Jordon Keller's 2010 Travels

USA Estoy volviendo...

2010-07-05T08:29:00.000-07:00

Before I left to study abroad my friends who studied abroad before would always tell me that my time abroad would go by so quick!!! I had six months of it, and although that’s a long time, my friends were all right. It went by quicker than I thought. Finals, World Cup, Friends, and Goodbyes!!!! That’s what my last month in Buenos Aires has consisted of.

Soooooooooooooo que mas…I leave Buenos Aires today. What can be said about that?! Lots!!! Depending on what perspective I use, my time away from home has been so many different things. Challenging, frustrating, amazing, beautiful, hurtful, eye opening, loving, life changing, and that’s only saying the least. To sum it all up differently my time abroad was one of the most difficult things I´ve ever had to do in my life and one of the most amazing things I´ve ever done. The bittersweet feeling of leaving Latin America and going back to the United States is one that I´ll never forget. This experience was worth every bit of pain and joy that I felt. Along the way I gained so much. I learned more than I thought I would have, gained more great friends, and changed the way I think about life.

Andrew I love you, no h…! Thanks for being a good friend to me always. You´ll always be one of my good friends. Thanks for eating all my vegetables that I hate, listening to my nose and all my problems, and brushing my teeth when I got lazy. Haha Mom Thanks for being a great mother to me even so far away. Heidi thanks for keeping my head on straight when I freaked out about things and for always being there for me! Jered and Justine, Thanks for making me feel like an older brother haha. Jesse thanks for checking up on me just to see whats up! All my American friends...Thanks for reminding me of home and listening in english when I needed to be a little bit of home! Walter, Guido and Claudio thanks for being my first and best Argentinean friends. Peace Out B.S.A.S

May and June!!!!!!!!

2010-06-20T17:34:00.000-07:00

So with fifteen days left I find it hard to believe that time has gone by this quick. The other day I experienced the first time that I felt sad that I was leaving this place, Mi Querida Argentina. I asked myself, what I was going to miss and all of a sudden more things than I thought popped into my head. Experiences such as leaving your family, learning and living in another language, and facing the unfamiliar are just things that everyone should experience. I will be the first to let you know though that it is tough especially if you plan on going away for more than a couple months. I am one of those who experienced this and I have learned an incredible amount from these experiences, pero vale la pena.

Since the last time I blogged I have done a good amount of things. I went to an Argentina soccer game and watched the players whoop Canada In a match. It was crazy. I also went and celebrated the bicentennial here in Argentina. It was their 200^th year of being La Argentina. There was a huge festival/celebration which is really fun, crowded, and intense. Besides spending time with my friends, my favorite thing that I did last month was go to Iguazu Falls in Northeastern Argentina. It was the most incredible natural thing I have ever seen in my life. I´m not saying that I have seen a lot of other amazing natural sights in the world, but I´m pretty sure that Iguazu will be the most incredible one I will ever see. I went there with some of my friends and it was one of my favorite memories of being there. Also, while I was at Iguazu I went to this place called Las Tres Fronteras (the three borders) which is where you can be standing in Argentina and see Paraguay and Brazil over the river. It was an amazing sight as well. I hit up Chinatown here in Buenos Aires as well which was pretty cool, being that I have been to Chinatown in New York and Seattle. Also I went on a tour of the infamous Casa Rosada (Pink house) which is equivalent to the White House in the U.S. Above all, my favorite thing is to just hang out with my friends here in Argentina, and I´ve done a fair amount of that.

So having 10 more days of class left, and 15 until I return home I am going to study study study for my finals. I will also try hang out with my friends here as much as I can because I will probably never see most of them again. It´s a bittersweet feeling, one of the many that I´ve been able to experience along the way, but I think I´ve gotten used to handling it. Going places, meeting great people, and then picking up and leaving again really does suck, but at the same time the experience is worth the pain.

"The better part of one's life consists of his friendships."
- Abraham Lincoln,

Buenos Aires Part 2 Son!!!

2010-05-11T21:37:00.000-07:00

Buenos Aires... May 12, 2010….. Wow has time flown by for me. Its only been over a month since I´ve last posted but it feels like forever ago. Anways so I´m just gonna say it. Buenos Aires has been rough this last month. I have learned a lot believe me, but the whole excitement of being here settled and home began to seem like heaven to me in my mind. I don´t know if it was more that I began to miss everything or if things here were just not going my way or what, but either way I struggled.

I was broke, eating canned tuna, and being accused of crimes haha. But on the positive side I have been learning so much and experiencing Argentinean culture (I´ll explain later, I just need to vent). I was hitting the gym regularly though which was good, until I began to see that I was losing weight which then I had to stop going to the gym because I did not have enough money to buy enough food for how much I needed to not lose anymore weight. Yea I go hard at the gym! So I stopped going to the gym and began to eat what little I had. My mom told me that my cell phone bill was really high because I had used my phone from the states down here. BIG MISTAKE!!! I turned it off though right after and I will pay you back mother! I promise. Also my family had birthdays that I missed. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUSTINE, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUSTIN, HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA. I also missed mothers day and my girlfriend and I´s 3 year anniversary. It´s been tough being away and missing days that would otherwise be spent with loved ones. It is okay though, it was just heavy on the mind.

Along with that here´s another story. So I´m sitting with my roommate at about 2 in the morning using the computer and all of a sudden we hear these huge thumps against the wall that were really loud. My window shatters on me!!! Somebody had thrown stuff at my window and broke it. We both ran out the room cuz we didn’t know what that had just happened. So we get the manager that is on duty and tell him what happened. So the next day I come home from school a little freaked out still, and the manage pulls me into his office and says, ¨Its your responsibility to fix it since you live in the room. Figure it out with your two other roommates.¨ I soon get pretty pissed because I can´t really explain it to him in Spanish since he really won´t let me talk. So he tried to tell me that I have until the following Monday to pay. I go up to my room and my roommates and I pretty much come to the same conclusion. We´re not paying. They even called my university and said if I don´t pay I´m out. I was pretty pissed and was feeling like bad luck wouldn´t leave me alone. So I guess rumor had it that this crazy guy across the street had been coming over complaining about the top floors here that have been being really rude to him. But I guess he came over with a knife threatening the residents. Anyways my roommate and I decide to walk over and talk with him about what had happened. Probably wasn´t the best idea at the time, but we were running out of solutions to our problems. He was very upset, and brought us to his building across the street and showed us whiere the top two floors yell at him and take pictures and are just rude to him. He then went on to talk about the loss of his son and his wife, and how that took away his purpose in life. He was very very upset and we assumed he threw whatever at our windows to shut the top floors up. My roommates and I live on the seventh floor of the residence and the eight and ninth floors were the ones that really bug him. We told him how our window broke and how we are just students and they want us to pay for what happened. He came up with the solution of him paying for it, so we don´t have to, but the people who annoy him have to go. So he writes down the names he knows and says in the morning he will bring the list to the managers. We were kind of skeptical of him and if he´d really do it, but as I was leaving for classes the next day I seen him. When I come back that day I felt better that at least the manages would now maybe think that it was our fault. I soon fall asleep and when I wake up there is a huge pounding on our door. There was about 20 residents at our door who were pretty angry. They assumed that we gave a list of people to the old guy to give to the managers Well the old guy already knew names just by listening to how loud the loud people are. So the residents at my door were mostly blaming my roommate for what really was their own faults, but it was whatever. It all ends up getting blown over, but the situation just sucked as a whole. I was just trying to figure out if I have to pay which would have been crap if I did. But the next day I asked the manager and he said nope. So I was free. Things began to look up for me.

