I don't know what day it is anymore

It's all been such a whirlwind so far. This morning was the first time all summer that I've gotten to sleep in, which is pretty sad for a teacher. It was great, but I still have homework to finish my masters looming over my head, so I didn't really sleep in that long. Again, I'm procrastinating on starting that. I thought I'd write here a bit, then head down to the breakfast offered at this hotel, which is pretty amazing. The fruit here is so good, each day at breakfast I try a new juice. Yesterday it was papaya juice, the day before that, lulo juice (not sure what that comes from yet). The day before that, I believe I had a blackberry juice that I've since forgotten how to say in Spanish. Today, six of the new teachers had to go to DAS, where I went yesterday. All you have to bring to DAS is your passport, but silly me yesterday earned herself a really bad reputation. Let me backtrack just a bit...

I woke up yesterday at 5:30 a.m. so I'd have time to shower, eat breakfast, and be down at Jaime's bus by 6:15. As I went down the elevator, two of the other teachers going to DAS looked like they had all of their important documents with them, so I ran back up to the room and grabbed all the folders I have with those. I looked in my purse and saw that I had my new green passport cover which my dear friend Luma recently gave me. About half way to DAS, which is about an hour away to the north, I looked inside that green cover and realized that my passport was not actually in it. I immediately told the other two teachers I was with who calmed me down and then I told Jaime, the bus driver who has been helping us all week to find apartments. He called someone from the school to let him know, then he pulled over to the side of the road and used a cell phone of a guy who sells minutes here. These guys are everywhere and it seems that they are the human equivalent of a pay phone. Luckily, my roommate Tara was still in the room (asleep of course) when I called the hotel and she was able to find my passport and take it to the front desk, where Julian from school picked it up, and delivered it to me at DAS. So, I basically brought every single important paper I own to DAS, except for the only one I needed, my passport. Lesson learned. Jaime will never forget me now. I'm glad I'm making the first impression of being pretty much a complete airhead. My excuse is a severe lack of sleep in the last 6 months of my life. Not a good one, I know.

Today I get to work on that infamous homework, go try a new juice for breakfast, then head over to this guy Tom's house. Tom's been with us since we arrived, he's originally from Iowa, but has lived here in Cali for 18 years. He's extremely sarcastic and completely fun and helpful. He's shown us every available apartment in what we are calling the gringo triangle of safety part of town and has taken us all around trying to get us acclimated to the city. Today, we are going to his house for lunch and a juice workshop, as well as to talk about cultural norms. I love this kind of stuff, so I'm very excited. Plus, it's nice to have a morning to myself, not sitting on a bus looking at apartments. All the new teachers decided yesterday on where they're going to live, so we're finally finished with that.