Semester Abroad: Guatemala, Part 1 – Guatemala City

Not long after I returned from my semester in Barcelona, I once again found myself looking for a way to leave the country. The solution? Another semester abroad! This time I headed for Guatemala to do a Study/Service program through CASAS. This semester proved to be much better than my time in Spain. There were only 8 of us in the program and we got along well. In fact, the first night I met someone who had graduated from my college – and had actually grown up in a town next to mine in Illinois! Her mom works with my brother-in-law’s mom, and we went to the same dentist! Small world, eh? We were all from different states, and one was even from Vancouver. We also had quite a range in terms of age – from 18-29. But, as I said, we got along well and had some fun during our time in Guatemala.

The first 8 weeks was the “study” portion of the semester. I studied at Semilla, a Mennonite seminary located in Guatemala City. I tested as “advanced” and got to have my own teacher one-on-one for 4 hours every day. This is me with my wonderful teacher, Violeta:



I studied mostly the Spanish language, but also a bit of anthropology and religion. It was in Guatemala where I finally learned how to read in Spanish. By the end of my 15 weeks there I’d read a few books in Spanish, including the first few of the Harry Potter books (I’ve now read them all in Spanish, along with a few other books). My speaking also improved a lot, especially with those with whom I was comfortable. According to one of the girls in the program, I speak fast in Spanish, just like in English ^^

Here are a few photos from my time studying at Semilla; the first was taken during one of our daily coffee breaks, and the second is a photo of some of us crossing the street from the bus over to the school:




While there, we celebrated Lori's 30th birthday:



On the final day of the study portion, all of the CASAS students, teachers, and staff posed for a couple final shots:

Besides taking class every morning, we also went on a lot of “field trips” to areas within the city and a few of us took some other classes, too (those of us who were there to earn credit for college; a few were there merely to improve their Spanish). Those classes required attending lectures and writing a few papers (I turned my final paper in about 8 months after returning to the States!!).

The National Palace and central plaza:

The "gorge", where a lot of squatters reside:

Salsa lessons:

On a croweded bus:

Mana in concert:

While studying in Guate, I lived with a host family in Zone 6. They were very kind, but unfortunately I didn’t get to know them very well. I was gone almost every weekend, either as a scheduled trip with the program, or on my own with some others from the group. But they were a fantastic family, and I did visit them after I finished my service portion of the semester (more on that later). They also had 3 terrier dogs, whom I loved (especially the puppy)!

Here I am outside my home in Zone 6:

I'm going to post a separate blog to highlight some of the places we visited outside of Guate. But before I end this one, a few more things about Guatemala: There are something like 23 national languages, the majority being Mayan dialects. Guatemala has had a sad history, including the Civil War which ended in 1996; I saw many of the affects of this war while living there. In spite of a hard past, it is a beautiful culture, with amazingly lovely people. It remains one of my favorite places on this Earth, and the number one place where I want to return. In fact I already have it in my head that I will return there sometime in the next 5 years to either study Spanish or serve in some way.

Here is a map of the languages of Guatemala:

Weekend Trip to Paris, France

While studying in Barcelona (see previous post), my friend Jen and I decided to take advantage of a 3-day weekend in early December and hop an overnight train to Paris.

We arrived to a foggy, slighty rainy morning in Paris - with no set plans. I don't really remember the exact order of everything we did, but I posted the following photos in the order I had them in my "Paris" photo folder.

One of our first stops was, naturally, the Eiffle Tower; it was very cold at the top!:



We also made a short visit to Notre Dame:



And we went to the Chateau Versailles:



This is inside the castle, "The Hall of Mirrors" - a lot more impressive in person:



We wandered around the Champs d'Elysse, and enjoyed the beautiful lights at night:



L'Arch de Triomphe:



The first night we stayed in a hostel, where we had a shoe-box sized room; the second night we met up with a missionary family that Jen knew and crashed at their house (they even had a view of the Eiffle Tower, just like in the movies! Wish I had a picture of that...):



This is the Musee d'Orsay, which was my favorite museum we went to (we only went to two...):



And here's the Louvre (the two museums are basically across the river from each other):



Inside, under the pyramid:



You can't go to the Louvre and not see the Mona Lisa!:



On one of the nights we wandered around a bit and saw the Moulin Rouge. We also saw the Basilique Sacre-Coeur; both of these are located in Montmartre, which is a beauitful area:





We only had about 3 days, but we saw a lot!! I definitely want to go back and spend a bit more time exploring the city... preferably in the spring/early summer when all of the flowers and gardens are in bloom.

