Let’s Stop Talking About It and Just Do It Already!

Tuesday (8/28) night was my last night the USA.

After turning in all of our paperwork, we finally transitioned from Invitees to Trainees.  In Washington DC, we spent some time at the Mexican consulate and cultural center.  I had my last American dinner at a really nice café (brie Panini and sweet potato fries).  We traveled all day Wednesday to get to Querétaro (bus, airplane, airplane, bus).  We were all pretty exhausted by the end of the day.

Today was our first real day as Trainees.  We met the entire Peace Corps/Mexico staff and got a tour of the office.  We a really delicious lunch and the staff came out to eat with us.  We also had our first Spanish class in our small groups.  The instructor spoke only (mostly) Spanish to us, which I was really pleased with.

The last item on the agenda was to meet our host families.  They picked us up from the office and took us all back to our houses.  I have a bedroom with a king size bed and my own bathroom.  I was able to have a light dinner (cereal!) and spend some time getting to know my new family.  When I first got to the house, I felt really alone.  I’ve gotten used to being part of a large group and we’ve all gotten to know each other pretty well.  Suddenly, I was in this house all by myself trying to get by on my broken Spanish.  Everyone is so nice and the kids are really silly.

Tomorrow I will try to get myself to the office for the first time.  I have a 15-20 minute walk from the house to the office.  This should be interesting.  At least they gave me a map (thanks Google!).