Ho hum

The last two days were seemingly regular workdays here. On Monday, I was at the school most of the day, observing a class in the morning and working up writing/translating my notes for the afternoon. I spent some time at the library, just because it was more peaceful to work there instead. I made plans to meet with Profe next week to actually write up a schedule/work plan for me, so that’s exciting and scary. I’m working on organizing my ideas for that now. I also spent some with the librarian, who is pretty awesome. She’s young and ready to work hard and interested in learning more about everything she’s doing. I think we’ll have a good working relationship and maybe even a real friendship.

On Tuesday, I spent the morning in the health center, which was interesting. It was the day the doctor came up from Senti to meet with all the pregnant women in my town and three surrounding towns who don’t have their own health center. It was pretty bizarre to spend lots of hours in a room with about 22 pregnant women, of all ages and sizes. I can’t say I really liked it; pregnant women kind of scare me. But it was certainly interesting and some of the ladies really warmed up to me. But I’m still not sure how working with that population will really go, considering my experience level (i.e. none).

But it was also good to get to know the two nurses (who are pretty awesome), the doctor, and their assistant. We all had lunch together and chatted quite a bit. I’m even going to eat dinner at the head nurse’s house on Friday to meet her son and husband, which I’m looking forward to. Plus, it got me out of the morning at the school, where I’ve been spending too much of my time. Both later afternoons I took easy, since I had later appointments lined up the rest of the week. I caught up on my emails, spent some time with my family, and got on a super early schedule.

This was partly because my sister, the one I really like, Pammy, has started to run with me in the mornings. We’re out by 5:45 so that we both have time to do everything afterwards in the morning. Now, I’ve never really liked exercising with anyone. I was always a very solitary gym-goer, preferring to work at my own pace and do my own thing and not have to worry about anyone else or anyone else’s schedule. Once I’ve been to a gym once or twice and know my way around, I really never want to see anyone else I know there, ever. I admit I even hide from people, avoiding eye contact and saying hello as long as possible, not unlike Weezy in Shop-Rite.

But actually, running with Pammy is not so bad at all, mostly because I don’t actually have to do much running with her. We walk together for a few minutes to start off, usually talking about the weather and how we feel that morning, and then run very slowly for 3-4 minutes until she’s tired. Then I keep running, at my own pace, on my own, for another 15-25 minutes. I double back and always pass her again to sort of check in, and that’s that. It’s kind of nice to have someone there to encourage you but not really to have to rely on. I think some mornings it might have actually helped me run more. I know she likes it, too, so now it’s kind of a win-win. So we’re in a fun, comfortable schedule.