First Week in Antigua

After a busy two weeks in Calgary, I flew straight to Guatemala on Saturday, August 23rd. The traveling experience included a delayed flight, which then led to me having to run from gate to gate in order to catch my connecting flight in Houston. This did not go over well considering I'm usually the person to get to the airport a full two hours in advance and disapprove of the people that are rushing to the gate at the last minute.  It was a humbling experience, to say the least.

Once I arrived in Guatemala City, I was greeted at the airport by a driver from Christian Spanish Academy who took me to my host family's house in Antigua, about an hour away from the airport.  The family I am living with consists of the mom (Elizabeth) and her 22 year old daughter, Astrid. There is also a French Poodle named Pinky who hasn't decided to be my friend yet...we're still working on that. The family has a three story house with four extra bedrooms to house students that are here temporarily. They have been having students stay with them for 19 years. There is another student from Korea that has been here for four months and she was nice enough to show me around Antigua on the first day I was here.  

Church two blocks away from my house.

The salmon house at the end is my new temporary home.

On Monday, I started spanish class at Christian Spanish Academy.  It is about a ten minute walk from where I am staying and very easy to get to.  I have spanish class from 8am to 1pm Monday through Friday. All of the teaching is done one-on-one, which has been extremely helpful so far. Most of the students are from the United States, learning spanish for work or to go overseas.  The lady that works with her teacher next to me is from San Francisco and works at UCSF...small world! In Antigua, most of the houses and schools look pretty plain from the street, but once you go through the door they are gorgeous.  CSA has a big courtyard where we all sit with our teachers, instead of being in a classroom. It's a lot easier to learn when you're in a beautiful place!

My classroom for the next 10 weeks.

One of the main streets in Antigua.

All of the streets in Antigua are made out of cobblestone.

Cross-Cultural Training in Calgary

After months of planning, the adventure has finally begun! I arrived in Calgary, Canada on August 9th and spent the night there before heading to the training camp about an hour away. The organization that runs the training program leases a camp in the middle of nowhere, where I spent two weeks. The program consisted of courses on how to adapt to cultural norms in other countries, as well as other practical things, such as how to stay healthy and deal with stress in a foreign country. We took a field trip to Chinatown in Calgary for a cross-cultural experience and attended an Arabic church, which was just a little hard to understand! Overall, the past two weeks have been very informative and helpful and I loved getting to spend the time with 10 other people who will be dispersing to serve all over the world within the next year.  

Learning about stereotypes...Canadians' view of Americans.

The organization that hosts this program isn't related to Kids Alive, but there was one other girl in the training course, Neilly, who is also going to the Dominican Republic with Kids Alive. It was awesome getting to know her while we were in Canada, before we work together in the DR for a year! After we finished four classes last Monday, Neilly and I decided to explore the surrounding area a little bit. We came across this river that was beautiful. I tried out my chacos for the first time (thanks, Stef!), which was pretty embarrassing to begin with, but Neilly assured me that they are cool in the South where she's from, so I decided to embrace them...

The river that was just a short walk away from the camp.

Next step is language school in Antigua, Guatemala. I will arrive in Guatemala on August 23rd, and stay with a local family for 10 weeks. Then on to the Dominican Republic on November 1st!