Things continue to be going great here in Xela. Last Friday night we had a really fun welcome party in the school. There was great food including some delicious tamales. Part of the party was also our first group salsa class. I´ve taken some salsa classes at Penn in the past but they´re nothing like this! The salsa steps they teach us are really hard, but so fun! Later that night we went to a salsa club called "La Rumba" in center city and it was amazing. All the kids there were so fun and we got to practice what we had learned! I also spent half the time sitting mezmorized at the Guatemalans dancing. They´re amazing! Even better than ¨So You Think You Can Dance¨on TV. This will definitely be a great highlight of the trip...we get a group salsa lesson every Thursday night from now on!
Last Saturday morning we went on a group hike up "Baul," a mountain right next to the city. It was a tough hike actually, but challenging in a great way (especially after all the awesome food Ive been eating at home), and the view from the top was amazing! There were also a few monuments up top that two of the girls climbed (I have pictures)! The monument must have been at least 50 ft. tall. But the best part of our trip to Baul was the amazing slide! We definitely dont have slides like this in the US. The first time I went down the slide, I wiped out at the bottom, but it was so fun that after, I slid down at least two more times :)
This week has also been great. Jose Carlos continues to be an awesome teacher. We also had more conferences to learn more about Guatemalan history, especially the Mayan religion and culture. A lot of that has been wiped out over the years after the colonial era and the civil war in the 1980s but there are movements now to reteach Mayan history and culture.
Also, Tuesday, the students in my group hosted a birthday party at the school (two girls turned 24), and we had a pinata, a bonfire, marshmallows and music. It was so fun that we are already planning our next party for Valentine´s Day.
Lastly, a week from this Saturday, I´m going to a wedding with my homestay family. It´s the wedding of Antonietta´s (my homestay Mom) niece. I am so honored that Antonietta invited me because she didn´t have to. Truthfully, that makes me feel even better about my homestay. Antonietta has been so sweet this past week but after this gesture, I really feel like I may become part of their family during these six months. Plus, I´m so excited to see a Guatemalan wedding! I feel like it´s a once in a lifetime experience.
This weekend has also been great. We visited Momaztenango, a city near Xela, where they make clothes by hand from lamb´s wool. I learned a lot and it was fun because we got to try help them with their weaving (lots of pictures of this). On Sunday we did an AMAZING hike to Laguna Chicabal. It took us all morning to hike up the mountain then go down the steps into the lake (the mountain used to be a volcano but now the inside was the lake). We had lunch right next to the (sacred) lake and had a great time.
Buenas tardes! Keep me updated on all your lives! <3
Pictured below - the welcome party and our first salsa class, the hike up Baul (and the big slide), the Rumba - the club with salsa downtown, and our trip to Momaztenango to learn about weaving
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