This One Time I Moved To Guatemala...

...and took basically every clothing item I owned.

My friend is a career international teacher and she was moving there. Someone in the English department left at the last minute and my friend asked me if I wanted to come. I did. 

One might say I did it for the plot. But that’s a post for another day. 

Here’s why I brought basically every clothing item I owned. I’m only sort of hyperbolizing. 

They do not sell plus sized clothing in stores. They do not sell large sized shoes. So since I arrived here wearing a US 22 pants, XXL dresses, and sometimes XL or US 18 tops, I knew I would not be shopping here. I was told that there was no regular mail service here either. 

Shouldn’t I still have kept it light? Only brought the essentials? 

Well, #1 I really liked my clothes. Yes, that’s past tense. I enjoyed taking photos of the outfits I put together. I enjoyed getting compliments regularly. 

#2 I was prepared to move to Guatemala and stay for 4 or 5 years. I thought we would be living it up and enjoying our new home so much that we might only go back home once a year. I thought we would be traveling to my Panama family and to other Latin American countries. The reasons it didn’t feel like that will be in a post for another day. 

#3 Everything felt essential at the time. If I got invited to a date or to a club, I’d need non-work clothes. If I became a hiker girl, I’d need workout clothes and hiking boots. I wasn’t sure about the weather so I needed some work clothes and shoes in every season.

Now, I’m looking at my walk-in closet and thinking about lugging 9 suitcases into the airport and I realize that I don’t like or want most of these clothes anymore. I wore down most of the shoes. I deserve a new wardrobe, or at least to be less encumbered in the airport. 

Here is a video of the last three years, three leopard phone cases, three homes, two countries, and two schools…

The question for the next post is: am I fashionable for real or just in the context of a mid-30s English teacher?

So join me, if you will, on a farewell blog series about my clothes. 

Please please please comment which outfits you would also like to say farewell to…