Feeling unsettled while getting settled

I just said goodbye to MRM. She boarded a shuttle back to Antigua, and I am officially on my own. I'm writing from the Black Cat Hostel, where we stayed last night with 40 others. There was a mass checkout this morning, as all the language students, myself included, packed up and left the hostel for our homestays.

The family I will be living with for the next three months is so lovely. A young mother and her six year old daughter. I'm glad there is a child in the house so I can practice speaking with her after we both finish our lessons for the day. They live a few minutes walk from our school, on a hillside overlooking the city. There are jersey cows across the street, and also a tiny dump, but I didn't notice it smelling at all. One of the other students from my school lives in the apartment above me, so we will walk to and from classes together. My house mother, said it was a very safe neighborhood so long as you're not out alone after 10 or 11 at night.

Last night was nuts. Xela was playing for the country futbol cup, verses Guatemala City, as I mentioned earlier. MRM and I made friends with an Austalian, Ali, and went with her to watch the game, along with the entire city. Before that, MRM and I walked up to La Democracia Market to get some notebooks for me and to acquaint ourselves with the city. There were buses running all afternoon, dropping travelers off for the game. And they had bused in a lot of police officers, as well. We went to watch the game at a place called Salon Tecun, which is this huge colonial building with an open courtyard in the center. They had set up flatscreens throughout the courtyard and it was incredibly packed. There's really nothing to compare it to in the States, we just don't turn out for sporting events with the same enthusiasm and ferocity. It was pouring rain, had been for hours, and there were smoke machines on a stage behind the field, which shrouded the field in the beginning of the game. Between that and the rain, it looked pretty miserable. We were glad we didn't spend Q200 on tickets. Poor Xela lost :( But we didn't stay to see it. We were all too tired. On the way home, MRM mistook the small, domed speedbumps that are all over the streets for a herd of turtles. It was pretty funny.

This morning, MRM and I walked Ali to the bus station, which we thoguht was about a 10 minute walk, but we'd mistaken a smaller bus station for the actual one, and that turned into a 2 hour trek, there and back. But we wanted to make sure Ali made it on to the right bus, and it was good for me to know how to get back there for the weekends that I'll be leaving Xela to meet MRM elsewhere.

Somehow I failed to realize before I got here that Xela is a city. In my head, I was headed to the mountains to live in a quaint little town with clearly marked roads, and everything I needed in walking distance. And though everything here is technically in walking distance, it is a whole lot bigger than I thought. I can't find my house on any of my 3 maps I have, even though I generally have a pretty good sense of direction. But I can get home based on landmarks, which is quite a relief. There are three zones to the city, and many of the numbered roads start over once you change roads. Plus there are lots of diagonals and roads that will stop for a few blocks and then pick up again later. So trying to navigate around here has felt like trying to climb the stairs at Hogwarts, it's never the same route twice.

The architecture here is both beautiful and varied. I mentioned this to MRM and she said, "Yeah, it's almost like they were colonized multiple times by different invaders." It definitely feels like a Central American city, and has that colonial look to it. But there is also a very European feel to it, with lots of Gothic architecture as well.

I spent the weekend vacillating between loving this place and feeling incredibly nervous about living here for the next three months. As I was preparing to come here, and getting through nursing finals and wrapping up work, I couldn't wait to spend a summer abroad alone with time to think and breathe. Now that it's here, I'm realizing how lonely it might be as well. MRM and I were talking about this over lunch today. We both want to travel back to Latin America next summer, but we're thinking a month is about as long a trip as we want. Right now, we're both bone tired. And have decided, 6 days into our vacation, that what we really need is a vacation :) A beach somewhere, with some cabanas and some margaritas. I think I will feel better once I am more settled with my homestay family, and can communicate better. As I was following my house mother to the house today, I couldn't help but feel incredibly sorry for what I was about to put her through, seeing as how I barely know survival Spanish. It will be awkward for a while but hopefully I'll begin to pick it up quickly.

Will try to get online tomorrow after the first day of lessons. Hope you all are well!