Dear Reader,
So Monday was travel day...and it was exhausting. The worst part by FAR was the bus ride, but I'll get to that later. Let's start with how I woke up in the morning. Firstly, I overslept. I should've woken up a 6am, but instead I woke up at 6:35. That left me with roughly 55 minutes to get everything in order which meant finish packing (I'd abandoned doing it the night before because I kept getting distracted), shower, make breakfast and make sure to download the Uber app so that I could get a ride to the airport. It went well for the most part, but lets just say I could've really used that 35 minutes that I'd given up for extra sleep. Upon getting on the plane I realized there were two extremely important things that I'd forgotten at home: deodorant (I'd prefer not to have stinky pits in a foreign country) and bug repellant (It would also be nice to not die of the zika virus). In the grand scheme of things I could've forgetten much worse things like underwear or bras or just clothes in general, but with me its always the small things and unfortunately its the small things that make a difference.
Speaking of small things, the actual travel time to Guatemala was the exact opposite. It was very long and very tiring. Kit and I spent nearly 8 hours in total travel time from Atlanta to Quezeltanango. The easiest part not doubt was the 3 hour plane ride. I sat back and read a very good book (Winter by Marissa Meyer, if you like YA romance then you should read it) and ate good food (we got free Kit-kats on the plane!!). It was the whole getting to Quezeltanango part that was hard i.e. the 4 hour bus ride from hell, but we'll get to that in due time.
When we first landed, it became very apparent to me that regardless of being told by Duolingo that I am 4% fluent in spanish, I know virtually no spanish whatsoever. In other words, every interaction I had in the airport was filled with some irrational fear that the person I was talking to would not know English. Suddenly I'd become that American, the one who goes to a foreign country without knowing anything about the language and hopes that other people will accommodate for them. For the most part people did just that, but that only served to make me feel worse about myself, not better and my determination to leave Guatemala having at least the capability of carrying a conversation with someone in spanish increased immensely.
Kit and I went outside the airport and in a particular made-for-movie moment found a guy carrying a sign with our names on it, compliments of the A Broader View people. He then drove us to the bus station where we waited for an hour for the bus to arrive to drive us to Quezeltanango. That one hour of downtime could not prepare for the ride that was to come, in fact no amount of time could. First off, let me mention that I get motion sickness, relatively easy, so on occasion the ride to school can make me a little sick. Now lets translate that to an even larger scale: driving on horrifyingly twisty mountain roads on a large bus with no air-conditioning or seatbelts. I nearly died. The heat was enough to make me sick, but coupled with the nausea it was awful. I don't think my stomach has yet to forgive me for the pain I put it through. I've never been so nauseous in my long 18 years of life and if I can help it, I'll never be that nauseous again. Not to mention that our bus driver had a certain propensity for speeding up through turns and twists. Some part of me just doesn't want to leave Quezeltanango just so I don't have to take that horrible bus ride again, but I digress. The simple solution to this problem is to take motion sickness medicine before I leave in two weeks; I just hope I can find it, because if I can't someone will have to drag me onto that bus because I won't go willingly.
Once the bus ride was thankfully over with and I'd kissed the ground (figuratively) for just being the unmoving ground that it was, Kit and I settled in the bus station to wait for our ride to arrive. Once Petra, our amazing coordinator and correspondent in Guatemala came to pick us up, we took a view pictures with a specially crafted A Broader View welcome sign and went off on our way. We got to our host family's house at 7:00 and immediately made introductions. We met Griselda, the owner of the house, her daugther-in-law (I don't know her name :/), her grand-daughter, Dani, her mother-in-law (in my head I call her abuela), and finally her husband (I also don't know his name). Griselda gave us a tour of the house and then Petra gave us a brief tutorial and a run-down of what the next day would bring. Kit and I then dined on a delicious dinner of eggs and beans and proceeded to collapse into our beds (well I'm writing this post and then I'll collapse into my bed). So far my perception of Quezeltanango is that it is very large, but that's to be expected of the second largest city in Guatemala. I'm also under the impression that my spanish will definitely improve with my time here as Griselda talks a lot and she speaks muy rapido (see what I did there). I'm no doubt excited for what tomorrow brings. I have a feeling that my time in Guatemala will be something that I'll never forget.
Sincerely,
Journey
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