Great people

Friday was Day of the Dead. What an overrated holiday! We sat on the dusty, spidery ground of the cemetery and stared and the tombstones for six hours. I was sunburned and filthy and bored and cemeteries do not have bathrooms! I did discover the joys and wonders of quesadillas, so I had that going for me which is good.
After I escaped, I hopped a pickup to San V where I met up with the other volunteers and we piled in a microbus and headed to Costa Del Sol!!!! This is such an amazing group of people and we got to have some serious bonding time. It was a pretty legendary beach weekend including beach dance parties, candy necklaces, movie monologues, water slides, beach soccer, drinking rum out of coconuts, cribbage, eating pupusas and peanut butter for every meal, loads of hammock time, and endless music, chatting, and laughing. It was really rough to come home. It was just an amazing feeling weekend to be together. And now I'm alone in my freeeeezing house. It's kind of surreal to be wearing three layers and fleece and gloves and be surrounded by palm trees. What kind of place IS this???
But that night I did receive probably my favorite text message ever, which improved my mood. We have sort of a yearbook of our training class with a page about each of us and our photo. We call it the "gringo book." So I got this message from my friend Zach: "My host bro is showing the neighbors the gringo book and they voted hands down that you're the most beautiful gringa they've seen. . . Go Marie!" Aw! I think his host brother is 8 years old, but whatevs. I'll take it.
I have such great new people in my life.