PICTURES!

Over 1,000 photos from my trip are all uploaded! Enjoy!
Thanks again for journeying along with me on my trip!
-Andrea

http://s1127.photobucket.com/albums/l639/astockwe08/Que%20Guatemala%202011/

Last night in Guatemala!

Today was amazing! We went to the beach, which was beautiful with black sand and miles and miles of ocean! After reapplying sunscreen for the most times in my entire life, I still look like a tomato! Getting ready to say some sad goodbyes and pass around the presents!

Things I loved about this trip:
-Getting food poisoning made me lose about 15 pounds!
-The 2 hour tours we would go on after school each day!
-Seeing the social side of Guatemala
-Our very hospitable family who has been amazing!
-My very smart students who I will miss terribly!

This truly has been an experience of a lifetime, in which I will never forget!
-Andrea

Last Day with the kids!

After a week that went by very quickly, today was our last day at the school! It was very sad. Yesterday, the high school kids threw us a party with presents and treats! Today the elementary kids did the same. It was remarkable how much these kids want to give back to us for teaching them English! The day was not lost on tears ( however those were present) but a joyous day knowing that one day we would some how all find our way back to the school. We ended the day by visiting an orphanage of children who have HIV. These kids are some of the happiest kids I have seen, with that fate that they have. We really had a great time. It will be so hard to leave Monday, leaving behind all these kids that I just wish I could pack in my suitcase. My students are so smart, bright, and extremely talented that I wish I could share that with everyone. It truly was a blessing and an opportunity of a lifetime to meet all the kids and people we have met here. Although I am ready to be back home, I will never forget the school and all the kids!
-Andrea

Six Days Left

With only six days left we are finally getting into learning English. The high school kids are doing such a good job and learning quickly! Today we talked about society, what makes up a society and such! Then we went over phrases that will be helpful. They wanted to learn everything they could today about how to say this and that. It was great to act out different phrases and try to understand what they wanted in Spanish to tell them the word in English. I can't wait for Thursday to give them cupcakes, pictures, and treasures! Although I'm excited to head home, I am going to miss all of them! Today we took lots of pictures, which are now on the photobucket website, so check them out!
-Andrea

http://s1127.photobucket.com/albums/l639/astockwe08/Que%20Guatemala%202011/

The Weekend

On Friday we left for Antigua for the weekend, a city that use to be the Capital of all of Central America. The city was very pretty with all the buildings looking similar and cobble roads. We checked into a cute little hotel that was actually a 200 year old house. We went the market there and got lots of souvenirs, then dinner at a fancy restaurant and out on the town. The next day we went to a coffee plantation which was really fun to see all the hard work that goes into making coffee. We learned that the plantation we were at exports their coffee to Starbucks, the new Guatemalan coffee is from where we were! That was pretty neat,  as well as getting to taste the coffee and buy some of our own! After the plantation we went to the Jade factory which was neat to see how they make the jade and delicate the process is. The jade is so pretty and unique. After touring the city a bit more, seeing the cathedrals, and such we came back to be picked up by our host family. Since it was pretty late we called it a night after showing off our new treasures! Today we went to the country club, which was really nice to have a relaxing day. We swam, hung out in the hot tub and sauna and just rested.
I have plenty of pictures from this weekend and they are uploading to photobucket as I type this! Feel free to try this link periodically to see when they upload!
-Andrea

http://s1127.photobucket.com/albums/l639/astockwe08/Que%20Guatemala%202011/

End of Week 2!

Doing lots better! Still not sure what I had, but feeling close to normal again. Excited for Antigua and the beach this weekend! Taking lots of pictures, but having complications loading them without a camera cord, might just have to wait until I'm back in the states and them load them all at once! Today my lesson we great again, I think the students really like being active and learning. After school our family took us to the mall, which was really fun to see all the places and shops! Well bedtime, big weekend ahead! I will post after our adventure to Antigua!
-Andrea

Sick Day!

