Monday, August 9, 2010

I turn my camera on...

Saturday morning the newbies were taken to Antigua for a scavenger hunt.



Antigua is the former capital of Guatemala and a beautiful, colonial town about an hour from Guatemala City. Antigua is a big tourist spot and has a great language school.





We split into groups, were assigned pictures to take and had a great time traveling through the city.

My scavenger hunt group


Mags and I found some random goats!


And the bakery with the greatest bread! Mmm, pan!


When we regrouped for lunch, we had an awesome meal at Casa Santo Domingo, a former monastery.

See you, me and Julio down by the schoolyard...

On Friday we got a chance to see the campus of CAG. It is incredibly beautiful! The campus is very green, filled with plants and flowers.








The classrooms are lovely with lots of windows and natural light. All the rooms open up into courtyard or green space.



The playspace is for Early Childhood. There are six sections of each class, around 220 students. The entire campus is about 1500 students K-12 - impressive!





Finally, the pool. I hope that you can all come visit me and check out this gorgeous place that I am fortunate enough to teach at!!

Friday, August 6, 2010

Flying first class...up in the sky...


A long day of travel coupled with saying goodbye to people I love, while dragging my weight in luggage, is not necessarily my best day of fun, but yesterday I got spoiled. I was fortunate enough to be on the same flight as a friend, Verne Kenney, who was traveling to Guatemala for business.

Traveling with Verne has many perks. I got to experience the Admirals Club in Dallas (which is like a whole other secret world filled with nice bathrooms, free snacks, recliner chairs and a bar) and bumped to first class from Dallas to Guatemala.

Once we arrived in Guatemala, we made it through customs and met up with people from CAG (Colegio Americana Guatemala). The wonderful drivers for the school took all of my luggage to the hotel. No more carrying 75 pounds and dragging another 150. Bliss.

I rode with Jennifer, my principal and two other teachers who had been on my flight. We got to the Clarion Suites and I find out that I am in a king suite by myself. It's glorious. I couldn't have asked for more. I feel incredibly spoiled and fortunate.

My temporary home:






Oh and by the way...the weather here? Perfect. It's high of 72 today, not humid and the lows are around 60. I love it so far, but I do miss you all.