Cars

My very first day. In the morning. On our way to breakfast. Very first time leaving the AirB&B. I step out to cross the road, assuming the car would slow down like how they always do (in the US). But instead the car speeds up to beat me to cross the street and I hear “Aguas!” as I felt Sra. Lopez’s hand jerk me back. The cars. They don't stop, they speed up!

Supermarket

Something very different from the US is that they had all the eggs and milk not in refrigerators.

Shower

In our AirB&B I was tired and wanted to shower after a long day of travel. But I couldn’t figure out how to tune on the hot water. So I asked Sra. Lopez and we looked up how to. They were electrical heaters directly attached to the shower head. So once I was finally able to luke warm water, I hopped in the shower. While I was in, the pressure felt low, so I reached up to change it, and… ZAP! It shocked me! It wasn’t until 2 days later that I figured out how not to get zapped and have HOT water.

Milk

I love milk. I have it with every meal. It’s practically my favorite drink in the world. Why wouldn’t I love it anywhere? Well I don't here. In the US, it has a whole taste almost. Filling and creamy. Here it sort of tastes like carton milk? Very different, but still nice.

Malls

For my first outing with my family, we went into the city to the mall called Miraflores. It was PACKED. I had never seen anything like it. I'm not sure what I was expecting but that was not it. It was so lively and vibrant, not like the dead malls in the US. There were many stores that I knew, and many that I didn't. But it was so cool to see that Disneyworld-like place!

Ice cream

One day I had two ice creams. The first after lunch was INCREDIBLE. It was made with a machine I had never seen before where they would add the base and frozen fruit at the same time and make customizable frozen yogurt. My host mother, Sarahi, was curious as to why I was looking so intently at the machine, and it was because I was so intrigued with this sorcery of goodness!! Then later, we stopped on the way home at a cart on the side of the road. We slowed down and asked for 3. The vendor handed them to us through the window and within 30 seconds we had got our ice cream and were back on the road. It was a traditional mandarin shaved with a sour red topping and orange crepe-like cone.

Tortillas

MOUTHWATERINGLY GOOD. The United States store bought tortillas could never dream of being a percentage as good as the homemade tortillas in Guate.

New Words

Chucho - Street dog

Chilero - cool 

Rez - Beef

frambuesas - raspberries

arandanos - blueberries