Day 2 - so far so good.

My 1st full day here in Maturin - actually pretty un-eventful. Everyone is on vacation so things are pretty quiet around here which is a good thing and a bad thing at the same time. Good because I have time to start adjusting and just relax bad because it gives me way too much time to think. I took a tour of the school buildings today and of the inside of the church. Talked with an old friend for a little while, Casto and Marlene took me out for lunch - we had soup it was pretty good - it was a broth with squash type thing, yuka, meat still on the bone...took a nap, later on went to 'el centro' Sigo. It's like a mall with a super market inside as well. Paul, Sue, and Eddie gave me a tour of Maturin - the 'inner city' with lots of stores, little street vendors, lots of traffic, and lots of people. Looked for a 'good' place to get a cell phone and coverage plan but didn't find one. For dinner Paul took us to "calle hambre" Hungry street for completos - hot dogs with ketchup, mustard, mayonase (sp?) green peppers, cabbage, and potato chip pieces on top.
It's going to take me a while to adjust to shopping, calculating prices for stuff, and getting around. Travel, streets, seems really confusing to me right now all the streets look the same to me. Even though I have been here before everything is different. I have a lot to learn, language, relationally, building new friendships, finding people to hang out with, how to buy stuff, where good places to shop are, how to get around, learn about education here in Venezuela - expectations they have for their teachers, taking classes at the seminary here. . . etc I feel kinda lost right now with no one close to talk to and talk things through - I'm sure that will change as time goes on and things are back to normal around here. It is going to be hard right now b/c I am 1 person expected to fill the place of 2 people - Emily and Lori the 2 VISA missionary girls that were here. . . . . we will see!