Last Seen Blogs
flirts-with-dragons
your friendly neighborhood butch dragon boy
tumbles1
Verse Original (Circle of Architects)
synsalas
✖✖
pepper-pouts
Spontaneous teaparty
lostintranslaation
i can still make the whole place shimmer
Text
Everything in between...
A summary post of the last month featuring a house build, Hobbitenango, San Vicente Cimientos, Playa Quilombo, and Semuc Champey.
//HOUSE BUILD// 03.21-24.18
Our group had the opportunity to work with ConstruCasa to build two homes for two families who live in Alotenango, a neighboring town of Antigua. I went for around four hours each day in the morning to help. I only worked on one of the houses, but I really enjoyed it because I was with the same workers and family every day so it made it possible to build a small relationship with them. Here are some photos from the days spent there:
The alley we walked down to the house each day. One day we had to carry a truckload of cement blocks down it and I wanted to die. The volcano in the back is Volcán de Fuego. It is an active volcano that is constantly letting out gases and lava.
These kittens had my heart and I would have given the world to bring them home with me.
My personal favorite job was chipping blocks with a hatchet, and not to brag, but I only broke two blocks. I would rather do this for 48 hours straight than mix cement one time. Photo creds: Hannah (for this one and the next two)
This is what the work site looked like on the first day...
...and this is what it looked like on the second or third day (???). It was so long ago I can’t remember.
This photo is from our last day when we dedicated the houses and gave handed the keys over to the families. Unfortunately, I don’t have photos of the finished houses, but I shared a video from ConstruCasa on Facebook that shows more of the process and has final photos.
--
//HOBBITENANGO// 04.07.18
On a Saturday morning some people from our group decided to take a shuttle to Hobbitenango, a small restaurant/park type of thing up in the mountains near Antigua designed to look like the Shire. The food there was AMAZING and it was such a cute little place.
I ordered the second breakfast, which included pancakes, eggs, bacon, and fruit. And MY GOD that was the best egg I have ever had in my life. I haven’t stopped craving another one since.
Our breakfast view.
They also had carnival-like booths set up with games to play. This one was for archery and hatchet-throwing.
This was such a nice unique place to go to and roam around.
We had to ride in the back of a pickup up to the top, which also meant we had to go back down in one.
I was holding on for dear life and my face shows it. Photo creds to Hannah
--
//SAN VICENTE CIMIENTOS// 04.15-17.18
San Vicente Cimientos is a Mayan community a few hours away from Antigua. There was a decline in elevation so it was MUCH, MUCH hotter than what we were used to in Antigua. The weekend was kind of a retreat from urban life into nature. Our time there was made up mostly of hikes.
This was the view of Volcán de Fuego from our house. It was incredibly active while we were there. There were multiple eruptions that rattled the windows and shook the entire house; it sounded and felt almost like a bomb had gone off. We were also able to see lava flow down the side, which you rarely see from Antigua. Photo creds: Cas
We had the opportunity to climb this mountain while in the community. This thing was MASSIVE and incredibly intimidating. (Photo creds to Cas.) We were driven up to the base and then had to walk up to where the rock face (yeah, a literal rock face) began. It was relatively okay up until that point. I have kind of a fear of heights, and when we got to that point, I looked down and over the valley and it hit me just how high up we were and if I fell I would probably die. What I thought was a small fear that I could control blew up and I began to hyperventilate. I sat down and got my breathing back under control while the rest of the group started to climb up the rocks via rungs someone had cemented into the rock. I thought I was okay to go again so I got up and tried to go, but my mind was still freaking out. Our guide thought it was best that I turned back and I couldn’t argue with him. He helped me back down and I sat a waited for the rest of the group to return. I was a little bummed that I didn’t get to the top because I really wanted to prove to myself that I could do it, but I just wasn’t in the mental state to conquer it.
After the mountain, we hiked down the valley to a waterfall where we were able to swim.
It was so beautiful and incredibly refreshing after hiking in the heat all morning. Photo creds: Rachel
Our last day we woke up and went on one last “walk” before we left.
