Back to Belmo...

Sunday we headed back to Belmopan for our last week of training!!! We got up early Sunday morning to catch the 10am bus, but by the time we got our breakfast at Grace's, we missed the bus. (we spend an hour and 1/2 at breakfast...true story.) So we hung out and caught the noon bus. I was exhausted, so I slept pretty much the whole ride there. I woke up every now and then and talked to this girl from Austria sitting next to me-- she was backpacking through the Caribbean. We got in to the good ole Garden City hotel at 5:30 or so.We said some hellos and such and settled in. Molly and Zach had made me a birthday cake! It was so exciting! We had 3 birthdays that weekend, so there were 3 cakes. We gathered everyone together for "hi's" and cake in the party room! It was a good start to the week!

We had dinner and then hung out for our first night together. I had got a bottle of wine for my birthday, so a few of us split it and it was amazing! I miss wine! It's SO expensive in Belize! We hung out all night just catching up...some of us even stayed up past midnight to celebrate the start of Jane's birthday with her! (Midnight is really late for Peace Corps ppl!!) hahaha. Lucky for us, Monday was Commonwealth Day!

Since it was a holiday, we didn't have training on Monday. I woke up late because I felt like I needed sleep after the business of the past few days. Then we did superlatives for our Swearing In ceremony for the majority of the early afternoon. Afterwards, I went to visit my old host family! It was so fun! They made me kaldo kax and even had coke for me! lol. It was good to see everyone again.... and, honestly, I missed Mrs Sotz's kaldo!!! Never thought I would say that! I also got to see Dan's family and talk to them for a bit. I was glad I went, and I think they were excited to see me again.

I got home and we hung out late again that night because whenever there's more that 2 PCVs (or PCTs!) together in one place, there's a party!haha

Training began Tuesday morning and we had a long day of talks and stuff to cover! Then, I got to do yoga again! so nice! After yoga it was a busy night. We made our paper plate superlative awards, then I worked with Laura and Michelle on our talent show act, and THEN I worked with a bunch of people from HC and others for our OTHER talent show act! phew! busy, busy! I was up til like midnight again with all that stuff!

Wednesday was similar. Training all day and then football (soccer) practice that night. I was beat! It was intense, but so fun! We played with a bunch of local boys... yay integration! hahaha After soccer, once again I rehearsed with Laura, Molly, and Michelle--we did a Peace Corps rap-- and then we finalized our routine for our Circle of Life group...ridiculous! haha! I was exhausted!!

Thursday was the big day!!! It was our last day of training and the day we showed our Community Based Training presentations and our talent show acts!! The CBT presentations were all morning and into the afternoon. San Martin did ours as a spoof of MTV Cribs, showing our houses and where we bathe, go to the bathroom, do laundry, etc. I think most people liked it, it was random and funny. After those were over...it was talent show time!!!! A LOT of people participated in our group! We had funny songs, dances, serious demonstrations, readings, interactive stories.... the whole 9 yards! It was cool to see everyone's skillls and expressions!!! I was REALLY nervous to do my little rap bit, (I wrote it, so it was my creation, lol)... But with the great backup vocals of Michelle and Molly and Laura's random crowd pleasing abilities, it turned out to be a hit! People were laughing for a good part of it... I think! hahaha. Then the trainers did a video of a bunch of different songs they changed the words to and it was hilarious! They were really funny! Chanda was especially crazy! hahaha. It was hilarious to see everyone being ridiculous! Finally, we ended with our Circle of Life routine.... oh my gosh.... so funny! People thought it was really good, but we totally meant it for a joke! We did like cartwheels and tumbles and a pyramid.... so crazy. If I ever get a computer I will upload the video because it's borderline amazing! hahahaha. Anyway, the talent show was an awesome end to training!!! We had one more bonding exercise and a general thank you...and that was it! TRAINING WAS OVER!!! woohoo!!!

After training I had to take care of one last thing.... my little speech... in Mopan Maya! Mr Cal helped me to translate it and made sure all my pronunciations were correct. I took time to go to yoga after that, even though I felt like I needed to practice it more! But it was my last chance to do yoga, so I HAD to go!! haha. And, of course, I fell asleep again during yoga. I swear... I have a problem!

Anyway, I was relaxed after yoga and glad to be done with the talent show. By Thursday, mostly all the PCVs were in town, so there were tons of gatherings around the Garden. I bounced around various rooms before a group of us decided to go out dancing... Always a fun time! I enjoyed my last night as a PC TRAINEE!!!