"The sky is the daily bread of the eyes." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"I thank you God for most this amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes." e.e. cummings


This is the view I have from my window. Beautiful, isn't it? At night I can see all of the lights glittering on the hills, and in the evening, right when I get home, the sky is filled with the last rays of sunlight as the sun disappears behind the hill that faces my window. I am very lucky.

Last weekend was rather fun. After we cleaned the house, I went and hung out with Lili, the girl that I met at Zamorano, who is here teaching someone's children Chinese. It took us about twenty minutes to find each other, because since I don't have a cell phone yet, we expected to just meet at a certain place. Well, our family got to that certain place (late, of course), and while we were driving up, we saw her standing outside waiting. And then, somehow, in the time that it took us to drive up there and drop me off, she disappeared. So I stood and waited for her (this was at the entrance to the mall, which is right across the street from the hotel) and then I wandered over to the hotel to look and then wandered back and then finally saw her coming out of the mall. Apparently she went to go walk around while waiting and we couldn't get in contact with each other. But after that, it was great. We went swimming at the Inter-Continental (we just walked in; no one seemed to notice. Or care) which was very pleasant, though slightly awkward because there was some sort of reception going on with lots of people dressed up nicely and lots of food that we wanted to eat. Then we went to the mall and walked around and talked. We thought about going and seeing a movie, but for some reason the lines at the ticket window were horrendously long (well, it's probably because there's nothing else to do on a Saturday around here) and so we decided against that. We walked around outside, over by PriceSmart and Payless and found a little bakery where we got a delicious dessert (we didn't know what it was called; we just pointed and said "uno"). It had layers of yummy, flaky pastry dough with caramel in between, and then white chocolate drizzled with milk chocolate on top. It was delectable. We ate outside on the little balcony (which was covered, luckily) and talked and watched the rain pour down. It was raining really really heavily, when all of a sudden we saw a bright flash, and then heard a loud boom as we watched a transformer, just down the street from us, explode. We had no idea what really happened; we thought it might have been struck by lightning, but I've never seen lightning in this country before, so I don't know. The lights went out in the stores (surprise, surprise) and we just kind of sat there in shock for a moment. It was kind of cool though, because it immediately bonded us with the people who were sitting at the table next to us. Even though we didn't speak each other's language, everyone recognizes the language of fear and surprise, and we all laughed together about the crazy experience we shared.

We split up soon after that. We walked around the mall again (oh, side note: The power goes off frequently here, and most large stores and houses have huge, car-sized generators to keep the electricity going. That's what it was like in the mall. Most of the stores didn't have lights, but the main lights were on because the generator was going. We could barely hear each other) and counted the number of Dunkin' Donuts inside. I was wrong. It was only five. We took Lili home after that. She lives really close to me, and so we hope that we can do a lot more before she leaves in a couple of months.

Speaking of which, we are doing something together this weekend. We are going to Copan. The family that Lili works for has time off this weekend, and so she was going to take a trip to see the Copan Ruins, and invited me to go with her. Those sort of trips are much more fun with another person, anyway. So I easily got Thursday and Friday off of work, and we're leaving tomorrow at like, 6:00 in the morning to take a bus to San Pedro Sula, and then get on another bus for another couple of hours to get to Copan. It's about a seven hour trip, but I'll sleep most of the way and then be awake for us to do fun things tomorrow afternoon. I'm very excited. It's very safe (since it's mostly back-packing and hiking tourists) and we can go walking around without worrying. It's going to be very nice. I'm taking to camera, so I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and post them soon after I get back! We can go horseback riding, and touch ruins, and look at birds and stuff. My weekend is going to ROCK!

I know that some of you already know this, but I'm currently in the process of enrolling at the Animal Behaviour College, where I will soon be certified as an official dog obedience trainer. I was just filling out the loan application and getting all my enrollment information in order so that I can start my classes here online! I'm very excited, and it's going to be a really great job once I get back to the States. I'm hoping that I'll be able to create a stable work schedule so that I can earn money for college, and then still work part-time once I'm in classes again. I am very happy, and I can't remember the last time I was this excited to be in school and learning about something. I hope to go back and live in Alameda once I'm ready to complete my volunteering and externship, and that I can have my own place and live comfortably and happily (because, hopefully, I'll have my own furniture and money to buy food).

