Living in my apartment has also allowed me to integrate into the Chetumal community. This is the first time that I have ever truly lived completely by myself (throughout college, I had always had at least two roommates). Because I am on my own, I have to pay my own bills, shop for my own food, cook for myself and find somewhere to wash my clothes. All of this was tough at first because I did not know anything about the area. I had to experiment a little bit, but I learned most about where to do all of my errands through my neighbors. They have shown me their favorite spots in the neighborhood including the local fruit market, the place where I take my laundry, the best place for tacos and the place to refill my water.
Even though I have lived here in Chetumal for four months and I have become familiar with my neighborhood, I think that I still need to work on further integrating myself into the community next semester. To do this, I plan to take some dance classes to meet new people from outside of my university. I also hope to explore other areas of the city in my free time. I found that I mainly stayed really close to my apartment and the university this past semester, and I hope to venture out to find some new favorite spots over the next few months.
Although integrating myself into this community was extremely difficult for me at first, after putting myself out there and making friends, I realized that I could calm some of my anxiety, while also finding a community of my own. I feel much more familiar with Chetumal now and I hope to integrate myself more into the larger community outside of my university over my last few months here.
