Miscellaneous

This post will be mostly pictures, to give you a glimpse of some stuff I see around.

My team visited the Spanish Embassy. This is what you see when you first walk in:

My team, getting ready for a picture:

Modern art exhibit. Exhibit 1: the pencil drawing created by fan.

Exhibit 2: what to do with a giant bean?

Exhibit 3: philosophy.

If I draw a point on a leaf of paper, I am a doodler.
If I draw a point on a hundred leaves of paper, I am a philosopher.
If I draw a point on a thousand leaves of paper, I am a mystic.
If I draw a point on a hundred thousand leaves of paper, I am a conceptual artist and can make riches and fame.
Social values depend on accumulation.


We're at CEMI now, a missionary compound outside of Antigua. This was a little before sunset looking towards a volcano. [sidenote: I watched the sunset-- it was gorgeous-- and afterwards realized that I should have taken pictures... your loss]

Yes, we have cloudy sky in Guatemala sometimes

So much clouds that it covers a lot of volcano... you'd never believe how high of a cone is hidden by this cloud.

What season do you think it is? Oh right, it's Spring! [Guatemala: the Land of Eternal Spring]

A pretty flower:

Week 1-- Check

Well, the first week is over. We are 1/3 of the way through Spanish school, 1/3 of the way through our time in Antigua, and 1/11 of the way through our time in Central America (approximately?). During this time, we've made many mistakes in speaking Spanish, had many cups of Guatemalan sweet coffee, enjoyed many tortilla-based meals, taken many pictures, gotten a little sunburned, and climbed a volcano. Here are a few pictures from the week, mostly of the volcano hike.

My buddy Aidan, during a staff meeting:


Alex and Evy, our new field coordinators:

Evy, with their dog Spike:


The church where we hold a couple classes and chapel:



The view of a couple volcanoes at sunset from my house:



Shorr, trying to decide which little boy to rent a walking stick from:


A prime picture opportunity, evidenced by the number of cameras out:


One of those prime pictures:


Keryn, the happy hiker:


Another prime picture:


Alyssa, goofing off:


After:


A horse "taxi" that followed us up quite aways:


Volcanoes in the distance... can you tell that we've climbed higher?


Pacaya puffing off smoke... yes, this is the volcano we were on.


The last bit of the climb... pretty steep:






Helen's knee, after falling on the lava rock:


Keryn, with the dog that some of the girls carried down the volcano:


A restaurant sign on the way back:


Me, with a rather tired/forced grin:


This next week we're continuing language school. I'm practicing my past preterite and past imperfect tenses, and learning to differentiate on when to use which. It's fun and going pretty well.

Please pray for the group: health, safety, good spirits, and ability to assimilate Spanish.

Guatemala!

Well, I'm in Guatemala again. Here's a run-down of the events since leaving Canada:

-- We left Calgary at 7:00 AM, flying to Dallas first. 5 1/2 hour layover, then we left there at 5:30 PM, arriving in Guatemala City at 9:00 PM. Due to the regulations restricting carry-on items on flights to the U.S., I had my laptop, a book, and my bible with me during that whole time... nothing else. Flights went smoothly and we were picked up by Alex and Evy (our field coordinators) at the airport. 1 bag misplaced, but hopefully it will be located soon.

Saturday evening, after arriving at the seminary (GBS), we unloaded bags, paid the driver, brought people to their rooms, and dropped into bed exhausted.

Sunday morning we had breakfast at 7:30, staff meeting to plan the day at 8:30, then we left for church at 10:45. Church was really great... I had missed worshiping in Spanish. Unfortunately, I was really tired and kept doing the head-nod/jerk regularly during the sermon... oh well for that one. As soon as church was over, we rushed back to GBS for lunch.

Another meeting after lunch, then I took a short nap. Woke up to find that a guy who was in Discover last year was visiting for a little while, so I went out to say hi to him... and was snatched away to go shopping for new cell phones and a receipt book. I was supposedly along to do the receipt book, but we never found one. We did, however, spent 3 hours looking for cell phones. Thankfully we did find enough cheap ones for the group and got things set up with that. We went back in time for dinner, then another meeting! Do you see a theme here yet?

The evening meeting was basically student orientation for Antigua. We gave out information on how to behave in Antigua, how to relate to host families, what to expect with Spanish school, travel details, packing details, cell phone protocol and passing them out, and a few other random things. =) The meeting was a little over 2 hours, and by the end we were all pretty tired. Back to my room for the evening, checked my email (since I had internet), and went to bed.

Today we traveled to Antigua. We left the seminary at 7:15, arriving at our language school at 8:00. After luggage was unloaded and people had their teachers, we learned Spanish until noon. For me it was a ton of review, reminding myself of all the grammar I'd managed to forget in the last year. So far, so good.

Language school over, we had lunch with our host families. I am staying with the same family as last year... Jose and Karla Sanchez. The friend from Discover last year is also staying with them, along with two friends. It's quite the fun party there! After lunch, we took off on a tour of Antigua in teams. Jordan and I showed our team a bunch of different places, including the Bagel Barn (my current location), central park, banks, McDonalds, Pollo Campero, Saritas, the arch, the market, the bus station, and the location of their other classes.

Now I'm in the Bagel Barn, as previously mentioned. Soon I'll be shutting off my computer and returning to my host home, hopefully to do a little homework.

Hopefully next time I post I'll have some pictures for y'all. Until then, adios, y dios te bendiga.

Leaving

So, tomorrow morning I'm leaving on a jet plane. As the last details slip (or are forced) into place, reality is starting to set in. 48 hours from now I will be waking up in a new country, listening to the sound of birds in the spring time, walking outside in sandals and a t-shirt, and learning again how to converse in Spanish.

The journey begins at 2:30 AM tomorrow. We arrive in Guatemala City at 9:00 PM local time. Prayers are greatly appreciated.

One result of college life

The other day, as I was entering the dorm, I had a thought. I know, crazy ain’t it? Me, having a thought! Anyway, the thought was this: no wonder people leave college with so much debt! See, as they walk into the dorm, they swipe their ID card. As they walk out of the dorm, they swipe their ID card. Even if they only leave the dorm for meals, they swipe their card at least 6 times a day. It only takes 26 days to create a habit, (and 76% of statistics are made up on the spot) so after 26 days of college life, swiping cards must be habitual. So what do we do? We walk into the dorm and we swipe our card. We walk into a store and swipe a different card. We walk into another store and swipe yet another card. Soon it happens: debt, overspending, inability to meet monetary obligations. It’s unavoidable.

At least, that’s my theory.