Semester Abroad: Barcelona, Spain

My first “real” travel experience was during the fall semester of my third year at Goshen College (2002). It was also my first time flying; I had to fly from Bloomington, IL to Chicago, and then over to Barcelona, Spain. Once there I took a train down to Castellon de la Plana to meet up with my dear friend Marta. It was a long journey, especially for my first solo trip!

I spent about 10 days with her, her family, and her friends in her beach house (rough time, I know ^^). It wasn’t all I had hoped it would be, unfortunately, but it was still nice to have a taste of Spain before officially beginning my semester abroad.

When it was time, I took a train back up to Barcelona where I met up with the heads from my program, Brethren Colleges Abroad (BCA). Now, I admit, this was several years ago and I no longer remember everything we did, not to mention the actual order in which we did them. So this account will be a bit general, and by no means specific.

We spent our first several days doing orientation outside of Barcelona. We stayed in a small beach town and enjoyed walking along the beach, drinking wine in cafes along the streets, and beginning to immerse ourselves in Spanish.



We also took an art history trip to Gerona. Once there we traveled around a bit. We saw some monasteries (and learned about the architecture, as it was an art history trip!), saw the Roman and Greek ruins along the Costa Brava at Ampurias, and visited the Salvador Dali museum in Figueres.

















Once we got to Barcelona, we were split up as we went to settle in with our new host families. We were never all together again, though it came very close with a Thanksgiving meal in November.





I lived with a single woman, and we didn’t hit it off. She was very nice, and cooked vegetarian food for me, but she got quickly frustrated by my low speaking Spanish ability. We did have one running “joke”, about me needing to go visit Parque Guell (which I did, eventually, when my mom came to visit me). Other than that, we just lived in the same apartment and saw each other on occasion.

I attended the University of Barcelona, attending classes at 2 of the 3 campuses. I took a couple grammar courses, a history course, and a reading course (I did very well in the grammar courses, but miserably in the other two; I didn’t even take my final in the lit class, and failed my history final!). All of my classes were with fellow BCAers, but the professors were of the university and spoke only Spanish. It was a huge challenge for me, but as this is a travel blog, I’m going to leave that all be.

Barcelona is an amazing city. I admit I had a huge love-hate relationship with it, but am pretty sure that when I return it I will simply love it! I was too wrapped up in my classes and lack of social life to really enjoy what it was. I’m sure I was also experiencing some culture shock, though I remember reading about it and not feeling like I was.

Barcelona is a mix of the old and new. There is something for everyone: bars, shopping, architecture, art, etc.

I didn’t see all I wanted to, but I did see a lot. I walked along Las Ramblas many times and was around Placa de Catalunya on lots of occasions (that’s usually where my friends and I met before a night out). I saw the Gothic Cathedral along with many of the famous architectural works of Antoni Gaudi. I also saw David Bisbal in concert and went to a soccer game. I also got to see Snowflake, the albino gorilla.















My mom came to visit for my last 2 weeks; that’s actually when I saw most of Guadi’s works, including, of course, the Parque Guell.















Barcelona is on my “most visit again” list. There is still so much to see there, and so many things I’d like to see again, and probably appreciate more than I did at that time.
If you are in Europe, and visit Spain, make sure to spend a few days walking around Barcelona! La Sagrada Familia and Parque Guell are two of my favorite spots. And not far from La Sagrada Familia is Michael Collins, a terrific Irish Pub . Also, be sure to walk down Las Ramblas and enjoy the human statues that line the street!