Are there Penguins in Guatemala?

You know I never thought living the dream was really something that American´s did other than the white pickett fence and 2.5 kids and a dog. Well my friends, my dream is a bit different. As many of you know I left the country to come to Guatemala to learn spanish, and the travel down into Central and South America! Well that dream is finally here and coming true!

Let´s see. I don´t have much time, so I´ll try to summarize the eventual things that happened since I´ve left.

Portland '- came and went extremely quickly. However, 3 weeks in PacNW was hard just because I wanted to get to Guatemala. But I was able to do some really fun things like see downtown portland, meet Chris´family, ride the train solo, and hike S. Sister (third tallest peak in OR). Other than that it was pretty low key, and actually quite nice to relax.

Travel - The airport was an adventure. Portland was just normal, nothing exciting or unusual. I was able to experience Chi town on our 7 hour layover. Now that was an adventure. The subway system there is ANCIENT, I would suggest a few updates for a city so large! Anyway it took 40 minutes to get to a part of the city where we thought would have good deep dish chicago style pizza. Once we arrived and got off at the Clark\Lake stop we found out (after getting lost twice) that we were in the financial district and that the pizza place Giodano´s (I think that´s the name) was closed. So we caught a cab to another one about 2 miles away. The pizza was declicious, but the service was sub-par. Oh well, it was still yummy. We got back to the airport to find out that most security gates are not open at 2am, and that we had to figure out how to get to the international wing when the train only ran every 20-30 minutes and that the doors were stubborn and may or may not open. YES - I was so excited to know that it was going to be so reliable! Anyway we got to the gate, and Chris set his cell phone down, and some kid stole it... later to be returned by the child´s mom on the airplane.

We arrived at Guatemala City, Guatemala and had to go through customs, which is not like all the other customs that I´ve been through. It was much quicker, and if you blinked you might have missed it! They actually check your baggage claim tickets in Guatmala at the airport... so don´t lose those, they are important! We tried to use a pay phone, but it didn´t work! So once we grabbed a taxi I used the little spanish I knew to ask him if I could use his cell phone. He must have understood me because he handed me a phone, and said I could call who I wanted. I should have just called home - ha! Nah, we had to call the familia to let the know when we were going to be there! The taxi ride was long to the bus station, longer than I expected but it was okay. I think the taxi driver took us the long way because I swear there had to be a more direct route, but nonetheless it was cool to see the city that way.

The bus station was small, and just like a hole in the wall where you hand some lady a few bucks for a ticket (that you better not lose), to hand to another guy that gives you a different ticket (which you better not lose that one either), to wait, and wait, and wait, and wait... then you get on the bus and drive like crazy people through the mountains on curvey roads. (Zeke '- you wuld have been so car sick!)

We arrived at the familia de Guatemala´s house by noon thirty and ate lunch with them about 30 minutes later. Then we were able to take a nap, and just relax until dinner time. It had been a long 24 hours of travel. (Oct 10 @ 11a PST to Oct 11@ 1230p MST).

My favorite thing is that my familia´s son -David (he´s a year and half) likes to hit and kick and scratch me. Oh yeah! Making friends right away! Sweet! HAHA! Oh well, he likes me he just also likes to do those things, so I had to tell him NO about 10000 times yesterday! I have a scratch to prove it! Ah the abuse I am taking to learn spanish - just kidding!

Spanish school started today. I thought I was going to get lost on my way home after the papa of the familia walked us to school. It was confusing, but low and behold we navigated back to the house successfully at lunch time! Nope I didn´t get lost dad!

My maestra is very nice, and I think I´ll learn a lot. I have a feeling I´ll actually learn more from my host family, but the teacher is nice to learn the grammer and vocabulary!

Well I will try to write more later, but Chris is ready to leave the internet cafe so I don´t have much time! I´ll write down the funny parts because there are MANY of those! I actually can´t stop laughing at some of the things that I´ve said or chris has - like last night chris asked the family if there are penguins in guatemala. Everyone laughed for a long time! It was great!

Alright - until later!

M