First weekend

In the Houston Hilton -I got peppermint patties after all! They were expensive but delicious.
Zucchini does not keep well in a Ziploc bag in carry-on, fyi
My sexy uniform: scarf skirt, t-shirt and hiking boots . Hawt Guatemala airport that we thought would be scary was deserted and reeeeeally boring for 6 hours
Pabel and his son Christian giving a tour of the rainforest. Christian was poking a termite home so termites were running all over the place. Loooovely.

People are waiting for me so I don´t have time to update except to say that I´m much happier today than I have been. Things are getting a lot easier and work looks like it´s going to be good. Going to do a Spanish course next week, probably. Here are the updates I´ve had on my computer, waiting for the trip to get internet. My pictures are taking too long to upload so I´ll be putting more next time and explaining the ones I have up better. (The gross stuff in the Ziploc bag were my grilled zucchinis that I tried to take on the plane)

Day 1 – Warm Canadian welcome, complete with balloons

8:30 pm

Yup, I got balloons. I didn't have the heart to break it to Annie and Joanie, the two young French Canadian women who are here with CUSO as well, that balloons make me want to cry and hide in a corner. I managed to not touch them and avoided offering to take them. Which was probably totally rude but they didn't really seem to mind or notice...

We went to the grocery store where they had already bought four big boxes of food and left them there to pick up after they got me. Maybe so they wouldn't be out in the extreme heat? Not sure.

They both speak okay English. It would probably be easier for me if they just spoke French, but I'm so overwhelmed and tired that I didn't bother to propose it. Annie is 6 months pregnant and leaves July 1. We rode together in the truck while Joanie and a bunch of men from the cooperative who I wasn't introduced to sat on the back. When we got to the cooperative, which I can't really see because it's so dark (but they have streetlights! Pretty hardcore), they showed me my room. There are a few rooms in this building which share, get this, regular showers and a toilet with running water 24/7! This is temporary, but it's nice that I can ease in before I get a “dry toilet” as they call the outhouses here. “We don't go to the bathroom at night” Annie and her very French father told me. He's staying at her place where I went after I dumped my stuff in my room. She also has a dog, Coquette, that is cute, friendly and also pregnant (I'm assuming that's where the name comes from...).

Had a glass of water at Annie's and then came home. Joanie showed me the the bathroom where I washed my face. Not that there's much point since the sweat started pouring almost immediately after anyway. I'm covered from head to toe in sweat. It's disgusting. And I came at night, when it's ONLY 29 degrees. Apparently it was 38 today.

I'm sharing the building with some students from Canada. They just got here this week, so we'll be getting a full tour together tomorrow. Not sure how I feel about it. They're really loud and I don't really want to be known for hanging out with other English speaking Westerners.

Critter situation: I saw a massive toad (the size of like a kitten!) cross the road in front of the truck when we pulled into the cooperative. Other than that, I saw a Canadian-sized spider in the bathroom that didn't bother me at all. I asked Joanie what to do if I saw a tarantula (a Canadian guy could be heard screaming that there was a tarantula in his room) and she told me to shoo it. Shoo it?! I never really thought of tarantulas as shoo-able. Apparently squishing them is a risk because if it's got eggs inside it, hundreds of little tarantulas will go everywhere. Lovely. I'm tempted to pull a Tiana and shove towels under my bedroom door in the hopes that nothing will get in.

I'm very paranoid about the bugs. Annie and her father (she calls him the “Lizard Dundee” because he repeats the mantra “I am the Crocodile Dundee” every night to try to get over his fear of bugs/animals) were quite blunt that there are a lot of bugs and I WILL see them. Ugh. The mosquito net over my bed has pretty big holes but it's already up and I don't want to take it down to try to figure out how the heck to get mine up. It attaches in the middle at one point and the ceiling is really high. The one on my bed now has 4 corners that are tied to the walls.

I haven't seen a mosquito yet, but I swear I have bites already.

Other observations: the speedbumps at the very modern grocery store (½ an hour away-ish) were made out of big rocks, I saw someone throw a beer can out of their passenger side window while driving and there really are people with guns everywhere.

Going to put in some earplugs to try to block out these really loud students from Western...I doubt I'll be able to sleep because of the heat, but maybe I'll surprise myself.


