Hello all..
Thank you for all the comments! Ann´s mom...Ann is doing wonderful..Her and I have bonded amazingly well and I keep wondering what i´m going to do without her! Her and I have decided to stay in touch alot, and hopefully save up and fly and see each other soon. We also want to do more of these Habitat trips in the future together, so unfortunatley you won´t hear the last from me. For those of you who are wondering, Todd is a friend i´ve made here... He´s an English teacher in Philly and him and Ann and I hang out all the time. Yesterday was an amazing day. We got a new Mason who started delegating tasks quickly and tried to learn our names with his broken Spanglish. We worked non stop all day which was amazing, I cut holes in U-blocks which are cement blocks, bent C´s with rebars, made huge rebars with those c´s and help cut rebars so we can make c´s. It hit me yesterday that we were going to be leaving our families but I thought the crying should start today, which it did. Yesterday we also made scrapbooks which will be given to the familes tonight at our goodbye ceremony. My page was made with pictures Ale took from our cameras but we also had other special pages that were focused around things we´ll remember about her. Today: So i´m sad to report that i´ve finished working on the house. I can´t believe how far we got. We started from digging trenches and just plain flat land to actually a house that is half way up. It is amazing how much our team worked with the mason and family to help them build this. I loved how motivated and how positive my group always was and I think that our close knit group will stay friends for a long long time. Aside from the fact that Ann and I want to go on other Habitat trips to help people´s lives, our group that worked on Ale´s house also want to go somewhere else soon too so I´ll forsure have more exursions to work on. Today was a hard day because it was our last day to work. Ale asked her mom to stay home because she wanted to spend time with us. Her mom and grandma were home and made us lunch which consisted of polenta and chicken, which looked like the one that was live the day before. Ha ha. They made tortillas and the food was great. After the meal, Ale gave us all wicker baskets which apparently her grandfather who is currently in prison wove us. He had heard that we were there helping and had made these baskets for us which are beautiful. I can´t wait to show everyone. It was so thoughtful everyone started getting teary-eyed and Ale even had to leave the area. As we were travelling home for the last time, I thought about how much more simple I´m going to live my life. About all the luxeries I have at home and how it is so much more important to spend time with your family. Everything here focuses around one´s family and not how much money you have on the table. I got super sad because Ale and her mother and grandma were eating lunch with us too and it made me homesick and it reminded me of my mom and grandma and how much I take advantage of them and all the luxeries they have provided me. Even though Ale is only 8, she has made me learn alot about how to live my life and I will cherish every moment of it. It also hurts me to see how much potential Ale has and how she may not be able to fulfill all her hopes and dreams. She wants to me not only a teacher but a doctor and a lawyer and I hope and pray she is able to fulfill that. Most people here don´t complete all of school and it is only mandatory up till grade 6. I hope to God that something miraculous happens so that is able to live her dreams and support her family. I have learnt so much from everyone here but I´m going to take back things that my friends here have learnt and gained from their experience. This has made me so much more humble but relaxed, more generous but I have learnt not to complain and never to fret or be negative. Just to have fun and seize the day. Take what you get, grasp it, hold on to it and RUN. Everyone here that I hang out with are all older, Ann is 22 but everyone else is in their late 20´s early 30´s. They all have jobs and after dinner when we´re all hanging, and everyone is talking about life, I just sit and listen and take all the intellectual information I can get and try and make it seep in my brain. From the inspirational quotes, to the books they read, to their papers, thesis´s and dissertations that they write, to where the went to school and what masters they have, to what they do on their spare time, I´m going to try and be just like them, in my own individual way. I thank God for blessing me to come here, it has changed my life for the better, and I can´t wait to embark on the rest of my journey. I will be home on Saturday night, and I think that we´re going to scale a volcano on Friday. I don´t know if i´ll get internet agian but thats okay, just pass your messages onto my mom and when I call her she can tell me.
Thank you to everyone for helping me reach to this point, for helping me change my life and realize, really realize how much we have and how I need to be simple in my life and how I need to be positive and thankful for everything.
Thank you again and again and again.
Lots of love, always and forever.
Carpe Diem 786.
Tuesday, July 8
Sunday, July 6
Domingo Domingo
Hola!
