Mejoraré...I will improve...

Today marks "hump day" of my first week of Spanish lessons. Although I feel like I've been here longer than a week (we arrived in Antigua one week ago today), I also feel like it is already going by rather quickly. It can be hard sometimes, living with people who aren't as familiar with a culture as I am. Having traveled to Guatemala, I can learn to adapt and cope a little bit easier...or so it seems. I am learning to be patient with those around me when they continuously need my help translating or when they aren't used to seeing/doing certain things. It's all a learning process.

Spanish lessons were rather challenging the first two days. I would get so frustrated when my teacher would write down and correct every little mistake I made. I was especially frustrated yesterday because we were covering really simple and basic concepts that I should have mastered by now, and I continuously struggled with certain pronunciations. By the end of the first half (before our 30 minute break), I was crying with some of my friends from SAU because I was so frustrated with myself and the program at SAU. These are things that should come natural to me, and THEY DON'T! By the end of our lesson yesterday, I was able to tell Sabina that I was frustrated about continuously messing up the pronunciation. She was very encouraging (which seemed to be a first), by telling me that we have twelve weeks to practice and it will all come, "poco a poco"...or little by little.

They say, "third time's a charm," and I think that was true today. Today was better. I think I had a little more confidence (which is challenging when they're always correcting you) and I was able to work on pronunciation with a little more "umph." It is so interesting being able to talk with a native speaker and learn all about their culture. Sabina and I have already talked about so much and compared various things about the United States with Guatemala. Today's main subject was the importance of family. I was telling her that in the U.S. there is not the same emphasis on family as there is here in Guatemala. She was so shocked about the lack of respect and love for parents...here in Guatemala, la familia es numero uno.

I can tell that God answered my prayers about getting a good teacher. Sabina is strict and wants her students to work hard. Sometimes it's easy to get discouraged; however, I know that I will truly learn the Spanish language. Mejoraré, I will improve. It will be amazing to see the difference between now and December 16th :)

Hasta luego...

-J

An awesome restaurant experience!

Two posts in one day! Y'all are lucky people!
I wanted to tell you about this awesome restaurant we went to last night. We (our entire group of about 24 people) went to La Peña del Sol Latino last night. We had to choose our orders ahead of time on Saturday and they had everything practically ready when we arrived! It's a super cool restaurant here in Antigua that serves a variety of foods and that has music every night! The following link takes you to their website where you can learn more about it. If you ever come to Antigua, it's a must see!
http://lapenaantigua.com/en/about/index.htm

Here's what I had:

Blended Coconut Lemonade (virgin, of course)

Chicken Kabobs

Cheesecake with a blackberry sauce

During our meal, the restaurants band started playing. They are an Andean band and play all these really sweet instruments! I actually bought one of their CDs for 100Q (about 12 dollars) because they were so good!

It was certainly a really awesome experience! I definitely hope to go back sometime during my stay here in Antigua!

Hasta luego...

-J

Humility.

Today was our first day of Spanish lessons at El Centro Linguistico La Unión. We met at the school at 8am and were placed in a big circle with all of our teachers. We went around the circle and introduced ourselves with our name, where we are from, and what we like to do.
"Hola. Mi nombre es Jennifer. Soy de Michigan en los Estados Unidos. Me gusta pasar tiempo con mis sobrinos."
We were then introduced to our teachers and we got right to work! My teacher is Sabina and she seems to be pretty strict. Not in a bad way, but I can tell that I will certainly have to work hard this semester. It is very humbling to sit down with a person and try to make conversation in their native language. I have spent seven years studying Spanish from high school to college and I am certainly not fluent. I know a lot of things and I can get by with what I know, but it is really hard to speak in Spanish for three and a half hours with someone writing down every little mistake made. I prayed this morning that I would learn a lot and walk away with a knew knowledge of the language...so, let's just say that God answers prayers. I will certainly be learning a lot this semester! However, I don't want to be discouraged when Sabina is always correcting me...I know that things will get better. After all, today was only the first day! 
It is strange right now because I have all the afternoon's free and I speak a lot of English with those on my trip. I really need to work on my Spanish skills and I hope that I can start some volunteer work soon so that I can get to practicing my skills!

This evening we may be going to some Salsa y Meringue lessons for FREE! I'll keep you all posted on how that goes!

