¡Bienvenidos a Guatemala!

22 Aug 2007

Hola Todos!

I just got in to Guatemala barely 3 days ago and I just have to say that it is absolutely amazing here. Antigua is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. The streets are cobblestone, the buildings are colonial-style, the town is surrounded by mountains and volcanoes (three of them) covered in forest, and everywhere there are plants and flowers growing amongst the houses. I will try to get some pictures up as soon as possible. The people are all very nice, too. My host mom, Iris, is really nice (and cooks the most amazing comida), and her two sons - Jose,10, and Jorge, 8 - are just adorable. I haven't been cat-called once, and people say 'buenos dias' when you pass them.

Yesterday classes started and I am really excited about all of them. I'm taking a literature of central america class, a history of central america class (whose professor is an ex-guerrilla leader and super awesome), a spanish conversation class, and best of all a mesoamerican archaeology class. I am also thinking about doing an internship with CIRMA (the Center for Mesoamerican Research) where we are taking our classes. The internship would be working with either their document or picture archives, both of which are really extensive. Still on the fence for that one. The schedule is arranged so that we all have fridays off, so there is going to be some major trip-taking for all of us.

All of my classmates are really cool, too. So far, at least. (Who knows what will happen when we all see each other almost every day.) First there's Bill, who is very 'culturally aware' as he puts it. He cracks me up alll the time. There's also Casey, who is very outgoing, but it almost blase about it. She has the same kind of humor as Bill does. Then there is Cassondra, who is really tall and slender and very down to earth. She's really excited about trying to learn as much as she can while here, so I think that we are going to get along great. Then there is Jennifer, who is more the sporty athletic type, much like me. I think she and I will get along great. Amy is also very athletic-looking. She looks like your typical adventurous, bohemian globe-trotter. Very cool. Christine is almost the exact opposite. Very sweet, bubbly, blonde with blue eyes. She's adorable. My roommate's name is Dorothy. She's kind of introverted. Very shy and doesn't like to talk too much. I think that she will open up a little bit more being around a lot of really outgoing people. Then, of course, there is the other boy in our group, Brian. He's adorable. Doesn't talk much, either, but when he does it is usually pretty funny. He gets pretty talkative after he drinks, too.

Well, that's about it for now. I hope everyone out there is doing well and please, pretty please, keep me posted on the happenings in the U.S. Even if it's just gossip about your neighbor's goldfish, I would really like to hear from all of you. You can either post a comment here or send me a message via email at hraftery@email.arizona.edu.

Gracias y tengan buenos dias.