The Dust Is Starting To Settle

¿Que tal amigos? We are finally here in our humble town and officially beginning training. Let´s just say that beginning a new life somewhere foreign has been a bit different than travelling. Overwhelming may be an appropriate word.

Our trip to D.C. was awesome, Brian´s uncle Dennis showed us around town and we spent much quality time with Brian´s sister´s family: Jenny, Joe, Payton and Owen. Nephews are a blast!! I got in trouble in front of the Department of Education building for taking a picture, but I´m posting it here and thus calling the photo: ¨No teacher left behind¨

We are in a small barrio an hour outside of Lima. There are lots of hills that are completely barren, only rock, as it is a desert here and apparantly never rains. Our host family is amazing! They love to joke (most of them over our language deficient heads) and laugh all of the time. We´ve spent hours every night talking together. They have four kids, two boys and two girls, ages 1, 3, 8, and 13. Brian and I have our own room that is quite nice with a bed, dresser and desk. We do have electricity and running water, although no hot water. Quick showers!!

Since we are immersed in Spanish every day at home, plus language lessons that are all in Spanish, plus Spanish training sessions, we´re doing relatively well and improving each day. It can be quite frustrating to speak like a three year old, but I hope that within three months we´ll be ready to rock.

Sorry about the photo technical difficulties, I can´t figure out how to put them where I want with captions. Brian is in our room, and the other is of the training center where we spend our days.

We love you all!!