Hey everybody,

Or I guess I should be saying “hola”. We have free WI/FI that we can use during the day here at Anna's school. I think at the internet cafe it's about 25 cents for half and hour so it's pretty much a huge savings. I hope to be able to communicate at least once a week while here in Antigua. We leave for northern Guatemala on the 26^th and I'm not sure what our status will be. Our host family here is a nice couple, Carlos and Patricia who have been taking good care of us and feeding us mucho! We have breakfast around seven and then off to school by eight. I walk Anna to school which is about a ten minute enjoyable walk. I've found a gym that is within a couple of blocks of the school and plan to start working out there in the mornings. It would be considered “old-school” by US standards and I like the vibe; while I was checking it out there were two men kick-boxing in the middle of the gym.(I hope to be covered in blood at the end of every workout!) There's a building about a block away from where we live that is one of the largest free medical institutes in Guatemala. They have 260 permanent residents from ages six months to 200 years old or so. They also have patients that travel up to ten hours one way just to get worked on. I don't know what the deal is with health care for the lower-class. The institute also has different teams that come from all over and visit once a week to perform various surgeries or whatever their specialty may be. Anna and I will be able to volunteer there as much as we like. It will be incredibly stretching.

Anna is getting better and better at Spanish and I'm amazed at some of the things that she's able to understand in conversation with our host-family. She's applying herself mucho. Our bed here is covered with flashcards and tarea ( a word dreaded in every part of the world; homework). The Spanish is coming along fine, poco a poco. One thing that does amaze me is how fast and proficient we've become at killing mosquitos. Down here they have different flight patterns and camouflaging techniques that make them a worthy opponent. Even while typing this Anna killed one with a flashcard that was feasting on my ankle. She's hardcore!

So far we've had no contact with Americans, hard to believe after such a long time! We traveled down from Guatemala city with a guy about our age from Germany and Anna got to practice a little of her German and talk about her travels in Europe while on choir tour. Her German has been playing tricks on her and not staying in it's assigned file in her brain. It has been confusing her and coming out while estudiando with her Spanish teacher. Our neighbor student here at our home stay is from Japan and I was able to practice all of my Japanese with her in one sentence, “Eat-A-Docky-Moss?” good times!

We also found out that Carlos our host-family guy is a retired finquero. His family has owned coffee plantations for decades. We hope to be able to go on a trip for a visit and actually see the process of when the coffee plant turns itself into a Starbucks bag... isn't technology amazing.

Thanks for stopping by...