First weekend- Tikal, Flores, Rio Dulce, and Livingston

Friday-
So I got to sleep in for the first time since I got here... til 7! I then had breakfast and got ready to head into town. I met up with Sascha whom I will be teaching English with starting Monday. We discussed a little bit about what we are going to be teaching next week. We will be teaching body parts and clothing. After that we checked out this trip for New Years- we are going to be going to El Salvador and learning to surf. Two of her roommates will be coming as well, I just don't really know who they are. I then went to the super market to get some stuff for this weekend. The supermarket was so crowded- like the ones in Israel... America seems to be the only place where the aisles are wide enough and people aren't in such a complete frenzy. I then headed back to pack and then walked back again to sign up for another week of Spanish and to go put a deposit down for the El Salvador trip. It should be so much fun. There is an older couple (early 60s?) and they are from upstate NY. The husband walked into the office and started speaking with me in Hebrew... apparently they spent 8 months on a Kibbutz a few years back. It is really nice being able to practice my Hebrew, but I keep getting it confused with Spanish. After that I went to have lunch and got picked up to head to the North. The drive was extremely long, and we didn't get to Flores until after 11. For dinner we went to this place in Rio Dulce that was right next to the water. It was really nice. In Guatemala it is a tradition to set off fireworks/crackers at midnight of Christmas, so that's what we did.. the streets were so smokey, but it was a lot of fun. What was annoying though is that the firecrackers went off all night, making if difficult to fall a sleep. It was strange... this is one of my first Christmases not eating Chinese food and watching movies... that said half of the people on my program at the moment are Asian- so I figured that was good enough :)

Saturday:
We had breakfast at 7 am, which overlooked the biggest lake in Guatemala, lake Peten Itza. Then we drove to Tikal, which is a Mayan ruin city in the middle of the jungle. Only 30% of the city has been excavated. We climbed palaces and walked a lot... there were 3 temples to climb. The first two I could not climb because the steps up were too steep and terrifying. The 3rd though, which was the tallest I was able to get all the way up because the stairs weren't as bad. The picture shows the view from the top. In the jungle we saw lots of animals, including spider monkeys.

I felt like I was in Petra again except in the jungle not the desert. After Tikal, we went to lunch which overlooked the same lake. After lunch we started the long 3 hour drive to Rio Dulce. Once we got there we cleaned up and then headed to dinner. But to get to dinner we had to take a boat because it was on an island, which was wicked awesome- the restaurant was Mexican/Aussie.

Sunday:
Again breakfast overlooked the water, and directly from there we went on a boat tour. The first stop was a castle near Rio Dulce called Castillo San Felipe de Lara, I think, which was used to stop pirate attacks. We then went to look at bird island, which was literally just an island filled with birds. We then just rode on the boat for about 20ish minutes until we reached the hot springs. The boat ride was amazing, it was so pretty and great to be able to look over the water and see houses on the edge and all the scenery surrounding us. The hot springs were really nice, except at times they were too hot. Some people swam in the river as well, but I stuck to the hot springs. We then were on the river for another 20 minutes until we reached the Caribbean Sea. We went a little farther until we reached this area in the jungle where the 7 pools are. The name 7 pools reminds me of this place the used to exist (still does maybe?) in Minneapolis, except this one was much much bigger. Because it is not the rainy season, many of the pools were low, but there was still water in most of them. Pool number 7 is the deepest and there people jump off a cliff about 10 meters high. I did not think that I was going to do it, but after some other people in our group did, I decided to climb up there. Again, it took me a while to be able to jump, but I was so glad that I did, it was so much fun. After the seven pools, we went to Livingston for lunch. Livingston is a town on the Caribbean, that can only be reached by boat. It is also the only place in Guatemala that you can see black people- and they speak a mixture of Spanish and a Creole language. Lunch was delicious, I had a seafood soup, except it was very difficult to eat because there was whole seafood in the soup. After lunch we got back on the boat and headed to the hotel to change before driving back to Antigua. The ride back was long, but again I could watch the scenery forever. Guatemala is such as beautiful country. We stopped for dinner at Pollo Campero, which is Guatemala's version of KFC. Now I am back in Antigua, extremely exhausted- time for a good night of sleep and tomorrow I start teaching English, so I will update this blog later in the week.