I just finished reading three books (in a record amount of time, I must say) that I have to recommend. I borrowed them from Lisa, our neighbor, because as much as I love Sherlock Holmes, there is only so much of it you can read at one time. I read the Alchemist first, and it was simply amazing. It is an intellectual and spiritual journey that engages you right from the beginning, and I hope to own it someday. The next book, The House of the Spirits, was so good that I finished all 420+ pages in five days because I simply could not put it down. It is incredibly well-written, and the story is very...pressing. Yesterday (Liz will like this one) I just finished the Lovely Bones, which I'm sure she's been trying to get me to read for at least a year. I loved it. The ideas involved are so complex and yet so simple, and the whole concept is fascinating. I really enjoyed it, and so I am passing on the recommendation. Even though I did get my book club books in the mail this week, I'm going to read the last book that I borrowed from Lisa, Love in the Time of Cholera. I'm really catching up on my Latin and South American authors. I read quickly, so I'm sure I can read the book club book for August in time for the meeting (the Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which I've already read, but quite some time ago).

I think that's all I have to say for now. I love you all, and I hope that you enjoy these little reports on how I'm doing and what I do in the few hours of free time I have. I hope that you are all doing well, and I hope that you find inspiration in your own lives, whether it comes from reading a good book, spending time with a friend, or simply gazing at a beautiful sky. Shalom!

"One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things." ~ Henry Miller

Hello again, to all my fine friends and family! I seem to have received some positive feedback on the last post, so here we go again! I must apologize if I leave things out that you are curious about; feel free to ask questions, because even though it's only been a week, things move pretty quickly so it's easy to lose track.

Ok. In order for these pictures to make sense chronologically, I must backtrack a little. As I think I mentioned before, we arrived in Tegucigalpa on a Friday in the early afternoon. We unpacked, freshened up, and were immediately invited to a barbeque that our neighbors (Justin and Lisa) were having that night. We were able to meet a lot of nice people and learn about the area and what to do and it was really nice to feel like we have some people we can go to with questions and what not. Saturday we spent all day shopping. Chad, one of our sponsors, took us to the grocery store (La Colonia) and the PriceSmart, where we bought enough to last us a couple of weeks. The problem is, since we're living in temporary housing, we don't want to stock up on food and have to move it all, so we go grocery shopping pretty often. But it was a long and tiring day. Sunday another Embassy employee, Rachel, took us and her adorable little daughter Antonia to a village called Valle de Angeles. Valley of Angels. We ate at a little restaurant that I think has been there since the town was first built, and then wandered around for a bit before it was time for Antonia's nap. Valle is a beautiful little place with cobblestone roads and a pleasant little square to relax in. It's kind of a tourist stop, with mostly tourists and missionaries going through, but it's very pretty and you can buy all the souvenirs you like at quite inexpensive prices. I definitely want to go back someday. Here's a picture down one of the streets. It also poured that day, so we ate lunch first to wait till it let up, and just when we were getting ready to go, we lingered over a conversation, and it started again and we had to wait even longer. But it was very sunny and fresh after that.

Our next big adventure came on Monday, when Dad and I started work. We lingered just inside the Embassy for a while, waiting to see if we should just go and explore or wait for someone to find us, when someone came (I don't remember who now) and found us, and took me to the HR Office so I could check in, and Dad around to where he needed to go. I waited in the HR Office for a while for someone from AID to come get me, after filling out some more paperwork and getting my fingers printed (which is really complicated, though it seems so simple) and then I pretty much hung out all day in the Trade, Environment,and Agriculture office where I now work. I have my own office, and my own computer, where I write emails and surf the web all day because I haven't been given much to do. They try to help me out and give me files to organize and papers to copy, but there's a woman who used to work here who is really supposed to show me what to do. She works in another department now, and just hasn't found the time to come down and show me the ropes. I hope she will soon, otherwise I have to ask to switch to part-time or temporarily suspend my employment, because I don't feel comfortable being paid to use the Internet and read all day. So we'll see what happens in the next week or so. That's about all I'm going to say about work, because really, there's not much else to say. Except that Dad and I ate lunch in the cafeteria for the first few days as we were settling into the new house, and we soon heard of the ever famous tortilla soup day (which, incidentally, is Tuesday, but I brought my lunch today). So we dutifully got our tortilla soup and it was amazing. They fill the bowl with chicken, tortilla strips, cheese (which was really salty and squeeky), and cilantro before pouring the actual soup in, so it's packed with yummy things and not just broth. It was really good. Everything else we've had there has been ok. Not great, but not awful. Thursday we had our security and health briefings, so Mary and Melissa came in for that day. The guy giving the security seminar was really not totally there mentally, but it's the guy whose house we're going to live in and it was his last day, so we didn't really mind. We had heard most of it at the Security Seminar at F.S.I. anyway. The health briefing was ok, though by that time I was dead tired, but the lady who gave it was really nice. We talked about bugs and the lack of rabies vaccine and dengue and which hospitals are the best in this area. Quite informative.

