Post #2

I posted two today that I had written on my computer before I got the internet. Read below for the first one.

Today was a great day to get to know some people. There are 44 of us this year, compared to 33 last year. Many students are first-year students, so I've been trying to learn names and get to know them a little. There are actually a few people who look so much like other people I know. This one guy, Miguel looks so much like Chad Craig...just more Mexican. It's crazy! And there's one girl, Jessica who looks just like Nikki Francek. Another girl looks like Amanda Buschlen.

This morning we took the boat out on the lake to go to a small town, San Juan, Laguna. The ride was about 30 minutes long, and the view was incredible. The lake is literally surrounded by volcanoes. San Juan was very cute. We went to this weaving place, and this pretty little 16 yr. old girl explained to us the process of weaving. It's a crazy art. It takes so much patience. The people were so nice. It wasn't like in Mexico where the people bug you to try to get you to buy their stuff, and nobody asked for money. When you'd walk down the street, everybody said hi to you. Also, in all of these little pueblos around the lake, the women have their own unique clothing. It's very pretty.

We also went to an elementary school, and many of us brought stuff for the kids: candy, pencils, bracelets, etc. Someone probably should have thought of a more organized way to do it because the kids were attacking us. I had some candy in my purse, and once I gave a piece to one kid, a huge herd of them flocked to me saying, "Just one, please." Then when some started reaching into my purse, I had to say that there was nothing left (although I had plenty left). They were pushing into each other and into me with their hands out, and I didn't have enough for everybody. It was kind of like having a piece of bread in your hands with pigeons all around you....scary.

We got back on the boat and went to another larger town called Santiago, Atitlan. It was very different there, and much like Mexico with the vendors. They would actually follow you around with their stuff trying to get you to buy it. I didn't like this place so much....maybe it was because it was pouring rain the entire time there (the weather was fine before that) or maybe it was because there were older teenagers walking around carrying machetes. Anyway, we ate there and watched part of the Spain soccer game. By the time everyone got back on the boat, we were all soaking wet. My shoes and socks and the bottom of my jeans were soaked. I hope they all dry before we leave tomorrow. We'll be headed to Chichicastenango tomorrow, which is famous for it's market apparently. Well, 'tis all. Must get back to reading!

Arrival

This is what I wrote on 6/28 on my computer when I didn't have the internet:

Well, I made it to Guatemala safely! On the flight from Atlanta to Guatemala City, I was sitting next to two men who were on separate mission trips, so I talked to them a little. As the plane was going down to land (we were a few hundred feet off the ground maybe), we felt it suddenly go up. That was the steepest I've gone up in a plane, and we ended up thousands of feet above the ground again. Everybody was wondering what happened because it was so sudden. It turned out that something just needed to be cleared off the runway so we had to circle like 5 times through the rainclouds.

Our professor was waiting for us (there was another student on my flight) outside the airport, and we were shuttled over to the hotel quickly. It was a super nice hotel called Barcelo. It used to be a Mariott. Now, we're in a hotel right on Lake Atitlan. The drive over here was something else! It's been raining pretty hard all day, so the roads are pretty bad. There are miniature mud slides everywhere. Also, we always seemed to be driving on the edge of a 5,000 ft. drop-off. It's so mountainous here, but pretty (even in the rain). I don't mind this cool weather, but it would be nice if it stopped raining so that the clouds wouldn't be in the way of the pretty views. I hear it rains almost every day here, but usually in the afternoon.

Tomorrow we'll be taking a boat on the lake to some villages called San Juan and Santiago Atitlan. We'll be on foot most of the time so we should expect to get dirty from all the mud!

In other news....I'm dying to know what's happening on the Bachelorette right now! I don't feel like paying for the Internet yet, so I can't watch it. I've already read the spoilers, so I know what's going to happen, but I still want to watch it. My roommate, Esther just told me that she met Allie (the bachelorette) a few weeks ago when she was in San Francisco. Apparently they have a mutual friend of a friend of a friend or something, and they all went to some bar together. Allie even lent Esther her jacket because she was cold. How cool is that? I think it's totally rad!

Alright, it's off to dinner then reading time! Yay!

