As I’m writing this my first week of school is almost over, and while I’ve undergone some serious language fatigue, I feel like my Spanish has improved greatly. Yesterday, after waking up bright and early at 4:45, taking the hour-long bus ride to school, and engaging in the six hours of classes, I was exhausted. However, my host family arranged very exciting plans which helped me get through the day: seeing the live action Lilo and Stitch. 

I asked my host family to ensure we watched it in Spanish so I could continue to practice. In preparation for my trip to Guatemala I enjoyed listening to music or watching various TV shows I love with either Spanish audio or subtitles. I was slightly nervous entering the theater as I had yet to watch any movie with Spanish audio without the assistance of either Spanish or English captions. Still, to my surprise, I was able to understand almost everything either through context or simply understanding the language. And my official review is the movie was great, for a remake. 

After the movie we got the chance to explore the mall the movie theater was located in, Oakland Place. It was gigantic. My host sister said it was the largest mall in Central America. And to my surprise, it was packed despite it being 8 p.m. on a Wednesday. Going to the mall seems to be a much more common and casual thing in Guatemala than the US. After the mall, I promptly fell asleep on the car ride home, mentally preparing for the next early morning full of big smiles and new experiences.

#Jumptheworld