I hope everyone is doing well and have had an amazing week! Im glad to report that Ann my roomate is doing way way better, I´ve even brought her out and shes at the internet cafe with me today. Yesterday after I wrote, I picked up Sprite, Lemon Lime and Tonic water, not knowing what she wanted, and also realizing that there´s no gingerale, and made her drink it. Brooke also brought her crackers and cornflakes...She took a nap and we all went out for Medditeranean dinner. It was really nice. After Todd and I came home, he wanted to relax and I wanted to chill with Ann and the rest of the group went to a near by Discoteqa. Ann was feeling better so we both went over to Todd´s and a couple other people were there and we just sat around and talked and and found Angelina Jolie on TV. For those of you who don´t know, she is my idol so it was nice seeing her. We went to sleep and Ann and I were pretty tired. We both woke up and Ann felt super better today but she decided to stay in for breakfast. I on the other hand went downstairs and had Vanilla Wheat of Cream Oatmeal and some French Toast. We didn´t have to work so as a group we travelled to the Hot Springs. We travelled for about an hour to a place up a mountian where there is natural hot springs from the volcano close by. The water was super nice and hot and natural sulfer was surfacing so it was really good for my skin. I can´t believe how far up I travelled because we took some amazing pics where it looked like we were in and above the clouds. After the hot springs we stopped in a town called Zuniel, pronounced Suniel and went to another Textile shop and I saw how the wrap fabric in girls hair... So when I get to the market in Antigua I think Im going to purchase one of those. We also explored a church and it was so nice, simple but most of all, the work on the doors and around the church had alot of decoration and hand carved doors. They were gorgeous. I got some awesome pics. By that time though everyone was super tired and we all piled into our autobus and went back home to Xela. Ann was super tired so she went to sleep but Todd, Danielle and Joe and I went to Tecun for some burgers, and then explored the market. We then got some icecream and then I went to go get Ann at 3. So were here now, Todd, Ann and I and I think we´re just going to explore the town for a bit and then head for dinner. Tomorrow is another hard day of work, I think we´re finally getting to build walls and I hope that we can at least get half way done. The only bad part about this is that they don´t have enough tools for everyone to do work, that usually why most of us have to sit because there are 2 people doing work because thats all the tools they have. I hope that they have more spades for the mortar so we can all work on putting the walls up. It would be a huge accomplishment for us to finish those. We are also putting together a scrapbook for our family so we had to develop pictures of the work we´ve all done and the memories we´ve all had together so Ale and her mom can remember us.
Have a good night.
786-Carpe Diem.
I hope everyone is doing well and have had an amazing week! Im glad to report that Ann my roomate is doing way way better, I´ve even brought her out and shes at the internet cafe with me today. Yesterday after I wrote, I picked up Sprite, Lemon Lime and Tonic water, not knowing what she wanted, and also realizing that there´s no gingerale, and made her drink it. Brooke also brought her crackers and cornflakes...She took a nap and we all went out for Medditeranean dinner. It was really nice. After Todd and I came home, he wanted to relax and I wanted to chill with Ann and the rest of the group went to a near by Discoteqa. Ann was feeling better so we both went over to Todd´s and a couple other people were there and we just sat around and talked and and found Angelina Jolie on TV. For those of you who don´t know, she is my idol so it was nice seeing her. We went to sleep and Ann and I were pretty tired. We both woke up and Ann felt super better today but she decided to stay in for breakfast. I on the other hand went downstairs and had Vanilla Wheat of Cream Oatmeal and some French Toast. We didn´t have to work so as a group we travelled to the Hot Springs. We travelled for about an hour to a place up a mountian where there is natural hot springs from the volcano close by. The water was super nice and hot and natural sulfer was surfacing so it was really good for my skin. I can´t believe how far up I travelled because we took some amazing pics where it looked like we were in and above the clouds. After the hot springs we stopped in a town called Zuniel, pronounced Suniel and went to another Textile shop and I saw how the wrap fabric in girls hair... So when I get to the market in Antigua I think Im going to purchase one of those. We also explored a church and it was so nice, simple but most of all, the work on the doors and around the church had alot of decoration and hand carved doors. They were gorgeous. I got some awesome pics. By that time though everyone was super tired and we all piled into our autobus and went back home to Xela. Ann was super tired so she went to sleep but Todd, Danielle and Joe and I went to Tecun for some burgers, and then explored the market. We then got some icecream and then I went to go get Ann at 3. So were here now, Todd, Ann and I and I think we´re just going to explore the town for a bit and then head for dinner. Tomorrow is another hard day of work, I think we´re finally getting to build walls and I hope that we can at least get half way done. The only bad part about this is that they don´t have enough tools for everyone to do work, that usually why most of us have to sit because there are 2 people doing work because thats all the tools they have. I hope that they have more spades for the mortar so we can all work on putting the walls up. It would be a huge accomplishment for us to finish those. We are also putting together a scrapbook for our family so we had to develop pictures of the work we´ve all done and the memories we´ve all had together so Ale and her mom can remember us.
