First Day

I arrived in Guatemala City early Sunday morning without incident. I was met outside of customs by a representative of the school holding a sign with my name. He didn´t say anything when I introduced myself and just started walking, so I followed. We went to the parking lot and he said, ¨carro,¨ so I put my suitcase in the trunk and got in. Once we were driving he started talking and explained that he was going to drop me off at the bus station, but when we got there we had to sit outside and wait for it to open. He talked about the upcoming election and the general state of things in Guatemala City. It was really interesting and he was super tolerant of my terrible broken Spanish. I commented to him that the city seemed incredibly traquil to me and he laughed and reminded me that it was 6 am on a Sunday morning. So I guess I didn´t get to see the real Guatemala City, which is just fine with me.

I caught the bus at 8 and proptly fell asleep for the first 3 hours of the 5 hour ride. I was jolted awake when we went over a bump and my head hit the window frame. I was annoyed for about a half a second until I took a look around me. We were winding around the side of a mountain covered in jungle driving through the clouds. It was absolutely beautiful and I saw wild calla lillies, lots of cute goats, cows, and chickens. We stopped periodically in the small towns to pick up other passengers, most of whom were indigenous. One woman at a bus stop was holding the hand of a toddler, had a baby in a blanket on her back, and a huge bundle wrapped in cloth balanced on her head and she and her kids were totally chill and almost still the whole rest of the ride. I also enjoyed watching the driver´s assistant whose job it was to take tickets and hold the broken door shut. He also got to pick the CDs and by his choice in music I´m pretty sure he had been recently dumped.

When I arrived in Quetzaltenango there wasn´t anyone with my name on a sign, but I figured my family would find me pretty easily being the only foreigner on the bus. I waited until everyone had left the bus stop and started looking questioningly toward anyone walking my way, but no luck. I asked one of the police where a bathroom was, then came back outside and decided I would wait fifteen more minutes then catch a cab to my host family´s house and if they weren´t home then to the school. Luckily a woman came rushing towards me saying my name after about ten minutes. She hailed a cab and took me to her house. She seemed very serious and other than asking me where I was from didn´t say anything. I figured she must be a liason from the school escorting me to my house. But, I was wrong. She was Judith my host mom. She took me inside pointed to my room and left. I started unpacking and thinking about heading out to explore and get some food, but she called my name again and I followed her to the kitchen where she pointed to the food on the stove and showed me where the dishes are and told me to eat. I had decided I wouldn´t be practicing much Spanish at home, but I was wrong. Once I got my food and sat down she became warm and animated and we chatted for quite a while. She is really nice. I think we were both pretty shy initially. I met her husband later and he is also shy, but pretty funny.

After eating, we went for a walk and she showed me how to get to the school and the central park. I can walk to pretty much everything which I love. The bell is ringing for class, gotta go...