Last Days in Xela

So Friday was my last day of class. I spent it learning how they make chocolate which was very interesting. I learned how they cook, peel and grind the cocoa and then how they mix it with sugar. In Guatemala, they often drink it rather than eat it... and I don't like hot chocolate... but I like the way they make it!

I also had a chance to talk with my teacher's mother which was very interesting. She is an older Mayan woman and asked me if we make things like this chocolate in the US and if not what do we make... it was kind of hard to explain! But she understood when I talked about my Grandparents growing corn. She also asked me "como se llama su pueblo?"... I have never been asked the name of my pueblo before... She didn't even try pronouncing Hickory! But we talked for quite awhile and she said that I was easy to understand... so i guess thats pretty good!

Then I had to say good bye to my teacher Maria Luisa which was sad because she has been an amazing teacher for the last month! She was patient, fun, and I learned a lot! But we had too say good bye :(

After class I went with 2 other students and Kristian to the afternoon activity... I'm glad I wasn't the only one who realized that the Sauna... really was just a sauna and not a hot spring! We traveled on a microbus and chicken bus to get there... Its just a Sauana?! We stayed for a little while and then walked around and saw the beautiful landscape! Kristian thought we were weird because we didn't want to stay the whole hour... I told him it was really hot... "Duh its a Sauna!" was kind of the response we got from him in Spanish! But that trip helped me discover that I really do like Chicken buses... in their own weird way they are kind of fun!

That night some of the students met up to say goodbye because several of us left this weekend. Then I walked part way with AJ and then the rest by myself... which was the latest I have been out alone... but I'm alive and living!... Xela has been kind to me! I only have one guy whistle and try to talk to me and one guy yell out the car... "How are you?" With the "you" going up really high, which makes me laugh more than anything else! Then I slept my last true night under the Luna de Xelaju.

Saturday was leaving day... When I woke up in the morning I didn't know the plan and by 1PM I was on a bus to Guate! Thanks to Flori and Julio who helped me so much! I won't share the details because there is so much that did and didn't go right but I finally did get to Guate. So I complete my Guatemalan travel with 2 new forms of transportation... taxi and 1st class bus! But first I had to say good bye to the family and to Patricia :( I'm going to miss them!

Where I stayed in Guate had a hot shower and a TV... I was soooooo excited! I watched dubbed 50 first dates and House with subtitles! Then in the morning: Back to the Future... I haven't watched TV like that in what felt like forever!... I also met some people from Venezuela... and realized that I'm going to have a hard time understanding accents that aren't Guatemalan!

Then it was off to bed... one last sleep under the Luna de Xelaju (even though I wasn't in Xela... it was Guate... its the same moon right!)