Hello everyone! So today was my second day of Spanish school and my first day taking the chicken bus. Both were quite an experience, let me tell you.
This morning, at school, I learned many different Spanish verbs, which was great because then the last half hour of class I was able to talk to my teacher in Spanish and actually make complete sentences instead of random words strung together. In the middle of class, though, I could hear drums and horns coming from the street and my teacher looked at me and said "Vamos" (let's go). We walked out to the sidewal with the rest of the students at Probigua and we saw a parade of school children marching and playing instruments. Some of the girls were dancing, and many of the boys were playing drums. The parade was to celebrate the indigenous heritage of Guatemala. The music was very well done and the school kids were super cute. It was definitely the highlight of the day. Scroll to the end of this post and you can see a link to some pictures and a short video I took of the parade.
In the afternoon, I learned how to take the chicken bus, so I was able to explore Antigua. Ok, so let me explain: although my school is in Antigua, my house is in a neighborhood called Jocotenango which is on the edge of Antigua. It's a little bit far to walk to my school, so the past couple days I got a ride from my host mom. Today, however, I learned how to ride the chicken bus, which are these really colorful buses that go all over Antigua, and many of them have Yosemite Sam painted on them (idk why...it's pretty weird!). Anyway, you pretty much have to jump on the bus (they don't stop for very long) and it takes you to Antigua. There are a bunch of people who take them and it's pretty cheap. For those of you who might be cringing reading this: don't worry. They are pretty safe. And I take them in the middle of the day in well-populated areas.
One of the major places I explored this afternoon was La Merced, this really cool old church around the corner from Probigua. I posted pictures of the outside of the church to my facebook, but I don't have any pictures of the inside. At the time I visited La Merced, the church was having Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament (which was really neat to see...they were praying the rosary as well), so I didn't feel like it was appropriate to take pictures. Maybe another day I will go back. Anyway, it was quite an afternoon! The bus is quite an adventure, as is exploring the city of Antigua. It is amazing how many Americans are here, and many of them don't necessarily go to Spanish school.
That's all for now. Time for me to go to bed and rest for tomorrow.
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