One week down...

One week down, only 26 months plus 3 weeks to go...
Well im finally starting to settle into life in santa lucia, which on its own is truly no easy feat. Its difficult to describe how, but life here is WAY diff than in the states. lets see if i can think of an example-- everywhere i go, ppl stare, and its usually not the kind of stare youd want to solicit like youre looking particularly attractive that day, rather its more along the lines of i have something stuck in my teeth or i have a third limb. ive eaten more corn tortillas in a week than i have in my entire life. As a woman im STRONGLY discouraged from a) consuming alcohol in public 2) going to a place in public where alcohol is consumed and c) appearing to be have any amount of fun whilst in public (haha, only kidding... sort of).
on the bright side, my spanish is banging, which i have to admit most def caught me by surprise. today during my four hour spanish class we walked into town to visit --la casa de los abuelitos-- which is basically a safe hour for elderly ppl to go to to eat lunch and charlar, which means to chat. in true peace corps fashion, we arrived to find one elderly hanging out, don pedro, which made the whole interviewing process kind of moot, but nonetheless we learned that elders are basically IMPOSSIBLE to understand when they speak spanish, esp when they talk like their mouth is wired shut.
training for the most part of miiiiiiiiiiserable, and when i say miserable i mean to imply that its way too much time, aka 8 horas, of sitting and listening to ppl talk at you about development and what it means to be in peace corps. kill me. additionally theyve imposed all these really cute rules for trainees, eg--were pretty much not allowed to leave santa lucia without a member of our familia accompanying us, which is purely for safety reasons (tegucigalpa, the capital which is about 30 mins bus ride away, has the highest murder rate in all of honduras, whew!) but by the same token its made passing free time a bit difficult. that being said, a typical day here starts at 645 am when i wake up and scarf down breakfast before booking it to the training site, about a 10 min walk, by 730 am. were in training until 430, i go home for dinner, and by 9 pm im passed out in my sleeping bag-- SUCH a good call, GL. so at the very least im giving my liver a break.
for the most part i would say i still have a fairly favorable outlook on the future as a peace corp volunteer, but each day we get more debriefings about the safety risks and whack medical diseases floating around this country that def make you stop and think about the vastness of a 2 year committment to peace corp. all i can say is hopefully i make it through training sans malaria slash scabies. ewww
if you all are looking to send packages of swedish fish, trail mix, mini packs of crystal light or emergen-c, reeses peanut butter cups (because they dont selll those here... not cool...) or any other goodies you can feel free to, in fact i more than welcome it, but please be adivsed that the peace corps staff have told us that its best to send things in smaller padded envelopes instead of large boxes AND to send it to the Apartado Postal address. apparently theres a much better chance of me actually receiving the package if you send it there. so if you need the address again just send me an email or call mama tish and it can be relayed to you.
hope all is well with eveyrone, cuidense, and keep the comments coming, theyre always a source of amusement. paz y amor.