We rode up to the beginning of the path in the back of this badass pickup and I kind of really want one now. Photo creds: Cas, otra ves
--
//PLAYA QUILOMBO// 04.20-22.18
AND THEN THE DAY CAME FOR THE BEACH!!!! I had been looking forward to this trip the entire time I have been here, and as the weeks went by and the weekend got closer, my anticipation grew. I was so ready to get my tan on.
We arrived when it was already dark out, so we couldn’t enjoy the ocean, but our hotel had an amazing pool which we put to good use after dinner. The next morning we got up nice and early in order to take advantage of our only full day at the beach.
We noticed a sea turtle in a kiddie pool a few bungalows down from ours so naturally we had to go check it out.
We went for a walk along the beach a little later, where we stumbled across some bones of a still unidentified animal.
My friends are really photogenic.
I was pretty bummed Saturday night because I had been looking forward to the sunset here the entire semester but it was really cloudy so it wasn’t as grand as I was hoping it would be. Still, the pink colors in the sky were beautiful.
Las chicas de la Casa de Cindy, con Cindy *insert heart-eye emoji here*
It was so nice to sit out in the sun all weekend and though I was burnt like a lobster, I am finally turning tan.
--
//SEMUC CHAMPEY// 04.27-29.18
A group of ten from our semester group organized a trip to Semuc Champey over our last free weekend in Guatemala, and I am so glad we did.
The trip started on Friday morning with an eight hour bus ride from Antigua to Lanquín, a town about 10 KM from the park. In true Guatemalan form, our bus was around 20 minutes late picking us up. We drove maybe 30 minutes outside of Antigua only to stop at a random gas station for no apparent reason. We asked what we were doing and were told that we needed to change buses. We still don’t know why that happened, but we spent almost two hours sitting on the pavement of that gas station waiting for the other bus to show up. When it finally did, the new driver whipped in to the lot and that should have been our first clue that this was going to be a drive straight out of hell.
The new bus was smaller and contained even more people than the last. I was lucky to get the spot I got, and I will never stop being thankful for it. The driver of this bus was easily the worst driver I have ever encountered in my life. I told Morgan it felt like sitting in a rollercoaster simulator in an arcade, only we were actually moving forward, and she couldn’t believe how accurate that was. So just imagine one of those simulators but on steroids. We made a stop at a gas station around lunch time, and were told we would stop in a couple hours for actual lunch, so all I got were some oatmeal cookies that I wasn’t even sure I liked. (I did like them, for the record.) It was four more hours until we stopped for a half hour lunch. We stopped for lunch at 4 PM. I’ve gotten used to eating a late lunch here, but not that late.
After we stopped, we were told we had another two hours until we arrived in Lanquín. Then our driver decided to stop at his house and change his clothes, then run an errand that took us about five minutes off course. I was incredibly annoyed and frustrated. However, his driving for the majority of the rest of the trip was better than before, so much so we weren’t sure it was the same guy.
Saturday we woke up, got breakfast, rode in the back of a pickup to Semuc, and headed to the pools. Our first activity of the day was hiking up to the lookout to see all of the pools at once. Never in my life have I sweat as much as I did on that hike, and the sunscreen I had put on before only made it worse. Hiking up I complained the whole time because I just hate inclines and stairs. When it was over, though, I knew it wasn’t that bad, and I could admit that.
The view from the lookout.
Seumc Champey is a series of natural pools that a river runs under. The river enters under the pools here:
and it exits on the other side. When we hiked down from the lookout, we were able to swim in the pools, slide down a natural (aka rock) waterslide, and go into a “mini cave” where there was just enough room to tilt your head back so you could breathe through your nose.
We then went back for lunch, and after that, went “tubing” down the river. I put quotation marks around tubing because it wasn’t even 30 minutes long. Then we got a candle and entered a cave. It was only slightly terrifying. There was a series of ladders we had to climb and a waterfall we had to walk over, and I was very nervous.
The walk through the caves ended at a pool where you could climb up the wall and jump into it. I did not, because it seemed like a lot of work and I simply didn’t want to. While this was happening, my candle was burning intensely and I was so nervous I wouldn’t make it out with it. I was mostly concerned for the ladders, which I would have to climb with a light. I made it back through two of the ladders until my candle was so small it was only going to burn me if I kept using it, so I put it out. Unfortunately, this was right before the ladder I was most afraid of.
