What a fabulous trip already! It´s hard to figure out exactly where to start, but I suppose the best place is usually the beginning... We arrived in Guatemala City Tuesday morning around 7:00am and were met at the airport by a person who picked us up and took us to the bus station. We were EXHAUSTED by this point after travelling since 6:00pm the day and were happy to have someone meet us there. We found out today, however, that we were COMPLETELY ripped off because she was supposed to charge us US$10 and instead charged us EACH US$25. So it sounds like we won´t have to pay anything for transport back.
Como sea, the drive up through the mountains was absolutely phenomenal once we got on the bus. We passed through rural areas winding up through the mountains. At each stop, people got on the bus trying to sell things. Unfortunately, Raquel charged us an arm and a leg and we still had taxis to pay for so we couldn´t buy anything. (Brit was super-prepared with snacks and all though so we didn´t starve. Thank you, Brit...)
We arrived in Quetzaltenango (Xela) and took a taxi, only to find out that the school had moved location since the last update on the website. A true caricature of our experience with Guatemalan people thus far, the taxi driver waited to see if we needed more help and then some person on the other side of the street yelled across what the new address of Ulew Tinimit is.
We made our way to the school (via nice taxi driver) and met the directora, Ingrid, and then our families came to pick us up. Brit is living with Don Manuel, who works for the school doing maintenence work, and I am staying with Elena, Yuselfi (14 year old daughter) y Jarvis (19 year old son) in their house. Elena´s husband died last year of cancer and she says they are far happier now than they have been since he passed away. There apparently is another person from CO staying with the family but she went to Chiapas and now she´s in El Salvador so I´ll meet her next week.
The first night we arrived, I went to bed at about 7:00pm right after dinner and slept for 12 hours. We started school at 8:00 the next morning so I wanted to be well-rested. We have school for 5 hours each day, 8-1 and it is wonderful! I have spent probably 3/4 of the time with my maestro just talking about life, philosophy, history and anything else that happens to come up. We have formal grammar lessons for about an hour a day (so far). A little bit about my maestro: he is from Xela, went to military school here and decided not to continue. He has worked for the Supreme Court in Guatemala City and was part of a governmental union here. Now he does bicycling tours, organizes some excursions for the school and teaches here and there. He has shared a lot with me about his perspective on Guatemala in our three short days. I will have to share what I have learned another time because I am nearing the end of my session at the internet café...
We went out a couple nights ago to a live salsa band/dance that was absolutely fabulous. Two of the chicos Brit stays with in the house (it´s dorm-style) and one of their friends took us out since it isn´t safe for women to walk alone at night. They were SO nice and we had an absolute blast. We are going out again tonight, no doubt with our "bodyguards," as they called themselves. Tomorrow we are headed to some hot springs and soon I will figure out how to post pictures on the blog. I´ll also be posting some of what I have learned about the history. All in all, this place is absolutely gorgeous, the people are SO nice (it´s customary to say ¨buenos días" or "buenas tardes" to every single person you pass).
I wrote this entry this past Friday (the 23rd, I think) and thought it was lost but HOORAY for auto-saving drafts. So I will continue in a new entry...
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