knowledge, experienced any symptoms. A point of information: illness related to traveling and a new culture and food has been known to hold back until weeks into a visit, as happened to a friend of mine. I feel one hundred percent now and am enjoying much Guatemalan food!
Lastly, I will talk about a few of the sights we have seen. As this type of reporting is not my strong point, I will only touch on them briefly, adding pictures, which will be much more valuable than my words (Keep in mind that photography is not my strong suit, either. Thanks to my Motorola Droid X for the very decent photos.).
Most of the historical structures in the city are in ruins due to earthquakes and other various forces. Today we watched a video and Antigua was described as being one of the most beautiful places that the writer had seen, while being the most calamity-ridden and in shambles. I find this to be very accurate. As earthquakes and volcano eruptions have been relatively common in Antigua's history, much of the city has been left damaged. Many of the ruins have been turned into museums and art galleries. This allows for history to be preserved, while making the ruins useful for bringing tourism to the city. The city has been revived, as of late, by a few individuals taking action in bringing tourism in. This allows for more restaurants and hotels to exist and historical areas to be appreciated and preserved. Rightly, much of the money brought into the city by tourism is put back into restoring structures, art, and other points of historical interest, while supporting industry.
Before you look at the pictures and lose interest all together, I would like to say thanks again for taking a look at my blog. Don't forget to email me with any questions and tell your friends who may be interested about this blog!
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| This is a famous arch in the city. |
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| You will never guess where this is... |
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| That's right! Good ole McD's! |
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| A church. |
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| Our group at the ruins of a monastery. |
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| Each morning, I walk out my door and am surrounded be three volcanoes! |
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| The Captain's General Quarters |
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| A church. |
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| Some beautiful arches in more ruins. |
http://www.iie.org/en/Programs/Gilman-Scholarship-Program
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