Buenos Noches

LUGGAGE!

Wednesday:
So my luggage arrived!!
but before i get to that i'll tell you about my day

Again, wake up early... i haven't woken up this early for anything besides Ultimate since high school. I wake up so early that the sun hasn't fully risen and I there is a great view of the surrounding mountains/volcanoes.
Walked to the Bus station with Ari... I know how to get there now, which is awesome. I'm learning the city, slowly but surely. Then headed to my volunteer placement. The bus ride wasn't as scary this time. It's actually kinda nice to watch the country side. Today at the school I swept sawdust, moved some scrap wood, raked trash, and moved some plants. I haven't really been enjoying my placement. I know I should try to give it more time, but am lonely there. I have no one to speak to because no one speaks English, and I cannot really speak enough Spanish to have a conversation. During some of my breaks I played with the directors twin daughters. They are so cute and just enjoy life. I've been having them help me learn Spanish, particularly colors. I point to something and ask "que color" and they would tell me. I forgot most of them, but it was still cute.

After that I went back to the house for lunch and short nap before I headed to Maximo Nivel for Spanish class. When I arrived, I was EXTREMELY pleased to find my luggage. I'm now in a class alone, and I'm learning really quickly. I also talked to the volunteer coordinators and starting Monday, I will be teach English to children. I'm excited. After Spanish I hung around a bit before our meeting about Tikal and Rio Dulce. We will also be going to Flores and Livingston on the trip. I am extremely excited and cannot wait to go. I then took a tuc-tuc (a motorbikeish taxi) back to the house because I had my suitcase. That ride was nuts. So bumpy, it was nuts. I then had dinner and started to unpack. And here we are now... again I have to wake up at 6:15, but I won't have to on Friday because I don't have work- which will be extremely nice.

Thursday:

Same morning schedule as the past few days. Today at work, I moved plants but for the most part played with the girls- their names are Carly and Georgese, i have NO idea if they are spelled correctly, but they are adorable as I have said in every previous post. They had me practice my colors again and then they had me read to them. That was an interesting task. I had no idea how to pronounce most of the words or what I was saying but they were content and kept turning the pages having me read more.

After work I had lunch and then took a nap before Spanish. After Spanish, I went to change some money and as I was walking all of a sudden someone starts to talk to me in Hebrew. I cannot remember the last time I was that confused, I still do not know how he knew I was Jewish. I found out that he was Guatemalan but for his job has a lot of Israeli tourists and has learned hebrew that way. It was really cool. Me and my roommates went to get some dessert before heading home. It's always a task to try to buy food. I point to something and ask "que?" and hope that their explanation has enough cognates in it to be able to understand what I am buying. It is usually a shot in the dark, but so far everything I've bought had tasted good. So after that we headed home to have dinner, and now are just relaxing. Tomorrow around 2 a group of about 10 of us will be heading to Tikal for the weekend. I will have an update when I get back! Monday I will also have news about my new placement teaching English.

Buenos Noches

Day 2 and 3 and still no luggage

So Sunday night there was parade or something from outside my window- it was extremely loud and I was trying to sleep. But o well.

