HELLO: Belize Study Abroad - Day 6

Today we had two bead session at San Pedro High. We had one workshop at 11 AM and another at 6 PM.

We went to the high school around 10:30 AM to set-up. This time, we were located in a bigger, better room, with longer tables, and lots of chairs. The class was structures in a "U" shape.

We had a full class of high school girls. There was about 15 girls that was there.

HELLO: Belize Study Abroad - Day 5

Busy day today! Today's itinerary:

1. Go to the Radio Show at 7 AM

2. Breakfast

3. Get supplies ready and teach a workshop class at San Pedro High at 10 AM

4. Pack more supplies and teach the next workshop at Holy Cross at 12 PM

5. Regular class at 7 PM

We woke up really early to get there in time at the Radio Show. We were there at 7 AM sharp. The radio show was a small area with one small office and a small space for the show with some TV's, computers, and cameras,

There was two men who were the radio hosts and one man

HELLO: Belize Study Abroad - Day 4

Today was perhaps the most relaxing and laziest day out of the entire trip, well, for us business students anyways. I did enjoyed it but if you know me, I like staying busy! Productive days are my favorite days.

First thing first. get breakfast, We had breakfast at a place called Lily's. It's alongside the beach. It feels so nice to wake up and walk down the beach. It was such a gorgeous day, hot, very hot like every other day, but beautiful! It's a

HELLO: Belize Study Abroad - Day 3

So today was another long day!

And this was the beautiful morning that I woke up to. Wow. I can wake up to this everyday.

My roomies and I had a delicious breakfast next door where we were

HELLO: The Home Depot Summer Retail Training Program - About the Program

Hi everyone!

It's been a really tough semester. Ahhh, just trying to survive this semester. I feel like my brain is fried and it probably is, but I hope not because I'll need it a little bit longer. Fingers crossed! Just a couple of weeks to go and then graduation!

Well, this past summer I had the wonderful opportunity to be a part of a new program that The Home Depot just implemented. It was a nine weeks program and the whole idea was to learn about The Home Depot's culture and values.

How did you hear about the program?
In March, I had the opportunity to travel to the Enactus National Competition with my UNG Enactus team in Cincinnati. Every year at National, Enactus host huge career fairs for all the students. That's how I met with The Home Depot recruiters. I talked to them about opportunities for students, like a summer internship. Since THD corporate office is located in Atlanta, I was basically in their "backyard." After the Career Fair, selected students were invited to The Home Depot's Orange Experience After-Party, Wow, THD knows how to throw a party and they know how to party!

I have been in touch with a couple of THD HR recruiters after the competition. I wasn't contacted with the opportunity again until April, I believe. It was a new program that THD just launched, the Summer Retail Training Program. I was very excited to apply for the program. Retail wasn't number one for me on my list, but I believe that if you want to start anywhere, you've got to start small. Being in the stores and learning about the front line will help me understand THD better and the customers.

How was the interview process?
So first I had to send my resume to the THD recruiters. After that, I was emailed about the program from a recruiter. I emailed my interest back and from then, I scheduled a phone interview. After the interview, it took a couple weeks to hear back but I received an email one day saying that I have to schedule an in-person interview with the Store Manager of the store that I would be assigned to and the District Human Resource Manager (DHRM). I was contacted about two hours later by the DHRM, Janet, that I been offered the position!

When did you start?
I started in the beginning of June. My home store that I was assigned to was located in Monroe, GA. It's in a tiny community but the people there are so kind and generous. I was welcomed and a part of The Home Depot family so fast. My SM, David, and my ASDS, Lisa, were so helpful and made sure that I had plenty of help around the store from the other associates.

What was your role?
I was like an "intern," so I did a lot of shadowing around the different departments. I practically covered every department, like Paint, Lumber, Flooring, the Front End, and etc. Everyday I was always with a different department head, learning the ins and outs of the departments. It was a lot of to remember! During my time, I learned how to cut lumber (not that I did it myself), mix paint, cut keys, and I got around the store pretty quickly. But let me tell you, nine weeks went by so fast!

Thank you for reading, everyone! My next blog post will have more details on what I did and all the wonderful memories that I made during the program. Have a great day!

HELLO: Belize Study Abroad - Day 2

Day 2 in Belize was one of the most epic day ever!

We drove an hour to our destination from where we were staying. But, we also had a tour of places we saw and passed by.

For instance, we passed by a river that goes directly to the ocean.

Here is a tree known as snake tree because the vines are wrapped around the tree and they look like snakes.

Here we are at Altun Ha. Where the Mayan Temples are standing today. This is the first part of our adventure. 

The whole crew. Majority of the students were education majors and then there was my Enactus team and I, which consists of 4 members, who were business majors.

Here is what used to be a part of a temple. The only thing that's left are the staircases.

Our tour guide talking about the building structures and the clay that the Mayan people used.

Here is a tree that the Mayan people believed that the leaves from this tree can cure bruises, cuts, and other pains like arthritis.

