Written by Central America Students, Caedin and Menna
This week, we arrived in the beautiful city of Quetzaltenango, aka Xela! After a 4 hour car ride, we finally arrived at our hostel Casa Seibel. We started off the week with Spanish classes at PLQ, a school within the city that has been around since the 1980s. We met our teachers and began our individual learning experiences. Some of us chose to explore the city with our teachers, having conversation as they went, and some chose to converse with our teachers within more traditional classroom settings. PLQ is a beautiful site, with tons of native flora and history nestled within its walls. At the school, we were able to watch a documentary detailing the disappearances of Guatemalans during the Internal Conflict, as well as listen to a presentation by La Muchacha, a womens’ rights activist who works within her community to uplift women and fight for their legislative rights.
During our free time, we were also able to explore the city, with its large variety of restaurants and cafés, beautiful Parque Central, and a vibrant market that sells everything from camera cords to pig’s heads.
Our Top Three Highlights of the Week:
👨👩👧👦 To kick things off with highlights of the week we started our home stays on Saturday afternoon and were welcomed with open arms by our new families.
⚽️ And then that night we went and supported the local Xela football team at the stadium. We had a blast rooting for the local team (and having soda in a bag)!
💦 Then for our last day of the week on Sunday, we went to a water park called Xocomil and it was a blast!!! After being amazed at the Mayan inspired architecture, we went on lots of speedy waterslides and a more chill lazy river.
But transformation always comes with opportunities for growth: What were our main challenges this week?
Compared to last week, we feel like there were a lot of mental challenges in comparison to physical. Doing Spanish classes for 4 and a half hours can be a little mentally exhausting, especially because our teachers know little to no English. Despite that, we feel like everyone has handled these challenges super well and have worked very hard while learning a 2nd or 3rd language.
What’s coming up this week?
We as a group are looking forward to expanding our Spanish knowledge in class over the next week. And with that diving even deeper into the culture and the people we meet on the way!!!!!!!
We have already begun to see processions for Semana Santa, the upcoming Guatemalan holiday that is equivalent to Easter. The processions have been incredible to see and leave us excited for what will come later on in our journey!
Hasta luego! ❤️ Spring 2023 Central America Semester
