Study Abroad Programs Blog

Study Abroad Adds Substance to Resume

With globalization impending, it is not surprising that employers are looking for job applicants with international experience. A great way to add international experience to your resume is study abroad. If you studied abroad for a semester, summer, or year in college, this is a natural bridge to incorporating international experience in the education section of your resume. Did you study a language while abroad, or perhaps complete an internship? This is an excellent way to market yourself to potential employers as a well-rounded individual with traits such as multi-cultural understanding, interpersonal communication skills, initiative, independence, and the ability to adapt in different environments. 

Antigüeno Nightlife

By: Artis H. - Guestblogger from Antigua 

Between morning classes and afternoon excursions, meals with host families and weekend trips, it's a wonder that we have time to go out a night. But somehow we fit in a sampling of Antigua's diverse nighttime options. 

On Tuesday nights, Mono Loco is the prime destination for tourists and locals alike with the cheapest ladies' night in town. Drinks are only three quetzals (about 30 cents) until midnight. Next door, the salsa bar heats up early and pumps hot Latin beats long into the night. For a more cozy atmosphere, the Rum Bar offers candle light and excellent mojitos. If you're a fan of Cuban music, Ricky's hosts piano players of Buena Vista Social Club fame. 

Pastores

By: Artis H. - Guestblogger from Antigua 

My third weekend in Guatemala, I decide to take it easy and stay local. There is so much to see and do in this country, I can't manage to fit it all in during this one stay. I still haven't visited the ruins at Tikal (an eight-hour drive from Antigua) or the beautiful falls and clear waters of Semuc Champey. I still need to see Livingston, Monte Ricco and Flores Island. With finality, I throw my hands in the air and decide I'll just have to come back. Which means this weekend I'm free to stay near Antigua. And go boot shopping. 

Casa del Jade

By: Artis H. - Guestblogger from Antigua 

During a morning Spanish lesson, we deviate from conjugating verbs to discussing Guatemalan jade (pronounced ha-de in español, a two-syllable term that glimmers green in the mind). My teacher tells us that in this country jade emerges from the earth as the platelets under Central America shift and collide, and there are no mines for the semi-precious stone. During the time of the Mayan reign, the native people of Guatemala fashioned jade into necklaces, earrings, and figurines. Imperial jade in particular, pale green in color and difficult to find, was used to adorn the Mayan kings. 

El Lago de Atitlan

By: Artis H. - Guestblogger from Antigua 

Here in Guatemala, a country of 13 million people and 42,000 square miles, there is no shortage of things to do. While I dedicate my weekdays to studying Spanish and exploring Antigua's many diversions, the weekends are reserved for traveling. 

There are hundreds of travel agencies based in Antigua, all offering direct buses and package options for Guatemala's popular destinations. For my second weekend in this incredible country, I joined a group of students from my Spanish school on an excursion to Lake Atitlan, Guatemala's great lake.

Mujeres, UFOs and Karate

By: Artis H. - Guestblogger from Antigua In my host family, we gather for meals three times a day. Breakfast is a brief affair, all preparation for the day to come. Lunch (the biggest meal of the day) is mostly dedicated to eating. But dinner, where I try out my Spanish speaking skills and my family practices their patience, is by far the most convivial. On most nights, the senor graces us with one of his stories. "Many years ago," he begins, "I was in a bar in central Mexico." He tells the students at the table (myself, a Canadian, and an American couple) that this was back when he was still drinking and chasing women. The senora laughs and rolls her eyes. "So, in this bar, this mujer muy guapa (very beautiful woman) comes over to me and starts talking. I buy her a drink and ask her if she'd like to dance. The dancing continued for a while, the senor says, and then the woman kissed him. "She was really very beautiful. How could I say no?" At the end of the song, the bartender called the senor over. "He tells me, 'That mujer you are dancing with? No es una mujer. Es un hombre.'" At the dinner table, the senor laughs. "And that's how I kissed a man." Another time, he tells us about the UFO he saw fly over the volcano Pacaya, "It was silver with red and yellow lights," he says, and the ghost that attacked two men at the cemetery in Antigua. "It was in all the papers the next day." My favorite is the story about the Japanese tourist. According to the senor, he was taking a siesta in the front room closest to the street when he heard yelling coming from the sidewalk. He opened the shutters and poked his head outside. Further down, a young Guatemalan man was running with a backpack. The pack's Japanese owner followed close behind. At the end of the street, the tourist caught up with the thief and unleashed a flurry of karate moves. The man cried out and handed over the stolen mochila. "Es verdad?" I ask with wide eyes. Is it true? The senor nods. "Si," he says. "I saw it with my own eyes."

