viva la ñ

It has been a lovely week! Let's see.... what have I been up to?

Tuesday we went out to dinner with Heather and an ex-volunteer from England who was about to leave the country after traveling for a month. It was a cute dinner, except for the fact that there was another monsoon going on as we ate and we had to walk a lot through it. Then it took us about 20 minutes to find a taxi to take us home. Yesterday (Wed.) we got our new housemate, Raphael! He is from France and speaks hardly any English or Spanish. My improv sign language has improved a lot since yesterday. However, he is already picking up on a lot so I have faith that he will continue to improve. Sunday our other housemate from England arrives. We are hoping he speaks French. For now we have Heather who was a French major to help us get by! Wednesday nights are traditionally old movie night at the Ex-Convent of Carmen, which is about 10 minutes from our house. We met Heather and Lisa for drinks beforehand at a nearby restaurant and then walked down to the Ex-Convent. The movie was "Then Comes September" with Rock Hudson. I was expecting it to be good in a sad, weird way because all of the other movies we have seen have been Tennessee Williams based. However the July schedule for Wednesdays is full of Rock Hudson and Dorris Day happy movies! Yay! I recommend it, it was really a great, cute, romantic movie! Tonight we are skipping Salsa in an effort to save pesos and just meeting at a bar to hang out with Heather and some other volunteers. This weekend we are going to the GDL Zoo (Sat.) and to Tequila (Sun.) which is 1 hour from GDL.

We also got some amazing news that we are 95% sure to spend 5 days at the Turtle Camp in Tecoman. We have to pay $10 USD a night to stay and for food and then for our bus ticket. We also have to find sleeping bags, but we think we will be able to borrow them. We'd be there the 14th-20th approximately. There we would help with the wildlife conservation and live the life of the PA Turtle Camp. It is a whole new world down there... It is on the Pacific but we can't go in the water because the current is too strong. Heather visited a few weeks ago and went into her ankles and almost got pulled under. However, you sleep in a sleeping bag or in a hammock on the beach and get extremely tan. I think it will be an incredible experience, and is really worth the money. I will be so poor after this summer, but the experiences have all been worth it. We are also going to Puerto Vallarta for 3 days, so we need to save our money for that too! But I'd go with Emily (roommate), Andy (my new Scottish big brother - he went to Morelia with us) and Mel (British med. student). It will be amazing if we can go.

Work this week has been veryyyy slow, which is a good thing when you consider that children NOT being there means they are getting better. But it has given us time to get to know the nursing staff better and to meet new children. The days are really boring if they are slow and there are few children there. When the only kids there are asleep or are too sick to want to play, we usually leave early. But I continue to make friends with these children (which makes it all the harder to leave them). The nursing staff at the center is so amazing. They are some of the best nurses I have ever met (except you, Mom!) and have such compassion for the children. They are also really nice and help us out with any questions we have and give us great travel advice on where we should go. Next week a lot of our "usual" kids are coming back (they are on the same cycle) and it will be a lot better. Regardless, I am happy to go and to make any child's treatment a little easier and more enjoyable.