Have a good night.
786-Carpe Diem.
Saturday, July 5
Despues cuatro días...
So my blog just refreshed three times, and this is the third time im going to attempt to write this. Im finally at an open internet cafe with Todd because Ann isn´t feeling well. We had eggs this morning and they weren´t that great. I stopped eating while she finished off her plate so I think thats the problem. Im going to pick up some gingerale before I leave. Wednesday is pretty vauge because it was so far away but we worked with rebars and cement and then we went for Mexican for dinner. Ann and I shared chicken fajitas and even tho we were stuffed we still kept eating. Thursday was another day of cutting and securing the rebars with wire... Danielle and I were on a crazy roll and were doing that for pretty much the whole day. Those are good for reinforcements for the earthquakes. My wrist was sore that day but it was worth it. We went to an Indian place for dinner, the wife is Indian and the husband is Guatemalen. The food was super good. Brooke who is married to an Indian man and me, were in charge of ordering the food. We got like chicken tikka, lamb curry, beef curry, puri, naan, channa bateta... it was so good. Yesterday was one of the best days because we layed our first foundation stone... and by the end of the day the foundation was done. We had cheese omlettes for breakfast and went to go mix some cement. Im pretty much pro at mixing cement with only a shovel... Its hard but easy once you have the groove. Then we layed the first foundation stone and then it started raining like it had been for the past couple of days. Apparently its the rainy season here. Everyone started going inside and the Mason had called me out and told me to stay and help him fill in the cement blocks with mortar. I put on my snazzy and attractive see thru plastic poncho, which I have fabulous pictures of, and then helped him in the rain fill in mortar. We had a good conversation too with my broken Spanish. We went back to the Italian place for dinner last night. Since it was the 4th of July, the Americans wouldn´t let me forget that it was that day, we celebrated a little bit more by being a little louder and having random people sing the Star Spangled Banner. I get made fun of for being Canadian all the time but its all out of fun. Today was okay day. We went to work this morning but had random eggs that again weren´t that good and then when we went to work there was really nothing for us to do because the Mason and his friend were doing more blocks and cement. Its nice being around the families and right there to see it though, its way better than staying at home, I think. Then we came home and I came home to a sick Ann. Shes napping so Todd and I went for lunch and we met some others there. I had this awesme soup with chickpeas, rice, chicken, veggies, avacados and cheese. Super good. Then we came here so we could both communicate. Todd is pretty awesome, hes like 30 and is an English teacher. He talks alot about awesome books I should probably read once in my life. I think were going to head home after this, maybe go to the bank and then shower, nap and then head for dinner. I think were going for Medditeranean and im sure alot of the gang will want to go too. I like our gang, our working group has become SO incredibly tight we´re pretty much family which is awesome since we´ve only known each other for a week. Tomorrow is a day off, we´re going to the Hot Springs which is in the mountians and I think I want to go to the market after. I think everyone wants to go to Indian again tomorrow night. Tuesday is our last day of work and we´re going to have a goodbye ceremony with us and the families with dinner and a festival. We had reflection the other day and we spoke about what we´re going to bring home with us and how it will change our lives. I said that im going to be more religious after seeing how religious everyone is here with very little, and that im going to try and not to complain and be optimistic. Just try and live a simple life. Anyways, Hope everyone is okay! Thanks for reading the blog.
Lots of love!
Lots of love!
Tuesday, July 1
Dia Tres!