Another girl from the group, Rachel, had accidentally put out her candle earlier, so we stationed Morgan (who still had a candle) between us so we could use her light. I was so cautious going down that the guide there literally started grabbing my feet and placing them on the rungs. When I got down, the other people we had been with had already kept on going through the cave, so we had one candle between three of us and it was pitch black. We basically just held on to the ropes until we saw the light. To be dramatic, we probably wouldn’t have made it out without the ropes.
Sunday morning we got up, got breakfast, rode in the back of a pickup to Lanquín, and got on a bus for another 8 hour trip back to Antigua. This ride was much more enjoyable because it was a different (better) driver and we made really good time. I was a little car sick at the beginning, but I took some dramamine and ate some food and felt fine the rest of the trip. While it was a lot of traveling for one day of adventure, I’m really glad that I got to witness the beauty of Semuc Champey first hand.
--
//MISCELLANEOUS// Just a few photos of things that have happened outside of these events. Enjoy.
Anderson’s 14th birthday!
Cindy’s birthday!
Just some old ruins around Antigua
Meet the next hit girl band
We also just moved houses last week, and this new one is SO NICE, especially in comparison to the old one. There’s a WALL OF WINDOWS in my room now!!!! This weekend we take another trip into Guatemala City, and then that Thursday, May 10th, we fly back to the States. It’s crazy how fast this semester has gone by, and I know this next week and a half will be over in the blink of an eye, so I plan to enjoy it all, and do everything one last time.
5 notes
·
View notes
Text
Semana Santa // 03.25.18-04.01.18
Oh Semana Santa, where do I even begin? First of all, the population of Antigua goes from around 46,000 to about 500,000 according to an article by the Guardian. As an introvert who becomes incredibly drained almost immediately when I am surrounded by people, this was my own personal hell. There were processions every week from Lent started, so we were used to more people being around, and we knew that Antigua was a tourist hotspot for Holy Week. But I never would have thought that I would really be able to notice the climb in population week by week.
Here are a few photos from processions throughout the month:
Many of the processions went by the street we live on, so we were able to see a lot of them. We got stuck in this one on our way home from Sunday lunch with the group, so a ten minute walk turned into at least a thirty minute trek of trying to avoid crowds, failing, and getting stuck in them.
Roman soldiers just chillin in the street. It’s casual.
Let me try to explain a little bit about what a procession is. There is a float-like thing that depicts different parts of the story of Jesus, mostly of him carrying the cross. (This one was a big deal because here was when he had fallen.) All these purple boys carry a float at one point or another.
The float is carried on the shoulders of the men and they rotate out every few blocks because these things are stupid heavy. Almost every person looks absolutely miserable while doing this. Often there is a smaller float behind the one of Jesus that is of Mary. This float is carried by women.
Along the routes of the processions, families and businesses create beautiful alfombras to be walked over. Depending on the size and detail, it can take hours and hours to make one.
This is one being made on 1st Avenida, right at the end of our street.
Cindy’s (my host mom) family lives in Dueñas, another neighboring town. They invited our group to come and make an alfombra for the procession that was taking place there on Good Friday. Earlier in the week, our house went over there to dye the sawdust type stuff they use to make the alfombras.
We also had the opportunity to walk around that night and look at other alfombras for design inspiration. These were some of our favorites:
Featuring Cleo
Fruit animals!
Mi familia
Good Friday Eve we went to La Merced, an old church in Antigua, for the trial of Jesus which really wasn't what we thought it was going to be at all. It consisted of men dressed as Roman soldiers riding on horses reading the warrant for Jesus, riding out to the streets to look for him, coming back and reading the charges, and then the procession starting.
The crowd was ridiculous.
That afternoon we rode a chicken bus over to Dueñas to make our alfombra. It took us a while to get started because the town drunk was on our street and really wanted to help us. He came over and started planning it out for us, meanwhile Cindy and her family are standing around our group of gringas to keep us safe in case things started going poorly. They kind of did, and we were shuffled into Cindy’s family’s house while we waited for the police to show up and take the man away. Eventually they did come, and they literally had to pick him up and carry him away. It was a wild way to start our day.
Laying down a sand base.
WATER IS ESSENTIAL.
Let the hard work begin!
