I am getting progressively worse at updating

Sorry about that... I'm just too busy! I guess that's a good thing, right? I feel like I've hardly had time to get homesick because I'm always doing stuff and out with people.

Let's see... in the past month I have been traveling a bit more within the country (because my passport is still in Caracas to get my work visa sorted out). I went to Merida, a city in the Andes mountains, with about 10 other teachers from the school and some other friends. The weather is much cooler there (about 50-60 degrees... 70 on some days) and it was so wonderful to wear jeans and a sweatshirt! It finally felt like November to me. But who am I kidding... Wisconsin in November is rarely 50 degrees! I'm sure I will be shocked when I get off the plane in Milwaukee in December! In the mountains I did paragliding, where I was strapped to a trained person and jumped off a mountainside with a parachute! It was incredible. It wasn't even scary at all! You kind of just run off the mountain and then your feet aren't on the ground but you're at the same height, then you just float and twirl for about 20 minutes until you're on the ground at the bottom of the mountain. It was a really great experience and I would definitely do it again! We walked around the city and did some shopping at a market. We also went to a world famous ice cream store which is in the Guinness book of records for having the most flavors! They have nearly 800 types.... some of which are pretty weird! I had black bean and rice ice cream one day, and plantain and cheese another day. Here a plaintain cake with cheese melted on it is a popular street snack, and beans and rice are good too, so the combos made sense to me! :) They tasted pretty good too! I could taste the bean and rice and whatnot, but it was still sweet so it was yummy.

Last weekend I attempted to go to Morrocoy National Park with two other friends from school. It is supposed to have some of the best beaches in the country and very clear, blue water. The pictures of it look gorgeous so we were really excited!! When we got there it was pouring rain but we hoped for better weather in the morning. Unfortunately it didn't stop, and the power kept going on and off as a result of the storm! Soon there was a puddle in our room from all the water, and somehow amongst all of this water, our hotel's water pump broke and we didn't have any water for about 12 hours. We stayed for one more day hoping that the weather would clear up but it never did. The people at our hotel helped us to find a guy to drive us back to the city. We discovered that two bridges had washed out and the main highway was flooded so badly we could not pass, so we had to drive a completely different way through the mountains, which took about four hours more. We finally got back to the city safe and sound... and it was only Friday night so we still had a few days left to our vacation. We went to a health seminar at the park on Saturday morning and took a kickboxing and yoga class, and got a massage. We were going to go to the pool but then it started raining, AGAIN! Thankfully it was sunny today so I went to the pool and laid in the sun for a while... it was so nice and relaxing after a crazy weekend! I can't come back to the Midwest looking like I never left, you know. ;)

Well that about sums up the past few weeks. School goes on as normal and there are only three more weeks left in the semester! I know I have said it before but it just feels like time is not passing because the weather is pretty much the same every day. I am shocked that it will be December! The only thing that reminds me is the Christmas decorations. I have a tiny tree (I mean TINY, like the size of my hand) with teeny tiny ornaments, haha. It's all I could fit in my suitcase! ;) I also bought some white glittery thing to put around it to make it look like snow. I think my students went crazy for Halloween.... I can only imagine what will happen at Christmas!