I'm gonna go with Molly's title... Sorry for the book.. but its my first update in PR!

I wish I could tell you I was in the beautiful city of San Juan (or right outside it), but I can't. I'm here, but with this weather, it hasn't been beautiful. I refuse to take out my camera until the sun comes out! It's been in the 70s which feels nice, but this gloomy rain thing has got to go. And when it goes, it can take my allergies with it. My nose has been nothing but stuffy and I have done nothing but sneezing!

To back it up a bit, I came in on Saturday. My flights were good. The first one from Knoxville to Charlotte was a little rough, but luckily, it was only 30-40ish minutes. It was on a teeny plane with two seats on each side. Lucky for me, I sat next to a bigger gentleman, making me lean into the aisle a little bit. Just like in the movies though, I fell asleep and then someone walked down the aisle and hit my shoulder. Nice, huh?

So I got to Charlotte, which was a nice airport, and had about an hour and a half wait til my next flight. This one was a lot better. The day before when I checked in online, I changed my seat to a window so I can take some pictures (it was cloudy so that didn't happen). I sat next to a girl my age that was on her way to relax for Spring Break. We got to talk a lot and she happened to be from CA, which some of you know I'm applying for a job there. She was telling me how pretty that area was and how I needed to just go for it. She's studying in DC in International Politics. Crazy, right? I know. Anyway. She was sweet and it was good to talk to someone... as well as good to sleep during the flight!

Craig and Lindsay were there to pick me up. It was sooo good to see them. I'm so excited I get to spend this time with them and it's so comforting and such an enouragement to have them here as well. Like I said, it's been raining, so the drive wasn't too much to see. It all just looked so crummy. We dropped my stuff off at the apartment and went to the mall to go to Chili's for dinner. Okay.. When people asked me how I was going to do this teaching thing here, I kept saying, oh! It's an English instructed school.. no big deal. But what I didn't think as well is how everything else around me would be Spanish! The menu for instance. I could read like every other word so I figured it out, with Linds' help as well. But everywhere you go it's Spanish.. street signs, menus, receipts... and then you'll run into Puerto Ricans who speak better English than you. But it was a little bit of a culture shock because I wasn't thinking of the obvious.

Sunday we went to church... it's no Crossings, that's for sure. And I wasn't expecting it to be. It's a small church, the organ plays 2 songs and then the guitar and drums play 2 songs.. and that's because they can't agree, but that's another story. Craig preached though, so that was good.
We did some shopping at Costco and came home and all three of us slept the afternoon. It was kind of nice to nap. That evening we went to one of their friends' house to celebrate Lindsay's birthday. They are all super sweet and very welcoming. They made some kind of Puerto Rican steak on the grill, which was soo good. I think it's called... chureso? Or something along those lines. But I had a good time. It was nice to get to know everybody right away.

And today... it was my first day at school. I'm going to love these kids. One of them came up to me and started talking in Spanish and I just looked at him and smiled and then he was like, Are you from another country? And I laughed and said yeah.. so he got out a map and I showed him where.. then he said, You speak in Spanish? And I told him very little and he just laughed and said, hok. I talk to Ingles. haha.

The teacher's aid that's in there will not be in there while I'm there. She's on doctor's orders not to go back to work, so my teacher said it was like a blessing in disguise that I got to come be here. It was a little rough today, but we're meeting during their Spanish class first thing in the morning tomorrow to talk. So I kind find out what she expects of me, what I expect of her, etc. Hopefully it will get better than what it was.

Anyway. I won't keep writing a book. They'll be pictures soon, I promise. Maybe next weekend when the sun's out? And I can show you mi casa as well :]