a day of firsts

So when I joined the Peace Corps I knew I would be experiencing a lot of first; living on my own, living overseas, all those major things that you would expect. Today however was a day of unexpected firsts.

Basically every morning begins wtih language training. I thought before leaving the states that I would be speaking tagalog, but instead I'm in the Visayas region, which speaks Cebuano. So, the morning was coming to a close and it was time to go back to my host family's house for lunch. The language facilitator's house is kind of far from where I stay so everyone told me I had to take a petty cab back... and therein lies my first... TRIKES! They're stinkin' cool. It's a motor bike with a roof and seats. I feel very Filipino whenever I get on one now. I almost have the routine down and everything, first you hail down a driver, ask if they're going to be going near where you need to go, climb in, get close to your neighbor (I rode one later on that had 7 people in it, plus the driver!), and finally pay at the end. It costs me 8 pesos to get to my language facilitator's house to the host family's houses. $1 is about 40 pesos. It was a pretty fun and exciting first.

Another first was my encounter with my room mate. You might be thinking that Peace Corps Trainees aren't allowed to have volunteers, but OH would you not be thinking about different species! That's right, I found a giant lizzard in my room. This thing was probalby lilke 9 inches long, and looked like it jumped out of the movie Holes. Let's just say he gave me quite a fright! I ran out of the room and got somebody to chase him out of my room. My host family laughed, and so did I. It wasn't really a big deal, and I'm glad we all joked about it afterwards. It was a pretty adrenaline rushing first though! :)

So those were my major firsts of the day. I'm sure there are tons more firsts to come; at least I hope there are! Tomorrow should actually bring a few of its own; church in the Philippines!