Day 2 - Hello host family!

I’m now running on approximately 6 hours of sleep in the last 48.  But I felt okay.

I take a shower.  Needless to say, it was a QUICK shower since the water felt like ice.  Definitely was awake after that.

I get all my stuff together, its now 5:45am.  Breakfast is a pancake with syrup downstairs and fruit.  You don’t want to be rude so you eat whatever you are served (which becomes more important later on).  I meet a gal from Belgium.  We talk.  We are both headed to Quetzaltenango – major relief.  I won’t have to make the 4 hour bus trip alone!

Victor takes us to the bus station in a cab.  Goodbye Guatemala City!

The bus is nice.  Its considered “first class.”  But not quite like my first class plane experience. 

I sit kiddy corner from a little girl.  I ask her what her name is, her age, and what she likes to do in Spanish.  I give her candy.  We are now friends.

Two hours into the bus ride we stop at a restaurant in the middle of nowhere to eat.  The food is good – I get eggs and a tortilla and a coke – or “coka” en espanol!

I get told I have beautiful hair and skin. 

On board the bus again, the gal from Belgium and I watch The Big Bang Theory for the rest of the ride. 

Quetzaltenango

We arrive at about 12pm.  Someone has a sign that says “Samantha Calvin.”  Off I go in another car, this time, feeling more safe. 

We arrive at the office.  I meet my host mother and her two kids – they are adorable!   Immediately in love.

I then travel with them two blocks or so to my new home for the next month.  It starts to sink in…I will be here for one month…. Wow!!

I feel so awful having two suitcases …. She takes the little one (which is the heavy one) up the stairs for me.  My room is nice (in Guatemalan standards).  I have a bed, a desk, and a little closet.  No hangers, no mirror, ect, but nice enough for me.  Slowly but surely my standards of “nice” are beginning to change.

The bathroom is good.  It has a shower, a sink, and a toilet.  Its hard to remember that you can’t put your toilet paper in the toilet.  And you cannot drink the water from the sink…or use it to brush your teeth. 

The mom speaks no English so we talk basic Spanish.  I give each of the kids an American dollar, a piece of chocolate, and gum….they are thrilled.  I have it way too good. 

She tells me breakfast is at 8, lunch is at 1:30, and supper is at 7:30. 

Another American comes into the house.  She is from Colorado but is a 3^rd year medical student in Chicago.  It feels so good to speak a little English.  She tells me there are two others besides us staying in the house – from Canada, a son and a father.  I meet them at lunch.

At meal times we are not allowed to converse in English because the mom (Lisa) does not know what we are saying.  If we talk in English, we do the dishes. 

The father is roughly 40, the son is 17.  The father speaks fluent Spanish so that is helpful!

After lunch I attend a Spanish class with the medical student and the son.  Its pretty fun!  We learn the alphabet and vocab words that begin with each letter.  The cost in American dollars is $5/hr.

After we come home I sleep for 3 hours.  Finally. 

Then its supper.  It is insulting to not finish what you are served so you choke it down no matter if you like it or not.  Which in my case, I have to do for one item at each meal at least.

After supper, myself and the other three travelers go to the “central park” or downtown area.  It is about a 10 minute walk from where we are staying.  We go to a “tourist” bar.  You don’t go to the “local bars” because those are prostitution places.

We each get a beer or two.  Then return home.

Central park is fun.  There are lights, sounds, people, smells everywhere…

Back at the house at 10pm we all go to bed…I cheat and read for a few hours.