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.

¿Qué haces en tu tiempo libre?

My UBELONG mentor, Cedric, reminded me prior to my service project that although I will be coming to Mérida to volunteer, I am on an immersion project which puts me in a location with lots of culture to experience and many places to explore. With hard work, we should all get rewarded with some free time and play, right?!

My first week of volunteering at the food bank was fun and very different from my experience teaching English in Ecuador. As usual, I had to touch up on my Spanish since I hadn’t actively practiced the language since my project in 2012. The people at Banco de Alimentos en Mérida, A.C., are super welcoming and supportive and, beyond the jokes about how I can’t understand some of their conversations, they are so eager to teach me everything there is to know about their culture, their language, and most importantly, about the work they do at the food bank. I’ve touched upon a little of everything so far, from working hands on with the people in the warehouse sorting fruit and packing bread, to translating documents into English! On a later post, I will talk more in detail about the departments at the food bank after I’ve learned more on the project J

In the past weekend, I spent over $80 USD on excursions in the Mérida area T_T Unfortunately, I did not budget going to these awesome sites when I packed for this trip! (Once this service project is complete, I will create another post of all the things I should’ve done in hindsight and tips for people who wish to travel or go abroad for some period of time J). From Friday to Sunday, I went to Dzibilchaltún, Uxmal and El Museo de Chocolate, and the cenotes in Cuzamá. I’m glad I went to each of these attractions in this order because each one was better than the next!

Climbing one of the Dzibilchaltún ruins

Overlooking the Uxmal ruins from the top of another ruin

At the Chelentún cenote!

For anyone who is eager to travel but is afraid they will be lost and not know what to do, trust me, I’ve felt all of your sentiments and more while on my volunteer trips. This is an amazing opportunity to meet new people (at the hostel, in the community, at local shops and workplaces, etc.) and experience cultures different from your own. Every time I visit another country, I am humbled because of the disparities I see and how people make the most of what they have. It amazes me how happy these people are in comparison to the people I see in NY (including myself, haha). The people at the food bank love what they do, although they probably don’t make a fraction of what we make at an hourly rate. Their mentality is so positive and laidback, and we can all learn a thing or two from visiting other countries and living the way they do.

Although I have less than 1,000 pesos (the equivalent of about $66 USD) for the next two weeks, I have no regrets for spending 1/3 of the cash I brought with me on the excursions. There is so much to see and do here, and I had the chance to see not one, but TWO Mayan ruins and swim in the beautiful cenotes that Mérida is known for. If I had the funds, I’d probably visit Chichen Itza, one of the 7 Wonders of the World, but the two that I visited shall do (for now!). It’s opportunities like visiting ancient archaeological sites and swimming in natural sinkholes that make exploring other countries all the more exciting ^_^.

Here’s some helpful advice: Don’t be like me and remember to pack at least $100 extra in case of emergencies and bring a debit card and credit card that won’t incur overseas charges when used!

¡Bienvenidos a Mérida!

Mérida turned out to be a LOT hotter than I originally thought. The humidity hit me hard and it felt like I was breathing in the precipitation in the air. I have to admit it's a lot better than being in the 20-30 degree weather that NYC is experiencing right now! :3 When I arrived at the hostel with a few other UBELONGers, it was definitely a culture shock. When I was in Ecuador volunteering, I stayed with a host family and the experience was entirely different. This hostel was pretty much like an outdoor hotel with mesh doors and huge fans and palm trees decorating the walls. The rooms where the other UBELONG teams stayed looked like an uber-dorm with bunk beds left and right. I got lucky since I was able to get a room by myself! Unfortunately, I'm not accustomed to not having AC in the nearly 80something degree weather and it was a challenge getting through the first night.

A picture of my (messy) room at Nomadas Hostel

On Monday, I spent most of the day exchanging currency, getting any other toiletries I needed, and exploring the streets! There's a Mexican Walmart here (I don't know why I was so excited about that haha). The UBELONGers and I followed Leo and Martina (our wonderfully amazing UBELONG Team Leaders!) to eat some rosca de reyes, a sweet pastry that's normally available during the holiday season.

The past two days were spent working at El Banco de Alimentos de Mérida, A.C. (pictures below). When you enter the office area, it appears as if it's really small, but once you head to the back.. there's a full-blown warehouse! They had everything from fruits and vegetables, breads, beverages, and probably much more that I haven't seen. I had the chance to ration bags of what looked like pork rinds, sort the good grapes from the bad, and start translating documents from Spanish to English. Let me tell you... no matter how good of a translation dictionary you have or how much access you have to Google Translate, translating is hard! There's no simple way to translate if you're not a native speaker since there are many frases (phrases! Learned a new word today haha) that only natives would be able to understand and use in conversation.

The BAMX Headquarters

The Produce section of the warehouse

The BAMX warehouse

Posing while sorting grapes :D

I'm looking forward to the weekend because there's a chance I'll get to do two of the three following activities: visit a chocolate factory, see the ruins, or dive into three cenotes (natural sinkholes)! Crossing my fingers that it won't rain this weekend since the humidity is pretty bad at the moment :X. The WiFi at the hostel is not so great so I can't update the blog as often as I'd like, but I'll try to keep y'all posted at least once or twice a week :)

"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 :)

My Next Adventure: Merida, Mexico

After Winter 2012, two of my friends informed me about their UBELONG volunteer experience in Cusco, Peru, and encouraged me to check it out. I had always been interested in exploring Latin America for other reasons besides merely tourism and vacation, so I went on the website to see what this organization was all about. Little did I know that I would soon be applying and getting accepted to the UBELONG Teaching English project in Quito, Ecuador. I'll save that story for another time, but it was definitely a life-changing experience. I knew that volunteering abroad once was definitely not enough.

I decided to take another step outside of my comfort zone (aka my comfortable home in NYC which I know and love so much) and apply for another project with UBELONG, this time in Merida, Mexico since I remember enjoying my experience in Cancun when I visited in 2007. Above is a screenshot of my acceptance email to the project! I am so excited to be catapulting ahead and pursuing my dreams of helping communities abroad. This January 2015, I will be helping out at a food bank in Merida and I'm soooo looking forward to escaping the harsh winter temperatures and enjoying the warm sun when I go volunteer.

I have to say volunteering abroad is definitely a big step, and you should always do your research before you commit to a project. I trust UBELONG and have had wonderful, reliable interactions with the UBELONG staff and points of contact and would volunteer with them all the time if I had unlimited funds, but while I'm still an undergraduate student, I'll keep to pursuing a project every few years :) 

I have so many pictures to share with you all from my volunteer project in Ecuador which I'll post when I have more time after I'm finished with all my senior year exams/papers/projects :X Until next time...