Why I Love Summer

There's something about the season summer that just really gets me going. I absolutely love summer and everything about it.

The drone of the cicades as the sun begins to set.
The twinkle of firefly's lighting up the night.
The calm night breeze as you sit on the porch.
The sound of kids jumping into the cool pool.
The taste of a popsicle after a hot afternoon.
The smell of hot dogs and hamburgers that drift through the neighborhood.
The joy of going to a baseball game with thousands of your closest friends.
The welcome of the day in the early morning.
The comfort of lying in the grass and looking at the stars above.
The time that seems to drift away and you divulge yourself in a good book.

And most of all I love the way that summer makes me feel like nothing else matters but right here and right now. There is something about summer that makes me forget my worries, relax, and just enjoy being me. There is no other time where I feel more alive and more myself than in the Summertime... :)

Wedding Weekend

It is finally here, June 20th...okay well almost. But two of my really good friends are getting married this weekend and I could not be more excited!

I have known Sarah for almost ten years now and it is so exciting to see her so happy! She is such a kind, caring person and she deserves nothing but the best! And the best she has found in Paul. Her and Paul were made for each other. They have an obviously love for one another and I just hope that I can someday have what they have. I know that they are going to have a beautiful wedding and a beautiful life ahead of them. I look forward to see the great family that they blossom into in the years to come!

I met Christina while working at Jardine and we instantly clicked. She is such a fun-loving person full of so much energy. Her fiance Jason, is her perfect balance. They are simply adorable and I am so excited to be part of their special day. Their wedding is at a resort in Michigan and not only will there be good company, but the place that it will be at seems like an absolute blast.

It will be a weekend full of love and happiness and I feel so lucky to be a part of the special day. Congratulations to the happy couples and I wish you only the best as you embark on this new journey! :)

Fine Dining

Tonight my family and I went out to eat at a super nice restaurant. It is so out of character for us because we never go out to eat. Well the call for this special occasion was to celebrate my brother's graduation, which is definitely worth celebrating.

Don't get me wrong I was glad that we could celebrate Will, but I am just so turned off by the whole "Fine Dining" atmosphere. I felt like I couldn't act like myself. You had to know exactly what to order and how to order it and you feel dumb otherwise...that's why I went for the fish, no special requests with that!

My parents went on to ask me what I wanted to do six months down the road for my graduation. I said not go to eat especially not at a nice restaurant and they seemed to be offended by my response. Seriously give me something we can do and experience together as opposed to spending a ton of money on food. I guess I just can't justify spending $30 on one course for one person as opposed to spending a night together doing something fun and active. My parents tried to tell me that it was nice to treat yourself to something nice, but I personally don't consider spending money on food treating myself to something nice. Sure it's satisfying when you eat it and the few hours that it subdues your hunger, but what do you have after that...an empty belly.

I am sure that a lot of other people disagree with me and that is completely fine. I'm just curious what others think about fine dining? What does fine dining mean to you?

Back Home

I had a few more reflections to post, but I figured since I am back home, I would skip the last two reflections.

It was so hard saying bye to everyone and everything in Guatemala. The kids were amazing and it was so hard saying bye to those kids knowing that you will probably never see them again. I absolutely loved the school and of all the teachers there was only one that was truly dedicated to what she was doing. She had so many different engaging activities for the kids. I want to be like her some day. Go to a school and give kids the spark that they need to know they can do well. Many of the kids that went to that school were the first in their family to attend school and they were trying so hard. I loved every minute I was in that school and I would absolutely love to go back some time.

As for the families, I cannot begin to describe how amazing they all were. We had such a blast the last night at a little dance party at Rocio's house. It was fun just to get together with everyone and have one last good time. I was amazed at how much fun we had especially when some of us, mostly myself, was not able to communicate everything I wanted to. Dorita, my host mom, was such a blast and I grew really close to her. We made up a dance together and performed it numerous times in front of people. She was truly an amazing women and I was so lucky to have her as my host mom. The whole Gramajo family was caring and helpful throughout the whole process: helping me with my Spanish, taking care of Melanie when she didn't feel good, driving us everywhere, and making sure that we had a good time in their country. They are a beautiful family and I look forward to reuniting with them again in the future.

