Observations

I think everyday here in Juticalpa will be pretty interesting. At least so far this has been true, and I'm sure once my students actually arrive I will have even more stories. I feel like I'm beginning to adjust more to life in Juticalpa and I am understanding more about how to walk on the street without being hit by a car, where to go to get certain items, and how to greet people on the street.

I just spent about 1.5 hours walking around and trying to find different things... so here are some observations! (From today and from the past few days)

Not getting hit by a car sounds a lot easier than it actually is... you just have to always be aware of the cars because they have the right away and people do not. At the same time, a car will always honk when it's coming close to you, it doesn't slow down but it does honk, so at least it gives a warning. Sometimes there are sidewalks and sometimes there are not. Sometimes the sidewalks are big and sometimes they are so small it would be hard to walk on it without hitting the sides of buildings.

As far as buying things. there is a specific store for every item you would need. For example meat you obviously buy at the meat store, jewelry at the jewelry store, chicken at the chicken store, fruit and vegetables at the produce store... things like that. But somethings are hard for me to categorize because we would just go to target or walmart! Instead I have to ask everyone where to go... so today I went to the book store to get velcro, stickers and a hole punch. Of course when you go in someone walked around with me the whole time showing me and getting me the things I needed. It's hard to just go in and browse or something! So I'm glad my spanish is decent so that I dont have problems with that sort of thing.

To greet people it's the same as Costa Rica to say "Adios" when you see them, but I only greet women or if there are little kids around because they are cute. haha

It's so dusty and dirty here it's insane. Literally i walk 30 minutes to school and my legs are just black and actually dirty.... but as long as there is running water it's ok!

At the same time, it's also absolutely gorgeous here because every time I walk out of the school or look up or out of my window all I see are these fantastic green, lush mountains. They are really amazing and the sun sets on them each night which is really nice too.

Another side note is that all of the guide books said that everyone owns a gun. They were not joking. Literally I see guys walking around with these guns slung around their shoulder, walking in the town, playing soccer with their kids, everywhere!!! I mean it's just interesting to see that because you never see guns in the states out in the open.

School-wise everything is going really well. My aide came yesterday and she is really nice. She is only 19 and graduated high school last year. She doesn't speak any English, so I've had a lot of fun being able to speak Spanish the last two days. We pretty much have everything set up, plans done for next week and I turned in my papers to be copied. School still doesn't start til Wed. so I have plenty of time to do some last minute things.