ahh, xela. up until now, this place has been so mythical. everyone i know who's been to guatemala has spent significant amounts of time here and i've heard so many stories that i can't believe i'm actually here. you were all right, it's pretty awesome. i am absolutely freezing, but really enjoying myself. i have a great maestro at the spanish school, he's this great lefty and i keep learning more and more about his days as a trade union president. he's also a writer and today took me to the office of the magazine he writes for. we talked with the editor for about a half an hour and i walked out with an impossible stack of political revistas. we've been reading some of his articles together during class time and while it takes me awhile to decode everything, it's coming a bit faster each day. i had this great conversation with kate (hi kate!) the other day and realized how hard i'm being on myself about how much spanish i don't know yet. i know i can't expect to become bilingual in a matter of weeks, but i've been so impatient lately with my seeming lack of progess. realized i need to chill out a bit. it's coming along fine.
i'm staying with a sweet family here, but the house feels much more like a guesthouse than a homestay. i eat my meals with my belgian roommate who is awesome -- finally! a cool girl i've met on this trip! -- but there is hardly any interaction with the family. i'm leaving xela this weekend for a special two week trip to el salvador and honduras with an awesome guy from north carolina, but afterwards i'm planning on coming back here until mid-may and hopefully getting involved with a volunteer project and finding a j-o-b. i had dinner with my friend seth last night who i met in leon, nicaragua. he's lived here in xela for the past year or so and showed me around to some of the spots around town. it was great to reminisce about how amazing nicaragua was. i really miss that place, especially leon.
a few days ago i went to the most beautiful hot springs in the world. all you xelaphiles out there know the place, fuentes georginas. seriously. i stupidly did not bring my camera. uhhh. the pickup truck ride up to the springs was amazing, we drove up this windy road passing some cute farms the air started to get really really fresh with clouds covering everything. made it up to the pools which were steaming and wonderful and so perfectly hot. there was a mayan family at one end of the pool and some of the women in the family were massaging the sick grandmother and although i felt like a voyeur, it was pretty amazing to watch.
oh, and i got into grad school! i've heard back good news from the new school and nyu, still waiting on a couple others, we shall see....
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