Not Alone Anymore

Sunday I actually went to church with this girl Alma, who is a new teacher, and her roommates Julia and Karen who were here last year. It was awesome to be able to go to church, but it was kind of weird. The music was pretty good, even though I didn’t know the words, the songs, or what the words meant. I was madly using my Spanish-English dictionary, though. The sermon was pretty difficult to figure out, but I did recognize a few words here and there. I had a wonderful walk home afterward, and was able to check out a little bit more of my neighborhood. Or barrio, as we say here. Hee hee—I live in the barrio.

Sunday afternoon was made even better with the arrival of my roommate, Jenna. She’s feeling fine and doing fine after her stint in the hospital in Miami. It’s so nice to have someone else around. We’ve done a bit of exploring together, and our very broken Spanish is at least entertainment for the folks around us. The porterias recognize us and are ready to dial when we come out to their booth. Of course, the one downfall to having a roommate so far is that I find myself staying up late chatting instead of sleeping. Which makes the morning come that much sooner. It’s been tough being on the bus at 6:45, but thankfully it’s light out and will continue to be light out at that time through the year (the whole living-on-the-equator thing). It could be worse.

Not only has my roommate livened things up here, she helped me figure out how to call the US from my home phone, without even using a calling card. Of course, I’ll probably have to sell a kidney when the bill comes, but it was worth it to talk to mom and dad!