Smile and Wave

I cannot believe that we haven´t even been in Guatemala for a week! It feels like a month ago that we were back at orientation. On Friday afternoon, we all lined up in the front of the dining area in CASAS to meet our host families. It was probably one of the scariest things I have ever done. My host mom and one of my brothers came to pick me up and I was really nervous and had a hard time even answering basic questions at first. They got me ice cream on the way to their house. Their house is a long ways from CASAS and pretty high on a mountain. The view is incredible! We were with our host families all weekend. We watched movies in Spanish, sometimes with English subtitles, or movies with American actors but Spanish voice-overs. On Saturday, I went with to help 2 of my siblings clean their church. In the evening, I watched my 2 oldest brothers play soccer (futbol) at the university. My family consists of my host parents and 4 siblings (ages 20, 23, 25 and 27). They are so hospitable and fun-loving! I can already tell I´m going to have a hard time leaving them. :) My sister speaks some English, so it is nice to fall back on that if we are all clearly VERY lost, but overall I try to speak in my awful Spanish so that I can practice. But sometimes, I just have to smile at people to communicate, which isn´t really too hard. :) On Sunday, I was introduced to their church, and they gave me a very warm welcome. Many people commented about the fact that I was wearing a skirt, because to them it´s pretty cold outside even though the temperature is around 60 to 70 in the mornings. That´s all for now!