Back to Life. Back to Reality.

Well I`m back in Nicaragua. I know, I know...I`ve been here since Jan. 5th...but now my mind is back to Nica-mode, which is vastly different than vacation-in-America-mode. Shocked. I know. (Man, I know a lot in this entry!)

I was insanely busy when I first got back. So busy that I didn`t have time to transition back to life here. Now it`s happened. I went to my training on the beach. I was a camp counselor at another US Embassy sponsored English camp. I came back to my site. I cleaned my house. I washed my clothes.

Then I curled up in my hammock with six letters from home: one from my friend Claire and five from my dad.

That`s right, five. He writes me a letter a week and I love them. I don`t receive them weekly because my mailbox is in Managua and I don`t go there every week. He hasn`t missed a week yet and I`ve been here since September of 2009. Pretty impressive, right? There was one letter from before I went home, three from while I was home, and one from right after I left.

They were all touching, but the ones that really got me going were the ones from while I was at home. These letters reminded me of how terrific it felt to be home. You guys have no idea how much you mean to me. How much I miss you. How much you make me wish I could be in two places at once (and sometimes how much you make me wish I could make the one place I am to be with you instead of here). So...that night was a little melancholy (is that spelled right?) and 100% necessary. I was sad and lonely and homesick. So I went to sleep early.

Since I do plan on spending the next eleven months away from you, I`m going to make each month count. I still want to be here and I have a lot of work to do. My community classes are starting up again on the 15th (newbies!) and 16th (people from last year`s class!). My high school classes also start the 15th. It`s going to be a busy time. Then there are some projects my sitemate and I want to do. Life is going to be busy and fun.

One more thing: DOWN WITH THE STEELERS!