Kristina Larkin

KristinaDee

Kristina Larkin





We flew from Guatemala City to Mexico City (both respectively called just Guatemala and Mexico by the citizens of their countries), to save ourselves the 3 busses and 28 hours it would have taken to go by land. We left our hostel at 4 am at the suggestion of the front desk guy, and had 4 hours to kill before our 9:30 flight by the time we got to the airport. Excellent. By the time we got on the plane and got to Mexico, we had been up for a long time, so the first thing we did when we got to our perfectly located hostel just meters away from the second biggest public square in the world - was nap. Then yes, we ventured out and surprisingly - got vegetarian mexican food! Cauliflower tortas and ... read more
Saima at Teotihuacan
K at Teotihuacan
Mexico City Cathedral


We had 70 hours in Guatemala and probably a little over 20 of them were spent in transit from place to place, and let me tell you, we used to rest of them VERY well. We took a boat from PG to Puerto Barrios, Guatemala in the morning of the 23rd, and oh my goodness someone didn't really want us to leave Belize. It was POURING when we were able to leave my apartment, after cleaning it and locking it up for good. Imagine the pair of us, with our bags on our backs, backpacks as frontpacks and arms full of left over spices, food and housewares I was dropping off at my friends' house. It was pretty ridiculous. By the time we got to the dock, we were soaked through. Luckily it got dryer before ... read more
Saima at Lago Atitlan
K in Lago Atitlan
Saima and K at the beach


I know the next thing I should blog about was my last week of school, that ended last Friday. But to be honest - I was SO busy with end of school stuff, packing, trip planning and hanging out with Saima who got here last Tuesday - that I had no time for writing blogs! Plus, I still haven't totally processed the whole experience yet so you may just have to wait for a coffee date to hear about how that went. Suffice it to say, the last week was busy, fun, fast, and full of Christmas pageant practices. Leaving the students was really hard, I wish I could stay and finish the year, despite their craziness. It was so nice to finish all my work and actually leave for a trip where I wouldn't spend ... read more
Yuma's
Saima at Yuma's
Scrabble and Wine


As we approach another Saturday (time is just FLYING by!) I should tell you about the rad Saturday I just had last week, and some other stuff I've been up to! If you can't tell yet, my soul needs some pretty frequent replenishing of things that are awesome, luckily I don't have a hard time finding those kinds of things. Last week we had a teachers retreat at a beautiful centre, so that was a nice mid week break (see the pictures to see why!). Got a chance to chat with my colleagues and just have a Wednesday off from teaching, which anyone can appreciate! We also got Friday off of teaching, because it was Garifuna Settlement Day on Saturday, a day to celebrate when the Garinagu people came to Belize from St. Vincent. The Garifuna ... read more
Church at Retreat Centre
view from the retreat centre
Khya and N'Gaii


(Pretend I posted this on time, when I first started writing it last weekend...) After a hard week at school I was in dire need of some spirit rejuvenation and some inspiration. And where else to look but to nature and history! In the morning, after the market for my veggies, I took a run out to the big hill at the back of town called Cerro Hill - about 5km from my house. After running way past where the "path" starts, I finally saw some people who I could ask about it. I was a little tentative about asking two men where the tiny, lonely, far from town path was when I was clearly alone, but I figured if I got weird vibes, I would take note of the entrance and come back another day. ... read more
Wire Rope
But what a view!
The sea


This post is only... a month late? I wanted to post about some places I've had the chance to go lately but when I tried to post the pictures (more than a hundred of them, I'm a little camera happy) on Facebook, my internet cut out - making me lose all my edits and captions. My frustration pushed me out the door for a walk, and I abandoned the posts and then life went on and now, here we are - either way, better late than never right? So I have had the chance to do a few cool little trips around Belize since I've been here. I already posted about my weekeday-weekend in Placencia (where I will be returning to next weekend hopefully, with my friend Gomi, to get some of their famed gelato from ... read more
Barranco
Beach in Dangriga
K in Dangriga


On Friday I finished my fourth week as a Standard III teacher at one of Punta Gorda's Catholic schools. Despite the crazy amount of days off (we went to school for the equivalent of 16 full days in September haha) it was a pretty jam-packed month! Here is a typical day for me: 5:45am: Go for a run. It gets too hot to run during the day, and I prefer the quiet of the morning to the hum the town has at night, so I go as the sun has just risen. Unless of course it's pouring, which it is doing more and more frequently as the rainy season slips into the hurricane season. Either way, I try to exercise even it's just some stuff in my apartment. It's important to be fully awake and energized ... read more
Off the children's rally
Happy Half Day!
Lined up


This afternoon school was canceled on account of either possible river flooding, or in case a storm hit us, I have heard conflicting reasons. Either way, no school until further notice and therefore : blogging time! I have had a pretty interesting adventure here so far - arranging a placement after surprising the school with my arrival, meeting a great class with very diverse needs and strengths, having my apartment flood twice in hurricane strength storms, visiting a lovely beach town, enjoying Belizean Rotary (more on this later), having my pretty purple bike stolen, and learning how to teach way more creatively! One thing I really am enjoying is getting to know a new town! Now that I am walking everywhere, I decided to take advantage of my slowed down pace (sort of slow, I walk ... read more
My building
The big building
St Peter Claver Church


Back to school! And never more excited to do so! (Well that might be a lie, I'm always excited to go back to school.) But today was wonderful! My teacher mentor Miss Gwen and I had finished setting up our lovely and colourful room the weekend before, and Friday the 2nd was the school's orientation day. We got to meet about half the students since the rest didn't come, but that was nice - to sort of ease into it. Really it was a waste of everyone's time though, since we had to restate expectations and redo introductions today for those who didn't come, even though we weren't technically allowed to allot time for it today. Ah well! A lot of teachers voiced their concerns, hopefully the administration will listen for next year. But those little ... read more
Our only chalkboard!


I didn’t have to be at school until Friday this week, so I took advantage of my guaranteed time off to go to Placencia from Tuesday to Thursday! Placencia is a little ways north of PG, via bus then water taxi. It was great trip! I took the express bus from PG at 6am, and I was lucky! It was a greyhound style bus, not the little school bus, so it had A/C! It continues to blow my mind how inexpensive public transport is south of the States – just BZ $11 (about CAD$ 5.50) for an hour an a half bus trip, it was $2 more because it was the express. I splurged so I could just go straight there rather than stopping all the time. Once you arrive in Independence, the water taxi is ... read more
Pretty beach
Enjoying the sun and the sea!
Love my underwater camera!




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