The ´Honeymoon Period´of culture shock

So I realise that I can´t blog everything, which is really frustrating, but here are some highlights of the past few days...

Carlos, our Spanish teacher, invited me to stay after class for the advanced Spanish with some of the others - this is the ultimate compliment and I am finding it alot more useful than the begginers. I am definitely speaking more Spanish generally now and i can have conversations with Carlota, she is also teaching me some Honduran specific words.

I have had a bad cold for the last few days (which ok is not a highlight) but we had to get it checked out in case it was something worse like Dengue. Fortunately it wasn´t but i was still given alot of pills to take, one every 6 hours and one every 12, God knows what they were!!!

Last sunday I went walking in La Tigra national park with a family friend, his daughter and her two friends. I spent most of the walk trying to explain how yes I do know David Beckham but he doesn´t know me. They were alot of fun though even though it was really difficult to understand them through the giggles. 13 year olds, you know!

I have also witnessed a strike, a fire and a road accident - none of them major and none of them related to each other, I think?

This is officially the longest time I have been without wearing make-up in years so i feel that deserves some recognition!

I went to the cinema again, this time to the one in the mall (which is probably better and cheaper than our cinemas I have to say, reclining seats etc ) to see Max Payne. I learnt that ´alas´means ´wings´very useful word I reckon! And then after this at like 9pm we went to the drive-thro phamarcy, as you do.

And finally, freaking A! there are TGI Fridays in Honduras! I will definately be visiting one soon, if i had my way i´d become a regular but we´ll see. They also have Lucky Charms breakfast cereal at a reasonable price, maybe there is a certain someone who would like me to bring some back to the UK as a wedding present? ;-)

On Friday some of the volunteers and I are planning a trip this weekend to the Pacific Coast, wont be as amazing as the North Coast I´m told but I really want to go anyway to compare it. It will also be a test of our Spanish, negotiation and navigation skills.....oh dear.

Anyway and so the honeymoon period continues...

Loco loco loco

So yesterday ICYE took us to downtown Tegus.....ON THE BUS!! Carlota was mortified when i told her this, she apparently hasn´t dared take the bus for years! I can see why, its such a different experience to what we British are used to. There is no timetable, set routes or obvious signs of a bus stop. The buses are old American buses (the ones the U.S have rejected) and Reggaeton music (may not be how its spelt - a kind of latin reggae, really catchy) blares out of the speakers. When a bus arrives a man jumps out and shouts where the bus is going, he bangs on the side of the bus and everyone piles in. He collects the 3 lempiras fixed rate (about 10 pence for us) and you have to know where to get off otherwise... well you get lost. The crime rate is highest on public buses so you should never take anything valuable and I keep most of my cash in my bra and socks! Because of this I cannot take my camera anywhere -so frustrating! So unfortunately I have a lack of photos. Sorry!

The other night we went to the cinema to see Australia, luckily for me it was in English with Spanish subtitles! Was a great film but again nothing like our cinemas, peeling wallpaper etc but that is Honduras you get used to it. Bit like you get used to the sweetness of the food products here - my strawberry yoghurt was literally fluorescent pink!

Trying not to slag Honduras off to much becuase I am enjoying it! Honest!

Hope all is well in England!

So i´m finally in Honduras!!

I havn´t even been here for a week yet and already there have been many ups and downs.

We arrived in Tegucigalpa and were waved through security perhaps a little too easily (I did get a stamp though!) and were greeted by several cameras aiming at us - didnt take long to realise they were not for us since we got pushed out the way! A famous Honduran footballer was arriving apparently. I met my host mum Carlota and she drove me home. She is really nice and speaks quite good English so at least we managed to have a sort of Spanglish conversation. Apparently her son Andreas is voluteering in Sweden at the moment and will be back in August - I also think I have his room so not sure what will happen when he gets back!!!

There are loads of people that seem to often be in our house, I have yet to work out who they are or exactly what they I doing, it´s really confusing! I know we have a housekeeper called Nadia, she washes all my clothes, its awesome!

The weather has been really varied actually, most days in Tegus it is sunny and warm, hot even, but in Valle de Angeles, where we had our orientation camp last weekend, it was really cold and no-one was prepared for it. Wasn´t really very funny, and what made it worse was the cold showers. In fact I have only had cold and luke warm showers since being here!