Being back in the United States, I have grown to miss some things in Guatemala. Here are some of the things that I will miss the most:

Being able to stop traffic with your hand
People randomly putting on their hazard lights
Speaking/Listening to Spanish
Belting out Spanish songs in the car with Dorita
Getting great big hugs from the kids at school
Beans...kind of surprising, but they were good! :)
Having at least 4 meals a day
The scenery
The music
Waking up early...yes I said it. I felt like I was so much more productive with my day
Kissing people on the cheek everytime you said hello or goodbye
And most importantly...THE PEOPLE!!

It was a great experience. This has definitely given me the spark to explore more of the world. I am so ready to see everything else that is out there!

Day 13: June 3rd...BIRTHDAY! :)

Birthday Day!!! I woke up nice and early as always and took my usual shower. When I came back to my room, I was greeted by a huge sign that said ‘Feliz Cumpleanos Maggie!’ It was made by Mafer and it was a great way to start the morning. Dorita had music blaring once more, but this time it was a Spanish “Happy Birthday” song. Music blaring and a huge sign made the morning perfect. I also got a small gift from the family: a picture frame and worry doll.

At school, Melanie started telling some of the kids that it was my birthday and they all wanted to take pictures. I had fun taking pictures with the kids at recess. The kids were infatuated with my camera so I let them take pictures. The recess bell rang and Melanie and I walked into the classroom. The students stood up and started singing “Happy Birthday” to me. They sang the English version and then the Spanish version which goes as follows:
“Ya queremos pastel, ya queremos pastel, aunque sea un pedacito pero queremos pastel!! Jaja”
And then the students started counting my age! It was such a blast and I was so glad to be able to share the day with the kids.

After class the whole crew came back to Dorita’s. We kind of hung out talking about the trip and just reflecting on everything. To eat, we had a wonderful chicken soup to calm the stomachs of many. After we had, Dorita and some of the other host mom’s brought out a chocolate cake with a candle on top. I had two versions of Happy Birthday sang to me. It was great to be with the group to celebrate the day. We then packed into the car and headed to the pool at the Holiday Inn. It was so nice earlier in the day, but as we were leaving we could see incriminating clouds in the distance. We still went hoping it would clear up. Sadly it didn’t…it actually poured.
Since we had just gotten to the pool we didn’t want our host families to turn right back around and pick us up. The entire group, all ten of us, went to the restaurant next door to the hotel. Most of us ordered drinks. I got my first Gallo, the official beer of Guatemala. As we were enjoying our time, a mariachi band and the group told them it was my birthday. So the group sang a birthday song to me which was fun. We wrapped up our drinks and headed back to the hotel to wait for our rides to pick us up at 5:00pm. It turns out that the traffic was so bad that it almost took two hours to come pick us up. Everyone was pretty frustrated, but we were glad to see some familiar faces when they arrived.

When Rosio came to pick us up, she told us that we would not be able to get back to Dorita’s for dinner. Melanie and I were pretty disappointed because we knew that Dorita had something planned for the evening and it was frustrating that we couldn’t celebrate with her, but alas there was nothing we could do. It was completely out of our hands. The group that was left: Bobby, Melanie, Molly, Monica, Carina and myself went to Pizza Hut along with Rosio, Gladis, and Gabby. The Pizza Hut was so nice and it appeared that couples were actually going there for dates. It is just so surprising because the fast food restaurants here are so much nicer than back in the states. While we were eating, yet again the employees came to the table and sang a Pizza Hut verision of Happy Birthday. Lots of Happy Birthday’s for the day so it was a lot of fun!

We finally got back to the house at both Melanie and I were pretty excited to see the family. We were talking with Dorita and she convinced us to have some margaritas with her. The three of us had fun just drinking small little glasses of margaritas and trying to talk about the day. And of course the day would not be complete without Dorita breaking out her CD of music. She made me get up and do our little dance in the living room. It honestly was the perfect way to end my day. I was happy to have spent my birthday somewhere new with a lot of really great people that made the day extra special! :)

Day 12: June 2nd

Today was a pretty uneventful day in the school. We were able to see the students actual learn some material. One of the subjects that were taught was mathematics. The teacher was working on greater than and less than. She had a pretty interesting way to teach the concept. She compared every number to see if they were less than or greater than. It was a new way that I had seen and I enjoyed getting to see the students learn the material. The students were put into teams: boys vs. girls. They then had to come up to the board, write the problem, and solve it first. The students also worked on grammar at a later part in the morning. I did not know what all of the sentences were saying, but with the help of my handy-dandy dictionary I was able to translate the sentences. The teacher worked on nouns and modifiers for those nouns. The teacher didn’t really do anything that was exciting or different. She just wrote the sentences on the board and had students underline the modifier and noun.