Friday was no work day! Hurrah for the Fourth of July! The Ambassador was having a big reception at his house that day, but we weren't invited (probably because we haven't been around long enough) and so we went to the mall and saw a movie. I wore my College Democrats shirt to feel semi-patriotic, and we randomly met a guy in an ice-cream shop who served his mission here and is now stationed here for the...Navy? I don't remember. Something like that. But that was at the end of our trip. At the beginning, we wandered around the mall looking for shoes and slacks that I can wear to work (no luck so far), but the mall is huge. And there are at least six Dunkin' Donuts in there. Then we went to the movies, which is also in the mall. They had four movies playing: Wall-E, Kung Fu Panda, Hancock, and Get Smart (which goes in this country as Secret Agent 86). I wanted to watch Wall-E, but both the cartoons were dubbed, so we had to choose between Hancock and Get Smart, which were both in English with Spanish subtitles. None of us were too interested in Hancock (we've heard that although the effects are amazing, the plot kind of sucks) and I wasn't too interested in Get Smart, but we watched that and it was actually a lot funnier than I thought it would be. Some jokes were a little excessive, but I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Not the original, but pretty good anyway.

Saturday we took a bus at 10:30 to this agricultural college called Zamorano for a Fourth (or really Fifth) of July celebration. It was a little different than we expected, but it was still a lot of fun. This is a picture of some of the scenery going up to the campus.

Here's another picture from the drive. This is on my side of the bus, but I don't remember this picture at all, so Dad must have taken it. I think it's pretty cool. Lots of pine trees.

At this celebration there were food tents, craft tents, chess tents, a paintball arena, a motorcycle and car exhibition, sports, and cool stuff for kids (like horseback riding, teeter-totters, and a big blow up jumpy house thing). We didn't have much time when we first got there, because Dad was manning the Absentee Ballot Registration table at noon, so we wandered around looking at food and stuff and then I went to help him for a while. We ate lunch when his hour was up, and were about to find the horse jumping exhibition (that had just been announced), when we found out that the helicopters that were on display were taking off soon because of the weather. So we went and watched that, and I must say that it was pretty amazing. Here's one of the helicopters they had. These are US Military vehicles, by the way.

Here's the other one. I must admit, I had a hard time looking at that thing and imagining it getting off the ground, let alone flying away. But it did just that, and they circled around us and waved and then flew off into the distance. It was pretty rad. And windy.

After that, we asked someone about the horse jumping exhibition, and that someone pointed in one direction though we really ended up going somewhere else, because the direction that person pointed evidently led to nowhere. We ran into Justin and Lisa coming from the way we were headed, and they pointed us to where the rest of the campus was and where the horses probably were, though they suspected it was a pretty far walk from there. Which was true. But we walked around the campus for a while when we saw that apparently everything had ended before we got there (including the soccer and softball games), but the area was so pleasant we didn't really mind. It is a beautiful campus. I would like to go there just to be in that environment. Everyone in the Embassy likes to go there because they can walk around and it's very pretty. It's got a hotel and a pool if you want to stay, and I hear you can go horseback riding for quite inexpensively. And not on a trail, either. Just riding where you want to go. I guess provided that you don't get lost. You probably have a guide anyway. I don't know. I need to check it out. So we walked around, saw that there was a soccer game going on (it looked like a community team) and so we tried watching for a while, but the sun was very very hot on our arms, so we left. We had sunscreen, but the Honduran sun is very strong sometimes. So we wandered back, making sure to stop by the chapel that Lisa had told us about earlier. And it was gorgeous. The stained glass windows are scenes from agriculture and the school, the sides are all open air, and the woodwork on the ceiling is simply amazing. There's a balcony with really old benches, and access to the bell rope for the bell tower. We didn't ring it. We just sat there for a while, admiring the handiwork and watching the kittens that were sleeping in the pews. There were three, and they looked quite unhealthy, but truthfully those are the first cats we've seen in this country. Though I'm going to try and adopt a cat from a woman who's leaving for another post pretty soon. Our new house has a big yard, and if I can't get a dog, maybe I can get a cat. But here's a quick (and unfortunately, small) view of the chapel. It's also non-denominational.

