Per the once a month phone call rule, I called and spoke to Bethany for about 30 minutes today. She sounded decidedly happier and more relaxed about her stay in Venezuela. She caught me up on what school was like and the friends she is making (mostly boys). She gets up around 5 am every day to get to school by 6:50 am. It doesn't take her that long to get ready, and the school isn't that far away. She says the traffic is terrible and they spend a lot of time in the car trying to get anywhere. Her day is spent at school in "salons" made up of classes of students who have been together since grammar school. They have PE only once a week b
ut they have a "recess" every day during which they can eat a snack. She says she loves the epanadas and that the avocados, some bigger
than grapefruits, are practically given away because they're so plentiful. Sounds like heaven to me!Below is a post that she wrote for her Facebook profile. She said she forgot how to post to her blog so I guess she's writing about her experiences on Facebook.
Mì primera mes en Venezuela (My first month in Venezuela)
Hello everyone stuck in the boring United States! It has been one month since I arrived in Venezuela and I can't believe it. It is absolutely beautiful here. I'm living in a house in the mountains in the city of Carrizal, which is about 30 miles (or 3 hours because of the monstrous traffic jams called colas) from Caracas. The temperature is always around 60 or 70, and it rains almost every day. My host family is absolutely awesome. My host father is chubby and funny, his name is Ezequiel. My host mother, Milagros, is what the Venezuelans refer to as bochinche, which as far as as I can tell means party animal, she loves to dance and talk until around three in the morning. I also have a host sister, Maria Luisa, who is quiet and shy, but we get along very well.
I started school two weeks ago and I am so happy! The school is a big and very well kept Catholic school, with about five hundred students. The kids learn in salons, which is like a homeroom, and the salons have been together since the first year of school. The students accepted me whole-heartedly, and I already have costillas (which literally in Spanish means ribs, but is a saying for really good friends). This weekend is already totally full, and on Monday we´re going to the movies. An interesting thing about school is the way girls and boys interact, boys and girls who are friends will hold hands, give each other massages, stroke each other's hair, etc. It took me a while to get used to, but now I feel comfortable.
The first two weeks here I was very homesick, since I was alone most of the time in a big house, and my Spanish was really bad, but since I've started school, the only thing I have to complain about are the mosquitoes, and the fact that all of you aren't here.
Venezuela, despite being a beautiful country naturally, is very run down. People litter all over the streets, there's graffiti on all of the buildings, and a lot of bad stuff goes down in the cities. For example, two teenagers were shot randomly on a bus in Los Teques (a town close to mine), I've been warned about a drug from Columbia that people touch you with and you lose your memory and free will, and basically do whatever that person says until the drug wears off. There's also a law here that if there are rooms in your house that nobody is sleeping in, anybody without a home can come in and live there. It's kind of a scary place, but also a welcoming one, because most of the people are so nice, and will give you the clothes off their back. Also, I'm never afraid because I'm never alone, I'm always with family or my friends.
So in summary: Venezuela-beautiful, host family-nice, school and friends-super awesome. I miss everybody lots! My phone number here is (removed for security reasons), but you should only call me once a month. I love you all!
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