After spending the night in Chicago’s airport, we
finally arrived in Antigua on Sunday. It is like no other city I’ve ever been
to before. It is composed of short blocks of streets centered around a
beautiful main city square. The buildings are bright, all different colors and
styles, lining roads of stone that slant in a steep ‘v’ to allow the water
during rainy season to disperse out of the city as quickly as possible.
Everywhere you look around you, you see mountains, with due south easily found
by a large volcano called “agua.” The
clouds dip low and cover the tops of the mountains, but the sun shines bright,
keeping you warm. It is rainy season now, but so far, we’ve only had a few rain
showers, typically in the afternoon, and often not lasting too long. 
Since we have afternoons off, we have plenty of time to
explore the city and try new places. Our new routine is to head into the city
after lunch for coffee and homework. Homework sounds terrible, but studying
Spanish with nine friends and a fresh cup of coffee is not bad at all. Plus,
walking into the cafes here is great because as soon as you walk through the
door, you walk into a courtyard and the beautiful open air, flowers, and
sunshine.
