PST Halfway point: 2/15/12

It’s hard to believe we are halfway done with training!  My days have stayed pretty much the same as when I spelled them out earlier.  It’s nice to kind of have a routine again; I haven’t really had one since before graduation.  Last week we had our second Language Proficiency Interview (LPI), so our Spanish classes changed up-just in time for the last week of classes…  Our tech sessions have been a mixture of deathly boring and quite practical.  It’s kind of a toss-up whether the day will be engaging or not.  Some examples of the two extremes: one day we talked about the elements of language and language acquisition-very theoretical.  Then we had a guest speaker one day who came in and talked about/did some very practical activities that we will (hopefully) be able to use in the classroom.  Also, about once a week we go back to Ciudad del Saber for a Core Session about Peace Corps policy and procedure.  We have to get up pretty early to go, but it’s usually quite the treat because the office is air-conditioned and there’s a lot of pretty good food, and a pool!  A few other PCT’s and I have taken to going swimming in the Olympic sized pool during our lunch break J  Despite all of these wonderful things, I think everyone is getting a little stir crazy and ready to find out our sites and get moving forward (Friday!!!!!).

After we find out our sites, we have 4 days off as ‘Time to Reflect,’ which just happens to coincide exactly with Carnaval (the Panamanian Mardi Gras celebrations).  For several reasons, we are not allowed to travel for the holiday other than to the closest city.  I don’t think my family will be going anywhere, but I am trying to figure out how to celebrate here.  We’ll see J  Anyway, after Carnaval, we start Tech week, which is when we go into some local schools and work with teachers as they prepare their classrooms and start the first two days of school.  After Tech week, we have a couple days out of Santa Rita to process and then meet our community counterpart for our sites!  After that, we spend a week in our site meeting people and doing some observation.  Then we come back to Santa Rita for a week or so, then back to CdS for swear in!  We will be moving into our sites on roughly March 17, which just feels like really soon.  Stuff is going to start happening really fast and the last month is going to fly!