After school, everyone except Kimberly and McKenzie came back to Dorita’s house. We all ate lunch which was sandwiches, but three people were not feeling good: Melanie, Jenny, and Monica. Monica stayed at Dorita’s house well the rest of us went to the artisans market by the airport. The market was much nicer than the one in Antigua. Each vendor had their own individual indoor port and we were able to shop a lot nicer. People did not bombard us and I felt a lot more comfortable walking around by myself and scoping out the goods.

Later in the afternoon, Melanie was not feeling good so she stayed home for the evening. Corina, Dorita, and I went to the soccer game of Julio and Emilio, sons of one of the host families. On the car ride, Dorita played one of her favorite CD. The first song was called Secreto Amor, Secret Love. Dorita sang as Corina translated. I was so super excited to see a soccer game in another country. It was a small field, but there was a good cheering crowd: Molly, Mckenzie, Bobby, Kimberly, Dorita, and Rosio. It was so much fun to be with Dorita at the game. The team we were cheering for were doing pretty bad until the end. Dorita went crazy towards the end and she would get up and scream every time the team came close to scoring. It was a great game and Canta Bingo ended up winning the game! The car ride home was just Dorita and I. Dorita played her favorite song once again and we danced and sang the entire way home. I learned a little from the song and I sang along with her. We had a great time in the car ride and even when we got back home. Dorita blared the music, which actually woke up a couple people. We danced and shimmed until I went back down to bed. It was definitely an entertaining evening!

Day 11: June 1st

Today Melanie and I taught two lessons for our third graders. I was so super excited to get to teach lesson, but just a little apprehensive on how the language barrier would pan out. The first lesson was “She is a…” with four professions following: doctor, student, secretary, and writer. To start the lesson, Melanie and I wanted to act out the profession so students could get a visual of what the profession actually was. I acted out a student and doctor. It was so much fun because I came into the classroom and sat at a desk and pretended to be one of the students yelling “Yo, Yo, Yo!” “Me, Me, Me!” The kids definitely got a kick out of it. Next I was a doctor. I had a stethoscope that I borrowed from the family. I put on the gear and started walking around the room and picked out one kid. I felt his head, and then checked his heartbeat. The kids were laughing hysterically. It was a lot of fun. We did a lot of repetition with the words to make sure that the students knew what they were saying and how to pronounce it.

One thing that I noticed was the kids were having trouble pronouncing ‘student.’ In Spanish, student is estudiante. The kids were pronouncing student, ‘estundent.’ In Spanish an ‘e’ comes before an ‘s’ word so the kids were having a hard time pronouncing that. After lots of modeling how to pronounce the word with my mouth and having the kids repeat it went pretty well. We also played a game where kids held up notecards for the appropriate profession that matched a picture I had drawn. The kids did really well with the tactile, hands-on approach. Finally, after writing and drawing the sentences in their English notebooks, the ESL teacher, Byanca, wanted us to give the students a worksheet as a form of assessment. The students did fairly well with thirteen of the twenty-one scoring 100%. I thought this was pretty good considering this was the first time they were introduced to the material.