Times were definitely harder this month, but with the support of my family, friends, and my lovely girlfriend they weren´t so bad. Thank you guys, I love you all very very much.

So as far as activities I´ve been hanging out with my roomies more and also doing more homework. I seen some Tango at the park. I see iron Man 2 here which was pretty cool. I figured out why so many Argentinens speak a lot of English, well I think. All the North American movies come out here and they stay in English, but just have Spanish subtitles going down at the bottom. I also went to the International Film Festival when it was here and seen a pretty sweet movie. I have also been to a few Parillas to eat some good meat which was great. I went to a BOCA game which is one of the biggest soccer teams here in Buenos Aires. It was crazay!!! We went there hoping we could just buy tickets, but didn´t go down so great. We almost gave up when we seen this huge group getting tickets from this guy. We gave him what I call the American pout and he sold us his last few tickets for 80 pesos son!!! That’s a pretty good price for just showing up, being American, and a BOCA game. We ended up sitting right below the fans to the other team which probably wasn´t the smartest idea, but it was really fun because of all the stuff they talked to each other. I learned lots of new vocabulary and it was just funny to watch, except the spit wads that we had to dodge. I can definitely see why soccer games in Buenos Aires turn violent.

So as far as homework… I have been getting the most in Spanish class, but its been minimal In my Liteature of Argentina class we have to write a 5 page paper that has to do with these books were reading which is pretty tough. In Folklore, I think, I have papers due soon, but the prof is just crazy and doesn´t like repeating herself, even to the International students. But we´ll see about that. Internet here in Argentina is the worst ever, huh Heidi? Haha yea but on the real, don´t come here expecting any good internet. I am grateful for the internet back home. Andrew´s dad just came to visit him and Buenos Aires and he took us out to eat and it was great. He even brought PEANUT Butter for Andrew which Andrew so generously gave me one. Like good internet, they don´t really have PB here in Buenos Aires either. It was the first time trying peanut butter for many of my friends and they seem to like it. Never as much as me though. Andrew and I have hung out a good deal and it seems his roommates and my roommates like each other a good amount. Andrew and I still kick it a good amount like going to book fairs, soccer matches, little get togethers, and so on. I like him, a lot!

So I have a month and a half ish to go and it´s flying by like crazy. This will definitely be the busier half homework wise, but I am not too worried because I know I will get it done when I have to. O got my first grade back on a paper the other weel and I got an 8. Which is equivalent to a B plus ish. Go mE!!! I would hang it on our fridge, but we don’t get one, or a microwave, or a kitchen. Yea sad day I know. Argentinean culture well, a little something is that they go out at 2 in the morning and come home at 7 to 10 in the morning. I´m glad I am not too fond of sunrises though. My roommates are something special also. They make me laugh so much which is good, but on the flip they also can push my buttons. We have definitely gotten a lot closer than we first were and that has come with fighting and making up. ButI wouldn´t have it any other way because I know they are good guys. One of them, Guido, is in love with Norah Jones and Alejandro Sanz while the other one loves classic rock and reggae ton. It seems like at first, my roommates were a little hostile towards me until I opened up to them about my life, and then they really opened up and we have gotten to be like a nice dysfunctional at times family. Point blank, I love them and they’re like brothers to me! It´s also getting chillier here, good thing I brought some sweats and warmer clothes. A lot of the international students are talking about getting stuff sent here or buying stuff. I´ve been traveling for months before this and I brought warm clothes, haha good luck to them though.

Alright well another week or so and I´ll be off to Iguazu Falls and I´m sure I´ll have another blog to post and then June will officially be here. I already bought my tickets for the falls and Im excited!!!!!!!! Tty all then. Good Luck and wish me luck with my stuff. Adios

Buenos Aires, Argentina

2010-04-10T21:24:00.000-07:00

So here I am a month after getting into Buenos Aires. I feel like I´ve honeslty been here for about 4 or 5 months, but I think that’s just how you feel when you stay away for so long. This first month of being in Buenos Aires is definitely different than any of the other countries or cities I´ve n been to these last couple of months. I´m not gonna lie though, it feels so good just to be able to settle down finally and not have to travel because I was tired of packing and unpacking all the time. I appreciate being able to stay in one spot a lot more than I used to. SO Buenos Aires is huge!!! With 13 million ish people and a city with so much to do you can´t really get bored. I haven´t taken as many pictures here and I think it´s because I have a lot more time here in Buenos Aires left so I´m kind of being lazy. So I´ve started all of my classes and they are all pretty cool. Some are definitely more interesting than others, but I need these classes because they all count for my major which will help me graduate without problems. My schedule goes a little something like this.

Monday; Nada
Tuesday;(Spanish) Nivel Intermedio Alto
Wednesday; Economia Politca (Political Economy)
Thursday; Literatura Argentina (Argentina LIterature) and (Spanish) Nivel Intermedio Alto
Friday; Folklore Americano y Argentina, Historia del Arte HispanAmericano y Argentina
Weekends Saturday-Monday

So yea as you can see, my schedule is five classes long and full of lots of Spanish. I had a sixth class, but the professor spoke too fast and I couldn´t understand anything that he was saying so I just dropped the class. My classes here are worth 20 credits back home, but since the maximum amount of credits is 17 I will only be able to claim 17 of the 20 credits here. It kind of sucks, but at least I´m getting credit for both of my majors. Every single class counts as a Spanish class and a majority counts towards my Cross Cultural Studies Major!!! So as far as my social life here it´s pretty chill. I made some really cool American friends in my dorm and some really cool Argentinean friends and a lot of other International Students as well. The people in the picture are my friends that I pretty much hang out with every week like Sharice who is on the far right is from NY, Leigh Ann is from Texas, and Karla in the Middle is from the Seattle area just like Andrew and I.

