Happy 4th! ¡Feliz Cuarto de Julio!

Hola Friends,

¡Feliz Cuarto de Julio! ¡Yo espero todas personas en Los Estados Unidos estan teniendo un buen dia hoy!  Aqui en Quetzaltenango yo estoy teniendo un buen dia. Yo extraño Los Estados Unidos hoy, pero mis amigos vamos a celebar esta noche.  My teacher for class today brought firecrackers to shoot off before we started our lessons. During the break she let me drive her motorcycle around campus too!  I kinda want one now....sorry mom :)   My diocesan brother Juan and I also celebrated the best way we could as Americans in Guatemala....by eating McDonald's!  If I can't be in America today, at least I can have a taste of it!  Later tonight we are grilling hamburgers and hotdogs here at the monastery.  My teacher also bought me additional fireworks as a gift, so tonight we will at least get to see some. Fireworks are very popular here. If my alarm doesn't wake me up in the morning usually fireworks do. In the very early hours of the morning people set off firecrackers to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries.

This week has gone by pretty fast. I found out I celebrate my practice Mass next Wednesday and have a test on Monday. We are also planning on going to the zoo tomorrow!  The grammar I have been learning this past week has been pretty easy too.  It's basically past, present, and future progressive. Yesterday I also went to the movies. My friends and I saw Monsters University. It was all in Spanish, but I understood a lot of the words and got the overall concept of the film. I highly recommend it!

Nothing else major going on here. I can't believe I only have 15 days of class left before I come home. Time is flying by!  Even though I'm excited to return home, I know I'm going to miss Guatemala in the future. I have learned so much here, it truly has been a blessing. These next 3 weeks I'm sure are going to seal everything together too.  I hope everyone is doing well and that everyone enjoys the holiday today!  Know of my prayers for all of you, and we'll talk again soon!

-Cristobal