2012

Sorry for the delay between posts, but you know how the holiday season goes....actually I really have no excuse because unlike back at home I didn´t have to do Christmas shopping, I didn´t decorate a tree, I didn´t even really listen to Christmas music.

Christmas was a bit of a bummer for me since I was without my family and friends, but I really appreciated the phone calls, cards and packages that I received from everyone back at home. My waistline doesn´t necessary appreciate it since I devoured many of the goodies within a short time span, and don´t worry I did do some sharing with my host family and the neighborhood kids in my English class; but I did selfishly keep my favorites all to myself, like the peanut butter M&Ms (thank you Nick and Emily).

After Christmas I traveled to the beach to celebrate New Year´s in style, especially since if this really is the end of the world what´s better than a beach celebration?! It was lots of fun and even more fun since I didn´t suffer any sunburns while I was there. After 24 years, I´m finally learning I need to apply sunscreen practically every hour to avoid redness or gaining any color at all since the first thing my host mom said when I returned was that I didn´t have much color. Another downside to the trip, I was terrible in the sense that I didn´t take my camera out once to take a picture, at least we have Facebook where you´ll be able to see some pictures from the weekend (that is if people ever post the pictures).

Everything was going really well I was ready to come back to my site, but as I was getting off the bus I literally tumbled down the stairs and fell onto the pavement in the middle of the crowd of people waiting to load the bus. I suffered a scraped knee and some embarassment, but I´m also wondering is that a sign I shouldn´t have returned? I could have easily stayed on the beach skipped a sunscreen reapplication or two, maybe gained some color and enjoyed some more delicious ceviche; but no I´m back in the mountains where it´s much, much cooler than the beach and I´m wearing jeans and long sleeves. I´m slowly getting back into my routine of manualidades classes and English classes and more reading in the park. Just waiting for one more month until classes start up again and I shouldn´t complain because time is surprisingly going by rather quickly. Instead of 27 months of service, I´m down to 23....

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season. Thank you all for the warm wishes, cards, calls and packages. Miss you and love you all!