doesn't get much better than this.

so far, so good. so i’ll try not to bore you with too many details but in a nutshell thursday we just kind of got settled in and wandered the town figuring out where everything was. we met some great people and are starting to figure things out a little more.

friday was awesome. we had a project set up: working in the jungle. yes, the real jungle. when we first got there we went on a tour. our group's guide was willy.

he told me i could only put this picture up if I told everyone that he is the tallest man in belize. he was hilarious and we assured him that he was the best guide ever.  we went to lunch at a little restaurant where we enjoyed…well beans and rice of course.  then it was time for them to put us to work. matt, angela, and i volunteered to work with john making mulch using the wood chipper.  summary:

john gave us work goggles, gloves, and earplugs. told us to watch out for snakes under the big logs (great, just what i wanted to hear. i love snakes…not) and then we carried logs in the sweltering hot sun for an hour until the chipper clogged and we had to find a new job re-potting plants. it was pretty cool though. i knew my dad would be proud and i kinda felt like I should be wearing plaid except for the fact that i was sweating my face off. angela and i had to take pictures to prove that we really did it.

how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood...i don't even want to know. it's hard work.

that night we met some little (about 13 years old +/- a few years) boys playing on the basketball courts. they were precious. they wanted to teach us spanish…we have a lesson next tuesday night. they were so much fun and so cute. 

we finished off the night with night #2 of the best ice cream. ever. (not in any way an exaggeration). the meninites have a soy ice cream shop. sounds weird right. it is seriously the most amazing ice cream i’ve ever tasted. there is a good possibility i will be eating there every day (my professors would be so proud). i feel justified in the fact that the walk up there is about 1/3 of a mile uphill. so it all evens out in the end. 

today we went to the xunantunich mayan ruins. they were phenominal. we were able to climb to the very top and the view was great. we were right next to guatemala and we could see the road that marks the border. on our way down someone pointed out the monkeys in the tress. um...awesome. then we came back and got some amazing chinese food. i don't know how, but the chinese food here is way better and went to the market. saturday is the big market day and they have so many great things to buy and so many cool people.

can’t wait to start working on projects and really get going. These are a few pictures of our first few days in belize. 

first ride in our ghetto van with our official taxi driver, tim.

first belizean fruit stand experience. my life will never be the same. ever.

view from our porch. um yes, be jealous. 

soy ice cream from cayo twist. best ever.

most of the group at the river with our new friend tracy's adorable kids.

and so it begins

well i'm finally here! it is absolutely UNREAL! i can't believe i'm actually staying living here for three months. long story short:
got to belize. went through customs, etc. met 7 of the other girls outside (yes there are boys-but only two-they are married and here with their wives).  fell in love with this place immediately. it is so gorgeous. all my nervousness flew out the window as i took it all in.  we all hopped into a ghetto van-no seats, we just sat on the floor-with our new trusty friend tim...the taxi driver and long-time friend of HELP. he took us to a fruit stand where i purchased the most amazing cantaloupe i've ever tasted. we also bought mango's and pineapple (i've never been a fan of pineapple...until now). fruit here = heaven.

so we jumped back on the van and headed to our bus stop. and yes, i do stick out like a sore thumb...no surprise there. we all do, but hello tall, blond, pale girl in a sea of nothing but, well, black people (which by the way is awesome. call me ignorant but i didn't really know what to expect.  i was thinking something like....latino? but that is definitely not the case. and i love it.) we were getting stared down and tim left us to go back to the airport. a little nerve-racking but we survived. we hopped on the bus for our two hour ride [luckily we caught the express, otherwise it would have been 3 hours] to san ignasio were we are living. finally got here and oh my gosh. it is amazing. we stopped at a small restaurant for dinner: beans, rice, chicken, and coleslaw. oh, and a fried banana. it was delicious...or maybe i was just hungry from having nothing but some almost an entire cantaloupe for lunch.

we then headed up to our house to get settled. our house...way better than what i had imagined. 4 stories, each room painted a different bright color (just like the houses in town), and the most amazing view from our rooftop.  seven girls to a bedroom, mattresses lining the floor until we get beds, yep. but so much fun. it's like the sleepover that never ends. there are surprisingly not very many bugs...yet. well, minus the huge cockroach we found in our living room...which we promptly smashed with a shoe. the cold showers...aren't cold! they are warm....best news of my life. the weather is awesome high eighties and humid...i will look like a poodle for the next three months. i'm totally okay with that.  the people are nice for the most part. we get lots of cat calls which is to be expected.  we get stared at all the time, of course. group of crazy american girls...we don't really blend in to so the least. last night while taking a tour of the town dogs kept multiplying around us.  they seemed calm enough, but when some guys started to approach us they freaked out. apparently they have designated themselves as our guard dogs. let's just hope that they a. don't have rabies (although i did get my shot) and b. don't turn on us.

