I have given my blog a makeover.  Also, I went back and edited all of the entries that got screwed up with html coding so that they are now readable.

Also, today marks the day that Rachel and I officially begin our personal makeovers.  I’m taking some pages from Jillian Michaels and kicking my health & exercise routine into high gear.  For 30 intensive days.  We’ll see what happens…and I will keep you posted

I am feeling the pull of the Gmail + Blogger set-up.  The truth is, I am more lacking in technical skills than you may believe…and WordPress…is a bit too advanced for me.  It is very shiny, but I don’t know what I’m doing half the time.

In fact, it is so beyond me, that I cannot figure out how to get all of my previous posts off of this blog & put them in my new blog.  Which is really what I would like to do.  Because we’ve had some good times.  We’ve seen lots of countries and various adventures.  It’s been a good little blog.  But…alas…it might be time to move on?

Still, just because I get a change of scenery doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll write more (or any more interestingly).  It could be time to start something wholly new & different.  I am feeling having a new name and layout.  But I might not have to leave my old blog behind to do so.

And if you think I’ve over-analyzed this, imagine what I do to relationships…

Well hello friends.  While it hasn’t been that long since I’ve posted (certainly not that as long as I usually go between posts) quite a bit has happened in my life.  Last Wednesday, the 12th, I left the creature comforts of the United States and headed down to Guatemala.

The group:
Cat Wilson, traveler and adventure-girl extraordinaire.  Hetero-lifemate.  Previous countries of travel – Spain, France, Portugal, Canada, and Belize.  Artist and personality-type expert.  Currently working at Canvas on Demand.
Kasee Metcalf, super-traveler and keeper of time.  Future pilot and excellent knower of youtube videos.  Previous countries of travel – Spain, Turkey, Morocco, Israel, and we’re not even sure where else… Knows all the same people from Wake I do.  Currently at dental school at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Kelly Chauvin, badass and ever-the-optimist-even-when-you’re-pretty-sure-there’s-nothing-to-be-optimistic-about.  Can turn anything into a come-on or turn-on.  Previous countries of travel (as far as I know) – Spain, Morocco, Portugal, United Kingdom, Australia.  Epic poet of the Motivation & Koala era in my life.  Currently serving in the Peace Corps in Guatemala.  Main reason we headed down that way.
Me.  Well, hopefully you know a little bit about me if you’re reading this.  But just because it’s fun, and my blog should be the place where I get to show off, my previous countries of travel – Mexico, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, England, Scotland, Norway, South Africa.  Currently a Residential Counselor working with entertaining if occasionally dangerous teenagers.

The Plan:
Well, as Beth and Shaloot aptly noted before dropping me off at Cat’s, we didn’t have much of a plan.  Or knowledge of anything that was going to be happening.  Which while I don’t recommend before traveling to another country, especially a third-world country, certainly has its perks.  #1 being absolving of responsibility.  #2 being epic adventure.  The rough plan was to fly to Guatemala City and then get the heck out of there to Antigua and follow Kelly around the country.  Massages, rafting, Peace Corps parties, and volcanos were all mentioned as well.

What was not mentioned was that Guatemala has a lot of freaking mountains and is lacking in efficient transportation.  Now I know this is the obvious to y’all, but please keep in mind that I literally knew nothing before this trip.  Hell, I kept thinking Guatemala was in South America (which is embarrassing to admit, but there it is).  So anyway, this meant that of our 6 days in the country, we spent a good amount of time on a bus of some kind.  Here is a brief run-down of what happened…

Day 1: Arrival
Got had on a taxi ride to Antigua paid an absurd amount of money.  Delightedly realized we could still speak Spanish.  Found sweet hostel – The Black Cat.  Took first chicken bus to Santa Lucia.  Had a mostly painful but surely helpful massage and spent too long in temascal (Mayan tradition that is very similar to a sauna).  Got lost on the way back to Antigua.  Found way to Antigua.  Ate delicious food, loved on Kelly when she finally arrived.

