Sorry Sorry

Well, time has flown by... It´s already april. So much happened in March I can´t believe it. So here I am in site during semana santa just thinking about the whirlwind of the past few weeks. With site visit and swear in... so many exciting things happened it was hard to keep it all straight. It´s been pretty hot and kinda of sad to say goodbye to all of my trainee friends. We are so far apart. As for life here, things are good. My new host family is a sweet retired couple that I´m already in love with. I have my own room and bathroom and they let me eat with them. Dona Mercedes makes some pretty delicious beans... so I´m pretty happy. They are building a small apartment above their house and I´m hoping to move in there when it is finished. I´m really excited. This week is all about Semana Santa and Easter so there is not much work to be done. It is a strange transition from PCT to PCV but Betty and I are still trucking.

This friday we will be making an alfombra in front of my house and just using the holiday time to really get to know our host families and intergrate into our new Guatemalan community. I promise a better update next time but so far so good. Love you all and miss you too.

CHIMAL

So friends... I'm moving to Chimaltenango... Tecpan! I'm super pumped. We went there during field based training... so what I know thus far is that there are 7 hotels and a really great pizza place. It is a town of about 17,000 but the whole county has like 55,000 people. Betty and I are pretty stoked. The reveal was a bit intense. We had to close our eyes and be placed on a "life-size" map to then receive our folders full of all the hot spots in our new town. This week we will be visiting with our counterpart, ie the superintendent of schools in order to start planning our new jobs. We'll also get to do some exploring in Tecpan and find our new places of residence. It's a pretty exciting time.

So, Have you met Betty?

So yesterday was the big day where we learned our partners and it went pretty well. I am going to work with Betty. She is sweet. She is from Florida, went to Vanderbilt, we are good friends here and super pumped about working together. It was a relief to hear the name of someone I like and feel that I can not only tolerate but work well with for two years. Now it is just the stress of waiting for our site assignments on Friday. How exciting. It is weird to be waiting to hear about my new home! I wonder what it will be like... Betty and I have already decided we will be doing a lot of experimental cooking and perhaps some sewing. We also want to visit everyone from our group in all of their exciting places all over Guatemala! The tension has really been building these past few weeks but it is also good that we are so busy. We have lots of training assignments and last minute things to do before we are sworn in.

What an exciting time... As for now all is well. More news after Friday... wish me luck in my new site!

The Countdown Begins

With the beginning of a new month, it's time to start counting down. Sometimes when I think about all the crazy things that are going to happen in March, I get a little too excited... Let's start big and work our way down.
25 DAYS TIL SWEAR IN!!!! That means on March 25, we will all become volunteers and I'm so excited for that moment I can't hardly wait...

12 DAYS TIL SITE ASSIGNMENT!!! On March 12 I will know where I will be living for the next two years! YAY!

9 DAYS TIL PARTNERS! This one is the most scary because I mean spending two years with someone is a long time... So March 9th is d-day! I hope that I will be pleasantly surprised with my future bff!

2 DAYS TIL VOLUNTEER VISIT! So on Wednesday I will be going on a small viaje to Huehuetenago (way-way-tenango) and you guessed it, it's really far away... It is the department right below Mexico but apparently it is super beautiful and the volunteer I'm visiting used a horse to get around... so needless to say I'm pretty excited!

I think the most you can draw from this is that Marzo is going to be a very exciting and very busy month!