My house in SLC, UT

Here are some pictures of the house I am living in. I am living with my friend Emily Bates. The house has been in her family for I think at least 40 or more years. It is amazing! We are set up on a hill too so in the evenings you can see the city lights. Emily said it is better in the winter when the leaves have dropped. It's nice to be in a place with so much space!

upstairs living room

                        

This is the outside BBQ area complete with an oven, grill, stove, fridge, freezer, fireplace, plenty of covered seating.

Drivin' to Utah!

I LOVE road trips! Although I do not like saying good-bye or packing up my life, which this road trip involved. I never thought I would be moving back to Utah. Well, here it goes! I am really excited to be living out there, but really sad to be so far from my family. 

While I was gone my car stopped working and in fact, my Dad couldn't even get it started by jumping it. So.... we spent a couple nights working on my car. We ended up replacing the battery, front brakes and rotors, spark plugs and wires, and the..... My dad is an Angel. He spent a lot of his very limited free time helping me out. I love you Dad (and not just because you help me with my car )  :)

I drove to Kentucky to get Kirsti who was planning to head out to Utah too. She is not quite sure where she is going to be living so although we were going to drive in separate cars she decided if she could come with me it would be better to leave her car at her parent's house for now. 

I finally got my car packed up with just enough extra room for Kirsti, Soli and Kirsti's bag. I packed almost everything out of bags and boxes so I could fit more things in. I ended up re-packing my car 2 times after the original time to try to consolidate things better. And I headed off to get Kir. Mapquest said it would take me 18 hours.... well, it took me about 22! I only stopped for gas and the bathroom too! Since my car is such a junker I tend to drive a little slow.

I hung out with Kir at her house for a bit, took a sauna, watched a little CSI, went to lunch with her family, and finally continued on our way at...... 4pm!!! haha... we ended up splitting the drive into 3 days and spent 2 nights in hotels. I ended up driving the whole time which worked out perfect because 1) I packed the car so tight behind my seat that we couldn't move the driver's side seat back and she is a bit taller than me and 2) she can read without getting car sick and so she read me "Twilight" (and finished it)

It was a perfect drive out. On the 2nd day with Kir we were both really tired at a rest stop and it was so nice out that we decided to take a nap on the lawn..... we were on our way again 1.5 hours later. It was nice to not feel really rushed. 

The last morning we woke up in Cheyenne to it slushing out and as we drove it turned into snow!

Although the drive was nice, it was nice to make it to SLC!

back to the Northeast

I made it back to Boston without any problems! And spent about 2 weeks with my family. I had mixed feelings about being back. Of course it was amazing to see my family!

I wish I would have taken more pictures, but here are some of what I took....

Dylan and I went to visit Beth and Sasha in Plymouth. We went for a hike to a little pond.

Dylan jumped in the pond. He didn't mean to get so wet, but fell in up to his neck. It was COLD!!

Here is the fort we built in the back of mom and dad's house with some scrap wood. And a really quick TeePee I threw together.

Josh met me in downtown Manchester to take me out to lunch. Here is a picture of us in Mom's shop.

Me and Dylan after using my new juicer.... YUM!!

 I went up to Amber's house a couple times to hang out with her and her family. I LOVE when she sings and Jeremiah plays the mandalin(sp?)

I LOVE my family!! That is going to be the hardest thing about being in Utah!!

Good-Bye Guatemala

This is from our farewell evening at El Cuartito. What a fun group. I will miss you all! 

Karaoke

Thursday night there is Karaoke at El Cuartito. No, I did not sing!! But Kir did!!

My friends signing at El Cuartito. I wish you could see it better!

Counting down...

I have a little lapse in my blogging... no real excuses, just distracted I guess. We are on our final week here. The last 2 have been very interesting!

School has been great!

I was really sick about a week and half ago.

I let it go for about 4 or so days and finally last Tuesday, when I felt worse and not better, I decided I needed to go to the doctors. So I told the mom at my house, Sandy, and she said if I wanted that she had good friends that run a hospital and she would bring me to see them. And of course I took her up on it! I feel VERY fortunate. She brought me to their hospital (or clinic) and her friend saw me right away. He also had most of the medecine I needed there, which he gave me, and when I asked him at the end how much I owed...... GRATIS!!! (free!!) I had to go buy 1 thing which cost me under $2. Wow!! I can not tell you happy I was to have medicine and especially for free. And to have someone to take me to the hospital! I am still not exactly sure what I had, but I lost my voice and felt really week

 and then started to feel conjested and have a bit of a cough (which the cough is still hanging out so far!) About an hour after starting my medicine I started to feel better... slowly! Needless to say I didn`t do anything for almost 4 days, and didn`t even have the energy to study! But I am back!.... mostly!

