I'm here!

Hey everyone!

This being a first post, it will be long...sorry, I promise the next ones will be shorter!!

After two flights and, thankfully, no motion sickness at all (although I have decided that the roller-coaster takeoff feeling is not one of my alltime favorite things), Claudia and I arrived in Guatemala to meet our driver, Leonel. His friendliness and kind, impish smile are so characteristic of Guatemalans, and it was a great introduction to what we can expect for the 9 weeks we will be here. The first thing we realized after leaving the airport is that GT (Guatemala) is rainswept as a result of the tropical storm that broke out in Nicaragua and has been making its way across northern Mexico. For the next 4 or 5 days, it will be rainy and grey all day here (yay! :P).
The next thing we learned about GT is that when it comes to driving, there are no rules!! Guatemalans drive really fast and swerve across the streets (mostly to avoid the big puddles that accumulate in one lane or the other) and they pass other vehicles to the left and to the right, whenever they want. With the torrential rain it made me a bit nervous, but Leonel has lived here all his life and these conditions exist 6 months out of the year so it is no more dangerous than driving over icy streets in Quebec in January!
I arrived at my host home, and I couldn't believe my eyes! I will add pictures soon so you can truly appreciate the beauty of these colonial homes...there are 3 levels, all concrete floors, and everything is open. As in, from all levels you can look right up to the sky, and when it rains the rain comes into the hall a bit. From the roof you can look out over the city at the mountains and volcanoes (Antigua is in a valley, surrounded by mountains, it's a breathtaking sight!). The doors are all wrought iron and massive wood, and the bathroom and shower are tiled and very clean. The family I live with are fantastic! Flori and Edgar Sr. are sweet and very comfortable with pretty much anything; we can use the kitchen when we want, invite people over, and they include us as much as we want in their everyday lives (we eat meals with them and their family, and we can help them cook and chat with them whenever we want!). They have 3 children: Denise is 18 and studying to be a veterinarian, Edgar Jr. is 17, in his last year of highschool and will be going into med school next september, and Paula is 13 and very shy. I also have 3 housemates, who are studying at the Spanish school we are associated with for our practicum: David from Germany, Nathan from Miami and John Henry from Colorado. We went out for supper with them and a bunch of other fun students from around the world last night, and I am glad to meet such fun people! I sense that we will be fast friends.
We met the principal of the school we will be teaching at in San Felipe, a small town just outside of Antigua. Her name is Ana, and we get along very well. We will be deciding our schedule and the details of our teaching placement today and tomorrow.
Other than that, some fun facts about my life here so far:
-The plumbing being very old, we can't flush toilet paper down the toilet, we have to put it in the garbage.
-I will be buying a cell phone for local calls, since a phone, and the equivalent of about 200 local talking minutes, costs around 20-25 US$ here!!
-1 US$= about 7 Quetzals.
-There are these little tractor-cars that putt-putt around the city, and they are called Tuck-Tucks (pronounced took-tooks).
Well, that's all for today!
Talk to you again soon!
Liz xoxo