Busy Days!

Hey, everyone!

Thanks for tuning in, once again, to read about my adventures here in Guatemala! This week's post is stuffed full of activities and trips that I have taken in the past week. There's also a lot of pictures near the bottom! I'll get started...

This week was classes as normal. I also finished my internship on Tuesday. This was bittersweet, as I was sad to leave my newly made friends, but was glad for the free afternoons. This is not completely true, as they have been filled with activities every day since I got off work, the exact reason I sped up my hours. Wednesday, we went to a parade that was in celebration of the conception of the Virgin Mary, very important in Catholicism. One of the recurring costumes was a devil. Later that night, we went to the "quema," or "burning," of the devil in Antigua. This is a custom that is believed to keep evil spirits away.

Los Pitufos - The Smurfs!

 

A television station interviewed a few of the students in our group!

The kids on the floats were strapped in for safety. This girl was literally perched!

Blanca Nieve - Snow White

 

This is Barack Obama and Michelle Obama and also Barack Obama and Michelle Obama and Barack Ob...

Before...

After.

On Thursday, we had a Christmas party at Paul and Bev's house. It was a good opportunity to hang with the group and get into the Christmas spirit, something that is relatively hard in such warm weather! We made cookies, played Wii, smashed a Santa shaped piñata, and recorded a video for our friends at SAU.

On Friday, we left for an area of Guatemala known as Cemuc Champey. This area is known for lush forestry, great natural pools for swimming, and caves. We organized a trip through a travel agency in town, as it was not an SAU sponsored trip. On the trip, we were able to do tubing, cliff jumping (my favorite), caving, swimming, and some hiking. The downside to the trip was that the drive there was around nine hours and the trip back was eight! In addition, a good hour and a half of the trip was on a road that kind of felt like we were driving across train tracks perpetually. However, it was totally worth it!
We stayed in a small hostel in the pueblo of Cemuc Champey before heading up to the attractions on Saturday. All of Saturday was spent hiking and adventuring. First, we visited a natural bridge. In CC, there is a river going through a tunnel, and we were able to see both sides. Around the water falls and rivers in CC, there are natural pools that seem like they are fake! You look around and feel like you are in a photo-shopped picture or a commercial. The water was refreshing and blue. Soon after, came the cliff jumps! There were three jumps in all, but one comes later. The first two were together, one being twelve meters and the other ten. It was quite a thrill! We tubed down part of a river, and then broke for lunch! After lunch, we went caving with only a candle to light the dark. Our group consisted of about sixteen people, so the cave was pretty well-lit. In the cave, there were pools deep enough that we had to swim through! Deep in the cave, there was another cliff! Completely enclosed, we came upon an area where our guide encouraged us to climb up some rocks and jump into a deep part of the pools! Only three or so of us made the jump. It was lower than the others, but a little scarier, as the pool we jumped into was much smaller. After the cave, we went back to the hostel and turned in. The next day was just the return journey.
Unfortunately, many of the areas we went were too wet to take my camera phone! (Click to enlarge!)

We had to help a truck ahead of us get unstuck...

Areal view of the river.

Our group for the trip!

Our guides for much of the trip. Believe it or not, they had already given back two thirds of the cameras at this point!

 

This is the opening of a tunnel with a river going into it.

These are the cliffs we jumped off of!

It hardly seems as though I've been here for three and a half months, but I find myself with less than a week left! Although I'm beyond sad to leave, I'm really excited to see family and friends. Believe it or not, I will be more busy when I get back than I am here! I am going to a show on the 17th, the day after I get back, and I fly to Florida to spend some time with my family (Grandpa's) on the 19th. After that, we will be heading up to Illinois to spend Christmas day with my brother's family. Soon after, I'll be heading back to school to start my final class of college! It is odd to think that I'll be done with school soon. My plans are still not certain, but I'll be job-hunting over j-term. A lot of work in the near future, but I'm very excited to meet it full force!

This is my last official post, as I will be in the States next Sunday! I may do a follow-up post, so keep a look out for that. I encourage you to email me with any questions that you may have about my time here or how you may prepare for your trip abroad. Also, if you have questions about the Gilman scholarship, don't hesitate to ask!

This is our go-to group! Kayla's teacher and mine are good friends, so we hang out quite regularly! This was taken on Kayla's last day of Spanish. :-(

More Class Info and Recommedations!

Hey, everyone!

This week, I’ll be telling you a little bit more about how my classes have been going and what you may be able to expect if you are going to be doing classes here in Guatemala. As I’ve already gone into some detail about daily classes and class structure, I will be telling you about some of the things that do not pertain to daily lessons. Also, I will include one or two more tips for those traveling abroad and some great places to visit if you happen to be coming to Antigua.

