Differences

Wednesday November 3^rd, 2010

Almost everyone has adjusted to the early morning sunrise. However, I am not one of them. I wake up by 5am most days bright eyed and bushy tailed. I have gotten so I really enjoy it. I have a couple hours to myself before breakfast at 7ish. My time usually consists of a beach walk and laying in the sand reading or I go out to our little restaurant area and journal while I enjoy the view and a cup of tea. It really is the most peaceful time of day before the temperature starts to climb to high.

I really don’t ever know what the temperature is, how far I’m walking or how much something weighs. Americans seem to be the only people who use Fahrenheit, miles or pounds. Not that any of those concern me very often, but when having a conversation about any of them it becomes hard to make the comparison for both parties. It is most difficult when teaching. Trying to give a description and what your saying can’t be related to anything familiar to the students.

The time change is hard. Its 9 hours ahead of Colorado and 10 hours ahead of California. The time on my computer is still set to mountain-time and as I type before bed, I wonder what everyone is has going for the day ahead of them as I have already finished my day.

If I could change one thing here it would be the communication. I am used to not seeing my friends or family for a long period of time but have remained in close contact with my family through phone, pictures, skyping or e-mail. As everyone has probably gotten the gist by now, there is not much contact available. Tuesday November 2^nd was the first time I had Internet in 11 days. It is quite the trek to get to town to use the Internet, and often it doesn’t even work. There are two top notch 5 start hotels here that have Wi-Fi that have always allowed the volunteers to use it but for some reason it has been down for the past 6 weeks and still counting. Can you imagine our modern world living with out Internet for 6 weeks when there is a problem??? People would go mad, they wouldn’t know what to do with themselves and act as though the world wouldn’t continue to turn. I must say that it is nice not to have the outside world in your face all the time but a short conversation or just being able to respond to e-mails would be comforting.