Continuing the chronicling of my bathroom fears...

Although I’ve overcome pee stage fright, I cannot bring myself to go to the bathroom at night. This is not helping out my goal of staying hydrated, as I try not to drink water after 8pm, but I have a very good reason: our parrot. You may think, “Oh Megan it’s just a bird,” but wouldn’t you be scared if you went to the bathroom at 3am and heard “Hola, Amor??” I certainly am, but it’s something I’m working on. Also, there is a HUGE spider that stares at me while I'm in the bathroom. He makes me super nervous, like he's going to jump at me and I won't be able to do anything because I'm on the toilet... YIKES!
This week went a lot faster than last week, and if I’m lucky it will keep going fast. Our language teacher, Miguel, took us to Antigua on Saturday to get cell phones. After a few long conversations with a couple different providers, we picked “Plan Gringo.” (Gringo means white person) I’m not kidding, and I think it’s ridiculously funny! Side note – high five to PCVs who did this without technology – even my post office has been out of stamps since I’ve been here. Anyhow, Antigua was a nice city, lots of European and Americans, as well as pushy vendors. I will certainly be taking all of my visitors there for an excursion = )
Sunday was Dirk’s birthday, so after he killed the chicken for dinner, we all walked to the pool. It was beautiful – a tropical lagoon in the next village over! The pool is full of natural water fresh out of the mountain stream, so it’s a little cold. It was a nice excuse for me to get out of the pool, though, as I felt a little scantily clad… no one told me that most Guatemalan women don’t wear swimsuits, but shirts and shorts, so I have to say I probably reinforced a couple of stereotypes about American women.
Language class on Monday was pretty interesting. We went to the Women’s Artist Cooperative where they explained the patterns and colors of their weavings, as well as explained the traditional dress to us. We had a mock wedding, and, big news – I got married. Sorry I had to break the news to you all this way, but they move fast here in Guatemala = ) Really though, it was neat to understand the ceremony and the symbolism.
Tuesday was our weekly trip to Santa Lucia for the whole group training session. I got horribly bus sick on the way there and back – I feel like I’m 9 years old again. The only Dramamine I have here is drowsy, so I’m hoping my beautiful parents mail me some non-drowsy! (And if they wanted to throw a small bag of M&Ms in I wouldn’t be the least bit upset!) Yesterday I had a miserable headache and literally laid in bed the entire day. I was nauseous because it hurt so bad; I’ve never experienced it before and I didn’t do or eat anything out of the ordinary, so hopefully it was a one time deal.
Today we went on a field visit and hung out with a current Healthy Homes volunteer. It was nice to ask her questions and see what her typical day is, but it sounds like everyone in my program does something different, so odds are that my experience won’t be like hers.
I’ll leave you with the a bit of wisdom from this week’s Peace Corps training:
1.) Don’t get poop in your mouth.
2.) Try not to get pregnant.
3.) If you have unexplainable night time butt itches, you probably have pinworm.
I also am pretty sure I am now the expert on Diahrrea from all of this training, luckily not from experience, so if you have any questions, I’d skip Dr. Casey and come right to me = )

P.S. The pictures are: two from the pool, two from the top of my house, and one from Antigua. It only lets me post 5, so check out my flickr page for more (www.flicker.com/photos/megangokey).
P.P.S. Congrats to Patrick and Casey for finishing school!!!!!!! Wooohooooo!!!! I’ll be there in spirit!