And so we commence....

It’s official, I have been in Guatemala for a little over 24 hours! ¡Qué maravillosa! It is so wild how fast our travel day went! We spent an hour and a half at the airport in Detroit before boarding our plane and then we were off to Atlanta, where we only spent about 35 minutes! We arrived here in Antigua close to 1pm and were greeted at the school by our host families who helped us get all of our unneeded amounts of luggage to our homes. Our new place of residence is a little apartment off the side of the house and we share a bedroom with one other person. We have a bathroom, small living area and small kitchen (which we won’t really use). It’s a little cramped, but SO cute! Our house-mom is very sweet...and a little bit of a wild woman! ;) There are several family members that live in her little home area including several little kids. After we got settled in yesterday at our homes, we did some banking to exchange money and spent the evening at the home of Paul and Bev (our fearless leaders!). My housemate and I were able to relax a bit and I did have a little breakdown while playing Rummy. We got to laughing so hard that I started crying and that led to full out sobbing...for no apparent reason. All I can think of is that I was extremely tired! After a REALLY long day (starting at 3:00am) we went to bed...and slept like babies.

Today has already gone by so fast! We were able to sleep in a little bit and then met as a group for a walking tour of Antigua. It will definitely take some time to get oriented with the roads, etc. We checked out the mercado (market) and had lunch at Pollo Campero which is becoming more and more famous worldwide. [It’s kind of like a KFC]. We then met again at Paul and Bev’s for a meeting about adjusting to the culture and a good discussion about safety and awareness. We have some free time this evening but aren’t wandering about because the elections are coming up and things are a little more touchy. We have some exciting things planned for the weekend and Spanish lessons start on Monday! I am really excited to get started with that because we have been speaking a lot of English in our group...but that will change!

I am starting to think that it has not hit me yet that we are living here for the next three months, what an experience it will be! I am trying not to be nervous or fearful because I want to enjoy every little bit of this opportunity that I have been given! As my friend’s Dove chocolate wrapper said: “You are exactly where you are supposed to be!” ;)

-J