Finally! A trip to the movies :)

Well, now that Maureen and Nigel are gone it's only me and Tamra here. The school is super quite, especially since she takes her lessons in her room. The first week I was here the entire porch was covered in students and teachers, now there's just me and my teacher Nanci in the morning. In some ways its nice, I like being able to be louder with her and not feel like I need to whisper to avoid distracting other students. Its kind of crappy not having anyone to talk to during breaks though. The director says some new students should come over the next few days, so lets hope thats the case. I really want someone to explore the city with.
Today Hugo (my afternoon teacher) and I went to a poorer part of Antigua. There's a pretty stark difference in living conditions once you get out of the touristy parts of town. It's mostly small shanty-houses, lots of garbage along the streets and stray dogs everywhere. It was good to see that, its easy to forget how things are when you're constantly in areas that have been benefiting from tourism for the last few decades. We went to a place called Antigua Exotica which is a small reptile zoo specifically highlighting reptiles from Guatemala. I didnt take any pictures since I was the only person there and I was feeling kind of dumb/guilty/touristy after walking through town, but it was a pretty interesting place. The number of small poisonous snakes that they have here definitely made me rethink my hiking plans. I asked the reptile dude about scorpions and he assured me that there would not be any scorpions at the orphanage, despite what I had heard. Then again he didnt seem to think that scorpions live in Guatemala at all, and I know for a fact that he's wrong on that front. I think I'll be shaking out my shoes just in case for a while.
Tonight for dinner we had chicken and rice with tortillas. I'm starting to miss food from home which is a REALLY bad thing considering its only been two weeks. I've just never been a big rice and beans guy and its starting to bore me now. I just want some Thai food! Or spagetti and meatballs! Or some pork chops and mac and cheese... I should really start cooking more for myself.
After dinner Brita (the German girl from my host family) asked me if I wanted to go to the movies with her and her friends. Of course I did! I've seriously been asking everyone about the movie theater here but I havent had the chance to venture there yet. It was a totally cool experience. We walked right into the theater, no need to buy tickets or anything. The theater was the same size as a normal theater back home. It had stadium seating, but about half the chairs were missing so you could sit with your friends and be kind of isolated from the other people. There were also some seats that were arranged in semi-circles so you could face your friends and chat. I guess they dont always use the space for playing movies, during the day I think its like a lounge type space. Every other chair or so there was a small table for your drinks/snacks. I kept waiting for the dude to come around and collect money but I soon found out that the movie theater is FREE!! Totally awesome!! They dont play super new releases, but they weren't as old as I was expecting either. Right now they're playing Green Lantern and Hangover II (we saw Green Lantern-in English, no less!). During the movie the guy brought us a menu and we were able to get a few beers while we watched the show. Definitely a cool experience!