My Humble Hostel Abode

If any of you are new travelers such as myself, you've probably only experienced living in hotels or with family members while you're away from home. I have heard of hostels and how living in one is a new experience entirely from what one may normally be accustomed to. When I signed up to teach English with UBELONG the first time, I stayed with an Ecuadorian host family for three weeks; they were so hospitable and it was as if they were my extended family.  I learned so much while I was there since I was (literally and figuratively) immersed in the Ecuadorian culture! I was forced out of my comfort zone and practice Spanish every day while at the local schools, and come home to speak Spanish with my host family. I was even invited as a guest to one of their family member's weddings in a nearby city, and boy was that an interesting few nights haha.

My second project with UBELONG put me in Mérida helping out at a local food bank. Unlike my living arrangements in Ecuador, I was placed in Mérida's Nómadas Hostel which, let me tell you, was a COMPLETE shock the first night I arrived! I may not have shown it in front of my fellow UBELONGers, but boy was I dumbfounded by what I was to call my home for the next three weeks. Whenever I traveled with family in the past, I got to stay in nice hotels which had free cleaning service, private bathrooms, and sometimes a mini-fridge and a coffee maker. Let me tell you about what a hostel is really like...

Imagine what a hotel looks like, and what your hypothetical room looks like. Now take that image out of your head as I share with you the real details of the hostel arrangements haha. (Note: This was my initial reaction to living here, my perception of this place has changed for the better these past couple of weeks (thankfully haha)!)

• Bathrooms and Showers: I can only speak on behalf of the girls, but I feel as though the guys have more comfortable bathroom arrangements since they have multiple stalls per bathroom! *Jealous* For the girls, you share a couple bathrooms with maybe 50-something other girls (4 outdoor stalls to be exact, and 2 other indoor ones you can use if the dorm doors are unlocked). There are 2 outdoor showers that all the girls have to share (and 2 other indoor ones you can use IF the doors are unlocked). People who know me are aware of my somewhat OCD/germophobe tendencies and can understand why I would be a little peeved out by sharing a bathroom with so many other people. They get cleaned every day, but the plumbing isn't the best here and so they request that all papers should be thrown in the garbage bins (gross... haha).

Girls' dorm and two of the outdoor bathrooms

• Dorm Rooms: Maybe people who had the opportunity to dorm while attending college may be more accustomed to sharing rooms, but this was something that was completely new to me (somewhat). When I volunteered in New Orleans with Habitat for Humanity, I stayed at a local center which might have been a shelter. They had an enormous cafeteria-sized room with dozens of beds, so I should've expected a similar kind of arrangement here at the hostel. For the Kentucky and Wisconsin female groups, they stayed together in rooms with 6-8 bunk beds and a communal bathroom. I was lucky enough to have a single room for the first two weeks I was here, and then I got bumped into a shared room with three beds (but thankfully just one other fellow UBELONGer!)

My room for the duration of my stay at Nómadas Hostel

• Kitchen: I was pleasantly surprised to see the kitchen here. It comes fully stocked with a fridge (that is 90% always packed and unusable lol), a two-part sink, and an 8-burner stove and a bunch of communal kitchenware.

• Outdoor Pool: No complaints.  I love the pool. :3

• Outside Lounge Area: This is a nice area for people to hang out to eat, listen to live music, or use the (intermittent) WiFi we have here. Normally when I traveled around, I stayed in the confines of my hotel room or followed my family around to explore the city, but here at the hostel, it's almost as if we are a community all our own. I'm not exactly the most outgoing, social person there is, but I have met some pretty interesting people during my stay. I've met someone from the UK, Australia, Russia, Canada, Texas, and Iowa!

I think staying at the hostel has been a really rewarding experience even though I was afraid I would dread my three weeks here. I purposefully choose to travel and volunteer abroad because it pushes me out of my comfort zone of NYC and makes me see the other aspects of the world that I have yet to see. I loved that I was able to meet someone who was backpacking around Central America, someone who is exploring the cities of Mexico, someone who quit his job to relax before taking on a job as an optometrist in Ecuador, and someone who formerly worked for the UN and in disaster relief. As diverse as NYC is, I am so grateful that I met these individuals who share similar interests in public health, exploring and traveling as me. Prior to staying at the hostel, it was hard running into a random person in NYC just to talk about my career goals and hear advice about graduate school and what jobs I should pursue in the future unless I specifically worked at an organization dedicated to public health. I was pleasantly surprised to talk to these strangers and be able to spend an hour discussing goals and where we wanted to accomplish in life. I have Cedric and UBELONG to thank for my experience at the hostel. As a volunteer, I am in the "Immersion Project" and I definitely feel immersed in the Mexican culture here! :)

