SOOOO after leaving my last blog on such a cliff hanger, I have finally worked out my travel plans! I have decided not to go to South America this year as I don't really have enough money to do everything I'd like to. I'll save up and go there another year, perhaps with some of my best friends. Instead I'm going to head up to North America to stay with family for a couple of months.

I finished teaching at the school in San Rafael last week and made my way up to a city in Honduras called San Pedro Sula where I'm staying with some friends of my uncle. They are a very nice family, very kind and welcoming. They have two sons called Gustavo who is 22 and Daniel who is 17. They both speak pretty much fluent English, which makes it a lot easier for me, although I do need to keep practicing my Spanish! Their house is absolutely gorgeous, I love it, but I feel a bit guilty because I've kicked Daniel out of his bedroom. Hopefully this weekend or the one after we might head up to the beach as it's only 45mins to an hour away. I hope so!

The temperature here is stupidly hot, it's roughtly 43 degrees celcius here most days, possibly even more. I thought it was unbearably hot in Copan, but it's even hotter here! So for the mean time I'm just chilling here at their house (which is thankfully air conditioned!!!) while I sort out my new flights with my Mum. The plan is to stay here for a couple if weeks then go back to Antigua in Guatemala for a week to catch up with friends. I am SO excited to go! I miss it so much, love that country. Then I'll get a flght up to California and stay with my lovely aunt and uncle and cousins who live there, and perhaps go on some sort of road trip or holiday with them. I'll then go up to stay with my brother Ben in Canada. For some of the time I'm out there my other brother and my sister are coming out so I think the plan is a road trip up to Alaska in that time! Will be awesome. Then I should be coming back down to California in August as my aunt is hiring a beach house so I'll stay with them for just over a week again, then head back home in mid August.

So although it's not what I originally planned for my year, I'm actually really excited about going up to North America and seeing my family. I don't get to see my family in California very often, nor my amazing brother up in Canada, so it will be awesome to go and stay with them for a while. It's for the best I think because it means that when I do eventually make it out to South America, it will hopefully be with some of my best friends and we can properly explore everything that I want to. I am really looking forward to heading up north, seems like I've got some very fun adventures awaiting me up there! And I'm sure it will go very fast and I'll be home and reunited with all my friends and family before I know it! I can't wait to see you all.

Lots of love
Joelle
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