Now the time has come to leave you

After another weekend of fun in Guatemala City with Sofi and her awesome family and friends, it is time to head home tomorrow.

This weekend was so much fun and the perfect way to spend our time in between life at the lake and life back in the United States. Liza, Sofi, her family, and I headed out to their family weekend house in Palim, about an hour’s drive from their home in the city. We drove 4 wheelers, went hiking ,played in a creek, read, played games, watched movies, and SLEPT in beds with sheets for the first time in a very long time! It was glorious :)

Sofi and I just dropped off Liza at the airport this morning, and after spending the last 7 weeks with that girl, it is a little weird for her not to be within a 5 second to 5 minute walk away. And her departure is a sobering reminder that this Guatemalan adventure is coming to a close and I, too, will be back at home before I know it.

Traveling I always stop at exits, wondering if I'll stay

This is my last weekend in Guatemala and I can’t believe it. Today (Friday) we said goodbye to our families, which was heartbreaking. After living in this tiny pueblo for the past 7 weeks, I really felt at home there, and I felt like a part of the community.

Friday morning I went to school to say goodbye to my students. They gave me a beautiful scarf and countless letters, thanking me for the time I spent with them and asking that I would not forget them, as if that is even possible.

Then it was time to head down to the dock. I walked down with two of my host aunts and my host cousin, Clarita. We met up with Liza and her family on the way down…it felt like the longest walk of my life. After saying goodbye through teary smiles, thanking our families for everything, we got on our last lancha across the lake and headed over to Pana to meet up with the rest of our group for a celebratory luncheon. Appropriately, we got on the local lancha, and stopped at all of the towns on one side of the lake, reminiscing and remembering our favorite parts of the past 7 weeks.

After lunch, Liza and I met up with Caitlin, the third leg to our Guatemalan tripod, who came to Pana to play with us one last time. We did some last minute shopping and one last round of mojitos at our favorite little place. We leave for Guatemala City at 6am tomorrow morning and Liza and I will be staying with Sofi for the weekend!

I just want to be okay, be okay, be okay

Today was supposed to be my last day at LISIl, but I decided on my walk down to the school, with the sun shining on the mountains and the lake, that I wasn't ready to say goodbye there and that I would make time to go tomorrow. At school I listened to the 6th grade girls do their speeches and graded them on their pronunciation one by one. Some of them did much better than others with the pronunciation, grammar. and word order.

Listening to these girls, many of whom were very nervous and who had made a lot of progress since I first met them, made me think about my time here. It made me think about the connections I've made with them and the people in the community, and the things that I have done while I was here. Was it enough? Did any of it make a difference anyway? Because after all, I did not make the girls fluent in English (not that this was the goal). But even if I did, would they be able to go on to a university education, get a high paying job, travel, or do any of the things we count as essential experiences to living a meaningful life?

The answer to all of that is probably no. And after all the traveling I have done and all the experiences I have had meeting people just like these girls, I am always disappointed in myself for asking these questions and wondering those things. Because apart from the fact that our cultures value different things, the truth is, it really doesn't matter if these girls go on to do things like I have done/will do. Because these are not the things that make up a meaningful life. People can have purpose right where they are. Living in a small town on Lake Atitlan, nestled between mountains and volcanos and never leaving there is okay. It is okay for the people that I have met there and it is okay for us wherever we are. I do not only have a purpose when I am in a foreign country volunteering- I have a purpose living in Kinnelon, NJ or in Elon, NC. I just have to remember that purpose.

The most perfect example of this is a woman I have spent a lot of time with here in Guatemala. Petrona (Liza's host mom) has lived in San Juan her whole life. She knows her role in the community. She is the one to whom everyone comes for anything; prayer, food, a friend to talk to, a natural remedy, or anything else one could need. She opens her home to foreigners and locals alike. She will probably never get to see the world, learn to read, or learn English. But that is okay. That is not her purpose. Her life serves a greater purpose as everyone's mom, friend, sister, and the most generous, welcoming, and loving woman I have ever met.


Anyway... after classes I went to the clinic one last time to say goodbye to Antonia, Gloria, and Timoteo. They have been such fun people to be around and I am so glad I was able to volunteer in the clinic this summer. The experience of translating, seeing the educational/nutrition classes, and seeing how the clinic works has been a transforming one to say the least. I am thankful to them for welcoming me and also to Liza for sharing her placement with me :)

Tonight as one of my parting gifts, I made dinner for my host family. I decided to make tomato basil soup and garlic bread- one of my favorites! (And Liza, Mary, and I tested it out a few times!) Elena and Clarita helped me make it and everyone loved it. But of course, they still needed to have their tortillas in addition.

Before dinner a bunch of my girls from LISI came over (they like to drop in occasionally) and needed help with some homework. I was skyping with Erica and Kel at the time, and so they all got to meet each other- it was pretty funny, because (most of) you know my sisters!

Tomorrow is my last day here and I am about to pack now...I can't believe it has been 7 weeks since I moved in here, and it is already time to go.. tomorrow will be a very bittersweet day.

If language were liquid it would be rushing in

Today after class I translated for the Canadian couple we met at Casa del Mundo. I met them at Elenita’s and took them down to Petrona’s house. They run a business called Crossing Cultures and created a cookbook of foods from all around the world. They are making a new edition and wanted to see how people make tortillas. Petrona, the gracious woman that she is, welcomed them to her home and explained the entire process.