Spanish lessons have been wonderful and I enjoy them immensely. As I come nearer to the end of my time here, the great things about home are moving to the forefront of mind and compensating for the things I know I will miss about Antigua. The one thing that I know I will never be totally ready to give up is Spanish lessons. I have found that each weekend, by about halfway through Saturday, I become antsy and missing Spanish (I don’t frequently speak Spanish during the weekend, as I do not have my classes or my practicum.). I am currently looking for strategies to continue my learning and practice of the language while in the Sates. I realize that I may never be in a similar situation where I can speak and hear Spanish so much so frequently, and am trying to take advantage of the rest of my time here. Love of the language, however, is not the only reason I’ll be missing classes.

Not only have I become accustomed to speaking in Spanish and learning very intensely every day, but I have grown close to my teacher, as well. Julio, my “maestro”, and I have become good friends, spending four or more hours together every day. Most of this time is spend doing exercises and learning new grammar, but a large part is also spend talking, laughing, and learning about each other. It will be very hard to say “Adios.” While we spend so much time with our teachers, they have the opportunity to take us on outings during class to make sure that our experience of Antigua and the Spanish language is not all on paper. After our test (every Friday) is a good opportunity to take a walk and speak Spanish to each other!

One of the things that we have had the good fortune to experience with our professors is a trip to a botanical garden here in Antigua. We saw many flowers, trees, and other plants that are native to Guatemala and read the explanations behind them. It was very interesting to see them all in one place. All in all, this was a good chance to get out of daily class and experience another part of the city.

This is the botanical garden in Antigua! I recommend it. It's free and there's a great cafe inside.

My teacher, Julio, giving us some info about the flowers in the background.

Really cool plant. There were lots of beautiful flowers to see!

This is a tiny, but powerful pepper.

A huge leaf. That's all.

One day, while talking to Julio, I learned that one of our class periods was overlapping one of the holidays that Guatemala celebrates. Antigua typically accommodates the desires of tourists and, for that reason, businesses are open during national holidays. When I asked him if he would be able to celebrate with his family, he informed me that our class was during that time. I asked him if we could reschedule class for a weekend and that is what we did! As my teacher is a good friend of my friend Kayla’s teacher, we were able to schedule our classes at the same time on Saturday. This, my friends, was the most enjoyable class period that I have experienced in Guatemala, maybe of all time! Because it was the weekend and not many other groups of students were present, we were able to be a bit more relaxed. We studied for about an hour separately and spend the rest of the time playing games, talking together, and eating oranges, which grow in the school courtyard! Games, such as Scrabble, Basta (Scattagories), and a game called “Scrupulos” are a good way to take a break from class, while still practicing Spanish.

A weekly custom of ours is to, after the test, go down a couple of blocks to a street vendor that sells “Atol,” a cornflower based soup. We have started bringing other students with us and customarily play games afterwards back at the school.

A street vendor that we frequent.

This brings me to the next section of my post! I’m going to let you readers that are coming to Antigua know my favorite places to visit and eat so that you, too, may experience them!

Por Qué No? – Literally translated “Café Why Not?,” Por Qué No has the best environment of any restaurant I have been to in Guatemala. With a cozy size, the staff, personal friends to all who enter through their doors, are able (and excited) to converse with their customers. Every new visitor is treated as a friend and served delicious food and unique smoothies or juice. A common thing to hear as you enter is “Hello! Welcome! This is your home!” (Corner of 9^th Calle and 2^nd Ave.)

Atol Vendor – On First Avenue right by the gas station, there is a woman that vends many delicious types of traditional Guatemalan food such as white and yellow atol, tamales, tacos, and tostadas. Best atol in town! And inexpensive.

La Canoa – Great place to go and catch a football game or UFC fight (or any sport) from the States. Decently priced food you would find at any sports bar in the States. Kind of a little taste of home!

Here are the tips of the week!

Don’t be too scared of the street food. Although advised against being too trusting of the food that can be found in the market and on any given street, I have been growing more adventurous and trying more food on the street. I have not yet gotten sick! After you give your stomach a chance to get used to the food in your host home, try some of the street food! Ask a local where to go.

Text in Guatemala! As you may already know, there are a lot of services out there that provide free texting over wifi. As wifi is relatively commonly found in cafes and some host homes around Antigua, the occasional text is useful and can help keep in touch with friends and family at home! Although there are many services, I prefer Google Voice. This is a free service of Google and is among the best. You can utilize it on your computer’s browser, Android phone, or iPhone/iPod touch. The catch here is (many of my friends have experienced this) that this service is not available in Guatemala. This means that if you have already signed up for the service in the US, it will be available to you in Guatemala, but if you haven’t, you won’t be able to when you get here. So sign up before you leave the States!

Everything is going well here! I am getting excited for Christmas and it seems very odd to think that it will be less than two weeks until the 25^th when we get back! I am foreseeing a culture shock on our way back in.

Nice pool at the hotel!

This weekend, we had a relatively relaxing time. We ate at a hotel here in Antigua on Sunday. There was a buffet and a swimming pool at our disposal. Dangerous combination? I think so… I worked extra so that I could finish my internship earlier this week, as we have many activities coming up.

Lots happening. Lots to come!