One week down, one to go!

Well, it is Saturday morning and I have to say, we are both happy for a morning without classes! I am sure throughout the weekend we will spend time studying, but to have a relaxing morning for a change is a real treat! Boy, I don't think we really knew how hard it would be to do 4 hours of one-on-one classes every day. I actually thought, prior to starting last week, that in the second week we might increase our time to 6 hours. Boy, was I mistaken. The first two hours go pretty well. Then we take a 20 minute break. The hour following the break is okay as well, but the final hour is really tough. I suppose at our age, there is only so much our brains can absorb in one sitting. It got me to thinking about schools where they only have two subjects per day, but classes are 3 hours long. I think I'd lose it after a while! Oh well. We are both learning a great deal, so that is wonderful. My teacher, Gerber, loves to talk, so we spend the first hour just talking in Spanish about the events of the previous day. Yesterday was great because we had a fairly strong tremor at 5:30am so we spent an hour discussing tremors, earthquakes, tetonic plates, volcanos, etc. It was super stretching, vocabulary wise, but a topic of great interest. We also discussed this week the rescue of the Chilean miners. That has been quite a story! Our daily discourse has kept me up on world news, which is neat because when we are in Tactic, it seems so removed that we really don't know much of what goes on elsewhere.

I thought I'd include some photos of the hotel where we are staying. I have to say, I feel a bit guilty because it is so nice! Thanks Jon and Chris! Our room looks onto a courtyard that has a fountain and an amazing garden. The entire grounds here are beautiful with flowers and trees of every variety. We have a small kitchen in our unit, so essentially we have been eating the majority of our meals in our suite. This has made being in Antigua way more economical than if we had to eat out for every meal. We are only about a 10 minute walk from our school, a 15 minute walk to the central park and no more than a 20 walk to almost everything in Antigua, so our location couldn't be better. We are far enough out of the center of town that we don't hear the church bells in the very early morning - what a blessing!

Rocky has been spending the afternoons with Marshal. They are enjoying the opportunity to hang out together. They have hiked the hills around Antigua and yesterday they climbed Pacaya. Rocky said the volcano has changed tremendously since the erruptions earlier this year.

Please continue to pray for us as we study. We are trusting that the time and energy we are putting in will pay off by strengthening our relationships with our Guatemalan brothers and sisters.

Blessings,

Karren