Hola From Antigua!

Hello friends! Well I made it to Antigua safe and sound, thank the Lord. I left this morning at 6:30 and arrived in Guatemala City at 1:20 (3:20 Eastern time). Luckily the trip was mostly uneventful, other than sitting next to a guy from Puget Sound who plays the tuba for a post-rock band.

When my plane finally arrived in Guatemala, luckily I made it through customs and immigration without a hitch and when I walked out of the airport, I saw a sign with my name on it. The man holding the sign is my host dad (his name is Rigoberto). My Spanish immersion began as soon as we shook hands. He can speak English but we did our best to speak Spanish (so there was very little speaking on my end, but I honestly ok with the little Spanish that I do know). After 45 minutes driving, we arrived at my house in Antigua. Currently at the house there is a mom and a dad, their daughter named Julia (who is eleven and, I found out, is obsessed with Justin Bieber. Not only do I know this because she speaks some English, but I could also tell by the four JB posters in her room), a girl named Rosario (who is ten; I know she's not their daughter but I think they said she's Julia's cousin? I'm not really sure but she's cute regardless and doesn't speak a lick of English), and a volunteer at my Spanish school named Austin (he's a young guy originally from Tennessee). Reyna and Rigoberto have two other daughters who are away at university, so they don't live at the house now.

Now let me just say this: I LOVE my house. It is amazing. Basically, it's a house built around a courtyard filled with gigantic plants and a parakeet that chills at their house, walking around pecking at things. Random. It's beautiful. Click on the link below to see the pictures (it's through facebook but it's a public link so you can see it even if you don't have facebook):

Click here to see pictures!

Overall, here are my first impressions of Antigua/Guatemala so far:

• The presidential election is coming up soon and it is insane. There are soooo many candidates and there are posters of them plastered EVERYWHERE. 
• Antigua's streets are cobblestone and therefore ridiculously uncomfortable to drive on. Seriously. Anyone who gets carsick should not ride in a car on those streets without a heavy dosage of Dramamine.
• Someone (I don't know who) likes to fire a cannon or firework or something every fifteen minutes or so. It is really loud and I always jump but no one else in the house even flinches. 
• I think it's funny that some of Julia and Rosario's favorite music is rap. They were listening to rap music on Julia's mp3 player while I was in the living room with them and an Eminem song came on blurting out a bunch of f-words and other types of obscenities. It took me aback that they were allowed to listen to that when they were so young. Then I realized: they have no clue those are bad words. Anyway, it was kind of a funny moment and made me think about all the Spanish songs I've listened to. They could be nothing but variations on the f-word in Spanish and I would be utterly clueless.

Also, did I mention that Antigua is absolutely beautiful? These were from the roof of their house. They have a terrace-type thing.

Oh, hey, in case you were wondering...that ^ is definitely a volcano. Pretty sweet huh?

Okay I think that's enough for now. I'm exhausted. Tomorrow is my first day of Spanish school!