It is actually quite a process. First the maiz is cooked. Then it is brought to the molino (the loud construction site noises that penetrate my walls every morning from 5am-10am, 1pm-4pm, and sometimes as late as 10pm if many tortillas will be made for a special event such as the ferria) to be ground up. Then they add this white thing that I believe is a form of limestone and knead the dough before making small balls of dough and using their hands to make the tortillas. The actual verb is "tortillar" which means to make tortillas. It looks like the women are just clapping their hands with the dough in between and magically a perfectly round tortilla the size of a round coaster appears. It is a learned skill- one that I tried to master- that girls learn when they are 5 years old or younger.

Then I took the couple to one of the weaving coops for a demonstration and translated for them there.

I'll send an SOS to the world

So today was a blast! We had our 3.5 hour eco hike and man was it intense! A group of 5 of us hiked all the way from San Marcos la Laguna to Casa del Mundo, a crazy hotel/restaurant on the lake. We traversed 5 waterfalls, scaled a few rocky cliffs, and climbed a few hills of death.

We had a delicious lunch and relaxed on one of the balconies and planned on taking a lancha back across the lake to San Juan. But we had so much fun that we got lost in conversation with various hotel guests and by the time we were ready to leave, it was 6:30pm, dark, and pouring rain! Liza, Caitlin, Mitielle and I waited by the dock until 8pm looking for the last boat that was on its way from Pana. If we didn’t catch that boat, we would be stranded.

After lots of waiting and using Liza’s flashlight to signal SOS, the lancha finally arrived and we got back home safely!

Goin' places that I've never been, seein' things that I may never see again

So far this weekend has been SICK! Yesterday Liza and I ducked out of the clinic on time and headed out to Xela, the 2^nd largest city in Guatemala. It is about 2.5 hours away from the lake. We stayed at a hostel recommended (not sure why) by some friends and treated ourselves to a night on the town after a very intense/stressful week of translating with the newest medical group. (The translating wasn’t the stressful part…we just had a very persnickety group of volunteers with us, though their hearts were in the right place for sure.)

We had dinner at a place called Babylon and they had the world’s best mojitos. Then we went to 2 different clubs, danced, and made some new friends. At the end of the night, among other things, Liza came home with a new book, and I came home with a 20 dollar bill just for fun.

The drive back this afternoon was absolutely GORGEOUS. The entire trip was worth it simply for the amazing views and scenery we saw on the drive back. It was a sunny day and the fields and mountains were so green from all the rain. Clouds looked like steam coming out of the hills and gave the drive a whimsical feeling.

And of course, riding on the chicken bus is always an adventure with venders jumping on and off before departure and sometimes at various stops.

Tomorrow we have an eco-hike which I am definitely looking forward to!

Doctor thanks for seeing me today, I'm glad

This week we have another group of American doctors and nurses who have come down to hold another medical jornada (pretty much a traveling clinic). We have been going to the same aldeas (outlying towns) as we did for the last jornada. This is a very large group and they are staying across the lake in Pana in a very nice hotel, so they are not eating at Petrona’s like the other group did.

So every day this week we wake up and go to a community center to set up. There is a dentist here this time too, which is really cool. She just pulls peoples’ teeth out. I translated for her one day and at first I was a bit squeamish but I got used to it.

These are long days of waking up at 6, eating breakfast, running the jornadas, and not returning home until dinner. But it is so fun to do this! I love being around the clinic and the doctors and nurses. I have learned so much from them, Mary, and Liza about this entire field and it has really inspired me.

It's the freakin weekend baby I'm about to have me some fun

This weekend was a blast! Friday Liza and I headed over to Cerro de Oro to visit Caitlin and to spend the night at her house! We took a lancha from San Juan to Santiago then a pickup to Cerro. She has a great house and a beautiful room that has a view of the entire lake. (She lives with the most wealthy family in the town.) Her family was so sweet to us and gave us lots of snacks from their tienda that they run out of the bottom of their home.

The three of us had big plans for the night but ended up falling asleep while watching a movie! All in all it was a really fun night and as always, it was great to play with Caitlin!

Saturday we headed back over to Santiago and had a tour of Panabaj, an area of town that was devastated by a landslide a few years ago. It has still not been rebuilt and I have only seen a few situations worse than that in my travels. It was heart-stopping to see the tattered USAID signs and mostly deserted area. It was like a ghost town.

From there Liza and I headed to Panajachel for the night. We met up with Mary and the three of us got a hostel for the night. We went to a salsa competition that we were invited to by our salsa instructor and watched a bunch of people dancing. It was a spicy salsa dancing night!

Then this morning we got together with the whole group and headed out to Chichicastenango for market day! I bought a bunch of stuff and haggled for amazing prices. I got a beautiful bedspread for only 200 quetzales! They originally wanted 600! My friends take me with them to shop now :)

The soup, the soup, the soup, the soup...

Tonight Liza, Mary, and I had an amazing dinner! We made tomato basil soup and garlic bread at Mary's house and ate it with the most amazing cheese in the entire world. Yes, it's true. And also some weird "California style" wine that was from Mexico. Weird.

It was great to just cook and chill and talk...it was a very normal thing to do and it was funny when I realized I was still in Guatemala.

Are you going to Scarborough fair?

Well I didn't go to Scarborough fair, but I did go to the one in San Juan!

This week was the San Juan Ferria (or the fair in San Juan la Laguna). Each pueblo has their own patron saint an ours is Saint John the Baptist. The ferria is a huge party/celebration full of concerts, street vendors, special foods, decorations, dancing, and of course, lots of pasear-ing! (The verb pasear is used to describe walking around town with your friends.) There is also a huge ferris wheel that we rode on numerous times!

The ferria takes over the entire town for about a week. Classes are cancelled, people dress up and everyone enjoys themselves. (Sometimes the men enjoy themselves too much and drink until they are passed out on the street.)

