Friday, August 1, 2008

Sweet Home Not Quite Alabama

I woke up this morning and laid in bed listening to Sweet Home Alabama and staring at the zinc roof over my head. I had to laugh at myself. That song always reminds me of the rural town I grew up in and here I am in the Peace Corps, in Nicaragua, listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd to ready myself for my day.

I've found myself turning on my iPod in the mornings more and more over the past few weeks. It's amazing what a couple upbeat songs can do for my mood, at any time of day really. Yesterday I turned on Ruby Ruby Ruby by the Kaiser Chiefs and reminisced about playing Guitar Hero with my girls in DC (miss you guys!). Sometimes thinking back helps to remind me more why I'm here than thinking about the present because at the present, I'm off by myself in my site and no longer have a giant group of gringos to lean on for support.

Since I arrived back here on Sunday, most of my time has been spent at the instituto observing classes (and sitting through a three hour staff meeting, gah!), walking around town, and laying in the hammock at home. Needless to say, it's been a slow week and anyone who knew me during college especially knows that I don't always deal with downtime very well, so this is a challenge. And because my home stay is a taxi ride out of town that I really can't afford to take more than once a day (or even once a day it seems like), once I'm back in my quiet little pueblo, I'm here for good.

There are definitely little successes and little (or big) frustrations everyday. The homestay thing is a big frustration, as is the general awkwardness I'm going to have to endure as I try to make friends and integrate into the community. But I am getting to know people and overall everyone's been very welcoming and nice. And I'm pretty excited about my teacher counterparts, the woman I'm working with is quiet but I think there's a lot I can do to help her with both her English and teaching methods. My male counterpart is pretty talkative and I believe he's motivated to improve his teaching, though he's doing a good job already. Oh, and I'm frustrated because I got bright pink gum on my white pants yesterday at school, but my host mom says she knows how to get that out :)

So that's what I've been up to, I hope to have more exciting stories than getting gum on my pants, but quite frankly I think that's gonna be the highlight of the week this time around. Oh, that and getting in a taxi and discovering that the driver is my neighbor. Send me updates, people, I have free time again!

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