Guatemala City and the Bianchis

 To my utter delight, I arrived safely in Guatemala City. The flight was only two and a half hours and went by quickly as most of my time was spent coloring pictures of Big Bird with the two year old named Julio sitting next to me. Julio was making his first trip to Guatemala to visit his cousins with his native mother. I should have taken a picture of him…he was adorable. It also reminded me that I want to live with a family with kids as I feel like my Spanish is more on their level…maybe around a 4 year old right now. Leaving the Guatemala airport is quite an experience. After receiving hardly a glance from the customs officer and walking out of the airport without anyone checking my bag, I entered what could only be described as a Guatemalan red carpet. As I left the sliding glass doors, there were literally hundreds of people on both sides of a short metal rail armed with signs, presents, and anxious faces searching for their returning family members. As they looked at me, I tried to stay calm while looking back into the crowd, eyes going back and forth, looking for my friend Lorena. She did not turn up on the first pass through the “red carpet” area so I waited patiently away from the crowd and looked around for her. Then I joined the masses on the outside of the rail and slowly walked and looked around, trying to not look lost, but starting to go over in my head what I would do next if Lorena was not there. As I contemplated the possible scenarios, I finally saw Lorena on the other side of the street away from the crowd. Victory! (provided by Johnny Drama).

Lorena and I headed back to her house. Her house is awesome…I love it….and her family is also great. You have no idea how amazing it is to be able to stay here the first couple of nights while I orient to a Spanish world. My first Guatemalan meal was hamburgers and last night Lorena and I went to hear her cousin play guitar at a bar where they were also playing the Monday Night Football game on the tv. So maybe Guatemala is not so different from the US after all?!? Well…I am going to guess that this is not entirely true but the similarities are more vast when it comes to Lorena’s family versus the average Guatemalan. Her family is part of the Ladino community which are of European descent and not indigenous to the country. About 60 percent of the population is indigenous with the rest being Ladino, Black, or other ethnicities like Jewish. So her family has traveled a bit and the lifestyle is similar to mine back in the States. Nice house, good education, speaks English, etc.

Today, October 30, I slept until ten, and then drove around the city with Lorena’s mother Lia and stopped and looked at a few sites. Around 1:30 we were back home and settled in for a nice almuerzo (lunch). Lunch is the biggest meal of the day here just as it was in Mexico. I ate lunch with the entire Bianchi family, Lia, Gerardo (papa), Juan Miguel (24 yr old brother), and Fernando (18 yr old brother); rounding out the family are Sherlock and Sharon, two cute cocker spaniels. Here is a photo of The Bianchi Family. Lunch was amazing! It consisted of a sort of stew with chicken, potatoes, carrots, green beans, and an Indian-like sweet and sour sauce, corn on the cob, rice, and tortillas con queso. To top it off I had ice cream and plantains for desert! Yummy! I enjoyed the meal but I know I cannot get used to this sort of cooking as I am sure that my homestay will not be providing with me the same quality or quantity of food.

Later on in the day I went to buy a cell phone with Lorena, and it was a success. She did all the negotiating, I got a cell phone, and she got a free Tigo (name of cellular company) hat. I have a prepaid cell that I am really not sure how it works but I do know that it is cheaper to call the US than it is to call Guatemala…..very good for me. I did forget my Spanish verbs book at the store so I guess I will have to learn the language minus the verbs!

Tonight was just a chill night. Pizza for dinner, played on the computer, chatted with the family, etc. Tomorrow I will be waking up very early to go take a bus to Quetzaltenango, or Xela and begin my search for a language school. Hopefully by tomorrow night I will be living with another family…and if they are even half as nice as the Bianchis I will be set.

Random notes: Lorena’s grandparents acted as a bank and exchanged some of my dollars for quetzals. One dollar is worth 7.73 quetzals as of press time. The weather has been great…cool in the morning and night and warm during the day. Xela is supposed to be considerably colder than Guatemala City. Guate is actually a very nice city with lots of hills and trees everywhere. I wouldn’t mind spending some more time here in a month or two. I am trying to speak Spanish as much as I can but my vocab sucks. However, my knowledge of Italian has made it much easier and I feel as if I have already learned a lot in basically one day. I think that in one month I will try to write an entry entirely in Spanish and y’all will have to translate.

Important Info: To call me from the States, dial 011.502.4039.2467. The call is free for me so just try calling on Skype or with a calling card. Hope to hear from everyone soon!

Buenas Noches.