tessaj

Tonight I am sitting at home, having a very relaxing night, but am incredibly excited. Tomarrow Mish and I will go to Belize City to pick my mom and Scotty up from the airport! I am thrilled to be able to share my new home with them; to show them the culture, the food, the amazing water, and amazing people. The only sad thing about them coming, is that it means that Mish will be leaving me in only a few days. I cant believe how fast the last two weeks she has been here has flown by! We did manage to do a lot of things though. Last weekend the four of us ventured into guatemala with the ancient mayan site of Tikal as our destination. It started out early on saturday morning at the ... read more

After being on Caye Caulker last weekend, it seems that most tourists bound for Belize are actually only bound for Caye Caulker.... when telling people on the island the I was living in Belmopan for five months, all I got was blank stares. Now, I know this isnt the most exciting or happening city on the planet or anything, but I kinda think that If your venturing to a whole new country, you should at least know what the capital city is, right? maybe? It just kind of blew me away that almost know one (other than the locals, of course) knew what I ment when i said the word "Belmopan". Anyways, I have totally embraced this sleepy little town, and love being apart of it. From the 'tortilla man' who rides around town on his ... read more

Wow haven’t updated for quite some time now. This past week of school actually managed to get pretty intense, with three midterm exams and an assignment due. But I got through it, and am currently laying in a hammock on the beach of beautiful Caye Caulker. This island is one of the only places I have been to where to can ask someone what they did that day, and ‘absolutly nothing’ is a totally acceptable answer. Although this caye is a little bit too touristy for my liking, the super-chill-paradise vibe is has going on totally makes up for it. It is a place where no one wears shoes, drinking gallon upon gallon of water a day is a must (which I learned the hard way), and after being here for about three hours, you’ll feel ... read more

Last Thursday, after realizing that our tourist visa had almost run out, Danielle and I ventured down to the immigration office to obtain our student visas. Here we saw the laid-back Belizean attitude really shine. When we arrived there was a line-up of about seven people, which only grew while we were there, one officer working, and about four others sitting in their cubicles either reading, eating, or texting and being less than helpful to anyone who tried to get questions answered by them. After waiting an hour and a half, we finally got to see an officer, who then brought our passports in the back for a good twenty minutes, and came back with a piece of paper with a signature and “50$ each” written on it. It wasn’t even over by this point, as ... read more

Wow, another week has already gone by somehow, and I don’t know where all the time went. I have now been living in Belmopan for three weeks and every day I get more and more comfortable in it. From waking up extra early on market days to catch the best deals, to running in my neighbourhood, and officially being a regular at ‘ice point’, my favorite little snack shop just up the street, I defiantly feel at home here. Don’t worry mom, I still know where my real home is, but getting to experience living in an entirely new culture is so exciting. Nearly everything is different and backwards from the ways at home from the amazing staple rice and beans, to the slow and haywire bus system, to the dozens of friendly waves you get ... read more

First 2 weeks of school was a success! All my classes are good so far, and Im especially loving my Spanish and fish biology courses. My Spanish teacher always picks on me in class though…I think he likes laughing at my awful pronunciation, and how much I struggle with some words. Last Wednesday Danielle and I we finished classes just after lunch, so decided to go for an adventure. He hoped on the bus and headed for St. Herman’s Blue Hole National Park. It is only about 15 minutes away from Belmopan, but unfortunately we still got there to late to make the hike into the blue hole. So instead we took on a shorter hike to St. Hermans cave, and after dosing ourselves with bug spray, and renting sweaty smelling headlamps we were on our ... read more

We have been in Belmopan for a week now and we are completely settled in and feeling like locals already. Our landlady has a very large family and we see her brothers and cousins all over town. As everyone here is so friendly, we find ourselves stopping to chat for a while, and then we really look like we fit in. This town has a great small town feel to it, and even though it is the capital city of Belize, you can pretty much walk the town in about 25 minutes. The weather has been around 25-30 degrees most days, and I am thankfully starting to get a tan and therefore don’t stand out so ridiculously much….but still really stick out anyways. There is a great market in town every Tuesday and Friday were you ... read more

Welcome to Belize! Danielle and I finally made it here last night after a very very long journey. It took three long and tiring flights from Vancouver to Pheonix to Charlotte and finally to Cancun to make it to Central America. From there we had two relaxing a nd rejuvinating (and chilly) days in playa del carmen and then yesterday morning we got on our first of many buses that would take us to Belize….we had no idea what was ahead of us. Our first bus to Chetemul was a nice comfy coach bus with tv’s which took us about four hours towards our destination. We then found out that the bus leaving for Belize City wouldn’t arrive until 4:30 (for another 2 ½ hours). This kinda sucked cuz we still had a long journey ahead ... read more