we then went home and slept for who knows how many blissful hours. woke up to the sun around 6:00 am and dani and i went with our leader kyle to the market to get fruit, tortillas, and eggs for breakfast. we went back and cooked it and showered (insert hallelujah chorus chorus here) and had a short team meeting. then i headed here to this precious slightly creepy little internet cafe with some of the girls to write this post for well...probably just my mom. i'm assuming you're the only one reading this so...hey mom! i'm just fine. loving it and mostly...uh totally safe and sound. not to worry.

on a side note-quick little story: things started out interestingly enough. i hadn't even left the good city of boise id when i met the first of what i'm sure will be many interesting characters.  let me introduce you to michelle:

• career: military flight dispatcher.
• current resident of sitka alaska (as in the movie "the proposal") i refrained from making a joke about the movie or the beloved ryan renolds as i was sure she had grown weary of that constant response from many others.
• girlfriend of commercial fisherman.
• possibly the next reality tv star of a yet to be named show about the lives of fishermen's wives...or in her case, girlfriends. sort of a deadliest catch meets army wives. can't wait for that one to premier. 
• passionate mormon hater. yes, i was wearing my BYU sweatshirt. no, i/m not sure if she saw what my shirt actually said and no, i didn't tell her i was in fact a mormon. i considered it, but then decided against it seeing as she could have taken me in a fight any day. i sort of wish i had though.

yet, during this interesting flight while trying to read "eat, pray, love" (which so far, i highly recommend-especially while traveling to a foreign country for an extended stay, really helps you get in the spirit of things) i found myself really enjoying getting to know this crazy lady.  it's true that we really can learn something from everyone if we just take the time to stop judging them and get to know them.  then and there i committed to make a greater effort to stop judging people so quickly and try to discover what i can learn from them.  president dieter f. uchtdorf gave a great talk about looking for the good in people.  he taught that if you look for the good you'll find it, and if you look for the bad you'll find that too. it's up to you.  so here's to trying to look for the good in people from here on out.

if you did read all of this...um i'm impressed. i think i stopped reading halfway through myself so congrats. and thanks for caring. hope everyone back in the states is doing great. i miss everyone and...send my love (that sounds stupid) but i'm not sure how else to end this rambling. so there it is. until next time...

p.s. pictures coming soon!

welcome to belize.

so our country directors are already in country preparing for the rest of us to come.

yesterday i get on facebook. i see one of the leaders who is already there has updated her facebook status:

"yesterday on the bus a woman threw her 4-year-old son in my lap and then jumped off the bus at the next stop. welcome to belize!"

this is going to be an interesting few months.

peace out america.

three. more. days.

until i'm in...

with this lovely lady

i'm almost not even close to packed. excited, terrified, overwhelmed, and basically freaking out. it's going to be great.
i'm just hoping when I get down there my accommodations look something like this.

doubtful.

knowledge vs. intelligence

 as i was forcing my father to help me study math for the GRE which i took this very morning i started to complain and told him he may have to face the fact that his daughter was stupid. yes, stupid. we then started to debate the difference between knowledge and intelligence. he assured me that although maybe i wasn't incredibly knowledgeable about some of these pesky GRE topics, that didn't mean i wasn't intelligent.  knowledge he told me is knowing certain facts and information about a topic. intelligence, on the other hand is being able to have someone explain a subject to you and you being able to understand said subject/topic/information through reasoning and analysis. i sighed a large sigh of relief...maybe i'm not as dumb as this crazy GRE makes me feel sometimes.











so...i set out to take this supposed test of my knowledge called the GRE this morning...result: got a decent score aka the score i needed for my program = God loves me (a lot of praying went into this process) = no more studying = happy happy andrea.  in other words: 


beatific:
   1. blissfully happy
   2. imparting holy bliss 

finals

                                                               enough said.

it's about that time

it is about dang time...for school to end. hallelujah. good gosh this has been a long/awesome/horrible/exhilarating/stressful/fun/tiring/educational/interesting/fantastic year of school.  but...two weeks from today will mark the start of a promising summer as i: 

1.  head home for two weeks to play-slash-study, study, study and take the GRE before i head to....

2. BELIZE for three glorious months of working my butt off and having the time of my life (i hope) volunteering, until i...

3. journey to dallas for a few days to visit my long lost roomie and dear friend lindsey for a few days.  i will then be...

4. heading home to good ol' boise for a month(ish) to hopefully get some more dietetics experience as i prepare to...

5. come back to provo for my very. last. year of college! (sigh, i know...it's about time i graduate)

three words: bring it on.