This is it...

The adventure started early on Saturday morning at 6:58am BACT (Bedside Alarm Clock Time). I didn't know it at the time, but 6:57am would be my last minute of sleep in the States for quite some time. Saturday/Sunday was a long day of preparation - Preparing to distance myself (more physically than emotionally) from relationships at home, preparing to enter into new relationships abroad and, of course, last minute preparation that involved getting my suitcase down from 57lbs to 49.5lbs.

I was almost numb saying goodbye to my fellow volunteers headed to Peru, my sister Katherine and my parents at the airport on Sunday morning. Saturday's goodbyes left me almost without more tears to cry. On Saturday, I had to say goodbye to my sister Sara, bro-in-law Brian, Nick, Makayla, Cat, Todd and Julia and anyone else that I managed to get in touch with that day.

Even then, it didn't really hit me until I was laying on my bed in my host family's house here in Granada just how long 18 months is. There's a lot to be afraid of, a lot to look forward to and a lot to learn.

The first couple of days have been a whirlwind. On Sunday, the city was closing out a weeklong fiesta with a "hípico", or parade of horses. They parade about 3,000 horses from all over down the main drag in Granada, La Calle Xalteva. I got tired around 4:30, when it occurred to me that I had been standing in the sol for a solid hour of the two hours we were there, and I didn't have sunscreen on. My host-dad took me back to the house, and, after about an hour of re-arranging my suitcases so I knew where things were and writing a few things in my journal, I crashed. I slept about 11 and a half hours.

At the school, we are doing volunteer work in the morning and then having language class all afternoon. In the morning, we will probably be helping kids with homework, but since they didn't have much from the last week (when the fiesta was going on), we basically just hung out with them, playing soccer, cards (Uno!) and Sherrades (hmmm...bad spelling). Today, we went about 10 minutes outside the town to these islands that were formed by the volcano erupting some time ago. It ended up forming about 300 little islands (isletas) that people have turned into vacation housing or a business place/housing. We hung out there with the about a dozen of the kids and a few instructors from the school for a few hours, swimming and hanging out. One of the nearby islands is the isleta de los monos, aptly named for its primary inhabitants. I think the monkeys had one too many foreign visitors, because when we swam up, I think they were waiting for food.

Then in the afternoon, instead of classes, they decided it would be good to take us to San Juan del Oriente (at least I think that's where we were) to get a look at how the people there make their ceramics. We got to take a shot at forming some sort of bowl or vase or anything resembling useful ceramics. I failed miserably, and I think most people in the group struggled as well. It was entertaining. I hope we stay in class tomorrow. I think I'd like to keep on with the Spanish classes instead of the all-day excursions. I think that was just a one-day thing anyway.

It's crazy to be somewhere where everyone speaks Spanish again. We've all been pretty good about speaking in Spanish amongst our gringo selves, so hopefully that will continue. I'm enjoying the time here as something different. My clock gets unplugged in the morning to save electricity, so I set the time every night before I go to bed. Just something foreign to me I guess. Got me to thinking that if everyone did that in the States with many appliances, it might save a lot of energy. But that's the idealist in me talking.