Starting to get better I think, not sure. The vomiting and such has stopped, but a fever took it's place. Stayed home from school today and rested. Have hit the humor stage of the trip where I just laugh at myself for the misfortune I have come into. Between my roommate having a cold and me having who knows what we just laugh at everything. More pictures can be found on the photobucket website in the last post.

High of today: Gatorade and 7 up
Low of today: super sick
Funny thing of today: My roommate sounds like a man!

12 days, can't wait to be home!

End of week one!

The end of week one came with a lovely surprise. VOMITING! Nothing like being slightly covered in your own bile because the only place to throw up is the streets. We visited the kids' homes today, so we had to stay late at the school. Silly Americans we decided to order pizza, that was a bad idea. I didn't even eat a lot of it, but I think between that and the local food we had yesterday my stomach just couldn't process it fast enough, thus stomach flu! Yay me! Other than that today was really good, my lesson went well, the kids are learning so quickly. It was moving to see their homes, or lack there of tonight. I hope that I can show you pictures to convey the feelings that I have now. I do have lots of pictures from the weekend and have decided to create a photobucket account so it's easier and better to see them. I apologize for the short entry again, but as I'm not feeling to good, I'm going to bed.
-Night,
Andrea

The link to photos:
http://s1127.photobucket.com/albums/l639/astockwe08/Guatemala%202011/

Lake trip!

Today we went to the lake by the volcanoes! There are three volcanoes in that part of Guatemala: fire, water, and something else. They were really neat! I have a lot of pictures from the day, but cannot upload them yet. I will try to tomorrow with someone else's camera cord. I apologize for the short entry, but I'm so tired after going all weekend and having to wake up at 5 am every morning and not getting into bed until about 10 pm, long days! I'm excited for a full week of teaching though.

High of the day: Going on a boat ride across the lake. Getting some more souvenirs.
Low of the day: Eating food that we probably shouldn't have and paying for it. :/
Funny thing of the day: Just conversations with the family, they are really entertaining and think Tiffany and I are hilarious!
XOXO- Andrea

Weekend!

Today was great! We woke up at 7, which was sleeping in, then went to different places around the city. First we went to the zoo, saw all the animals, took lots of pictures. Next we went to a cute little market, bought my first souvenir for mom. Then we moved onto the Children's Museum, which was so much fun! We literally were kids again, running around to the different stations. At one we had to rescue a dummy because he fell off his bike. At another we played grocery story, another we acted like beans and went through the process they go through. We were human bubbles and many other things! So much fun, after that we were exhausted and came home to watch movies and relax. Tomorrow we are going to a lake, because it's pretty I guess, not quite sure! I will have lots of pictures to post after the weekend though! Sorry for a short post, but we were really busy and I'm exhausted, we are getting up at 5 am again tomorrow so bed time!
-Andrea

3rd day of not teaching...

So today we arrived at school to learn that after about an hour of lessons in the morning the students would go to PE for most of the time. The high school students would not have any English because they would be gone the whole time we are here. After planning a nice lesson for the day, we got to play games at the place where they have PE and watch the kids swim. It is amazing how the school can get such donations from people. The gym where we went has a huge open area with soccer nets and basketball hoops and then a huge pool for the older kids and a little bit smaller one that’s not as deep. It was just so generous that people are here to lend what facilities they have. That is how the school gets by, with many generous donations from people. If anyone would like to make a contribution to the school, they would be more than grateful. I guess then more history of the school and the kids should be mentioned. The school was started 6 years ago by the two people I mentioned before. They wanted the students that live on the streets to have a place to go to school. They opened the doors of the school to feed and educate the children. These kids are so smart, after one and a half days of learning they already greet us with Good Morning and My Name Is…! It’s amazing to see the progress already. The high school kids I have a feeling will be moving on to verbs and prepositions soon because they already know so much. I will post pictures of the work that we have done in class for examples. These students are so grateful with everything they have and don’t realize what they are missing, which is hard for us. As easy as it is to feel sorry for them it is better to sympathize with them, but still lend a helping hand. That’s why I encourage everyone to let me know if they want to help, rather by sending donations, such as school supplies and shoes, or monetary donations. Shoes is a big one because some of the students where shoes that are too small for them and they have big blisters on their feet. Another is health care, here the nurse (also the principal) pulls the rotted teeth out the of the mouths of students. In a society where if we have a tooth ache we can have it nicely removed and no pain afterwards, these students experience a lot of pain that hinders their academic performance.