Day 2 – No Amount of Training Could Prepare Me

11:20pm

The pain of the heat, exhaustion, loneliness and confusion is really tough. I didn't sleep at all last night due to bugs (only real bug that I saw: a moth the size of my palm which managed to get into my mosquito net), heat and noise from people, then monkeys, then roosters. It is so unbearably hot, I can't describe it. I haven't stopped sweating since I got here. Showers are only for getting rid of the old sweat, sunscreen and bug spray.

Took a tour of the rainforest and fish farming project with some nursing students from Western who are just here for one more day. Hung out with students from Western on hammocks and then went on a tour with them of the cooperative. Had dinner with Annie and Joanie, the other CUSO people, and Annie's father. They helped me set up my beautiful, huge mosquito net over my bed. Much better. The piece of mind I'll get from it not touching me and the Permethrin treatment is just amazing.

I have to decide where I want to live. I can stay in this “hotel” house until Annie leaves then take her place but will have to cook at Joanie's or figure something out. The Western students, who are here for a month, rotate families to cook for them, which was suggested. I really don't want to because of my allergies. I also have the option to rent a place in Santa Elena, which is where the internet is, or Flores, which is apparently a bit safer and nicer. I won't get money to travel from those areas, so I expect I will stay here. I don't know if I feel like harassing Joanie for her kitchen, two houses down, for a month and a half. We'll try it this week and see.

Although I did many things today that would be considered amazing, spending 6 hours walking through the forest, hearing about the guerilla struggle, learning about plants, and hearing about the start of this cooperative from nothing and its unique ability to thrive, I do not feel like I had a good day at all. I swear, I'm trying to have a good attitude, participating in group activities, smiling and talking about how I love my program so much, the discomfort is so extreme. I'm super paranoid about the bugs, which I know will pass (watching Joanie shove the corners of my mosquito net into the edge of the mattress without looking or anything made my stomach turn!), the language is killing me (Joanie and Annie are really going to bug CUSO to let me take language training. Apparently Mirko, a guy that works for CUSO in Latin America, thought that I was David -i.e. I have Colombian parents and can understand Spanish. Greaaaaaat. So we're hoping correcting that mistake this week will help my case to get language training), and the heat is the worst.

Turns out we're two weeks into what should be the rainy season, but it has yet to rain. It is hotter than normal.

Annie pointed out that if I plug in my fan, it works. I didn't even check and just saw it hanging on the wall, tried to turn it on, and when it didn't work, reported that it was broken. And the plug is pretty obvious, too. Painful.

I have to be at breakfast in 8 hours. Hopefully I can actually get some rest tonight.

Day 3 – Feeling Better

7:45 pm

Today was a lot less packed with activities. Although I don't regret tagging along on all of the excursions of the last couple of days, chilling out today was really good for my spirits. I had breakfast with my CUSO ladies and Jean Claude (le papa), which was very nice. My French is improving by the meal, haha. Seriously. They keep joking about me being trilingual when I get back, but it really isn't much of a stretch.

Went to a “conference” which was basically a talk primarily by Manuel, a former guerilla who is a member at the cooperative, with a bit of commentary by Tono, who took us on the tour of the cooperative yesterday. It was very interesting, but long. Having to wait for the translation by Salvan (who is the TA with the Western group) was tedious. He did a great job but everyone was pretty wiped by the end of it. There was a lot of interesting stuff about the American influence here politically and economically which might make for a thesis topic...stay tuned.

Lunch with my little French crew was nice, hosted by Joanie. I unpacked a bit, lay down and napped for a couple of hours in the afternoon. I feel very refreshed and able to handle things a lot better now that I'm rested. I finally don't feel tired for the first time this trip.

It's still extremely hot but not as bad as the past two days. I'm still sweating constantly, it just pours out less :P Dinner was awesome. Jean Claude spent 3 hours cooking tonight, making broccoli soup, stirfry with rice noodles (apparently the grocery store in Santa Elena just got an international food section last week -sweet! Just in time for me.) and rice pudding. It was really nice. My tummy's not so happy with me because of the broth cubes in the soup, but it was worth it. We talked about working on getting me Spanish lessons and me taking over Annie's place when she leaves. She's going to pass on the beautiful Coquette when she goes! I'm hoping the puppies come before then because I really don't want to have to deal with that. Apparently she's selling them and giving one to a boy in the cooperative. They go for 100Q, which is like $13. You can get an hour of phone time to Canada with that!

