"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!