Hola! I´m back in the internet cafe after eating a huge meal. Its so cheap here to use interenet... or even anything. One US dollar is about 7.25 Quetzales... And to use half an hour of internet is about 1.50 Quetzales which is pretty much nothing. Dia tres en Xela and i´m having so much fun. The people are amazing, the families i´m working with are amazing and i´m really bonding with everyone. We´re always having fun on the site and learning more about each other whether its the familes or group members every day. Apparently here we´re called Gringos which may be a derrogatory term but a term nonetheless to describe North Americans... Or white people. Ale asked me if I was a Gringo because my skin was brown! Ha ha. Today it rained copious amounts so we played games similar to the ones I play in daycamps with the hand slapping while singing songs. Similar to the traditional Kit Kat songs or Miss Mary Mac songs we all used to do while in school except in Spanish. It was alot of fun and I took pictures and I think Todd, my group member even caught us in a video. We had lunch and it was super, a chicken sandwich with pasta salad and jello, which was handmade with a banana. Today is Canada Day and i´m making sure each of my American group members knows it. I sang the anthem about 4 times today, once in the resteraunt we ate at just now. I was told to be perky and Canadian this morning so while we were eating breakfast which was french toast and maple syrup, which I tried to convince everyone was Canadian, I sang the anthem while my group members wished me a Happy Canada Day. I guess I have to have the same coutesty on Friday which is Fourth of July. I hear they may be purchasing fireworks! How exciting! Entonces we travelled by autobus, which was super post, to Cantel and started to work or trabajar. We finished building the trenches and the rebar, had almuerzo or lunch and it started to rain. So we stopped work and early and went to a near by glass blowing factory. We saw all the hand made glass and saw how they made it because they lady put a movie in. Then we had dinner at a traditional Guatemalen restaruante which was muy bueno. Yo como pollo con vegeturas frescas y arroz y sopa de pollo which means that I ate chicken with fresh vegetables with chicken noodle soup and rice. The hardest thing right now is trying to find calling cards. No one has them or we´re all speaking very bad Spanish. I feel bad because Ann really wants to talk to her mom and she can´t find a card... Hopefully our hunt will end tomorrow while we try and search again. We´re going to head back to our hotel soon so I´ll write tomorrow!
I miss everyone, and I heard that Lethbridge had a crazy downpour, I hope everyone there is okay.
Hasta Mañana!
786-Carpe Diem.
I miss everyone, and I heard that Lethbridge had a crazy downpour, I hope everyone there is okay.
Hasta Mañana!
786-Carpe Diem.
Monday, June 30
Xela... Finally!
Hey! Got to an internet cafe.
Everything is super.
Our bus ride to Xela was hard... 4 hours of driving with a couple of 5 to 10 minute breaks....WE stopped at this place to use their washroom and it was weird that when we walked in they had a aflat screen tv! Then we kept travelling and we stopped again to take pictures of all the volcanoes that are around here. There are many many volcanoes and one close to my site where i´m working. We reached Xela and our hotel is amazing amazing. It apparently used to be an old prison but it does not look anything like it. Ann and I got to our room and its pretty simple with 2 twin beds and a tv which is pretty interesting because its all in Spanish...With a toilet and shower. The shower needs to be treated well in order to provide hot water but its pretty nice to me! We had a welcome ceremony and we met our familes that we´re building the houses for. My group is building in Cantel which is 20 mintues away for a single mother and her daughter who is 8 years old. Ann is working in San Mateo building for a family of 4, two parents and a daughter and son. The daughter in my group whose name is Jackie Alexandria but likes to be called Ale, totally warmed up to me, maybe because I started teaching her how to count in English but it was real nice! My goal of the night was definetly to become best friends with her and I did! We took lots of pictures. Yesterday for lunch we had tacos and dinner was chicken with applesauce... My parents keep telling me that I´m going to loose weight but I´m definetly going to gain muchas amounts of pounds. This morning we had eggs and salsa and we had packed lunches ready to go. Today I met my family again and our stone mason didn´t show up for 2 hours because apparently Guatemalen culture does not require one to be on time...So then we played games with Ale, our little girl and I taught her the Banana song... hahaha shes trying really hard to say it in english. THen we started taking these long metal wires and cutting them to certian length.. we needed about 300 and then we bent them so that we could put them and fasten them on 2 large metal wires for earthquake protection. Then we layed out the house, since its only for a mother and her child it is a small house but it has 4 rooms, bathroom, 2 bedrooms, livingroom/dining room. AH this keyboard is really hardd to type with. So then we stoppd fr lunch and we had 2 sandwiches in our lunch...one chicken salad and one peanut butter. I liked the chiken salad while Valeria enjoyed the peanut butter so were going to keep trading sandwiches if we come up with the right combinations. Most other groups have already completed houses while we are starting ours from scratch. I don´t think we´ll see our house completed but if others finish their houses quick then i´m sure we´ll get more help and try to finish. Everyone is working super hard and my group is awesome. Our little chicka is awesome too, shes in grade 2 and she just recently won a beauty pagent at school so she enjoys pretending to be the boss full with a mic and podium. We got ordered around today to answer questions, talk in English and do the Chicken dance which I got amazing pictures of. We also had reflections after and spoke about our fav pics we took today, mine was the picture with our family and our group together.. Ale and her mom with the local affiliates and our gruop. SInce ale wanted everyone in her picture we all had to set timers but it worked out nicely! I can´t wait to post lots of pictures online. For dinner we went to an italian place here and I had ravoili with spinach and tomato sause. It was so good. We´re def getting fed nicely. Ann and I both got super hot showers too, you just have to be pro at how you adjust the tap. I think Ann and I are going to head to our hotel after, we were going to look for a calling card but today is a national holiday so not many shops are open. Hopefully tomorrow.