I wish all of Honduras looked like Zamorano, but I guess we can't have everything. After that, we headed back to the main Student Center where the booths were, and just hung around until the bus was ready to leave at 5. We found some ice cream, and bought some Zamorano products, like wheat bread, mango jam, and honey. We already buy Zamorano milk here in town. Here's a picture of the Absentee Ballot booth, and, from left to right, is a girl that I don't know filling out an application, Sarah, Chad (they're married, and they're our sponsors) and that's Justin actually looking at the camera. Oh, one detail about Justin and Lisa that I failed to mention before. Justin is tall. Like, really tall. Like, 6'7" tall. Our whole family feels very intimidated standing next to him. But Lisa, his wife, is probably 5'4" or so. It's quite strange, but they are very cute together, and we're glad they are our neighborinos.

One final picture of the Student Center where the celebration was held, and that's it for Zamorano. Oh! No, it's not. Rachel found us and told me about a girl who was my age who was here teaching some woman's child Chinese, and that she didn't really know anyone here. So it wasn't until about 4:30 that we found her and we introduced ourselves and started talking. Her name is Lili, and she's been here about two weeks now and starting to get bored with not being able to really go anywhere. So she gave me her email and we plan on doing something together at some point. And if we don't feel safe, we can always call the Marines to come do something with us. I should probably email her soon. But that was nice. She seems like a really cool girl.

Well, that's about it! We went to church on Sunday, though only sacrament meeting, and afterwards drove around familiarizing ourselves with the city. Wait. I think I said that in the last entry. Oh well, you can hear it again. I'm at work again now, filling the time by writing in my blog, which I hope you all enjoy. I know I'll have at least one picture the next time I post, because the sky was really pretty outside my window yesterday so I took a picture. But I'll keep you updated, and write in the next week or so! I love you all, and sincerely hope that you are doing well whatever you're doing and in whatever country you're in, and I wish you love and happiness! Shalom!

"This wasn't a strange place; it was a new one." ~ The Alchemist

Hi-diddly-ho, good neighborinos! That's a phrase that our dear friends and neighbors Justin and Lisa use every time they see us (namely Justin). They have an adorable little 6-month-old named Jonas, who looks remarkably like Jack-Jack, and who really likes Dad. They have been kind enough to help us through our move here, including letting us use their phone and internet (and now their books) at our whim. They are very nice and live just a few houses down from us.
But, let's start from the beginning. I'll try to be as detailed as I can, but I have some pictures to help chronicle the adventure that was our move to Tegucigalpa, Honduras! Also, please excuse any typos, as it's hard to stare at a computer screen for so long without losing a little focus. But first of all, we spent two nights in Miami, Florida before flying out, and they were remarkably unexciting. We went swimming in the hotel's very small pool, saw the bay at Coconut Grove, and ate at a cool restaurant that was right next to the airport. Other than that, we mostly slept and made sure we had our passports and luggage all ready to go.

Here is a picture of all of our luggage waiting to go to the airport in Miami, ready to fly out to Honduras. Twelve suitcases in all. You can imagine how annoying it was to drag those around two airports for three days. Luckily we checked all of them except for our carry-on's. It was still a pain.

