December 30, 2018
The students for global communication rose from their beds before the sun. Everyone met at the airport at 4 AM, blinking sleepy eyes and dragging mountainous luggage behind them. The quick good-byes to friends and loved ones led to fast paced check ins and TSA scrutiny. 2 flights and a custom’s check later, we arrived in Belize City, Belize to the relieving warm weather and the smiling face of Rico our Belizean tour coordinator. We hastily piled into the shuttle and made our way to the Ramada Hotel, where we gratefully rested for an hour before
lunch in the dining room downstairs. After our bellies were full, we loaded ourselves back into the shuttle and drove to Old Belize where we spent the rest of our afternoon basking in the sunlight at Kukumba Beach. We embarked on a relaxing train tour through a museum of Belizean history that began with the Mayans and ended with the Chiqleros. We all dipped our feet into the cool waters of the Caribbean Sea, but only the brave (Dr. Swartz, Dr. Li, and 3 Javelinas) climbed up onto the massive, towering water slide and shot out like bullets into the water. When we arrived back to the hotel, we refreshed ourselves and returned downstairs to meet a professor from the University of Belize who introduced himself simply as “Joe.” He spoke to us about the incredible complexity of Belizean culture and how it got to be the beautiful country it is today. He spoke of tensions between Belize and Guatamala, the languages that grace the land and where they come from, holidays, festivals, religion, and economy. When the lecture came to an end, we went to Midtown for a large delicious dinner. At long last, a full 19 hours later, we finally stumbled into our hotel rooms and fell gratefully into our beds where we fell asleep almost immediately. The first day was in the books and the future ahead held nothing but promise.
Gabriella Sanchez
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