What did I get myself into?!

The last week has been incredible busy! I had counterpart day, which is were all of our counterparts come and we have two days of workshops! It was actually really fun, I really liked my counterpart, Nazario! Then we actually went to our site for four days, whole other experience. My other counterpart is only a year older than me and is very serious and is a non-game playing kind of guy (totally opposite of me)! I will be working in an office of ten men (in the States I know that would deserve a Holla but here not so much)! It is actually intimidating because they are all trained in coffee production and then there is me, the white girl in the corner with her broken Spanish trying to give suggestions, talk about feeling out of place, wooo, wake up call for me!

Another aspect of my site visit was to find a place to live, which I did! I am really excited my very first apartment (if you can call it that)! I am going to be living on the second level of a family’s compound! I have a front porch, two rooms, a private bath, my own pila and a large back patio for drying my clothes and a tire garden! I am really excited about being on my own but at the same time I am terrified! Also I am the only one in my site! There are three other volunteers in the aldeas of my site but they only have transport two days a week so I will not see them all that much! I really experienced loneliness for the first time this past week! In three days it is going to be me, Spanish and a town full of Guatemalans! It really hit me that I am either going to be talking Spanish or not talking at all, and for all of you that know me well, the not talking part is probably not an option so my Spanish should really come along!

So I am going to let everyone know that I am scared SHITLESS (I know I said I would not cuss on this blog but no other words can describe this feeling)! I am so scared about my work, my counterpart, my site, being alone, knowing no one, having no friends, only speaking in Spanish and living on my own! I have never been so scared of anything in my entire life! Normally I am scared but know I will get through it but not now! In this situation there is nothing that I feel comfortable about and there is no one there to lean on, AHHH! I just wanted to let you all know that as happy as I am and as much fun as I am having here, I am also SCARED out of my mind! Mommy, Daddy….

I have a couple of funny stories…

Number one actually happened today while I was in Antigua with two of my guy friends! We were walking along and we happened upon a group of 6 men trying to unload a “tuk tuk” (a mini cab like thing)! Being the nice guys that my friends are they offered to help unload this “tuk tuk” from the truck! I thought it was the most hysterical thing that I might have experienced here! I could not resist taking pictures so here they are…

Number two: Some volunteers stumbled upon this dive bar in Antigua who always has really cheap deals on beer! With our limited income (Q26.00/ day durning training, which is equal to $3.75/day) we were totally excited and have become frequent (once a week) customers! We had an afternoon free this week and decided to grab a cold beer. When we got there they were having a special, two beers for Q8 which when you change that to dollars, we were drinking $0.53 beers! I just thought that some people back home, aka my friends and brother, would find that amusing!
I cannot believe it is almost Thanksgiving, WOW! If I do not get to post again before then I want to wish everyone a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! I will be thinking about all of you and safe travels to all! And to my family I love you and miss you (P.S. Eat a lot for me and make sure to do a lot of shopping on Friday for me!)