Eating Thai Food, Taking Taxis, and Not Going to Honduras...until tomorrow, or What I am Doing in Miami

Well I guess I should start where I left off in my last post. We made it onto the plane, and after getting all the way to the runway, then turning back to remove a sick passenger and enduring the subsequent delay of finding his luggage in the belly of the plane and then refueling, we took off and made it to Miami. Then the 50 of us collected our 100 bulging bags and stationed ourselves by the car rental desks to wait two or three hours for a Peace Corps representative to fly down from Washington and meet us. American Airlines was putting us up in a Holiday Inn because, as it turns out, the whole situation was entirely their fault. The real reason behind the delay was that they had overscheduled the flight crew, and by law they need a certain amount of time off between flights, and that is the only reason we haven't been in Honduras since Wednesday.

Anyway, after much manipulating of luggage to get it to fit into the two shuttle buses that picked us up, we arrived at the hotel and settled into our rooms. A short time later, we all met in the lobby to go over the details of our next day's travel plans. Joshua from Washington had just finished explaining the itinerary when his phone rang. Everyone's paranoia focused on him, and the room filled with a tense silence that lasted for the duration of his call. When he hung up, he announced that there was a change of plans, and we would not be going to Honduras on Thursday morning, but would instead spend the night at the Holiday Inn and then change hotels and stay in Miami until early next week. This news was met with laughter, frustration, and chattering, and the meeting soon ended. When we thought we had only a night in Miami, a lot of tentative plans were made for dinner. After the meeting, I went with a group of trainees to a delicious Thai restaurant and ate too much.

The next morning, we again packed up our bags and loaded a charter bus to the point that there weren't enough seats, because our bags had filled the luggage area and heaped over several rows of seats. Our new hotel was nicer than the Holiday Inn, which heightened the surreality of going from three weeks of bucket baths to Miami and then getting stuck there.

Over the last few days, we've done some training, a lot of eating, and various amounts of sight seeing. I've discovered that I don't hate Miami as much as I thought I did. I also apparently acclimated a bit while in the DR, because I spent one day not covered in sweat. My former housemate said she had never seen me look so matte. The next day, however, we did a service project cleaning up a greenway, and I resumed my old sweating ways. Thankfully, a couple hours into the work, it started pouring, and I had a better excuse for looking like I just got out of the shower.

Anyway, I should get to bed. Hopefully, the next time you hear from me, I'll be in Honduras. Third time's the charm.