Day 2: Antigua & Cabon
Wandered around Antigua and learned some history.  Went to a Music Museum and a Coffee Museum.  Had lunch with one of Kelly’s fabulous host moms.  Received a lot of delicious fruit.  Took a 5hr bus ride to Cabon.  Played dirty versions of M*A*S*H.  Met some other Peace Corps folk.  Dinner, drinks, and dancing in Cabon.  Slight mishap with returning to hostel.  Potentially unsafe trip back to hostel.

Day 3: Lanquin, tiny village, & Cabon
Took a micro bus (i.e. everyone sitting on top of everyone) to Lanquin with smaller group of Peace Corps folk.  From there took a lorry (rode standing up) to tiny indigenous village that is a Peace Corps site.  Geared up for white water rafting.  Learned about malaria, amoebas, & dysentary.  Crash course in white-water rafting; learned that river has class 2, 3, 4, & 5 rapids.  Panicked.  Rafted for about 2 hrs.  Had immense fun.  Then…Kelly fell out of the boat.  It was decidedly not good.  Cat, Kasee, Kelly, Oliver (Peace Corps member) & I hauled tail back to Cabon to the private hospital.  Which was closed because by then it was after 6pm on a Friday.  Proceeded to public hospital.  Eventually wound up back at the hostel.  Spent about 12 hours in wet river clothes.  Thanked God for our hostel manager.

Day 4:  Cabon, Guatemala City, Antigua.
Took bus back from Cabon to Guatemala City (5hrs) to the good hospital.  Got a better idea of the damage to Kelly.  Watched part of an oral surgery until I almost passed out.  Located hostel that had available 1st floor bed.  Went medicine shopping for pain meds, mouth meds, and cold meds.  Headed back to Antigua.  Got food and slept.

Day 5:  Antigua & Pacaya
Breakfast with delicious crepes.  Played in Antigua’s market.  The 3 of us who could walk headed out to Pacaya to climb an active volcano.  Climbed active volcano.  Bonded with ex-pats.  Roasted marshmallows in lava.  Surfed down side of volcano on rocks & ash.  (I only fell on my ass TWICE!)  Climbed down active volcano.

Day 6: Antigua, Guatemala City, Houston.
Organized and spent last morning in Antigua.  Little bit more of mercado shopping.  Got to Guatemala City via chicken bus.  Caught flight.  Got stuck in Customs.  Spent night in Houston.  Watched George Lopez.

Day 7: Houston & Raleigh
Finally, finally back in North Carolina.

End!  Overall, it was a really interesting and good trip.  It was fascinating to learn and see so much.  Understandably, the whole injury thing sucked and was pretty serious.  Kelly is an incredible person tho and handled it amazingly well.  And we made it.  It was great to be speaking Spanish again…that was easily one of the best parts of the trip.  That and the amazing feelings of competency.  Nothing for your self-esteem like climbing a volcano.  But it’s good to be home

Alright, it’s really becoming crunch time:  I leave for Guatemala the DAY AFTER TOMORROW.  Insanity.  So, before that happens, I will briefly write about my wonderful trip to Cincinnati, OH.  I went the first weekend of August.

The wedding of Laura Terkosky & Jeffery Mahony took me to Ohio.  Laura was one of my first friends at Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy, when the fam moved way up North.  In fact, I may or may not have slipped down the stairs to her basement when she and some other lovely ladies threw me a surprise party for the first birthday I celebrated in Cincinnati.  Good friends

Anywho, I drove up to Cincy on a Friday; I forgot how absurdly beautiful the drive is…I fully enjoyed my 8hrs in the car.  Also it was raining/but the sun was still out, which made for this incredible skyline.  It was so weird to finally reach Cincinnati; I remembered all the roads, but hadn’t been there is so long.  I completely forgot that it was my home for a good seven years.

The wedding was quite lovely; Laura was a beautiful bride.  I loved the colors she chose!  Green and orange definitely aren’t traditional, and it’s difficult to imagine them, but they worked together perfectly.  And it just fit.  The wedding was at West Chester Presbyterian and was an average-sized wedding; maybe a little on the smaller side.  About 135 I think was a number I heard?  The reception was at the Wetherington Country Club and was extremely nice.  And a lot of fun!  Too much fun dancing.