Last week was Samana Santa which is a pretty big deal here in Guatemala. Since I felt better, I went to Monterrico with my friend Rudy, Emily, and Kirsti. It was nice to see the coast, but it was a bit of a nutty trip. I wish we could have stayed longer. Worth it...? For me yes. Que Calor!!!! 

Dang it was hot there!! We got in in the evening and left the next day early afternoon. It was kinda like spring break... not totally my thing, but the company was more than good. The ride back was a bit long... 9.5 hours. Although we made a lot of pit stops, hit some traffic, and the car broke down at one point. ------So we hit some bumps and the car just shut off. 

So Rudy popped the hood and started looking around. He found that a fuse had blown and after tinkering for a bit, replaced the fuse with a paperclip...... which actually worked and we were able to drive to the next town to purchase a fuse. Afterwhich we nicknamed him McGiver.



Easter Sunday I spent with Emily and Kirsti. We spent the day in Xela trying to find something to do. We ended up seeing a small procession and then running across a re-enactment of Christ`s Crucifiction which ended up being pretty interesting.







The crucificion




Christ being laid in the tomb




Christ resurrected



Me and Emily in a Cemetery

Starting out in Xela

views of the city from a hill by our house












Well, here are finally some pictures of our life here in Xela! I am REALLY excited to be here still! We have finished a week of school and are finding our way around the city. I was here last year for 4 weeks to study, but I lived on the other side of the city. So while there is a sense of familiarity, it also is very new.
I am having fun being in the city. I can´t remember if I wrote in my last post, but it is A LOT colder here! Now I don´t regret packing my fleece and vest and jeans!!

There are a lot of Cafes here so we have been spending a lot of our afternoons studying in them. And we started taking yoga in the evenings too.

My teacher is EXCELLENT here! And our family is incredible!!





the family minus Gabby and my room to the right































Saturday night much of the world turned out their lights for an hour and so did we.. during which we payed scrabble with Andre. He played in English and we played in Spanish



















Me and my teacher Oscar












Kir and I at McDonalds (as if you coudn´t tell)




























To the right is a picture of the hot springs Fuentes Georginas which are about an hour outside of the city and roasting hot!!!

Traveling to Xela

Kir and I spent about 3 days of last week in buses and mini vans traveling to Xela. We stopped off on the way here in Semuc Champey... which was kinda on the way. What an incredibly beautiful area!!! We stayed at a sort of Hostel there for 4 nights and 2 full days. It was very relaxing. On the fist of the 2 days we took a cave tour during which we traveled through th cave with candles and had to swim for a lot of it! I was quite chilly by the time we came out. Since our cameras are not water proof we don`t have pics. Sad, cause it was really cool!! The next day we went to Semuc Champney where there are the most beautiful cristal clear pools of water!! Other than that we spent a lot of time just reading and studying. Although we did get in a little dancing in one night. It was nice too because all of the employees speak spanish and som of the guests too so we had opportunities to talk.

We arrived here in Xela on Saturday. My friend Hugo`s nephew, Roca, lives in a town near by and came to town with 2 of his frinds and took me and Kir out dancing! Such a fun night (which I don`t have pictures of either). We went to church on Sunday and I think it is THE friendliest ward I have ever attended. Both Kir and I love all the cheek kisses we get!

The family we are staying with here are so great. It`s a husband and wife who are about my age (just a bit older) with 2 kids 19, and 15. We were suprised when we got there to find out we have our own rooms AND our own bathrooms with hot showers!! The mom, Sandy, is an amazing cook and the family is good about eating with us and talking to us a lot, and helping us feel very welcome. Infact they had 4 family members over last night and we all had dinner togther. Although they have a different faith we all hold hands and pray before meals which I think is sweet and they have us take turns to practice too.

Last night Kir and I had a bit of a scare as we were walking home from the center of town around 7:30pm.. it was dark, but not that late. Kirsti was walking behind me and there was a point that I turned around to see her and saw a guy right behind her with his hood over his head and I screamed "watch out" and grabbed her, and then she screamed and dropped to the ground. Luckily he ran away! It supposedly not normal for the hour and location, but our dad, Roberto told us to buy whistles and if we blow them the neighbors will know something is wrong and run out. I think we just had bad luck, but we will get whistles and Kir will carry her pepper spray (don`t worry mom and dad!!)

I am very happy to be here. Xela is the 2nd biggest city in Guatemala so we have a lot more access to things! Kir and I are going to take Salsa lessons tonight too. And I am VERY happy to be in school again!

I have not taken ANY pictures of life here yet... they are coming!