Un Dia Tipico/A Typical Day

Cada dia me levanto a las 7am y desayuno. Despues hago mis devociones. A las 7:45 estoy caimando a la escuela. A las 8 estoy hablando con mi maestra y studied. Mucha de mi leccion es conversacion pero tambien estoy aprendiendo de la cultura y nuevas palabras. A las 10 hay una pausa entonces hablo con mi amiga Deanna y nuevas amigas aqua. Encontre una chica de Dinamarca quien tambien fue con Rotary a canadaa por un anio! Despues media hora regreso a mis lecciones para dos horas mas. A las 12 tengo muchisimo hambre! Camino con otra estudiante a mi casa para almorzar. Despues almuerzo tengo un poco tiempo para hacer mis tareas antes que ir a la escuela para un tour de los pueblos o de Antigua o otra tour. A veces voy a un tour pero tambien tengo tiempo antes regresar a mi pais entonces no voy a todos los viajes cada dia. A veces tambien voy con otrosestudiantes a ver mas de Antigua. Es muy chevere. Me encanta mi familia y me siento muy comoda con ellos. La ciudad es muy bonita tambien. Bueno, les cuida y les extranio muchisimo!

Each day I wake up at 7am and eat breakfast. Then I do my devotions and get ready to go to school. At 7:45 I walk with another student to school. By 8 I am talking with my teacher over my evenings and sometimes we share stories or talk about miraclesw we have seen or experienced. She is funny. At 10 we have a half hour break so I go over to talk with Deanna or some other new friends about how they have been doing. Then I head back to my table to have another two hours of lessons. Wednesday we went to the market with another student and teacher. It was fun. We made it into a learning experience by learning some of the fruits and vegetables in Spanish. Then I walk back with another student in my house home. We eat lunch almost right away which is good because I am starving by the time I get home. Then sometimes I head back to school to go on some of their afternoon trips or I walk with another student to the center of town. Then its time for a little homework!. I met another student from Denmark who went to Canada en 2005 with Rotary Youth Exchange! It was pretty cool. She misses Canada about as much as I miss Peru. So that is what my day looks like. I found out some of the other students in my house have not been feeling well (same as me). We all started feeling sick on Thursday so it must be something we all ate that day. So please pray we all feel bettter very soon. It is just a slight upset stomach and a few trips to the bathroom, so its as bad as it could be. Gracias!

Sights/Vistas

Antigua is a very pretty place. The streets are cobblestone because the people here wanted to keep Antigua as it was. This includes cobblestone streets and colonial style houses. A lot of the street signs...if you can find them... are old and sometimes hard to read. The churches are different colors of yellow, orange, white and more just like the houses. You can see women andgirls dresed i the traditional mayan dress. The houses I have been in so far have a courtyard in the middle with every door facing it. There are mountains on every side. Guatemala has 38 volcanes!!! Only 8 are active. You can see many dogs in the streets. The market (mercado) isa very crowded place. Deanna and I went on Saturday with her host mom Elsa. If we did not watch out we could easily get lost! The weather is cool in the morning and evenings. My classes are outside so I wear a sweater almost every morning. It is not quite as warm as I had imagined.
I went on a tour of the city on Monday. It was fun. It was really funny because Deanna and I walked all over Antigua on Sunday and we saw the same places on Monday with the group.
Yesteday I went on a bus tour to see the surounding pueblos (towns). I saw a few churches and convents while learning about Guatemalan history. Did you know that Antigua was the third place the capital was located? Ihad a choice to walk up te Volcano Pacaya today but I will save that trip for another week. I have plenty of time!
Today, I am justrelaxing and enjoying the weather. I borrowed a house mates laptop so I could access the iternet for free a school. There are 4 other students in my house. One 18 year old from Quebec who also spent some time in Peru. He speaks English very well as well as Spanish. We converse on the way to school in Spanish most mornings. Margie is an older lady who is a retired pastor from MN. She is learning Spanish so I can't talk with her in Spanish very well. Helena (25)leave in a week and sheis from London. She speaks some but prefers to speak in English. The other girl, Katie, just arrived. She is doing some social project so oes not come to a Union. I also have not seen much of her. Well, I better get some other things done on here. Hopefully, get pictures up on my other site now. Hasta luego! (otro dia voy a escribr en espanol)

La meta de este blog

hola a todos! Solo quiero decir que yo escribira en mi blog durante mi tiempo en Guatemala. Quisiera que uds saben donde estoy y que estoy haciendo alla. Ojala teneria tiempo escribir aqui diaramente. Por favor oran por un viaje seguro al Guatemala y un descanso tranquilo el noche anterior de mi viaje. Tambien oran para buen salud durante estas trece semanas proximas. Muchas gracias para sus oraciones. ojala disfrutarian mis cuentos sobre mis estudios y la ciudad Antigua. Les cuida! besos

Lista!

I am basically packed and ready to leave! I am leaving on Wenesday to spend the night at my Grandma's house then spending the next night at Deanna's then we will leave! I am super excited to see Guatemala. I still am not sure I have everything packed that I may need but there will be no way of knowing until I get down there. I did manage to stick to one weeks worth of clothing and my one suitcase looks half full! Ok, I hope everyone has a great winter! I am going to enjoy the sun and summer as much as I can!
This was going to be a blog all about my trip but I have to include some news in here about what happened on the new year. Some of you all may not have heard yet, but on New Year's morning, I became engaged to a very amazing man named Jonathan. We do not have an exact date yet, but it will be next summer.
Thank you all for your continuing prayers and support during my time abroad. I will hopefully update everyone once I get settled. Please pray for a safe trip Friday. Pray Deanna and I will both get the sleep we need for the flight and stay healthy! Muchas gracias! God bless.