Xela

So after we finally made it to Xela we had a day to walk around, find a Spanish School and buy our notebooks and pens! Maybe due to some laziness on our part we decided to go with the second school we checked out, this meant we got to spend the rest of the day watching Breaking Bad on the laptop.

In the end we had two weeks of Spanish School at El Portal with a home stay. It was back to homework every night and I even had a test one Monday morning. It was actually nice to have a bit of a purpose to days again and we had that Friday afternoon feeling that we hadn't had for about 3 months. 

The Home Stay:

We lived with two Sons, Sergio and Diego, who were attending the local university; Rebekka, an Austrian girl who was out for 6 months volunteering teaching English to local kids; and whatever other random people were around. For one of the weeks we also shared the house with a couple from the States who were brushing up on their Spanish. Last but not least there was Cristina, a family friend who lived around the corner and came over to cook all our meals and her son Mario. 

Our Family for Two Weeks - Rebekka, Mario, Cristina, Diego and Friend Jorge

The Bedroom - It really did start to feel like home

This girl was always trying to break into our room so we had to tie the door closed with a plastic bag or block it with a chair

One of the Courtyards in the middle of the house, it was a very interesting set up, but it left me craving my own courtyard one day

I hate this shower with a passion, the hot water would only work if only a trickle of water came out and it took us about a week to figure that out. So it was cold showers every day during winter. 

School:

School was hard and I still can't speak Spanish, but I'm closer that before! Through school we got to see multiple other parts of Xela. Every Friday there was a celebration for the students "Graduating" that week. One week we celebrated with many tostadas and the next with a giant fruit salad.

Me and My Maestra, Claudia

Alex and his Maestra, Leyla

Extra Circular Activities:

Just outside of Xela is an amazing hot spring, Fuentes Georginas. It's heated by a local volcano. The three pools range from Pretty Damn Hot to I think I'm starting to Boil Alive. We saw our first humming birds here! 

After about 2 hours in the Hot Springs I think it was the most wrinkled I have ever been

One Sunday we visited the Chichicastenango market, one of the biggest markets in Central America, with our housemates Rebekka and Sergio and their friend Joey. Crazy market with some pretty traditional churches and the prettiest cemetery I have seen (all those colours in the background)

We were waiting to catch a minivan to get back to the bus station from Chichi. The minivan reverses, almost running over me, and when it opens it's doors there's a flood of people pushing to get inside. In the end we counted at least 26 people squeezed into that van. If the same van was in Australia you legally could have only fit about 16 people in it. 

We heard that there was a Taco Bell in town so we went on an excursion to find it. After a lot of walking we finally stumbled into a shopping centre, a real shopping centre with a food court and everything. We found and conquered that Taco Bell. This was our first Taco Bell experience and I was..... disappointed. I just don't get how Taco Bell can be so crazy popular (It was the busiest food place in the court and both our teachers raved about it) when you're in the home of real Mexican food!