After our lesson, Dr. Herrera suggested that we try something different. She suggested the strategy “Quiz-Quiz-Trade.” It seemed kind of confusing and I was worried if the students would understand, but Melanie and I had prepared and changed our lesson in order to incorporate this into the next lesson. The second lesson, “He is a…” started off well with boys coming to the front and acting out different professions. We again did lots of repetition and used lots of visuals. Halfway through the lesson, Dr. Herrera stepped in and took over the lesson. We had talked about doing a game called “Quiz-Quiz-Trade” with the kids. We were getting ready to do a review with the kids when Dr. Herrera decided to model it for us. She ended up teaching the last twenty minutes of the period. We got the kids organized to play the game, but we had to play inside the room because the older kids had recess outside. Some of the kids understood the directions, but it was still pretty hectic. With five minutes left, Herrera left and we had to finish the mess that had been started. We played two more rounds and then finished by giving the kids worksheets that the ESL teacher wanted them to have. I thought for the most part of lesson went well, but it did get really confusing and I was really disappointed that Melanie and myself did not get the opportunity to teach our entire lesson as we had planned.
After we were done with school we went to see a topographic map of Guatemala. There were lots of mountains, and volcanoes that were proportional to all the actual mountains and volcanoes in Guatemala. Dorita pointed out a lot of different places within the country. We learned where Dorita worked, where the recent earthquake was, and various other places we had visited. It was very interesting and I am really glad to see one of the main sights of Guatemala.

As the park was closing one of the guards escorted us out of the park. He actually ended up taking us to an amusement park that was closing. There was a huge slide that we were allowed to slide down. No one was in the park and the guards gave us special permission. We were able to slide down on old potato sacks. One of the employees’s sprayed extra gasoline on the slide before we slid down to make us go extra fast. We were able to go down twice for the price of one! It was such a blast. Afterwards I was going to get up on a step to take a picture, and I tripped over the step. It was honestly bringing me back to the days of being a kid: going down a huge slide, tripping in front of everyone, and getting laughed at. It was so much fun though! I loved all of it. After the slide and the trippage, the guard took us on a tour of the park. It was an old park and it was really interesting to be able to get a personal tour of the park. As we finished the afternoon, we walked back to our car. There was a man that had been sitting there for awhile. Apparently he was ‘watching’ the cars and we were told that if you don’t pay those people than they will do something bad to you. It was just an interesting situation and I had never been in a situation like that. Of course it was nothing bad, just interesting.

The car ride home was long car ride home. We found out that someone committed suicide on the bridge that we always use. We took a much longer tour of the city. It was really neat to see different parts of the city that we had not seen before. Much of the city that we saw was considered the old historic part of Guatemala. We even heard a story from Dorita about a women that got a ride from a taxi driver right outside a graveyard. The taxi driver dropped her off and said he would come back in the morning to pick up the money she owed him. He came back the next day and the people that lived in the house said that that lady had passed away two years ago. Oooooo…creepy. We passed the graveyard that apparently the lady was picked up at. It was a huge public graveyard. Dorita told Melanie, Carina and I that people had to pay to keep their loved ones there. If the fees were not paid than the bodies would be taken out of the grave and put in a mass hole.

For dinner that evening we had a great meal as always. I had some good conversations with the family that evening as well. I talked to Luis about learning different languages and he suggested that I listen to romantic Spanish music in order to better learn the language. Luis also suggested that I watch Spanish television. I am definitely going to take those suggestions into consideration as I try and learn the language a bit better.

Day 10: May 31st

Today was a pretty uneventful day. Melanie and I were both pretty exhausted from Antigua the day before. We were able to sleep in which I was very excited about! For most of the day we worked on preparing for our lessons we would be teaching the next day, Monday. The two lessons we planned were “She is a…” and “He is a…” We had to teach about different professions that people could be. There were eight vocabulary words that we had to work with. I made pictures for each of the professions while Melanie wrote on note cards for the students to use. After we made and gathered our props, we scripted out what we wanted to say in Spanish. We didn’t know how much English the students knew so we figured we should give some directions in Spanish. It was pretty difficult trying to say what we wanted to say in Spanish, but our host sister Luisa helped us with the translation.

After a long day of working on homework, we had dinner: plantains and beans…so good! While we had dinner we watched America’s Next Top Model and Survivor, in Spanish of course. It was just so funny watching those shows in Spanish just because I know how the people in the shows talk and it was just entertaining to hear it in Spanish. I also noticed that the shows were from a few years ago. The family didn’t care, they still really enjoy those shows and they were excited to watch it together. It was a pretty low key night, but fun nonetheless.

