First couple of days.

Holla amigos!

Let me start off with saying I arrived safely in Antigua Guatemala. The flight was long, but doable. But when finally arriving in Guatemala City at 10:30 P.M. I was quite exhausted. I got picked up by someone holding a name sign with my name on it. I felt so special haha! The drive to Antigua was approximately a small hour. At arrival at my new home I met the landlady, her son and one guest. It all looked very primitive, but that was because I was tired. It is not so bad I concluded the next day. Only things I have to get used to are not throwing used toilet paper in the toilet, but in an open trashcan next to the toilet, and using water from a tub for washing my hand and brushing my teeth.

Sunday morning someone from the school picked me up to give me a tour of Antigua. I had this tour together with an 18 year old from Germany. After the tour, the kid and I had a Guatemalan breakfast and walked some more through town. It is actually quite small, but nice.

Monday I had my first Spanish class. The class is from 8 till 12 A.M. with a half hour break. My teacher’s name is Celini. I like her a lot! We talk and laugh a lot which I think is really good, and we also discuss some grammar. After class I had lunch at my home. My landlady serves us 3 meals a day, but those portions are huge! So had to ask her (multiple times) to downsize my portions. Apparently those are normal portions, but she also told me that is the reason why the people here are (a bit) fat, haha. But the food is nice, healthy but different. I like it though. In the evening I toke a free salsa class. It was a lot of fun so I also went the next day! Will do so again next week.

The males here (doesn’t matter what age) look at me a lot with a weird grin on their face when greeting me. First I thought I might have egg on my face or something, but that wasn’t the case. They do the bad kind of flirting. The type that usually doesn’t even work haha! So I asked my teacher about this. She said that the guys here like foreign girls because for starters they are pale compared to the women here. Secondly they wear more revealing clothes. And thirdly if a Guatamaltees guy can get a foreign girl apparently he gets a better image (hij stijgt in aanzien). Luckily Celini told me how to act and respond so I wouldn’t have any problems, and it actually works haha!

Wednesday my stomach was really upset. I went to school, but had to go to bed afterwards. Next door they are rebuilding a part of the house so when all of a sudden the house was shaking, I thought it was because of that! But apparently it was a small earthquake! It wasn’t a strong one though.

Today I am feeling a lot better but will rest a bit more, because I will go on a three-day trip this weekend organized by the school. We will go see Tikal, Rio Dulce and Livingstone. Very much looking forward to it! So will tell you more about this next week I think.

Of course I can write a lot more, but won’t do so. Else this message will become a bit too long! But if anyone of you has some specific questions or just wants some more details, just let me know!

Till next time..