I live with two Argentinean guys who are pretty cool (The two on the left of me). The one on the far left is Claudio and the one in between us is Guido. It was pretty rough at first, but after spending some time together I really got to like them both. We live in a student residence that´s super big. I live on the seventh floor and it gets pretty crazy on our floor. We are definitely the wildest and people come up just to see what we´re all doing up here. From our room we are directly across from other big buildings and homes. Whenever we have our music up there´s this little girl who walks out on her balcony and dances for us, it´s pretty amusing. Our residence has about 70 percent International Students and the other 30 percent are Argentinean students.

I really like the residence a lot. The residence is fun and pretty nice as well. Of course there´s things about the dorm that I don´t like, but it´s all good. The internet here is the worst I´ve ever used in my life!!! (One reason why I don´t blog all that much here). We can´t use the kitchen that is here which limits us from going out and buying food. So we get a meal plan here but it´s so we can´t use the kitchen which I guess is how they make money. So many people smoke in Buenos Aires too, it´s ridiculous. Even in my dorm sometimes my whole floor smells like smoke. Unfortunately I am allergic to smoke and my nose goes crazy, so it pretty much sucks for me. Also I feel like a majority of the students here are younger than me, which means they are always trying to go every night out and going out here means you don’t leave till the earliest 12 noon and don´t return before 5. Clubs stay open for days on the weekends so it really never stops. The food here is pretty decent as well. There isn´t as many options of food, but what there is to eat is pretty good at least. There´s lots of pasta, pizza, and steak places which is cool because I like all of it. But that´s a bulk of what there is to eat, so if you feel like eating different stuff you have to look a lot harder for it. Also, for entertainment there is lots of Tango, music, parks, museums, malls and lots more to experience. We took a boat ride the other day to go look at ex President Sarmiento´s old house which is in the hugest glass case I´ve ever seen. The cemetery we also went to which was really impressive. The cemetery is home to Eva Peron´s grave which is a pretty big deal here in Buenos Aires. Also I´ve gone to the Plaza de Mayo to watch the mothers walk in remembrance (to the left)of their lost ones during the 1976 Dirty War where thousands of people disappeared because of a corrupt government. The mom´s still walk every Thursday in front of the plaza 40 something year´s later. On March 25 we had the day off because of a national holiday. There were rallies in the Plaza de Mayo and many flags and representations of Che Gueverra, Tupac Amaru, and a few others that had been significant impacts in the past. The holiday celebrates a week long series of revolutionary events in 1810 when Argentina broke away from the Spanish and gained its independence. There were many political and social organizations that were rallying in remembrance of their revolution. It´s weird how time is going by so fast too. I remember when I planned all this and six months seemed like forever and now I only have 12 weeks left and then I´ll be back home. However many days it is I will try my best to enjoy them and learn as much as I possibly can. Okay well i´ll wait for another little until I feel like blogging. Adioso!

2010-03-08T17:34:00.000-08:00

Wow. It´s been another long while. But its good that Im able to blog now because it says that I´m alive and I am well. Where do I begin? Well after five weeks in Honduras and a wonderful, but sad goodbye I have taken a bus to Tegucigalpa and flown out of there to Lima, Peru. It was an interesting time in Tegucigalpa, but then even more interesting in Peru. It was definitely a sad day to leave Honduras, but it was time to move on. Peace out fam! So I arrived in Lima on March 1^st and it was definitely a big big city. I seen houses and places for miles when I was landing and then we we hit up the beach and the main plaza that day I still couldn’t imagine where things started and where they ended. It was like a dream! We soon got confronted with strip club offers and drugs haha typical of looking like tourists. But honestly I came to Peru feeling like a tourist, and wanting to learn about a culture very very different from my own. So we explored the city, slept in the airport, and headed out for Cuzco the next day. Of course there was problems at the airport and they didn’t want to let me on the freakin airplane, but I used my best Spanish curse words to get my way, no not true, but they let me on eventually, two hours of standing at the check luggage place! We got to Cuzco and in my opinion, was more impressive than Lima, especially at first site. The city just looked more colonial, but it just had a more Incan feel if you will. So we headed to our hotel which was small, but cozy and really nice. I guess they just got good reviews in the new Lonely Planet books and we just got lucky somehow. The guy was Flemish (which means from Belgium), yea… I had no clue so I asked him. He spoke English and Spanish and was really helpful to us. Andrew got sick from the food the night before and so while he was recuperating in the bed during the day, I went out to explore the city. North Faces were unreasonably cheap and so yea I feel bad, but I got a couple haha and I also rented some hiking boots which would later save my walking career. I walked around and soon found out that llamas and Al-Paaca´s are the gold of the people here. Its crazy. And I also found out that there are three different types of lana, baby al-paaca, regular (Im guessing mid age) al-paaca, and then adult al-paaca. The baby al-paaca lanba is worth the most and the prices for anything made of it are at least a hundred dollars. I now find it weird that we have Al-Paaca´s in Spokane haha. I get back to the hotel after eating some good unknown meat and then feel sick after finding out what it was. Yea it was a blood sausage, but thank the Lord that I figured out after one bite that it wasn´t something I wanted to eat. The other meat was pretty good though. And I got it all for a prettier nifty price. I then returned back to the hotel and prepared my bags for a four day hike to the ancient Incan ruins of Choquequiroao and man oh man was it exciting!!! There was blood, sweat, tears, rock slides, bears, condors, pouring rain, fun, more sweat well you get the picture. Eother way Choquequirao was an amzing experience. We left the 3rd of March and returned the 7^th of March. I feel accomplished yes indeed, because we survived since Mama Pacha and Choquequirao is over 3,000 meters high!!! Yes it’s a beast. The hike was four days and I traveled with my bestest buddy Andrew Eller, two girls from Spain which was really cool that we had good company, our guide, and three helpers that carried our stuff, set up and put down our tents, and cooked us beautiful meals. It was all wonderful. Choquequirao can only be reached by walking which makes it harder to reach than its sister site of Machu Picchu. Our guide explained to us that when the Spanish came and conquered the Incans, they missed two great sites, Machu Picchu and Choquequirao! Why?... Pretty sure because those places are pretttttttty high. When we got back on the last day I was super tired, but felt like I was on top of the world!!!!!!!!!! I kinda was at one point haha but whatever. Back to Cuzco we later met up with our Spanish friends and I ate some Al-Paaca, some Trucha (trout) de La Plancha and even sang and danced a bit!!! Everything was good and we when went to pack up in the morning for our flight out of Cuzco or so we thought. So the morning comes and we leave to the airport and they of course can´t find my name on the list. But this time it was my fault because the flight back to Lima was the next day!!! I did feel crunchy at that very moment, but you know, things happen! So we decide to go get a day pass and see some more of Cuzco which i´m very glad happened. We checked out five main sites. The first was Tambomachay, then PukaPukara, then Saqsayhuaman, then Christo, and then Q´enqo. I liked all of them, but Saqsayhuaman (and yes it sounds like sexy woman) was definitely way cooler than the others, and the statue of Christ was very impressive as well. I would tell you what they all were for, but just ask me later and i´ll try my best to fill you in. We later went to this Center de Native Art to watch some dances and hear some songs from the region which was very interesting as well. Our day pass was good for a lot of stuff like museums, but the museums were closed… since it was a Sunday… just our luck! We then go back to the hotel after our free luggage store at another hotel. We asked a hotel to hole our luggage while we were out that day and we would then come back to get a room…but we just came back for our luggage muhaahahah. Yea but that plan kinda backfired a little when we got to the airport and it was closed!!! Yea we were just gonna sleep there and then wake up for our flight at 12 the next day, but we didn´t think about the fact that the Cuzco airport was smaller than your average. We then catch a super cheap hotel near the airport for 6 bucks for the both of us! Im talking discount ya dig! We then wake up after a good nights sleep and walk to the airport. Well I actually woke up with a sun burnt neck from walking around Cuzco the ngiht before. I didn´t even know either. I should´ve thought more about being closer or more directly under the sun haha but w/e. I´m currently sitting at the airport waiting to fly to Buenos Aires in the morning for the next four months of my life! I´m going to be studying at the Universidad del Salvador. I believe it has around 15,000 students and it is a Catholic institution. This time I´m going to be the International student! I get to experience more Spanish, more people, more culture, and just more everything which is just what I want. I´m super stoked to be in a new place and to experience more of life! Wish me luck. I love and miss all of you! Bye bye

