a smirf-tastic birthday for me!!

FINALLY!!! - I've been trying to post this blog now since Sunday & it's been driving me crazy that my pictures take forever to upload! So my apologies for the massive gap in blog-posting, but I'm working on finding a better solution to uploading and accessing internet, because it's extremely difficult right now at most places, and.. Paul's internet has been acting up ever since the earthquakes down here.

But anyway!... Lots of pictures, last week was full of fun times...

this is mi maestra's cat, Kirra... isn't she gorgeous!?

Monday night (9-19) was Marta's 64th birthday and so we took her out for dinner to this delightful little restaurant here, called Hector's, and her friend Connie joined us as well :0)

The food was stinking delicious! - Probably the best meat I've had since I've been here... and this is our house-mate Kevin from Tennessee...

This is Steve (Estevan) and Deedee who came to visit Marta for a week... Deedee left Sunday and Steve actually this morning but... it was really fun having them, they're neat people!

and of course my other house-mates, Jen, Rachel, and Cassie.

Then last Thursday was Kevin's last night with us, he took off with 6 other individuals and headed down to Honduras where they will be serving in an orphanage for the next 2 years. We like Kevin a lot and miss him already... these decorations we put up on his door in his bedroom the night before he left!

Our little family... (Next to Marta is her helper, Julia!)

Me and Emily next to something Mayan, and ruin-ish in an archeological museum in Guat City

prettyness...

We spent Friday and Saturday in Guatemala City and... for dinner on Friday night, we ate at a super nice restaurant called "Kacao" to celebrate birthdays! - there were 3 last weekend.

This dude wanted a tip for this pic...and his music! haha "propina pro favor!?"

a hecka lot of melted wax

Tres Leche for birthday dessert! :0)

Saturday morning we checked out the Catedral in the city, it was HUGE... I like this pic

On Saturday night we returned home and Marta treated me to a very nice birthday fiesta away from home, featuring mr. smirf! .... and all his candy

And so it's a guatemalan tradition to shove the birthday girl's face in the cake- haha! Look at the look on Marta's face, she loved it!!

Mr. Smirf was residing in mine and Rachel's room but... now he's taken over Kevin's old space but soon... most-likely will be thrown in la basura... He was a good piñata!

And since now it's already half-way through this week... Sunday me and my roommates attended church with Marta, and had some breakfast at Pollo Campero - a KFC type place here in Guatemala, but with pretty good breakfast... then we had group lunch, which is always terrific and in a nice restaurant...

This week has been busy with Spanish learning, and my brain is tired... however during my classes I've been getting out with my teacher, to el mercado (el lunes), y la farmacia (ayer), y hoy el mercado del artesanias... it's been fun and a nice break but... tonight = lots of studying for my exam tomorrow!!

Oh and ps- lost my guatemalan cell phone :o/ But... just maybe, it will supernaturally appear somewhere! :0)

Alright, hope this blog is well appreciated. Sorry again, for such a delay...

Hasta Luego!

-cortney

sabbath saturday...

well night quite a sabbath day...been working on some homework but... mostly a lazy day around here with no agenda, it's been lovely! went to the gym this morning with my roommate, got to run for the first time in forever! - it was nice :0) now i'm relaxing at a place called "Cookies, Etc." with all 4 of my housemates and FINALLY was able to get some pics to upload from this past week! (see my recent blog post, there are LOTS!)

but also i have more to share, last night the four of us and our housemate, Kevin, were invited to the opening night of art on display at the convent ruins (capuchinas). our house mom, Marta, has 10 pieces in the show and invited us to join her, it was lovely! ...a really great night! ...so here are some pictures, it was really quite a fancy deal... I'm convinced our house mom is like famous LOL

me and my roommate, Rachel (Raquelita)

all of these women had artwork in the show and were on TV-i think-because of it!

me, rachel, cassie, jen, and kevin

Marta, her friend Connie, and one of her pieces of work on the wall in the background.

all of us chicos with Marta in front of another one of her pieces of art

after the event we took a tuk-tuk (a motorbike type thing with a tiny back seat where 3 people can ride) back home... it was fun and a bumpy ride on the cobblestone roads!!

