The drive to Xela was an interesting one to say the least, there were at least 10 times where we were required to hop over to the other side of the road because of landsides. The ride was four hours long through the green mountains of Guatemala, with incredible scenery and winding roads the continually went higher and higher. When we pulled into Xela, it is a very beautiful town embedded in mountains and volcanoes of the Guatemalan highlands. We pulled into our school with our bus driver weaving in and out of the narrow streets of Xela. It was reminiscent of the time I spent in Italia and the I could definitely feel the Spanish influence in the city. My first impression was that the city was huge. Xela has 300,000 inhabitants and many zones which kind of substitute for area codes. Entering the town, the streets were bustling with 100s of people just going about their lives, selling random goods such as chickens, and practically anything you can think of.
The first stop of the day was “El mundo en espanol” the Spanish school. Instantly, we were greeted by the head of the house; Gladis. A large woman with an even larger heart. Immediately we were all treated like family. The world cup final was on and we thought that we were going to miss it due to the ride to xela. On the bus we were listening to the broken Spanish over the radio trying to hear what was happening in the game. Luckily, we made it back to the last over time to watch Spain win the world cup. It was great that gladis quickly ushered us to the TV and was so sweet.
El mundo en espanol is the Spanish school in xela I will be learning from for the next 6 months. The school itself is literally the home of Gladis’s family and all the learning takes place in their backyard. As quickly as we arrived at the school, our host families arrived to take us all to our new homes in Xela.
Meeting my new host family was interesting and I have found to have quite a large family, consisting of 2 sisters, 1 brother, mom, grandma, and a father. However they have numerous people arrive throughout the day. First meeting was interesting since I really didn’t know how to speak Spanish at all. I rather attempted to use a few basic words and then point and make funny gestures to get my point across. The family is extremely nice and very loving, they feed me like im a horse haha. It is a bit too much food for me. The family is really great though and are very patient with me and love to laugh. This has made for a great inital living environment.
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