Xmas weekend in Xela

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So I left my host family last Wednesday and moved into a hostel. I loved my family, they are awesome but I needed to be on my own for awhile. The hostel I moved into is a music and art venue. There are live bands playing 4 or 5 night a week. I'm loving it. The walls are covered with crazy cool murals. SO Xmas was fun. Christmas eve is the big day here. I started the festivites at my school wehere we had a little party after classes. Whe n I returened to my hostel to take a nap, there were 2 other girls there, Lief from Germany and Cynthia from France. They are roomates in Guatemala City but came up here for the weekend. We hung ut for the rest of the day amd then made a yummy Xmas dinner. After dinner we plugged our ipods into the stereo system and danced for hours then it was off to a dance club where they were spinning reggae and dancehall! At midnight on chrismas eve, it gets a bit crazy here. Everyone goes to the streets and starts lighting tons of firecrackers!! It is also the time for families to eat their Xams meal! At the club I ran into a cute boy from Spain that I had met a week or so ago at the lake, so that was a nice surprise! The next day was pretty mellow as I had stayed up till around 4ish along with what seemed to be everyone in Xela. When I finaly left my hostel there was a crazy Xmas dance going on in the street. The dancers were in costumes and maskes that seemed to have nothing to do with Xmas at all and they wew dancing to salsa music. I posted a video of the dancers to my facebook page, unfortunetly I am unable to post videos to this blog, so please check out the video on FB. The 26th I took a hike with a couple of friends up to Los Bauls, a park that over looks all of Xela. It was a beautiful day so we had a great view! On the way back down a family that we had been talking to passed us on the road and offered us a ride to town in the back of their truck. Man there is nothing like riding in the open bed of a pickup down a windy mountain road! I love it, havent done that since Africa!

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