Whatchu know about that

2010-02-20T21:27:00.000-08:00

Oh its been awhile, but I don´t always feel like blogging because sometimes I just gotta live…ands not write haha. So I just finished my fourth week here in Honduras and now it´s time for the last week in Honduras. It´s been wonderful here and I know for a fact that it´s going to be really hard to leave. Being here for these last four weeks have felt like I´ve lived here for 5 years. I mean I have a job, even though I´m not making money. I have hobbies like playing basketball, learning how to ride motorcycles, and cutting hair. Yes, cutting hair! Everyday after work I go to this barber shop and help out by doing whatever. They teach me everyday some new things and since I´ve been around hair (My mom and Auntie are stylists), it has began to feel like home. Also I have friends that I hang out with, I go to church, and I even know the local spanish slang that helps me get by. The crazy thing about all of this to me is that it´s only been 4 weeks. I can´t believe that a life can set itself up in another place in such a short amount of time. I ask myself did I just get lucky with how great everybody is around here, or is it always like this for everybody that goes to another country for 5 weeks. Honestly though I think it´s a combination of luck and the good ol honeymoon phase. Maybe if I were stayin here longer I wouldn´t feel all cozy here, but whatever. So these past couple weeks I have been hanging out with friends, working oh so hard at work, and watching the bootleg movies from the streets of Honduras. At work this week I have been helping out with this program called program Deborah. This program tackles the issues of domestic violence. There was a group of gay and transexual people that came to our work to learn some skills/trades. There was also the people who work with us at Proyecto Aldea Global who were teaching things such as how to curl, straighten, and even cut hair. I was one of the ones teaching how to cut hair and it felt good being able to use some of my knowledge and skills to help out. Also another thing that has been weighing heavily on my mind is privelege and people taking things for granted. In Honduras a lot of things have begun to make me think about my life and others in America. In Honduras and even in Guatemala I really get to see first hand people who don´t have very much. When I say very much I mean, food is not to be wasted, but only saved, money is to be spent on the necesities such as food and water, and love and happiness is what everybody lives on down here. Happiness down here is not the same as happiness in the states. Maybe we could call it joy here in Honduras because joy doesn´t come from material things like shoes, or clothes, or video games, but it comes from something else. Joy comes from loving each other and being happy with what you got not because it´s pretty or because it makes you feel good, or because it makes you stick out above everybody else, but because you can share it with others and see their joy and it´s just enough to get by. I think back to the states and think about my friends who collect hundreds of Jordan´s, go to fast food restaurants and buy more than they can eat, or who go shopping and spend hundreds of dollars on new cell phones or new clothes, and then I think about the people here in Honduras. In the states we complain about wanting more, the nicer prettier things, and all of the latest and coolest stuff, while everybody down here buys our used things. They have brick homes, no heat, but a home. They live in houses smaller than ours, but with twice the amount of people. Their extended family is valued much more and they live together as a family. In the states sometimes we cannot wait to leave the house when we´re 18 or after college. Here they have enough food to offer their guests, but not always for themselves. They have enough time to spend time with you after long hours of work. They never complain about not having access to a good education, clean water, and about the small amount of money they make. They enjoy what they have, because they have enough to get by and they share it with each other. The people here are not distracted with video games, or material things, but they are instead focused on their family, their joy, and their love for other people. I really admire this about people here and I hope that I can really learn to never take things for granted and always remember what privileges I do have. The end.