There's a little kitten trying to get me to adopt it. She's very cute, orange with stripes, and obviously hungry for milk. She was trying to suckle my armpits today :) It's a good thing she went for them after my shower because I probably would have killed the poor little thing before! Sexy, 'eh?

Going to bed early to try to be rested for work tomorrow. The work day is 8am to noon, then 2 to 5. As expected, it's very casual, though, without any strict timing or anything. People are coming and going. If you have errands or things to do, people don't really make a big deal about it. Having breakfast with the crew at 7am at Joanie's.

Things I wish I'd brought: more AA batteries, extension cord, TANK TOPS, summer dress, sarong, vegetable peeler.

I'm pretty happy with how I packed, though. A lot of advice I was given to bring things like cotton scarves, rechargeable batteries, hand sanitizer, ear plugs, baby wipes and a microphone head set were definitely helpful.

One more night of drinking tap water

Yup. I'm currently enjoying free high-speed internet at the Hilton in Houston, Texas. As predicted, having two stops that are only half an hour each didn't work out as smoothly as my travel agent anticipated. It works out for me, I guess, to ease me into the warm temperatures (although this AC is ridiculous and I can't figure out how to turn it down) and have some time by myself before I leap into Guatemala.

My flight from Ottawa to Cleveland made it just on time for me to run across the airport with the sweetest couple of guys. They spoke in this jumble of English, Spanish and French that I completely understood. It was awesome. They were off to Mexico. I was totally unconscious for the flight to Houston, waking up now and again when the pilot would say things about not being able to land. We landed 15 minutes before my next flight was leaving and I had a seat at the back of the plane. As passed on by Andrew Rizk, the Houston Airport is freaking huge and I had to go really far to get to the flight from Houtson to Guatemala. Needless to say, the plane had left by the time I made it there. At least two other passengers from the Cleveland flight missed their transfer for the Guatemala City flight as well.

After a lot of haggling with 3 different tellers at the Continental Customer Service desk, I managed to get a hotel and food vouchers. One of the tellers wanted me to take the next flight to Guatemala City, which would mean an overnight stay in the Guatemala City airport. I bugged them to let me stay in Houston overnight instead since my Spanish is terrible and I would not be comfortable sleeping/trying to stay awake in the Guatemala City airport. "My mother would kill me."

So after a less-tearful-than-I-expected good-bye with my parents, Bren and Jeffrey, I spent most of my day sleeping and eating. Tonight? Emailing people, watching TV and more eating is the plan. I left my gym stuff and bathing suit in my checked luggage, so I don't have anything else to do, really. I think I'm pretty much in the middle of nowhere so there isn't really anywhere for me to go or anything to do.

Right now I feel very calm about the whole thing. A bit nervous, a bit sad, a bit excited. Generally, I'm not feeling too much of anything.

Two days to go!

video about Nuevo Horizonte. And no, I don't understand most of the Spanish in it. Oh my...

Found out a few pieces of misinformation today. Two weeks after I emailed the women who are at Nuevo Horizonte with CUSO, I got a message back from Annie. She's French, contrary to what I was told before. She understood my email, though, and I understood hers in response, so that was fortunate. Just a little more work for my poor [essentially] unilingual brain, haha. Also, she told me they don't have internet at the Cooperative. Hmm. That's a bit problematic. It throws a bit of a wrench in my research and long distance relationship. Ay ay ay. It's going to be interesting! I can't ethicle everything in the moment now. I'm such an internet addict.

My email from Annie was very helpful. She told me not to worry about the tattoo. Apparently a lot of tourists come by with them, so they're not a big deal anymore. Phewf. She reminded me the mosquito net is very important. And I got a warning that it's freaking hot in Peten.

