People Pics

As requested by family members, here´s some pictures of Brian and I at our swearing in ceremony. (Don´t worry mom, I did have a nice skirt on for the ceremony but changed as quickly as possible due to the 8 million bug bites I acquired on my legs during the ceremony.) Yes, we´re now official Peace Corps Volunteers. Everything was going well until our host family started crying as we left. It was really sad, as they are the reason why we stayed healthy and happy these past three months. We´ll miss their laughs and all of their genuine kind support.... The pictures are of us with either training faculty, Chosica neighbors, or other volunteers (the bottom is our host family and the guy in th red shirt is the daughter´s boyfriend).

Top Three Spanish Words

My three favorite words.....they just don´t have an equivalent in English without laboriously explaining yourself!!

3) Falta
·used for just about everything, kind of means that something is lacking. For example: ¨falta mas¨ = we have more to go, or ¨falta tres¨ = there´s three left, or ¨falta Brian¨ = Brian´s not here, or ¨falta esos¨ = these aren´t right yet.....etc. Pretty useful, hugh?!?

2) Demorar
·means the amount of time something takes or lasts. For example: ¨Angela demora mucho¨ = Angela taks a lot of time, or ¨quanto demora¨ = how much time will it take? One word for an entire phrase in English - exciting!!!

1) Aprovechar - the absolute best word in Spanish!!! I just love it because it´s so forward-looking and positive.
·means to take advantage of something in a positive way (well, mostly positive). For example: ¨aprovecha el tiempo¨ = use time to your advantage, or ¨aprovecha el sol¨ = enjoy the sun while you still have it, or in my case, ¨aprovecha el Peru¨ = do everything I can to make sure I get the best out of Peru possible.

*****DISCLAIMER****** My deepest apologies to all of my fluent Spanish speaking friends who will probably say that I have no clue whatsoever about the Spanish language and that I´m completely misusing my favorite words. But, as Helen The Linguist knows, I can aprovechar my right to turn their meanings into anything I want since language is subjective anyway! :)

Enjoy!!!