Standing right in the plaza, well, what used to be anyways. It was huge, amazing, astonishing! Something you have to see with your own two eyes. The temples were beautiful.

 Here we are still on the ground. They might not look huge in the picture, but I assure you, they are big!

Here I am on the first temple that we climbed. You can see another temple behind me.

From our view on the first temple we were on, you can get a clear view of the Sun God Temple.

Behind the first temple that we started our adventure was this structure. Can you see it? It's the face of the Rain God.

This used to be the lake where the Mayan people used to bathe and washed their clothes. But today, the river no longer exist and it's been dried up for a long time.

Here I am on top of the second temple that we climbed up. There were so many stairs. They sure had quite the exercise back then.

Here I am standing in front of the Sun God Temple. This was the biggest temple of them all, of course. It was definitely scary looking from the top!

Here is the structure that the Mayan people made to represent the Sun God.

Here we are on top of the Sun God Temple. It doesn't look high from my angle but it was definitely scary being on the very edge.

Here I am sitting on top of the place where back in the days they did their human sacrifices to the gods.

Now this is the stairs that we went down from. Just imagine the stairs with no rails, just the stairs themselves. Now that's scary. Other students in my group used their butts to go down the stairs. They were afraid to walk down.

Anyways, after our great adventure into the Maya history, we had the traditional Belizean lunch (my favorite meal in Belize): stewed chicken, rice and beans, and coleslaw. We also did tourist shopping in their little shopping plaza that was at the site. Anyways, if you want to learn more about the Mayan people and their culture in Belize, click here.

He headed out back on the tour bus after seeing the temples. We went for another hour drive somewhere deeper into the jungle. Our next destination and adventure was cave tubing! I've been tubing before but never cave tubing! I couldn' wait!

Here we are. At our destination. When we reached the tubing location we went to gather our tubes and headlights. After another 25 minute hike down to the cave location, we were ready to go tubing! The caves were amazing!

It was an hour and a half long and about 6 to 7 people were assigned to one instructor.

Sorry if the pictures look a little blurry or have blur spots on them. It started to rain on us. Thankfully half of our time was spent in the caves.

Here we go! Going into the caves!

As you can see in this picture, it's pitch black without my camera flash. Also, you can see that our tubing instructor is pulling our entire group with a string tied onto his feet! That's something I've never seen. Also, there were seven of us in the group with our tubes all tied together and all the instructors has to pull and push us throughout our cave tubing. Our instructor said that it's great exercise though.

Here is the inside of the caves. It's covered with limestone formations. As we venture the cave, there were all kinds of shapes and structures that the limestone created.

There's the other group and the other instructor next to us. I believe we have about 5 or 6 huge groups that went tubing.

In the caves, we saw bats and their little houses. It was so cool! I've never seen one in person before.

Yes, they had a small waterfall in the cave! Too bad we couldn't touch it even though we were so close to it.

We're reaching the end of the cave. Finally, the light!

Here's the cave that we just exited. Right when we went outside it started raining on us. Which, even though it's surprising in Belize, we were kind of cold. Cold and tubing in the rain, not so fun.

Here we are outside of the river. This river was used by the Mayan people. They used this river to travel the lands and their trades. When it got dark, they would camp inside of the caves sometimes.

Tubing in the rain, but first, let me take a selfie, and jeez, these life jackets stinks like majority of them always do.

More limestone formations.

Here's another location where some bats are located. See those tiny holes within the rock? Well, that's where they live.

Here we are at the end of our cave tubing experience. It was such a wonderful experience and if you have never done it before, I recommend that you should try it! It's definitely different from your regular tubing experience. Well, I want to thank our awesome tour guides that drove us to see the different sights, showed us the Mayan temples, and to our tubing instructor who was very knowledgeable as well. What a exciting adventure Day 2 was. I really got to learn more about the Belizean cutlure and they have such a fascinating culture as well as their traditions.

HELLO: Belize Study Abroad - Day 1

From May 3rd to May 10th, I left the U.S. for the first time and travel outside to a third world country. I went to Belize and it was an exciting adventure, indeed!

It was all so quick. The decision to go abroad, the payments, the application for a passport, the study abroad applications and forms, packing for the trip, and oh my goodness, just everything. The trip itself went by too quickly. Feels like it was all just a dream.

So on Saturday, May 3rd, I had to leave my house at 5:30 AM to make it on campus at 6 AM, carpooled with my fellow Enactus members, and arrived at the airport at 7 AM.

Took this from my window seat. We're nearing the airport!

It's so beautiful, isn't it? The water is so blue, so clear. The ocean is a sight to see from above.

Here we are at the airport. Really different from Atlanta's, that's for sure. Also, right when I took a single step off the plane, oh my gosh it hits you. SO HOT. H-O-T. Hot. So very hot and humid. It felt like 100 degrees with 90% humidity. Felt like I was thrown into a heated oven and roasted. It was hot everyday while we stayed in Belize. But what could you expect from a country that's right near the equator?