Thank you to everyone who is reading and commenting...
Maureen thanks for your support and i´ll try and email you back when I have more time, Sania! I miss you too and Ann´s mom, I´m glad your reading the blog thank you for everything.
One other thing I wanted to say was that everyone is super religious here, and its sad to look at our society that takes God for granted. They look so content with just small little things always laughing and smiling. The family asks God to help us with anything we want in life and pray for us every morning before we start working. Its really nice and motivating.
Carpe Diem. 786
Everything is super.
Our bus ride to Xela was hard... 4 hours of driving with a couple of 5 to 10 minute breaks....WE stopped at this place to use their washroom and it was weird that when we walked in they had a aflat screen tv! Then we kept travelling and we stopped again to take pictures of all the volcanoes that are around here. There are many many volcanoes and one close to my site where i´m working. We reached Xela and our hotel is amazing amazing. It apparently used to be an old prison but it does not look anything like it. Ann and I got to our room and its pretty simple with 2 twin beds and a tv which is pretty interesting because its all in Spanish...With a toilet and shower. The shower needs to be treated well in order to provide hot water but its pretty nice to me! We had a welcome ceremony and we met our familes that we´re building the houses for. My group is building in Cantel which is 20 mintues away for a single mother and her daughter who is 8 years old. Ann is working in San Mateo building for a family of 4, two parents and a daughter and son. The daughter in my group whose name is Jackie Alexandria but likes to be called Ale, totally warmed up to me, maybe because I started teaching her how to count in English but it was real nice! My goal of the night was definetly to become best friends with her and I did! We took lots of pictures. Yesterday for lunch we had tacos and dinner was chicken with applesauce... My parents keep telling me that I´m going to loose weight but I´m definetly going to gain muchas amounts of pounds. This morning we had eggs and salsa and we had packed lunches ready to go. Today I met my family again and our stone mason didn´t show up for 2 hours because apparently Guatemalen culture does not require one to be on time...So then we played games with Ale, our little girl and I taught her the Banana song... hahaha shes trying really hard to say it in english. THen we started taking these long metal wires and cutting them to certian length.. we needed about 300 and then we bent them so that we could put them and fasten them on 2 large metal wires for earthquake protection. Then we layed out the house, since its only for a mother and her child it is a small house but it has 4 rooms, bathroom, 2 bedrooms, livingroom/dining room. AH this keyboard is really hardd to type with. So then we stoppd fr lunch and we had 2 sandwiches in our lunch...one chicken salad and one peanut butter. I liked the chiken salad while Valeria enjoyed the peanut butter so were going to keep trading sandwiches if we come up with the right combinations. Most other groups have already completed houses while we are starting ours from scratch. I don´t think we´ll see our house completed but if others finish their houses quick then i´m sure we´ll get more help and try to finish. Everyone is working super hard and my group is awesome. Our little chicka is awesome too, shes in grade 2 and she just recently won a beauty pagent at school so she enjoys pretending to be the boss full with a mic and podium. We got ordered around today to answer questions, talk in English and do the Chicken dance which I got amazing pictures of. We also had reflections after and spoke about our fav pics we took today, mine was the picture with our family and our group together.. Ale and her mom with the local affiliates and our gruop. SInce ale wanted everyone in her picture we all had to set timers but it worked out nicely! I can´t wait to post lots of pictures online. For dinner we went to an italian place here and I had ravoili with spinach and tomato sause. It was so good. We´re def getting fed nicely. Ann and I both got super hot showers too, you just have to be pro at how you adjust the tap. I think Ann and I are going to head to our hotel after, we were going to look for a calling card but today is a national holiday so not many shops are open. Hopefully tomorrow.
