For those of you who don’t know, September 15th is Independence Day for Guatemala. It has been a really fun experience to be here to partake in the festivities and watch the parades in celebration of Independence Day! Wednesday during my Spanish lesson my teacher asked me if I wanted to participate in an excursion La Unión (my Spanish language school) was going on called “Antorcha de la Libertad” [Torch of Liberty]. And of course, because I want to experience as much culture as I can, I said I would love to go. Little did I know that this trip would take us on a 45 minute drive to Parramos (a little village) to watch a small children’s parade and then receive the Antorcha (torch). Once the torch was in our hands and lit, the journey began…as a run back to our school, La Unión (about 12.5 miles away). It was an interesting experience. No, I did not run the whole way, but I did run when we got closer to Antigua. It was a blast! (This all happens the day before their Independence Day.)
[Picture one: running back to school with the torch (about 4 blocks away)]
[Picture two: the torch after we made it to La Unión]
In addition to the Antorcha de Libertad, a few of us went to Guatemala City for un partido de fúbol [soccer game]. La Unión took us there for just Q200 [about 25 US dollars]. For dinner we ate Domino’s pizza at the game. The entire event was quite an experience. It took a little over 3.5 hours to get to the game and we arrived right on time. Traffic was INSANE! There were many unpleasant fumes that we inhaled on the rides there and back as well as while watching the game: exhaust, smoke, puke, etc. I feel like I should explain the “puke” part. While on our way there we traveled with students from La Unión who are from all over the world. There was a girl from Iceland that sat in the third row of the van and apparently she gets car sick. She said she wasn’t feeling well so we offered to stop so she could move up front, but she said she’d be okay…turns out that was not the case! She ended up puking into a grocery bag she brought with her less than 15 minutes later. That wouldn’t have been bad, but the bag she puked in had a hole in it. The remainder of the ride I had to keep my feet up off the ground because the puke was flowing all over the floor of the van. Needless to say, it was quite the experience :) We arrived back to our home at midnight. Just in time to sleep a little before class Thursday morning!
[Picture one: the traffic on the way to the game]
[Picture two: the soccer field before the game]
[Picture three: the six of us girls from SAU who went to the game]
Way cool! Who won the game? Love the pics!
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