Finally in Honduras

By some miracle we made it to Honduras. Finally! Today we flew from San Salvador, El Salvador to Roatan, Honduras and then on to La Ceiba (our final destination). No travel glitches today! Yay! Roatan is an island off the coast of Honduras and the airport was super cute and right on the water. The pic is of K and S as we were about to board our flight to La Ceiba. You can see mainland Honduras in the background.
Umm a note about Honduras: it's hot here. Like unbearably hot. As in I'm lying on my bed writing this with the fan blowing directly on me. It's not just hot; it's humid. I've spent the day dripping with sweat and not to be gross but my bra actually has a sweatline that goes up and across the cups. My cold shower was a nice treat tonight (the shower only has cold water so it's a good thing it's so hot outside!)
Today we walked to the mall (about 5 minutes) and discovered a way to beat the heat: hanging out at air-conditioned Wendy's. As in the fast food chain Wendy's. Everywhere we turn there's an American fast food chain. Sweet! I totally spent 3 days traveling down to Honduras to go to Wendy's! Or Pizza Hut or KFC.
My host family is interesting but I think it'll be fun living here. The family consists of the matriarch, G, who is 44, her daughters R (24) and K (9) and R's daughter V who is almost 2. V is so cute it's almost unbearable. She runs around the house opening doors and saying "hola!" S was also placed with my same family and there's also a young MD from Scotland, A, staying with us. Tonight we had quesodillas made with homemade tortillas for dinner.
Tomorrow we start classes. Have I mentioned that I don't know any Spanish? Yikes

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Fake out!

Sooo... we didn't make it to Honduras (again). Our flight was held up by immigration in Los Angeles and we ended up missing our connecting flight in El Salvador by like 5 minutes. Sadly, the next flight isn't for another 24 hours. The airline was actually very helpful and set us up in a sweet hotel in San Salvador.

I wish I could say we explored San Salvador, but it has been pouring down rain all day! Instead, we ate some comped meals, watched world cup, and napped in the cushy beds. Sweet!

Recap of our trip so far:

• 2 days late and still haven't made it to Honduras.
• Surprise visit to San Salvador complete with free hotel room and meals
  
• Refunds include cash and miles
• Upgraded to 1st class for Los Angeles to San Salvador flight

Tomorrow we will go to Honduras. We have one more layover (in Roatan, Honduras) before our final destination of La Ceiba. Hopefully we'll make it!

And we're off (for real)!

A day later, we're finally on a plane leaving LAX. And we got upgraded to 1st class! We spent the day cruising around LA. We had to drive to Koreatown to get the refund for the overbooked flight, which led to a trip to Scoops for some yummy icecream. Highlight of the LA trip: getting a nod of recognition from a redheaded man crossing the street in front of us. It went down something like this:
K and S: "J look a fellow redhead!" At this point the Gingerman glanced in our direction, looked at me, smiled and nodded. I responded with a "flame on" (international redhead greeting).

In the evening K and S (my travel buddies from med school) got a glimpse of my awesome roots at a family dinner at my aunt and uncle's house. "Now we understand why you're so... Special" they commented. Dinner was a hit. My little cousins were adorable (8 year old USC football-obsessed G: "USC has been to a lot of Rose Bowls but can't go now because of sanctions"). We watched the quality film "Blades of Glory." Sis-T and I did some Barn dancing (did you know I went to farm camp for 10 years? ha. Of course you did. I'm obsessed with it). Little cousin A's ridiculously cute teacup terrier, Lulu, won everybody over with her cute face and tiny tongue hanging out (just trust me on this one.... It's unbearably cute).

Ok. I've gtg. Time to fly to Honduras (via El Salvador). Did I mention we're in 1st class?

Minor Hiccup

Sooo... Our trip to Honduras has not quite started according to plans. Our flight to El Salvador was overbooked and we were left waiting in line at LAX. It's been about an hour since our flight took off (without us) and we're still waiting for some info. Looks like it'll be another day before we're able to get out of LA. :(

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Honduras!

Tonight I leave for a medical spanish program in La Ceiba, Honduras. So from here on out, I'll be blogging in Spanish. Oh wait. I know like zero Spanish. Sweet!! But hopefully that will change over the course of the next month :)

I've been prepping for the big trip all week by driving between MB and CdM a bunch of times, packing all of my toiletries in 3-ounce bottles, and buying a Kindle (AKA "my precious"). Last night, I saw "In the Heights" at the Pantages. Not only was this a great musical, but a good refresher for my Spanish vocab! Now, with about an hour to go before heading to the airport, I'm watching The Proposal. So... I'm pretty much good to go.

Oh yeah, I also got some great advice from Sis-T: "Don't go to the Mayan ruins. I've seen the movies. They're totally haunted! The plants will eat you!!" Thanks, little sister.

Anyway, I'll try to keep you all updated on the trip :)

summer!!

Hey guys! I finally finished my first year of med school! Now I have lots of free time to do a bunch of really important things. Like... umm... I changed the background on LAMe! Here are some other things I've done in my first few days of summer:

• laundry
• g-chatted with non med-students
• watched Julie and Julia
• napped
• pulled my back doing laundry (not sure how this was even possible... and then I tried to figure out which muscles are the culprit but this thinking was too strenuous for my fresh-into-summer mind)
• slept in

Okay fine. I'm a little bored. Already.

And fine... I'm kind of a liar. Here are some other (slightly more exciting things) I've done since school ended on Friday:

• attended a mustache party
• went to the beach (and got a sweet tan! oh wait, no.)
• hung out with the fam
• watched Jerseylicious with my friends from home (this was good, but sadly no table flipping... yet)

But really. I am a little bored. I guess I just don't know what to do with all of this free time. I have one more week of excitement/relaxation and then I'm off to Honduras for a month-long Medical Spanish program. yay!!