Day 1: Bus rides are fun

January 3 (slowly but surely, I'm catching up to the present day)

After the disappointment of our missing luggage, we crammed into a little bus to make the 4 hour trip to Quetzaltenango.

Lanes and speed limits aren't observed in Guatemala, which makes driving in the city very.... exciting. Once outside Guatemala City, we followed a highway through mountains. The engine was very loud and the windows rattled every time we went over a bump (which was often), but I somehow managed to fall asleep. Every now and then we could see one of the volcanoes in the distance, a steep triangle, towering over the other hills.    

We made one stop to fill the tank of the bus and empty our own tanks. We students learned that it's normal in Latinoamérica for public restrooms to not provide toilet paper, so you have to bring your own when traveling. As is typical with groups of Whitworth students, and especially in the humanities, 90% of us are female. When there are 2 available bathrooms, why should las damas wait in a line while bathroom for los cabelleros is free? A group of motorcyclists in the parking lot were very surprised when a female student exited the men's room and Lindy (our male professor) came out of the women's!  
   

 

Less than an hour away from Quetzaltenango, we heard a loud PWOOF and the bus stopped. Our driver, who had been chatting with Professor Lindy about marimbas and politics, managed to restart it once but it wasn't going anywhere fast. We sat for a while on the side of the road while the driver, the two men driving behind us with more of our luggage, and men from the houses around us puzzled about the problem. They poured water into the radiator, which was accessed through a hatch between the driver and passenger seat, while it continued to spew smoke into the cab. After several liters of water and a good hour of waiting, the bus was able to creep up the hill and eventually pick up speed. I fell asleep again.

We made it to our new home around 8 o'clock at night. After some difficulty parking the bus in the narrow, one way streets, we happily tumbled out of the bus and into the courtyard of the language school. There we were reunited with our friends who had been waiting for us, and introduced to our host mothers. My compañera de casa, Emily, and I followed our new mom along the dark, uneven cobblestone streets to our house, which will be the subject of another post.    

Clouds for Elayna

Day 0-1: More flying, more airports, and more waiting

January 2-3

I left you on a cliffhanger in LAX, and that is where I will pick up. A confusing, under-construction mess of an airport, every time I headed in a direction to look for a drinking fountain I ended up back where I started. During that 6 hour layover we were joined by the second Guatemala group from Whitworth, as well as our fearless professor, Lindy.

We waited in LAX for a long time.

Our farewell from LAX and the country, in comic sans. 

Welcome aboard Copa airlines, plane 3 out of 4. Everything is bilingual, they give you a real knife to cut your questionable omelet with, and you get to watch TV. I watched The Bucket List, that one with Morgan Freeman. The plot was predictable, but still good because it had Morgan Freeman. We left Los Angeles at 9pm and arrived in Panama City at 6:30am, but magically, only 6 and a half hours had passed. Funny thing about living on a round earth.  

I didn't have a window seat this trip, which was a bummer, but I doubt I would have seen much since it was night time. Here is the sunrise over somewhere. It looked cooler in person, but then I was leaning over people in order to snap this photo. This sight was one of the most beautiful I have seen yet in my life.

 

Panama, Panama! A little bit farther south than we wanted (try 800 miles too far), but our latino senses were tingling. The airport was much smaller than LAX, but had that same circular layout that confounds my sense of direction. I slept a lot in the airport to make up for the red eye flight.

Our last flight, and boy were we happy. Goodbye Panama, Panama (I love saying that name, it's almost as good as Walla Walla, Washington), here we come Guatemala City! ... after another round of safety debriefings, cat naps, and tiny airplane meals.

Again, I don't know what country I was over, but look! Volcanoes!

Touchdown in Guatemala City. This airport seemed dead in comparison with the others, many of the gates were closed. Until we got to the baggage claim we were the only travelers in sight. There were the usual airport stores, but the employees were standing around with no customers to deal with. I wonder how much that has to do with the current situation in the capital.

