Monday: So not much happened on Monday, partially due to the fact that I spent most of my day in bed. I went to meet Sascha to work on the days lesson plan, but we both decided that we were not in the best condition to be teaching, me with my cold and her with her stomach bug, especially since many of the kids are so high energy. So after lunch, I took a nice and long 4 hourish nap. For those who know me well, you know I love to sleep.. but a 4 hour nap is still a pretty long time for me. After that, I had dinner and tried to watch some tv shows that I downloaded before falling asleep again. I had wanted to go to salsa, since it was the last salsa class I could go to, but I just felt too crappy and need to rest.
Tuesday: I woke up feeling still a little stuffy, but much better than the day before. I went to go to the artisan market to finish buying presents for people. I am glad I am done shopping for presents now! After that I went home for lunch and then went to meet Sascha to head to our volunteer placement. The set up for the festival is getting bigger everyday, and we wish that it was before we left, but at least there are things we can see and buy if we want before the festival starts. In the younger class we worked on family profiles. They have to write about themselves and 4 other family members and they have to talk about what they look like, how old they are and what they like to do. This is supposed to be for today and tomorrow's class. At the end of class though, Sascha told me that one kid was done- Alex. Alex does not talk much in class, but he knows his stuff- he only had about 3 extremely minor spelling errors all together, which was incredible. Especially since many of the kids were struggling quite a bit. After work I headed back for dinner, and then went out to a place called Mono-loco to meet up with people for the evening. I left pretty early because my housemates wanted to leave, but I was glad to leave early because I was extremely tired, and still not completely over my cold.
Wednesday: So today I started getting myself back into the real world. I started by
sending out emails for Relay for Life. My goal this year is $1,200, a little more that the $1000 I raised last year. After Sascha and I found some worksheets for the kids to work on. Then Sascha and I went to this place called the Rainbow Cafe for lunch. It's such a cute place, though everyone there is basically foreign. After lunch, we headed to Alotenango for class. There were not that many student there today, not sure why though. We had them finish their family profiles and then work on the worksheets we brought for them. In the second class we worked more on verbs and had some worksheets for them where we had them unscramble the sentences. Even though there is a class party tomorrow, it was very bitter sweet for Sascha and me, as it was our last day teaching. While there are other volunteers in the town of Alotenango, we were the only two in the plaza area. Everyone knew who we were- I felt like "sólo dos gringas en Alotenango." I didn't go out tonight, just stayed in and did some work for school. My first study abroad application is due on February 15th, and so I wanted to get as much done before I got back to school as possible. And it is much easier to do work when I don't have other school work looming over my head. One of the essays that I am working on is for is about riding chicken buses- and intercultural experience. Thursday:
Today I started packing :/. I'm not really sure that I am ready to head back to the states. I mean I am really excited for next semester, my classes are nicely spread out, hopefully I'll have a job, and I'm really excited to see all my friends. But on
the other hand I am having a such a great time here, and I would love to spend another month here and explore more of Antigua and the country itself. My final day of volunteering was today, and we had a party. There was a pinata, we played a game called pass the parcel (an aussie game), and had food. It was a lot of fun, but when we had to say goodbye it was extremely sad. Instead of saying adiós, we said hasta luego (see you later), and some of the kids said to us basically see you another year. I hope these kids go on to do good things- some of them told us that they want to study law, and I hope that they are able to accomplish that. After work Sascha and I met up with Renny, Belize, and Amanda for a bit before I had to say goodbye to Sascha, Renny, and Belize. They were heading to Tikal for the weekend and I would be gone before they gone back. I went out to dinner with some people and then went to meet up with others for the night. It was a lot of fun, but difficult because at the end of the night I was saying goodbye to a lot of other people. A lot of people were heading to El Salvador for the weekend, so they were leaving at 6 am Friday. I really hope I keep in touch with a lot of these people because it has been such a great experience.Friday:
Today was packing day. I spent the morning packing in one of the most relaxing manners possible. I just took my time slowly getting stuff together. I also spent a bunch of time reading. It was an extremely relaxing morning. After lunch I went and got a massage for 100 Q, which is about 12 dollars. It was a really nice treat to have before I jump into next semester. I then went to get some coffee before heading to Maximo one last time to fill out feedback forms and say goodbye to the staff. I then went back to the house to change and do a little more packing and then my house and Tim and Farid went out to dinner. We had no idea where do go, but we decided to go to this place called Su Chow- a Chinese restaurant. It was actually really good. We then headed home so I could finish packing. I finished packing, and then said goodbye to my housemates. I tried sleeping a little, but I was not really that successful.
Saturday:
I woke up quite frequently thinking it was time to wake up. Eventually I got up finished packing, and then got picked up at 330 am to head to the airport. When I got there TACA wasn't even open. I had to wait at least an half hour before they got there. I got to the gate before basically anyone was there. Once people started to arrive though, I had go through a security thing again before getting to the gate. The security was almost more strict getting back to the states from Guatemala than going from to Israel from the states. I slept most of both flights, and it was a pretty uneventful journey. I'm now back in Westport for the next two days before headed back to Clark. I'm in quite a bit of culture shock, and seeing snow is also extremely strange, but if I cant be in Guatemala I'm glad I'm here.
This trip was beyond amazing, a life changing experience and I'm very sad that I had to leave. I hope that at one point in the near future I am able to go back there, but only time will tell that.
I may have another post in the next few days about my trip as a whole, but we shall see if I decide to do that.
Buenos Noches
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