My New Digs

My bedroom

Life in La Ceiba reminds me so much of my time in Monterrey, Mexico.  Similar house and similar neighborhood, although Monterrey is a much bigger city.

I am living in one of the nicer neighborhoods in La Ceiba.  Middle class at least.  The houses are pretty typical: one story, tiled floor, lots of Jesus paraphernalia.  Our house and gate are pink. Very pink, which is nice for identification purposes.  I am sharing a room for the week with a Swiss girl.  She is working on a project in the mountains and is in Ceiba taking language classes for only a week.  Her spanish is VERY limited and her english is only slightly better so my heart goes out to her frequently.  The living room and dining area are kind of an open format in the house and there is a tiny kitchen off of the dining area.  In the kitchen is a cooktop hooked up to a propane tank.  There is one bathroom in the house, and the shower water is FREEZING!!! Which is actually a welcome relief from the daily heat.  No working sink, but we just brush our teeth in the shower and rinse it down with water.  The biggest challenge is that the entire city is on water rationing-so our water is turned off every night from 9pm-5am.  Makes it tricky for that late night potty break.

Stove

Living Room/Dining Room

The shower--we store water in the buckets for late night rationing time

Kitchen

My temporary family is great.  My "mama", Gloria, is a former teacher.  I have a "brother", Alex, who is 21.  He is in school part time and teaches part time at the high school.  I also have 3 "sisters", Pamela, Susan and Aldita.  Pamela is 22 and works at a preschool.  Susan is 14 and in 8th grade and Aldita is 9 and has Downs Syndrome.  I love being part of a bigger family and find myself thinking a lot about what it would have been like to have stepped into the middle of my family as a ex-pat.

I started school on Monday and I love it!  It's pretty intense-only me and my teacher, Karla, but she is awesome!  We tell funny stories, she is an elementary school teacher too, and talk about pop-culture topics and music.  I think I am going to get so much out of my time with her.  She studied linguistics in college and likes to tell me about the roots and origins of the words which is fascinating to me as well.  I leave school every day with my brain hurting, and I think that's a good thing!

Thats all for now. Internet is very slow here, in fact some days its non-existant all over town, and I have homework to do!  Love to all!