Day Sixteen, Antigua (Continued)

A beautiful juxtaposition from the patio of our home stay.

As I mentioned in the post before this, today was the presidential election here in Guatemala. To be safe, all of the students at Casa were told to stay in Antigua and be extra careful since there were so many more people in the city to cast their votes. Gloria and I decided to stay in for the day and go our homework/study (particularly because we took the day off yesterday to relax). We invited over the other Casa students to work and study with us, and three came over for a short time; Nancy, Jessi, and Annie. Annie and I are in the same Spanish language class, so we focused on studying for our exam this upcoming Wednesday and making more flashcards. We both struggled (though Annie is doing much better than I am) and by the time she was heading out I was fully frustrated with the questions we need to know for the exam.
To take a break I focused on the readings due this week, and there are a lot. We have over 130 pages due this week for religion and history. This is a huge jump in the amount of work we have had for the courses, and with the election and Spanish exam also consuming time and focus, it has been a hard day. I am still very glad that I took yesterday off to relax, because it was easier to stay focused and to remain at a controllable level of frustration. Many of the other students were also expressing distress at the large quantity of work due this week. I will go into detail about the readings as we discuss them in classes, as they are very long and I am not sure which parts will be most pertinent for my discussion of classes in the upcoming days.

On a personal note, I have discovered one of the more uncomfortable aspects of travel abroad; my digestive system is not handling the new food I am eating very well. It should be noted that this kind of problem happens a lot when traveling abroad, and it should be something you prepare for. I luckily knew that the pharmacies here in Antigua are 24 hours and so, even on a Sunday (and election Sunday no less) I was able to make a trip to pick up some natural remedies, and in the morning I will consult with the clinician we are to contact as Casa students to make sure nothing is seriously wrong. Better to be safe and a little embarrassed, than to be sorry and a lot embarrassed.