Because my house is on a main street, I could just barely squeeze into the alley that leads to my courtyard because of all the vendeors that were in front of my house. The vendors also loved to play horrible mariachi music from 5am through the day and night until 2am the next morning every night. And they also liked to put their speakers right outside my door so I could hear every note, including the occasional Michael Jackson or Avril Lavigne tune they would play. Needless to say, I will need to catch up on my sleep soon!

But overall the ferria was a blast! It was great to experience this part of the community. We were so lucky to be there.

Speaking foreign language, nothing I can translate

Well actually.. I can translate.. and I DID translate!

This past week was by far my most fulfilling and remarkable week in Guatemala so far. This week the a team of medical students, a doctor, and a physical therapist visited the clinic to do a series of medical jornadas (essentially traveling clinics). Liza is placed at the clinic, but they asked me to translate for them as well and I was very excited for the opportunity. It wound up being one of the most incredible things I have done in my entire life.

As a team, we visited 3 small "aldeas" or outlying municipalities of our town San Juan. We also went to San Pablo and were in our own clinic on Friday. Mary, the 25 year old clinic administrator from Colorado, was awesome at organizing everything. (She moved down here after graduation planning on staying for one year and she is on her 3rd year here. She pretty much runs the clinic and is such a cool person. Everyone here knows Mary, and her puppy, Lukie. She is like the local celebrity, and rightfully so. She works so hard and everyone here appreciates her.)

All of the indigenous Mayan people living around the lake speak 1 or more of the 23 mayan languages. I believe 3 of them are spoken around the lake. Some, especially the older people, do not speak Spanish, so for each doctor there are two translators. One who translates English/Spanish (like me!) and one who translates Spanish/Tz'utujil or Spanish/Quiche, depending on the aldea. It was incredible as a translator to be able to send information to a patient and receive information back! It was like a huge game of telephone at times. Sometimes we did not need the Mayan translator if the patient was comfortable speaking Spanish with me.

Overall the experience this week was so inspiring. These people really need medical attention and would not have gotten it if we were not there to help them. Everyone was so grateful to us for coming, but I was so thankful that I was able to have the experience of translating for them. It was truly life-changing.

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

This weekend our group took a long weekend in Antigua, a beautiful Spanish-colonial city in Guatemala about 3 hours away from Lake Atitlan. There are tons of ruins, cathedrals, shops…some pretty cool architecture happening there. Definitely worth a stop if you’re near by.

I particularly enjoyed my, Liza, and Hailey’s visit to this one convent where there is this part where you stand in the middle of a circular courtyard and are supposed to be able to hear whispers from throughout the convent. It was pretty awesome. There was also this dungeon place that was extremely echo-y….it was kind of a sketchy find, but once Liza, Hailey and I were down there, I couldn’t resist singing songs from The Sound of Music…I mean we were in a convent after all.

This was probably the best day of the trip…the day was super rainy and we were drenched the whole time, but it was SO fun! It was also the worst day because I dropped my delicious avocado and tuna leftovers from lunch just steps from our hotel after safeguarding it all day through the torrential rain and other obstacles.

I comforted myself by creating a slip and slide in the outdoor hallway of our hotel using a blanket and the slippery floor.

Me and Julio down by the schoolyard

This week was my first teaching at LISI. I taught Monday-Wednesday because we are going to Antigua tomorrow for a long weekend! I have to wake up early for school…5:45 every morning! I have to be at the school at 6:45. And generally I find it necessary to stop at Liza's house (which is right next to my school) to jump on her bed at around 6:32 each morning.

At LISI, there are three grades….4^th, 5^th, and 6^th, and I am with the 4^th and 5^th grade for only 30 minutes each day, and with 6^th grade for 90 minutes each day. I am supposed to be teaching English, but the school’s idea of teaching English and my idea of it are two different things! I am supposed to read from an English for Business textbook that does not have correct English grammar and do a lot of practice with pronunciation with the girls.

I am looking forward to being creative with the classes and with my time that I have with each class of 20 girls. I memorized almost all of their names this week, which was quite the feat!

I'm on a boat everybody, take a look at me

Saturday I went kayaking on the lake! Scheduled to be in our kayaks at 10am, Liza, Katina, Elena, Tito, Clarita, and I finally got to the muelle at 11:30! This is becoming very normal. We rented three kayaks and set sail for las Cristalinas, a beach of rocks near the pueblo of San Marcos. It took us about an hour to get there because Elena and Tito were having some trouble getting the hang of paddling!

We got to the beach and were the only ones there. We played Left Right Center (which is very difficult when you are playing in Spanish, because the game is in English…and I have trouble knowing left from right anyway.) Then Liza and I started reading Barefoot, a book that a random lady in Pana gave us the other day.

When it came time to leave, we figured we would switch up the kayak partners so that it would take less time getting across. So we split up the two novices and somehow, Liza and I ended up in a one-person kayak with only one paddle. So there we were, after helping to push off the other two boats, trying to make our way across the lake. I was in back, my right hand acting as a rudder and my left a paddle, and Liza sat in front of me to paddle. Of course, this would not be my life if Xocomil, the name of the strong afternoon wind that blows across the lake every day, was not in full force. So of course, it was, and we fought Xocomil the entire way back to San Juan. We have some fun stories about that voyage. And also a pretty rough sunburn to prove it!

When I got back to my house, Clarita and I looked at the photos we took and sang Miley Cyrus songs…I spend the rest of the night translating them for her! Haha.

Today we woke up and went to mass...I finally found out what all the bombas were for...every time the priest says mass, they set off bombs/fireworks...usually during Communion.

