As I said my last good byes to my home for the next six months, I didn't begin to really feel that I was going to be away from home for 1/2 a year until the car ride that morning. I finished my packing around 2:30 in the morning, which was everything other than what I had wanted to do in terms of sleeping before a long journey. My family was getting up at 4 am in order to get me to newark int airport. So least to say, getting to sleep an hour n a half before we wanted to depart for the airport was not ideal. So def start packing 2 days before any travel is my first piece of advice. My packing consisted of 2 pairs of jeans, toiletries, 4 t-shirts, 1 pair of nice shorts, 2x athletic shorts, 2 long sleeve shirts, 7x underwear, 7x socks, merril geortex boots, running shoes, leather sandals, shower sandals, futbol cleats, workout tubes, trekkers shirt, trekkers pant, trekkers, shorts, ll bean all sport fleece, ll bean rain resistance warm jacket, columbia waterproof/breathable jacket, netbook, external harddrive, ipod, osprey ather 70 pack, ketly redwing 2650 backpack. I brought around 13 books as well which made packing pretty tough and heavy, but all together both packs weighed around 25 lbs and were full to the brim.Driving on the way to the airport it was a little strange realizing that I wont be seeing my parents and family for 6 months, but I think for taking the adventurous style of life those are the sacrifices that one will have to make. Not seeing friends or family, both of which really have played such a critical role in making me the person I am today will be a tough challenge to overcome, but I feel confident that I will meet many people on the way to help prevent the feeling of homesickness. I said my last good byes to my parents both of which I could sense had feelings of excitement and worrisome for me. I think my mom showed much more of the worrisome attitude since Im her little boy and she wouldn't see me for the next few months. I think my dad was worried as well, but he likes to hide it a bit more. I could definitely feel that both of my parents were so proud of me and that gave me a lot of strength to step into security and begin my journey.
Security went pretty quick besides the hassle of continually taking my netbook out and putting it away again. I hoped onto the flight that would take me to Miami in order to connect over to a flight that would take me to El salvador and then to Guatemala City. The flight to Miami was pretty regular, standard American flight. The couple sitting next to me and very unengaging and had a list of properties they were looking into buying. My flight from miami to san salvador was much more engaging and really fun. The man sitting next to me was from Honduras and was heading home. We spent a good deal of time chatting about different topics ranging from his home, where he works, what I am doing in Guatemala. It was very interesting since his name Moses, kinda like he was the first shepherd of my journey or something cool along those lines. I still cant believe how nice he was and helpful. He told me of areas to avoid and must sees in central america. He was very impress of the life I wanted to take and that I was going to spend so much time in guatemala. He told me that if I really wanted to learn spanish from a basic level i needed to maintain a curiosity to keep asking questions such as "Como te llame and point". We both had a really good laugh about this and he said when I wanted to learn english that is how I did it. His english was perfect, and it really shows on many levels as to how important keeping curiousness an aspect of your life is the only real way to move past plateaus that we encounter in life. I was so delighted that this was my first experience as crossing the borders from Norte America to Central America. so inspirations and very foreshadowing of my experience thus far. The picture in the upper left hand corner is my view from the plane. The entire flight was simply an amazing experience. Seeing the volcanes off in the distance kinda spoke like a metaphor for the upcoming adventure I am embarking on.
This was the view from my seat looking at a volcano in El Salvador.Oh man so this is just the flight, and Ive been in Guatemala for 8 days now and will update more in the next post.
Hasta pronto!
maloney
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