We survived the earthquake!

Yep, there was an earthquake here yesterday morning. It wasn´t ginormous (thank goodness) but big enough to scare the crap out of me. I have realized that if you are someone who suffers from anxiety, this is not the place for you. If you don´t suffer from anxiety and you come here, you soon will have anxiety, as I do.  Don´t get me wrong, I´m loving it here, but there are many things that aren´t in my normal comfort zone. For example, Ben and I took a little adventure on Saturday to a little town called Totonicapán. Don´t ask me what I was thinking (I wasn´t apparently) because we had to take a bus there. One hour on an old yellow school bus that was going well over the recommended speed limit in a rain storm, jammed packed with at least 30 people over the recommended limit, people literally hanging out the door, I was on the verge of tears. Alas, we made it. It was market day in this little pueblo and it was fascinating to see everything. When each little city has their market day, they bring out the goods to buy. It’s not like a normal day where they have the usual veggies and fruit. There was a different vibe in this pueblo (I like Xela more) but it was worth the adventure. My camera is dead right now but I will post pics ASAP. When the bus dropped us off back in Xela, we started to walk back to our hotel (you can walk everywhere in Xela-nothing is too far away). Within minutes we were surrounded by some of the scariest looking clouds I have ever seen. Then, it started. The WORST rain storm I have ever been in!! Within one minute of the storm, we were soaking wet. When I say soaking wet, I mean it looked like we had jumped into a swimming pool with our clothes on (I am SO not exaggerating!!). We got wetter in this storm then we do in our stinkin shower (which started smoking and almost exploded the other day by the way). The streets turned to rivers and I felt as if I were a Baywatch Beach Babe for a split second as I ran in the water that was up to my calves. The worst part was the lightening. We came within 30 feet of a lightning strike. I thought I lost my hearing. It was pretty scary.
So, to backtrack a bit, on Thursday we (me, Ben and Mike) went on a guided tour of another pueblo that is only about 20 minutes away called Almolonga. This is the big farming and gold country. It was beautiful. It had just rained right before we got there and so there was a haze above the fields which made it incredible to look at. We ran into some carrot farmers that had just picked their crops. They were washing the dirt off their carrots in the nasty, poopy, gross water that was streaming down the middle of the street. This made me realize that when vegetables say ¨prewashed¨ that I might want to wash them again. They have some natural hot springs there that they have commercialized. Uh, gross. That´s the only way to describe what they looked like.
Other than our adventures, things are going well. The academy is a bit slow but we take what we can get. I love my Spanish classes. I hope to be a Spanish speaking fool by the time I get home. Ben taught his first Sunday School class yesterday and rocked it. Hope that all is going well with everyone-we miss you all!