Monday: I wasn't brave enough to drive today. Instead, the kids and I hung out in the hotel and walked around outside a little. We found a McDonalds and had some lunch. The kids have less faith in my Spanish than I have in myself. I think they were pretty surprised that we got all the food that we thought we had ordered!
In the afternoon, the kids entertained themselves in the hotel gym. I later realized that there was a sign (in English) that said nobody under 18 allowed!! Oops! Overall an extremely boring day but we survived.
Tuesday: Today I was much more adventurous. After a nice prayer, we ventured out in the rental car to find the zoo. Driving was scary enough but I didn't have a clue where I was going and Morgans navigating didn't help much. She just kept saying, "Mom, I think we better just go back to the hotel". Miraculously we found the zoo....I have no idea how we did it!! When we were going in to pay, there were a bunch of missionaries. It turned out that it was their preparation day and their whole zone was having an outing. There were over 30 in all. It was nice to know that there were translators all throughout the zoo if I needed help. I managed on my own though!
The zoo was very nice. It was pretty warm and Laina's legs weren't working (she says that whenever she is tired and then throws herself on the ground. I love the terrible 3's!!) so I had to carry her a lot. The kids really seemed to enjoy themselves. I personally was more impressed with all the cool trees and Mayan decorations than the animals! All the kids had to find Marty (Zebra), Melman (Giraffe), Gloria/Moto Moto (Hippos) and Alex (Lion). They even found little Alekade (baby lion). All of them are from Madagascar which is one of their all time favorite movies.
We stalled as long as we could at the zoo so that we wouldn't have to sit in the hotel as long. After lunch, we went back through once more and then headed for the hotel. I drove straight to the hotel except couldn't get into the parking garage because it was on a one way (una via) road and I was going the wrong way. We made a few circles around before we got on the right block going the right direction!!
Wednesday: What a day. It all began yesterday when we realized that our room was on a smoking floor. We tried to change but there were no more rooms with adjoining doors so we opted to hold out and hope that no smokers came in next to us. No such luck. When we went to bed, the smell began. At 11:45 I woke up nauseous from the smell. I do not do well with cigarette smoke! (I'm sure my mom can tell many stories of me making big embarassing scenes about people smoking around me when I was little. Morgan has taken over that job now!) I ended up taking my blankets and sleeping on the floor in the kids room since it was a little further away. Needless to say, I didn't sleep much and didn't feel good. Adding four kids all day in a hotel to the mix was just asking for disaster! I was the biggest grouch to say the least!! I was about ready to strangle all of them by 9::00 this morning!! Even though there were still no adjoining rooms, we opted to take two side by side rooms that were non-smoking. Hopefully I'll sleep better tonight and be a little bit better of a mom tomorrow!
We did however venture out for lunch and found a TGIFridays. (There were 4 missionaries eating. They are everywhere!) I'm sure everybody is wondering why we always eat at the same old boring American restaurants instead of trying new stuff. There are two reasons. Reason #1: The kids will eat it without any problems. Reason #2: It is something familiar that I am able to order. I get so frustrated going into restaurants and not understanding the menus and having to figure out what I want to eat. I have a hard enough time deciding on what to order even when I know what the food is!!
The restaurant was in a little mall area that had a few pretty cool stores. One was a house and restaurant supply store. I had gone into another one the last time I came to Guatemala City. They said they were out of oven thermometers but should have them the next time I came back. I am still trying to cook with an oven that goes from 1-5! Anyway, no luck. Another store was a book store that had kids books...some in English. Morgan and Cole have really missed reading. Cole would read nonstop. He hasn't read a book since we got here! I am hoping to find a library or something that we can get some books for him at!
After we got back to the hotel, I let the kids go to the pool to put their feet in. I should have known better. By the time we left all four of them were soaking wet from head to toe in their jeans and clothes! At least it gave me an excuse to put them in the tub and kill some time!
I have decided that I really like Xela more than Guatemala City. The pace of life here is just too busy for me. I can't even get across a street here with all the kids! I'm sure that I just haven't experienced enough of Guatemala City but I am excited to go back to Xela. I am very grateful that that is where we are building the temple. Chris feels the same and has often commented that if the project was in Guatemala City, he would have had to turn it down. I am quickly growing to love the people in Xela. I love all the women that wear their traditional Mayan clothing. I love the CRAZY (loco) chicken buses. I love the markets. I love the scenery. I love how friendly and welcoming everybody has been to us. I really think that it is going to be tough to leave when the job is done!!
For more pictures of our trip to the zoo, go to http://picasaweb.google.com/morganrae02/33109LaAuroraZooGuatemalaCityGuatemala?authkey=Gv1sRgCKnQp9r66eGDtAE&feat=directlink
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