2010-02-07T19:04:00.000-08:00

So this weekend we went to the ancient Mayan site called the Copan Ruinas. This was home to ancient Mayan people. This site is special to the mayan people because it has the largest and oldest ball court of the Mayan civilization. Basically the winner of the game would be sacrificed and would go up to the heavens. And as you can see I won this last game so... haha. These ruins also are known for its intricate detail unlike the Tikal Ruins of the Mayans in Guatemala which are known for their height. Copan the city is beautiful in itslef. Aside from the ruins there is a beautiful river that runs through tghe city, canoes, ziplining, horseback riding, lots of great restaurants and a lot more. Luckily for us we made the best of our time in Copna and I mean that. Although I cannot speak of all the experiences in Copan it was definitely one of the best weekends I've had in Latin America. Things in Copan were also very sad as well. The things people would do for money, the way they got their hustle on, and conversations that made me think about life, values, and just what is really important in life. I feel like having a great time and enjoying life and working hard (minus the opportunities) is played out so much better in Honduras than in the United States. I really enjoyed the way this looked this weekend. It's crazy to think how so many Hondurenos have family woring in the U.S. I don't think I met one person who didn't. So anyways we got there on Friday and man it took about 5 hours to get to Copan. After a couple bus changes we finally got there and began looking for a hotel. There were so many to choose from, but this man named Mario stopped us on the street and showed us the rooms and they looked comfy so we took it. He then offered a nice horseback ride and since we didn't have much planned in the afternoon we decided to do it. It was a three hour horseback ride up to La Pintada, an indigenous village up in the mountains. When we began I was a little nervous because i have never ridden a horse in my life, but it was time. It WAS fun! Too soon I told Andrew that maybe I would get one because it was really fun and soothing just to ride up the mountain by horse, but of course i spoke too soon because I started sneezing a lot and my face swolled up lol. But the guide helped me by taking these leaves off this plant and told me that its the plants that they use to make Vicks and so I smelled it and it calmed my allergies a bit. It was pretty crazy. When we got up there we could see the ruins a bit, but we wouldn't see them until the next day. Once we got up there we began playing some football with these guys and I was playing with a swollen eye and blurred vision from my allergies. i then ran after the ball and ran right through some barbwire. I didn't feel it at first, but things soon got better as the locals took me in to bandage me. You should see my right leg, it was a little worse than the left, but not as deep. They were very kind to share what little they had. It's weird too because in Copan they get a lot of tourists and people would be curious about where we are from. We met a a handful of people from Seattle and it's super weird because a majority of the people we meet are from the West Coast, if not Washington state. I guess we just like to travel. Anyways it's fun to have them guess where we're from and I got some weird guesses. Of course i got the typical oh is he from Mexico answer, but I got a guess that I was from Spain and even INDIA! I never got those before lol, but it;s fun anyways. The next day we hit up the ancient ruins and that was super fun. There were parrots, ancient tombs, big pyramids and a lot more. It definitely took a long time, but man was it beautiful. We hit up some tunnels, the museum, the ball court, and after we went ziplining. It was my first time ziplining and i was pretty scared because I have never been that high in my life, especially just hanging there lol. I got a video so you can check that out. My face tells it all. Just a little bit. It seemed like a lot of people went to the ruins by themselves and some people were on some spiritual highs lol because well you would just have to see it for yourselves. But yea the ruins were worth it and ziplingin was too. Our last night in Copan we just chilled right outside of our hotel hanging out with the local homies who chill on the corner. It was one of their birthdays and so we celebrated a little with them and learned lots about the Good LIfe in Copan! It was fun, and super chill. I LOVE HONDURAS and COPAN, but we bounced early and now we just watched the Saints win. I 'm happy for them, but I wanted the Colts to take it. Oh well they'll be back and so will I. Work tomorrow. Peace Easy

Second Week in Honduras!!!

2010-02-03T16:42:00.000-08:00

I said it. SO after this first month away from home I can know how I feel. I DO miss home. I do miss family and friends, but if I were home I would also miss here. Entonces I am where I need and want to be. I have already completed 1 and a half weeks of my 5 week internship and it's flying by. We work with an organization called Proyecto Aldea Global (Project Global Village). This organization offers a wide variety of services to the community. Services offered include HIV preventative measures, family plannning, microcrediting, nature preservation, domestic violence prevention and more. We work in the health section collecting and organizing data from the community. Work varies for us in the office. Sometimes we just sit and put numbers into excel ferom the community. These numbers usually incude how many females are pregnant, if they have a plan of delivery, and how many months they are along with more data. On other days we actually get to go out in the community for various reasons. Sometimes we organize bags for children and adults. These bags include shampoo, soap, toothbrushes, and other hygenical things. Sometimes when i get bored at work I just get my boogie on in the office YOUUU knowwwwwww (pictured above)! Then after work I usually go out on the motorcycle to practice or go to a barbershop to hang out and learn a thing or two. The people here are super nice. They just taught me how to ride a motorcycle and they even let me ride their own. I asked if they were nervous, but they didn't seem to be at all. I also asked the friends I made at the barber shop if they could teach me some things. They insisted right away that I come back to learn. i was super excited. Life in Honduras just seems really chill and super laid back. When work is over at 4 and people see us leaving they ask me why I'm leaving so early. TIME in Honduras means so much and so little at the same time. it's so much different than the United States. We also made some friends with a few of our coworkers at work. They are super cool and very helpful. They help me with whatever I need and its a beautiful thing. They are taking English classes at a local school and Andrew and I are learning Spanish so it really works out well. This last weekend Andrew and I wanted to go do something, but we didn't really know what to do. So we asked them to come along with us to go do something and they agreed. They said they were going to miss English class, but we told them that we would teach them all they needed to know : ) So everything turned out GREAT! We ended up going to a smaller city named Otorro and we really had fun. The sun was blazing and we went swimming in a river, I got my suntan on, and we even hit up the local pool. We also hit up our other co workers house to eat some spaghetti and of course some cow tongue. YES cow tongue. No we really didnt eat it, but we could have. Maybe one day... Anyways yea life has been good, a little stressful at times, but we manage. We also ran into this one guy, as we normally do a lot of people. I blame it mostly on Andrew for being the tallest and whitest guy in Honduras, but he cannot help it. Everybody looks at him like he's a giant, and he is in Honduras, but was more in Guatemala. Anyways yea so when we're together we definitely get stares. I can only imagine how he feels hahaha. But yea so this one guy came up to us adn he looked pretty hood if you can imagine. He had some scars on his face and a rough sounding voice and look. He asked us if he could come with us and I said sure come on. So were walking and hes speaking to us in some decent English and he's saying that he's from New York and that he just killed a guy in this city near here called San Pedro Sula. he goes on to describe how he stabbed him three times in the back and is now in this city trying to get away from all of that. He said he's in a gang in New York and i told him that I was in New York last January. He was then trying to ask us where we lived, and that's when I drew him away. He soon asked for money and was telling Andrew not to mess with Brown blood. I began to tell the guy that Andrew is one of our friends and that he was okay. The guy soon took the money that I gave him and asked what he was going to buy with only two lempiras (equivalent to 10 cents). And I simply explained to him that he can buy whatever he wants but thats all I got. There are some pretty interesting people here in Honduras. Don't go thinking that it's all scary here though because honestly it doesn't feel any scarier than Tacoma or Spokane haha. It's honestly a really beautiful little town. Siguatepeque has some great people. We got into this conversation the other day with our friend Mario about life in Honduras. He explained to us how corrupt it is in Honduras and how he doesn't see opportunity as an easy thing here. He explained how the police can just pull you over and make you give them money or they will just write you a ticket. Negotiating deals here is very common. He later explained how there are no scholarships for him and the ones that he has applied for are for the upper class because they can pay the college more or the people more in the future. But he felt that he might as well try. It's very sad to me because this guy is super smart, lives in a smaller town, and has limited options. In my opinion he is smarter than me, yea it doesn't really take too much for me to admit that but I can tell by the things he does and the way he acts. He explained also how his father passed away a few years ago working in the United States just to send money to his family. It's very unfortunate that this had to happen because I see so much potential in this guy as well as a lot of our friends here. We also went with our family to this lake this last weekend which was super nice by the way. It really was a relaxing weekend. We also played some basletball and this court is pretty decent considering how little basketball is down here. I am grateful for what we got. Awwwww so many stories, but too little time. This next weekend we plan on going to Copan, these ancient ruins a ways away from here. We are leaving in the morning so wish us luck!

