Ice storms, flights, and getting settled in Xela

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My flight was not delayed nor cancelled due to the ice storm in north Texas, so I got to Guatemala City as planned on Sunday January 14. My farewell at home did not go as smoothly since my mother broke her wrist the Thursday before and was incapacitated and in pain, the forecasted worst ice storm in history shifted our schedule forward so that Heather and Dylan could get back to Denton safely, Cameron, my nephew, got sick, I spent the night at Kelsey's since mom couldn't drive me to the airport. I spent all night wondering whether my flight would be delayed or cancelled and how I would communicate with those in Guatemala city if it were. We left Kelsey's house at three in the morning to make sure we'd get to the airport on time, having to drive slowly on the ice which luckly had not appeared in the night. So, I left stuff scattered between mom's and Kelsey's, but I was glad to see everyone before I left. And I hope everyone is doing well.

Gilda met me at the airport as coordinated through my school in Xela and I spent a lovely night at her guest house chatting with her, her daughters and the other student who was staying there that night. My bus ride to Quetzaltenango (Xela) on Monday went relatively smoothly. They showed very strange movies, mostly dubbed into Spanish with English subtitilos. I met my family and got settled into my little yellow room then walked around the town a bit before dinner. On Tuesday I started classes in the morning and activities in the afternoon. I´ve been studying and or speaking spanish for at least eight hours a day. I´ve met more foreignors than locals, but I´ve met some locals too. Every day it takes a little while for me to get into spanish and I have yet to have a dream in Spanish. I really like my teacher, it is interesting to witness family life here and to slowly get to know the family, and there are two other students staying at the house- Alida from Vermont and John from Canada.

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Photos

My Guatemalan Home
This is the door to my room, off the courtyard of my family's house.

My Guatemalan Home 2
This is my cozy little yellow room.

My Guatemalan Home 3
This is my little bathroom that I share with the 90 year old grandfather.

My Guatemalan Home 4
This is my courtyard with plants and birds and a cute little dog named Froto.

My Guatemalan Home 5
This is Froto. He is not as nice as he looks here- he's an ankle biter.

My Guatemalan Home 6
Here are the birds- they haven't bitten me yet.