Anyways, back to what we did at school today. I helped out with the elementary class again and we went over family and colors. The teacher had them play a matching game with family that was really fun. Then we reviewed the colors and did some more with those. Lastly, we taught them red light-green light, which was a big hit! Like I said I didn’t get to teach today, but the other teacher that is going to be in my room and I decided to split the class in half for the time that she is in there and then I can have the whole class once she leaves. With our personalities and styles I think this will work best. I look forward to my lessons on Monday.

Also on Monday, I think we are going to visit the homes where the students live. By homes I mean the places at the dump that the students and their families have made into their homes. The group that went yesterday said it left them speechless and they understood fully where their students come from. I think it will be an eye-opening experience. Tomorrow we are going to the history museum, the children’s museum, the zoo, and the mall! A busy day but it should be fun! Then Sunday I think we are going to the beach with the black sand. They say it’s only one of a few in the world, so that will be exciting to get some sun and relax!

Pictures!! Finally, I know! Sorry if they are blurry or rainy. It’s winter here and it rains EVERYDAY at 3, literally you can set your watch to it. But that is when we go on our tours, so it’s hard to take pictures, also we are in the car, thus the blurry photos. But most of the places are where we have visited. The large elevation map is of Guatemala and shows the mountains and volcanoes. The random buildings are just important places in Guatemala that we have seen along our trip! The gas prices are about the same as ours except here they look like $34 even though they are not. They have a lot of US places down here like all the fast food places and car places, even Chuck E. Cheese! I’m sure I will have more pictures after the weekend from the museum, mall, and zoo!

This evening we got a tour around the city again and visited the university that the girls in our family go to and saw the high school that the younger daughter goes to. It was a lot like our university actually, just a little smaller. We of course had to try something along the way, tonight was a type of milkshake but with cinnamon in it. It was good, kind of tasted like lobster though. Then we came home and had pizza from Pizza Hut, funny right? for dinner while watching The Wedding Date and then starting a scary movie. Due to our apparent fatigue we retired to our beds, got on our computers for just enough time to write an entry and now are going to bed! Busy day tomorrow!

High of the day: Figuring out with the co-teacher (other girl from my group) how we are going to teach for the hour that she is there. Seeing how many people are able to help the students be sponsoring the school. It was so nice to see such happy kids after they went swimming.

Low of the day: Just being lost in translation a little. I understand the concepts usually and am learning really quick, but still the details and full conversations I can't follow.

Funny moments: One of the kids today in the elementary class goes, "Oh my God, thank you!"I feel like there were a lot of other funny moments, but I'm so tired from watching movies and playing soccer most of the day!

2nd Day of Teaching:

The day started off great! After Tiffany and I accidentally slept from 6 pm until the morning, we were well rested. Again when we arrived at school we started off with hugs, then breakfast. Then I observed and helped out in an elementary classroom where they learned My Name Is..., the colors, and a couple other basic things. It went really well for the rambunctious group that we have. The we had our class which consisted of talking about upcoming papers and such, so fun! Then I finally got to teach the 9th graders and it was a lot more fun and easier than I thought. They honestly want to learn, which is great! They already know so much which is great, so we can move onto other things. Today we talked about family, their lives and about them. I also have them write about what they already knew in English, which is a lot.
After the school day ended, our host dad likes to show us places in the community. Today we visited the university, which was really neat to see the similarities because our school and theirs. There is actually a lot in common with the schools. We tried a Guatemalan hot dog at the school which consisted of beef, guacamole, cabbage, mustard, and a few other things. Let's just say luckily there was Pepsi to wash it down. Our dinner was much better tonight though. After trying lots of different fruits, some sweet and some sour, we sat down to a dinner of bean paste (black beans prepared as mashed potatoes) with cream cheese, eggs and hams, and bread. It was actually pretty good. Tonight we hung out with the family a lot just talking and telling stories so we could make up time from last night.