Lastly, here's a video from the other night when we went out to eat and there was a live band there... i really liked their music.. you can't really see them in the video, but you can here them! :)

el dia de la independencia de guatemala

It's been a VERY busy week! Yesterday was Guatemala's independence day and the entire week has been FULL of festivities! As I wrote, I think, in my last post, we also started spanish classes this week and whoa, my brain is exhausted! But it's been a good week and now I'm ready for the weekend.

Wednesday all town festivities began, lots of parades and performances all over... I went with La Union up into the mountains about 40 minutes to a town called Paramos. Here, we watched a parade with lots of cute children && then lit a torch - which, in Guatemala it's a huge thing for independence day to have groups of people light a torch and run the streets to different cities... - so little did we all know but, all us students were expected to run with this torch all the way back to Antigua! I got back on the bus with mi maestra but 2 of my roommates started running... almost 2 hours later we made it back to the city and there was fireworks and celebration outside the school for us.

Wednesday evening, a few of us from Spring Arbor joined some other students from La Union and traveled into Guatemala City to see the Guatemala Cremas play Mexico Monterey in soccer. This was also quite an experience with lots of excitement... Guat City is similar to Chicago and the traffic heading into town was CRAZY! Not to mention all sorts of people running the streets with torches toward the capital... but after almost 4 hours we arrived and enjoyed the game... Guatemala won!! :0)

Then yesterday again, all sorts of festivities! During class me and my teacher walked to central park for an almost 2 hour long parade through the city. It was awesome! and LOUD. Lots and lots of bands and dancing girls... Miss Antigua, etc.

Needless to say, I've taken lots of pictures and wanted to get some posted asap! I've been having a more difficult time this week with my internet connection but... hopefully this is a good update and... well tonight my house-mom, Marta, has her artwork on display at the ruins of the nuns in town, so we're going to see that and I'll take more pics then as well!

Hasta Luego for now! ....

[el 11 de septiembre]

oh, ps this first picture is from Sunday night, we went to dinner at la pena de sol latina, a very nice restaurant, and these guys played live music and were very good.... very talented!

[el 14 de septiembre]

this is the mayor lighting the torch i was telling you about...

me and Elsa, mi maestra at La Union

traffic in Guatemala City

Guat City vs. Mexico

We won!

[el 15 de septiembre]

Miss Antigua and her escort

a Quetzal bird float-type thing in the parade... the Quetzal is the national bird of GUA

I love these traditional dresses, there were tons of students in the portion of the parade and they danced!

el primer día de los clases español

Today we started our spanish classes! We are taking these at a school here called La Union, which is nationally known as a language school. We have one-on-one lessons from 8am-12pm every day... mi maestro (teacher)'s name is Elsa and we wasted no time getting to work! I look forward to very much growth in my spanish speaking abilities while I'm here, it's exciting! Now my brain is tired and I'm super hungry so... heading home for lunch! :0)

catching up a little..

It's been a crazy past week or so, but we've finally had a bit of free-time this afternoon and finally I can blog with a little more detail...

So we arrived here last week Wednesday, and a team from La Union (the Spanish school here) was waiting for us with signs and love and excitement as we passed through customs. We loaded a bus and drove, about an hour, from Guatemala City to the school in Antigua where we were introduced to our home stay parents and treated to a very delicious lunch!

Since then, we have been doing LOTS of touring, with Paul (an SAU professor who lives here), and also we went on a tour with Elizabeth Bell (an Antigua tour guide and archeologist) yesterday morning, which was terrific! (and I'll post a few pics from that below...)

My home stay mom is so sweet and she takes very good care of us girls - the four of us staying with her. Last night after dinner we went out on the town and it was nice because when you're walking with a Guatemalan you feel so much more safe then when you're purely americans, and, Antigua is BEAUTIFUL at night! It was all lit up in central park and we went to get ice cream together, it was very fun! I was thinking hard to have conversation in Spanish with her and almost ran into a motorcycle one time and a cement overhang the other! haha...whoops!!

This morning we attended church with Paul & Bev at a mix church.. it's not totally catholic, but mixes several traditions and is led in English.. not bad... Now I have broke away from my group for a bit of alone time at el cafe rainbow and am enjoying a freshly blended watermelon juice :0) In a bit we are meeting at Paul's and going to dinner tonight at some fancy place, I'm excited!

En la mañana... clases de español! - I'm ready to start learning again!



these pictures were taken inside this phenomenal hotel here called hotel santo domingo - it's absolutely INCREDIBLE there, pictures can't do it justice!

this is the fountain in the center of central park.