Me gusta tortillas!

Hola! 
So it feels like I´ve been here a whole lot longer than I have.  That´s not at all a comment insinuating that stuff is bad, instead it is more of a shock of how much I have learned and done and seen and been overwhelmed by in only 4.5 days.  One of my favorite things, that should come of no surprise to any of you who observe my eating habits, is that at every one of the 12 meals I have had thus far, we have had tortillas.  Me gusta tortillas mucho.  Sadly, I have yet to see cheese on tortillas.  But meat, rice, beans, and eggs are very common (yes, there is no way I am able to carry on my vegetarian lifestyle in Guatemala... that´s okay though, I´ve come to terms with it and am learning to enjoy meat).  There is also coffee... everywhere... it´s great.

I will be putting pictures online soon (tomorrow possibly!). I´m currently in an internet cafe and am struggling with the keyboard... therefore the thought of pictures is a bit overwhelming.  I´ll find a place where I can bring my laptop with me and go from there.  YAY!  You should be excited for pictures... starting now.  It´s really pretty around here =)

But, regardless, here is a synopsis of Katharine´s life in Guatemala thus far.  We spent Monday getting our bearings and energy back after a 230am departure from the retreat center in New York.  Flying into Guatemala City was crazy... at one point, Laura and I looked at each other simultaneously, completely shocked by the site of a motorcycle driving by us, between the lanes of traffic, with a guy in the back holding a giant rifle.  I´m beginning to understand why my overprotective father was insitent upon taking me shooting before I leave (although I sincerely hope and believe that my new target skills are not necessary).  Guatemala City clearly has a lot of poverty and is a place that many locals (as well as our supervisor) have told us not to go.  It´s sad.  Driving through the city, you could definitely see a clash of modernism and the original culture of the people. There were signs for cell phones, wrangler jeans, and a lot of fast food restaurants interspersed between tin roofed houses and people wearing jeans, tshirts, and traditional mayan clothing... and everything in between. 

We woke up Tuesday morning in the hotel and restuarant and event center (if I knew where the slash on this computer was, it would be in place of the ¨ands¨) place we stayed at in Antigua.  It was great!  The kitchen made us traditional food so we could get accustomed to it (and I could learn to eat meat) and the place was gorgeous.  After breakfast, Marcia (our amazing supervisor person) arranged for us to be tourists for a morning in Antigua.  We got to walk through the colonial ruins, hearing the ¨history¨(absolute truth is not quite as valued here as it is elsewhere) and enjoying the sights.  I´ll put up mucho picturas mañana. In the afternoon, Marcia took us to the market, showed us the supermarket, pharmacies, and got us set up for cellphones.  We also got a drum and maracas and those of us with rhythm (aka everyone but me) used them as we worshipped.  It was really fun. 

Wednesday was a really great day where we woke up early and hiked up the hill behind our hotel with Ullysses, our server, to a cross that overlooks the city.  It was GORGEOUS and we even saw El Fuego, the volcano, let off some steam (evidently that´s rather common, but I was excited!).  The rest of the day was spent with Juli, Andrew, Laura, Tina, Marcia and I telling our stories of where we came from and why we´re in Guatemala.  It´s great to know all these great people better and it´s amazing how much you learn about yourself when you tell your story.  It´s going to be a great year.

Yesterday was our first day of school.  We got picked up by the bus and moved all our stuff to our new town where our school and host families are.  It´s San Juan del Obispo in the municipad Sacatepéquez.  We´re about a thirty minute bus ride from Antigua.  I´m living with Gloria and Phillipe and their two sons in their early 20s.  They´re really nice and we had a great conversation at dinner utilizing a mix of charades and the spanish-english dictionary. I´m excited to learn more and more spanish.  Not knowing the language is a bit isolating.  But, I´m in one on one Spanish lessons with my teacher, Hillario, for 4 hours each morning, and he is teaching me a lot.  I currently am mastering the present tense of verbs.  It´s ironic that one of my primary goals while living in Latin America is to learn to live in the present.  That isn´t hard when you can´t talk about the past or future!  We also learned how to use the bus system here.  It was an adventure... one that may deserve its own post.  But all is well and I´m learning more and more! 

Well, we´re going to go dodge between rainstorms and finish our selfguided tour of San Juan.  Hope all is well! Miss you!
Love, Katharine