First, for those of you who don't know, I attend Spring Arbor University in Spring Arbor, Michigan and I study Business Administration and Spanish. I am beginning my last semester and I will graduate sometime in January or February of 2012.
I will be spending a semester in Antigua, Guatemala studying Spanish. While there, I will be taking eighteen credit hours (yikes!) of Spanish. As I have loaded up on business (my other major) hours while at SAU main campus, I am free to spend all my time in Guatemala on Spanish. I will be taking fourteen of those credits by studying with a tutor. There is an official Spring Arbor campus in Guatemala, as the Nemeceks have moved to Antigua. This provides a host family for SAU students. However, studying will be done at La Union, a language school that has partnered with SAU. My tutor will be provided by La Union. My other four credit hours will be acquired by an internship I will be completing. I am not completely sure about what this will include yet, but I hope to be involved in the tourism industry in Guatemala. I will keep you updated.
I will be staying with a host family, and am very excited! We will have meals provided at home and have opportunities to help cook, clean, etc. We will have freedom to explore the city, try different restaurants, and generally be out and about. We will be taking trips with the rest of the group approximately every second weekend to explore the historical places around Guatemala.
I will have three housemates from the states and many friends besides accompanying me to Guatemala. The trip consists of four male students, all of whom I am familiar with, and around ten female students or so. I am very fortunate to know most of the students that will be on the trip. This is partly due to the fact that there are many Spanish majors on the trip, but there are also many other students on the trip that I know. The Nemeceks, Paul and Beverly, are professors at SAU, and I have had the pleasure of taking a marketing class with Bev.
My goals in this trip are simple and few:
#1 - Learn as much as I can and become fluent in Spanish. I also am excited about learning about Guatemalan culture.
#2 - Get business experience in the context of the area and using their native language.
#3 - Meet as many cool people as possible and see as many cool things as possible.
I will post again soon(ish) and add stuff as I am getting ready for the trip. Feel free to comment and ask any questions or point out anything I may have missed that you would like to know. Also, feel free to subscribe to my twitter if you want more real-time updates or thoughts.
Till next time,
Evan
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