Feeling lucky

Right now I'm in Italy with my parents and Hannah, enjoying the first leg of my long vacation (before starting a job - but we won't think about that yet).

We've visited Cinque Terre and Pisa and cooked (and eaten) some really good food and told (and retold) some good stories. Tonight we video chatted with Melissa in Alabama, watched some Friends episodes, and put Lyra to bed, and I stayed up extra late booking a flight to see friends next month when I'm in the States.

I'm feeling lucky.  Being with these three people is like a breath of fresh air.  And I'm looking forward to going back to London for a couple of days, when I can see Dave and wear pants without sweating. (Read: I've totally forgotten what hot weather is like.) And I'm looking forward to going back to Alabama (for like two weeks!) and spending quality time with more friends and family.

It's going to be hectic. And I'll probably spend too much money.  But life is all about the people and I know so many good ones.

Okay, gushing and slideshow over.  I've gotta be up in five hours.

Sleep tight, y'all.
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Little things

I had a couple Moments last week, when everything was perfect and in my mind and emotions there was only space for pure, wordless happiness. Such highs!

I just really like this photo. It's not directly related to my post, except maybe it makes me wanna buy some expensive cheese and go camping, and I do those things somewhat regularly out here.

The first one came on Sunday night, after an exhausting shift at work. I stumbled into the employee dining room around ten pm and had a snack before dragging my sore server's feet up the hill to the dorms. Like every other night, people were outside hanging out. I had to be at work at 6:30am and had every intention of going straight to bed, but for some reason, I knew I would stay up until the wee hours of the morning and I knew it would be a good time. I trust my instincts when it comes to sleep deprivation - if I don't feel like staying up, I don't (this is the case most of the time). But when I'm feeling it, I know it's going to be a good night. And lo and behold, twenty of us ended up sitting on the edge of the boat dock, on Jackson Lake, looking at the stars, laughing, singing-a-long. After a loud and passionate rendition of "You Are My Sunshine," I thought my heart would burst from joy.  And then, around 2am, a couple of boys jumped into the lake. My friend Allie and I followed. It was oh-so-cold and exhilarating.

The next Moment came a few days later, near the end of another exhausting shift working on the restaurant deck. I was busily cleaning my tables and checking on customers when I noticed people were coming outside with their cameras and I looked up and saw a particularly brilliant sun set. My co-server, Josi, and I put away our towels and extra ketchup bottles and sat down at an empty table and stared out toward the mountains. "I don't think I could ever work at another restaurant after working here. You just can't beat this," I said. Josi told me he's going to work at Signal for the rest of his life. A woman overheard Josi and started asking questions about our experience in the Tetons and at the end of the conversation she said, "I wish I'd done something like this."

And I know a fulfilling life doesn't just consist of sing-a-longs on boat docks and majestic mountain ranges and adventures. But those things sure do help.

This morning I started reading Anna Karenina and in the first chapter Tolstoy writes, "There was no answer except the usual answer life gives to the most complicated and insoluble questions. The answer is: carry on with your everyday affairs..."

A pretty little boxcar flower bed outside Nora's Fish Creek Inn, where we had Breakfast Club last Saturday morning. I got pretty excited about the breakfast and the boxcar.

I hope, even when I'm not living in the Grand Tetons, I always choose to live my life in a way that makes every day affairs whimsical and joyful... and even when my affairs seem dull, ordinary, or confusing, I hope I keep finding something to get excited about anyway.

The original plan

The original plan

The original Guatemala plan was to live and volunteer at Nueva Alianza for two months before meeting up with my Australian friend Amy for a few days of travel. But, after almost a month in the community, we decided to go elsewhere. It was a frustrating situation for several reasons.

1. Our Spanish isn't good enough to make real friends or to communicate effectively in a work environment.
2. There weren't that many work projects we could do. We didn't have the language skills, resources, or authority to properly coordinate projects or acquire supplies.
3. We were paying money to stay in the hotel, and we decided we weren't contributing or enjoying ourselves enough to warrant "sticking it out" another month.

While I was often bored and frustrated, I'm thankful for such an intense learning experience. I'll elaborate on my new thoughts about international development in a separate post, but more generally, I learned:

1. Despite my desire to be low maintenance, my day to day happiness is still largely tied to material luxuries such as cold milk and disinfectants. Darn. I may be well traveled and flexible, but I'm still a dairy-loving American.

2. Lack of cold milk is one thing. But I absolutely cannot handle not talking to other people. Communication with others is where most of my energy comes from. Forget being a productive volunteer or able to buy a pound of green beans in the market - I want to ask complex questions about inappropriate Spanish-specific jokes and complain about my day and tease and laugh and learn about people's families. But I was restricted to very basic questions and answers with everyone but Tara and Hannah; this made it difficult for me to stay energetic and positive. I will never (again) live in a non-English speaking community before investing in serious language training. (And I do really want to become bilingual.)