Hey, everything's right

The rest of this week was great! I started my language classes...4 hours every day. Sounds like a lot, but I couldn't believe how quickly the time flew! I have an amazing instructor, Vilma, who is about 27 years old and sort of a rebel in terms of Mayan culture. She doesn't wear the traditional traje here like most women do...she wears "normal" clothes. I hope I learned some Spanish but I'm not sure if I did because we were laughing about something pretty much every 2.7 minutes... (No, we studied too...but it was so much fun and we had some cool conversations!) I am a little bummed that I only get 2 weeks of these conversation classes!

On Wednesday, I met with Daniel, my supervisor at the LISI school where I will be teaching English starting on Monday. I was meant to meet with him at 10, but in typical Guatemalan style, he showed up at my house at around quarter to 11 :) He showed me the school and we talked about what I will be doing at LISI, a school for young women ages 15-21 who are studying to be bilingual secretaries. They are actually going to be trilingual....all of them speak Spanish and Tz'utujil (a Mayan dialect), and they are all learning English.

Also on Wednesday, Liza and I stopped at this little coffee shop down by the muelle (dock). We had run into this guy named Carlos, who essentially lives (we think) at the hotel behind the shop, a few days earlier, and he told us we had to try the coffee there. We treated ourselves to a delicious iced coffee...and we were not disappointed.

On Thursday and Friday, because I still did not have to teach yet, I went with Liza to the clinic she is working at for the summer. It was so cool to see this place! Joanne, a woman around 60 years old from Texas, moved down here about 9 years ago and started the clinic. The place is immaculately clean compared to the alley of dirt and rocks that leads up to it. I am going to be doing some medical translating for them this summer when they have clinics...We'll see how that goes...I am excited to see how I will do!

Staple it together, we'll call it bad weather

So today we met our host families! We woke up early and took a lancha over to San Juan la Laguna through a pretty messy Lake Atitlan. Due to the heavy rains there were a lot of mudslides and a ton of stuff washed into the lake. There was a refrigerator just floating around in the water along with a ton of plastic bottles, household items, and pieces of wood. The locals were all on the edge of the lake gathering stuff and cleaning.

When we got to our dock at San Juan, our families were waiting for us. There are three of us in the social work program who live in San Juan...Liza, Katina, and I. My tia, Elena, and brother, Tito, were at the dock to meet me and take me home. I will be living with Nora and Fransisco, the mom and dad, and their three boys, Tito (15), Kevin (12), and Alberto (1 month old). Nora's three sisters also live with us...Margarita, Maximina, and Elena.

The house I'm in is right on a main street. It is white and has two pieces of pizza and a chef painted in black right in front. My family does not make pizza. You would think that this distinct and unique adornment on the front of my home would have helped me to find my way back there after a morning of exploring. But no... the only landmark I had considered when leaving my house was the tigo store (not actually a tigo store..just a store that has a tigo sign, advertising the availability of cell phone saldo/minutes...) Needless to say, just about every single tienda in San Juan la Laguna sells tigo saldo, and advertises it with the same blue sign...so getting home took a little longer than expected!

The house is more of a compound of a few rectangular room-buildings. My room was the living room and is the one right on the street. I have a big bed, a couch, and a filing cabinet for my clothes. It is much more than I expected....I did not think I would have so much space to myself!

After meeting my family, Liza, Katina, and I went to San Pedro to visit our language school, Corazon Maya, for the first time. It is only a 10 minute tuk-tuk ride away. The tuk-tuks here are kind of a cross between the tricycles in the Philippines and tuk-tuks in Thailand. Anyway....today was just an orientation day at language school, and we walked around a disaster zone...there have been many problems caused by the rains and the derrumbe from one of the huge mudslides that happened because of the rain was right next to the school. Hundreds of houses were lost and they can't find one little girl who got pulled away. It was insane to be walking through the destruction and experiencing it first hand.

New kids on the block

Today we woke up expecting to go visit our host families but due to the weather it was postponed until tomorrow. It was actually nice to be able to explore Pana some more, have a bit more of an orientation, and get to know my classmates better.

We took a walk around town with Erika (the social work program assistant) and Linda (the social work program director) and surveyed the damage done to the bridges on the river the night before. The river had risen so high that it took out two bridges and sent them downstream. The heavy rains from the tropical storm affected many communities around the lake. We talked with a few local families, including our host families, and most were safe in their homes. But there were a number of mudslides that took out a bunch of homes.

After our walk around Pana, we had lunch at a place called Bombay, a vegetarian cafe, and then went to the market with Erika because she needed to go food shopping. (She and the other program coordinators are living in Pana during our stay here.)

At night, we walked around town, stopping in various restaurants, cafes, and tiendas, getting to know our new city and enjoying the last day of real free time before our program started!

Rain, I don't mind; shine, the world looks fine

Today we drove up to Panajachel. It was an extremely long ride, but we were certainly not bored. The torrential rains continued and the roads were pretty dangerous. As we drove through the mountains water rushed down the sides of the roads and even flooded some. There were trees, boulders, and mudslides that had fallen on to the two-lane pass and we had to swerve in and out of our own side of the road to avoid the obstacles. The roads are very steep and curvy in some places and literally had us holding onto each other for balance. Thankfully our driver was great and got us to Pana safely.

It wasn’t until we settled into our hotel and sat down at a restaurant for dinner that we heard the news that we were in the midst of Tropical Storm Agatha. I mean, we probably could have guessed that it was a tropical storm considering we basically had to swim through the streets to get to dinner. The cobble-stone roads had water more than ankle-deep and were like rivers rather than streets.

I felt a little guilty for thinking this, but it was kind of nice to have a small group of only 6 students and 4 professors instead of the 40 people that were supposed to have arrived for the two programs. It would have been quite a different experience if we had to bring around that many people in such conditions. And on top of that, the few of us have really gotten comfortable with each other in the one day since we met. I guess that is what happens to a group when you go through such excitement, uncertainty, and, well, just the unexpected things that go along with traveling!

