Guatemala Day 2

In the morning, we had our Spanish placement tests. Considering I've never once in my life studied Spanish, I think I did pretty well. The test was almost entirely verb conjugations with a couple saber/conocer or ser/estar sprinkled in. I knew how to conjugate like 10 verbs in first person only (LOL survival Spanish learned in the last 2 days...) but I circled the correct verb when I had to choose between saber/conocer and ser/estar. Needless to say, I'm feeling pretty proud of myself haha.

I lasted longer than I thought for the oral portion of the placement exam as well. I kept the conversation going for almost 10 minutes and managed to tell Jose-Carlos (the proctor, who is really funny and personable) that I understood what he was asking but didn't know how to respond. <-- wow I'm so cool I can't believe I knew how to say that without ever studying Spanish

Anyways, I finished waaaaaaay before anyone else and ended up just sitting around waiting for other people to finish. A few of us wandered over to Parque Central to find a snack, but I had to walk Elizabeth back to the school for her oral exam before I managed to get anything to eat. Oh well, I'm sure there'll be a next time.

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Once everybody finished, Elizabeth and I went back struggled to find our homestay. I knew which street it was on (and my sense of direction was confirmed by the various dog poops we saw on the street lol), but for the life of me could not remember which door... We walked back and forth a couple times and finally found it (it was farther down the street than I remembered). It was a great relief when my key successfully clicked open a somewhat-maybe-kinda familiar door, but the respite was brief for, when we walked in, two unfamiliar faces greeted us. I think they knew who we were though (or at least they knew that two strangers were coming to live with them) because they didn't question us when we said hello, walked through the courtyard, and into the house.

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After lunch, we went back to the school where Ellie met us and took us on a short tour of Xela. She kept saying how Xela has a very small-town feel (even though it's the second largest city in Guatemala), but I'm not sure if I believe her. Even though we only walked through the main parts of town, it seemed pretty humongous. I think I'd know how to get back to most of the places we visited, but only by following the exact path she took us on. Otherwise, I don't know where anything is in relation to anything else... I won't bore you with all my pictures of random buildings but here's a few highlights:

Elizabeth, in the same homestay as me

This is the lovely Ana doing some push ups... just kidding. She thought the ground looked like chocolate so I dared her to lick it. She did, but I failed to capture the actual moment. No pics so I guess it didn't happen

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Nice view of Xela from one of the windows of the theater

Obligatory group photo

Not pictured: chocobanana that only cost 1Q (~US$0.13)

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After our tour, we went to our first salsa class! Not much to say about that besides the fact that we only had 2 leads (Jaeho + the teacher) and that I am so incredibly bad at dancing. Videos to come...