Friday, September 19, 2008
Caripe pics
Mountains surrounding Caripe
A hotel, built into the mountainsWe stopped here just to take pictures
Caripe
The Cave of the Guacharo
Opening a bank account..... and other big news for the week
I received my first paycheck on the 10th of this month, which meant it was time to open my bank account and we were able to get around to it this week. Fortunately the banks in the malls are open until 9 at night, so Cesar was able to accompany me and help out with translation after work. Tuesday night we went to the bank to open my account and waited in line for about an hour and a half, only to find out that the school had made an error in the letter I was to present to the bank in order to open the account (they left out a couple of numbers from my passport). Soooo, we were told we could come back the next day and bypass the line. Well, that was the plan for Wednesday evening, but the power was out throughout the city until about 9 that night, so it didn't happen then. Last night, Thursday, we were finally able to make it to the bank, open my account, and deposit my checks. After 3 attempts to fill out my deposit slip, we finally did it right. The first time around I filled everything out just right, but slipped up when I heard setenta (70) and accidentally wrote sesenta (60). So we had to start all over again and the the person working at the bank gave it a try - he messed up too so Cesar filled out the form and I finally made the deposit. I celebrated by going to the grocery store..... bread, muenster cheese, milk, eggs, apples, avocado, watermelon, crackers, frozen strawberries to make juice, bubble gum, and this may surprise you..... dulce de leche flavored ice cream = 149.30 BsF., or about US $70. I will enjoy every bit of it! Also some big news..... I took a taxi on my own for the first time yesterday, managing to get where I wanted and conversing (in Spanish of course) with the taxi driver the whole way there. Other than that, there's no school today, so I have the day off - yay!
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
It's about time......
It's about time I finally set up a blog to keep everyone updated on what I've been doing in Venezuela, so here it is! I've done my best to pass on what I've done up to this point, but a blog may work better..... I will try to post pics and stories about what I've been up to here as frequently as possible.
So far I've seen a little bit of Caracas (the capital of Venezuela) and Puerta la Cruz, explored the Cave of the Guacharo, camped out at Puy Puy, a remote beach on the Caribbean coast, and most recently hiked upriver to Puertas de Miraflores and stayed the night in a cabin in the mountains surrounding the small town of Caripe. The majority of my time has been spent in Maturin, a smaller city of about 450,000 people located in the eastern part of the country. We are now in the fifth week of school and I've gotten into the routine of waking up at 5:30 every morning, starting classes at 7:30, and heading home at 3:00. So far, work has been fun and I've learned a lot as I have never worked in a classroom before - last time I was in a first grade classroom, I was the one learning how to read and read numbers. Now I'm helping the kids learn their letter sounds, adjust to classes taught all in English, etc.....
So far, just to name a couple of things that have surprised me are: the price of gas and the number of power outages. Cesar can fill up his tank for about US$1. And as energy-rich as Venezuela is, power outages are frequent due to a weak infrastructure. Sometimes it just can't handle the demand. Another big shock for me at first was the difference in how people speak here. I still find it hard to keep up with conversations for two reasons: in this part of the country people can speak extremely fast, and there is a lot of new vocabulary as people use a lot of slang that is distinctly eastern Venezuelan. So I am doing my best to improve my comprehension, and I hope to gradually be able to keep up with the conversations - maybe one day I'll be able to join in!
I hope to post pictures soon.
So far I've seen a little bit of Caracas (the capital of Venezuela) and Puerta la Cruz, explored the Cave of the Guacharo, camped out at Puy Puy, a remote beach on the Caribbean coast, and most recently hiked upriver to Puertas de Miraflores and stayed the night in a cabin in the mountains surrounding the small town of Caripe. The majority of my time has been spent in Maturin, a smaller city of about 450,000 people located in the eastern part of the country. We are now in the fifth week of school and I've gotten into the routine of waking up at 5:30 every morning, starting classes at 7:30, and heading home at 3:00. So far, work has been fun and I've learned a lot as I have never worked in a classroom before - last time I was in a first grade classroom, I was the one learning how to read and read numbers. Now I'm helping the kids learn their letter sounds, adjust to classes taught all in English, etc.....
So far, just to name a couple of things that have surprised me are: the price of gas and the number of power outages. Cesar can fill up his tank for about US$1. And as energy-rich as Venezuela is, power outages are frequent due to a weak infrastructure. Sometimes it just can't handle the demand. Another big shock for me at first was the difference in how people speak here. I still find it hard to keep up with conversations for two reasons: in this part of the country people can speak extremely fast, and there is a lot of new vocabulary as people use a lot of slang that is distinctly eastern Venezuelan. So I am doing my best to improve my comprehension, and I hope to gradually be able to keep up with the conversations - maybe one day I'll be able to join in!
I hope to post pictures soon.
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