Ianthe Belisle Dempsey

Come on now. I’m a vegetarian and I loved the Spam Museum. Here’s a picture of my friend Lilly (who came with us on vacation) posing in the Spam gift store. The gift shop is amazing, haha. Anything and everything ever produced with the Spam logo stamped on it.

There’s even an exhibit with a TV that plays the Spam (Spam spam eggs and spam!) sketch from Monty Python. And the air outside smells like bologna. What’s not to like? XD

My maternal grandparents, aunts, uncles, and my mum came to America from Belize in the early 70s. I’d heard so many stories about it and I finally got the chance to visit the country I have my roots in a couple Christmases ago. And it was certainly culture shock first hand.

It was the first time I’d ever left the U.S. How would I have known we would go from 30 degrees in Chicago to 100 degrees in Belize? We visited Caye Caulker and swam in the Blue Hole. We stayed with my grandma (her basement had squatters living in there and she’s too nice to kick them out…) and got to experience the country first hand. We climbed Mayan ruins, which was absolutely BREATHTAKING. If you get the chance to visit, I recommend it.

You’re definitely paying for the atmosphere as opposed to the actual food. Worth it though. When we went to Disneyland last summer, my cousin, little sisters and I gave each other Southern-sounding names and talked like the people in the To Kill a Mockingbird movie while we sipped our mint juleps. Fun times :)

I love O’Hare just…because I know it so well. I’ve flown a lot since I was really young and we ALWAYS arrive/depart through O’Hare. It’s just…another thing that makes Chicago so awesome. I dunno.

I’ve been here so many times over the years, whether it was school field trips or Girl Scout field trips or just wanting to learn. It never gets old!