Running the Rainbow

After breakfast this morning, I decided to walk around the city a little bit. I walked through El Parque Central and bought a newspaper. I love reading Spanish newspapers! I had the courage to ask a Guatemalan to take my picture, in Spanish. He took a good picture and didn't run off with my phone, which was nice. I walked around trying to find the best cafe. I have learned that the best cafes are usually the ones that are kind of away from the main attractions and are very small. I walked into a cafe and noticed a guy sitting next to me that spoke English. I asked him what the best coffee was to get. He recommended the cappuccino and told me that he works for, "Cisco" doing computer security. He has been living here for a year and this was the best coffee shop in the city. What luck! He gave me all kinds of recommendations of schools and resources for learning Spanish. I told him that he was so lucky to be able to work internationally. The cappuccino gave me an instan...

My friends from Australia and New Zealand left today and now there is a lady here from Japan. She speaks a little bit of Spanish, but cannot speak English at all. She said it is too difficult to learn. She is very nice but I cannot imagine being here not knowing Spanish or English. Breakfast was eggs with pepperoni, salad, and beans. Beans are served at every meal. (Beautiful flowers, Flores Bonitas) (The place where they dry the coffee beans) After breakfast, I went straight to class so we could visit the Azotea Coffee Museum and the Casa K'ojom. We took the chicken bus to the museum, which took only about 7 minutes from Antigua. Casa K'olom had many instruments from native Mayans and all of the instruments were made from animals like turtles and bulls. They had a lot of colorful dresses displayed and different religious items. I found the candles to be interesting. Each colored candle represented something different: Purple=healing, Blue=fortune, Green=hope, Baby blue=dr...

I started out the day trying to find Antigua gym. I ate a breakfast of fruit and pancakes and put on my gym clothes and left. I walked in circles for about 45 minutes and then found the place. I did not have enough time to workout so I paid for a week and then left. It actually worked out well because they accepted dollars and I was able to get change in Quetzales. I have not had any time to get my cash exchanged so I now have a little bit of cash. (Antigua's Gym) (Antigua's Gym) I met profesora Aracela at the school and we worked really hard on my reading comprehension for over 2 hours. I keep confusing, "despues de"(after) and "antes de" (before) My head hurt! Then, she asked me if I wanted to go on a tour of, "Choco Museo" and ( http://www.chocomuseo.com/english/our-locations/antigua-gua/ ) Museo del Holocuasto Guatemala( http://www.museodelholocausto.org.gt ). I was so excited! I love going on tours with my instructors because they talk no...

I woke up this morning at 7:05am when I needed to be at the school at 7:30am. I went to bed at 9pm so I didn't feel like I needed to set my alarm, but apparently I was very tired. Breakfast was delicious fruit with granola. It was very fresh and juicy! I hurried out to class and they gave me an orientation at the school about safety and activities. I signed up to take salsa lessons, a photo tour, and got paired up with a native Guatemalan to talk Spanish with. (Volcán Fuego, which is constantly active) I found out that there is a holiday on Thursday called, "Guatemalan Army Day" and nobody is happy about it because the army treats the civilians so badly. (street vendors selling fruit, I cannot buy these because they are not clean) I took a Spanish placement test and then met my 1st profesora (teacher). We went into a room and went over basic stuff and then progressed really fast to harder topics. We took a 20-minute break and I was able to grab some food. I enjoyed...

After my kids were done con natacion fundidas (swim meet), we went to Genghis Grill for lunch and met a lady with an accent. It was ironic since I am traveling out of the country and will be encountering all kinds of accents. I explained to them that it is how I sound when I try to speak Spanish. Connor actually asked her where she was from and we found out that she has a Russian accent. After packing, we went to the store to buy me an umbrella since it is rainy season in Guatemala. When I got to the car, I saw that Lola had eaten my chocolate bar, but it wasn't enough to hurt her. I said goodbye to the family and was able to get through the airport and to my gate in 30 minutes. A new record! I arrived in Houston at 12am and my flight to Guatemala didn't leave until 9am. So, I took a sleeping pill and slept in the airport. At about 5am, it got really loud and I could no longer sleep. There were all kinds of fat people at the Houston airport. Texas really lives up to their reput...

I made sure that I didn't leave for my flight to Guatemala until the kids completed their swim meet. They love it so much and I love watching them swim. Camilla 25 Free 9th Place 29.58. PR of 2 ½ seconds! Camilla 25 Back 15th Place 35.65 Camilla 25 Breast 7th Place 45.21 Camilla just learned how to do Butterfly this week, so they put her in a relay where she did 25 Butterfly. She did the stroke beautifully and got her team a 4th place win. I was so proud of her! Carly Free in Relay 3rd Place Carly 25 Free 3rd Place 29.74. PR of 4 seconds! Carly 25 Back 4th Place 33.57. PR of 4 ½ seconds! Carly 25 Breast 1st Place 35.72. She is still the fastest 6 year old at breastroke and still calls it frog kick. She will most definitely make it to Championships for this event! Connor 50 Free 7th Place 1.21.74 Connor 50 Back 6th Place 1.20.58. This was the best I had ever seen Connor swim backstroke. He PRed by 8 seconds! He was smooth and completed a beautiful flip turn. His endura...

Another fun swim meet (at Willow Creek Pool)

With Grandpa just arriving from Texas and finishing a wonderful children's chapter book, we decided it was a good time to visit the zoo. Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is my favorite zoo in Colorado. We just finished, "The One and Only Ivan", which is a story about a gorilla who lives in a small cage at a mall. I highly recommend it for anyone who feels bad for animals in captivity. It is ironic that we started reading it at the time that news story came out about that baby falling in the gorilla cage. It is one of those rare books that I could read with all 3 kids. They were all able to comprehend it and they talk about it all the time. This zoo is very interactive for visitors. The kids got to feed giraffes. They got to pet baby goats and ponies. The elephants were all wandering around and having fun. We got to walk around with kangaroos and feed birds. We saw a monkey show and got to see the hippos get fed. Camilla asked, "How do they stay so fat?...