Thank you to everyone who is reading and commenting...
Maureen thanks for your support and i´ll try and email you back when I have more time, Sania! I miss you too and Ann´s mom, I´m glad your reading the blog thank you for everything.
One other thing I wanted to say was that everyone is super religious here, and its sad to look at our society that takes God for granted. They look so content with just small little things always laughing and smiling. The family asks God to help us with anything we want in life and pray for us every morning before we start working. Its really nice and motivating.
Carpe Diem. 786
Sunday, June 29
Travelling
Hola!
I hope everyone is okay. Sorry about the abrupt stop in my blog yesterday. The orientation was super and we learnt that Guatemala is the oldest affiliate of Habitat and they just finished building their 25,000 house last November. A family can obtain a loan for a house with Habitat if A) They own a plot of land, B) Can Financially pay back the loan...IE: Have a job, and C) Help build their own house. All houses need to be paid back but families are more than happy to keep paying back the house to make it theirs. Usually a house is paid off in about 8 to 12 years. Nothing is ever given to them for free because they then they would feel like they would just have to get a loan with Habitat and not help out or do anything to earn a house. Thats why they don't like it if we bring children presents because thats all they'll remember about us. Usually when a family asks for a house, the papers take about 2 months to process and their house can start being built. A normal house takes about 22 days to build but since we're here to help it should take 15 to 18 days to build... This also depends on how fast the Stone Mason will work. Today I get to meet the family that we're building for. Theres 20 people in my group and we'll get split up into 3 groups to work... Thats fine because you get more one on one time with your Mason and Family. I'm pretty excited for today, its raining outside so I wore my sweats and have all the exess needs in my backpack. Breakfast was amazing, it was a buffet in which I had American Style pancakes, Yogert, Pineapple and Orange Juice and some bread that was sweet but not sweet. It was nice. I think the real food challenge will be today in Xela. Apparently no one speaks English there so it will be a crazy culture shock. I better get ready to head to Xela and maybe I may be able to write tonight or tomorrow.
Love lots. 786 Carpe Diem.
I hope everyone is okay. Sorry about the abrupt stop in my blog yesterday. The orientation was super and we learnt that Guatemala is the oldest affiliate of Habitat and they just finished building their 25,000 house last November. A family can obtain a loan for a house with Habitat if A) They own a plot of land, B) Can Financially pay back the loan...IE: Have a job, and C) Help build their own house. All houses need to be paid back but families are more than happy to keep paying back the house to make it theirs. Usually a house is paid off in about 8 to 12 years. Nothing is ever given to them for free because they then they would feel like they would just have to get a loan with Habitat and not help out or do anything to earn a house. Thats why they don't like it if we bring children presents because thats all they'll remember about us. Usually when a family asks for a house, the papers take about 2 months to process and their house can start being built. A normal house takes about 22 days to build but since we're here to help it should take 15 to 18 days to build... This also depends on how fast the Stone Mason will work. Today I get to meet the family that we're building for. Theres 20 people in my group and we'll get split up into 3 groups to work... Thats fine because you get more one on one time with your Mason and Family. I'm pretty excited for today, its raining outside so I wore my sweats and have all the exess needs in my backpack. Breakfast was amazing, it was a buffet in which I had American Style pancakes, Yogert, Pineapple and Orange Juice and some bread that was sweet but not sweet. It was nice. I think the real food challenge will be today in Xela. Apparently no one speaks English there so it will be a crazy culture shock. I better get ready to head to Xela and maybe I may be able to write tonight or tomorrow.
Love lots. 786 Carpe Diem.
Saturday, June 28
Guatemala
Hola!
