Guatemala

I apologize for the delay in posting, but I was out of town for a couple weeks, or out of the country rather. From January 1st to the 14th I was in Antigua, Guatemala. I was working one on one with a tutor learning Spanish six hours a day for the ten weekdays. In the afternoons and evenings I was mainly studying, but the hotel was beautiful - a perfect setting for studying. It was an open air hotel, so stepping outisde of the hotel rooms meant stepping into beautiful gardens with parrots. The Saturday while I was there I went to the city of Tikal with thirteen of my classmates. We spent the day looking at all the pyramids - some students climbed the pyramids, but I of course did not (my knees did not let me - they were shaking on the rickety wooden steps, a bad combination). This city used to be the site of a large Mayan civilization, but after they were conquered, the pyramids became overgrown with vegetation. People thought there were just hills in Tikal, but underneath the dirt and trees there are pyramids - some of which are 150 feet tall! One of the pyramids was being uncovered while we were there so we were able to see the pyramid partially seen and partially still covered by the dirt. Here are some pictures....

Alice, my roommate for the week, and I are standing on part of the Mayan ruins in front of one of the pyramids.

This is a corner of the pyramid that they are currently uncovering.

Aren't the parrots beautiful? I think these parrots are used to being photographed - they were definitely posing for these pictures.

My view from my seat at the school.

This volcano was smoking our last two days in Guatemala.

As much fun as it was in Guatemala, it is nice to be home again with Bobby. Today I spent the morning talking to teachers and going to the bookstore three times - the first time to pick up the books I ordered online, the second time to return a book (what are the odds my graduate school teacher would use the same book I used at UMHB), and the third time to swap books (one class is being taught twice by two different teachers and I got the book for the other teacher). No I am updating things, cleaning the apartment, hopefully doing wash tonight, and reading ahead for my classes that I will be missing...

Bobby and I are going out of town this weekend - we are going to Seattle for my grandmother's funeral (she died on Saturday). We are leaving early Thursday morning so I will most likely not be updating again for another week.

Smile: We saw Family Stone last night - I cried!!!
Extra Smile: The wonderful memories of my grandmother that I keep randomly remembering - her "breaking the TV," her singing songs to us as kids, watching game shows with her when I went home for lunch in high school...