oh how i missed toilets...

So I'm back in Apastapeque. As much as I didn't want to leave my site, I must say it is nice. It's weird to be back in civilization. I appreciate having my own room with a door, a bathroom that is only 10 feet away from my house (not to mention with an actual toilet), more food then just beans and rice, and someone to speak english with. I missed my Apastapeque group.

It was nice being reunited with my old family (where I lived during my training), we spent the afternoon in the cemetery celebrating dia de el muerto. It was very interesting for me. The graves here are HUGE and some of them are like small houses. It was beautiful to see all the flowers covering every grave and the abudance of people there. Tonight I met up with casi everyone from the group, and we didn't waste anytime drinking "jugo" with the Milanos. They loved that we can all actually understand and somewhat speak spanish now! It was nice to engage in conversation with the families we lived with before, but couldn't have much of a conversation with then. I'll be enjoying all these luxuries for the next 3 weeks. I am alittle nervous about not being able to speak spanish when I return to my site, since I'll be in gringo land for 3 weeks.
So now that I have internet, por fin! I can update everyone on whats been happening in the last month here...

Let's see...
Last week I had my asamblea general where I had to present to my community (What is peace corps? Who is Jamie? My ideas for the future) I was nervous no one was going to show up since there was chuch and another meeting, but around 100 people came. I think it went pretty well. All of my spanish teachers came, and they told me how surprised they were because my pronunciation and grammar was so good.

I had a moment of euphoria last week. Without much planning, I taught about 25 kids (of different ages) an English class. Hearing them all scream the English alphabet as I pointed to each letter. I thought, this is freakin cool. Amy came to visit my class last week, in which about 30 kids showed up. We taught the kids parts of the body, and they had fun playing simon says and learning the song head, shoulders, knees, and toes.

It's funny how you just grow accustom to weird/awkard stuff here. As I'm struggling to find stuff for my blog, I'm realizing my moments are starting to feel "normal" now. ... Let's see..
Well I was given a chicken during one of my house visits, in which I carried around with me to a few other houses I needed to visit (that really gave the town something to talk about) Owell, at least my host parents are happy that they have something to eat for Thanksgiving. Oh, and my sisters digging through my garbage, and finding items in there that kept them entertained for a week. Not to mention, giving my family something to wipe their butts with (by throwing out all my old spanish homework). Some guy here insisted on painting my nails during a house visit, then later proceeded to pretty much ask for my hand in marriage so he could go to the united states.

So as month #5 approaches, I STILL can't believe I am actually here. I feel like I'm in a dream just waiting to wake up any moment now. I mean lets be honest here, some days are TOUGH and I do feel lonely, but I still find myself every single day, thinking to myself; "man, this is so freakin cool"