Friday, February 24th
First day in Guatemala!

If I have learned anything this semester, it is that college life is unpredictable. The week before break was spent preparing for exams in the depths of the library, and it passed in a quick blur. Today, spring break began, and time slowed down. In the past twenty four hours, I have gone from trudging though the snow that blanketed  the streets of Ann Arbor late last night, to flying over the Gulf of Mexico, to driving along the winding mountain roads of Guatemala, to strolling through the narrow cobblestone streets of lively Panajachel. Though it has barely been a day, the new experiences, tastes, sights, and strengthening of friendships that have already taken place made the little bit of our trip that has gone by seem like much more than that.

Though I usually dread hours spent on long car rides and flights, my favorite part of today was the time spent en route to our destination. I have never before been south of the United States, tending to look towards Asia and Europe

I have yet to charge the battery on my small panasonic camera, so when the urge came over me to reach for my camera today, I forced myself to burn images into my memory instead. Some photographs that are now hanging in the dark room of my mind:

- Rui frantically counting all of us off when we loaded into the buses in Ann Arbor. The amount of work that he put into this trip is amazing!
- Lucy pressing her nose to the plastic of the tiny airplane window, oohing at the beautiful shades of blue and tiny islands that we saw as we took off from Miami,
- Pauline and Girish dozing in the airport as we waiting for our connecting flight in Miami.
- Stargazing with TJ on the back of a pick-up truck as we drove back from dinner.

Audrey