Spent the day with Jessica, my best friend in Ottawa. Got some more shopping done (shoes and Canada gifts) and ate at Mongolian Village for the last time until next February! It was delicious :)

Came home, watched the Nuevo Horizonte video and sewed up a hole in the sweater I'm bringing with me. I also called Francis. He leaves for Estali tomorrow afternoon! I leave at 6:20 am on Thursday. I can't believe it! My flights are Ottawa -> Cleveland -> Houston -> Guatemala City -> Flores. Arrival time in Flores? 6:20pm. That's right! One day, four flights. Francis and I both have very short stopovers, which will make luggage a bit of a gamble. I have half an hour in Cleveland and 35 minutes in Houston. My longest flight is 2 hours, so no sleeping for me! It'll be quite the adventure, anyway. I'm so excited for Francis and can't wait to hear from him when he gets there! (hint hint)

Thailand people, Jan and Leslie, leave on Friday. Dave leaves on Sunday. I think that's it for May, unless Veronica (whose passport got lost in the mail. She was supposed to leave in early May to Mozambique but had to get her departure pushed back) got a new date. It's happening so fast!

Dad bought me a laptop cooler today. It's pretty spiffy. Hopefully it keeps my beautiful Dell kicking for at least another 9 months.

Mom and I are off to shop hopefully for the last time tonight! This coop is so expensive! We spent $350 at MEC on a backpack, head lamp (bright pink!), spandex shorts, mini flashlights, money belt, and a Swiss Army knife. Dad spent over $500 (no joke) on my toiletries for the trip. Most of it is stuff I'd be buying in life anyway -shampoo for my psoriasis, soap for my stupidly sensitive skin, moisturizer, lip balm- but the extreme amount of sunscreen and mosquito repellent is definitely an extra expense. Plus the first aid kit, Purell, over the counter meds for random things, and vitamins are all things I normally do without. I'll likely be spending another $100-200 at Future Shop (on top of the $40 laptop cooler) for rewritable CDs, an external harddrive, microphone/headset, and AAA rechargeable batteries. I also have to pick up some notebooks and things for my research. Basically, if I didn't have generous parents with a disposable income, I'd be in a tough spot. On top of the $6200 tuition, or whatever ridiculous amount we pay, and the insane cost of rent in Toronto, it really adds up! Definitely not a cheap degree by any means.

It sounds like a lot of stuff. I'm bringing almost no clothing -one pair of jeans, a few scarves that can be towels, scarves, skirts and blankets, a few t-shirts and a blouse. I could probably fit everything in my carry-on and one checked bag if it weren't for the limits on liquids. Most of my bag is shampoo, soap, repellent, mosturizer, contact solution and sunscreen. But pretty much all of it has to be checked, so I have to pay the extra $25 to check the extra bag. Grrr. Understandable but frustrating, of course.

So that's the really long update of my life, two days before I leave! Mom's home. Off to spend more of my parents' money.

Back in O-Town

This last month has been an absolute blur. Many duty shifts, working, studying here and there, hanging out with friends and trying to get everything done that needed to get done was exhausting. I still haven't recovered from all of that yet; hopefully by the weekend I'll feel rested.

After checking out over 60 students, with the help of Jeffrey, I packed up all of my belongings. Francis, Jaclyn, random friend of Francis, Tiana, Dave, Eric, Francis's parents, Adam and probably more people helped get all of my crap to Francis's place. My shoes went missing in the process, somehow, which really sucks. Still can't find them and I was going to be bringing those as my work shoes. Darn. I have a ton of stuff after living in a house last year with Tiana and a decent sized bachelor last summer. I didn't move back to Ottawa at all, so all of the things that filled those homes were stored somehow over the last school year. Needless to say, there's over 2 large van loads of stuff. The patience of everyone involved in moving, which included Ania, Brendan and Mom by Sunday, is much appreciated. Especially considering I was grumpy and drained, I can't believe how well everyone came together for me. Complete strangers and families of friends were so generous in helping me, a random girl with a ton of stuff who they don't even know. Francis's family and Ania's mom ROCK --thanks so much for letting me store some of my stuff until we can haul it back to O-Town!

We ended off our incredible 3 years pre-placement with an "Epic Party" at Francis's place on Saturday. People from first to fifth year, UofT staff to Ryerson students, parents and friends piled into the Massé residence. It was an unforgettable evening in so many ways. Throughout the night were tearful good-byes but I definitely smiled and laughed way more than I cried. There weren't many pictures of the night because everyone was having too good of a time to remember to document any of it, haha. I doubt many of us will be forgetting it, though.

