Many changes

I have 10 minutes so I'll make this quick. Today we had our family fiesta to thank our families for putting up with us for so long. My family bought me a new shirt for it, which they shouldn't have done after feeding me and washing my clothes (even my underwear -- my host mom found where I was hiding it!) for months. I was one of the party organizers and despite last-minute rushing around everything went off without a hitch.

A bunch of us are going to the beach all day tomorrow, por fin.

This is my LAST WEEK as a Peace Corps Trainee. Friday I am sworn in as an official volunteer. Apparently the after party will be epic.

I know where my site is -- in the department of La Paz, pretty close to San Vicente and San Salvador, although not terribly convenient because it's up a mountain, so transportation takes longer than you would think. If you're looking at a map, it's a village close to Santa Maria Ostuma and San Pedro Nonualco. I will be working with two schools, a youth group and some other random community members. The site is apparently GORGEOUS and has a lot of fruit trees, especially pineapples. There are so many of those that the church has a pineapple on top of it instead of a cross. I was coincidentally already friends with the volunteer who's leaving that site and there will be a week overlap where we're both there and she can show me around and answer my questions.

I am a 7-hour bus ride away from my boyfriend. Yes, boyfriend. If you have seen facebook you know this already. He is another Peace Corps trainee. I won't waste a lot of this blog with gushy relationship postings, but expect hilarious stories about two Americans trying to date in El Salvador in a culturally appropriate manner (the ridiculous situations have already begun.)

A postscript to the state of Virginia: Thank you for making 22 Peace Corps trainees deliriously happy in San Vicente, El Salvador. I no longer hate you and promise to stop making fun of you forthwith.

Paz y amor. Write me!