Let the Adventures Begin - Welcome to Venezuela

Well school started without a hitch and I love my students.  My sixth graders are going to take some getting used to because they are so young and innocent but I love them all.  The first week flew by and I was looking forward to the weekend.  A few of the new expat teachers got together and we decided to figure out the bus system so that we could go to El Hatillo which is one of the few colonial looking sections of the city left.  This resulted in me trying to figure out which buses the six of us needed to take to get there because my spanish is the best of the group and most of you know I am not shy.  I found a nice man to show us which bus to take at first and he let the driver know that we needed to know when to get off.  We got to our stop in the middle of the outskirts of a barrio and the drive yelled back and told us to get off and tried to explain where we need to go to get the next bus but I misunderstood so as he began to turn to go down the other way he made sure to yell at us and point us in the right direction.  Once we go there we found another man who put us on another bus and once again told the driver to tell us where to get off and once again we didn't quite understand where to go so the whole bus was trying to direct us in the right direction.  Finally an hour later we reach our destination.  It was great we ate ice cream walked around and finally got some dinner.  Since I was tired from all the adventures the day before I took it easy or so I thought on Sunday so that I would be ready for the week of teaching ahead.  About and hour into my sleep I began to get pains in my stomach and for those of you who have traveled to Latin America you all know what that means.  I proceeded to be ill the rest of the night and finally my assistant superintendent came to pick me up and take me to the hospital because I could barely move.  We arrived at the emergency and she got things moving quickly for me they came to evaluate me and quickly took five vials of blood and hooked me up to fluids this proved disastrous because the minute the fluids hit the routine started again and on my way to the bathroom the nurse yells in spanish but I will translate, "You need to give us a sample!"  Well waiting isn't really an option and now I am realizing that they just took blood, I am dehydrated, and I got up to quickly so I proceed to almost pass out.  The day continued like this for awhile and I landed in the hospital overnight to get medication and fluids.  Thank goodness for the wonderful people at my school because I was not alone through the whole process and they even took me in after I left the hospital.  In the end I had a really bad bacterial infection in my stomach and I am still taking medication but all of my Venezuelan friends have said, "Welcome to Venezuela," because this happens to not only tourists but also locals!  I will keep you all posted...