Low of today: Figuring out who was in control of the classroom in the afternoon and just how it was going to go.
High of today: Getting to teach and realizing that the students do know a lot. Spending time with our family!
Funny things of today: Here yellow sounds like jello, it makes me giggle every time! Also alcohol down here is around all the time and the dad is proud of his stash. Today he had us try a couple different sips of something. It was interesting because we didn't need chaser, we could just drink it straight because it is so sweet. The funny thing though was that the dad wanted me to smell one of the drinks, but I didn't know what he meant and I thought he wanted me to try it. Tiffany was lacking in her translation, so I was about to take a sip and they were like no, no, no! It was really funny!
Tomorrow I look forward to seeing how the days goes, the kids go to PE for part of the day and I'm not sure what to expect.

-Sorry for the lack of pictures, again I don't have a way to upload them, but hopefully soon!

1st Day of Teaching

Today we left promptly at 5:50 to travel to the school to get there by 7am. It is not a very long journey, but we have to leave plenty of time for traffic. We arrived at school to meet Yosepi (the founder) and Tanya (the principle). After a morning prayer and a couple stories the buses arrived. Everyday Yosepi, Tanya, and the teachers greet the children by giving each child a hug. It was such a rewarding, comforting feeling to hug nearly 100 students. After the hugs, we served breakfast. Wednesday is pancake day. My host family insisted that we have oatmeal before we left so we were stuffed, but I'm sure the pancakes were great. A surprising thing about breakfast was that EVERYONE drank COFFEE! Even the preschool kiddos were drinking coffee. It looked to be sweetened with milk and sugar, but still coffee as kids?! Once breakfast is all cleaned up the students go to the classrooms. Today I observed a classroom of students that seem to be in the remedial classroom, as they need extra attention and guidance. While in the class, I felt like I was there forever mainly because I didn't know what anyone was saying. Yeah NEWSFLASH: NOONE SPEAKS ENGLISH!! They did math todays and luckily numbers are the same or  I wouldn've been lost. The classrooms are very different. Small rooms, little decoration, and NO RULES! That's right, the kids do whatever they want basically. There is never a quiet moment as the kids can talk whenever they want. I'm sure it's nice for the kids to have such freedom, but as a teacher I would imagine it's exhausting. Guess I'll find out soon enough, tomorrow. I have already learn a lot of Spanish from listening to the family, my friends, but mostly the children. They like to play a game where they say the Spanish word, then we try to figure out what the Spanish words means and tell them in English. There's already a lot of learning going on already. That is why I want to be in an elementary classroom because I know they really want to learn English. The high school classrooms are so confusing and I'm only in there an hour that I feel like it's not enough time to do anything. The classroom I was in in the afternoon was actually 9th grade, and it's even more challenging than the first because the students talk so fast and the teacher talks even faster because he doesn't have to slow down for the students. I can usually understand the concepts, but not the details and if he asks me questions, not so much.

A low from today was that I'm exhausted: from getting thrusted into the culture and trying to understand what's going on, it's exhausting. I also wish I had more time with the older kids to teach them, but maybe it will be a good thing that I'm not there very long with my limited Spanish.

A high from today was getting all the hugs when the students walked in. We also got to nap a lot when we came home from school, which was nice.

Something funny: One of the little boys in the morning class was differentiating between me and another Andrea in the class. His words to make the difference were "White Andrea and Brown Andrea." It just made me giggle because it's not something I hear everyday.