We got to the airport at about 11:30, and our flight was scheduled for about 1, but when we got there, the woman who checked our bags told us that the flight was boarding at noon! Ah! We still hadn't eaten, so we were planning to go through security, eat our lunch, and then be ready to board the plane. So we rushed through security as quickly as was humanly possible (which wasn't very quickly, as you can imagine) and when we got to the counter for our flight, we found out that the plane was delayed and wasn't even going to be there for another hour and a half! At least we had time for lunch. We didn't get on the plane till about two, sat on it for about an hour, and then we finally took off. Now this plane ride was far from pleasant. First of all, there were three very small boys sitting behind Mary, Melissa and I, and they were banging their tray tables around and kicking our seats until I was ready to burst. It really wasn't that bad, because once the plane got going and the movie started, they quited down soon enough. However, I would have taken the kids any day over what else we had to endure. As soon as we took off (literally, as soon as we took off), the man in front of Melissa (who was in the middle) began throwing up. And he threw up the entire way there. I felt sorry for him, and I felt sorry for us, and I especially felt sorry for the people sitting next to him. We got the sound, and the smell, and it was just awful. I can't stand that sound, so I had to plug my ears every time he threw up. It was extremely unpleasant. So I would have much preferred the kids kicking my chair the whole way rathar than have that guy in front of us. Luckily, it was only about a two hour flight. Which also means, that we left Miami at about 3:15, and arrived in San Pedro Sula at about 3:30! Honduras runs on Mountain Time, so don't get confused.

When our driver's came to pick us up, we flew threw customs, waiting about a decade for all of our suitcases, and promptly found out that because we had arrived so late, and because it was such a long drive to Tegucigalpa, we had to spend the night somewhere about half-way. Apparently they didn't want us driving at night, because it's extremely dangerous and there is barely any visibility.

We were told that we were going to spend the night at a hotel called Las Brisas del Lago, or the Breezes of the Lake. However, no one could seem to tell us where it was, so we drove back and forth (in the dark, literally and figuratively) for about an hour, asking at least three people where the hotel was, before we were directed down a dark and sinister side street, and thirty bumpy and nerve-wracking minutes later we finally found the hotel. It looked like it had once been a very nice place (in the 70's, probably), and there was no one there. I guess since it's rainy season there aren't many tourists around, but it was still a little disheartening. After a quiet and small dinner in the large dining room (with a huge window where you could see the lake, when it was light outside), we retired to our room, where I was delighted to find this clock hanging on our wall.

Unfortunately, the flash blocked out the words, and I can't remember what it said, but it was pretty cool. I definitely felt protected all night. There were also these two completely inexplicable paintings on the walls of the rooms. The rooms were connected, with a big entryway in between (no door) and above Melissa and my beds was a pastel painting of flowers that looked like it had been drawn by a five-year-old. However, the painting above the parents' bed is impossible to describe. It was pink, purple, and light green painted in a sort of hilly pattern with strange black dots periodically dotting the borders. We really couldn't figure out what it was supposed to be, even after throwing ideas around every time we happened to glance at it, so we just ended up trying to ignore it as best as we could.

There are a couple things that are vital to know about this country. First of all, in this (the rainy) season, it gets dark at about 6:30 in the evening and light at about 4:30 in the morning. The second thing to know is that there are many beautiful and interesting birds in this country, that make the most obnoxious noises known to man. For example, while staying at this hotel, we were all rudely awakened at about 4:00 in the morning by a bird whose melodious timbre was extrodinarily similar to that of an alarm clock. I, for one, could not imagine why anyone would set their alarm for so early, until I realized that it wasn't stopping and that it must be some ungodly creature from the natural world. I covered my ears and tried to go back to sleep. Here in Tegucigalpa, while not only finding it impossible to sleep at all, the birds begin their song at about 3:00 in the morning, and I can't close my windows because I don't have an air conditioner in my room. Ah well. Such is life.

On with the story. Despite being old and inhabited with obnoxious birds, the hotel offered a view of the lake (Lake Yojoa) that was very beautiful. This was the view from our hotel room.

While Melissa and I were getting ready for the second leg of our driving tour through Honduras, Dad and Mary took a walk and took these lovely pictures. This is a ginormous grasshopper that they found chillin' on the cement.

This is a gorgeous picture of the lake from the back of the hotel.

I love this picture. I especially love the horse in it.