Gordita!

By: Artis H. - Guestblogger from Antigua As I write this post, I'm alternately typing and munching on handfuls of cashew nuts. I bought them in Antigua's central market only a few hours ago, somehow squeezing in time between lunch and my afternoon snack. Considering that I've been eating tortillas by the truckload, it's hard to imagine my stomach can handle much more. But who am I kidding? This is Guatemala. In a country where gordo (fat) is not considered an insult and gordita is a term of endearment, people spend a lot of time eating. On the streets of Antigua, food is available on every corner, where fresh fruit vendors sell bags of sliced mangos and indigena women in colorful skirts stand guard over baskets of warm corn tortillas. In the market, now is the season for tropical fruit, and baskets filled with papayas and pineapples crowd the aisles. A tasting trip around Antigua yields delicious local specialties (the savory and spicy stewed pepion, husk-wrapped chuchitos made from corn meal) but no dish is as popular as fried chicken and French fries. Locals love the fast-food feel of Pollo Campero, a chain restaurant with a numbered menu. For braver souls (with hardier stomachs) the market, too, offers many fried chicken and French fry options. Of course, no meal in Guatemala is complete without a sweet ending. For that, the country has panderias and dulcerias, where cakes and sweets of every kind are available. In Antigua, there are countless ice cream shops and men who ply the streets with their wheeled carts, ringing small hand bells. Even for the brief bus trip to neighboring Jocotenango, ice cream vendors board the bus to sell dripping cones of strawberry ice cream for a single Quetzal each. Amidst all this serious eating, it's nice to take a coffee break. Guatemalan coffee is ranked third in the world for flavor, and local restaurants serve exceptional brews. At the Café de Condessa, a favorite among visitors, the menu features a wide choice of sweets to go with your cappuccino. Recently, I tried the banana cake layered with almonds and butter cream frosting. It was sinful, but much deserved after a day of heavy studying (and snacking).

Surfing Lesson

By: Artis H. - Guestblogger from Antigua We slept that night to the sound of waves, resting warm and comfortable under hanging mosquito nets. We woke early Saturday morning, nervous and excited for another important class: surfing lessons. Three of us pulled surf shirts over our bikinis and watched as Rafael ran through the basics. We practiced on dry land before taking to the waves with our instructor. He hovered behind us as we stretched length-wise on the wide beginner's boards, then counted - uno, dos, tres! - before pushing us into the cresting wave. We worked and worked at it, slipping off our boards, getting knocked down by the surf, taking gallons of salt water in through our mouths and noses. But, finally, we stood. On a great wave that sent my board rising above the swell, I pulled myself first into a crouch, then a stand, my legs spread in the sideways step Rafael taught us. I rode the wave all the way into shore, laughing and turning to see him give me a thumbs up before dragging my board out for the next round. When the lesson ended, we carried our boards back along the black sand beach. The muscles in our arms ached and our stomachs growled with hunger, but we smiled the whole way, already dreaming of our next trip into the water. Back at the camp, breakfast waited: warm pancakes covered with fresh bananas and pineapple, granola and honey on top. We devoured the meal, then spent the day swimming and napping in the hammocks by the beach. Saturday night, we took showers in the moonlight before heading to the fiesta down the road. Guatemalan music pumped through the speakers as we watched handsome young men escort dark-haired beauties onto the dance floor. Men approached our group, smiling shyly at the tall, blond-haired Scandinavians before asking them to dance. A local Guatemalteco chatted with a man in our group before tipping his head in my direction. “Es tu esposa?” he asked. Is she your wife? My friend laughed and said no. “Your sister?” My friend shook his head. The wail of an accordion filled the dancehall as all around us couples stepped out for another round.