Volcano Shmolcano

Had to take a break from song lyric blog titles to accommodate this one, courtesy of Julia!

But yep. Volcano schmolcano that's what I say to the sandy bits of ash that, with the rain, fell from the sky last night when Sofi and her friend Astrid picked me up from La Aurora airport in Guatemala City.

Directly from the airport, we drove to pick up more friends on the way to Sofi's house, as black bits of debris accumulated on the windshield and on the road such that you could no longer see the double yellow lines at all!

When we arrived Sofi's I was greeted by her lovely family- all 7 of her siblings (Diego, Daniel, Cris, Ceci, Irene, Mariana, and Nico) and her parents! We had a great night with Sofi's friends and sisters talking, scaring each other in the dark, and playing tea-pong :)

This morning, we woke up to a coating of black sandy ash over everything. Schools were closed and everyone was trying to clean up the mess that had been carried from Volcan Pacaya.

After breakfast, Sofi and two of her friends took me to a mercado and then to a barista for chai tea lattes. We finished our afternoon by watching Backup Plan and playing Left Right Center and Guess Who with Nico and Mariana- a perfect way to spend a rainy day! It was so great to be able to spend time with Sofi, meet her family and friends, and to know that I have such good friends around me event though I am not home :) Thanks again, Ibarra family and I’m looking forward to seeing more of you over the summer!

Around 6pm Sofi took me to the Eco Hotel Los Proceres to meet my group. When I met Erika, the program assistant, she updated me on the fact that only 6 of us had arrived in Guatemala- I had been one of the last flights last night before they completely closed the airport. Gracias a dios I was able to get in! The airport is still closed and no flights are coming in or going out, so we don’t know when the other 34 people will be arriving. Tomorrow, if the circumstances permit, we will be traveling to Panajachel where we will spend the night before going to our host families the next day. Things are still up in the air though, because although the volcano isn’t affecting the area to where we are traveling, there is a lot of rain and they are worried about mudslides.

And it seems like I've got to travel on

Ok so I'm all packed up and ready to leave on this summer's adventure! For two months I will be in San Juan la Laguna, Guatemala...across the lake from Panajachel. I am placed with a family who I will be living with the entire time I am there, and have also been placed in a school where I think I will be teaching English. But I am not completely sure!

I am very much looking forward to tomorrow when I will get to stay with my good friend Sofi, who lives in Guatemala City, before my program actually starts on Friday.

I am not sure of the internet situation where I will be, but I will be trying to post on here with stories, updates, and of course, pictures, as often as I can!

Please pray for safe travels for me and the other students who will be traveling!

There's high adventure in the air

Ok, everyone, well you know I love the United States, but you also know that I love leaving it every couple months or so! It's been about 5 months since I've been on my last world exploration, and I am ready to get started on my next one...this time to a region I have never been before...Central America! I will be in Guatemala for two months this summer volunteering at an NGO in San Juan la Laguna, a village near Panajachel on Lake Atitlan, working on my Spanish, and doing a lot of photography!

Although my departure is less than a month away, I still don't know who I'll be working with, who I'll be living with, or exactly what I'll be doing, but that is half the fun! I should be getting some more information about my host family and placement very soon.

Sitting in the railway station. Got a ticket for my destination.

Railway station... airport, what's the difference anyway? They both signify the beginning and the end of a trip. Today was my last day here in London and tomorrow morning I will be on an 8 hour plane ride back to the US. The rules of travel, to me, are interesting ones. I like to think that the journey back home, no matter how long or short, is the right amount of time for me to debrief, to collect my thoughts, and as the ship approaches the port, the train comes to a halt at the platform, or the plane touches down on the runway, to begin thinking about what comes next.

As I prepare myself for my trip home, I honestly can't believe how quickly the past few weeks have flown by. I have really had a terrific time here, and I wish we had more time to spend. I have to say thank you to the group of people who were here with me. I have really enjoyed getting to know each one of them over the course of this trip- especially in this last week. I think our group meshed pretty well together, especially for coming in as such a random conglomerate of individuals.

I think my previous post still encompasses the way I am feeling about London right now. I have absolutely been able to embrace this place despite my initial assumptions and expectations. This is really such a cool, diverse, historically rich city, and I have definitely grown to learn about it and appreciate it. I don't feel ready to leave, but I have been alloted these three weeks. No more, no less...for now that is. So I prepare myself to be ready to leave and go back home. And with that, I prepare myself to be ready to figure out my next steps, my next adventure.

It feels like I'm all the way back where I come from

As the rain fell methodically outside St. Paul's Cathedral, I lit a candle and heard the Lord's prayer. I sat in the back row of this ancient building, a building in which I have never been before. My head was clear.

It's funny how you can all of a sudden realize that you are feeling at home somewhere. It's a hard feeling to describe- the feeling of getting used to things. As I have gotten more accustomed to London, there have been definite similarities that I have noticed between the UK and home, but there have also been differences that I noticed. I find myself wondering what exactly it is that is making me more comfortable here. Is it the fact that I am discovering more things that are similar to life at home? Or am I just getting to know better the people and things around me?

We went on a tour of the East End last week, an area known historically as the Jewish East End. But over the years, different immigrant groups have adopted that area as their own. Buildings have been transformed from temples to churches to mosques in order to accommodate various communities. Not only here, but all around the world people have culture, rituals, religion, and other things that we, as humans, often rely upon for various purposes. We have had a focus on immigrants and refugees during our trip. I am not an immigrant, nor am I a refugee, but I can connect with those people in the sense that I know what it is like to find a bit of familiarity and embrace it. When we find similar customs in another country, on another continent, we have a better sense of normalcy and a certain peace is allowed to take over our being.

