T-Minus 14 Hours Till Guatemala

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Top Three Things I’m Looking Forward To For My 6 Weeks In Antigua, Guatemala:

1. My classes! Okay this maybe sounds really nerdy but I’m honestly looking forward to Sociocultural Influences on Learning. The intersection of culture and education is super interesting/important to me so I can’t wait to learn more about it.

2. The food; bring on the black beans and plantains! :)

3. Living in a homestay. This is going to be awesome! What better way to learn about a culture and pick up on a langauge than to stay with a local family? I’m so so glad my living accomodations are going to be at a homestay.

Top Three Things I’m Nervous About For My 6 Weeks In Antigua, Guatemala:

1. Learning Spanish. I mean I can try to be glass half full about this and say there’s no better way to learn than full emersion, but let’s be real, this is going to be a bit of a struggle, at least at the beginning.

2. Not knowing what to expect. I’m the kind of person who needs to know what the plan is and what my routine is going to be so it’s definitely throwing me off that I don’t know that yet! All part of the adventure right? Right??

3. Missing home. This sounds so lame, but I know I’m going to really really miss all my loved ones back at home. Praise to the internet!

Arati Warrier

<i>*Rainbow Scholarship</I> Hi! Iโ€™m Arati Warrier and Iโ€™m a third year English major, minoring in Education at the University of Texas, Austin. My parents got married and moved to the U.S. from India, but Iโ€™ve lived in Austin for most of my life so Iโ€™m really excited to get a chance to live in Guatemala for six weeks this summer! This program is perfect because as a future English teacher and aspiring educational reform revolutionary, its focus on diversity and culture in education is extremely important to me. Iโ€™ll also get a chance to learn Spanish and add that to the impressive list of languages Iโ€™m already fluent in (the list currently consists of English). Iโ€™m so grateful that FEA is helping make my long time dream of studying abroad come true. I canโ€™t wait to dive headfirst into this experience and soak up everything my classes and time in Guatemala has to offer me. I can only hope my own own stories and experiences as a dancer, poet, Harry Potter fiend, queer woman of color, spicy food addict, voracious reader, South Asian American etc. will impact someone I meet as much as Iโ€™m sure their stories and experiences will impact me.