First Week in Antigua

Hello Everyone! :D

Well everyday I have been here has been a beautiful 25 degrees Celsius! It gets colder at night, around 15 degrees but it is still nice. The volcanoes are beautiful, and are surrounded by mountains. Well I arrived with Libby at 4:30pm on Sunday January 2nd, 2011. We were dropped off at our host families houses, to unpack and get settled. Normally our host families provide food every day except Sundays, so when I arrived I was supposed to get my own food. Another girl staying at my house, Maria, she is from Guatemala but from another part. She is doing her masters in Psychology in the Capital city (Guatemala City), and she took me out to get some food. We ate at 'Pollo Campero' which for those of you who have never visited Latin America, it is almost the equivalent of KFC but WAY BETTER! hahahaha! So that was nice because I love Pollo Campero. I was so tired when we got home so I went to sleep pretty early. My house is really nice, I love it. There are 5 other girls hosting at my house. One other from our group, one from the States, two from Guatemala who are here learning English, and one from Japan. Everyone is really nice, and the food is great!! Especially having tortillas EVERY DAY! :D WOW! Our first full day here Libby and I met up at the school and bumped into a lot of people from our group. We basically walked around and got to know the city all day. It was really fun but very tiring. All the streets are made of rocks pressed into the ground . . . makes for a very bumpy ride in the city. Antigua has no street lights in order to preserve the integrity of it's history. Antigua is surrounded by three volcanoes and many mountains. The three are 'Volcan de Agua' (Water Volcano), 'Volcan de Fuego' (Fire Volcano), and 'Volcan Pacaya' (Pacaya Volcano). They are beautiful and you are able to climb up on them. The Volcan de Agua is the largest and it is about a 5-6 hour hike up to the top! Pacaya is only about an hour and half and is still active. You can actually roast marshmallows from the lava that is flowing. Literally an arms length away! We are planning on hiking this one on the weekend. Well I have started Spanish classes and they are pretty cool! Two hours of conversational spanish a day, pretty good kind of intense. I think we officially start all classes on Monday. Everything is kind of up in the air about our plans but, its okay. Well I miss everyone back home and I wish I could share this beautiful place with you. In the pictures you will see one of Libby and I on our flight here, then there is one of my bedroom, and a few of the beautiful landscapes. Take care and much love xoxo