“Jesus bless Guatemala and Spring Arbor.” The amount of people who walked by and whispered, “What’s Spring Arbor?” to each other was hilarious.
We had A LOT of materials so we just keep adding and adding more sections.
Another section...
And another...
And another.... This one we literally took whatever colors we had left over and made stripes just to use it all up.
No alfombra is truly complete without bread turtles and crocodiles.
The finished project!
The procession from that night.
And the aftermath...after so many hours of work it really hurt my heart to see our masterpiece like this.
While Semana Santa meant the streets were packed with people, I am incredibly grateful that I was able to experience Holy Week here. I also want to thank Cindy and her family for being so kind to us and inviting us to partake in a once in a lifetime experience.
1 note
·
View note
Photo
Women pick marigold flowers used to make garlands and offer prayers, before selling them to the market for the Tihar festival, also called Diwali, in Kathmandu, Nepal, on October 17, 2017. (Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)
7K notes
·
View notes
Photo
“I’m studying abroad right now. I have a bit of a ‘boyfriend thing’ going on back home. He’s a nice guy. We met at a party and twenty minutes later he held my hair while I vomited. Even though I wasn’t very attracted to him, he intrigued me. I’d never met a boy who didn’t just care about sex. I’d only dated football players and gross teenage boys. He was different. He genuinely cares about people. He’d bring me all kinds of presents. One time I had a bad week at school and he brought me a gift package with all my favorite things. It was nice to have that much attention. I did just enough of the girlfriend thing to keep him around. Nothing he did affected me, and everything I did affected him. It was a weird sense of power to be the one with less feelings. I’d always been in the opposite position. Even after we broke up, I still hung out with him and let him give me gifts. He even gave me this journal for my trip.”
(Melbourne, Australia)
2K notes
·
View notes
Text
Tikal / Dehydration Nation
Almost a month late but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Better late than never.
//
In the midst of March Madness and busted brackets, our group was able to travel to TIKAL!!!!! This is a day I had been looking forward to for the entire trip and I was SO EXCITED it was finally here.
My house woke up at 3AM (a literal haunted hour in this house) to be ready to leave by 3:45. It was rough. We drove to Guatemala City for our flight at 6:30. The airline was super chill and didn’t have a whole lot of structure to it. The planes were propeller planes, which was only slightly terrifying. I had heard awful stories about this flight from past students, and even from our professor, so my anxiety was already a little high, but the flight was extremely smooth and went by quickly.
When we made it to the airport in Flores, we got on a bus for about an hour ride to the actual park. Along the way, we stopped at a roadside shop that had a model of Tikal and our guide gave us a brief overview of what we would be seeing while we were there. When we got to the park, we immediately began climbing. There was a pyramid that offered a view of a couple of the other temples we would be able to climb later in the day.
The stairs were stupid steep and I thought I was going to die if I even thought about going down that thing. Then our guide decided to give me an anxiety attack when he said, “And if you want to get down faster, you do this,” and proceeded to SPRINT DOWN THE STAIRS. UNBELIEVABLE.
Walking up the first pyramid. (Photo creds to Hannah!)
Our guide walked us from temple to temple and gave us the opportunity to climb up every one that was open. He even took us through a site where anthropologists (??? maybe archaeologists?? i can't remember it was almost a month ago) were uncovering another temple. It was super cool to see the process and think about all the work that went into uncovering everything else.
After the site, we walked a trail through the jungle with a bajillion mosquitoes to Temple IV, also known as the STAR WARS TEMPLE!!!!
I only geeked out a little bit.
Okay, maybe a lot. (Photo creds to Cas!)
From here is was more walking and climbing so this post will mostly be more pictures, maybe with some commentary. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
This photo shows the layers to the temple. Over time, the Mayans would build over what they already had to the structure.
Side one of the temple. Thankfully this temple had a staircase around the side instead of the actual temple stairs. However, those stairs were also stupid steep and difficult.
View one from the top.
View two. That plaza is where we headed next.
This is side two of the temple to show just how much of it is still covered by the jungle.
It was around this time that I began to feel incredibly sick. I felt a little nauseous and very cold (to the extent that I kept getting goosebumps (yikes)) despite being in 90+ degree weather. It was the worst and weirdest sensation I have ever had. Come to find out I was very dehydrated, but I only had a little bit of water left and though we were closer to the end of the hike than the beginning, we still had decent amount of ground to cover before lunch. Thankfully I made it without passing out and I felt much better after chugging three bottles of water.
