Rim of Fire

Not much to really update about since my trip to the field. Thursday and Friday was spent in the office. They are still getting me settled and figuring out exactly what I'll be doing so I wasn't too too busy. They did however give me a rough breakdown of my next few weeks which was pretty exciting...I am going into the field Monday-Tuesday again, TechnoServe training in the office Wednesday-Thursday, in the field Friday, again on Monday, again that Wednesday-Thursday, then I join a man from Boulder in the field doing research on biofuels for most of February! It's definitely going to be an exciting few weeks!

I think the most crucial update I need to share is my seating arrangements in the office. The first day I came into the office, I worked in the kitchen as they did not have a desk yet. By the end of the day, I had a desk that was conveniently placed in the dead center of the office. My initial thought was- this is great! I'll be right in the middle of everything and it'll help my Spanish! Well I was right about one thing- I definitely am right in the middle of everything. I am strategically placed essentially in the middle of a circle- with 6 Spanish speaking employees surrounding me. Still don't know what they're saying a decent amount of the time, but here a few samples of what I have gathered:

Coworker: spanishspanishPELIROJOspanishspanish
Office: HAHAHAHAHA

Coworker: spanishspanishROBERTOspanishspanish
Office: HAHAHAHAHA

Coworker: spanishspanishELNOHABLAESPANOLspanishspanish
Office: HAHAHAHAHA

For those of you whose Spanish is worse than mine...that's "Redhead" "Robert" and "He doesn't speak Spanish." Now these are SLIGHT exaggerations, but definitely on the right page. It's an office that is always cracking jokes about one another and having a good time, including me at times... soo I just smile and laugh and hope they think I know what's going on. These people will be like family come June? lol

Other than that, nothing else really going on! Relaxing this weekend since I have a lot in store the next few weeks. I was laying in bed this morning- around 12:45 and my bed began to shake... a lot. I looked at the large mirror on my wall and it was about to fall down. My tv was shaking.. Everything was shaking. I begin to think I'm going absolutely crazy.. or that there's an earthquake. To be completely honest..for the 45 seconds this was going on I literally laid there thinking about the jokes made about getting shot, stabbed, mugged, having a volcano erupt, etc. etc. and began to laugh as I convinced myself the walls would soon cave in and I'd be dunzo. Never would have seen that one coming! Ohhhh the ways I entertain myself these days.

In case this has left you curious- no big deal... there was a 6.2 earthquake near the Guat-Mexico border which sent tremors through Guatemala, even reaching El Salvador. Upon looking into it, I learned that Mexico lies on the Pacific Rim of Fire, which causes tremors quite regularly. Basically the Rim of Fire is the

area in the basin of the Pacific Ocean where a large number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur. It all actually makes a lot more sense now- Staurdo loved showing me the volcanos earlier in the week and actually showed me the view of the volcano (Pacaya) that can be seen from the neighboring office. Right afterwards, he tried explaining to me how all of the volcanos are all aligned with each other. Naturally this was all in Spanish so I only gathered that much but now I'm sure he was telling me about the Rim of Fire! Earlier in the week I had even been talking to Carla about the 2010 Pacaya eruption. It could have been far worse, but it did kill three people and injure 59 others. It also destroyed 100 homes and left about two inches of ash in Guatemala City.

Conclusion: I'm alright with a few tremors, but I'll pass on any volcanic eruptions.