Visiting a foreign country, like Guatemala, can be an exhilarating experience that brings countless, unforgettable memories to life. One of the most unforgettable memories from the trip is the time I broke the shower. It was a personal experience that I will never forget.

One Friday night during our trip, we stayed in the beautiful city of Panachel, a bustling town nestled between the vast mountains and an enormous blue lake. When we first arrived, we checked in to a nice hotel. Then we all piled into two large vans to get to the colorful and boisterous market full of potential treasures for us. By the time we got home, it was dark. Together, soaking up the wi-fi, we all sat around, talked, and enjoyed the beautiful night bestowed upon us. At around midnight, however, we were ordered to head back to our rooms to catch some sleep. I saw this as a perfect opportunity to get refreshed seeing how I hadn’t taken a real shower in a week, so I hopped in the shower. I turned the knob to hot and felt the water start streaming out at a comfortable temperature. I shampooed my hair, and felt the need to turn the knob a little more towards the hot side. Once I did this, the knob fell completely off. Even worse, hot, steaming water started ejecting out of the hole where the knob had been! I took a deep breath, and figured I could get the knob back on and easily solve the problem, but the knob would not go in. I needed help. I jumped out of the shower, covered up, and shuffled out to get my friends. They quickly ran to see what had happened and were both amused and amazed. I, on the other hand, was panicking. We went to get the other rooms of students, yet none of them could stop the crazy flow of water either. I knew then that it was a hopeless cause for us kids to fix it. That meant we had to bring in the adults. We chose to ask Mike Johnson to get us some help because we’d rather not face the wrath of Senora Champa. He searched for the owners to ask them what to do. They came and looked, but were also extremely puzzled at what to do. They finally decided to shut the water completely off for our entire room, and everyone was ordered to leave the room. I was so relieved that this freak accident was finally over. Embarrassed and ashamed, I went to bed, hoping that everyone would forget about the whole spiel by morning. To no surprise though, they all remembered and I haven’t heard the end of it to this day.

My trip to Guatemala gave me so many crazy and unforgettable memories, including my shower incident. The amount of inside jokes and “you had to be there” moments are endless. I’ll never forget the time I spent there nor the people I was with.