Adios amigos!

-J

More funness.

Today is another beautiful day in Antigua, Guatemala. It's amazing that it's pretty much summertime year-round here..except for at night when we get a good amount of rain.

Friday and Saturday were pretty busy days, although we have had some downtime. Here is a rundown of what we did Friday. I figure pictures will do more justice than my own writing, so here ya go! :)

Touring La Iglesia San Francisco la Grande 

Touring El Convento de las Capuchinas

A guest speaker about Guatemalan culture, poverty, human rights, politics, etc. --Matthew Creelman

Our SAU assistant who lives here in Guatemala told us her story --Crystal Steckel Hyde

A viewing of "When the Mountains Tremble" at La Unión (our school)

Saturday was really nice because we got to do something really cool in the morning and then had some good downtime in the afternoon. In the morning we had a three hour tour with Elizabeth Bell who has lived here in Antigua since 1969 and has written three books (I think) about Antigua! She was very entertaining and knew SO much about this place, it was unbelievable! We started in Parque Central and went to the following places:

City Hall

The General's Quarters

The city Cathedral/Ruins

Jade Factory/Museum
Santo Domingo: Ruins and Museums

It was a great tour and we learned a lot about the history of Antigua and how "new" the city really is!



More to come! :)




-J

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

Mañana.

The day is almost here. Mañana. Tomorrow I will head to meet up with my study abroad group and we will begin orientation together before we depart earrrrly Wednesday morning  (3am early). As I spent some time with family and close friends (who might as well be family) today, I kept saying, "I can't believe it's here!" I have been planning and talking about this trip for at least a year and a half and now it's here. Where did the time go?

That's the funny thing about life. It flies, it's but a vapor. The past three years at SAU have gone by so fast, I can barely remember parts. This summer (which I thought would be a slow, relaxing one) has been lost in the mist of time before my very eyes. Soon and very soon, this trip will be over and I will be home freaking out about my student teaching. I can chose to be anxious and nervous about this trip or I can choose to be excited about this adventure that the Lord has blessed me with. I can enjoy each day, soaking everything in and investing my time into truly learning the Spanish language. I can choose to put my time and effort into investing in others' lives.

So, while I write this in the darkness of my room, late at night, I am making a vow: I am going to savor and appreciate every little detail of this trip. I am going to live. I am going to learn. I am going to love. I am going to love with the same love that Christ has given me...because absolutely nothing can separate me from the love of Jesus Christ.

Saying goodnight to my room until December,
-J

Continued Change

Change is good...but, I don't like change. I guess I am going to get over that quickly in the next five days. The Guatemala countdown continues as we have come to FIVE-5-cinco days until we depart! I am getting more and more excited...and more and more nervous too!

Thank you for those of you who had been praying for Papa's procedure. It went well and he is home now. Of course, there are limitations for a few days: no driving/sitting up for more than one hour, no going up and down stairs for two days, etc. He is tired, sore, and groggy. But hopefully we will see how well this procedure worked in the next few days/week! Please continue to lift him up in your prayers.

As you can see, I have changed the layout of my blog. Just a small change because, well, it's a fun change and I can handle this change without much effort.

Here's another "change" that seems to be occurring in me: I am getting more and more adventurous, at least that's what I am starting to think. I recently had dinner with a good friend of mine only to find out that she is taking a semester off from school to complete the Focus Leadership Institute that is put on by Focus on the Family. After her telling me all about it, I got SO excited. More excited for another person than I have been in a looong time! So naturally, I started doing some research. I have officially "bookmarked" the website for the institute and am doing a lot of praying. For some reason I feel this urge to apply for it! Mind you, I wouldn't be able to do it for at least a year. I have to finish school and then work for a little while (it is kind of pricey). But I submitted an inquiry about it and told them that I would be interested in the Spring 2013 program! While this would be yet another adventure in my life, I keep telling myself that I need to do these kinds of things NOW...while I'm young! :) Check out the link to their website and see for yourself how awesome it would be! If it worked out, I could even do an internship with "Enfoque en la familia", the Spanish version of Focus on the Family! How cool!
http://www.focusleadership.org/

Change is inevitable in this life and it is occurring all around me. Some change is not fun. But some change, well, it's awesome. Who knows where God is leading me, I could become a mountain woman after a semester in Colorado Springs!