First Signs of Life From Guatemala!!!

My deepest apologizes everyone! I think I promised many a person that I'd update the blog every other day or so. Which didn't happen once I returned form Haiti due to total exhaustion, busy-ness, and a bad case of sickness (I'm no doctor but I'm going to go with a cross-breed of flu, cholera, malaria pills, and food poisoning... maybe just the malaria pills and flu).

So my time at home came and went. And then I went. As I type this I'm sitting in Xela, drinking an amazing licuanda de mora (berry smoothy thing), with my new japanese friend Mikiki, and enjoying the PERFECT weather. Its always sunny but never hotter than 70 degrees F and I can wear jeans and a long sleeve shirt.

Internet down here is limited but there are a few places (like this cafe, which has a very Seattle-like feel) with wifi if you buy food/drinks. So a beer for a few hours of internet is VERY doable. The city has a great vibe... cross between a small spanish town and Haiti (as far as the stray dogs, homeless, and intense open markets) and a touristy hostel city full of white 20 somethings from Europe.

I haven't had time to take pictures too much yet but hopefully this weekend I'll get out and start doing that. I do have 6 months for that after all, so its not on the top of my "To Do" list.

Ok, time is running short before I must go off to a Semilla Nueva meeting (my volunteer organization) but I'll leave you with a few quick observations:

• Its odd to have a Japanese girl from Vancouver BC acting as my tour guide in Central America.
• After two days of 5 hours a day spanish classes, my spanish classes have improved crazily. I've gone from a "2" out of 10 to a "4" in 10 hours. Blows my mind. I'm pretty sure its a confidence thing too.
• "Public Transpertation" here is super cheap and super efficient. I use parenthesis because its just a van that drives around the city with about 20 people in 10 seats. Real safe.
• Everything is super cheap. I'll probably spend as much as I did in Seattle but just get twice as much (ex: beer. A pitcher is $6.25. Needless to say there was a lot of drinking on Super Bowl Sunday)
• I explained the rules of American Football to a Dutch girl on Sunday while listening to ESPN deportes streaming onto a projector from the internet. It was a weird, but glorious day.
• Guatemalan food... hit or miss. A lot of corn and bananas. One thing I don't like that my host mom makes: boiled bananas. Not so great.

I hope to write more tomorrow but for now Just know I'm safe, things are good, and I'm settling into what will probably end up being a quick 6 months.