Last week, I was accompanying a delegation of high school boys from Boston, Massachusetts. I don’t have any brothers, so it was a very educational experience for me. Apparently, the life of a high school boy involves a lot of hacky sack, guitar picking, references to adult cartoons, and, if he[...]
Archive for the ‘Day in the Life’ Category
Inequality and Inspiration Between the Clouds
About two weeks ago, I took a field trip with a few other volunteers working in my school system. There are endless sites across the country that are deserving of a day’s attention (or more), but our field trip wasn’t for a photo safari. The administrators in charge of our (private) schools wer[...]
Of Leap Years and Underwear
I’m a leap year junkie; that extra day every fourth February reminds me of so many hopeful, calming truths. It reminds me that every system has an outlier and every rule, an exception, even in something as basic as how we measure time. It reminds me that for all our hubris, we human beings hav[...]
Tags: Laurel Marshall 1 Comment
February 20th, 2012 - 6:37 am § in Day in the Life
A Little Puppy & Immigration Control
My family in the Dominican Republic has been making new additions lately. My family lives in an apartment with a large shared back yard. We are perhaps 100 meters down the road from Project Esperanza’s group home for Haitian immigrant boys and about 300 meters from their school. A few weeks ag[...]
Non-Verbal Cues in Latin America
When making my decision to live and teach abroad three years ago, a major concern for me was language. How will I communicate? How will I get what I need? Will the locals understand me? How will I make friends? Learning the spoken language is obviously one of the most essential steps in getting to [...]
February 17th, 2012 - 8:00 am § in Day in the Life
Back in the Game (and Hiking in Guatemala)
¡Saludos desde Guatemala! For the next several months, I will be living in Xela, Guatemala’s second largest city, and volunteering as a trek guide for Quetzaltrekkers, the only all volunteer-run, all non-profit outdoors organization in Central America. Quetzaltrekkers (QT) leads treks through som[...]
Why to Teach English in Colombia (With an O)
“So, I’m actually moving to Colombia to teach English for a year.” “Congratulations! That’s so exciting! You’re going to love New York!” I can’t begin to tell you how many times I had some variation on this conversation during the last few months of 2011. Needless to say, the reactio[...]
Top 10 Things to do Ecuador
Paula Newton is a freelance writer and management consultant. The editor of V!VA Travel Guide to Ecuador and the Galápagos Islands, she has an insatiable thirst for off-the-beaten-track travel. Paula has traveled extensively in Europe, Asia and Central and South America. Those volunteering in Ecuad[...]
New to Nica
I just passed the three-weeks-in-Nicaragua mark (as well as the “I-can-talk-about-more-than-just-the-weather” mark in my Spanish lessons- quite the milestone, in my mind). So, bueno, La Vida Idealistas. I am a 26-year-old from Washington state, currently living in Leon, Nicaragua. I’v[...]
January 23rd, 2012 - 10:01 am § in Day in the Life
Strike a Balance
Upon creating my vision board for the new year, it became clear to me that this year should be focused on striking a balance! With a jam-packed schedule, finding time for everything in my life in Guatemala may be difficult. I will be taking on a part-time English teaching job in the mornings at a [[...]
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