¡Bienvenido a Xela!

After leaving Iowa I had a 4 ½ hour layover in Houston, which turned out to be incredibly boring. I must say, traveling alone is way more boring than it is stressful. But as my plane was starting its descent I decided to look out the window to see if there was anything to be seen, but all I could see was the light at the end of the wing...until I saw a huge flash of lightning! So I kept watching and the lightning continued in the same spot and it lit up that whole part of the sky. It was so cool!! When I stepped off the plane in Guate it instantly got muggy and I could smell it in the air and I started to get pretty stoked. I mean, I’ve been stoked ever since I knew I was going, but the whole day of traveling kind of got me more bored than stoked. Anyways, everything with customs went super smoothly and I got my luggage and walked outside. If you’ve ever been to the Guatemala City airport you know that when you walk outside there are tons of people standing around a fenced perimeter waving, calling out names, taking pictures, and holding up signs with peoples’ names on them. I got a little worried when I saw only Hispanic names, until I saw a little white board with light blue ink (terrible color choice for optimal visibility!) that looked like a name about as long as mine. So I walked up and, sure enough, it was my name. We got in a van and headed to the guest house. When we got to the guest house (only about 7 minutes from the airport) I was shown my room and where the bathroom was and I was given the wi-fi password. After letting the internet know I was still alive I tried to get some sleep. Impossible. It was muggy and I was super excited to be in Guatemala. But eventually I fell asleep because I knew I had to be up by 6:15 so we could leave at 7 so I could make my bus.

I was served the best breakfast ever! Watermelon, papaya, banana, pineapple, toast with raspberry jam, and tea. So much yum! Then we headed to the bus station and I got onto a big charter bus to wait out the 4 hour ride to Xela. It was really entertaining to watch this guy hanging out of the door at every bus stop area yelling out “Xela! Xela! Xela!!!” and waving people on. It was also fun to watch the bus driver make the signal to passing drivers to call him and then his phone would ring 5 seconds later...he signaled at a lot of passing drivers, I have no idea how he knows all of them! Well I arrived in Xela and had to take a taxi to my school. Taxis are way more expensive than buses, even the nice buses! It cost me 57Q (approx.. $7.25) for the bus and 30Q ($3.80) for the taxi. But whatevs, I got to my school and it was great! I drug my suitcase up the stairs (the school’s on the second floor of a really cool building) and Francisco showed me around the school and told me about a bunch of stuff and then the lady that’s hosting me came to pick me up. If you find yourself thinking that you’d like to travel around Guatemala, let me give you one piece of advice: don’t bring a rolling suitcase! The sidewalks are only wide enough for 1 ½ people at their widest points, but they get narrower, and if you try to walk in the road you’ll either get run over or your suitcase won’t roll because the roads are funky. But anyways, we got to the house and had some lunch and then I chilled in my room for a while and decided to do some exploring. I asked the lady hosting me where our house was on the map my school gave me and then I headed to the bookstore (Steve, you were right. I should have brought the pocket dictionary also...but I didn’t, so I bought one for 24Q). I knew I loved it instantly because it’s tiny and full of books, and the guy who owns it (or at least the guy that was working) speaks English (I think he’s American). I’ll definitely be frequenting that store.

Well then I headed to my school because they have activities every day and tonight was going to this restaurant for a marimba concert and Mayan dances & songs. One of the school coordinators, Gio, his mom, who just so happens to be who I’m staying with, and three other students, Ryan (England), April (Australia), and Leslie (England), all went and it really wasn’t that fun. By the time we got dinner it was around 8 and we were all super hungry and it wasn’t even good...plus all the marimba music starts to sound the same after a while. But it was still great to get out and be around other people kind of like me and even greater that the lady I’m staying with was there so that she could guide us back home.

All in all it’s been a crazy couple of days and I still can’t really believe that I’m here in this beautiful place. In the morning I start classes and from there it’s 4 weeks of hard-core Spanish learning. I really hope I can pick it up quick enough that by the end of the 4 weeks I don’t feel overwhelmed to be here anymore...otherwise I’ll just have to hang out at the bookstore all the time and talk to the guy who works there.