Now, mind you, not all of Honduras looks like this. Zamorano does, but we'll get to that later. I wish it did, but there are many places where people just dump their garbage on the side of the road and create car dumps on the sides of mountains. At first I had the thought that most of Honduras looks alike (with the old, tin roof houses and the laundry hanging out in the rain) but I soon realized that even though it was all of the same nature, every little village and every little town we passed through was different. I never got tired of seeing the kids in uniform, the horses and donkeys tied to the side of the road, the chickens, pigs, and cows wandering loose, and the skinny dogs lying in the shade. I wish I could have taken more pictures, but sometimes it was raining so hard you couldn't see out of the windows, and sometimes we just drove by too fast.

That's another thing about this country. There are zero driving laws. Actually, I think that the only thing you can get a ticket for (let alone be pulled over for) is talking on your cell phone while driving. Which I really haven't seen any of here. Everything else is legit. Lanes are really guidelines, people are always honking (though it's really to let you know that they are there) and speed limits are non-existant. I've heard someone describe it this way. "In Honduras, it's not like people are angry drivers. It's not road rage. It's like a mathematical problem. They are just trying to see how many cars can fit into a given space." And that's pretty much it. It's really more confusing than dangerous, anyway. The city has no plan. Someone just built a house here and someone else built a business there, and it all just kind of sprang up wherever it wanted to. Our task of driving around isn't quite so bad, because we have a set area that contains everything we need, and we are strongly recommended to not drive around those other areas. Yesterday, we went on a driving expedition (it's not so bad Saturday mornings and all Sunday) and Mary made sure she could get to our primary destinations: the Embassy, La Colonia, Paiz (grocery stores), Larach (a huge hardware store that sells anything you could imagine), PriceSmart (which is like a big Costco), and the mall. That's pretty much the extent of where we go. Larach is on the very edge of where we're recommended not to go, so we have to make sure we don't get lost over that way. Oh, and there are no street names. There are four main roads that take us where we need to go: La Paz (where the Embassy is), Juan Paulo Segundo (John Paul II), Morazon, and Suyapa (affectionately known to us as Sula-Pula, because Mary couldn't remember what it was called). But we have a lot of landmarks to get us around, like Ruby Tuesday's, the Inter-Continental Hotel, and Texaco. And the Embassy families have made up names for the other important roads, like the American School road, which we live off of, and the McDonald's road, which has a McDonald's at either end of it. Bear in mind, however, that if you're ever going to be driving around Tegucigalpa, never use a Dunkin' Donuts as a landmark. There are at least six in the mall alone, and I've lost track of how many there are in the city. At least two on every block. It's like Starbucks in San Francisco. Literally.

But on to more exciting things. We continued our journey through the hills on the way to Teguz, and were surprised to see the sort of vegetation they have lining the hills. Namely, pine trees. I don't know if you've ever seen pine trees growing side by side with banana trees, but it's a pretty bizarre sight. The countryside is very pretty, but I heard that in the dry season everything turns brown, which is a shame. I don't know where that is or for how long, but I like it better like this.

This is the view from our descent into Teguz. It's quite a magnificent sight. We got into the city in the early afternoon (two or three, I can't remember) and our drivers took us around for a bit before taking us to our house, which is on a hill right by the American School, in a gated community called Loma Alta. Oh, and about twenty minutes from the city, in the hills where we came from, is a wicked looking water park. We have to go someday.

Before I go on, let me apologize for the length of this blog. I'm proud of you for reading this far, and just now I have decided that once I'm finished talking about the house, I'm going to save the rest for another entry. This is just getting ridiculous, and I don't want you to get bored and stop; not when there's still so much more to tell you about! So the house, and that's it for today. I promise.

This is our house, from the outside. It's really quite nice, well-furnished, and has lots of space. There aren't any carpets on the floors, and since we don't really have much in the way of decoration, it's quite echoy. It's fun to sing in there, but when the tv is on, it's really loud. Mainly because the parents are deaf and can't hear it. We still have cable from the last people who lived here, which includes a few English channels not dubbed in Spanish, some sort of Japanese or Korean channel (with equally unfathomable Japanese or Korean or something subtitles), a German channel, an Italian channel, soap operas filmed in Portugese and dubbed in Spanish, and about 90 other Spanish channels. I must admit, however, that they do have quite a few good American movies on, that are very nicely dubbed, with very good voice-over work. It's always an adventure to see what's on in English. The other day I watched the Fifth Element. Good movie.

