Finally Leaving Xela

My second and third days of teaching classes went much better. We immediately started the class with games to keep their attention and the kids correctly answered which foods are good and which are bad. They greatly impressed me! Sadly, just as I am finally teaching classes, I must leave. I really wanted to teach the puberty class and maybe I will return here after China. I still have much work to do on my Spanish.

I did take my eighth and final Spanish exam. After learning the subjunctive, I have now forgotten the present tense. I have so many different tenses swimming around in my head that I end up using English more than I did before. It will be good to take a holiday from the classes to give myself a chance to let it all sink in.

Last night, the family cooked us a splendid meal of special tamales since 5 of us are leaving this week. Barbara cooked cheesecakes and I made chocolate chip cookies. I will dearly miss this family and all the teachers here. They have really been the best part of my entire stay in Guatemala. After dinner, the students and I then hit a bar to finish out the night. We had a fun night out and will head for pizza tonight as a last remembrance.

Tomorrow, I will take a 4 am bus to Guatemala City and then change buses to go to Coban. All in all, I should expect about a 10 hour bus ride tomorrow. Since I´m headed into Zone 1 of Guate, I expect to have my mugger alert on red. Even though the second bus station in Guate is only 2 blocks away, I plan to take a taxi. The bus station manager even warned me that it is dangerous to walk around in that area. I figure that if the locals think it is dangerous, then it really must be dangerous and I will be alone. Wish me luck!