Before departure

This is my first blog since a long time, but my life will be worthwhile writing about again in the coming year, so I'll definitely do that and tell you about my stay in Guatemala City, my internship/job at ExxonMobil and some trips I'm undoubtedly gonna make. I'll try to improve the readability as compared to my blogs from Istanbul in terms of length (shorter) and language (also in English), I hope that will be appreciated.

I am leaving this Wednesday morning for New York and then I'll leave from there on Friday to arrive in Guatemala City the same afternoon. There I will be welcomed by somebody from AIESEC and I guess we'll go straight to my own apartment (!) and see what we need to do to get me through the first few days. I'll post an update soon, but the exact timing will depend on the availability of internet and other activities.

Some facts about Guatemala:
- 2.5 times larger than the Netherlands
- 13mln inhabitants
- GDP per capita (PPP) of $5,200 (the Dutch one is $40,300)
- 99% of the population is Christian (±40% of which protestant, the rest being catholic)
- 10 universities in the whole country, 69.1% literacy
- 35 volcanoes
- Spanish is the official language, but not everybody speaks it, the others speak one of the 21 Mayan languages
- 6,000 hectares of mango cultivation

About Guatemala city, where I'll live:
- 1500m high
- more than 2mln inhabitants
- view on 4 volcanoes from the city

In conclusion, it's gonna be an extremely interesting year and I'll keep you up-to-date!