10 August 2007

Second Weekend and All’s Better

My second weekend started off with a fun happy hour with the new teachers, our HR contacts, and some of the returning teachers. After my first weekend, I think people were worried about me, so my principal assigned me a new host ‘mom’—Ana Maria, who actually came to find me during the math institute. She called me Thursday night to tell me that she’d been told there was a happy hour planned and she would pick me up at 6:00 to go. It was nice to have a ride.

Saturday morning I went downtown to Parque Bolivar with 4 of the returning teachers for the San Alejo ‘craft’ fair, which is held the first Saturday of each month. It’s a huge fair, with vendors from all over the area. There were so many awesome things I wanted to get, but I held myself back and only bought a few note cards and some homemade candles.

On the way home, I decided to check out another one of the nearby malls. I treated myself to lunch at a little pizza place where the waiter spoke English and was very helpful (I told him that the next time I come in, I’ll speak Spanish.) Afterward, I grabbed a few groceries and headed out to catch a taxi to get home. I can’t remember the exact number, but no less than 5 cabs told me they wouldn’t take me. Since I couldn’t understand what they were saying, I don’t have any idea what the problem was. I was pretty frustrated, but determined to take a taxi all by my berry self. Finally, a woman and her parents, who had also been waiting a long time for a ride, beckoned me to ride with them. The driver wasn’t sure about my location, but he took me to a nearby hotel and told the doorman there that he needed to find a cab that knew where my place was. I finally got home nearly an hour after I started trying.

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