it is day 3 here in xela. i´ve had 3 days of spanish class one on one, and already so many things are much clearer in my head in terms of the language. i can´t wait to see what 2 more weeks will bring. yesterday i met up with my two friends liz and trisha in el parque central. we roamed the city, shopped, studied at a cafe, ate out at a mayan restaurant. i spent so much money (which in u.s. dollars was really not THAT much). i´m happy with the things i got. i will definitely slow down on the spending though. really happy about the soccer ball that i bought! still looking for a guatemalan national futbol team jersey in my size. i got my eye on a guatemalan futbol though... i saw one passing by a store today...

today i´m going on a field trip with my school to the volcanic hot springs called aguas amargas. i´ve never been to a hot springs at all before, so it´ll be cool to have my first one be here! tonite my school is showing a documentary or film, not certain, called ¨fresas y chocolate¨ which is about homosexuality in cuba. not sure either when the film was made. yesterday´s conference topic was extraordinary, and i almost understood all of it!! one of the folks at our school was the radio speaker of ¨La Voz Popular¨ which was the guerilla news broadcast during the conflict. freakin crazy!! her stories are amazing and inspiring. i will record them later, because for now i must lunch with my host family. until then!