Spanish overload!

The time has come for another Blog post. This last week has flown by incredibly fast, I actually didn´t believe my host mom last night when she told me that today was going to be thursday....turned out she was right! This week we got situated in our language classes, I´m pretty happy with my placement, although it requires alot of independent researching and homework. Our class has to present on a topic to the other classes; just the thought of this is stressing me out. If only I could give a discussion about Diabetes in spanish, that I remember how to do. Sometimes I feel like I know what I´m doing, and lots of times I want to hide under the table...but all the time I am learning!

Life in general is pretty busy and sticks to a schedule... 6:20am wake up, shower (speedily!), get dressed, eat breakfast (usually some corn flakes and fresh melon, with a nice cup of strong coffee). I leave home around 7:15 to walk up some hills to get to our training center. The hills are steep, but I can´t complain as some of the trainees have a good 30 minute up-hill walk. The mornings are filled with either language classes or technical training. Today was language, lots of talking...stopping...being corrected and starting over again. My host mom brings me my lunch in a thermos at 11:30 every day, it usual includes some rice, tortillas, chicken and some fruit. We all eat together, and have even taken to playing some volleyball during our break (hooray!). Afternoons are more training, sometimes about terrifying diseases we might get, or how likely it is that we will be robbed...today we talked about what the next few weeks will involve as Health volunteers. We get out of training everyday around 4:30 and I wander home, sometimes stopping to get a cup of coffee at El Pueblo Cafe that overlooks the mountains in the distance...or sometimes I go home and collapse on my bed for awhile. Homework time ensues...and bedtime comes around 9:30... sometimes I stretch it to 10 if I´m feeling ambitious.

As you might notice, I have a well established schedule revolving around sleeping, eating and training. The people in our families, at the training center and in Santa Lucia in general have all been wonderful and I know they have put alot of time into making sure our life here flows as well as possible. It´s pretty amazing what kind of effort has gone into helping us feel at home and welcome.

I hope this post has given you all at home a glimpse of my life right now, it´s busy, and I love it.
I am also a little sunburned, which makes me incredibly happy when I think about the cold in chicago and the snow in michigan.

thanks to everyone for the emails...keep them coming!!