Sorry I haven’t updated my blog it’s just that I am having so much fun and nothing really super duper exciting has happened. 
 The first week since I have updated (the week of the 13th) was my first week of Spanish school which was very fun. The first day I went to Spanish school we walked in and there were two teachers just kinda hanging out and talking by the front, I knew at once that they were going to be the teachers for Kelsey and me. I was assigned to a teacher whose name is Soraya.  Soraya is the youngest teacher in the whole school and she is very energetic and fun. Kelsey’s teacher's name is Maria Jose who is very nice to even though I don’t know her as well as Soraya. The whole week was very fun we got to do all kinds of cool activities in the building and our teachers took us out for ice cream and carriage rides and just little outings to walk around and talk. School is four hours a day five days a week, after school usually we just have lunch, go home, do homework, and hang out for the rest of the day so not much happens other than school. 
 Last week was our second week of Spanish school. This was just like the first week except we did some other activities. Mom didn’t go to school this week but one day she really wanted to go and have lunch with all of our teachers including the one she had had the week before whose name is Sonya. We went to lunch at a restaurant called Tierra Madre where you order platters of food that feed 3-4 people. The platters have a combination of meat, rice, and potatoes. We got one platter that had chicken, ribs, corn, and potatoes on it, all of it was yummy except for the ribs that we amazingly good and probably some of the best ribs I have ever eaten! The other platter had 3 small pieces of beef that were thin, juicy and very yummy. Once lunch was over the teachers had to go back to the school for their afternoon students. The next day was very uneventful and the only outing Soraya and I did was to go and get some chocolate across the street. And all the sudden it was Friday. Mom and Kels went with Maria to her daughter’s graduation, which they said was very cute. Soraya and I didn’t go because she wasn’t feeling that great and she had some other things planned for us, which was to make a book of vegetables, animals, and other things. The day flew by and we finished the book which looks great. After school we walked to the store and went home. Friday night I had a terrible headache so we didn’t do much.
 Yesterday we went to the museum that had Pedro de Alvarado’s 500 year old sword which was pretty cool. After that we went to try to find a market, but we never found it and instead we found a cute little gym. On the way home we walked along a street that had lots of little art stores. We stopped into one and got some cute little toys and things. Then we walked all the way across town to the super market, and went back to the apartment. Once we got home I was exhausted. We rested and then Roberto’s (one of the employees at El Solar) daughters showed up and they wanted to practice their English with us. Their names are Katie and Sandra. We went and got tea and cookies and started to talk but they didn’t really talk at all and definitely did not speak English which was too bad. After they left we had dinner and just hung out. Today we got up and had some very yummy French toast then we went to the gym for about an hour. After that we came home, washed up and then went out again to lunch. We went to a place called the Bagel Barn and their little saying is “Home away from Home” so that was nice. Then we went to the store and came home and now I am blogging. I don’t have anything else to talk about so yeah! Hasta Luego!
  Larissa

Monday was a travel day. We got up super early and drove five hours to Salt Lake City. (I was very tired on Monday because I had not slept the night before because I was so excited.) Once we got to the airport, checked our bags, and went through security we had to wait for about an hour. The people at the gate called our name once or twice to confirm our seats. Turns out we got to go on first class to Dallas. First class is so nice, the seats are very comfortable and they serve great food. For a snack they gave us a little bowl of nuts, then they came around with hot towels to wash our hands with. For lunch I got an enchilada and a small salad, and then afterwards they gave us fresh baked cookies which were so yummy! We arrived in Dallas and had to wait for another two and a half hours. Turned out that on the flight from Dallas to Guatemala City Kels and I didn’t get first class but Mom and Ben did. That flight was fine they had a movie playing called Meet Dave which was really hilarious. Once we landed and got our bags we went in search of the car that El Solar had sent us, we found the guy in the parking lot which was hectic and everyone was shouting TAXI, TAXI! We arrived in Antigua very late and I went straight to bed. 

Tuesday morning I woke up having had a very good night sleep. I woke up for a few minutes then got dressed and went downstairs. We waited for Kels to wake up and then walked down to the square for breakfast. We went to this cute little café called Café Condesa, I had cinnamon pancakes and some cantaloupe which was very good. After breakfast we walked to the store and got some food and other necessities. Then we came back to the apartment, on the way we stopped by the Christian Spanish Academy (CSA) which is a very old school which was originally built to train missionaries. Any way, we signed up for Spanish lessons where we should learn a lot because it is one on one tutoring four hours a day or more. (We have to take a test on Thursday to determine what level we are at and then next week we start lessons.) After we got back to the apartment we had some quiet time for doing some homework, then we had lunch and then some more quiet time. Around 5:00 o’clock we went down to the square and walked around there for about an hour. We would have stayed longer but I started to get cold so we came back to the apartment, got some warmer clothes on and walked to dinner. We ate dinner at a restaurant called Frida’s after Frida Kahlo. The food was very good and they had a very cute location. We walked back “home” and pretty much just went to sleep after that.

This morning I woke up to a terribly loud banging noise (which I found out later was the workers working on the house next to us). I wasn’t fully rested so I stayed in bed for another half an hour or so. Then I started to get really hungry so I went downstairs and had breakfast. At about 11:00 o’clock Sophia (the employee at El Solar) took us to go see another apartment. We got back and had plans to go down to the market and get some food but it started down pouring so we were stuck in the house doing homework. It finally cleared up enough to go down to the market. We walked down there and just looking at it made me know that I would not like it, there were swarms of people everywhere probably the most people I have seen together in Antigua. The market is by far the most crowded and dirty place here, We walked around and I was doing fine until we went “inside”, inside has two foot passage ways for you to walk in and it is filthy with stray dogs and all kinds of different smells (most of them not pleasant). I was starting to get a little bit claustrophobic even from that and then we walk into the meat department, there were smells of raw meet everywhere even more stray dogs and huge legs an other things I don’t want to think about of raw meet hanging every where. From that point on I decided that while our stay here I am going to be a chickaterian! After that we started to walk home, about one block into it, it started raining again so hard that we decided to take a tuk-tuk home. The ride was terribly bumpy and unfortunately I had gotten on first so I was the one with Kelsey sitting on my lap since it was not meant for four people. We got home and had some quiet time. We started dinner at about 6:00 and thought it would be ready at about 7:30, but instead the stove did not cooperate with us and we ended up eating at 9:00. (Oh yeah, at the market we saw some very yummy looking blackberries and got some to make a cobbler, we got a pound of them and the whole thing was on 60 cents.) After dinner we had some very good blackberry cobbler, and now we have just finished cleaning up. Well I don’t really have anything else to tell about. So…I GIVE YOU GOODNIGHT!
Larissa

The Colors of Fall

Blinding your eyes, with colors so bright 

Trees in the fall are a wonderful sight

Some leaves are the color of ripe apples in the sun

Others are orange and yellow, the colors of having fun

Whole hillsides are painted with crimson and gold

They truly are a sight to behold!