One Year, One Country, One Mission: First Week in Antigua

After a busy two weeks in Calgary, I flew straight to Guatemala on Saturday, August 23rd. The traveling experience included a delayed flight, which then led to me having to run from gate to gate in order to catch my connecting flight in Houston. This did not go over well considering I'm usually the person to get to the airport a full two hours in advance and disapprove of the people that are rushing to the gate at the last minute. It was a humbling experience, to say the least.

Once I arrived in Guatemala City, I was greeted at the airport by a driver from Christian Spanish Academy who took me to my host family's house in Antigua, about an hour away from the airport. The family I am living with consists of the mom (Elizabeth) and her 22 year old daughter, Astrid. There is also a French Poodle named Pinky who hasn't decided to be my friend yet...we're still working on that. The family has a three story house with four extra bedrooms to house students that are here temporarily. They have been having students stay with them for 19 years. There is another student from Korea that has been here for four months and she was nice enough to show me around Antigua on the first day I was here.

Church two blocks away from my house.

The salmon house at the end is my new temporary home.

On Monday, I started spanish class at Christian Spanish Academy. It is about a ten minute walk from where I am staying and very easy to get to. I have spanish class from 8am to 1pm Monday through Friday. All of the teaching is done one-on-one, which has been extremely helpful so far. Most of the students are from the United States, learning spanish for work or to go overseas. The lady that works with her teacher next to me is from San Francisco and works at UCSF...small world! In Antigua, most of the houses and schools look pretty plain from the street, but once you go through the door they are gorgeous. CSA has a big courtyard where we all sit with our teachers, instead of being in a classroom. It's a lot easier to learn when you're in a beautiful place!