Start of the Internship and Honduras

2010-01-26T20:54:00.000-08:00

So yesterday was our first day of our internship with Proyecto Aldea Global. It was incredible and very interesting. So we got there at seven in the morning because that’s the time that we supposedly are supposed to start cough cough. Anyways we had devotional which was pretty cool in the morning. After that Andrew and I were introduced to the team and then everybody just kind of went and did there own thing. The first part of the day people were asking us what exactly we were there for and that made me think haha. I finally came up with my answer, “ I just want to learn Spanish and help while learning it”. It became my default answer. The first half of the day (3 hours ish) we spent going through about 50 computers to find one that worked well enough to do some work. Since Andrew has a laptop he can do some excel work on it when he brings it there tomorrow, but me, well… I have to use the slow bug. No big though, I’m grateful that it works haha. After lunch time and a little bit of work, we were taken to a city about an hour away which was crazy beautiful by the way, called San Antonio de Comoyagua. We went with our boss Magda, and our homie Mario, to watch the appointment of the new mayor. It was real great to watch. The ceremony was also recognizing organizations that do work in the communities and Proyecto Aldea Global was called up to sit in this special section. It was crazy! I wasn’t expecting that but we were joined by about 10 others from other organizations. Our boss got called up to receive an award and it was just great to be around that type of people and in that kind of community. The spotlight was on us for a second. Kinda weird!Yesterday was the appointment of all the new mayors in the different municipals in the country. I believe there are about 280 municipals in Honduras. I’m not really sure why we went to the one an hour away but it was definitely worth it. The scenery was incredible, the national anthem was cool to hear, and the people were really fun. I also got to try alcitrones which is an amazing candy fruit. It just might replace Chiky’s (my current favorite Latin America Snack). But who knows. On the way home we stopped at this lady’s house for some cookies and café. I ended up refusing coffee and after some talking I learned that its more polite and respectful if I at least drink a little. I was very hesitant at first, but then I tried it with everyone looking at me. Incredibly, it was ACTUALLY GOOD! I’ve never had coffee that tastes like that. I guess it’s that rich Honduran coffee. We then took off and we got back home pretty late (about 6 ish) ( but waking up at 6 made the day a lot longer) and I was just super tired after all that. Today was really great also. It was our second day of our Internship and everything went really well. We started off putting in number into Microsoft excel for the first 4 hours. I soon got bored and went out for some lunch. After more numbers I went outside by the motorcycles to get a glimpse of them and then I aske3d if I could try. The owner said sure and then gave me a quick walkthrough and then I just went with the flow. It was super fun. I’m gonna try to keep practicing if I can. We then walked around downtown and got some ice cream. After that we went to church with our host family and that was quite interesting. We broke into small groups to pray. I PRAYED IN FRONT OF PEOPLE for the FIRST TIME IN SPANISH! It was crazy. I know I didn’t do all that great, but I tried my best and I think they understood what I said. It feels kind of weird because I almost feel like I’ve learned more in these first three days in Honduras than I did in all my time in Guatemala. Perhaps it’s just because Guatemala helped me prepare to learn a lot. Who knows. So our days look pretty full of Microsoft excel and hopefully some more moto. Well we’re looking to have some type of adventure this weekend and the weekends to come so I hope we are able to do some more work/exploring of Honduras. I’ll keep updating. Adioso

Bye Bye Guatemala and Hello Honduras

2010-01-25T17:48:00.000-08:00

Hola Mundo. So we departed from the group this past friday and it was a sad goodbye. We ended our time in Quetzeltenango and then we spent our last few days in Antigua with our group. I said goodbye to my host mom, she was AMAZING(above)! We had some crazy nights in Guatemala and so many great memories. Memories of hott Mexican bands, and pickpocketing extreme, and leaning about crazy ancient orders that used to imprison women and turn them into nuns. Everything this trip was supposed to be was all that times a million. I cannot even begin to explain what I am learning, but I can give a brief overview of what exactly I am doing. After our Whitworth group left us at the airport for the states (BELOW), Andrew and I waited for a couple hours for our contact just outside of the airport. With a little trouble, we called a friend who was able to get a hold of her. It turns out she had been waiting for us two hours earlier and had thought we just left (she was waiting at 4 am in the morning) but we had gotten there at 5. We were at the airport at the same time, but we just missed each other. We headed out around 8 and she took us to get our Tika bus tickets which we would use Saturday morning (the 23). After purchasing our tickets we went to our host house of this wonderful lady, her dasughter, and their cray little dog. We were staying in Guatemala city with a host family that was wonderful. The house was really beautiful and I was super jealous and wanted to stay longer. They enjoyed our company and they showed us around the capital which was really great. The father of the family had passed away about four months ago which I'm guessing had to be really hard on them, but the family was doing really well. We always have a place to go in Guatemala City now. After that night we got picked up and driven to the bus station at 4 in the morning. We were super tired but we knew we could just sleep on the bus. We bussed all day Saturday through El Salvador, and then we had to switch busses in order to get to Honduras. We met some Americans at the bus stop and they were traveling all throughout Central America and were even heading to the Phillipines not too long after. What are the chances that on this bus ride to Honduras we would meet an American from the state of Washington and from Spokane where we attend school??? Slim to none right... Well it happened and she gave us a heads up about Honduras and what to expect. It was crazy. Once we bussed to Tegucigalpa on Saturday night, we immediately were in awe how different Tegucigalpa seemed from what we had seen in Guatemala. The capital did not look as modernized or anythign like I expected. We soon took a taxi and were looking for a hotel that was recommended to us. After seeing the neighborhood that the hotel was in, we began to worry. Danielle, the girl from Spokane took the same taxi as us and suggested that the hotel she was going to was much safer than the one we were looking for. We quickly agreed and went to that hotel which seemed much safer and for roughly the same price. We then went out Saturday night to watch the Honduras vs. United States game and that got alittle wild. We cheered everytime that Honduras scored a goal mostly because we were in Honduras, but also because they were great goals haha. One of Danielle's friends was from Olympia Wa which is only like 20 minutes from Tacoma where I live. I was thrown off by these Washington people being all the way down in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Crazy right haha. After the night was over we slept in the hotel and then went for Siguatepeque on Sunday. It was about a three hour bus ride from Teguc, and we arrived there without problems. Once we arrived we were quickly greeted by our host family who are from Argentina, the country that we will be studying in in March. They are super nice, and have a wonderful house, and life in Siguatepeque. The couple runs a church in Siguatepeque and are very well known in this pueblo. Their organization is called Union Biblica de Honduras. They are very similar to young life in the states, but of course it's different in Honduras. We were immediately taken to their church for a wonderful meal of tortillas, pollo, y some other foods. It was delish! We then came home to settle in our new house.

