Whoa

A lot has happened in 3 days or however long it's been since my last entry.
 First off, my computer is dead, so I'm occasionally borrowing my roommates' laptop to write, which means I'll only be doing occasional updates. Second, fire ant bites REALLY hurt. i was walking down the street and all of a sudden my right leg was in pain. I got all the ants off and the bites are ok and didnt swell that much and have stopped hurting and all that, but I really really dont recommend getting bitten by those guys.

Ok. So school has started and I am on my first weekend! It's only day 2 and I've already finished and passed one class already. That's how fast things move here.
 Let me start from the beginning.

Wednesday was Orientation. We all met up and met our first instructors and went over the school handbook and learned basically what the plan was for the next 4 months. We also were formally introduced to each other and learned a little bit about our classmates. There are 12 students enrolled in the class. That's it! After orientation I went with Elisa (a fellow student) to the store and bought my first groceries. I thought there were going to be open-air markets and stuff, but there aren't. Maybe in the next town over, but not here. It's all little Mini Marts, which actually have a lot of great stuff. And of course there's the road-side fruit stands. I got rice, beans, peanut butter, eggs, avacados, bananas, tomatoes, onions, and tortillas that have all so far been delicious. I'm determined to get myself to like tomatoes on this trip. They're much sweeter here, which is nice, and I've even taken bites out of tomato slices and not made faces! We'll see how this works over time.

Yesterday was Day 1 of classes. Super intense! I started out the day with 2 hours of Anatomy and Physiology, in which we covered a TON of stuff. Then we took a 20 minute break and had another 2 hour class called Self Care and Hygeine, in which we basically talked about how to maintain professionalism, respect, and health while giving tons of energy to someone. We also talked extensively about appreciating the client. Every time someone gets on your table, they are giving you an incredible gift of vulnerability and trust. It's amazing. They are coming in to a complete stranger, getting naked, laying on a table, and letting us touch them for an hour. It's so completely awesome that people are going to be giving us this gift every day! After that class was a lunch break, in which Rachel, Chris, and I walked to the bakery next door and bought empanadas, which were ok, but not as good as the ones in Mexico. Then back to school for 2 hours of Swedish Massage class. Jill Berkana, one of the founders of the school and the Academic Dean, is our professor. How amazing is that!!!! She's incredible. Anyway, we learned some terminology and then learned how to set up and take down massage tables and how to lay our linens and perform a simple drape. Then we dove straight in by learning how to do a Swedish hand massage. It was cool. Our homework was some coloring, some reading, and also to give another hand massage. Sweet homework if you ask me.

Today was Day 2, and all my classes were the same. We talked about cells and cell structure in A&P, which is a LOT of information to take in in 2 hours. Then in Self Care, we talked about keeping our offices clean and circumstances in which we should not give treatment or cancel sessions. And then we passed that class. It was only 4 hours - that's it. So we all officially have our first A! Yay! In Swedish, we learned how to massage the whole arm and how to incorporate that with the nad massage from yesterday. Much more complex. Requires alot more movement and thinking. The way Jill works is she shows us how a technique is done, repeats it a couple times, and then sends us on our way to practice with the rest of class time. It's really wierd how just watching someone do something a couple times is all it takes for us to learn it! So our homework for this weekend is of course, coloring and reading, but also to give multiple arm and hand massages so that we're comfortable with them and can dive in to learning legs and feet on Monday. I can't believe how much we've learned already!

Also, today we learned about this really cool thing that's going to happen later in the semester. One of our future professors is a leading mind on massaging cancer patients, and while she's here teaching, she's going to offer a class over 2 weekends that teaches us how to do that, which is awesome, because usually, we can't massage cancer patients unless they're terminal. Which is no fun for anyone. But with this class, we'll be certified for it and we can put it on resumees and everything! So even though it's an additional $400, I'm planning on taking it. After all, I came here to learn massage, did I not?

Anyway, I'm going to go to bed and let Larissa have her laptop back. I love you all and I hope everything is going swimmingly back in the States!