I apologize that there are not pictures, I promise I'm taking them! I just don't have a way to upload them onto my computer right now. I just hope that tomorrow it will go a lot smoother because we will be starting to teach English and I think that will be fun!

-Andrea

First Day in Guatemala

Today start out with lots of flying and praying that we landed okay! Once we got to Guatemala I knew that I should be here to see the kids. We drove through the city to a hotel where we met and chatted for a bit about questions we had. We met the principal of the school and learned more about the school. It was started 6 years ago to help kids that couldn't afford private school. It sounds like an interesting place and I'm excited to learn more about it! We then met our families which was a surprise as all of us thought we were staying at the hotel for the night. My friend Tiffany and I are together at our families house. They seem very nice and I'm sure I will have pictures of them up very soon. The parents do not know English and I know very little Spanish, but luckily their 3 daughters and Tiffany are bilingual to help with any translation issues. The family told us that we were going to get to go see the beach with the black sand and a couple other places on the weekends! Pumped!

High of today: Finally realizing that I should be excited to be here! Getting a great family that will be really nice!
Low of today: It was kind of rainy, saying goodbye...

Funny thing from today: The flight attendant on our plane from Guatemala was asking the group of us in the exit seats (it was a large plane) if we all knew English and about the exit seats. We all responded yes, but this Spanish speaking man didn't respond, so she asked him in Spanish and he responded. She then proceeded to ask him if he really knew English and what to do at the exit row. He answered her in perfect English and then talked to us throughout the plane ride in perfect English. Just amusing.

I apologize for the pictures, I uploaded them really quickly and didn't edit. Google bog likes to put everything else except my typing in English so I can't edit the photos now. But I will be putting up more and hopefully have time to edit them so they look good!

Excited to see what tomorrow brings,
Andrea

Arriving in Guatemala!

I have arrived! We are waiting for the principal of our school and she just arrived! I have lots of pictures of the flight, which was great and the trip! We are now in a super swanky hotel about to learn more about the school we are working at and then meeting and going to our family's houses tonight! So fun, can't wait!

Pictures:

Night Before!

In 5 hours I will be getting ready to head to the airport for my journey to Guatemala. After finally looking over all that I have packed I think I might just be ready for the 3 week stay abroad.

Essentials on the packing list:
-Bubble gum
-Shampoo/Conditioner/Soap...
-Books: Chelsea Handler's "Lies that Chelsea Told Me" and "Water For Elephants"
-Lots of items to donate and use with the children
-Clothes: including some awesome, high fashion skirts ;)

-And of course I couldn't forget my new teddy bear!

So for the rest of the time I think the format will be "something I learned throughout the day," "something that was good and something that wasn't as good," "something that was really funny," and maybe a song that sums up the day. Sounds good?

My next post will be from Guatemala, stay tuned!

Three Days: Far Too Much To Do

With only three days left, starting to finally get ready and get things in order. Said a goodbye tonight that was really rough, but hopefully the trip will go by fast! Decided tonight would be a good night to find my passport, make copies of important papers and register with the state in case I go missing. Made a list of all the souvenirs that I need to get, if anyone wants something small, let me know! Three days, going on 23, almost there.
-Andrea

Eight Days Until The Trip: Supplies

Luckily, my mom is great and I am fortunate to have her to buy supplies for my trip! Today we visited the lovely Dollar Tree, Good Will, and Walmart for items for the trip! The skirts I got are to die for, if you're 80! Can't wait to show them off, but glad I won't be stuck in jeans the whole time! I already have a suitcase full of supplies for the students and their classroom, which is really exciting. If anyone else has more supplies they would like to donate, just let me know!
-Thanks,
Andrea

Nine Days to Go- Pre Trip

Nine days in counting until I travel a lot of miles to Guatemala!
Finally starting to get ready for the trip! Collecting school supplies and other belongings before I go. If anyone has anything that they would like to donate, feel free to let me know! Also if anyone would like me to take a "Flat Stanley" version of them with me or get them a present (with your own money, because this trip is expensive) let me know!
-Andrea