All posts by Stephanee Bridges

Day 0 – The First Of The Group Arrives in Belize by Stephanee Bridges

Belize, Study Abroad

Coming to Belize feels like coming home. The sights, the smells and the people that are welcoming us with open arms. We arrived to the Belize City Airport after (almost) missing our flight in Miami and we were greeted with the humid air of the jungle.

After a short line in customs, we found our driver and stopped for a true Belizean lunch; rice, beans, and stewed chicken. Yum!

After a bumpy ride back to the lodge, we all breathed a sigh of relief and were immediately relaxed. The calming sounds of the birds chirping, the palm trees swaying gently in the breeze and the wind echoing the sounds of people past.

We were assigned rooms and found out the rooms we received were recently remolded and now have a FABULOUS screened in porch. I don’t think we’ve left it unless to eat and swim. It’s become our new hangout.

After getting settled in, we realized how hot it was so we all trekked down to the river and jumped right in. So much fun!

We’re headed to bed now after being awake for almost 24 hours. Good night world from Belize!

Belize – The Jungle Paradise by Stephanee Bridges

Belize, Study Abroad

The group left on Sunday morning, bright and VERY early, to head for Belize. We landed in Belize City at 11am to a very humid day greeted by Crystal Paradise Resort’s Eric. We stopped for lunch at an amazing road side diner that served rice and potato salad with your choice of beef, chicken, fish, or gibnut (a small mammal or large rodent). I chose the gibnut and was surprised to find it very tender and actually quite delicious.

After filling up on lunch we went the Belize Zoo and had a wonderful time! We were able to see things like the ocelot, tapirs, and a jaguar named Junior. Although it was blisteringly hot and more humid than Florida, we saw everything there was to see. In fact, a group of 5 students went into the jaguar cage and were able to feed Junior! I was one of the students and I have to say that it was one of the more amazing experiences of my life. He was friendly, happy to be fed, and even did a few somersaults for us. Very cool.

We made our way on the bumpy Belizian roads to our resort, Crystal Paradise. When we arrived and situated the rooms we all explored the grounds and went to the river for a quick refreshing swim. Speaking from experience, it was pretty awesome. We had a huge dinner and then all scurried off to bed, exhausted from a VERY long day.

The official start of the program was today though and we awoke to a breakfast of eggs, fresh biscuits, and beans and then we had a huge treat. There is a medicinal trail along the grounds of our resort and the bushmaster/ medicine man named Polo took us through and showed us all of the properties of each tree and plant. It was so interesting to hear about traditional medicine and how the Mayans used plants and herbs to cure most ailments.

Afterwards we headed into San Ignacio to take a look around the city. We had a local cuisine inspired lunch where I tried dragon-fruit juice which was fabulous! Then we split into groups to take a look around the city on our own. There are shops of Mayan souvenirs, local fresh markets and the people were just wonderful.

Tonight, we had a pretty relaxing evening and some of the girls even tried an egg white facial. Although we looked pretty funny, my skin has never been softer! 🙂

Tomorrow we are headed to Xunantunich and we are going cave tubing. Should be a VERY awesome experience.

Ireland: Day 6 by Stephanee Bridges

Ireland, Study Abroad

Today in Ireland was an absolutely beautiful day and we strolled through city centre and was able to capture (kind of) a picture of us in front of a fountain.

During our class lecture Professor Lightfoot talked about how America went “rogue” when it comes to International Relations and Professor Kesler talked about how prejudice, discrimination and racism affect culture. We also did an in class activity where we split into groups depending on our religion.

We had a group of Catholics, a group of Baptists, a group of Jewish and a group of Non-Denominational. We were then asked three things; What assumptions do people make about your religion, what do you know to be true about your religion, and what questions do you have about other religions?

We ended up having a half hour conversation about religion that was absolutely fascinating. It was wonderful to see such different beliefs coming together to discuss how similar we are as people and that instead of judging each based upon our differences, how easy it was to come together based on our similarities.

After class, a group headed back to the Clarence house to gather some belongings before heading out to go shopping!!

We walked along the city walls to get to Primark, think of a Forever 21 in America but even better. It’s a 3 floor shopping heaven. Since there’s only girls in our group, we could have easily spent 4 hours in there 🙂

After Primark, we went to a cute little novelty shop that has all things Irish and 4 of us bought Claddagh rings. Read about the history of the Claddagh here.

We then meandered back to our little bed and breakfast and changed for our night in with Professor Kesler and her husband who sang in the Argyle. It was amazing in every possible way. They have a chemistry unmatched to anything I’ve seen and it shows in the way they perform music. They played an assortment of songs from Johnny Cash to Radiohead and totally rocked it. We also heard from Dr. Anne Tracy who sang with her husband as well.

Now, we’re in for the night and tomorrow we’re headed to Glenvaugh National Park where I’m sure we’ll have a fantabulous time!