Day 9: May 30th

Antigua Day! We woke up pretty early and got to Rosio’s house a little after 8am. We jammed into the Isabella’s van once more to make the trek to Antigua. We were all still pretty frustrated we would be coming back today instead of tomorrow, so it was a bit tense for the ride. Finally someone decided to say something and we got an explanation from our teacher. We were all still pretty frustrated about not being consulted about the decision but we decided not to let it ruin our day. After a fairly short drive of forty minutes we were there. The van rocked back and forth and we drove on the cobblestone roads. We started the day by eating at the Bed and Breakfast we were supposed to stay at. The owner had already ordered food for all of us, so we pretty much had to eat there. It was such a cute little place, with a beautiful garden surrounding it. Breakfast was scrambled eggs and mixed beans, which is a very popular meal. We also had a food that was similar to oatmeal, but I liked this lot more.

Finally, after spending too much time at breakfast we made our way through the city. We started by going to this hotel that also was a museum of some sort. It was absolutely gorgeous, but very expensive. Macaw birds rested on perches while numerous fountains trickled with water. The view was absolutely breathtaking. We walked to this church area and it looked like a perfect place for a wedding. I honestly would love to get married in a place like that, but on a teacher’s salary I can tell you right now that isn’t going to happen  Next to the church was a small candle shop. We were able to see some of the employees sculpt the candles that were displayed from the ceiling. It was a pretty neat little store.
Then, we went to a jade museum. Apparently there is a lot of jade found in Guatemala and there are so many different shades of colors. It was pretty interesting, but the jewelry was so expensive. Again, since we were in such a large group it took forever for the twenty of us to get out of the store. It felt like we were wasting precious time just waiting for people, mostly the older individuals. However, we finally made it out of the store and made our way to the market, which we had all been waiting for. We were all so excited to finally start buying things for people back home. The market was filled with people outside and then inside this decrepit building. It was hard to shop because vendors would come up to you and tell you that they were selling so and so for a special price. At first I was pretty constant with the prices I wanted and didn’t really budge a whole lot, but I ended up not buying a whole lot the first time around. We had a chance to go back after lunch and I was much quicker with my purchases and got a lot more than the first time around!

For lunch, we went back to the Bed and Breakfast. I had a grilled chicken that was amazing! And not surprising, but beans accompanied the meal as well. I also had a chance to try a drink called “Mush.” It is a type of flavored water. It is really hard to describe, but it is sweet and tastes pretty good. We finished the meal with chocolate cake, which Melanie and Molly were very happy about, and this other dish with a pastry filled with bananas and no surprise…sweet beans!  During the whole lunch, Dr. Herrera’s kids were playing with another little boy that was at the restaurant. I just love seeing kids from different countries and languages play together. Yes, Dr. Herrera’s kids do speak some Spanish, but it still just amazes me to see kids from different countries play together, a lot like Jardine. There is nothing in the way: no stereotypes, no inhibitions, nothing.

After having another pretty long meal, we then were able to go back to the market. We then walked to one of the older churches in Antigua. We walked under a clock structure that survived an earthquake that destroyed the entire city. It was beautiful scene looking at the bright yellow with the dark volcano basking in the background. I just absolutely loved the colors of the city and it was such a vibrant town. After looking at the arch, we went and looked at one of the oldest churches in the town. It was beautiful. White designs popped out on the yellow background. From what we were told, the design is from the Baroque period. We went inside and there were loud voices coming from the speakers. There were a few people at the front of the church that I thought were preparing for a wedding. I got closer to the group in the front of the church and figured out that they were practicing for a play. The loud noises echoing from the speakers were in correlation to the people practicing for the play. It was a pretty church with lots of really intricate figurines dedicated to different saints.

We then went to a restaurant called Mono Loco, Crazy Monkey. The area we went to I noticed a ton of tourists. It was kind of weird seeing so many people that looked similar to us, but you could tell it was a popular tourist attraction. The restaurant was a lot of fun. Most of us ordered drinks and we celebrated Ashley’s 21st birthday. It was just nice talking with our group and Rosio’s daughter just about our culture, our experience thus far and random other topics. I was so excited because we then had enough time to go dancing for a bit. I absolutely love dancing and the bar we went to next door had an open dance floor. Our group took over the dance floor and showed off our awesome moves! Even Jenny broke out and did the worm on the floor. It was such a good time and I was glad that we were able to cut loose and have a fun night together.