October 7

Today was our first full day in Guatemala. Yesterday was a very long day, even though we only had two flights about three hours each. We had to leave our house at 4:30 AM so that we could get to the airport in Salt Lake City in time to leave for our flight. This flight was the most exciting because we all got to go in first class, and it was the first time I'd ever flown that way. I felt really pampered and spoiled because it was like having servants. Before eating they gave us little wash cloths that were warmed up so that we could wash our hands before eating. Then after lunch we got fresh cookies that were cooked on board and the chocolate was still melty. The seats were really comfortable too!!!

In the Dallas airport we had about two hours to kill before our next flight. The flight was uneventful, but it was our first experience of a different country because almost everything was in both Spanish and English and most of the people on the plane spoke only Spanish. When we got to the airport all of our luggage came out really quickly. As soon as we walked out of the baggage claim area we were surrounded by mobs of people. Luckily we had reserved a taxi ahead of time so there was already a driver waiting with our name on a sign to take us to our apartment.

Since it was already 10 o'clock by the time we got out of the airport we couldn't see anything of Guatemala City or the drive between there and Antigua. We got to the apartment late and the owner and her son were waiting for us. Both of them helped us bring our bags into our little apartment. It was really cute. There's two levels, a little kitchen, and windows opening onto the courtyard and the street below. We stay here for four nights, and then we move to a different apartment for the next three weeks, in the same complex. After that, we move to a new apartment near here.

Today we walked around and explored the city. It's a really cute little place. All along the sidewalks are walls so it looks a little foreboding at first. But as soon as you walk in, there are gorgeous little courtyards that have flowers on the ceilings and little trees growing in every corner. Not many people here speak English, so we're getting a total immersion scenario that is really helping us learn more Spanish quickly. We walked by a Spanish school that Ben went to one of the last times he was here, and really liked it. Starting Monday, every morning we will go to the school for four hours for a private Spanish lesson. It will definitely help us get almost fluent I think.

The only complaint I have so far is that it is really hard to navigate around here because there are really no street signs and everything looks the same to me right now. I'm sure I'll get used to it, but right now it's pretty confusing. The good thing is that we're not trying to navigate in a car, because most of the streets are one way streets that aren't marked, so you have no way of knowing whether you're going the right one-way or not. You literally have to go around in circles to get to your destination, so we'll be walking everywhere. Luckily the city was designed like that, unlike cities in the U.S, and so it's relatively easy to walk everywhere you really need to go. We'll getting a little more day-to-day exercise here than we would in the U.S.

We went out to breakfast to a cute little place that had really good food. The money here is a little hard to manage because it's so different than the U.S. One dollar is equal to about eight quetzales. I'm glad I don't have to pay attention to gas prices, because it's quetzales/liter so it looks really expensive. We also went to two bakeries, one for cookies and one for bread. Both smelled delicious, and lived up to standards by tasting delicious also. We had dinner in a little restaurant called Fridas, which was also really tasty. The food itself wasn't that different from the food you get in Mexican restaurants in the U.S, but there was much more variety.I love it here!