Since arriving in Honduras I have observed many interesting things;
> There are no road rules or consistent markings the result is effectively chaos as anything goes! They also use their horns constantly, everyone deserves a beep, I doubt it is a sign of love.

> The same goes for people on the road. People are riding in the back of pick up trucks and selling things in the middle of the street, I´ve been told not to eat aything bought on the street - umm yer like I would want to????

> The toilet paper doesn´t get flushed down the toilet, you have to wipe and bin, after you´ve forgotten this a few times you definitely learn!!

I am starting my Spanish course tomorrow, It had better help me improve loads and freaking quickly since I met the girl who is working at my project at the moment and when I said I only knew a little spanish she gave me a concerning look.....hmm ok then.

I am missing everyone back home so much and I am finding it hard here. But hopefully today I will be getting a phone and when that happens everything will seem much better, I know it.

Hasta Luego!

FEAR is only a 4 letter word

But LANGUAGE BARRIER has 15 and I can therefore be justifiably scared and emotional, HA!

I have had to say alot of my goodbyes already, suitcase space is disappearing by the second along with my sanity and emotional control. I need someone to organise me, do volunteers get PA's? I'll look into it, preferably they would be a mix between a walking talking diary and a Cadbury's vending machine - not sure how it would be dispensed though?!? I think too much that is clearly the problem here.

Will hopefully be reporting from Honduras soon....watch this space!

Quizes and Chloroquine

Once again I am really late posting this, perhaps I'm already embracing the 'manana, manana' attitude of Latin America? or perhaps its just because life in England is so freaking busy!

In fundraising news, I'm not exactly 'on target' but it is definitely going well. My charity quiz night in Farnham went really really well and raised approximately £500! Thanks so much to everyone who came and helped make it a great success. You were awesome! Particular thanks go to Trevor, the Quiz Master, who put alot of effort into preparing the quiz and collecting prizes together and was generally brilliant!

In disease news, I am now fully vaccinated against most of what Honduras can throw at me and am already on the anti-malarials which come in a very attractive box as shown above. Thankfully I've been ok so far but several people I know have been really ill on these and some of the side effects printed on the instructions could actually rival Malaria! :-S

In other news I won 'Angel of the Month' last week from my temp agency because of the work I'm doing. Yey they like me!... although the ASDA prawn sandwich they tried to give me for my free lunch suggests otherwise...

T minus 46 days till I leave the UK. Mental.

I thought uni was mentally tiring (well final year anyway)

But at least that was just one thing to worry about. For example now, its midnight and I need to sleep (especially given the lateness of last night), but my mind will not let me. In approximately 10 weeks time I am leaving for Honduras and there are so many things I need to do/organise/buy/have injected into me before then that I literally have no time to get excited about it, therefore my body is making more time by keeping me awake. Kind of clever really I guess.
Having a full time job and fundraising and maintaining a social life is definitely the hardest thing to try and do, until of course you compare it with the actual challenges of next year! Ok ok it's in perspective now. No doubt I'll look back on this later and laugh when I'm burnt, bitten, dirty and lost, whilst trying to wrestle chickens for a seat on the bus and fend off 'gringa' comments and marriage proposals :-S

Anyway, plans for the Farnham Fundraising Quiz Night are well underway which is brilliant so I'd like to thank all that have helped and that are attending.

In other news I graduate this week so I can finally officialise my degree! woop! I'm also looking forward to returning to Bournemouth for the weekend and reminiscing about old times.

10 weeks, hmm I still can't believe it. Maybe I am a little excited. hehe.

I.LIKE.BIG.BOOTS and I cannot lie

So September is nearly over and I have to say I am not a whole lot closer to reaching my fundraising target, however my Dad and I made a second attempt to do a car boot sale last month and raised approximately £75! Unfortunately we got rained off the first day - this happens all to regularly in Britain, I am looking forward to the warm and slightly less rainy climate of Honduras!

Some good news though is that I have now finished the 'Beginners Spanish' class and feel a lot more confident in the basics, however this has not stopped me pronouncing words with a French accent - what is that about?? I am due to start the 'Beginners Plus Spanish' soon, more pressure for this one, it finishes only a few weeks before I leave! But I have no time to worry about such minor and seemingly distant things, I have much to organise before then, procrastination is not an option ........ apparently.