After the first Week

2010-01-13T16:15:00.000-08:00

So after my first week here I can say that I´ve had a good feel of Guatemala, but have barely scratched the surface. I´ve helped make chocolate the old fashioned way, I´ve seen volcanoes, I´ve had salsa lessons, and so much more. One of my favorite things that I have done so far is play with some kids at this school called ¨La Pedrera¨. These kids come from all different ages and different places in Guatemala to get educated. Although these kids do not have a lot of money, they have so much to offer as can only be seen by spending time with them. It´s crazy to think that in the United States kids are entertained and happy only when they have some television or video games or some cell phone that has texting. These kids barely have anything, but seeing them enjoy the simple things such as peacocks, or a simple kickball that barely has air in it really opens up my eyes to such a greater picture.

I first traveled to Fuentes Georginas which is a natural spring high in the mountains of Guatemala. This place was super beautiful and the water was amazing. It was pretty much a hot bath. After the hot springs I felt super relaxed and ready to go do something else. The next day we took off for the touristy town of Panajachel. On the way to Panjachel we stopped off in a pueblo named Solola which is home to a group of women who fight for the rights of women and children in Guatemala. This group currently consists of about 30-35 women and they have been having success incorporating woman in town meetings and using their skills to draw in people in order to gain recognition. These women sell their art, clothing, jewelry, and other clothwork for the prices that they are worth. I really admire these women (pictured below) for standing up to the stereotypical roles of women in Guatemala and I had the privilege of experiencing the sincerity, dedication, and passion for what they were working towards; social equality.

After the co-op with the women we traveled to Panajachel. In Panajachel you have access to the famoso Lake Atitlan. It has three of the biggest volcanoes with in a few miles of each other. This great lake surrounds these volcanoes and has 12 pueblos (towns) surrounding the lake. These twelve pueblos are supposed to represent the twelve disciples. These pueblos are home to some of the indigenous people of Guatemala and their culture there is really something cool. The city was something else and in Panajachel is where I experienced so much. Before we headed out from the hotel, we held a meeting. The people who had been there before gave us a heads up that what we were about to experience was going to be intense, but we had to be headstrong. They said that people would try and sell things and be very persistent and at that time I had no idea what persistent actually meant. So my friends and I began walking in the market and then we sat down at a restaurant to eat. So we began talking and there was about 12 or 15 of us when this little boy ofmaybe 10 years came up to me and said Compralo (Buy it) and he held out this little hand-stitched animal. I was told not to make eye contact if I´m not interested but I´m always interested in whoever wants to talk to me. I said oh no Gracias. Hethen began putting on a sad face and repeated himself while putting more stuffed animal toys in front of me. I asked him his name and he told me Jorge. I eventually seen a dinosaur one and picked it up and started playing with it. My friends immediately said, ¨Jordon, you have to buy it now, you played with his toys and you talked to him.¨ They had a point. So I began to choose one and I eventually, with the good advice of a friend chose the Tortuga (turtle). He immediately tried to sell me another one when one of the waiters walked him out. As soon as he left another child, a little girl, beamed straight for me. I said ¨no gracias¨ but I still made eye contact. She then began walking around the table to ask others before she got walked out as well. During lunch more and more kids kept coming to me and as soon as I finished my food I had perfected the art of not making eye contact with the kids. I began walking through the market and before I knew it, I made friends. This little boy came up to me (the one with the coke) and asked me to buy something from me, no different from before, except that he had followed me for about ten minutes when he finally asked me to buy him a coke. I had agreed and then we began conversating about his life. He told me he was selling stuff because his parents made him and that his name was Michael. We immediately hit it ff from there because my name is Jordon. Entonces, Michael Jordan. Once he had a coke another little boy came up to me and asked for food. I told him no and that I wasn´t really hungry, but I knew I would be soon, even though I just ate. He began following me as well. I then began asking questions when the second boy, Marco, said whassup to his cousin Juan. We then began walking and talking when I got tired and sat down. They were just chilling with me on the main market strip of Panajachel, Guatemala. I began to ask why were the majority of the little kids coming to me? They explained that I was wearing a pair of Jordans and that says that I have money. They asked me where I lived in the states, and then I asked them how they knew I was from the states. They told me that when I first met them that I called them ¨friend¨ or amigo which says that I´m probably from the United States. I couldn´t help, but to keep asking questions about their lives and what they thought of me. I asked the three kids what the thought of when they thought of the United States and I´ll never forget what Michael said, ¨Mucho dolares y edificios altos¨ (lots of money and tall buildings). They then questioned how much my shoes costed and I told them that if I bought a knew pair it would cost about 1000 quetzales ($125) which is crazy to them. They all said queeeeeee! (what). I said yea but I got mine at a discount store for about 30 dollars. They said ohh es mucho. I then explained to them about the different classes in the U.S like the lower, middle and upper classes. I explained to them that I´m barely considered to be in the middle class and that my family and I receive government funding and have to work very hard for our money as well. I explained to them that we have people who live on the streets as well and then we have the rich people as well. They seemed very surprised at this. I then bought us some tacos and chatted some more. Later that night I ate some papusas which is food from El Salvador (super delicious by the way)and got to ride in a tuk tuk. Yes tuk tuk.

The next day we went to one of the 12 pueblos named Santiago where there were the indigenous still preserved their culture. The picture on the left is of Santiago. It was about an hour boat ride from Panajachel to Santiago. There I learned that the Spanish, during the conquest, had tried to persuade the Indigenous people to assimilate into their culture by using indigenous values in the Catholic church. For example, in some churches the front has symbols such as jaguars or fruit which some of the Indigenous hold up highly. The town of Santiago was really nice and that´s even where I found the first people in Guatemala playing basketball. I was super excited and I would have showed them a little sum sum but I didn´t have enough time. There were men walking around in striped shorts and those men are the Shaman of their tribes. These shaman and are highly respected and have great authority. This weekend was just an amazing opportunity to experience and learn in a different way. We arrived back at our lovely town of Quetzeltenango on Sunday night.

This week I have seen the modern part of Guatemala and got to experience what a Mayan ceremony would look like. Here are some pictures of the ceremony. I have tons of stories I want to tell but, I can´t write that much. Peace and I´ll keep you all updated when I can.