Monday we woke up early and had breakfast. Then got ready for our orientation- when I am saying we and I talking about the people living at the house with me. My roommate is Xuemei, she is from Beijing but goes to Michigan State and the other girl in the house is Ari, she is from South Korea but is an exchange student at Northern State University in South Dakota. We walked to Maximo Nivel which is the spanish school for our orientation at 8:30... I thought that was early but that is late compared to what I'll be doing this month. It's a good thing that Xuemei knew how to get there because Antigua is like New England- there are not street signs- if you don't know where you are you don't belong :). So after orientation we went on a walking tour- which basically just confused me and then one of the staff went with me to find my volunteer place. I am volunteering in San Mateo and working on a construction project at a school. We took a chicken bus, and for those who don't know, chicken buses are old American school buses that are painted in bright colors. San Mateo is close to Antigua but it is isolated, so buses don't run to frequently- meaning I cannot miss the bus! And the hills were so steep I thought the bus was going to tip, but I was assured that they won't. After that I had lunch, took a short nap (i'm guessing that is going to be a reoccurring event), and then went exploring. I got lost- of course, but it is a good thing that many people speak English and was able to help me. I had my first Spanish class at 4, and hopefully I will soon be able to really speak. After Spanish i tried to deal with my luggage but that was a fail, so I joined the tail end of the Salsa class. Hopefully at some point we will all go to a Salsa club. After Salsa 7 of us went to out to eat which was really nice. There are so many different age groups on the program... 19-mid 30s... so I am one of the youngest. And people from all over- many Asians, Aussies, Canadians, and people from the US. After dinner we headed back to the house and crashed out.

Today I had to wake up at 6... I was going to get help to get to the bus station, so I had to leave earlier. The bus station is hectic and as I said- I am still having trouble finding my way around the city. It is so strange being awake so early- I never do that... at school I am not awake until at least 9. I found my way to the school!! my goal for tomorrow is to be able to find my way to the bus station. When I got to San Mateo and the school, I found out that I am helping move the supplies- small rocks and dirt. I didn't expect to have to do that, but then again I have to do that before we can start building. It was really hard work, but I took some breaks to play with the directors twin daughter who are almost 5. Even though we don't speak the same language we were able to communicate some how which was great. After work I took the bus back to Antigua, had lunch, took a nap, and then headed into town. I went to check about my luggage- which I found out was supposed to get brought to Maximo Nivel this afternoon so I was excited. I then tried to find the supermarket. I was told to take a right and went left and again got extremely lost. I went into a store, but the clerk didn't speak English but there was a man in the store that answered me. I then noticed he was wearing a Twins hat. I found out that he was from Blaine and was a missionary in Antigua and has been there for 7 years. What a small world. Found the supermarket, but as I was trying to get back to the school... again got lost :)
I then had Spanish, and before I left found out that my luggage won't be in Antigua today.. but tomorrow I will get it. Went back home to eat dinner, and then the 3 of us decided to find some dessert. We got to the plaza and found this crepe restaurant. It was so yummy and we got to talking to the owners. The mother is originally from Chicago and her daughter grew up in Guatemala but speaks perfect English. We get to talking about how when working on my Spanish, I am having trouble and confusing it with Hebrew and then I found out that they were Jewish- some of the only Jews in Antigua but still none the less fun to find out. Afterwards we headed back to the house, and here I am now and about to go to sleep because I have to wake up at 6:15 am and I am exhausted.

Buenos Noches

What a day...

Alright so today has been an extremely stressful day. I woke up at 4:30 to then head to La Guardia airport. I get in line to board the plane and they tell me that my backpack is too big and that I need to gate check it- I had my computer and my camera and all of that stuff in it, but they made me gate check it. Then I figure out that they were trying to transfer it to Guatemala via American Airlines not TACA, which is what I was flying on the 2nd part of the trip... so they had to get it out from under the plane and bring it and try to fit it in an over head compartment. That was hectic and the plane was waiting for me to deal with it and it was extremely embarrassing. So i get to Miami and I have to walk all the way across the airport to get to my terminal... i guess there was a tram but I never found it. Then I get in line check in and its all good until i try to go through security and they tell my that my backpack is too big and it needs to be checked... so i quickly go by a bag to put all my important stuff in a bag I buy at the gift shop, check my backpack and run to my gate. I thought that it was going to board early so I was rushing. I was so frazzled, but then my plane wasn't boarding so I could relax a little, get some coffee and then we boarded. I actually thought the flight was not too bad except then when I landed and got through customs... only my backpack was at baggage claim..

my luggage is in Miami, so lets hope it gets here tomorrow or else it will be even more of a mess :/. My host family seems nice, I'm staying in a nice house in Antigua- I have one roommate, but there are others in the house. Tomorrow is my orientation, which will hopefully also include my luggage.