After lunch, we left the park and back to Flores for our flight back to Guatemala City. Before we got dropped off at the airport, we drove through the actual ~town~ of Flores, which is on an island connected to the mainland by a causeway. It was a GORGEOUS little town and I wish we had had the time to stay a while.
Our flight home was uneventful, as was the bus ride from the city to Antigua. Despite being exhausted, I LOVED being in Tikal. It was amazing to be there to actually see the history and learn about it while taking it all in.
0 notes
Text
Remember when you had energy to do things? Those were some wild times
238K notes
·
View notes
Text
Lake Atitlán
Lake Atitlán / 02.23-26.18
//ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACES ON EARTH//
We left Friday afternoon for Panajachel where we stayed that night. First on our agenda was visiting an award-winning coffee shop because we just really have our priorities straight, here. The rest of the night we were able to just hang out in our hotel and play card games, specifically Spicy Uno. (If you have never played this version of Uno, I urge you to do so because there is just no going back after it.) There was a nice terrace on our floor, so that’s where everyone came to hang out. While we were up there, we got to watch a very small processional go through the street.
The next morning we got up and took a boat across the lake to San Juan La Laguna. There we had the opportunity to visit an organic and fair-trade coffee cooperative that employs Mayan families from the area. One of the workers took us on a tour and explained the history and current operation of the farm. It was incredibly interesting to see the entire process of making a bag of coffee. Once the tour was over, we ate a traditional Guatemalan meal, pepián, for lunch.
After the farm, we walked over to a complex where we met more Mayan ladies who were gracious enough to teach us how to weave a scarf on a traditional backstrap loom. This particular group dyes their own yarn naturally with things they find in the environment around them. The women had already been working on the scarves for a while, as it takes two days to make them, so we were given an introduction on how they dye the yarn, what they use to get different colors, and how they set up the yarn for the loom. Then we were invited to walk around, find a scarf we liked, and join in on the weaving. However, they do not know English and I do not know Spanish, so it was definitely a learn by observing lesson. It was difficult at first to get the rhythm down, but eventually I began to figure it out and my teacher must have thought so as well because she got up and left me on my own for about fifteen minutes. I super enjoyed learning the craft and think I might pick it up as a casual hobby.
My teacher finishing up my scarf because we only had so much time and I was simply too slow.
Later in the afternoon we had the opportunity to listen to an anthropologist who has spent a lot of time in the area with the Mayan people while studying them and their culture. It was interesting to hear about his life and how he ended up in the work he did. We also were able to ask him questions about anything we wanted to know about his life, his work, and his observations.
Sunday morning we again took a boat across the lake, this time to Santiago, where we visited a Catholic church. This church is home to the room where Stanley Rother, a priest from Oklahoma, was murdered in 1981 during the Guatemalan civil war. (If you don’t know much about this history, I urge you to research it. It is incredibly sad and the United States plays an important role.) He was number 8 on a death list because of his aid to the native Mayans and was urged to return to America for his safety. He did so very reluctantly in January of 1981, and eventually pleaded to go back to Guatemala because his people needed him. He returned in April, very aware that he was in danger. On July 28th, gunmen broke into his room and shot him in the head twice. The room was a shrine to the priest; you could see a chip in the flooring from a bullet and there were still blood stains in the room. His body was buried in Oklahoma, but his heart was buried under the altar in the church with his people.
Monday morning we departed from Panajachel for Antigua. On our way home we stopped at a site of Mayan ruins, Iximche. It used to be a palace for the royal families that ruled over the area. It was divided into four plazas; the most powerful family lived in the first two plazas, and the less powerful two lived in the last two. There was barely anything left of the last plaza because of the Spaniards. In fact, the only things left of the ruins at all were the foundations of the buildings because of the Spaniards. According to our guide, granted I understood him right, the Spanish wanted gold. The Mayans of that area did not have gold because it wasn’t found in the highlands where they were; instead, they used cacao beans. When the Spanish realized they wouldn’t be getting gold, they were angry and burned down the parts of the buildings and temples that weren’t made out of stone, thus only leaving the foundations. They then would take stones from these foundations and use them to build their own cities, which is why there was barely anything left of the fourth plaza. This made me contemplate a lot about the negative effects of colonialism that we don’t necessarily learn about in textbooks. It’s one thing to read about it and understand it’s bad, but it’s a completely different thing to be there, to see the damage, and hear about it’s devastating effects from a native.
