First Entry

Hey everyone,
I´ve finally got a little time to spare so i figured i´d sit down and let you know what I´ve been doing so far. This typing might be a little off as this keyboard is all over the place and in spanish.

The plane trip was pretty good, i didnçt see any sign of concern for Swine flu until i got to Guatemala where they passed out panflets and made us fill out questionaires on our current help. Many of the security guards were wearing those masks.

I got to the Airport and it wasn´t too busy, and after a good time minutes of waiting-serching i found those who were there to pick me up. They brought me to their bed and breakfeast where i had a quick bite, tried to read, then passed out. I was suppose to leave the next morning around 730 to cathc the 4 hour bus to Xela, but i´m not sure if it was because i slept in, or my driver didm becasue we had to wait until aroundf 10 to catch the second bus. So that morning i had some time to walk around and see a small part of Guatemala city. The bed and breakfeast was in a gated community with guards armed with shotguns at the entrances. This place still looked a little sketchy to me, as alll buildinigngs were surrounbded by fences and razor wire. I later learned that almost everywhere you go, everything is caged, fenced, and covered by barb wire.

The bus station i got off at was a little rough, as most of the hustlers and such hang out around bus terminals in Guatemela city, so i didn´t wander to far, and the terminal, like almost every other semi-respectable buisness, had a guard with a shotgun standing watch. The busride was around 4 hours and i barely slept for any of it. It always had somehting to see out the window and kept me occupied. It took us a little more then an hour to get our of the ´city´, which looks like you see in some of the movies, where you could almost jump roof to roof across the city on the tin roofs.

I got to Xela and everything went fine, got a cab to the school adn then meet up with my host family. Wow, was i surprised when i got there. I´ve had a decent amount of travelling with some pretty iffy places, but this may have been the poorest. Not exactely dirty, but very very very basic. There is a large metal door for the entrance like everyhouse, then a kitchen and 2 rooms. The kitchen is not much larger then my walk in closet and consists of a small table, three chairs, some shelves for the little cooking tools, and a camping like propane stove. She also runs a very small store out of the front door selling not much more then paper, gum, and pencils. My room is across the courtyard, which is more like a ten by ten concreate square for hanging clothes, then up an extremely small staircase, which i can barely get up. The room itself is much nicer then what the family has. I have a small table with a chair, a little bookcase and rods with some hangers. I don´t know how that´s exactely suppose to work b-c the pole is inches away from the wall, but i`´ll make due. The bathroom is quite simple as well, wiht a small sink, toilet, and a shower with a heater that´s attached to the shower head (similar to what´s in most of central america). Lets say that the heater doesn´t do much. The family doesn´t have to worry about me taking long showers, because the water is so damn cold, i can only take it for around 2 minutes. I think i´m goign to start waiting till itçs really hot out to shower, so i can try and use it to cool me down.

All in all, i have no complaints about my housing, some suggestions maybe, but I´m fine with whats here. I´m considering moving to a hostel for next week as some people i´ve been tlakign to recomendf that for the first week or so then to go immerse yourslef in the language with teh family. When i arrived yesterday me and my hostess could not communicate at all. But last night, we held a semi-ddecent conversation at supper..... i think.

Today i woke up quite early and had cornflakes with HOT milk... which is alot better then i thought. I then went to get a haircut and shave, which costs me 20 quetzles, around three dollars. This is the first time i got a straight blade shave, and was quite amused and impressed with it. The haircut it half decent, more then i expexted.

There´s not much time left, so that´s it for now. Hopefully i´ll have some spare time in the nexy couple days.



And if anyone knows how to add pictures to this thing, I wouldn´t mind some help