hii everybody!
Student Trip Blog
Hi everyone!!! It’s your favorite leaders: AKASHA AND CAMELLIA!!!!!!!!!!🎊🎊🎊🎊 We had so much fun being leaders today and carrying that responsibility, and we are so excited to share our experiences. Our first minute as leaders was spent sharing a ONE OF A KIND…NEVER SEEN BEFORE…MIND BLOWING…STUNNING…MAGIC TRICK! Yep, that’s right, your LDD’s are not only amazing leaders, but they’re also talented magicians!!! OBVIOUSLY, that made us more than worthy to be today’s leaders.
As leaders, we learned a lot through our wonderful experience. One of our key takeaways was the importance of an inclusive environment, which was highlighted through our creative seating arrangements at lunch and dinner, and also through our fun games in between activities. Even though there are a lot of serious responsibilities as the LDD’s, we learned that it is key to most importantly…HAVE FUN!
First, we woke up at 6:30 and banged on everyone’s doors as loudly as we could, since we’re SOOO thoughtful and didn’t want anyone to sleep in and miss breakfast! We had this delectable Spanish fried tortilla (which looked like a HUGE frosted flake), a vegetable omelet, some actual Frosted Flakes, juicy strawberry juice, and, of course, some refreshing fruit!
After breakfast, we headed onto the bus, and we were on our next adventure: THE SANTA ANA COMMUNITY!!! We were so lucky to visit their elementary school, speak with their Peace Corps volunteer, and learn all about our impactful Community-Action project (CAP) and what we will be contributing to the school. Tune in Wednesday-Friday to hear about what we do and how it goes!
We headed back to the hotel around lunchtime, but before we ate, we were so lucky to have our first taste of FREEDOM! We were able to go and explore Chitre as the responsible glimpsers we are. We visited beautiful stores and cafes, and all had a lot of fun before lunchtime. For lunch, we had chicken stew and rice, plantains, some salad, and our veggie friends had some lentil soup!
After lunch, we were all ESTATIC, because we were able to have our 10 min phone call home! Tears (happy of course!) were definitely shed. Later, we held our seminar and began curating an in-depth breakdown of our tasks and an agenda for our CAP at Santa Ana Elementary School. We split into 3 groups and created our presentations on our plan for the school. The presentation is to propose to our collaborative partners, the Peace Corps (so cool!), our ideas, and to see what they think!!!! We will be sharing this tomorrow afternoon!
Once we got a start on our posters, it was time for our second opportunity of free time, and this time we got a WHOLE HOUR AND A HALF of super fun exploration of the town. Everyone spent their fair share of money (don’t worry, there are souvenirs for you!), and it was so cool to have that sense of independence in a whole different country!!!
Later, once we all got back from free time, we finished our posters for our presentations and got ready for dinner. For dinner, we had super yummy chicken burgers and fries, and our veggie friends (shout-out to you guys!) indulged in delicious pasta salad. After we scarfed down our delicious dinner (Gracias Hotel Rexxxxx!), we were able to have some bonding with some newer people we didn’t have the chance to talk to as much yet, since your genius leaders (Camellia and Akasha of courseee!), had the brilliant idea to have strategic assigned seating for lunch and dinner, you’re welcome, your glimpsers made some new friends 😏
After dinner, we had our nightly meeting, and passed the torch to tomorrow’s SUPER PUMPED (hint: veggie) leaders! We hope you all have as much fun reading their blog as you did ours. Be sure to continue tuning in and leaving your comments; as we love hearing all of them (especially the ones that say love you, name). WE HAD A BLASTTTT BEING LEADERS OF THE DAY!!! See you all tomorrow, buenos días/buenas tardes/buenas noches
Camellia: Hi Maman, Baba, Kiana, and Kimia (Nejad fam!!!), I miss you all soooo much, and I can’t wait to see you all soon. I bet you all miss me as well (probably even more than I miss you (😉), and please continue leaving comments since they’re the only way I’ll be able to hear from you guys until my last day! Please give Lily a big hug and kiss from me, even if she stinks a little! And also give Lucy and Simone my love. Khalee diltang shodam barre ghazae maman, hamam barre meeve ba baba ke shabaw meekhordam. Khodafez and I love you all sooo much, I have so much to tell you all! To my friends: I miss you guys!!!!! You guys also comment because I miss hearing from y’all, and I can’t wait to see you all when I get back. Don’t miss me too much
Akasha: HIIII MOM, ALEXANDER, AND LANCE!!! I miss you guys so so so sooooo much. I’m sure the house feels very quiet and empty without me, but don’t you worry, I am having lots of fun talking to all my friendly group members and learning about the cultural differences!! I have PLENTYYY of stories to tell and pictures to show when I get back so be prepared for a very long catching up. Hopefully, you guys are fattening up my cat too much, but don’t forget to give him extra love from his cat mom (and bagheera ofc). Tell Jeilyn I said “HEYYY MISSING YOU SO MUCH GIRL CANT WAIT TO SEE YOU WHEN I GET BACK! Sadly, I can’t write you letters, but I’m DEFFF missing my BEST FRIEND. Can’t wait to see all of you when I get back and catch up on the Love Island finale! Mahal na mahal kita Nanay
Camellia and Akasha SIGNING OFF ✌️✌️😝