Shorewood Online Student Resource

November 18 marked the start of our six month adventure through Latin
America. Goodbyes with our familias and friends were, of course,
difficult, but after a long succession of plane and bus rides we found
ourselves in the small town of Majosik – tucked away in the beautiful
mountains of Chiapas, Mexico. For the following week and a half we
lived with a family consisting of nine wonderful children ranking in
age from 2 to 20…the five youngest being rowdy boys so you can imagine
the tickle wars…Helen almost didn´t survive. But between soccer games,
wrestling, a lot of reading, church and fresh food we picked and
processed coffee that would later be bought by Milwaukee´s favorite
coffee shop, Alterra. Neither of us are big coffee drinkers, but for
those of you that are don´t take it for granted! So many different
lifestyles are necessary for you to enjoy that ¨waker-upper¨every
morning. Miguel, the two year old, was up in trees finding the red
cherries to send your way. Marco, twelve, de-pulped them all. The
older girls, 18 and 20, lugged the 60 pound bags about a mile up hill
to the first stop (their home). Also know, however, that by purchasing
Kulaktik coffee from Alterra you are helping in enhancing the lives of
over 250 farmers and their families. It was pretty incredible to enter
an indigenous community where nobody seemed to be struggling to get by
and knowing that Mr. Jacobson (being and avid Alterra coffee drinker)
was part of that.

At the beginning of December we left Majosik to spend a little time in
San Cristóbal, a major city in Chiapas, before heading to Guatemala to
meet Mary Pat Clasen and get to Hogares Santa Maria de Guadalupe – the
orphanage SHS takes trips to and Guatemala Club is working with. That
is where we are now. It´s only been a few days, but feels like much
longer. They have welcomed us with open arms. Only about half of the
kids are around because it´s their summer vacation and Christmas time
so some go back to live with the family they´ve got left. With the
high school aged kids that are around, we have started teaching
English in a similar fashion that Spanish Films is taught at SHS.
Finding Nemo is the movie of choice. They seem to be getting it, but
for the time being its kind of trial and error so that we can send
other people back throughout the year with an easy transition. I´ve
also ventured to the orphanage farm with some of the kids to harvest
corn and delicious strawberries. The food is SO good! From what I´ve
gathered they grow most of what they eat (aka local, organic…). For
those of you that have read Michael Pollan it is exactly what he
recommends – eat food, not too much, mostly vegetables. They also have
a water filtration system so that they are able to avoid privatizad
water and plastic water bottles as well as diarrea annnnd sell to
others in the community for a profit…pretty shnazzy, eh? Beyond that,
though, we like to compare it to camp. Always tons of kids and options
for how to utilize your time. Soccer and basketball are usually an
option, playing with Tonka cars, reading the cards from Guatemala Club
over and over and over again, we´ve had a bonfire with smores…all
sorts of stuff, and inevitably followed by a solid sleep each and
every night. Soon decorations will go up for Christmas. Anibal, one of
the older boys, told us that they have more lights than anyone else in
Guatemala. We´re realllllly looking forward to being here for the
holidays . There isn´t any other family we´d want to be a part of for
our first Christmas away from home. They are, as we like to say, the
bombdiggity.

         I have decided that the hardest part about traveling is
arriving in a new city. It can make even the calmest, savviest
traveler nervous and uncomfortable. If you’re lucky, you have written
directions to your hostel, but generally you arrive in a new city
without a clue as to where you are going next. There could be a new
language involved, but there is certainly a new culture, and the
likelihood that you have a map is slim.
           My first arrival in a new city, in Lisbon, was an absolute
disaster. I took the bus in the wrong direction for an hour, missed my
train stop, ended up taking a taxi to my hostel and realized that it
was in fact across the river from Lisbon proper. There were tears
involved. My arrival in Seville was similar – 2 hours in the wrong
direction on the bus before the bus driver drove outside of his route
to help me find my hostel. It slowly gets better – you try to be more
prepared, you find the tourist office before anything else. You bring
enough food and water so you can be lost as long as necessary. You are
basically playing urban wilderness survival. I am happy to say that my
arrival here in Nice, France, was the smoothest yet – I have certainly
been to enough cities that you would hope my technique was improving.
       I wasn’t planning on staying in France – I was just going to pass
through on my way from Florence to Barcelona. Then I figured it would
be rude to not stay in the French Riviera for at least a couple of
days! The bread and cheese and croissants are definitely enough to
keep me busy, but there are great museums and views here as well.
       Another thing that has gotten easier with time is making friends at
hostels. People keep telling me that I must be lonely traveling alone.
This is true to a certain extent – I miss my family and friends from
home more than anything – but traveling alone I have met and made
friends with so many people. Being by myself, I know that I meet more
people than I would traveling with a friend – I am never clinging to
anyone and have to put myself out there constantly. It’s like Spanish
or French class – you just have to try and try and take risks and make
mistakes and eventually, you get it right. And when you do, you end up
with amazing friends and amazing times with them. The only hard part
is leaving them three days after you’ve met.
       What is hard is being an adult and making your own decisions. You
have to motivate yourself to get up and go do things, and you have to
feed yourself, and budget, and go to the doctor. Youyou’re your own
parent. When I was in Rome, I got the flu, which progressed into
something worse. I felt like crap for days and my first round of
antibiotics (that I got for 3 euros without a prescription! Cheapest
thing I have bought here.) didn’t seem to be working. When I arrived
in Florence, I knew I had to go to the doctor. She prescribed another
antibiotic and a chest x-ray. I have to say that there is nothing
scarier than being in another country, without your mommy and daddy,
when an intimidating Italian doctor lady thinks you have pneumonia. We
take our parents for granted so much - all I wanted was a hug and for
my mom to make me some soup. After a very invasive and uncomfortable
chest x-ray performed by a male Italian doctor who spoke no English,
it was determined that I only had bronchitis. I have never been so
elated after such an uncomfortable experience in my life, and I
realized just how much I appreciate my parents.
       I just had a weird thought – I am almost home. It has almost been two
months! I keep trying to think about what I have missed most and what
I want the moment I get home. I want my sister to get her stuff and
herself out of my bedroom, which she has occupied while I have been in
Europe. I want to eat dinner with my family. I want to take my dog
George on a walk. I miss everything, but being gone so long I have
realized that I don’t really need any of the material things. I just
miss the people in my life.