All for one and one for all. Solidarity forever.

Tonight we saw the musical BIlly Elliot. I was so impressed and I am absolutely loving the theater here in London! The kid who played BIlly was so talented and he was probably only 12 or 13 years old. The dancing was amazing and the story was beautiful.

Earlier today it was my group's turn to do a presentation and we taught the class about the differences between the UK and US public health systems. And yes...eventhough I don't report it here, we have actually been doing our fair share of work here... I am taking a class after all!

I can't believe this is the beginning of our last week. Three weeks is such a short time. I feel like I am just getting used to everything, and now it's almost time to leave again...such is life.

All that glitters is gold, and she's buying a stairway to heaven

This weekend was awesome! I had so much fun...I seem to always enjoy what we are doing no matter what it is and can make myself interested in pretty much anything, but this weekend was great! Saturday was probably my favorite day so far (besides the day we saw Wicked). We went to St. Paul's Cathedral in the morning. It was beautiful and so peaceful inside. We climbed hundreds and HUNDREDS of steps to get to the top of the building and see the view from outside. It's a good thing that I've been going to the gym because otherwise I don't think I would have been able to make it to the top. There were THAT many stairs. The view from the top after our 30 minute stair hike was inspiring, and I was thrilled to see London from new heights.

After St Paul's we had a break before our next activity, so I followed a pigeon around for a while and took pictures wherever it led me. But in that time the weather turned rainy-very rainy. I think this made the day even more fun...it just felt authentically London...even though I learned from our tour guide that it is a common misconception that it always rains in London. (I find that hard to believe because we have had our fair share of wet weather here).

But anyway...we went to the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge. I had so much fun there. I'm not sure why. But it was fun to listen to all of the history that went along with the buildings. After the tower, we watched the Tower Bridge open up for a large ship to pass through. Then it was time to climb more stairs up to the top of the bridge. Afterwards Hope, Louisa, Alex, Amy, and I walked along the river and had dinner at a little pub we found. Actually, I'm making that sound too easy. By accident we wound up in the City, the business section of London, because we remembered a pub that we had seen there on one of our tours. As we were walking through the city, we noticed that nothing- absolutely NOTHING- was open. It was a Saturday night at 7pm..how could nothing be open? When we finally made it to our pub, they told us that they were closing and that the city shuts down because its only businesses and nobody lives there, so there is no reason for anything to be open. So we found another pub instead. It was quite an adventure.

On Sunday we went to Hampton Court Palace. It was a beautiful day- probably somewhere around 50 degrees and it was sunny! The palace had a beautiful garden that I spent most of my time in. It was great to finally see the sun and be out in decent weather for a change!

I can't believe this is our last weekend here. I'm looking forward to a busy last week full of agency visits.

I think I'll try defying gravity

Tonight we saw Wicked the musical, and it was amazing. I have never seen the show before, but i knew all the songe because some friends from home had seen the show a while ago and got me hooked on the music. I can't believe it took me so long to see it, but I finally did! (Carissa- I was tempted to buy the shirt that you have, but unfortunately I did not have any cash with me.) The entire show was fascinating but the actress who played Elphaba was incredible. I want to see it again!!!!!!!

I think we'll all have the music in our heads for the next few days, at least!

Every day create your history. Every page you turn you're writing your legacy.

We've had a pretty busy and another cold beginning to this week. Monday we had class, my dentist visit, and then a tour of Westminster Abbey. Westminster Abbey was beautiful. I am still trying to figure out how the people back in the medieval times were able to build such magnificent structures. The high arches and tall columns in this building were so intense. And everything in the abbey was elaborately decorated with either paint or sculpture of some sort. We were shown around by a new tour guide, Abigail, who had many fun and quirky stories to tell us about Westminster Abbey's history, and about the history of England in general.

On Wednesday we woke up to snow again, but still had our East End tour that had been rescheduled from the last snow day. This was one of my favorite days even though my feet were frozen solid and hurt from wearing my cold rain boots. I had decided to go with dryness over warmth...poor choice.

But we had an interesting tour of a different side of London, and I enjoyed it very much. We walked down Brick Lane again, and in and out of side streets learning the history of the East Side and how it has changed from being the Jewish East Side to being more of a "Bengal-town" as they now call it. The colorful storefronts advertising curry, shisha pipes, and fabrics were a chromatic contrast to the bleak and grey weather.

Wednesday night two friends and I went to see the OK Go concert which was a blast! Great music and a fun show overall. This week is flying by and I am trying to savor every day of being here in London.

And I know I'll never lose affection for people and things that went before

Yesterday we started off our second week in England by taking a day trip to learn the history of people and things that went before as we traveled to Stonehenge and Bath! Sean, our Blue-Badge Tour Guide,was with us again and we were all very happy to see him. I was especially excited to see him, because I came close to not being able to make it to our field trip!

