Traveling the world is sweet. Working in a country where you cant communicate with people is another story.

So today has been very interesting to say the least.  I started my day by leaving the hotel (that I really couldnt afford and took a huge chunk out of my money) to head to a hotel I found that was more reasonable.  I had directions and a map, and it took me about 30 minutes to walk to this address with all of my baggage with me.  When I got to the address the door was unmarked and it was also abandoned so I walked back 30 minutes to the hotel (looking for wifi or an internet cafe the entire way) to see if my address was wrong.  I finally got back to the last hotel and checked the address, of course it was correct so my only option was to go back and see if I had missed it.  I walked back and still couldnt find it so I decided to keep walking on the street and finally found the hotel 3 more blocks up the street.  This "hotel" is actually just someones apartment but its still cheaper and its ok.

After checking in and relaxing for a few minutes i started my long walk to one of the schools I will be working at to meet with my teachers and talk about what I am supposed to do.  I got there and I met 4 teachers I will be working with, none of which really speak more english than a 2 year old except for the head of the english department of one of the school.  He speaks enough english that I can understand him but he doesnt understand anything that I say in english.  They were all really nice and we had a meeting for about an hour.  In this meeting they spoke to me in really fast spanish as though I would understand (even though I told them I do not).  I now know that I will be starting school on Monday and that I am supposed to have a "presentation."  I will be teaching kids from ages 3-16, many of which do not understand ANY english at all, and many of which have Spanish as a 2nd or 3rd language.

The head of the english department tried to help me find a place after the meeting, after they all seemed very suprised that I didnt have a place to live or a car.  He took me to the university where there are lots of international students and he basically found me a place I could move into right away; however this place was not only TINY! (which i would deal with in an instant) it was also about twice as much money as i could possibly afford and I would have to commit to a year.  He then took me to another place where they printed out a sheet of paper with about 200 different apartments available, some of which are within my price range.  I'll start calling these people relentlessly tomorrow.

My christmas break starts on the 24th of december, but they told me it was ok if i left on the 23rd so I wouldnt miss christmas.  I'm going to buy a ticket back to portland for the holiday as soon as my money transfers over to the correct account and I will be home from the 23rd till January 9th.

I can easily say this has/is going to be the most difficult thing I have ever done, but I think I'll get through it.  Things should sort of fall into place in the next week if I am able to find a place to live and get through the first few days of school.

That being said I have not taken any more photos.