Tonight will include a good nights sleep and hopefully tomorrow I will wake up more relaxed and ready to start my day in Antigua.

buenas noches

Pre-departure jitters

So... I leave tomorrow morning. I will be waking up at 5 am leaving at 6 getting to LGA around 7, and then catching my 9am flight to Miami. I have a 2 1/2 hour layover in Miami, where I will hopefully run into Stephanie- a friend from school who is heading down to Ecuador for winter break to visit family and also has a layover in Miami.
I'm basically packed... hopefully I won't go over 50 lbs.
When I get tips about going to Guatemala... the #1 tip i've gotten is don't drink the tap water and check the ice cubes. Knowing me the first day I will brush my teeth with tap water...

Before I go let me tell you a little bit about the program I am going on and with. The organization I am going with is called International Volunteer HQ, and is based out of New Zealand. They are a volunteer organization that has locations all over the world and are open to most ages over 18 (and under 18 as long as they are with their family) The website for the organization is http://www.volunteerhq.org/. While I am in Guatemala I will be volunteering through the organization Maximo Nivel, which partners with IVHQ. This is their website: http://www.maximonivel.com/destinations/guatemala/

I will be doing construction work-type stuff 5 days a week in the morning, followed by lunch and then spanish lessons. Afterwards I will have free time and then dinner followed by either hanging out with my host family, or going into Antigua for the night. On the weekends I will probably travel around the country seeing different parts of Guatemala, with other volunteers.

For those who want to comment on these posts but do not know how, you can if you sign in with a google account.

Whenever I get the chance, I will update you all on how my trip is going so far.

-Rachel

Pre-departure

Alright- so this post is a short distraction from finals week. I leave for Guatemala on December 19th and will be there til Jan 15th. I will be spending most of my time in Antigua which is about 30 min from the capital. While I'm there I will be doing construction and renovation... its the inner Nechama in me :)
I am pretty nervous since I speak basically no Spanish and know NO ONE going with me. But I will be taking lessons there and I'm sure it'll be fine.

Hopefully while I'm there I will be able to update a few times a week, I will have internet access at the volunteer office- but we'll see how much free time I have.

Alright it is time to go to class.... only 2 classes left this semester!

-Rachel

The End of the Trip

This is probably my last blog entry for a while. Next time I go on a trip like this, I will start this blog again.

Saturday:
Saturday was an awesome and relaxing day. I started with sleeping til about noon or so, it was great- I hadn't gotten 12 hours of sleep in ages. After that I did some housework and then walked to the beach to meet up with people. It was really nice to chill and relax. About 10 people from the trip went to the beach as well. The water was nice because the jellyfish have gone away. After that I went back to my apartment, showered, ate dinner, napped, and then got ready to go out. Some friends and me tried to go to a club at the port, but it was too crowded so we went to a bar near by and just chilled.

Sunday:
Sunday I went to work and we got a new intern. She is from Germany and just decided to spend two months in Israel. I spent a lot of Sunday working on the reports for USAID- as the quarterly narrative and the PMP report were both due during the week. After work I went back to apartment and took a nap (for those who have been reading this constantly, I’m guessing you have started to see a pattern, work then nap ☺). Then I got ready to go to dinner with Marisa, Ellery, Gali, Avia, and Lauren. We wanted to go to this Indian restaurant but then it ended up being too late and instead we went to this really good Mexican restaurant in South Tel Aviv. Oy, do I miss Mexican or more like Chipotle/Moe’s. After that I went back to Bat Yam because I was so beyond exhausted. Lauren and I waited for the bus for about an hour and it never showed up so we took a cab back to Bat Yam.

