FW: Escribo de Guatemala!

Hi all! I wanted to send a quick email and let you all know that Iarrived in Guatemala, safe and sound. There were absolutely noproblems getting here. It was quite exhasting though. I took a redeye from Denver to Atlanta. Two hours to Denver, three to Atlanta, fivehour lay-over in Atlanta, 4 hours to Guatemala City, and then another 2 to Santa Lucia. We then got lost on the way to my host family's house....so in all, I was in a car, airplane, or airport for 24 hours. Yuck.

Guatemala, so far, has a lot of similarities to Nepal. Bad pollution, lots of people, bad roads, and open markets. It´s a lot more"American" than Nepal however. I even saw a Wendy's in GuatemalaCity (made me think of Mom) and my first taste of Guatemalan food was a McDonald's ice cream cone. Funny, huh? My first meal was at a fastfood place, Pollo Comparro, similar to KFC. Most of the food is similar to what we eat at home, which was suprising.

I went to the school yesterday and spent the day. It´s a very niceschool. I worry that I won´t have enough to do. The one person thatcould be my mentor speaks no English and I speak almost no Spanish.Hard combination. I´ll have to create my own work. But the kids are excited and I´m excited to be there. I hope I can help in some way.

The language barriar is so difficult. Oh, how I wish I knew Spanish!I´ll walk down the street and people talk to me and I have no ideawhat they say. I just have to say, "¡No hablo español!" or "¡No comprendo!" It´s frustrating.

I already miss Ben like crazy. The first day I was extremelyemotional. I couldn´t even think about Ben without crying. I musthave been going through some kind of culture shock. It´s gotten better. Nodoubt I´m defintiely excited about the day when I can see him again!

Things are good. I like Guatemala. It´s not nearly as hot as Ithought it would be. Very tolerable. From what Ben says, it might even behotter in Wyoming right now. It´s ´winter´ here....rains every day.

I send my love. I would love to hear back from you all!

Tiffany

The Story Behind "Date-Twenty"

I've had a few people ask how we came up with the title for our blog, Date-Twenty, so I thought it made sense to go ahead and post the story, the story of our first kiss. When Tiffany and I first started dating, I believe on our first or second date, I made the half-joking comment that kissing wasn't an option until at least "date twenty." Obviously that wasn't entirely true, because depending on what you consider a date we were engaged long before we had twenty dates. Anyway, on date three I believe, we had gone to a Murder Mystery dinner in Cheyenne, and got back to Laramie fairly late. While saying goodnight, Tiffany asked me what I was thinking about, and I remarked, "Skipping to date twenty." So that's how our first kiss came about, and thus the blog title. I hope that clears up the confusion, and that this post isn't too sappy for you, I think of it as an example how smooth I am (not to boast or anything), as opposed to all mush - but it's that too. --Ben

Fwd: Family Letter

Hi all! It's been a LONG time since we've written a family letter. First of all, CONGRATULATIONS Denise! That is incredibly exciting!

We had a nice weekend. Saturday, we went to Cheyenne to look for a dress for D's wedding (with no luck). It's hard to shop for something so specific. I finally found a shirt at Wal-mart I can wear with a black skirt if I can't find anything else. Time is running out! We traveled back to Cheyenne on Monday to spend the 4th with Ben's family. We had a really nice day. Ben's Dad recently bought a canoe and we tried to take it out on the lake, but it was raining and, out of fear of lightening, not many people got to ride. That's alright, we had fun throwing the frisbee around. We played a game and then set off fireworks and watched the Cheyenne show from the front yard. It was nice to have the day off.

This summer is going by too quickly. In May, Ben had to take two comprehensive exams for his degree. He didn't pass Macro and passed the Micro test after an oral exam in front of three professors. Needless to say, he was incredibly nervous going into the oral exam, but once he got going, he realized he knew a lot more than he thought. He passed with flying colors. He has to re-take the written Macro in August. There may be some consequences if he doesn't pass (like lower funding for his GA), but he talked with his professors who gave him a lot of hope. They said it's evident from his first test that he understands that material, he just needs to use more technical, equation-like answers. The poor kid has been through a lot. We think he has an ulcer from being so stressed and worried. I'm so glad I'm not in a program like that :-) Ben is planning on attending an Economics conference in Auburn, Alabama this summer for a week. He was awarded a scholarship to attend, so we just have to scoop out the costof the airline ticket. He's really excited about it.

I am leave for Guatemala July 21st. I have mixed feelings about it. It's going to stink being away from Ben for 5 weeks, but he seems to think it won't be that bad :-) I'm feeling fairly overwhelmed. From what I hear, there's not a solid counseling program in place at the school where I will be interning, so I have to create work for myself. My advisor has given me some great ideas. I'm planning on going into the classrooms and teaching about leadership, conflict resolution, etc. I would also like to implement a peer mediation program for some of the grades (it's a K-12 school). I would also like to conduct some small counseling groups. But I've never done this before and I'm a bit nervous that I will have no idea how to help these kids. And I hope I'm not totally bored. I'm also nervous about the crime down there. Public announcements say that thieves target Americans. They say the robberies can be violent and can occur when you're in a car. The police are probably involved because the bandits are often in police uniform and/or in a police car. Scary. We shall see. It should be a good experience and I hope to do some traveling when I'm not working. I would LOVE to visit the temple there (even though I'll be a couple hour drive away from it).

Ben and I have been working full time this summer, both at WYSAC. I've been here for a year and a half and this summer, we needed some help transcribing interviews and Ben was willing to do it. It's a tedious job, but he's a hard worker. He'll only work here through July. I'm liking my job. I have a lot of work to do and it keeps me busy. I have the best boss in the world who trusts me with a lot of the semi-important work. We're both making good money and we've been VERY blessed to have good jobs. It's kind of fun to go to work together and eat lunch together most days. At first, I thought it would be weird, but it's not bad at all.

I suppose that's all. I'm REALLY looking forward to Deanna's wedding. It'll be a blast to hang out with everyone. See you all soon!

--Tiffany

Joining the Blogosphere

At long last I've decided to jump into the blogging world, primarily because blogging seems like a great alternative to the those mass emails I find myself writing to keep friends and family posted on my life. I'm sure you are all familiar with those mass emails that you end up furiously cranking out upon the realization that you have completely disregarded all of those people you promised to stay in touch with. Certainly the promises are not one sided, one friend in particular, Hillary, we always committ to doing a better job, and before we know it six months have gone by with no contact whatsoever. Such is life I suppose. I find that as I get older, and even more so as my circle of friends discover that institution known as marriage, the motivation to keep in touch seems to fade. My hope is that by keeping a blog up-to-date I can alleviate some of that, and make it a lot easier to stay in touch...we shall see I suppose. --Ben