Day Seven, Antigua

Interior Garden at CIRMA

Most Fridays this semester are free for all of the students in the Casa Herrera program and some Fridays we are doing activities as a group. Our first Friday, our seventh day of the trip, we took two tours as a group. First we went to the Centro de Invetigaciones Regionales de Mesoamerica (CIRMA). CIRMA has an extensive collection of books, records, newspapers, photographs, and periodicals available to the public to view in their building in Antigua. We got a tour of their facilities and the rooms where they store records in climate control; they even have original records from the rebels in the Guatemalan Civil War. Their photography collection has over a million pieces from 1800's daguerreotypes to contemporary digital's.

The most exciting piece of their collection for me is a beautiful copy of the Dresden Codex done on the exact kind of paper the original is made of. We are able to utilize all of the resources at CIRMA, and I hope to be able to get a chance to examine their copy of the Dresden much more closely. 

We also got a tour of Compania de Jesus in Antigua. This is a very large public library with resources that can be checked out f the building. We got a tour of their rooms and we say their study area with computers. We are all able to get a library card from the Compania de Jesus with a photocopy of our passports and the address for the Casa. While we were there, we also learned about Photography Month in Guatemala, which is September, and the activities that are going to be held in Antigua in celebration of this time. 

The rest of the day, Gloria and I focused on catching up on work and collecting the rest of the supplies we need for classes at the Casa. We did experience a hiccup I think is important to mention when doing a home stay in any country; we were late for lunch. Lunch is at 1pm during the time we have Casa classes, but on Fridays and Saturdays lunch is still at 12:30. At 12:30 on Friday, both Gloria and myself were still at the Casa working on our computers to catch up on work. When we realized we were late we rushed back to our home stay, and got in while they were already eating. To continue the trend, we managed to be late to dinner as well (due to talking to other Casa students about language study times), and Saturday morning we slept in past breakfast (our alarm was set, but not turned on). Both Gloria and myself hope that by being late to all three meals right in a row, we will avoid doing so again for the rest of the trip. Our host parents are extremely understanding and shrugged it off with a grin, but Gloria and I are now both more aware of being careful with when we are suppose to be somewhere.