2011 woo hoo!

Soooo MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR’S! 2011 is finally here! I am not sure where I left off, so I apologize if I repeat some stuff.
A QUICK RUN DOWN OF HOLIDAY EVENTS
We had the honor of being witnesses in our host sister’s wedding a few days before Christmas. It was a small ceremony in her house. Lots of eating and merry making. Matt danced with all the ladies.
Christmas was super tranquila—all we did was eat and cook and make ourselves stay awake until midnight to say Merry Christmas. Santa definitely did not visit our house, but everyone seemed happy nonetheless. We g ave our family a picture frame and it sits in the kitchen. They put pictures of family they have in the States in it.
We then made a New Year’s trip to go see our prior host families in Masaya. We stopped off for a quick second in a different town on the way called Jalapa to visit with an English professor we know there. Her family was amazing and kind and showered us with food and coffee and earrings and other small treasures before we left. I also got to visit my counterpart who doesn’t live in my site---and I needed the help of this professor to be able to find where she lived…needless to say, there is no direct bus there. Her family also insisted on feeding us bread and coffee and then cooking us a big lunch. It was then off to Masaya, to return to the beginning so to speak. It was great to see our old host families. We really celebrated the day before NY EVE more than the 31st—it was San Sebastian Day? or something of the sort….it was sort of like Mardi Gras but more dangerous (-: what with all the burning bulls (made of wood and paper) and live fireworks in the streets—we danced with Matt’s host family in the street until 2am. We also had the chance to see some of the other volunteers and it was great to catch up with them. We made a quick trip down to the Laguna before heading back to our site—worn out but happy. It feels really good to be back in Quilali, though the bus ride to and from is still something….well, something.
We have been hanging out with our family and counterparts and went out to a different community yesterday with my counterpart to meet some of her other friends and swim in the river. Today we re-visited our friends down at the basketball court in the campo and it was great to see them again too. We have had lots of inquiries about English classes from adults and kids of all ages, so it should be interesting to see what groups we end up forming.
We leave again in just a few days to go to a training with our counterparts in Managua. I am excited to see everyone and have an official work function with my counterparts, but I don’t really feel ready to leave Quilali again yet! Guess that is a good thing!
We have been having lots of fun lately and I am constantly surprised at how welcome we are into every house we visit. The pace of life is certainly different in our site but we like it. I think every person we meet invites us to their farm! I start going to meetings for faculty etc. on January 17th, so the days of playing, meeting people, getting acquainted with my site, and studying Spanish are few and far between!
Hope everyone at home had a WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR’S! GO TCU!
LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!