I woke up on Saturday to find that my left cheek had become extremely swollen. (I had had my wisdom teeth taken out just before Christmas and thought everything was healed, but apparently it got irritated and well, I was stuck with a painful and swollen face again!) After a fantastic trip to the emergency room on Saturday, I was unable to get any help because there were no dentists on duty at the hospital. And even though I had spoken with my oral surgeon from home and had instructions to get penicillin as soon as possible, a regular doctor here would not prescribe me anything! Ironically, my presentation for this course is on public health differences in the UK and US...I figured I'd consider this experience to be first hand research and lo and behold, my first lesson was that pharmacies here will not accept prescriptions by phone from the US. Luckily, due to my past travel experiences, I had some leftover antibiotics with me and my doctor from home said that it should help treat or keep away any infections. So now that I knew I would live until today without seeing a doctor, I was allowed to go to Stonehenge and Bath and postpone my trip to the dentist :)


So after leaving our hotel bright and early, our first stop was Stonehenge. All bundled up, our class trekked out into the field to see the very unique prehistoric monument. It was extra unique when we visited because it was covered in snow! (I have a theory that the frigid weather helped to keep the swelling down on my face.) It was truly an incredible sight to see this construction, especially because it is a mystery as to how exactly Stonehenge was built. It dates back thousands of years ago, and historians, anthropologists, and archaeologists can only guess how the gigantic sandstones were moved miles to be placed in Wiltshire county

The second stop on our itinerary for the day was the city of Bath. What a cool

place!We visited the old Roman baths. It was exciting to see what was left of this ancient oasis and to imagine what life might have been like back in Roman times. Sean also guided us

around the city to teach us more about how the city was years and years ago. I even ate lunch with Katina and Meghan at the oldest restaurant in Bath (by recommendation of Sean.) It is called Sally Lunn's and it was the most quaint restaurant I have ever been in. We were shown upstairs to our table and enjoyed delicious soup and sandwiches. It was appropriate that we ate here because Sally Lunn was a refugee from France, and we learned all about refugees and immigrants in our classes and agencies

last week!

Overall we enjoyed our time in Bath and I think most of us had a pretty relaxing night after a long day.

This morning we had class and Margaux, Amy, and Stephanie gave a great presentation on the

oppression of women. I did have to leave class early because Professor Patch (who along with Dr. Sullivan, has been so helpful in the midst of my odd and unexpected situation) and I took a quick trip down to the London Clinic dentist office where I continued my first-hand research of the UK public health system and tried to figure out what was wrong with me! I had an appointment with Dr. Davies and after a few x-rays and some poking at my teeth and gums, I am still not exactly sure what was wrong with my mouth, but I was prescribed some more anti-biotics and told that everything should be better from here out. The entire experience was surprisingly simple! We waited in the waiting room, decorated like a formal living room with sofas and classical art, no longer than we would have waited at any dentist's office in the U.S. I went upstairs and sat in the most high-tech dentist chair I have ever seen, with sleek-looking equipment in a room that was half-dentist office and half-living room all at the same time. (There was a couch, table, and desk in the room as well as large windows.) After my visit and a quick picture, I was on my way to the pharmacy to pick up my medication. Through thi unique learning experience I think I have learned how easy the health system here can be to navigate if you have the right resources and connections. The dentist I went to was a private agency- I somehow think that I would have had a very different experience had I been to a government agency.

I am loving London and I'm looking forward to learning even more about the public health system in the UK as we visit our agencies next week.

Pictures

I have uploaded a few of the pictures I have taken since getting to London.
You can click on the link at the top left of this page that says "Pictures" to view them!

Meg

Singing beep beep beep. Get on your feet.

Today my roommate and I did not receive our scheduled wake-up call and woke up at the unfortunate hour of 8:45...class started at 9 and it takes 30 minutes by tube to get there. Frantically we jumped out of bed, got dressed, grabbed our belongings and ran out the hotel door to look for a cab- the quickest (yet most expensive) way to get to our classroom. Or at least generally it is the quickest way to get there...today, however, we managed to take 5 precious minutes to get a cab. (On any normal day we are nearly getting run over by fleets of them as we cross our street.) We also managed to hit every red light on the way to Bloomsbury Square. This at least left us some time to do our makeup, hair, and look presentable for when we made it to class at 9:10, promptly as our visiting speaker was about to start his presentation. Talk about cutting it close.

After class, we went to the natural history museum. The coolest parts of the museum were the dinosaur and human biology exhibits. We were also able to go ice skating in the rink just outside the museum at sunset :)

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Today we had a snowday because it would have taken us forever to get to the agencies we had scheduled for today due to the fact that the tube system all but shuts down at the slightest hint of "adverse weather." So instead, we all went to the Victoria and Albert Museum! I really enjoyed the photography and Middle Eastern exhibits that they had.

After the museum, Katina and I got manicures and pedicures. It was so relaxing and was the perfect thing to do on a snowday! After pampering ourselves. we headed over to Harrod's and browsed through a ton of overpriced items. (I still am having a hard time figuring out how a flimsy scarf could possibly still cost 345 Pounds at 80% off.) We had ice cream at the ice cream bar that they have here- and the moment they brought out my ice cream could possibly have been the most happy I have been on this entire trip! Seriously. It was amazing. Hazelnut, chocolate, and vanilla ice cream drizzled with hardening chocolate syrup, topped with whipped cream and toasted hazelnuts, and garnished with a chocolate straw and a cup made of chocolate filled with nutella. I ate this for dinner and was in absolute heaven.

Cheeseburger in Paradaise

The UK has an interesting obsession with hamburgers. For dinner I went to with some friends to the Gourmet Burger Kitchen where I got a Kiwi veggie burger (from New Zealand) with beets, onions, egg, and a lot of other things on it. It was HUGE and delicious. We ended the night by chilling out at the pub up the street from our hotel.

The beginning of today was a little snowy here in London. All of the tubes were backed up in the morning and the entire city was freaking out over a couple inches of snow. To their credit, it did accumulate a lot more in the suburbs, as we later experienced during our train ride to Edmonton, where our agency visit was located. Before our visit, however, we had class at our normal time. Thinking we were going to be late (and therefore incur a 5 point deduction to our final grade,) Meghan, Katina, and I decided to take a cab to our classroom. We made it about 25 minutes late only to discover that nobody from our class, not even our professors, had made it to class yet! So we grabbed a coffee at the Starbucks down the street and carefully made it back to the classroom without slipping on the icy, snowy sidewalks.