0 notes
Text
I’m a strong, independent woman who don’t need no horse
Admittedly, this post is late. I was gonna write a post about hiking Pacaya then waited too long so I wasn’t going to but then I thought of this title and I can’t not put it out into the world. This title is too good to be wasted, so here we go. (Sorry if it’s awful and I don’t remember much; it’s been over a week and I’ve done some things since then.)
I climbed an actual, active volcano and it was the freaking coolest thing ever.
I felt like I was going to die multiple times, but I kept walking and I did it. Michaela did this hike during January so I was briefed on how hard of a hike it was. When she originally told me, I kind of didn’t even want to try to do it myself. I was content with walking to the entrance and immediately handing over 100Q (a little over $10) to the closest horse handler. As plans fell into place and the trip got closer, I decided I wasn’t going to buy a horse. I was going to put my big girl pants on and hike up this massive volcano with my own two legs, gosh dangit. I was so committed to doing it myself I didn’t bring any money so even if I decided I wanted a horse on the way up I still couldn’t get one.
At the time I absolutely hated myself for being so stubborn because oh my God I wanted-no, NEEDED-a horse so bad. Sure it was hard on the lungs going up a constant incline while also increasing in altitude, but I could live with that. What I couldn’t live with was that I wasn’t even halfway up the freaking volcano and my legs were TIRED. It took every ounce of my being to keep putting one foot in front of the other. I thought that working out (#getfitgetfluent) for the three weeks leading up to it would make it less miserable and it simply did not. I still felt like death was upon me. A few from the group naturally fell into the back while others surged ahead like freaking machines. The few of us in the back were constantly encouraging each other and trying to distract ourselves from the pain. I’m glad for that sisterhood. We were also flanked by at least three natives with a horse in tow, constantly bombarded with, “Taxi! Only 100!” Then closer to the end, “Special for you, now only 75!!” Like sir, I personally would love to take a horse up this God forsaken steep mountain, but can’t you see I’m trying to prove something to myself here? Our guides also kept bringing up taxis and how they were only 100Q. The man at the front (the few times he actually saw us) REALLY wanted us to buy a horse. Like, brought-it-up-every-time-he-saw-us kind of want. Sorry to make your job more difficult, sir. The woman who stayed at the back with us kept saying, “Es mas dificil,” while gesturing upwards with her arm. Yes, ma’am, I know; this entire volcano is difficult. I was glad it was her at the back, though, because she was incredibly patient with our 30 seconds of walking with 3 minute breaks in between.
Right at the end I was really struggling. Then the guide said that literally right there was the top and never in my life have I ran/scrambled somewhere so fast. I reached the top where the rest of our group was and held my arms up in victory because oh my God I DID IT! Then my friends laughed at my sweat marks as if I didn’t just walk uphill for almost two hours. These are the sweat marks of a warrior, people!! There is no shame!!
That there is the crater of Volcan Pacaya, AKA the actual top that contains all the cool stuff like lava.
Casa de Cindy chicas *insert heart-eye emoji here*
If you thought the fun ended here, you thought wrong! Now that we climbed the monster, we have to climb down to the rock beds for more fun. And it was fun except I literally thought I might die trying to walk down those rocks. I took a video of this perilous journey but my phone won’t upload it so instead here’s a picture of me being dumb while sliding down (thanks Natalie!):
Super cute, I know.
When we reached the beds, we were able to “roast” some marshmallows. I say “roast” with quotation marks because I enjoy my smores literally on fire and the heat from the rocks wasn’t that hot.
The rock is all solidified lava from previous eruptions.
I just super love Cleo in this picture and need to share it.
Once we ate our smores, we ran back up towards our first stop at the top to see an AMAZING sunset.
