Welcome to Guatemala!

Culture shock, much? Jokes,I'm actually fine at the moment. Surprisingly so actually.Sure it's early in the game and all but I'm feeling decent. Before jumping into my experiences in actual Guatemala, it's always good to recap a travel day. Oh and p.s. To anyone I told that Guate is only an hour behind, I lied, it's two. That caused a solid amount of confusion today. Woops. Anyways, the day started at the crack of dawn. Haven't seen 5 am in a while, people. There's a reason I don't often see that time of day...I'm no ray of sunshine, nor do I look like one. So after stumbling out of bed and finally getting my stuff all together, pillow pet in tow, we were off. Our time at Logan was easy enough, especially since our first flight was only to Miami ( Spanish pronunciation of that, please) but I can't sayy im in love with American airlines. Not only was boarding pass printing a task and a half, but checking bags was another crazy ordeal. Ok, crazy is pushing it, but I ended up with four boarding passes and a lot of frustration. The plane ride itself was whatever, read some skymall, practiced mi espanol as Kat and I struggled to get through a few Spanish magazine articles, and took a fake nap. I also ate a bagel. Score. Love me some Dunks. Miami seemed super legit, so we may or may not have contemplated staying there. Either that or getting on one of the connecting flights to other boss destinations. Key West or St. Thomas , anyone? But we sucked it up and got on the right plane, but not before purchasing our last American meal for a wwhile. Airport tuna for the win. That flight was just as uneventful, except this time the coconut and raspberry m&ms made an appearance. Such solid purchases. The rasp m&ms are definitely gems. I recommend them to all. Ok, so now onto guatemala. Did I have some instant culture shock as we flew over the city? YES. Did I calm down? Yup. I'm sure I'll have more mOments in the future but I'm feeling good.Flying over the country was really beautiful for a while. Very lush and mountainy. Muy Bonita. From high above Guate city looks pretty much like anywhere, but getting closer we flew over a lot of shacks. And I mean legitamite tin roof shacks all kind of piled on top of each other. I think I just kept saying "holy crap,"and mayb some panic set in. The airport was pretty standard minus the lack of air conditioning. I'm so used to feeling like I'm in Antarctica when in aeropuertos but it was quite stuffy. After making my way through customs and whatnot, we exited and waited a little bit for the van. I awkwardly sai some things in Spanish and English to various people unsure of who knew what. Our driver spoke no English but I'm happy to report that I understood him when he said his arm was hurt so he couldn't help with bags. Unhappy to report that my bag was heavy. I was mid conversation as we made our way through the city, but it was definitely something to see and COMPLETELY unlike anything I've ever experienced. I'm not even really sure how to describe it. There are KFCs, tacobells, shell gas stations, normal things youd find around the good old USA, but it's not the US and that's obvious. I was mildly panicking as I knew I would, but a few hours into it and I'm feeling better. I feel very safe in the house, which is obviously important, and was able to spend most of my afternoon in some outdoorsy patio space beside a lime tree. Even as I sit here writing this I'm having a hard time believing it's real. Maybe it'll sink in come week three. We'll see. Just gotta comprehend that saying si or no to people Ian just a joke anymore. this is la vida real, la gente.