Nerves

I have been very on-edge these past few days. As the time comes closer to leave, I can hardly concentrate on anything. I just realized that I should have started reading for my classes like a month ago. I don't know how I'm going to do well in my classes when we have to read a novel and a half each week written in ancient Spanish.

I was stupid again last night and searched about safety in Guatemala, and I am now absolutely terrified to go. It's more real now that I know that I will actually be there in 5 days. I thought to make myself feel better, I'd go to the US Dept. of State's website on Spain. If there were just as many violent things listed there as on Guatemala's page, I wouldn't feel so scared because I didn't really feel unsafe in Spain. But, there was actually nothing listed. Pick-pocketing is the most common crime in Spain where as armed robbery and rape are quite common in Guatemala to foreigners. Oh, and it's on the rise in Antigua too, which is where I'll be staying for 4 weeks. Awesome. I think I'm most scared for when we're traveling on the tour bus because I keep reading about 5-7 armed men hijacking tour buses, taking them to remote locations and robbing everybody and raping women. This happens on the main roads, which is what I'm assuming we will be taking. I just don't want to go. I hate leaving Jordan, and I just have a really bad feeling about this trip.

Why does there have to be so much violence in this world? I don't understand it. I also don't understand why our program is taking us to such a violent country. I feel like we're going to Afghanistan. They should have just stuck with Costa Rica, which is where we were originally going to go. In two years, we're supposed to go to Mexico. If so, I'm skipping that year. Mexico has a big piece of my heart, but it has become so screwed up recently, and I have no desire to go there right now. I never thought I would say that.

Anyway, if you think of it, please pray for our group's safety (we have about 40 people). I just don't want anything bad to happen to anyb0dy.

Going to Guatemala

So it's summer #2 with my grad program at Sacramento State, and we're going to Guatemala. We'll be staying in Antigua for 4 weeks, and traveling all over the rest of the country for 10 days. I'll be leaving on June 26th and arriving on my birthday. Here are some pictures of what's been happening in Guatemala recently:



There have also been some massive mud slides. So yeah, hopefully that excitement dies down before I get there.

I have been getting more and more excited to go as I keep talking to people who know somebody that's been there and loved it. As many of you know, I've been a little nervous to venture into this country. I've learned not to go to the US State Department's website because they make it sound like you have a 10% chance of surviving and a 100% chance that everything you bring there will be stolen. Take a peek at the website and you'll see what I'm talking about: http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1129.html

Anyway, I'm not sure how often I will update because I'll be taking three classes instead of two (like I took in Spain). I'll be rooming with the same roommate I had in Spain: Esther from Brazil, so I'm happy about that. I'm just very excited to be able to use my Spanish every time I speak for 5 1/2 weeks. My skills can only improve from that. I love being forced to speak Spanish because many times that's the only way I'll do it, and that's the best way to get better.

So, leave me comments as you read. I love hearing from you all! Have a great summer!

I want home

I've really been missing home a lot. Fall is when I miss the Midwest the most I think. The fall weather back home is the greatest. I miss stepping on crunchy leaves, decorating the porch with pumpkins, and trick-or-treating.

I've been very nostalgic lately. I find myself constantly thinking about different things from various places in my past. It could be something so random and little, like playing "bus driver" on dad's work trailers with Rachel. I miss being young(er). Growing up really is hard. I would love to re-live my life again starting from age 4. It's also scary to think about my parents getting older. I want them to always be the way they were as I was growing up. It's hard when I come home and I actually notice a slight difference in them.

Coming home isn't the same either, nor will it be this Thanksgiving or Christmas. I have always loved the week leading up to Christmas when Rachel and I would play ping pong in the basement and blast Rebecca Saint James' christmas CD and sing really loud. Now I won't even get to see Rachel probably until the 26th, and then I'm leaving the next day. I miss our gatherings as friends at different people's houses and just enjoying the conversation.

I'm fighting so hard to not grow up...I just want to be a kid again. I don't like change. Passing 30 years of age terrifies me. I don't want to know what I'll look like when I'm 50. I don't want to die. Death really really scares me. It's so weird to think about it, and think that maybe today could be your last day or the last day of somebody you love. I can't wrap my head around death.