I travelled to Houston yesterday and reached. My bag handle is broken now, so I have to drag my bag from the top of the bag instead of tilting it, and that didn't help when I was travelling to my hotel room yesterday. I had to stay the night in Houston so that I could reach today's flight in Guatemala. I went to the airport in Houston and met up with some people i've been talking to over facebook. In particular Jason and Ann who is my roomate. They are super nice and I can't wait to learn more about them. On the plane we had customs forms that we had to fill out, similar to when I went to Dubai. We had to line up and I nicely smiled and said Hola to the man sitting who kindly stamped my passaporte. We got our bags and headed out... Then we met up with Brooke and Julie and it is amazing how many people were standing around waiting for loved ones. Then we met our driver and he took my bags from me, and carried them to the van which I was excited about so I didn't have to carry them. Guatemala is an amazing place, it is so green and everyone is so nice and helpful. They laugh when you try and speak Spanish to them. We got to our hotel which is beautiful and luxerious and apparently the only thing pretty with running hot water we will get to stay in for a while. We said Gracias to the men taking our bags who then responded with a yourwelcome, funny but strange. Everyone in this trip is excited to finally meet a Canadian and keep asking me questions about Canada! Sorry for my poor launguage and grammar skills but I have to hurry to an orientation. I also realize that my thoughts are randomly scattered and i'm also sorry for that. Lo siento! We got up to our room and unpacked a bit, but we can't completly since we're leaving tomorrow morning. We then had a welcome ceremony and then we walked to this place called Pollo Correo or something like that. That was pretty much KFC in Guatemala. It was packed with people, apparently its the joint to eat at. It was 3pm and Ann and I were so stuffed because we had both eaten alot before so we shared some papas fritas, or fries and then we came back. That was forsure my first culture shock experience when I had to order in Spanish and I was left speechless. Weird, because I knew what I had to say back but I didn't do it... I'm staring to learn that people know its okay that we're just starting off speaking Spanish.. which is then leading me to randomly say Hola and Como Estas to random strangers in our hotel. Our dinner was fabulous... It was the hotel buffet...
Ah! I got caught for using the computer, will write later after the orientation. Wish me luck travelling to Xela.
786...Carpe Diem.
I travelled to Houston yesterday and reached. My bag handle is broken now, so I have to drag my bag from the top of the bag instead of tilting it, and that didn't help when I was travelling to my hotel room yesterday. I had to stay the night in Houston so that I could reach today's flight in Guatemala. I went to the airport in Houston and met up with some people i've been talking to over facebook. In particular Jason and Ann who is my roomate. They are super nice and I can't wait to learn more about them. On the plane we had customs forms that we had to fill out, similar to when I went to Dubai. We had to line up and I nicely smiled and said Hola to the man sitting who kindly stamped my passaporte. We got our bags and headed out... Then we met up with Brooke and Julie and it is amazing how many people were standing around waiting for loved ones. Then we met our driver and he took my bags from me, and carried them to the van which I was excited about so I didn't have to carry them. Guatemala is an amazing place, it is so green and everyone is so nice and helpful. They laugh when you try and speak Spanish to them. We got to our hotel which is beautiful and luxerious and apparently the only thing pretty with running hot water we will get to stay in for a while. We said Gracias to the men taking our bags who then responded with a yourwelcome, funny but strange. Everyone in this trip is excited to finally meet a Canadian and keep asking me questions about Canada! Sorry for my poor launguage and grammar skills but I have to hurry to an orientation. I also realize that my thoughts are randomly scattered and i'm also sorry for that. Lo siento! We got up to our room and unpacked a bit, but we can't completly since we're leaving tomorrow morning. We then had a welcome ceremony and then we walked to this place called Pollo Correo or something like that. That was pretty much KFC in Guatemala. It was packed with people, apparently its the joint to eat at. It was 3pm and Ann and I were so stuffed because we had both eaten alot before so we shared some papas fritas, or fries and then we came back. That was forsure my first culture shock experience when I had to order in Spanish and I was left speechless. Weird, because I knew what I had to say back but I didn't do it... I'm staring to learn that people know its okay that we're just starting off speaking Spanish.. which is then leading me to randomly say Hola and Como Estas to random strangers in our hotel. Our dinner was fabulous... It was the hotel buffet...
Ah! I got caught for using the computer, will write later after the orientation. Wish me luck travelling to Xela.
786...Carpe Diem.
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