hola! we made it and have survived 2 days of classes! antigua is beautiful and full of amazing sights. we walk down cobblestone streets going to class and pass huge old church ruins that are hundreds of years old. there are mountains and volcanoes around us and colorful houses with interesting architecture. our teachers and family are all very nice and are very patient with us as we learn and try to improve our spanish. we have class 5.5 hours a day--our brains hurt at the end of the day. so to get refreshed we have to walk around the streets and market looking for good tacos. thanks for your prayers for a safe trip. we had no problems getting here. things are going really well and we are thrilled to be here. my time at the computer is up so i´ll write more soon!

I am getting ready to start packing for our Guatemalan adventure but thought I'd go ahead and set up the blog in case I am able to write while we are gone. Justin and I are headed to Antigua, Guatemala next Tuesday. You may be thinking, weren't they leaving this past week? Wha' happened?

Well....it's possible that whoever was in charge of buying the tickets made a teensy mistake and accidentally bought tickets to the wrong place. Idiot! Did you know that there is also an Antigua island in the Carribean? I think it would be very pretty, but I don't think I'd learn any Spanish while I was there or get to see the Mayan ruins I've hoped to see since I was about 14. But I would be tan and get to drink lots of smoothies.

We realized my mistake 4 days before we were supposed to leave. What if we had just gotten on the plane and never realized we were headed to the wrong Antigua? Justin was very kind about the whole thing - gently reminding me to breathe as I stared in shock at the airline confirmation email and then he spent several minutes (over an hour) talking with the nice airline people trying to figure out our best option, which was to leave one week later.

So if all goes well, we'll be arriving in Guatemala City on Tuesday and someone will pick us up and will drive us to Antigua...turns out that Antigua doesn't even have an airport.