The first week...

So it's already been a week since I left home. And as usual it seems like I've been here a month. I thought things would go by slow...what with siesta and all...but there's been plenty to do and there's no sign of that letting up. In fact, there are so many activities going on that I think I'll be saying no to stuff just to have time on weekends to relax. So far, language school has been good. Class for me consists almost entirely of conversation. We talk a lot about history, politics, world events and also a lot on religions. I'm spending a lot of time trying to put my testimony and other thoughts into Spanish. It's not easy to tell someone how to be saved or tell a story from the Bible or many others things using Spanish. The past tenses of verbs are a pain and I'm not to the point yet where I can using the preterite and imperfect tenses without thinking. So between this and learning "street talk" I still have plenty to do. The hard part is to take what I'm learning in class and apply that in the real world. The reality is that people do not speak terribly clearly and I have to get used to different accents etc.

However, we've also had some free time. Most recently, we went to a popular spot that overlooks the city of Antigua. It's called "El Cerro de la Cruz", or The Hill of the Cross. It's quite a hike (especially at 5000ft altitude) but it was worth. Of course, it rained on the way back down so we were soaking wet. But that's the weather around here...storms come over the mountains quickly and you never know when it could pour down raining. So that's a bit about this first week here in school...