a busy week

First of all, make sure you scroll all the way down because there are a lot of pictures that I posted yesterday and I want to make sure the time it took to upload all of those was worth it! Also, everything that I write about below has pictures that accompany it :).
The first set are from our trip last Wednesday to San Salvador. We got to visit the Peace Corps headquarters there and met the Peace Corps staff, who were all so nice. It was cool to see that, as one of our trainers said, "we are about to enter into one of the coolest brotherhoods out there, the Peace Corps," exciting stuff.
Then we went to the huge mall in San Salvador which was really overwhelming because the mall really had everything you could want from the US (though everything American was more expensive, especially now that I am on a Peace Corps salary). On the one hand, it felt very exhilirating to eat sandwiches and drink good coffee, but there was a little part of me that was sad to know that I can´t really escape the US here (if that makes any sense). In any case, where ever I will be living will be far enough away from San Salvador that it will be more of a monthly (if I'm lucky enough) treat to come into town and taste American products rather than a normal part of my life.
There is a lot more to tell, but I really have to get home soon so I will try and sum things up.
Last weekend was really fun. On Saturday, we went back into San Salvador again to go to the anthropological museum there. This time we were unaccompanied by the PC staff, we had to navigate the buses by ourselves, which was quite the feat considering how chaotic the city is and how random the bus lines and stops seem. I was quite proud of us! The museum was not too impressive, but it was fun to travel outside of our little community here again. I had been feeling a little frustrated that I had been in the country for three weeks without seeing anything outside of this little town!
In the afternoon we headed back to our town in time to get to the wedding that was happening that day. Not all the host families were invited to it, apparently people tend to only invite others who are members of the same political party, which apparently my host mom was. The wedding was very beautiful and fun, though in order to get to the fun reception I once again had to sit through two hours of church.
In the evening, after a couple dances at the wedding, we all loaded into a minibus I had organized to take us to a neighboring town, where there was a PC party. This town was having its annual celebration to crown the queen of the town, which included a carnival and a giant party with live music. It was a ton of fun, because we finally got to drink and hang out together as one big group and we all had an amazing time dancing at the party. Oh how I love latin parties...
Our minibus took us home at 2am, where my host mom was still awake and waiting for me (I felt so bad), but she didn't seem to mind. The next day I, along with my friends Betsy and Stephanie got up early to go meet my friend Danielle from Seattle and her family in Suchitoto. They are visiting Danielle's sister down here and invited us to join them on their day trip. Suchitoto is a beautiful old colonial town on a lake, a couple hours north of where I am living right now. It was so nice to visit other parts of the country finally (I feel like I have been trapped in a bucket, I've been here for three weeks and only seen my town and just finally San Salvador!). Plus it was amazing to see Danielle and her family who so generously took us to lunch and invited us to go on a beautiful boat tour around the lake. We were supposed to be learning about the massacres that had occured around the lake during the Civil War, but our tour guide seemed more interested in talking about the birds that had migrated from Canada, which somewhat changed the tone of the boat tour.
All in all it was a wonderful weekend.

Today I am back at the training center for a full day of training. I am excited because we just found out where we are going this weekend for our "immersion trips" where we get to visit a current PC volunteer. This is not the same site we'll be placed in later on, but will give us a better sense of what current volunteers do (it is still somewhat of a mystery to me) and what kind of site we want to request to live in for two years. I feel really lucky because I was assigned to Chalatenango (in the hilly north, which should be much less hot than down here which is currently having record highs) and am going with my friend Betsy, which should be awesome. We are planning to go to the beach on Saturday on our way home too, I am dying to go swimming already.

Anyways, I must get home for dinner, but love to all of you and again, I would love to hear from you if you guys have the time.