I get mad at myself for not wanting kids sometimes too. When I think about my parents' home videos of us when we were kids, it makes me wish that I wanted kids so I could take cute videos like those too. I know that mom and dad would love grandkids. I also don't want Jordan and I to be lonely when we're older. But the negatives outweigh the positives by 3 tons to me. I would be such an unfit mother, and I don't want to even attempt to raise a child in this sick world.

Basically with all of this struggle with growing up, I've shut down. I don't know how I get up in the morning and go to work every day honestly because I feel physically and emotionally dead. My heart is rock hard, and I'm so self-absorbed that I can't focus on anyone else but myself. I don't smile very often, and I'm always irritated. I don't like to be the center of attention (I used to not mind that really), and I don't like to be touched. I'm such a different person than I was in college, and I really don't like it. Ugh...and speaking of college...I miss it so much. I would love to do college all over again. I miss Mount Pleasant and Kaya. I miss my friends.

When will we move back east?

Home

Well, vacation time is over. I'm already missing Spain a little bit. What a great experience! And what a great way to finish the vacation too!

So Jordan arrived to Madrid, and it was awesome to see him again! He was so tired, but he stayed awake throughout the whole day. We did a little touring and took some pictures. The next day we took a train to Barcelona, had a couple hours to spend there, and then took another train to Perpignan, France. We stayed there for 2 days. It was a cute little city. It was kind of difficult to communicate at times though. Luckily, many of the French also spoke Spanish, so that helped. I really want to learn French now. It's such a pretty language.

After France, we returned to Barcelona and met up with Adam (Jordan's brother), KC (my friend from college) and her friend Emil, and Felix (the German). They came in from England, Ireland, and Germany. I had such a great time with everyone. We went to Montserrat, the beach, and saw many of Gaudi's works. I just loved hanging out. I laughed a lot and finally got to be myself. The whole time in Spain before Barcelona, I felt like I wasn't myself when speaking Spanish. I couldn't express myself in the way that I normally do in English. My favorite night was when we went to a tapas bar. We ordered about 15 different tapas or so. I still wasn't full in the end though. For those of you who may not know, tapas are basically like little mini appetizers. They're really good.

The morning that Jordan and I had to leave, we got up at 5:45 am and took the metro to a train which took us to the airport. Oh....my.....gosh. We walked sooooo much. We probably just could've walked all the way to the airport. Carrying 50 lb. luggage up and down millions of stairs in the metro is NOT fun...especially in 99 degree weather. I was sweating sooooooooo much. Jordan said it looked like I had angel wings on my back. I was soaked, and grumpy. Oh well. We made it to the airport in the end. I barely remember arriving in LA because we had been up for 26 hours straight.

It's time to get back to the real world now. Yesterday I spent a long time doing laundry. I'll probably be doing more cleaning today too. Next week Rachel and Josh come to visit for a little bit, but I found out yesterday that I have two teacher inservice days out of the 3 days that they will be here. I'm very very very upset. Hopefully I will be able to miss a meeting or two. Ok. Time to do stuff. Thanks for reading. I may post time and again about adventures of teaching, but I think this blog will mainly be for when I'm abroad.

Done

I’m officially done with the program for the summer! Right now I’m in Madrid just relaxing. I did a little shopping today and bought some gifts for people. I hadn’t done that yet until today. Barcelona will be the hot spot for that I think. I’m super excited for Jordan to get here. I think he’s in the air right now, probably almost landing in New York. I’m glad he flies during the night from there to here because the time will go by quicker for both of us. I just hope that he’s able to sleep on the plane and that I can sleep tonight because we only have tomorrow in Madrid and that’s it.

To sum up my last week of school: it was hard, but fun. First of all, on Tuesday morning while I was trying to get my breakfast ready, I hit a cereal bowl with my arm and it fell and shattered all over the place. My feet were bleeding in a couple of places from the ceramic. I felt really bad because the bowls are from IKEA, and the nearest one to Montserrat (my host mom) is in Madrid. She is in love with the store and with all of the items she owns from there. I paid her so she could buy a new one, but I could tell she was disappointed because she didn’t know when she would be in Madrid next. Oh, this just reminded me of another little incident that I didn’t write about before.

