The adventure continues...

So my life in Maturin is going. It is slow... very, very slow and may continue to be slow for awhile.
Classes were suspended for an extra month so I will not begin teaching until November 16th (Happy Birthday, Kevin!!!). This means I have 1.5 months with no sort of direct work. WOW. I have been here 2 weeks and already feel like a bum, partially because I have not been able to open a bank account and have no money to do something like join a gym or enroll in a class. This means my activities are super limited and I am not around students and profes so it is slightly more difficult to make friends. This also means I am going to have to push myself to do things on my own. Crap... that is not always my strength (Thank you, Vanderbilt for babying me for the entirety of my college education.)


That being said, I am SO HAPPY to be here and feel this city is perfect for me. Big enough with enough to do but not too crazy.


Some parts of my Maturin life:


The interstate of doom:
Everyday I get to cross the street to my house anywhere from one to four times.This street is very special because it is more or less an interstate. People go quickly and there are no stop lights, so the traffic is pretty steady and fast. When I take the bus or get dropped off I generally get lucky and cross the street at times when other people cross with me. (This also means that it is generally during rush hour.) I feel we have an instant connection as anywhere from 2 to 10 of us huddle together and try to make it safely across. Sometimes we get honked at and sometimes we almost get hit, but so far, we have all made it across alive. ;) It is quite the experience.


FOOD:
My time here has revolved around food. Anytime I have gone out with people it has generally involved eating one time or many times and Señora Carmen is an amazing, amazing cook. Some things I have tried that are particularly delicious:
Arepas-- I eat these twice a day, at least. They are delicious corn cakes that you stuff with cheese, butter, beans, ham  and anything or everything else you want. (My current arepa count is 30 in total.)
Cachapa--Deliocious sweet corn pancake. I usually eat it with ham and cheese.
FRUIT JUICE: There are currrently two types of fresh squeezed fruit juice in the fridge. Piña (Pineapple) and Parchita (Passion Fruit). I have also had Melón (Canteloupe), Lechoza (Papaya), Mango and Guayaba (Guava) on a pretty consistent basis. I am a huge fan of juice, so you can imagine how I feel about this.
Tequeños-- Small fried cheese things. Like Mozzeralla sticks but different and equally delicious.
Frapachino: Ok, this is not venezuelan but I had the best one I have ever had here, so I just wanted to throw that out there.
Tizana- A delicious frozen fruit juice thing that tastes especially good when you are hot.






PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION:
As people may or may not already know, I am very passionate about public transportation. I love it and aspire to master it in any place I go. I have begun using public transport on a very regular basis and it is great here. The buses are the size of a short school bus, come in various colrs and levels of wear and have a colector who hangs out the side of the bus and takes your dinero. Some are really agressive, shouting the places the bus is going and beckoning you to get on while others are more quiet. I usually pick the first type to ensure that I do not get lost. The buses are 30 cents, so quite a bargain. They blast great music and tend to just miss get into several accidents in the course of one ride. To stop, you either have to hope your colector asks if anyone wants to stop (I did not understand the questions at first, so I missed my stop... oops....) or yell out  LA PARADA. I have only yelled it once and it made me nervous. They will pretty much stop anywhere and drop you off anywhere. There are also TONS of people who get on the bus to sell things. One day I counted 8 on the same bus within about 10 minutes of eachother, probably not the most effective way to get money. They juice sellers and the christians are the most prominent, though there are all people of all sorts. I have only mastered a few routes, but I am excited about learning more:)


I am pumped for the adventure to continue! I travel to Margarita next week for a week, get to go to an electronic music festival and then am going to see Maribel, another ETA in Cumaná the following weekend. 


I will keep the updates coming on my vida venezolana....