My first few days in Guatemala

2010-01-06T16:38:00.000-08:00

I got into Guatemala City on Saturday afternoon with a smile. I had never been in another country in my entire life and Guatemala was my first. On the flight from Houston to Guatemala I had sat next to a Guatemalan woman who worked in Olympia. Olympis is a city very close to Tacoma, Washington where I live. It was pretty weird, but just a coincidence. She explained to me a little before I got off the plane about some Guatemalan culture and some other things. She also gave me her contact information if I were to need anything. I was already experiencing some Guetamalan hospitality. Soon after I got off the plane, i removed my earings and put them in my backpack just as the lady had advised me. Our group soon went through customs and security and then I got my first visa. It wasn´t very impressive though because the visa was barely visible on my passport. We then walked outside the airport to see a big crowd of Guatemalans. We waited for a bus with all of our luggage as this nino was checking us all out and walking through us as if he was a guard. Once it arrived we left for Quetzaltenango. The roads were made of cobblestone, the ninos were running around, trucks and vans had lots of people hanging out of them, and the air seemed very thick. Cars were super crazy too and I´m not going to lie, I was a little nervous. Everything was so different and I liked it. Spanish words and stores were everywhere. We got to a restaurant about fifteen minutes after leaving the airport and it was my first out of country meal. It was pretty good. I ate arroz y frijoles y pollo y chorizo tambien. I didn’t like the chorizo as much but the food was okay. After the restaurant we left for Quetzaltenango. On the way I seen so many chain restaurants como McDonalds, Wendy´s, Burger King, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Domino´s and a lot of other stores. I really forgot the fact that there were so many chains in the country. It was the beginning of knowing how big business can affect economies such as local businesses. The next four to five hours we drove through crazy hills and I thought that we were going to die honestly because the bus was going so fast in the hills of Guatemala. Fue loco! I slept mostly the whole way but I would wake up from time to time because the crazy turns would slide me away from my window and into the bar. Late at night we arrived in Quetzaltenango with moms standing outside the bus with signs. Andrew and I soon seen our mom and we said hola mama. Ella dijo a nosotros ëstas listos¨ but we said si and then we went to grab our bags from the bottom of the bus. There was a guard there watching the bus and he had this huge shotgun with him. Once we had our bags we turn around to our mom being gone. We look around for a second only to see her getting into a taxi with two other guys from our group. It was weird that we got mama jacked,but hey weirder things have happened. We then tell our teacher and we then wait for the other mom to come. We basically ended up switching moms. But…Once we met our mom we were happy that we had her for our mom! Andrew and I left for our house with our mom Dona Flor de Maria. Our house was super nice. It was definitely better than we expected. We pretty much had the whole upstairs to ourselves. We each got our own room, a bathroom for the both of us to share , and huge beds! I couldn´t believe my eyes. Our mama is well educated, our papa is a professor of Psychology at a public and private University in Guatemala, our sister Carolina is a nurse that studied in Cuba for seven years, and our hermano Byron is an electrical engineer and he teaches. Our family is super nice and so is our home. Our house is about fifteen minutes by foot from the school. The first night I slept in the room I used my sleeping bag on the huge bed and I continue to do it because well it´s really warm in there. It gets really chilly at night time therefore I use my sleeping bag.

The first day I woke up mama made us Cornflakes con leche which is a typical breakfast here in Guatemala. Despues eating our cornflakes con leche we went to the parquet central which is the main place near our house. Parque Central tiene banks, a huge cathedral (like ive never seen before), lots of food places, local vendedores outside. The place is huge and has everything you can think of surrounding it. We went to the market this Sunday and its outside in parquet central. It is like the swap meet here but it only happens on the first Sunday of every month. The next day we started our first day of Spanish school. I met my Spanish teacher. Her name is Emilia and she is very nice, but she speaks Spanish really fast. Ella is a very good teacher though and I really enjoy what I learn from her. It´s kind crazy though because classes start at eight in the morning and end at one in the afternoon. Five hours of Spanish! Its CRAZY! But I´m learning lots so it´s all good baby babay!

-My schedule for the day is usually wake up at 7.

-Eat breakfast at 7 10 (Cornflakes).

-Leave for school at 735

-Arrive at 755

-Begin class in this tiny room with just my maestro at 8

-Break at 1030 (Eat and talk with amigos)

-Begin class again at 11

-End class at 1

-Talk for a little then walk home at 1 15 ish

-Arrive at home at 1 35

-Eat at 145 ish (Different meals, but the biggest meal of the day!)

-Leave back to school for the activity of the day at 210

-Arrive for activity (Make chocolate, Salsa lessons, look through markets, etc)

-Finish Activity at 430 and then do whatever I want

-Eat dinner at 8 (Normalmente frijoles y arroz con un tipo de carne)

-Do hw after dinner

-Explore/Play in the city

-Go to bed at 11

I will update again soon! Adioso

Hola y Bienvenidos

2009-12-24T23:15:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone. Welcome to my blog! This blog is an attempt to keep all of those who are interested in my travels up to date on what's going on. I first want to say thank you for those who have been supporting me along the way. This trip would not be possible without your love, encouragement, and positivity. Along my 6 month trip I will do my best to blog and keep the updates rolling. This will of course be one of my many goals on my journey down to South America and back so bare with me if the updates are not regular, especially with limited access to la red (internet). Also keep in mind that this trip is giving me a lot of firsts. This is my first blog, first time leaving the country, and first time being around a different language every day! To those who I will be away from; My family, friends, beautiful Warren Leadership, and my lovely girlfriend, I will be thinking of all of you. You encouraged me and challenged me to be who I am today. Thank You all. My good friend Andrew Eller is traveling with me. Andrew is also a junior at Whitworth University and he is pictured here with me, along with his girlfriend Ariella and my girlfriend Heidi!

So as far as the plan goes up to this point. On Jan 1 I will be boarding a plane to Guatemala to start a new year and a new adventure. During January I will be at a language school in Guatemala in a town named Quetzaltenango with a group from Whitworth until the 22nd. At the language school I will receive 5 hours of language instruction every day, the rest of my time will be spent in cultural and volunteer activities as coordinated by the faculty leader. On January 25 we will separate from the group and take a long bus ride to Honduras where we will be doing an internship with Union Biblica Honduras and Proyecto Aldea Global. We will be doing community work at various locations. Then on March 1 we will fly from Tegucigalpa to Lima, Peru and then to Cuzco, Peru. In Cuzco our main activity will be a 4 day hike on the Incan Trail to various Incan ruins, culminating in our visiting Machu Picchu. We will arrive in Buenos Aires, Argentina on March 9 for our orientation. After the orientation we will begin classes at Universidad del Salvador which we will continue until July 5th when we fly back to Seattle. It's going to be super exciting!

Thanks for reading and hopefully this will be a good tool to keep people updated!

Pre-Departure

2009-12-24T23:01:00.000-08:00

So much packing!!! Well... One big luggage and one travel backpack ;) Just two more days till South America.