Bad news awaited us at the baggage claim. About a dozen of us, including our two profesores, were missing luggage. They'd come on the next flight from Panama, we were told. We split up, the bourgeoisie loaded their suitcases onto a bus and continued on to our new home in Quetzaltenango, while we the proletariat waited another 2 hours for our bags to arrive. We (quite literally) danced with joy when the baggage carousal started moving and suitcases came through the flaps in the wall. Camina shared a heartfelt embrace with her backpack when they were reunited. The excitement died down after we saw the same red suitcase circle the carousal one hundred times and there was still no sign of most of the luggage. 8 of us students, plus our profes, were going to be very smelly after a few days without clean clothes.

With nothing else to be done, we left our camp in the baggage claim to find food and agua pura, then stuffed ourselves into a bus for the next leg of our journey. Our luggage (hopefully) will follow us in a day or two.      

But seriously, how do you lose a bright purple backpack? I'd say don't fly Copa Airlines, but I don't think there is another airline.

Day 0: Flying... and layovers

Eastern Washington remains coated in snow and spiky icicles, but two plane rides later the people of Los Angeles International Airport are wearing shorts and t-shirts. Yesterday was spent in Spokane with these three, playing Tsuro and Happy Family (basically Go-Fish). It was a good send off.

 

This morning I met my CASPmates at Spokane airport, and after several awkward group photos we were finally boarding plane one out of four. It had a total of 20 rows and gave us a very entertaining take-off and landing. Spokane to Portland: just under an hour.

Portland to Los Angeles: 2 hours. Made enjoyable with complementary English breakfast tea.

 

Approaching Los Angeles. This is the farthest south I have ever been. 

 

After a few more hours of exploring LAX, we will board plane 3 out of 4 to Panama City, crossing 2 time zones. Then we'll jump back a zone on our final flight to Guatemala City. 

More to come.    

Day -3: Moving Out

Goodbye home! I leave today. My mom is sad. My dad is sad. My sisters are also sad. My best friend is sarcastic, as always. "Truly, I do not deserve you," she says through a mouthful of delicious free pizza. I hope she will share.

But yeah! I'm finally leaving home, 3 hours later than I wanted. I'm off to Cashmere to see the boyfriend for New Years, and then to Spokane.

I may be a little teensy weensy bit excited.

 

The view of the Cascade mountains was especially lovely today, I will miss that.

Day -5: This blog is about to get personal

Yesterday night I finally resolved to face my problem. Something is stressing is me out and giving me anxiety, and it has overstayed its welcome. So what does this mean for the next few months? I really don't know, and I'm really worried.

Being sick is annoying enough, I don't want to be sick a bajillion miles away from home and my favorite tea and stuffed animals. Eating is difficult enough. It will be more so where the food is unfamiliar. I anticipate there being plenty of new stressors in Guatemala and Nicaragua; how will my body self-destruct in response to them? I don't imagine I'll get a break from the stress I already have.

And how do I face this? I don't know that, either. It's not like I can punch Mr. Anxiety in the face, and even if I could, I'm a small person and probably wouldn't hit very hard.

Day -10: To Do List

(Additions Dec. 28, Day -6)
In the 1 week I have left at home, I must:

• Make a cool blog like Camina's 
• and make it purty
• Plan group projects for Guatemala
• Change Spanish minor to a major and double check that I can still graduate 
• Secure scholarship money
• Get a backpack
• and fill it with stuff
• Get a camera (done!)
• Make that tiny travel-sized laptop work (done that too!)
• Get a Bible that has not had nail polish remover and coffee (from previous owners) spilled over 1 Corinthians and is smaller than the average brick (done!)
• Hiking with friends at Lake 22 (abandoned because of weather)
• Find Dom a better Christmas present. Apparently a first person zombie shooter game isn't "me" enough. What, does he want a purple unicorn? 
• Calculate number of tampons necessary for 4+ months abroad 
• Pick up typhoid vaccine 
• Pick up fancy fast-drying travel towel that I am super excited to use
• Find presents for host families
• Make cute photo albums for host families
• Read a book
• Bake cookies
• Admit that my room now belongs to Grandma, and put my stuff in boxes
• Resign myself to leaving my bookshelf behind
• Reduce/manage Pre-Trip Parental Anxiety
• Pretend I have all this under control and there is totally enough time to reasonably do everything.