A Weekend Adventure in Guatemala

By: Artis H. - Guestblogger from Antigua At the close of classes on Friday, our group of five donned our backpacks and headed to the bus station alongside Antigua's central market. Two of us stopped to buy sandwiches for lunch, and as the wait turned from five minutes into twenty (this is Guatemala, after all), we received a frantic call from the advance party that our bus was pulling out of the station. We pleaded for our sandwiches and finally received two foil-wrapped packages, warm and smelling of ham and melted cheese. We ran through the market, sandals slapping against concrete, and made it to the bus just in time. Called “chicken buses” by the locals, this mode of transportation is definitely the real-deal. The buses are imported from the United States and date back to the mid-1980s. My Norwegian and Dutch friends struggled to maneuver the tricky push-pull for opening the windows, something American public school students master on their first bus ride home. As the bus wound through villages and down out of the mountains, we began to shed layers of clothes. First scarves, then outerwear and finally overshirts, until we sat in our tank tops and watched Antigua's trio of surrounding volcanoes fade into the distance. At a pause in the route, food vendors climbed onto the bus to sell their wares: fresh pineapple juice and sugar-roasted peanuts, husk-wrapped tamalitos and handfuls of sweet milk candies. We bought one of each and munched on the treats throughout the long trek. The climate grew steadily warmer as we neared the coast, passing through fields of sugarcane and palm trees, until we could smell the salt in the air. We descended at Sinpicate, where we boarded a flat-bottomed skiff that trolled the waters of a mangrove estuary before dropping us at our destination. There, the black sand beach stretched in every direction, unmarred by the hotels and restaurants that have consumed much of the world's beachfront real estate. The Paredon camp itself included only a handful of palm-thatched cabanas fronting the pounding Pacific. The camp's owner, Rafael, gave us the grand tour – our bunked sleeping quarters, the outdoor shower stall, the open-air eating area – before suggesting we slip into our bathing suits and head into the water. The sun dipped towards the horizon as we plowed into the waves, thankful to have reached Guatemala's beautiful coastline.

First Week in Antigua, Guatemala

By: Artis H. - Guestblogger from Antigua In Antigua, mornings are brisk this time of year. For my first day of Spanish classes at the language school, I bundled against the cold and hurried down the narrow, cobbled streets. The smell of Guatemalan coffee drifted from an open shop window and blended with the aroma of baking banana bread from the panderia next door. My stomach growled, even after the breakfast of sliced bananas and papayas with my host family that morning. I climbed a flight of stairs to the office and lounge area of the school, then another flight to the open-air classroom above. Work stations were spread across the patio, with tables, chairs, and blackboards at each mini-classroom. Though the air still held a hint of morning chill, I was thrilled to start learning Spanish. My class schedule began at 8:00 a.m. and ran until noon, with a 20 minute break in between. I shared a professor with one other student. Every day of this first week has been packed with activities. After four hours of classes in the morning, the students headed back to our homestays for lunch. In the afternoons, we sampled the excursions in and around Antigua offered by the school. On Tuesday, we visited the former church and convent of the Capuchinian nuns in Antigua and on Wednesday, we learned how to make tomalitos at the school. Everyone had a chance to dip their hands into the sticky maize mixture and roll out their own tomalito before wrapping the ball in a corn husk to be boiled. Mildly flavored with a hint of the spinach-like chipilin leaves we rolled into the flour, the results were delicious. On Thursday, we visited a local village known for their hand-woven fabrics. After we watched the women weave, we had another cooking lesson: tortillas. We learned how to pat the dough between our hands and toss the thin disks onto the griddle. We then sat down to a traditional Guatemalan feast of pepilon with our own hand-crafted tortillas. The perfect end to such a full first week? A weekend at the beach. A group of students from the school decided to search out the surf camp at Paredon, three hours from Antigua along Guatemala's Pacific coastline. And so my first week in Guatemala ended with the beginning of another adventure.