This is my room. It's really big, with a high pointed ceiling, and no air conditioner. I have a fan, but I keep my windows open all day and I have to keep my curtains open during the night so I can catch the breeze. Which becomes a problem when the birds start going at 3:00 and the sun soon follows. But I manage. There are closets all along the left side of the room (when you walk in) and cupboards above them. It's quite a large room, so it's kind of awkward because there's only those two small dressers, but it's all right. This picture was taken before I had unpacked. The other awkward thing about it, is before our sponsors gave us pillows (they are very nice and were very, very helpful; the sponsors, that is, not the pillows), all we had were these awkward plastic pillows that came with the furniture. They were extremely uncomfortable. And the funny thing is, when they replaced the mattresses and bedding to get rid of the buggy ones, they took away the gross plastic pillow, and replaced it with another one. So I have a nice pillow that I use for my head, and a weird plastic pillow that I use for between my knees when I'm lying on my side. It's awkward.

This is my bathroom. Notice the lack of counter space. Melissa kindly offered this room to me so that I wouldn't have to have the pink bathroom (which has ample counter space) but I'm glad I have this room, a reason which I'll get into in a moment.
There's me holding the camera while it flashes in the mirror. The shower is to the right, a large, square thing that didn't have a shower curtain at first, but luckily we got one the day we arrived. It's really quite nice, and I keep all of my toiletries on a shelf in the closet closest to the bathroom. Ha ha. Closet closest. That's hard to type. Anyway, we are fairly happy with the layout and location of the house, but there was only one small problem when we moved in. BUGS. A phenomenon that was totally inexplicable to everyone who we spoke with (mainly Lisa), the house was obviously not cleaned very well before we moved in. (We arrived on Friday, the people had moved out on Sunday; these people apparently had two live-in housekeepers and a stay-at-home mom and no one seemed to know about the bug problem). The Embassy hires some people to come in and clean the house, but it wasn't done very well, because the appliances were filthy, it wasn't really swept or dusted, and there were ants everywhere! I was lucky, and I only had ants in my bathroom; my room was clean but for some spiders hanging out on the ceiling. Melissa's room, on the other hand, was infested, not only with these teeny-tiny Honduran ants, but also with centipedes and spiders. The parents' room had all of these, plus big red ants. So we scrubbed everything down with a high concentration of bleach to cover their trail, but those ants are stubborn, and came back to the exact same spots. Since last week, we've used Raid (which killed them all in my bathroom; in fact, they're all still dead on the walls. I should probably clean that up), bleach, and had exterminators come spray outside the house. They sprayed a little bit inside, and placed ant traps, and there haven't been nearly as many ants as there have been. There are still some here and there, and we really need to tear off the baseboards, because that's where they're nesting, but at least it isn't what it was before. We also have had very few encounters with mosquitos, which is good, because dengue is becoming quite common in this area. We've had some other small problems, that no one else seems to have, like running out of water (just once, since the city is supposed to be pumping it into our cistern periodically) and people forgetting to pick us up for motor pool, but other than that we've been quite lucky. We have a car that we bought from someone who left last week, our UAB is here going through customs, so we should have that soon, and we should be getting our telephone and internet installed this week. So we really are doing all right. We'll probably be in this house for about three more weeks (keep your fingers crossed!) while the other family moves out of the house we're going to get and while they do repairs before we can move in. I have a full-time job, even if it's not very interesting, and I'm trying to learn more Spanish every day! One final picture, and I'll let you get on with your lives.

This is the view from my bedroom. Through the bars and over the razor wire, it's really a very beautiful view at night, since I can see all of the lights on the hillside. I hope that the next house has an equally pleasant view.

Well, I suppose that's it for today. I'm getting tired of typing, so I'll leave you to your various activities, and hope that this has helped you gain insight to life in a foreign country! Tomorrow I'll be sure to add more, with lots of pictures, and I wish you all happiness and success in your lives, wherever you may be! Shalom!