Rojo significa nada en la noche

Que pasa hombres? This is the first chance I've had to just sit down and relajarse since I left Minnesota. So here is what I have been up to so far:

I left Minneapolis sunday around 3, and then went to Houston. I was very hungry and I thus ate a lot of Chinese food, from Panda Express or Fat Panda or something like that. Long turbulent flights and Airport Chinese food make for an unhappy stomach. So the layover in Houston (~6 hours) was pretty rough, but I spent some of it getting to know some of the other students in my group and some of it over the toilet. Waa! Our plane to Caracas left at midnight, and then we had about a 12 hour layover there. We didn't get to explore at all, but a very cool sight was flying into Caracas during a nice sunrise over through the clouds. It looked like someone stretched black cotton candy over a watercolor painting. Caracas, which is Venezuela's capital city and a good place to get kidnapped, was less gross than I imagined and looked pretty cool all nestled into the mountains.

From Caracas we flew an hour to El Vijia and then took a big bus ride to Merida, where I am now. It was a cool ride. Looking out of an open window at a lot of enormous mountains and trees with spanish moss is not something I have done in Madison or Minneapolis.

So I have been here for appx 48 hours but it feels much longer than that. The first night we (two minnesotans and I) were picked up by our Host Mama, a 70 year old retired woman, who taught us that because policemen don't work at night, and because there are many carjackers, nobody obeys red lights at night. We live in a small apartment that has a beautiful view of the city and los Andes, I will post photos when I have wifi good enough to do so. Her cooking is very good, though the cheese here has a subtle aftertaste that is reminiscent of gasoline. Besides that though, it really is delicious!

Yesterday we had our initiation at VEN-USA, my school. It is small, only about 4 stories and very small lengthwise, but it has a nice lounging room complete with an out-of-tune piano, hammocks, pool, ping pong, and bathrooms with toilet paper. All of these things are hard to come by elsewhere in the city. We were shown around town yesterday afternoon although I have yet to figure out how to get anywhere. The nice thing is, taxi rides cost about 20 bolivar or $2.20 so it is not as big a problem as it could be.

Today I had a long day of class (3 classes, 2 hours apiece). The details I am already forgetting but I have a very funny professor teaching two of my classes, so that's good. Those at school speak more clearly and I can have pretty decent conversations with them in spanish, but with others it is difficult. They don't pronounce the "s" at the end of their words and speak very fast. But I am picking things up faster than I thought.

This weekend I am hoping to do some sort of excursion that involves hanging from ropes off of a bridge (don't worry mother it is safe) and also there is a group trip planned for friday. It's been a blast so far, hope everyone reading this is doing well! Adios!