life, work and spanish

So its officially 4 weeks ago tomorrow that I arrived. Thats 4 weeks closer to coming home! I know I shouldn't be thinking like that but I've had a tough few days recently and its nice to know this fact. I am however feeling more positive today so dont worry about me!

First some sad news...

• I finally went to eat at TGI Fridays! but then afterwards I felt soooooo ill, and I didnt even go for the chocolate brownie! Will I ever feel the same about this restaurant again? sniff :-(
• My first few days at my work (CEM-H) have been tough. Its hard to start a new job with new people anyway but because of the language barrier its twice as hard and there isn't really anything I can do yet (hence why i'm writing this at 9.40am on a wednesday). in addition the culture here is very much everyone does their own thing and no-one goes out of thier way to introduce you to others, find work for you to do or even explain what they are doing. You can see why I have wanted to pack it all in and come home. However its better now because i have spoken with the other volunteer, whos from Finland, and she has filled me with confidence. She agrees that theres not much to do at first but she mentioned several projects that I would definately like to get involved in and where I can even use my degree! For example the women in prison make craft items but they need help selling them so that they can get money to pay for legal help etc. Also the website here isn't working so thats another area I may be able to help. Basically if I want to make the most out of my time here I have to be very proactive, seek out work and tell my contact what I want to do. So for now, I am content to just to little jobs here and there and work on my Spanish because I know its not going to be like this for the whole time! phew!

Then some good news...

• Last Saturday I went with some of the girls at work to watch them do the live radio show that the charity has every week. It was really exciting I've never seen anything like that before. Obviously I didnt understand any of it, but whatever. It also impressed me that these girls are my age and younger and they dont even seem nervous - I would be.
• In the evening my ICYE contact took me to the cinema to see Yes Man, Johannes another volunteer came too. I should say here that yes my boyfriend does know I went with two guys. Then we went to a bar for drinks. It was so nice to speak english for a while and to do something with people my age.
• On sunday I went to the fair in Suyapa, its a religious thing supposedly but I saw no evidence of this. It reminded me very much of the New Mexico state fair I went to in 2007. There were fairground rides, stalls selling everything from jewellery to CD's to food, about 100 horses and 50 cows. It was alot of fun, I want to go to it in the evening because they have live music but its finished now. Its back in November I believe so if i make it that long here I will definitelty have to go and take my camera too!
• I am starting to understand more of 'Los Simpsons' but it still annoys me that the voices are all wrong!

And finally some random news...

• We have a dog in our back yard, I have only found this out in the last week..um how i'm not sure. its very quiet, in my defence. Its also called Spot! not particularly latino.
• In cafe's here, people drink coffee through a straw! (and the amount of sugar they add is shocking! - they find it shocking I dont want any sugar, there must be something wrong with me!)

Hopefully next time I will be blogging from home, Carlota is looking to get internet at the moment! yey!

Hasta pronto