I think you can say that I have always sort of done things by the book. In high school I went out for sports, got good grades, joined clubs, had a job, did my homework, and went to bed early on school nights. I loved high school, but I just couldn’t see myself going to college straightaway. I had finished my college application process by November and then, I was done. I had worked so hard for the last three years, and I spent my senior year sick of school. I knew that if I went to college right away, I would waste the opportunity and screw up – that’s when I decided to stop doing things by the book.

Erica Johnson, a very good friend of mine, did graduate a semester early to volunteer in Tanzania. When she returned, she was also determined to not “let school interfere with her education”: we both spent the summer working so that we could go to South America together to work, travel, and volunteer for six months. In November we leave to do a coffee harvest in Chiapas, Mexico (with an Alterra-affiliated coffee plantation) and then we will be volunteering for a month at the Hogar Guadalupe orphanage in Guatemala to which SHS frequently organizes trips. After that? Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and Argentina – farming with WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) and traveling.

I worked 40+ hours a week the whole summer at a job that I have had for two years to pay for the trip that Erica and I are taking. I had two months before Erica and I were off, I was bored with my job, and I had some extra money from working so much. With a little prodding from my older brother, I decided to go to Europe.

Planning a trip can be the hardest part. I bought a Eurail pass and a plane ticket to Lisbon, booked a hostel, and from there, it was just me. Me. In Europe. Alone.

I know college is hard and whatever, but being alone in a new country could definitely give college a run for its money. I don’t have any family here, I don’t have a phone, and I have to make new friends every three days. I have a ridiculously tiny budget, my entire worldy possessions fit in a little bag, and I cook for myself. Basically, traveling Europe alone is the greatest life training ever. I love it. It is hard, but so worth it for the people you meet and the amazing things you see. When you go to Europe you realize just how young the United States is – all of the cities here have hundreds and hundreds of years of history and architecture and art and it is all rather staggering. Whenever I meet people from Europe, they think the US is so impressive. Do not get me wrong, I love America. I love Wisconsin. But culturally we pale in comparison to Spain and Portugal and Italy – Moorish castles from the 1200’s, churches from every era, traditions dating back for hundreds of years. We have amazing things in America, but we are just such a young country.

I have been here for four weeks and have another three left. In Portugal, I traveled to Lisbon and Évora. In Spain, I’ve been to Madrid, Seville, Granada, Alicante, and Valencia. Right now I’m in Rome, and in a few days I will leave for Cinque Terre National Park near La Spezia, and then I’m off to Florence, Venice, and Nice before I come back to Spain to finish traveling in Barcelona, Bilbao, and more Madrid. Then, back to Lisbon to fly home.

Today was my first full day in Rome and I spent it as what I like to call a kamikaze tourist. There is so much to see here that I feel like I could spend a year here and not see it all, so I definitely want to make the most of my time. This morning I went to the Colosseum, the Palatine Hill, the Roman Forum, and the church of St. Peter in Chains. After a quick lunch I went to the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, and the Spanish steps. Tonight I am going out with other people staying at my hostel – the great thing about traveling alone is that I can do what I want during the day and explore on my own, but in the right hostel you meet so many people to talk to and go out with. I’ve figured out that when you travel, you have to balance kamikaze sightseeing with taking it easy and just living. I have also figured out that yummy food, living on a budget, meeting people from all over the world, and seeing so much history is a really good recipe for just living.