Guatemala Week 2 Day 0

Day 0
Ou journey began with 6 of our crew leaving at the reasonable hour of 3 AM, while myself, Kristen, and Potatoes got to sleep in untill 5 and take a separate flight to Guatemala City. The trip started off on a good note (with Potatoes getting stopped at the Atlanta airport security for having a pocket knife). After this mini-epic, we boarded our flight and after some in-flight snacks and movies, arrived in Guatemala City. After being instructed by flight attendants in Spanish, we left the plane and were greeted by several nurse-looking people wearing masks, asking us if we had swine flu. We collected our bags, and immediately after were joined by the other members of group 2, who had said that they saw the volunteers from week 1 as they were flying out of Guatemala. After we gathered our things, and Trina said goodbye to her new friend from the airplane, whom she called "la abuela", we met Fred and our bus driver Franscico outside. The lot of us drove in a big white van to an exquisite and authentic "Guatemal-ian" restaurant where we dined on the finest appetizers they had to offer. The place was a beautiful giant tiki-hut type deal right in the middle of Guatemala City, and the food was great. The next hour or so I was asleep, but I assume that we drove through the mountains to the quaint old city of Antigua. When I awoke, we were cruisin' past a beautiful church on old cobblestone streets towards our destination, Casa Sita. The girls settled in here while the guys moved our stuff down to a similar hotel around the corner. After we were all moved in, we began to explore our surroundings. It was still somewhat quiet in the part of the city we were in, and it seemed almost deserted. After walking in and out of local shops, we all gathered up and made a trip down to the town square. We passed by the beautiful church previously mentioned, know as "la merced", and strolled on down "El Arco", the main drag. This street, marked by a giant arch over the middle of it, was lined with locals offering all kinds of trinkets, beggars, artists, and tourists alike. We decided to exchange for some local currency, called "Quetzales", named after a rare central American bird. After some wandering, we ended up in some sort of market, in which we split up, agreeing to meet back in fifteen minutes. I somehow got stuck with Potatoes, and we ended up half-lost power walking through long and narrow passageways filled with music stores and dead chickens. Sooner or later, we all reunited, and continued on into the local supermarket, where we did some shopping. Tension mounted, however, when I clumsily dropped a glass bottle in the middle of the store, causing the loudest glass bottle explosion these young ears have ever heard. It did not phase anyone, however, except us uptight Americans. Everyone here seems to be extremely laid back, but not to the extent of being careless. Its a very relaxed atmosphere that, to me at least, is very comforting. Anyway, back to the glass bottle incident; we quickly cleaned up the mess and hurried back to Casa Sita, where we were met by the head lady-in-charge "Alice", who spoke to us at length of all the projects her and her husband had been working on. The next thing I knew I was sitting in a pizza place listening to Fred's awesome Karaoke abilities. After Fred had successfully driven out all of the other customers with his beautiful voice, we enjoyed some great pizza and some great laughs, and then headed back home. We made arrangments for the next morning, and I began to write this blog.
THE END (of day 0)
-Michael LaDue