Exploradora: saint jerome, the patron saint of translators, librarians, and encylopedists

and how perfect is that?

i am here in my new library spending the day checking my last few weeks of emails, peeking a bit on facebook, exploring some of my new resources on my new resource dvd, uploading a lot fotos and surfing the web, all the while trying to avoid the mlb website. stupid brewers.

during september 27-30th, my first days in my new town, there was a grand celebration of the patron saint, san jeronimo, the namesake of the town. it was amazing. i will post some pictures. everyone was able to relax however i realized that my host mom, although `retired,`works all day, almost every day, for the catholic church, selling food, etc. so that they can build a new one some day. she makes amazing tortillas and bean soup, as well as mondongo soup which i heard was disgusting but i really liked it--you just have to ask for it without the pig liver.

also i've done the unthinkable and gone to church with her a few times. really, it's the best live music around.

last night was pretty...surreal. i was sitting under the tarp eating some beans and carne de res asada when the 'luces´were going off--about 100 fireworks that these guys were just putting off right in the middle of the basketball court, people all around, totally unsafe.
as if this wasn´t bad enough, later, flying in from the center of the park comes a dragon-like creature spewing off rockets from his body chasing around the children. i thought i would die of a heart attack. thank god, no one was hurt. all in the name of saint jerome.

(ps the girls next to me are playing video killed the radio star. and about a month ago, i forgot to write this, my friends and i were going for a run and realized that the radio was playing 'the sound of silence' and it seemed to be following us as we passed by various houses. the music is actually quite good, even the reggaeton. and if you want to know what they listen to all the time here, look up a song called 'te queiro' by a group called nigga. yes, i know, théy´re called nigga. the people here don´t think there´s anything wrong with that, so what can i do? it´s a really catchy song.)

the night before last i was fortunate enough to witness a group of masked men (monsters, marilyn monroe who looked strangely enough like the creepy brother from texas chainsaw massacre, the adams family father, and a slew of other extremely scary looking individuals) who thought it was very funny to run around trying to dance with the audience, humping them and all. it actually was kind of funny, but only because i was too far away to get really creeped out.

when it started pouring everyone was either under the food tarp or in the catholic church except these creepy individuals, who were putting on a show still in the pouring rain. it was rather funny, but surreal, for lack of better words. in my dreams i´ve lived rather normally, applying for a grad school in los angeles and moving in with a boy, talking in some strange mix of english and spanish, decorating my house and spending time with my sister, making spaces to call my own. my host mother and father will be out of town for a couple of days. i feel like throwing a party or something but i´ll have to settle with setting up the hammock and reading.

i´ve been reading books in spanish. right now i´m reading a book called `la compugenio`about a girl who receives messages from outer space from an alien who lives on a planet that has lost its ability to laugh through evolution. it´s about a 6th grade level but perfect for me. thanks, hayley. i do miss my friends. i am finding that what they said was true. however, i´m fortunate with my host family and exceedingly fortunate to be living in this town of kind, wonderul people. and i was able to buy honey nut cheerios and mozzarella cheese the other day in comayagua. i realized yesterday that i left all of my underwear in my last host house, and i´m still trying to figure out which will be more expensive, buying new underwear or traveling all the way back. i did leave other things there, too, so ít´ll be worth the trip at some point. i have met with the group called EDUCATODOS, and i´ll be meeting with a couple of other counterparts today. i´ll write more about that later.

i´m trying to upload 40 pictures and i´m on number 9. i might not get to all of them today, but we´ll see. it´s beautiful here. i wanted to take pictures of the horses i found the other day but two mean dogs started running up to me so i had to leave. i´m going to surf the web (ahh, free internet) and post pictures as soon as they`re done.

oh yea, i´m not an aspirante anymore, i´m a VOLUNTARIA! we were sworn in on sept. 26 and those pictures are some of the last in my bunch, so if i don´t get to those, i will soon. we also hung out in the ambassador´s house which was huge and nice and had a pool and a volleyball court and tennis court and basketball court and great view of tegucigalpa.

oh, and guess what? remember how i was a novice high? yeah, in my last interview turns out i´m an advanced low speaker. whooo hooo! :) todavía yo necesito toda la ayuda en la que puedo encontrar. si queire, escríbame en español, porfa! oh yeah. one more thing. check out the us embassy in honduras´s website. and this.

at the feria in my new town. i haven't probared the papas but they smelled good.

this foto is from the celebration of 15 de septiembre in valle de angeles.

this guy is well known in valle de angeles and decided to join the parade.

a "native"

ahh, peace corps love.

a delicious meal after swearing in at the embassy

the paparazzi!

youth development. if you look closely you´ll find our two guys: ronaldo, our fabolous trainer, and miguel, who did fabulously handling all of us women.