From talking with more experienced hostel residents, they said that this hostel is one of the best ones they've lived in. It doesn't hurt that they have free yoga, live music, free salsa lessons, and affordable cooking classes (where you can eat your food!) for 25 pesos. My overall thoughts of the hostel? It's livable, even for the OCD/germophobic-types! Once you accept that nothing will change your living situation, you get used to the idea of living here and you start to grow comfortable and enjoy it.

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."

Source: Stand Up to Cancer

Nearly everyone in the world has heard of the great Mahatma Gandhi and the impact he's made on hundreds of individuals who respected and looked up to him. He was a spiritual and political leader who fought for Indian independence through nonviolent, peaceful forms of civil disobedience. He taught many individuals to be kind and show that violence was not the answer.

I was never the best student in History, as many of my friends and family can tell you (hah), but I do know how influential he was. I'm a big fan of quotes and I've read numerous quotes from Gandhi, which include the above picture's quote, as well as this famous one:

"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."

I'm a strong supporter for service and giving back to communities who need the assistance. I knew since middle school that it was one of the things I would focus on as I grew up, even when all my career plans kept changing. From wanting to be a professional bird-watcher, to a veterinarian, to a dog breeder, to a doctor, and finally finding myself pursuing Public Health, I went through many phases where I was unsure of what I wanted to become. I wanted some way to "find myself" since I left lost and didn't have a set direction to where I wanted to head. I knew the one stable thing in my life was my passion for volunteering.

The picture quote reminds me that every day is a blessing, for we don't know what life has in store for us. Natural disasters and unfortunate violence and accidents happen when we least expect it, and we don't know if today will be the last day we are on this earth. Losing a loved one made that very clear to me, that every day I have is valuable and that I should be cherishing the people who I have in my life, because life is uncertain and I don't know if there will be a tomorrow for me to tell them "hello" or "I love you" or "let's catch up some time."

The second part of the quote offsets the first in my point of view, because it tells me that life has so much to offer us. We have so much to learn if we look in the right places, if we expose ourselves to unfamiliar territory and force ourselves to be outside of our comfort zone. That's how I feel when I decide to volunteer in or travel to other countries. It's a different experience than volunteering in our local communities and it's definitely a learning experience.

I am two days away from going to Mexico and I'm definitely scared but excited at the same time. The uncertainty freaks me out but I know that forcing myself out of the comfort of my home will be a great way to grow and help me find myself. I hope whoever reads this feels inspired to do good in the world, no matter how small the gesture may be, it only takes one action to get the ball rolling :)

(Almost) SPRING BREAK!

I'm so excited to have spring break this year; a week and a half of vacation time to relax.. who am I kidding? There's no time to relax during senior year when you're just trying to graduate! There are so many projects and papers to continue working on during this short break and I'm just thankful I don't have classes to keep up with during this time. On top of this I have the Baruch Asian Student Union show to prepare for and practice every day! 

It's my last few weeks as an undergraduate at Baruch and I'm kind of glad that I ended up attending Baruch (not just for the opportunities fund, free laptop and free ride!) but because of some of the people I met through college. Baruch Kappas helped open me up to the world and broke the shell that was holding me back from pursuing a lot of things I felt I was too shy to accomplish; the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance helped establish me as a leader as Co-President and Co-Vice President; and lastly, the opportunities fund I was granted as a Macaulay Honors student allowed me the chance to go to New Orleans for Habitat for Humanity and Ecuador to volunteer teaching English. 

I take my life for granted sometimes but I do know that I am pretty blessed when it comes to my parents and supporters cheering me on every step of the way to make sure I had a good education and the best of the best. They never spared a cent when it came to prep classes for school or specialized exams and were always pushing me to go beyond the expectations I had for myself. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't have made it into Bronx Science, nor would I have made it to Macaulay Honors at Baruch. If I hadn't gone to Baruch, I wouldn't have met my friends Peng and Brian who told me about UBELONG, and I wouldn't have known about this organization that opened my eyes to what I could be doing with my life: helping others and improving communities.