Oh, if you have never been out of the country before, let me warned you. No pictures are allowed in majority of international airports, well, Belize for sure. You're not allowed until you go through Immigration and Customs. We got yelled at by one of the staffs.

Anyways, our first stay was in Belize City. The scenery was really, really different from home. We went on a tour bus and had a quick tour of the city before arriving to our hotel. We stayed at the Chateau Caribbean. The pier was right in front! It was basically our front yard. Beautiful sight.

As we started our walk through town, we passed by the dock.

I think it's an amazing way to travel, travelling by boat. I'm rarely on boats, ships or anything so I think it's so neat.

For our homework that night, we had to go a local supermarket and plan a meal that can feed up to four people with $10 Belize, which is $5 U.S. and price out a salad. Oh, Belize uses U.S. dollars and coins so there's no need to exchange currency. Also, whatever their price is, you divide that by two. For example, $4 Belize is $2 U.S. and $20 Belize is $10 U.S.

Their supermarket is kind of compared to our Walmart to the people there. Well...it was really different. At the front, there's a a security that watches people's bags and purses. You leave your stuff there when you first enter and they watch it for you but is not responsible if your item gets lost or stolen. I also found out from my colleagues that most people, in Belize, minimum wage is $2 an hour, I'm guessing Belize dollars, of course. The security there gets paid $2 Belize an hour and he has a family back home. It's very difficult to make a living...And I had the opportunity to really see that with my own eyes during in my week's stay.

Anyways, it was really difficult to make dinner for our homework. We selected sandwiches and all the ingredients we selected were the cheapest brands and small in packaging. Man, cheese is expensive in Belize! Also, for our salad homework, we tried to get a variety of veggies and colors, but it was difficult. There's not much. For meat, there was a small selection of meat, they were small in sizes and majority of the meat items looked old. You know what I came to realized after doing this homework? How thankful we are in the U.S. We have vegetables all year long, our meat in fresh quality, and an endless supply and variety of food. I'll never look at a supermarket the same way again. I am so grateful, so very grateful and blessed.

After souvenir shopping and homework, we went to have dinner. Geez, we were so very hungry. We ate at the hotel and I had the Sweet and Sour Chicken with fresh pineapples and other veggies and steamed rice. It was so good!

Later that night, we gathered at 7 PM for our class discussion. Oh, Belize is behind 2 hours from Georgia's (Eastern) time. Anyways, it was a long day. Class lasted for about 2 hours. Had cheesecake as my dessert afterwards then headed to bed because tomorrow will be our adventurous day!

HELLO: Enactus 2014 National Competition - Day 4

Hello everyone! 

Here's my last entry for the Enactus 2014 National Competition. My roommates and I woked up early to attend the Enactus Top-to-Future Forum. We were assigned to tables and sat among our peers and with business executives. I had a great table and had the privilege to sit with John Kahl, CEO of ShurTechBrands, Scott McCall, Senior Vice President of Toys and Seasonal for Walmart, an auditor for KPMG, and other amazing and inspiring executives.

I had a great time and really enjoyed listening to all the executives and their story of success and career goals. I learned a lot and I hope to one day become just as successful as these business leaders are.

As a waited for the announcement of the Top 4 teams, there was several speeches and awards still be presented. What was the most shocking to us was that our team won the Jack Shewmaker Spirit Video Award. I mean, when they called our team's name, we sat there, in shocked, surprised and astonished that we won! Our spirit video was displayed for everyone to watch. Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thjJXaqNsMg

We never had a thought that our spirit video would win. I am very proud on everyone who worked hard on this video, especially in the two weeks of making! Congrats to Sally Tang and Efren Chavez on editing, creating the lyrics, and filming, and to Will Anthony, our singer!

We watched the Top 4 teams after that. I have to tell you, lots of surprises! The top four Enactus teams were Heritage University, Belmont University, Roberts Wesleyan College, and Texas State University - San Marcos. As we watched all four teams, they were all amazing in performance, presentations, and projects. Now, we couldn't stay to watch the results because we were on the run to attend our next event, The Home Depot Orange Experience, but I found out from my colleagues afterwards. And the results are:

Fourth Place - Belmont University
Third Place - Heritage University
Second Place - Roberts Wesleyan College
First Place - Texas State University - San Marcos (the same team that was in League 16 with us)

So, it's not so bad, I guess, to lose to the National Champs, right?

Anyways, here we are in THD bus going to the event!

These orange tickets were beautiful. Seriously. I wished I could have kept it for my scrapbook. They looked like the tickets from Willy Wonka.

The party was a blast! Had so much fun. I love hanging out with THD recruiters and HR representatives. They are such fun people and that's a company that I would love to work for.

They also gave us a free beat pill at the end to everyone who attended! Look!

Overall, I had an amazing time at the Enactus National Competition. I love going to it every year and can't wait to go again next year. Next time, we'll come back with a BOOM and bring home the trophy!