It´s no big deal...Uh huh...

Hey, everyone! Ok, so here is my big excitement for the week:

Right after I got here (3 weeks ago), there was this miniature earthquake. So I wake up in the morning, and my family is like, "Did you feel the earthquake last night?" I was like, "No. There was an earthquake?" And they were like, "Yeah. It was pretty big. Everyone woke up." Well, as we all know, I can sleep through anything. But none of my stuff was on the floor, so I didn´t think much of it. But...this little "temblor" (I used the quotes for the AIA folks) caused one of the volcanos next to me (there are 2) to start pouring out gray smoke from its crater. So that made me a little tense. But everyone was like, "Oh, there´s no need to worry. That hasn´t erupted in like 100 years." Uh huh. So, we all happily went on with life...me being tense and nervous about it and everyone else trying to calm me down. So...let´s fast forward now to 3 days ago. The smoking volcano decided to get a little more active. The lava started appearing in the crater, the temperature of the lake 5-10 kilometers away started heating up, and the LOCALS started getting nervous. So I wake up 2 days ago, and my family is all of a sudden saying, "Oh geez. This is a really dangerous place to be right now. The volcano is ´waking up´." That´s what they say...waking up. Well, is it me, or doesn´t a volcano ´wake up´ when grey smoke starts pouring out of it?? So this is all of a sudden all over the news 24/7. They´ve evacuated a 5-10 km radius around it and moved all of the people in that radius to outside my high school. So I guess it´s kind of good that the safety zone is in my town, but I´m not so hip on the fact that I´m within the 20 km radius. The Peace Corps security officer called me (and all of the other volunteers close to the volcano) to tell me that I´m safe now, but I need to carry my cell phone 24/7 and answer it if it rings. So good news for all of you...if you call, I´m guaranteed to answer. :) Anyway, I guess I might get some good photos for all of you in the near future... :)

So...besides the whole potential for natural disaster and losing my life, I´ve been having the same fun...you know...crazy bus rides, getting stranded in other states, meeting new friends, and celebrating Independence Day here! Just your normal day to day stuff. :)

Oh...you want more info? Ok.

So last Saturday, I went to Santa Ana (2nd largest city in the country located in the state north of me) to attend a regional IT meeting with technology teachers from all over the area. It was a great meeting (even though we arrived about a half an hour before it ended due to another meeting running over in my site), but I was able to meet tons of cool people that I think could potentially help me in my site. So that was awesome. But...the meeting ended at 5:30, and I asked one of the locals, "When does the last #205 bus leave?" He said, "I´m pretty sure it´s 7, but you should try to catch the 6 to be on the safe side." No problem, right? Uh huh. (My new 2 favorite words...uh huh.) So I get to the bus stop at 6:10. (OK. I admit it. I stopped for a chicken sandwich at Wendy´s. Really, how many times can I do that here??) So anyway, when I got to the bus stop, I waited. And waited. And waited. After an hour and 5 minutes of waiting, I now know every possible bus that stops in front of Metro Centro in Santa Ana. And I also know that the #205 does NOT stop there then!! So here I am, stranded in another state, in the dark, with all kinds of crazies standing around. (I´m sure they weren´t too crazy, but in my position, I treated them as they were.) So, I called Jared, another volunteer in my group that lives in Santa Ana...who had his girlfriend visiting. Great timing by me, as always. Quality time with the significant other can be spent with Michelle in the room, right? :) Anyway, so I called him while he was at dinner with Josephine (so there was no answer, of course). So I walked back into the mall, and just "hung out" (again, for the AIA folks) for a while. As the mall was getting ready to close, I decided I should call him again since sleeping outside the mall on the sidewalk filled with crazies didn´t sound too fun. :) This time, he picked up, and we were able to meet up and thank goodness, he was willing to give me a couch to sleep on for the night. I would normally just treat this as a new fun adventure, but I felt TERRIBLE because I was supposed to have a pajama party with a group of the high school girls. They had been talking about it for the last 2 weeks, and now here I was stuck in Santa Ana. What a bummer! But I did, as I mentioned, get to spend some quality time with Jared and Josephine, so I guess it´s ok. :) Anyway, the next morning, I got up, went back to Metro Centro. And waited. And waited. And waited. Uh huh. You guessed it. An hour and 15 minutes later, no bus. (I´m thinking that bus doesn´t stop there on the weekends....takers?) So I took another bus to the terminal, and then walked to where there was a bus to where I needed to go. A short 4 hours after waking up, I arrived at my house to find I missed one meeting and was late for the next. So Sunday was CRAZINESS!! But...after all that...there is one AWESOME piece of info. Even though I managed to aquire yet another CRAZY bus story (I know, I´m wondering how I can possibly still be having these too!), with getting stranded in a different city and all, I NEVER got on the WRONG bus!! So...we´re making progress down here! :) And...later in the week, I was talking to Jared about the whole volcano situation, and we had the funniest conversation. I´m going to try to transcribe it as close as I can because I could NOT stop laughing!!

JARED: "Hey, by the way, did you meet a woman outside my apartment the day you left?"
MICHELLE: "Yeah. She wanted to sell me jewelry."
JARED: "Well, she came to my house looking for you. At first I was like, ´What is this woman talking about?´ Then, she started describing the woman and I realized it was you and I said, ´Oh, she lives in San Isidro´ and I invited her in but she just looked at me funny and left. But all I could think about when I realized she was talking about you was, ´JESUS CRIST! Michelle comes to my community for ONE night and she already has more friends than me!"

Anyway...I found it pretty funny. :)

Oh, and I found out that starfruit grows on trees here! How cool!

And lastly, Independence Day here is September 15th, so the little kids have a little parade on the 14th, and the high school kids march in the parade on the 15th. (And I should say that means we all meet at the high school at 4 AM to start marching through the streets to wake everyone up!)

That´s about it for now! I miss you all very much!!

Talk to ya soon!