While we were up there waiting to descend Pacaya, we got to see it literally erupt. Lava was running down the side of the crater and spewing out of the top (see video on either Facebook or Instagram, because again, my phone is not uploading videos here properly). It was an amazing sight to see, especially from so close. Finally darkness completely fell and that’s when our guides decided we should probably head back to the bus. So we walked down in pitch black darkness. Praise the Lord for phones with flashlights.
I will never forget this experience of pushing myself to do what I never would have thought was possible for my body to do. There is nothing quite like proving yourself wrong in such a rewarding way, and now I am convinced that I can do anything (besides making a phone call).
1 note
·
View note
Text
Poco a poco
Well, I have been in Antigua for a little over two weeks now, which also means I (somehow) SURVIVED MY SPANISH CLASS!!!!! Never in my life have I ever been so challenged.
I knew maybe 50 words in Spanish before coming here, and I didn’t know anything about grammar, verbs, conjugations, tenses, adjectives, forming a sentence, and all the other things I can’t think of because it’s making my head hurt. Thankfully my tutor, Lisbeth, was incredibly gracious and patient and encouraging. She made me feel better on the days where all I wanted to do was cry because it was SO HARD and I was so tired. Our classes were four hours long from 8AM to 12PM. If you know me, you know this is not when I thrive. I spent 48 hours in class over 12 days. It was exhausting. The first day I talked in Spanglish, and even that wasn’t good. Basically, it went, “Hola! … Muy bien! *SAYS EVERYTHING ELSE IN CONVERSATION IN ENGLISH*” Whenever I was really having a hard time understanding something, Lisbeth would tell me, “Poco a poco,” which translates to little by little. It was extremely helpful and encouraging, until it was the day before my exam and she said it and I exclaimed, “NO TIEMPO PARA POCO A POCO!!!!!” To which she responded, “That’s what I was thinking!” Through all of the early mornings and pain and tears, I did manage to learn a bit of Spanish. (But please don’t ask me to prove that because I likely won’t be able to lol.) A few days before the exam I was able to hold a several minute conversation with my tutor about the weather almost completely in Spanish. I felt like a QUEEN. Then the next day I went in a felt like I knew nothing all over again. “Poco a poco.”
I had to give a 3 to 5 minute autobiographical speech SOLO EN ESPAÑOL two days before my exam. I thought I was going to die but luckily Google Translate had my back. Still, that didn’t do much to help my pronunciation. It was incredibly nerve-racking but I pulled it off okay enough that I was happy with it. If I’m being honest, I never knew what nervous was until the morning of my exam. I was in a constant state of anxiety and had to fight the urge to throw up all morning until I sat down and started the test. All morning I prayed to God that he would quite literally speak through me because I am sure his Spanish is better than mine. The test wasn’t as bad as I was anticipating, which made me feel better, but it was still difficult (as I’m sure any test that’s in a language you’ve been learning for 12 days is). I still don’t know my grade but I’m confident in how I did. The test also helped me realize that I knew a lot more than I thought I did; a major part of it was talking about myself or other topics related to my life. I thought I was done for, but I pulled so many words out of my head that I didn’t think I would remember. I felt so good about myself and how far I have come.
Our group hasn’t done much while we’ve all been in Spanish. We’ve hit up several coffee shops around town, walked up to Cerro de la Cruz, and went to a couple of soccer games. The weather is AMAZING and in case you were wondering, I do not miss the snow and below-freezing temps of Michigan. Now that Spanish is over, I have a TON of free time. So much that it’s kind of overwhelming. I am taking two classes through the university, but those are only one hour a week and my only homework is reading. It’s a sweet gig. Eventually I would like to start volunteering somewhere, but I don’t know where and I am also hindered by my lack of Spanish skills. In the meantime, I brought several books to read (for fun!) and there are many great movies on Netflix here that aren’t in the U.S.
Our first group trip is next weekend and we’ll be visiting Lake Atitlán. I’m excited to venture out of Antigua and see more of what Guatemala has to offer.
Antigua GFC stadium (we got ripped off in the street and paid 30Q for free seats lol)
Cerro de la Cruz // Hill of the Cross
0 notes
Text
if i feel an emotion one more time im gonna snap
414K notes
·
View notes
Quote
What a privilege it was to matter to you.
Beau Taplin (via thelovejournals)
20K notes
·
View notes