This past weekend we visited the city of Antigua. The bus ride to Antigua was rather exciting, as it was our first experience riding the ¨chicken buses¨ that are famous throughout Central and South America. With three people to a seat on each side of the aisle (and small, school bus size seats) and more people standing in the aisles, it is quite a sight to behold! But we made it to Antigua without any problems and felt rather proud of ourselves for navigating the new experience. Antigua was a wonderful break from Xela - the air was balmy instead of cold and windy and the streets were clean instead of filled with garbage, stray dogs, and crazy drivers. But Antigua also had the feeling of a city very separated from the rest of Guatemala - physically beautiful but filled mainly with tourists and Spanish language students. We enjoyed the break from our life in Xela but ultimately felt glad that we are studying in Xela, where we are seeing a bit more of what life in Guatemala is really like, as opposed to simply a glossed over version. We spent our time in Antigua mostly walking the streets. Both of us got sick while we were there and did not feel up to doing any of the hiking around Antigua. But walking through the streets and visiting the lovely old churches in Antigua was wonderful.

We are now back in Xela and our language classes have resumed. We are both realizing that we would have to study for much more than a month or two to be truly proficient in Spanish, but at least we are learning poco a poco (little by little)! Todd is looking forward to Thursday night, when the school goes to a local soccer field and plays soccer with a mixture of students, teachers, and local young men. We both played last Thursday and hope to do so again this coming Thursday if we stop feeling sick in time. With both of us sick, living in a tiny home with six other people and one ill-functioning toilet has made for an interesting last two days and we hope that we can kick this bug quickly!

Also, I received a few emails from people wondering how in the wolrd Xela is pronounced so I thought I would add a P.S. - the people here pronounce Xela ¨Shayla¨.