After class Katina, Meghan, Jake, and I ate for a second time at Cantina, one of our favorite cafes here. Then it was off to the Action for Social Integration Agency visit with the whole class. There, we talked to two men who told us about the services they offer at their agency. They help immigrants with legal advice, getting jobs, and anything else they could need in order to integrate into a new society.

While standing on the platform awaiting the train back to central London, everything looked so peaceful as large snowflakes were falling all around us. I felt as if I were about to board the Polar Express! Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me.

Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London. I'll show you something to make you change your mind

Today I got a much better feel for the city of London. After our class, we did a tour of the West Side with our guide, Sean. He is the same one from our bus tour on Saturday. Needless to say, we were all much more awake this time than we were the last time we saw him, as the last time we saw him was right after our flight over here, and we were falling asleep to the rhythmic intonations of his charming Irish accent.

The name of the tour was "2000 years in 2 hours". We walked in and out of alleys and relived years and years of London's history. We saw beautiful streets, buildings, churches, and monuments, and Sean had a witty joke or a story for each stop. I enjoyed lagging behind the group a bit, taking my time to shoot pictures of different things that I found interesting.

After the tour we had dinner on Brick Lane, a street that upon turning the corner made me feel as if I were right back in Kuala Lumpur. Brick Lane is lined with Indian, Thai, and Malaysian restaurants. The familiar scene of restaurant hosts standing outside their respective eateries inviting tourists in and offering discounts or a look at the menu had me remembering and almost reliving my experiences from this past summer.

In fact, many things about London remind me of my summer expedition. At first I found this odd...I would look at a building and its architecture and be reminded of one like it in Singapore. But I have it backwards; London does not look like Singapore...Singapore looks like London. The United Kingdom has had an incredible influence on the rest of the world, especially in its Commonwealth of Nations. Singapore, the hub of British power in southeast Asia, has clear similarities to the city of London in its architecture, the design of the city, and the type of English they use there. Looking back, Singapore reminded me, at the time, of Auckland and Sydney. But really, all of those places are reflections of my current city.

But not only has Great Britain had a large influence in its Commonwealth of Nations, the rest of the world has also put its mark here in England. Much to my pleasant surprise, London has to be the most multicultural city in the world. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was nervous to come here because I thought that everyone was going to be the same, that I would not have any exposure to people from different cultures, ethnicities, and walks of life. But wow, was I wrong! Just on the main street near our Hotel, I have found 2 Filipino restaurants, a handful of Indian places, Italian cafes, French and Thai restaurants, and of course, a few pubs. And this was all within a few blocks. As I continued to explore, I noticed that I was surrounded by so many different kinds of people, and that is my favorite part about London.

Wanna know the secrets only the coble stones know

Today was our first real day here in London. My roomate, Katina, and I were adventurous this morning, tackling the Soho Gym before breakfast. Surprisingly, the breakfast here at the hotel was pretty impressive- toast, cereal, yogurt, hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, cheese, and some cold-cuts. (This is good to know, because I will definitely be taking advantage of this when I run out of money for lunch and dinner ...just kidding, Dad!)

After breakfast, we all took the tube over to our classroom in Bloomsbury and had our first class together. After class we had free time for the rest of the day, so Katina and I took off to explore more of the city.

We visited Oxford Street, Piccadilly Circus, and Kensington
High Street. The city is large and busy, yet there is a quaintness that makes it seem somewhat familiar. The intricacy of the architecture of the buildings is breathtaking and it somehow quiets the broad and noisy streets below, reverting them back to a time in history long before they were crowded with taxis, tourists and telephone booths.

Tomorrow will be an exciting yet busy day as we look forward to an agency visit at the Refugee Council and a walking tour. I can't wait to photograph some of this incredible and CLEAN city!

I woke up today in London, as the plane was touching down

After an interesting day of travel, I landed in London at about 7:30am local time, which is about 2:30am at home.

The trip all started out on Saturday morning when I woke up, put the last few things in my suitcase, and got ready to run to pick up a few unnecessary things at the store. My flight from Newark to DC was scheduled for 3:30pm, so I figured that I should print out my boarding pass. But much to my dismay, when I went to check my email to check in online, I found another message from Continental, kindly informing me at 9:00am that my afternoon flight would be rescheduled for Sunday at 9:00pm. This obviously presented a problem because I had a flight out of DC at 7:00pm on Saturday night- one that I needed to be on along with my professors and classmates!

After expressing my feelings (in British fashion of course) with a few choice words that I will not include in this post, I actually remained pretty calm about that fact that there was an enormous chance that I would be missing my flight to London and probably enduring a rather large, stress-induced headache if I did not act quickly. So I called a friend on my trip, Margeaux, who was driving down to DC. She lives about 30 minutes from me, and thankfully, I caught her just as she was about to pull out of her driveway. My dad speedily, yet safely, drove me to meet her and though a bit frazzled due to the events of the past 45 minutes, I was on my way to catch my flight to London!


After a sometimes turbulent, yet relatively short flight (compared to what I got used to this summer) of 7 hours, we arrived safely at Heathrow Airport. Exhausted, we all jumped on our tour bus to give us an orientation to the city in which we will be living for the next three weeks. I don't have much time now, but I will say that the architecture is beautiful- the buildings and streets are so clean and ornate. Then we checked into our hotel and my roomate, Katina, and I did a little exploring around the neighborhood before taking a much needed nap, which was followed by more exploring and dinner at night.

Now I am off to sleep before my first day of "class" tomorrow.