Montserrat did our laundry once a week, and since nobody in Spain owns a dryer, everybody hangs their clothes on clothes-lines to dry. In this building where the lines are is in the big square hole in the center. You can look out your window and see your neighbor like RIGHT there like 10 feet in front of you. So we’re on the 3rd floor and we have to be careful when we’re taking our clothes off of the lines not to drop them because we’d have to go down to the bottom and ask the grumpy neighbor for get it for us. So what do I do? Drop a shirt. Of course it wasn’t even my shirt. It was Esther’s. It actually didn’t even fall all the way to the ground. It landed on the clothing line of the lady on the ground level. I was terrified to go down and ask her to get it for me. I rang the doorbell twice and nobody came to the door. Then I looked to my right and there was a small window that opened up to the opening in the middle of the building. And what was right there? Esther’s shirt hanging within arm’s reach. YAY! Victory! The end.

On Friday I just had my linguistics exam, which was not easy. It took me the entire two hours to complete it again. But everybody took that long. For my night class, I just had to turn in an essay. We were the only class that still had class that night. Our professor was too scared to cancel because she thought she would get in trouble with the head of the program. But every other professor from Spain canceled their night classes! Anyway, we thought we were getting out early, but no, we stayed the entire two hours. And guess what we did? We listened to Flamenco music for an hour and 20 minutes. Yep, we just sat there and listened. She just kept the songs coming. Arg! We were all very impatient.

That night, the whole group met up at a place called Vinotinto, and it was a really cool place. The professors bought us tapas, and they were delicious. I went with these three other girls to a bunch of other places, and I was basically the designated driver, except we didn’t drive anywhere. We had fun though. We walked into one place and were probably the oldest ones there. It was filled with teens. One of the girls I was with who was drunk went to the bathroom and didn’t come back for a while. I went in there to check on her, and she was in there talking to a 17-year old, giving her advice on some problems that she was apparently having with a boy. It was soooo funny. They were in there talking for about a half an hour, and at the end, the girl asked my friend if she had facebook because she wanted to talk more. Geeze…. Anyway, after that we went to a pizzeria and stayed there talking for about 2 hours about relationships. We really had a good time. Oh, and one of the girls with us from the program named Rachel is really pretty, tall, skinny, has long blond hair, and striking blue eyes. Wow, that kind of just sounded like a description of my sister. But anyway, guys literally stop her on the street to talk to her because she’s so pretty. I’ve never seen anything like it. They all invite her to “a party they’re going to” and what not. She’s so nice that she always talks to them, but she’s not arrogant at all. And here, it’s not like in Mexico where the guys have hardly seen blondes before. There are blondes all over the place here, but she’s just the prettiest! So anyway, I got home around 4 am, and I think that was the latest I’ve ever been out in my life. Come to find out the next morning, my host mom had arrived home just a little bit before I did. It’s just the norm here.

The next day I was planning on doing a little shopping and then go to the beach. I got all ready to go, and I hadn’t even looked outside yet. My “mom” woke up, and said, “Ay, it’s raining.” Dude, I seriously thought that it was just a neighbor taking a shower because you can hear everything that your neighbors do….and I mean everything….yeah… Anyway, it was the first rain during the day in Valladolid that I experienced. I liked it. Needless to say, I didn’t go to the beach. But I shopped a little and walked around a lot. My Esther was gone for the weekend up north, and I missed her. But it was a good relaxing day.

…Oh, I just got a text from Jordan. He made it to NYC safely!!...

Today as we were getting ready to leave, we thought Montserrat wasn’t up yet, but she had told us that she would come with us to the place where the group was meeting. We didn’t want to wake her up, so we left a goodbye note because we had just called a taxi to come pick us up. Then, she came out of the bathroom. She had just showered and didn’t realize what time it was. She was running around in a panic trying to get ready quick. I went down the elevator in the meantime to see if the taxi had arrived. Yep, he did, and the guy was really really grumpy. He told me that he had been waiting a long time for us and wasn’t really happy about it. I told him that the lady on the phone told me that he would arrive in 5 minutes, and only 6 minutes had passed. By the time we left, I looked at the meter in the taxi, and we were already at 6 euros. But we arrived and said our goodbyes to Montserrat. She really was a great hostess…especially compared to other students’ experiences.

Thank you to everyone who took my “pole”. I loved the answers!