Monday:
Monday after work I went near the Shuk to a shoe store to get a new pair of Naots. I bought 2 pairs of Naots in Israel, but they are the most comfortable shoes I that I still find cute. I then went back to Bat Yam, where we had a mandatory meeting talking about the final few days and then I went back to my apartment and napped before going back into Jaffa for Natascha’s birthday dinner. A bunch of us went to this really good kabob place in Jaffa. They gave us so much food, we were all full before the kabobs actually came. After that we all went to the beach in Tel Aviv for the night to just hang out. It was a lot of fun, even though the beach was filled with annoying high schoolers trying to get into the bars.

Tuesday:
Tuesday was my last day of work, which was extremely bittersweet. I worked on the Bat/Bar Mitzvah letter, some more of the report, the website (which should be up soon!). At the end of the day Emily gave me one of the embroideries, which they sell as a gift and Emily, Larissa (new intern), and I went to Max Brenners as a little good-bye thing. I am by no means ready to be done with the internship; Windows is doing such amazing things and learned so much working for them. It was my first internship, and before this summer I had no idea how an NGO really worked, how to write a grant, and many other things associated with NGO/grants in general. After Max Brenners, I went back to Bat Yam to start packing my stuff up, and then later that night I went back into Tel Aviv to meet up with people at Bloom Bar for a concert. Even though I had no idea what I was being sung, I still really enjoyed the show. Music in Israel is a little different from what I listen to at home, due to the fact that they aren’t as progressive and don’t have as much indie music here. But the rock music is really good here. After Bloom Bar we al went back to Bat Yam because we had a hike to go on the next day and were all really exhausted.

Wednesday:
So Wednesday was my last full day in Israel- an extremely bittersweet feeling. We had to get up extremely early to go a hike near Jerusalem. We went on the fountains hike where we saw a bunch of fountains that used to be used as a water source during the Crusades period. Israel is so full and rich of history- it’s such an amazing country for thousands of years of history. There were many young Israeli children on the hike as well and at one point we started singing Disney songs and they started singing with us in Hebrew. After the hike we went to this Arab town near by to go to this really good restaurant for lunch. They had salads, pita, hummus, and falafel. It was טעים מאוד (very tasty). We then headed back to Bat Yam to pack, work on cleaning the apartment, and then headed to our final meeting/wrap up. The meeting consisted of filling out an evaluation, discussing the program in details, thanking each other, a slide show, and getting our t-shirts. After that I went back to my apartment and made dinner with Gillian before we all got ready to go out to the Namal (port) for our final night. We tried going to a club, but it was way beyond too crowded. You couldn’t move in the club, and it wasn’t fun at all so we left and went somewhere else. We all ended up at an extremely chill outside bar and we all just hung out until we started heading back to Bat Yam.

Thursday:
So today, I had to get up at 7 am to finish packing and cleaning before I headed to the airport. Packing was terrible, I have way too much stuff and my suitcases are basically packed to beyond capacity. I said goodbye to my apartmentmates and went down to get a cab. The cab then went to get Rachel Heidling who is also on this flight. We went to the airport, checked our bags (one of my bags was overweight, but they didn’t charge me, we’ll see how it goes in Newark). We then went through security and while we were waiting in line for security I saw a guy wearing a Seeds of Peace t-shirt. We got to talking and he was telling me about Seeds of Peace and how he was a seed and then was a counselor there. That camp is something that I would LOVE to work at sometime in the future. It is very similar to Window. We then went to exchange money and there ran into Jamie who was also going to be on our flight, but took a different cab to the airport. We got breakfast and then went to our gate. I am not on the flight writing this and I will post it when I get home and have internet again.

This trip has been something unlike anything I have ever done before. I have never lived in another country, which I did for two months. This was my first internship. I had never gone camping with just friends before. And so many more things that I can’t even begin to explain. While I don’t think I could live in Israel permanently ever, Israel is such an amazing country and I hope to be able to go back at some point in the future. Get another internship, hike/camp throughout Israel. Go spend more time in Jordan, go to Egypt, and go to the West Bank. Two months was nowhere near enough time to live in a country. I would love to spend more time in the North, which is my favorite place in Israel.

“It’s not good-bye, it’s until next time.”