Happy 2007!!

Well, New Years has come and gone, and I've made it to 2007 in Guatemala! New Years was more eventful than Christmas- we had a church service, at which I was asked to give the opening prayer and read a whole chapter of Psalms in Spanish (not thrilled), and then we ate tamales and I went to bed becuase I was in a bad mood. But whatever, New Years is all hype anyway.... We did go to the beach on the 1st though, which was pretty nice. We had a little cabana thing and my family brought 2 hammocks, so I slept in a hammock and ate shrimp all day- not a bad way to start the New Year. Oh, and I even had a BEER with my host family, which is really taboo here, but they said it was ok since no one would see us at the beach. It was funny considering I got ratted out by someone at my church last week when I snuck off to have a beer in Mazate (almost 30 minutes away from my freakin city! People need to mind their own business!). Apparently I'm not as sneaky as I thought....

So my host family had all these presents under our Christmas tree that I later discovered were just empty boxes for decoration. I gave them each presents for Christmas, and they stuck them under the tree and they are just sitting there still wrapped with the empty boxes. It's great. Dina even opened hers, re-wrapped it, and put it back under there. It's really weird. I wonder when they're gonna take the tree down and if they'll ever un-wrap my presents and use them.... That reminds me, Sarah's family gave her a pen holder (with no pen) and a coffee pot that had been sitting in their kitchen for Christmas. HAHAHAHA. Gift giving here is GREAT!

The exciting news is that I started "training" for my job at the school finally. The first day included meeting for 4 1/2 hours and talking about work for only about 30 minutes of that, but at least I got to meet the other teachers. At the end of the meeting, they spent at least 5 minutes reading back the minutes of the meeting, which was REALLY annoying considering I didn't feel we'd accomplished anything worth noting in a book... and then we had to sign it, too. Crazy! I still have no idea about the curriculum and have no supplies, and school starts on the 15th of this month. But hey, if they're being this relaxed about it, then I guess I will, too. Hopefully things will just fall into place!! And if not, it's certainly not my fault. I guess a lack of preparation is just the Guatemalan way....

One last cultural thought.... I made a friend in Mazate this week- some guy that works at a bread store and wanted me to help him study for an English exam to be a translator.... but we were spotted by the nosey people in Santo Domingo talking together 2 or 3 days in a row, which apparently means we're dating and soon to be married or something, so I had to cut off my budding friendship. haha. It's funny, but it's also pretty frustrating to me that I live in a community where it's not ok for me to have male friends. So now I'm back to my friendless self and sitting in Santo Domingo reading my 50th book since I've gotten here. I'll be glad when school starts and the group from Minnesota gets here this week!

Hope everyone had a great New Years and didn't do anything too crazy! Send me some emails or mail me something for my birthday (which is only a month away so I probably wouldn't get the mail until about 2 months after anyway, but hey, you could try!!) ....oh, and I have pics up on the web now, so if you want to see them, send me an email and I'll send you the link (I can't figure out how to get it on here!)

PS. Dad, here is that pic of my bed with the crazy bug nets that you have been waiting on! At night I sleep with the green one down too, but during the day it makes it too hot. I kinda like being a princess- or permanantly camping.

Miss everyone! Peace.