It's Tuesday?

I can't really believe that I've already been Antigua for over a week, and my time is here is quickly coming to an end. Today was my last Spanish class, and for the rest of the week my friends and I are going to try and do as many different things as possible. I walked around the local market for gifts for my friends and family before class today, and realized that I'm no better at negotiating in Spanish than I am in English (I generally just say "okay" rather than bargaining), but it was still really fun.

Today at the orphanage it was pretty hot out, so my friend Tae and I started off the morning by hanging up all of the wet laundry to dry during the day. After that, we went to watch a fútbol game that the boys ages 8-12 had started on the basketball  court.  I'm no good at soccer, but one of the 8 year old boys was determined to teach me how to juggle a ball on my foot successfully. Today was almost a lazy day at the orphanage; most of the kids wanted to just hang out in the shade rather than run around. At one point, my friend Diana and I found ourself sitting in the shade with at least 20 of the orphans on our laps or sitting right next to us. I started to play a card game with Santiago, who's 8, called guerra. Guerra means war in Spanish- so luckily I actually knew how to play! After a while we had a large crowd of kids watching, everyone getting involved too. I ended up losing, but it was a really fun game :) While we were playing, Diana had her ipod out and was playing Shakira and other music that the kids knew - some of them knew all of the words! It was relaxing but very fun.

The one thing I'm still amazed at is that the kids always just enjoy sitting on our laps and pulling us around the orphanage to show us things. Although my Spanish has improved and I know enough to get by, a lot of the kids enjoy teaching me words and don't mind when I point to something and ask how to say it in Spanish. Some of them do laugh at my pronounciations sometimes, but they will always repeat it until I get it right.

 It's going to be really weird saying goodbye to all of the kids knowing that I'll be flying back home to my family and friends, and then leaving to go to school when I know that all of the kids will be in the orphanage for an indefinite amount of time. As I said before, this trip has been extremely eye opening. It's been a lot of fun, and not exactly what I expected either.