Back at Language School

Probably the most exciting thing that happened was when I was doing homework in my room and all of a sudden I hear Leah scream from the bathroom.  She comes rushing into our room to tell me there is a giant bug in the shower, so I went to kill it for her.  That’s as exciting as it gets for me now that we’ve started our second language class.  There is more homework for this class than the last class, and for the most part my days were filled with school, lunch, homework, supper, and more homework.  I may be in Guatemala, but I’m still a college student.

 

Friday afternoon it looked like the weekend was going to be filled with homework; however I used my time wisely and it didn’t take me as long as I thought, which meant my weekend turned out to be pretty great! 

On Friday night two of our friends, Laura and Sydney, came over and we watched Kung Fu Panda and ate chocolate cake.  It was super fun, and I don't know why we don't do that more often.  We're staying at one of the few host families that allows us to have friends over to hang out. 

 

Laura, me, Leah, and Sydney with our cake!



Saturday afternoon Leah and I walked around and went in this famous.  The next day we realized that we were in part of the hotel that we probably weren’t supposed to be in because you have to pay to tour that part, but no one stopped us…

Ruins at the hotel

Another part of the hotel



The past couple Sundays we've gone to a two different families who work for SI to eat supper.  Last Sunday we went to the director's, Fernando, to eat spaghetti.  When we walked in, their daughter Nivia says, "Come in, sit down, this is your house."  They're so great.  This Sunday night we went to Rachel and Aaron Kelly's.  Rachel cooked a great “American” meal for us, and we played a fun game of body, body after supper.

I have almost been here two months which is SO crazy to me!  I’m over half way done with my time here, and although I still love, love, love it here, I’m getting more and more excited and ready to go home each week. 

Videos

Here's the video I promised with Lizbeth.  Notice her little feet kick when she's laughing. 

The third graders are singing a song in Spanish.

Here's some third graders again singing "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes." 

Final Days at the School in El Gorrion

These are a bunch of photos from my last two weeks at school.  Tara and I had a blast with the kids these past two weeks, and it was super hard to leave yesterday.  We really got to know the kids better these past two weeks, and it will be weird not seeing them everyday.  We start our next language class on Monday, and although it's hard to leave the school, I'm looking forward to the change of pace.

These three boys were working so well together on their project.

Some kindergarteners showing off their work.

Maria, Yoselin, and Me

 

Our English lesson outside.  The kids had about a 5 second attention span this day.

Kites!!

Listening to a Bible lesson.

Lizbeth has the BEST laugh ever! 

(I'll try to upload the video I have, but I can't promise I'll know how to do that on here.)

Me and Lizbeth

Goodbye hugs.

Evalyn, me, and Jacalyn

Tara and me

I tried to learn how to carry a basket on my head.  It didn't work out too well.

Basketball:  Our girls won Wednesday night after a big second half.  They lost Friday night, but played awesome.  I was actually able to watch the game live online which was super sweet.  Then this afternoon they won on a last second 3-pointer from Kali Peschel.  That was their only lead the entire game!!  Congrats Daddy and Streeter Girls!!!

Paradise

This weekend was pure paradise.  There is no other way to describe it.  We left for the beach Saturday morning and came back Sunday night.  We stayed at this resort/convention center where everything was included so we didn’t have to worry about anything.  Within two minutes of our room we could get to the pool, someplace to find food at all hours of the day, and the ocean!  It was amazing!  The waves were so strong because of the tsunami from the earthquake.  I have never seen waves that big or strong before.  I spent the weekend rotating between lying on the black sand beach, eating, sitting in the hammocks listening to the ocean, and eating.  It was pure bliss!  I don’t really know what else to say about it because I didn’t really do anything else this weekend except relax, so here are a few random things:



The view from my hammock



·          I had never seen black sand before.  It was so HOT, and my sandals broke the first time I walked in the sand, which meant I had to walk barefoot .   

·         I didn’t sleep well at all last week, but I slept SO amazing on Saturday night.  It was great!

·          A bunch of us woke up early on Sunday to watch the sunrise.  It was pretty amazing.  I went a little overkill on the pictures, but it’s better to have too many than not enough!

·          I did a super great job of applying sunscreen this weekend…except for the backs of my knees.  They’re a little red, but I think I’ve learned my lesson now and won’t forget that part ever again.

So yeah that was my weekend, and to top it all of our girls’ basketball team won on Friday night!!  STATE HERE WE COME!  They play at the Target Center at 6:00 on Wednesday.  If you can, GO!  Simon, you’d better cheer extra loud for me since I’m not going to be there! 

Back at Ministry Sites!

Before I get to an update on my life here in Guatemala, an update on the girls basketball team.  Here is how my night went last night waiting for the results of the game.

9:35   The Streeter Sports Blog has told me for the last 20 minutes that there's 5:03 left, and we're up by two.  I have literally sat and pressed the refresh button on my computer for 20 minutes.

9:38   My stomach was in knots, and I was scared to press the refresh button because I didn't want to know if we lost.  But I needed to know!  I was going back and forth between the blog, Facebook, and the St. Cloud newspaper to see if I could find anything.

9:45  Still nothing!

9:47  WE WON!!!  I litterally breathed a HUGE sigh of relief when I read it!

It was a stressful night, and I wasn't even there!  They play Friday night at 8:00 for a trip to State!  Seriously, if you're in the area Friday, GO TO THE GAME!! 

