Spanglish

Hola! Well, I have survived 3 days of classes thus far. My teacher is super patient and knows some English, which is helpful as I keep having to ask "como se dice?" This is getting less and less, though. Yay, I{ve made some progress. But this may not be a good thing as now I can not seem to speak either language, can not think of words in English as well. Perhaps this is a good sign that my mind is shifting to español?? I{ve met a lot of students by participating in each of the afternoon activities. Although this limits my study time I want to learn as much of the culture as I can. There are students from all over the world studying: New Zealand, Germany, Switzerland, France, Canada and most are from the US.

I had my first salsa lesson, very fun! And visited a macadamia nut farm which didn{t live up to the hype as it turned out to be a way to get tourists out to the farm and buy their products. The gardens on the grounds were beautiful, though. But it was totally worth it for the ride on the chicken bus!! Have you heard of these? I guess in smaller villages there are actually chickens on the bus but not in a big city like Antigua. They{re old US school buses that are super colorful on the outside and crammed with people inside. I will never again complain about the buses being crowded in Seattle! There were 3 of us sitting on a seat made for 2, really just half of a butt cheek for me. The turns are crazy, you stop for anyone on the side of the street and there are vendors and preachers that are on the buses, a real Guatemalan experience!!

I{m still loving to walk around the city and explore but I absolutely have to watch every step I take with the cobblestone streets and the buses, cars, motorbikes, and tuk tuks (3 wheeled "taxis") or I{ll certainly get hit. The city itself is very colorful but only 6 colors are allowed on the houses: orange, yellow, white, black, red, and blue but it seems like so many more. It{s also pretty hot here, for me at least, in the 60s or more in the sun but night it cools off. Nightlife has been non-existent, however. After dinner which is at 7 pm, I just talk with the 2 other students and my host family and then study as I end up socializing during the day.

Meals have been pretty basic. Mostly beans at every meal and sometimes a stew. One day we had hot dogs cut up in beans, not for me but Ryan was jealous, ha. I supplement the meals with fun pastries and a coffee in the afternoon, my new routine.

And I did get to see the Oscars in español, quite a good way to learn some Spanish. However, I did not get any of the jokes as John Stewart was dubbed over entirely. Quite fun!

Hasta luego