My last day in Salta and what's up next...

I spent the last day of my trip venturing around the city of Salta itself.
Here is the inside of a Catholic church I found - super ornate and VERY pretty!


They have a huge hill and you can take a cable car to get to the top (takes at least 5 min to reach the top). It was only then that I realized just how big the city really was!







It was hard to believe though that my month-long vacation had finally come to an end! How can I work it out so I am permanently on vacation? Any ideas? LOL

So here are a few lessons learned on my trip/advice for you all ;)

1)NEVER leave the place you are staying without the names, address and phone numbers of the people who you are staying with! (just in case you get lost in say Montevideo...if you have these things, you won’t look foolish when people who are trying to help find your way ask “where are you staying?” and your answer is “no idea” or “what is their phone number?” “again, no idea”...you get the point!)

2)ALWAYS try and get rid of your change before leaving a country. The change houses will only change bills, NOT coins and so now I am stuck with all this random coinage. Kinda cool except I really don’t need like 20 Chilean coins!

3)Definitely take care of your camera at the beach or any other place with sand or dirt.
Just trying to help you all out! LOL =)

So, some of you know that I was not able to go back and teach at Trinity School. A long, frustrating story that basically ends up with them telling me right before xmas that I needed a work visa to keep working there. Getting this visa is expensive and takes LOTS of time, so I had to tell them that I wasn’t going to get it. Pretty frustrating since I turned down 2 jobs to keep teaching at that school! ugh
I tried to forget about the fact that I wasn’t coming back to a job on my vacation. I did a pretty good job of it actually. But then I got back to Asuncion and had to start thinking about what I was going to do. If I couldn’t find a job, it probably meant coming back to the States earlier than expected. However, God obviously wants me here a tad longer because I was fortunately able to find a job here right away. The week I got back, I sent my resume to an English institute and quickly got an interview. I am not sure of the specifics yet, but I will be teaching English classes there. However, they also run a regular K-12 school. Turns out the third grade teacher is pregnant and can’t start teaching at the beginning of the school year. So I am going to be covering for her until she comes back, sometime in May or June.
These kids are probably more like 2nd graders to us, but I will technically be the third grader teacher teaching them English Mon-Thu, 12:30-3:30pm. Hmmm 7 year olds... I have always said that I would rather teach a 7th grader than a 7 year old, a comment which always tends to surprise people! I have taught this age group before, but it has been A LONG time! So, I am going to have to get rid of the sarcastic teen/middle schooler in me and bring on my motherly elementary kid side (I am sure it is in there somewhere! HAHA). But hey, it is for 3 months and can’t be worse than some of the crazy 7th grade classes I have taught before (many of you know the stories!). Hey, I may even grow to love this age! =) Classes start March 2nd – pray for me please! =)

Quick weather update - sticky and hot here. Although I am told I missed the worst of it. Apparently the week before I got back, it was close to 115 here WITH high humidity. 115 in dry Arizona, is bad enough, I can't even imagine that heat with humidity. Thank goodness I was out of the country for that! (praying it doesn't come back either!)

Stay dry and warm all my "in the middle of winter/fighting snow storms" family and friends!