Pausing Here and There

Hola todos! Today I started my first day of school. On Sunday, Sarah and Megan and I went out and bought school supplies. It was quite cute. I also endured a 2 hour yoga class with some of the wierdest moves I´ve seen at a yoga class thus far, but hey, when in Rome.

Since Megan and Sarah are at a different school, I´m not sure when I´ll see them next, but I´m sure we will figure out a routine…perhaps studying at our favorite little cafe, La Luna. First, I´ll have to find out where they live!

My school, Proyecto Linguistico (or plq), is amazing! I´ve been placed in a homestay with a very nice woman, Dona Yolanda, her husband and her daughter, Yohanna (who is 21). I feel like I´ve already learned so much from my teacher, Laura, and have met some nice people whom I will hopefully befriend.

The house is organized around a courtyard where a fig tree (los higos) grows. There are also pigeons and turkeys in this courtyard, and a place to do the dishes. Dona Yoland is an amazing cook, who runs a little comedor for the teachers of the school at lunchtime. Once I get a little Spanish under my belt, I´ll see if I can learn a few Guatemalan dishes. My room is very big, but totally without windows. This morning, around 5:00 I awoke to the sound of the turkeys calling, totally disoriented. Everything was pitch black. I tried to ignore the Guatemalan bed–so many springs sticking into my back–and the turkeys and go back to sleep, but there was no doing it. Oh well, sleep is for the dead anyhow.

There is much to do here as every afternoon there are movies, conferences, trips, etc… scheduled, as well as a giant library full of books about Guatemala and Central American history. I´m very excited to begin learning more! Maybe I´ll finally read Bitter Fruit, as it was again recommended to me here.

I study Spanish every day from 8:00 until 1:00. Today I learned the verb ´ser´, to be, and described lots of people from Shakira to President Bush to Che Guevera using my newly learned verb and adjectives. Yippy.

We get a half hour break to sit and drink tea and coffee and eat bread and soak up the sunshine as it is somewhat bitterly cold here. I was SOOO happy I brought the sleeping bag after all last night.

All in all, I´m feeling much better about Xela. Kisses to all.