Guatemala!!

The whirlwind month has slowed... Match day brought much anxiety and emotions all leading to a climax of opening a small letter-sized envelope - fate enscribed within. UCLA were the words in my envelope. So that's it. I will be a doctor. I will be a pediatrcian. And my first job will be at UCLA. Four years of working extremely hard, sacrificing, headaches and tears. But it has all led me to a great place and I could not be more thankful. On to my Family Medicine shelf. What? I'm still taking national exams AFTER I have matched?? Let me tell you...my heart was not in that one! So, finished the test, drove up to Chicago, spent 2 fabulous days exploring the freezing windy city, and hopped on a plane heading to Guatemala! That's right folks, you know me...give me even the slightest opportunity to travel and I will be on a plane before you can blink your eyes. So, what am I doing in Guatemala?? Well, besides having the best time ever... I am doing 2 weeks of medical spanish classes, followed by 2 weeks of working in a clinic in Antigua. That's right folks...not only do I get to travel to one of the coolest, most beautiful countries in the world, but I am getting school credit for it and advancing language skills which will be very useful as a pediatrician in LA! Yay for me! I have been here for 1 week and 2 days so far and am absolutely loving it!! We are living with a host family in Guatemala who is super nice, cooks us amazing food 3 meals a day (think I've gained about 10 lbs), and are basically like parents :) They have a son who is ~12 and super cute, a little shy though! Jaclyn, Devon, and I arrived last Sunday and Tiffany was already here. I met Tiffany at my away rotation at Children's Hospital, Oakland and told her about this rotation. She arrived 1 week before us. Then on Friday, Kristina from SLU and her friend Jamie arrived as well. So now there are 6 of us staying with our host family! And another of Kristina's friends is going to arrive next Saturday! So there will be 7 students! Full house! And poor Devon is the only guy! (I don't think he minds though...) We have spanish classes every monring for 5 hours. They are long and painful, but I already feel that my spanish is improving ALOT! I can conguate all my verbs into present, past, and future tense, and am now working on vocab, especially medical vocabulary. Our lessons are 1 on 1 and I have an adorable teacher who is about 4'9" and so sweet! We have had the opportunity to go to the market together to learn the fruits and vegetables, and often play games of "guess the animal written on my forhead" or scategories to work on vocab. So it's not all hard work! We finish class at 1pm, eat lunch, and then have the rest of the day to play! So far we have walked all around Antigua which is an old colonial city known for its beautiful architeture, bright colors, flowers, coblstone streets, and old churches. It is surrounded by 3 volcanos, 1 of which is still active and causes the groud to shake daily (although I have barely noticed). Since Guatemalans realized that the beauty of this old town would be a strong tourist draw, they have stopped developing or building and instead have turned their efforts to restoring old buildings. It is a truly beautiful little town. Very small with only 8 streets in each direction coming off a little town center with a park and fountain. Last wednesday we had a tour guide take us around the town and explain the history of guatemala, the culture of its people, and their way of life.

The people are so friendly here. I really love chatting with the locals in my limited spanish. There is one adorable Mayan family that sells things on the streets. A mom and her 2 little girls and baby boy and her mother. We have chatted with them a bunch of times. Then we noticed the baby boy had really bad tinea on his head. So I went to the pharmacy and bought some ketoconazole for him. I think his mom was really happy. Made me feel good too :)

One night we went out to a little bar called Cafe No Se. It was a little hippie joint with live music. We made friends with the 3 bar tenders...1 girl from Scotland, 1 local Guatemalan, and 1 guy from Belgium. Fun peeps! We stumbled across a rooftop bar with amazing views of the entire city and volcanos one evening. One of the best glasses of wine I've ever enjoyed :) We also went to a coffee plantation and saw how they make the local coffee...which is pretty fabulous. We have also been entertained by a local guy with a guitar who sang to Jaclyn...here are some of his fantastic lyrics:

"I love your legs...I want to have many childrens with you...some people say you are miss america...but i say you are miss universe..." hahaha!!

This past weekend we headed up to Semuc Chamey which is this amazingly beautiful national park in the north of Guatemala. On Sunday we had the best day! After breakfast we headed straight up for a hike in the jungle. It was a greulling hike but so beautiful! And at the top of the mountain we had the most beautiful lookout across green lagoons and rolling mountains! It was so worth the tough hike! We hiked back down the other side and arrived in the most pristine, clear, green-blue lagoon! It was breathtaking! We swam, jumped off rocks, slid down rock slides, and even ran down an almost vertical drop to a pool 50ft below! It was scary! But soo fun! After the lagoons we floated down the rest of the river in intertubes, just enjoying the scenery. When we got back to the hostel we had some lunch, changed into sandals, and went cave diving! The caves were sooo cool! It was pitch dark and we each carried one candle with us! We had to crawl up through crevases and jump down into pools without putting our candles out! Quite often we had to swim because the water was so deep, holding our candles in one hand and using the other to paddle and hold our flip flops (which are worthless when swimming). It was such a crazy fun adventure!

So, besides one bought of terrible sickness with GI problems, fevers, horrible pain, and a swollen face (nothing that 3 days of antibiotics couldn't fix!), this trip has been an amazing success! I will let you know later how the rest of the spanish classes and the clinic work goes! But for now, I must go and enjoy a beer on a rooftop somewhere and prepare for a hike up an active volcano tomorrow!! I love my life!!

Much love to you all! xoxoxo