Six Days Left

With only six days left we are finally getting into learning English. The high school kids are doing such a good job and learning quickly! Today we talked about society, what makes up a society and such! Then we went over phrases that will be helpful. They wanted to learn everything they could today about how to say this and that. It was great to act out different phrases and try to understand what they wanted in Spanish to tell them the word in English. I can't wait for Thursday to give them cupcakes, pictures, and treasures! Although I'm excited to head home, I am going to miss all of them! Today we took lots of pictures, which are now on the photobucket website, so check them out!
-Andrea

http://s1127.photobucket.com/albums/l639/astockwe08/Que%20Guatemala%202011/

The Weekend

On Friday we left for Antigua for the weekend, a city that use to be the Capital of all of Central America. The city was very pretty with all the buildings looking similar and cobble roads. We checked into a cute little hotel that was actually a 200 year old house. We went the market there and got lots of souvenirs, then dinner at a fancy restaurant and out on the town. The next day we went to a coffee plantation which was really fun to see all the hard work that goes into making coffee. We learned that the plantation we were at exports their coffee to Starbucks, the new Guatemalan coffee is from where we were! That was pretty neat,  as well as getting to taste the coffee and buy some of our own! After the plantation we went to the Jade factory which was neat to see how they make the jade and delicate the process is. The jade is so pretty and unique. After touring the city a bit more, seeing the cathedrals, and such we came back to be picked up by our host family. Since it was pretty late we called it a night after showing off our new treasures! Today we went to the country club, which was really nice to have a relaxing day. We swam, hung out in the hot tub and sauna and just rested.
I have plenty of pictures from this weekend and they are uploading to photobucket as I type this! Feel free to try this link periodically to see when they upload!
-Andrea

http://s1127.photobucket.com/albums/l639/astockwe08/Que%20Guatemala%202011/

End of Week 2!

Doing lots better! Still not sure what I had, but feeling close to normal again. Excited for Antigua and the beach this weekend! Taking lots of pictures, but having complications loading them without a camera cord, might just have to wait until I'm back in the states and them load them all at once! Today my lesson we great again, I think the students really like being active and learning. After school our family took us to the mall, which was really fun to see all the places and shops! Well bedtime, big weekend ahead! I will post after our adventure to Antigua!
-Andrea

Sick Day!

Starting to get better I think, not sure. The vomiting and such has stopped, but a fever took it's place. Stayed home from school today and rested. Have hit the humor stage of the trip where I just laugh at myself for the misfortune I have come into. Between my roommate having a cold and me having who knows what we just laugh at everything. More pictures can be found on the photobucket website in the last post.

High of today: Gatorade and 7 up
Low of today: super sick
Funny thing of today: My roommate sounds like a man!

12 days, can't wait to be home!

End of week one!

The end of week one came with a lovely surprise. VOMITING! Nothing like being slightly covered in your own bile because the only place to throw up is the streets. We visited the kids' homes today, so we had to stay late at the school. Silly Americans we decided to order pizza, that was a bad idea. I didn't even eat a lot of it, but I think between that and the local food we had yesterday my stomach just couldn't process it fast enough, thus stomach flu! Yay me! Other than that today was really good, my lesson went well, the kids are learning so quickly. It was moving to see their homes, or lack there of tonight. I hope that I can show you pictures to convey the feelings that I have now. I do have lots of pictures from the weekend and have decided to create a photobucket account so it's easier and better to see them. I apologize for the short entry again, but as I'm not feeling to good, I'm going to bed.
-Night,
Andrea

The link to photos:
http://s1127.photobucket.com/albums/l639/astockwe08/Guatemala%202011/

Lake trip!

Today we went to the lake by the volcanoes! There are three volcanoes in that part of Guatemala: fire, water, and something else. They were really neat! I have a lot of pictures from the day, but cannot upload them yet. I will try to tomorrow with someone else's camera cord. I apologize for the short entry, but I'm so tired after going all weekend and having to wake up at 5 am every morning and not getting into bed until about 10 pm, long days! I'm excited for a full week of teaching though.

High of the day: Going on a boat ride across the lake. Getting some more souvenirs.
Low of the day: Eating food that we probably shouldn't have and paying for it. :/
Funny thing of the day: Just conversations with the family, they are really entertaining and think Tiffany and I are hilarious!
XOXO- Andrea

Weekend!

Today was great! We woke up at 7, which was sleeping in, then went to different places around the city. First we went to the zoo, saw all the animals, took lots of pictures. Next we went to a cute little market, bought my first souvenir for mom. Then we moved onto the Children's Museum, which was so much fun! We literally were kids again, running around to the different stations. At one we had to rescue a dummy because he fell off his bike. At another we played grocery story, another we acted like beans and went through the process they go through. We were human bubbles and many other things! So much fun, after that we were exhausted and came home to watch movies and relax. Tomorrow we are going to a lake, because it's pretty I guess, not quite sure! I will have lots of pictures to post after the weekend though! Sorry for a short post, but we were really busy and I'm exhausted, we are getting up at 5 am again tomorrow so bed time!
-Andrea