Good times in and around Reu

There were a few rays of sunshine during our last week in la finca. Last Friday Tara and I chicken bussed to nearby coastal village Champerico. The warm ocean water and fried fish were good for my soul. Tara's primary Peace Corps project is developing a tourist organization for Guatemala's underdeveloped Pacific coast, and during lunch I quizzed her on various obstacles to growing Guatemala's tourist infrastructure. We encountered one such obstacle, crime, when a local man chased us down the beach, warning us to turn around because of numerous assaults that occur south of town. We were already aware of the dangerous stretch of beach, but it was heartwarming having a local go out of his way to help us.

Later that evening, Tara, Hannah (who'd spent the day sick in Reu...), and I were riding la camioneta back up the mountain. It began to rain and two men rushed around shutting the windows. My window wouldn't budge, but I wrapped myself in my sarong, content to get a little wet, watching the pink sunset and basking in The Moment.

By Tuesday, the refreshing Friday had worn off. I couldn't wait to leave that part of the country. We'd been in Reu using the internet for several hours, and upon returning to the mercado we realized that we'd missed the bus. It always leaves about 45 minutes after the scheduled departure time, but the one time we were ten minutes late, it left on time. Typical, absolutely typical, I thought. We didn't have enough cash for a hotel room and we were wary of using a taxi on the obscure road to Nueva Alianza. But, long story short, we were saved by an old grandmother who sells snacks day after day at cuatro caminos, an intersection on the outskirts of Reu. We told her we'd missed the Nueva Alianza bus and we needed to get another ride, maybe with the agua pura truck. She let us wait under her snack shack and after awhile she helped us cross the street and told us to wait there. And in about five minutes the community's agua pura truck drove by and Ramón (ah, Ramón, how happy I was to see him) told us to hop in. He refused to take any money once we were back home.

The snack selling grandmother and Ramón redeemed the whole three and a half weeks. It was nice to leave with good feelings.

Where are we now?

taken from givingchallenge.ning.com

We're in Parque Hawaii, a natural reserve on the Pacific coast between the beach town of Monterrico and the smaller village of Hawaii. An organization called ARCAS operates a turtle conservation program, and year round volunteers live here and work with turtles and other wildlife and do environmental education in local schools. We're currently in the middle of nesting season. Every night we patrol about 10km of beach, looking for mama turtles nesting their eggs and for local men who have already claimed a nest. If we find a turtle nest, we dig up the eggs and rebury them in our hatchery. If a local has already claimed a nest, we collect the legally required dozen egg "donation" for our hatchery and offer to buy the remaining eggs. Sometimes they sell to us, sometimes they don't. They'll eat the eggs themselves or sell them to other vendors.

It's interesting work. And it's amazing to see the mother turtles coming out of the ocean and the tiny squirming babies scrambling down the sand. During the day, we hang out in hammocks, eat fresh pineapple, swim in the delightfully warm ocean, hitch rides in pick up trucks to Monterrico to buy groceries and attend town meetings about the upcoming turtle festival, and do various work around the property. Hannah and I plan on sticking around until the turtle festival in two weeks time, maybe longer.

Stay tuned for beautiful sunset photos and more thoughts on our Guatemala experience thus far.

Tiene café?

I'm currently sitting in San Salvador's international airport, enjoying a cup of coffee that I ordered using only Spanish words. Earlier I had an epic fail when our waitress tried to clarify our lunch order with a series of questions. After staring blankly for a few awkward moments, I responded with a definitive sí. Ten minutes later, I was eating some delicious pupusas. One point for just saying yes when in doubt.

Welcome to twenty whimsy travel, a travel/life blog I'm hoping to turn into a fun long term project. For the next two months, I'm happy to say I'll be writing primarily about Guatemala! My friend Hannah and I will be living, volunteering, and adventuring at Comunidad Nueva Alianza, an organic coffee and macadamia plantation.

Tonight we're staying in Guatemala City, and tomorrow we'll begin making our way to la comunidad via Antigua and Retalhuleu, in a number of vehicles varying in size, color, and - no doubt - reliability.

El Salvador's mountains seem especially surreal after the past month of traveling between Wyoming, Alabama, and England. Sometimes I get tired of moving around. But eventually I experience "The Moment." It never fails. An irrepressible smile spreads across my face. I shake my head and I wonder: "How did I get here?!" It's beautiful.

Hannah just asked me how to politely ask for a menu. We settled on, Quisiera el menú, por favor?

...and she's just returned with a menu! We're off to a good start.