Hey Diane and Michael and Matt and the Blog if you so choose!

We¥ll see how my ambitious plan goes, considering the librarian wasn¥t at the library yesterday and today when I went to talk to her she said that electricity had been out. I don¥t know if that is a problem with the lines or outlets or what, but I¥ll need outlets for the printer.

My Spanish is already improving. I¥m the only english speaker in Achuapa right now, so it makes life interesting. This morning I talked to Marjine, my ®sister® about all sorts of things for a while. It was really fun. She understood most of what I said and I understood what she said, even if my thoughts were a litte on the simple side. It was still nice. I asked my mother to teach me how to cook and she gave me some dough to make a tortilla with. I suck at it. A lot. Like, she can do this little thing where she turns the dough and flattens and it stays in a circle. Of course I can do it, right? Absolutely not. She kinda just laughed at me. I got a little better at a different stage in the molding, but I still suck at it. We¥ll see how it goes. Hopefully I¥ll get better. They have baby corn here that I helped Marjine to husk while we talked and made lunch. O man, we had this vegetable (pipian, I think she said?) that I¥ve never seen in the States before. And they put cheese in the middle where it¥s squishy with the seeds and then put it in a batter of egg, flour and water, and then fry it. It¥s so good. I¥m going to come back muy gorda! I was trying to decide if there¥s another kind of veggie that that would taste good with, but I couldn¥t think of any. Any ideas for when I get back and know how to make it?!

Last year on Matt¥s birthday we went out and I got locked out. I¥m sure he has great memories of trying to unlock my door and the Dutch woman refusing to wake up DoÒa Luisa. Grrrr. Oh well.

Much love, Love and Light, Hilary

P.S. IÂ¥m not sick. Yet. Knocking on wood.