Ok, that was a long enough rant, back to my life here.  This week we've been going taking a very eventful ride to Magdalena each morning.  The drivers of the chicken buses we take feel no need to slow down on the very curvy road to Magdalena.  We are all hanging on to the seats for dear life until our knuckles turn white.  All of the Guatemalans laugh at us because we struggle to stay in our seats.



Tara and I with some girls.  The little girl on my left is holding up the art project we helped them with.

Tara and I with some girls.  The little girl on my left is holding up the art project we helped them with.

Once we get to Magdalena, we walk to Magdalena and usually get there around 9:30.  This week we helped Marcos with a craft on Monday and Tuesday, and today Tara and I taught an English lesson on different vocab words for clothing.  The kindergarteners were very excited, and the first word we taught them was "shirt".  They all screamed it at the top of their lungs; however, they have trouble saying their r's...Tara and I were laughing so hard, and Profe Marcos caught on as well.  We were thankful that as the kids got older, their ability to say their r's increased as well.  The kids also enjoyed playing dress up with our clothes, and we even got Marcos to wear a skirt!  (Tara has the pictures from today on her camera, so I'll post them once I get them from her.)

After school we've been helping a couple women within the community with their reading and writing.  I really enjoy doing this because we get to go into their homes and get to know more people within the community.  It's a very humbling experience to be helping these women learn how to read and write in their first language, and being able to understand what is going on in my second language.

They enjoy having us guess who's behind us, which is

fun, but difficult when I still don't know names very well!

We've been getting back to Antigua around 3:00, and I have the rest of the day to hang out, work on econ homework, and walk around.  This weekend we're going to the beach and staying at an all-inclusive resort for the night!  I'm super excited!

*The photos were taken by Jose who works for Students International.

Guac, Ice Cream, and Packages!

First, an update on the girls' basketball team.  They won their game easily on Tuesday night, and Maren Greenwaldt scored her 1,000th point!  They also won easily last night.  They play NLS on Tuesday night.  They beat NLS twice already this season, and if they win on Tuesday night it will be the first time ever that Sauk has beaten them three times in a season!  If you have nothing to do on Tuesday night, go to the game!  Seriously.  It's at St. John's Univeristy at 7:00.

Ok, back to Guatemala...

My mom's been bugging me to see pictures of our house here in Antigua, so here's our room.  Leah was smart enough to take a picture before we unpacked all of our stuff and made it messy, so this is her picture. 



Our room in Antigua.



So Friday was definitely the best day of school EVER!  It was the last day of our first class, and I'll be honest, I kind of felt like an elementary student because I was so excited for the last day.  We spent the first part of the day correcting my paper, and then we went to the market to buy supplies to make guac.  Our teachers made us guac on the roof of the school, and we all just hung out, talked, and ate guac.  Then after that Laura, Lauren, and I took our teacher's out to Dona Louisa's for ice cream.  As we were walking Laura, Lauren, and I realized how much faster we walk than our teachers.  We would be really far ahead of them,  stop to take pictures, get about a block behind them, and then in about two seconds we would be way ahead of them again.

Me with my teacher Veronica

After school and lunch, Leah and I went to the office, and I had the best surprise EVER!!!  I got a package from my mom!  It was supposed to get here by Valentine's Day, oh well.  She sent it the day I left, January 29th, the date it got to Guatemala City was February 9th, I think, and I just got it yesterday.  Yeah, the mail is SUPER slow here, but it was SO worth the wait. 

A bunch of us walked around the market before supper, and after supper we watched She's the Man in the SI office.  It was really fun just to hang, watch a movie, and laugh without homework hanging over my shoulders.

I don't have too much planned for the rest of the weekend, and I'm looking forward to that!  Next week we'll commute to Madgalena everyday to work at ministry sites again. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

March Maddness



Photo curtesy of Linda Nelson of L Gallery



Ok, I know basketball has nothing whatsoever to do with Guatemala, but if anyone knows me at all, they know I’m obsessed with basketball.  My high school basketball team (25-1) is ranked #2 in the state right now heading into playoffs.  If the best team makes it to state, we’re in.  Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to post updates throughout playoffs!  Good luck Daddy!!!

Ok back to Guatemala.

Today is the one month mark of our arrival here in Guatemala.  It’s SO crazy to think that I’ve been here for a month already!  It’s flown by!

Last weekend wasn’t too terribly exciting.  We had economics lectures for six hours on Saturday.  They went faster than I anticipated which was great.  Sunday I went to the bilingual church again, went to a fun Mexican restaurant for lunch, and then attempted to do homework the rest of the day.

Photo curtesy of Leah

I’m enjoying my extra free time this week since we don’t have economics class every day after Spanish class.  I walked around the market with Leah, and we walked up the cross on the north side of Antigua as a group.  It’s about a 15 minute walk up to get there, and the view was beautiful!  It was so amazing.  I really hope we’re able to go back sometime.

Today we went on another field trip for class.  This one was much more organized.  We rented a bus to go to San Antonio Aguas Calientes; at least I’m pretty sure that’s the name of it.  A woman at a cooperative talked to us and explained what she does.  Some of our group dressed up in traditional clothes and got married.  It was a really fun time, and we had some good laughs with our teachers.  I only have three days of class left, but really only like two because we won’t be doing much on Friday except correct my paper.

Happy Tuesday, and if you’re going to be in the Sauk Centre gym tonight, cheer loud for me!