Sunday night, Brendan and Mom -fresh from a hockey tournament- picked me and Jeffrey up from the Massé place. We were back in Ottawa by 11pm and it was off to bed before a long day on Monday.

Monday, May 5: dentist, waited 20 minutes at the police station for a police check and gave up, eye doctor, waited 2 hours at the police station for a police check and gave up. Mom got my malaria pills, which I started. They're dry pills and suck to take.

Tuesday, May 6: waited 10 minutes at the police station and got my police check!, scanned/photocopied/printed a million forms at Mom's office, told OHIP I'll be gone.

Tonight I'll be hanging out with Devon, my first friend in elementary school. We haven't seen each other in a couple of years and I can't wait!

Left to do? Mom and I are shopping til we drop at MEC tomorrow. Most of my shopping needs to be done at Shoppers and I'm still waiting on a few prescriptions. I need to mail some receipts in to Toronto and mail my police check to CUSO. Jeffrey's teaching me a bunch of accounting, Excel and SWOT analysis stuff. I'll be catching up with friends and family before I'm off. And I need to cram some Spanish while I'm at it. It's going to be a busy final 8-9 days!

How to find out when I've updated!

Blogspot doesn't have an email subscription option, which is a bit annoying.

You need to set up something like GoogleReader to subscribe to my blog. I've linked that up with my iGoogle (when you go to Google, click on "iGoogle" in the top right to set that bad boy up) so whenever I go to Google, it shows the most recent posts of all of the blogs I subscribe to.

That was a horrible way to explain things. Can someone else explain this better? Uncle Mel?

progress!

Very briefly:

Got a departure date-ish! I need to get there on either the 16th or 19th. I'll be booking my flight next week!

Passport is finally in. Phewf.

Have to study for an exam on Monday -will update soon!

It hit me

I thought it would take getting a departure date for it to hit me, but it was actually purchasing my deltamethrin treated mosquito net that did it. I feel like I've almost been in a daze for the last 22 hours since I bought it. I feel like crying and laughing at the same time. Tiana took a picture of me at the bar last night with the "I just realized I'm moving to the rainforest for 8-9 months, what the heck?!" look on my face.

I'm so sad that I won't see almost everyone I now know and care about for at least 9 months. I won't see Tiana, who I now see probably 9 days out of 10, for like 16 months! Really bummed about missing Jeffrey -especially not being able to talk on the phone for ridiculous lengths of time for free! It's nuts. Fortunately, my mom and cousin Shawna (who I almost never see in Canada oddly enough but is my evil twin) will be visiting.

Updates?

• Health coverage is APPROVED! No issues at all, which is amazing considering I have asthma, chest pain and a million food intolerances. Woot!


• Police check is a bit of a messy situation, however. Which is ironic considering I've had no problems with the law and tons of stupid health crap. You can only do your police check in the city where your permanent address is. Which is in Ottawa. So I really screwed things up when I picked Wii over my police check in March. Fortunately, if you pay an extra fee, they'll give it to you that day provided you've lived in the city for the last 5 years. Hopefully they consider me living there for the last 5 years!! It's going to be so last minute since I won't be going back to Ottawa until May 4!


• CUSO forms were couriered over yesterday. So Claudia should be booking my flight really soon! Fingers crossed for a date within the next week.


• Still no passport.


• Hiking boots are in! But in the States so I won't actually get them until April 23. Here's hoping they fit.

I still have some forms to give in to the school. I wrote the first version of my long packing list in a Starbucks last night. I'm really trying to aim for a suitcase and a big hiking bag. One of those is just going to be bathroom stuff (shampoo, conditioner, prescriptions, sunscreen, repellent, etc) by the looks of it!

Turns out an international licence isn't any good since it's so unprofessional looking (taped in passport pictures!) and says that it's only valid with an Ontario licence to accompany it. So I'm going to have to apply for a new licence while I'm in Guatemala, by the looks of it, and just have a version with no picture along with my regular licence. Oye.

Spanish is moving along! It's hard with exams for us to meet as a group now. Doing activities and things on my own and Jeffrey harasses me every time he talks to me to work on Spanish. Which is actually really helpful.