hola de venezuela

so, here i am on a small tropical island off the coast of venezuela, and what do i find??? free internet!! of course, there is a line, so i won´t be able to type tons and tons.

my time in venezuela has been great so far. i spent a whole day in caracas with some of my semester at sea friends, and for the past two days, i´ve been on maragarita island, leading a group of the students for a three day trip. i will save all of the details for when i can cut and paste my longer journal entry from my personal journal. but some of the highlights include spending many an hour in a venezuelan bar & grill, enjoying sangria. and today, we took a catamaran from margarita island to coche island. it was amazing fun, and i can´t wait to share more about it. the sun is definitely much hotter down here, which is one of the things that has really stood out to me as i´ve contemplated the quality of life here. the homes are very small (what i would call shacks), and they definitely do not seem to have any air conditioning. it´s amazing the things we take for granted (not that i´ve had air conditioning for the past three years, but at least i´ve had it for a good portion of my life.)

so there is definitely a lot more i would like to say about my time in venezuela, but since there´s one computer and three people behind me, i´ll utilize some of my "being nice to others" skills and pass the keyboard along.

i love everyone very much. i promise to post pictures as soon as i figure out how.