Last day in Maximo Nivel school

I started off the day by hiking up Cerra de la Cruz. I went up there with my friend from Louisiana. The school actually told us that it was too dangerous because there are people who try to steal your money. But, we didn't take any money and there wasn't anyone up there except other Guatemalans trying to get exercise. It is a big incline that goes up to the top of the city. From the top, you can see all the streets and buildings. It is beautiful and I wish I would have known about it sooner.

(Top of Cerra de Cruz)

After the hike, we went back and had breakfast. Then, I bought a newspaper and a coffee and headed to school. For school today, all of us students went on trip to San Juan. We saw the Museo San Juan del Obispo, Museo de Vino, and Chocolate Antigua.

The Museo San Juan del Obispo was full of nuns and statues of Jesus. It was very pretty.

The Museo de Vino was very tiny, but they had wines from so many different fruits. I always thought wine was just made from grapes. I tried the Maracuya (Passion fruit) wine.

The Chocolate Antigua was my favorite. The chocolate was delicious and we got to see the machine that makes the chocolate. It is all done by hand and they work really hard. Even though we were touring different places, I practiced my Spanish the whole time. There was another student from France and another girl from Scandanavia. They were very fun to talk to.

(The chocolate machine)

(These are the chicken buses and my instructor Aracela)

I was exhausted after the trip, so I went to a sit down lunch. It was very busy and I was having a bit of a hard time explaining that I wanted mild salsa, not hot salsa. When I get tired, I speak badly.

(The Maximo Nivel instructors) (The lady 2nd from the left is my morning instructor Aracela and the man on the end is my afternoon instructor named Antonio)

For afternoon classes, I talked to Antonio about lots of cool things again. We talked about gun laws and accidents. He talked about all of the different types of people that come into his classes. He said it is really hard to teach Spanish to people that do not know English.

I took my test after class, since it was my last day. I wanted to see how much I improved. I improved by about 30%. I ended up getting a certificate for Advanced Intermediate Spanish, which is right where I thought I was. I am so close to being fluent, but fluency takes so long to achieve.

When I left the school, the city was so crowded on Friday night. They had streets blocked off and lots of people selling things on the street. I wandered around for a while. It is pretty cool to see horses pulling carriages on cobblestone streets. I also went into the Fabrica tienda and bought some souvenirs. There were so many Guatemalans in there. It wasn't touristy at all, which I loved.

(Central Park in the evening)