But what was ultimately cool about the entire weekend was simply seeing so many people from high school – and not the people I normally keep up with.  Brief run-down: Jenna, Jenny, the Simowitz parents, Laura (obvi), Rachel, Rachel’s parents, Mallory, Derek, Mallory’s parents, Dr. Miracle, Alex, Amanda, Brent, Hilary, Kelley, Greg Hodges, and James.  Absurdly wonderful.

On my return to NC from OH, I swung by Asheville, NC, and stayed over with Rachel Adams & Thomas Miller.  It was delightful to see their new apt and new puppy.  We also had dinner with Michael Whatley, which was nice as well.  The following day Rachel and I toured gyms and plotted ways to achieve physical fitness…plans which I have not lived up to at all this week…oops.  Post-Guatemala tho, the intensity picks up.  Or starts.  Whichever.

That’s right, friends.  I’ve been up to my old tricks: driving my poor little Honda Civic alllllll over the place, catching up with many dear friends, taking a hodgepodge of pictures, and just generally living beyond my means.  And, to be truthful, my traveling is only halfway over.  Have I mentioned that I love traveling?

Well first of all, way back in July (so last month), I drove up to Raleigh after work – which means that I got there around 7:30pm.  Cat and I proceeded to get Chipotle (!) and then drive to the swanky lil town of Nashville, North Carolina (incidentally, their Welcome To sign says “The Original Nashville”.  Someone has a complex.  Maybe you should create a burgeoning music industry too then) to pick up Marissa.  I adore Marissa, btw.  She may be a bit of a young’un, but she’s pretty great.  From there, the three of us continued our journey up 95-N to Silver Spring, Maryland: Cristina’s hometown.  It’s right outside of DC.  We arrived at about 2am.  Fuunnnnnnnn times.  Actually, it was.

Anywho, Saturday Dorian came down to Cristina’s house, and the now 5 of us (keep up) ventured into DC for some sight-seeing.  We had a blast!  Also, Cristina’s mom remains the most incredible person (and I feel bad that I can never remember her name) and chauffered us around so we didn’t have to worry about parking or anything.  She also gives great unofficial tours, pointing out where certain politicians or other notables keep their mistresses, etc.  Our lovely day culminated in an extremely nice dinner at Legal Seafood in Chinatown.  And my delightful cousin, Maggie, came and met us for drinks!  It was wonderful to see her; we haven’t really talked in a long time, but she is just as cool as ever.

Saturday night the girls and I of course headed out.  This was one of those classically bizarre-but-hilarious-but-really-only-fun-because-we-were-together-and-in-retrospect-actually-kinda-sketchy experiences that are so central to my life.  We went to the LOVE club in Southside DC.  If you know anything about DC, that’s all I have to say about that.  Except that to compensate for the ghetto factor I drank a bit…ok, a lot.  This proved to be a bad decision.

Which brings me to Sunday morning.  Yeah I was still not ok.  And yet we had to get back on the road ASAP (and by ASAP I mean 2pm) to get back to NC.  Luckily I have the best friends in the world, and despite the grossness of the situation, they made me the cutest little care package, and I was really quite touched.  But thank God for dramamine.  Anyways, traffic was much worse on the way back; we finally returned to RaleighWorld around 9pm.  And Dorian, Cat and I had not eaten dinner (Dorian caravanned down with us “on the way” to Asheville, and we dropped Marissa off back in Nashville, NC).  So we trekked out to Durham, NC to search for anything not fast food that was still open by 10pm.  We met up with Alex, Cat’s homeboy, to grab a bite.  And they all had beer but if you remember my comment about Saturday…I drank water for most of the next week, lol.  Alex is a hilarious kid and I enjoyed hanging out with him.

By the time we finished eating, it was too late to crash at my sister’s, so I stayed over at Cat’s.  Monday morning I drove over to Beth’s and chilled for most of the day.  That evening, my parents & Andrew arrived!  So the 6 of us had dinner together and discussed the finer points of Harry Potter and expressed outrage and scorn towards The Bachelorette (but still kept watching).  Tuesday I drove back to Winston, and it was *so nice* to be home again.  I wasn’t home for very long tho…as will be chronicled in pt. 2 on another day