Thursday

I can't believe I have been here almost a whole week already!!! It has passed so quickly! Sometimes the days pass kind of slow, because the weather is gloomy and I haven't started my internship yet so there isn't much for me to do, but the pace of things should pick up a bit next week. I've also talked to another of the students who lives fairly close to me, and she bought a membership at a very nice swimming pool down near our houses and she works out there. I think tomorrow I am going to join her! I need to get into some sort of serious exercise routine, especially since I just keep eating all of the good food down here! I wish I had the motivation to run, but I just can't make myself do it. Swimming may be the better option here...I'll find out in the morning! Luckily, many of the other students are eager to keep up their exercising while they are here, so I plan to do the same and GET going!


I had class this morning bright and early at 8 am - Latin American Literature, again, taught in Spanish. The professor is a cute little lady who is probably my mother's age. She is full of energy and really loves to read! She spent some time in the states teaching and has lived in San Ramon all of her life. Our "textbook" for this class was 2000 colones, or $3-4 dollars. HA. I bet my parents are SO glad they didn't have to buy real textbooks for me this semester. I guess that means I have more money to spend down here, right mom??


I guess this is a good time to mention how I am feeling about Spanish. Yesterday, I had kind of a tough day...I was thinking about a lot of friends and my family and about all the things going on back at home and in Clemson and I really started to miss it! Plus the weather was dreary, and that didn't help. Also, I felt really overwhelmed, especially my class yesterday, with my Spanish skills. I understand about 95% of what I hear, and maybe more if I am looking directly at the person or if they are speaking slower. My brain just can't process it quickly enough yet to come up with a good response, and my little cabeza is just overloaded right now. I know I have to get used to all Spanish, all the time, and it will take some time to do that. It took time in Ecuador last summer, but after I got over that hump, the little neurons in my brain finally connected and I found myself talking like I had been there for a long time, and it was such an incredible feeling! Getting to that point is hard, and I want to get there now!


The class doesn't seem like it will be too bad. We have a couple of things to read for next week, but the Spanish isn't too difficult in the readings. We'll see!


After lunch I walked back to my house. I spent some time reading for my classes (I have a lot to read for all of them!), and then ate lunch. We had chicken and papas - she fried them on the oven, but they tasted more like they had been baked. Regardless, the meal was delicious! After lunch, Gerardo picked me up and we went to the hospital to meet with a doctor about internship options there. We had to wait for a while, because according to Gerardo, the doctor was on tico time. He finally arrived, and we went into his office. He is a very tall and very built man, and he is really cool...VERY nice! We talked, and somehow, I managed to communicate in Spanish what I needed out of the internship. I basically told him that I wanted to be able to observe a lot and just see how the health care system here works. He offered me an opportunity to work with staff in developing a plan for improving relations between this hospital and the people in the community and with the other health care providers in San Ramon, a little mix of marketing and politics, it seems. Anyway, Gerardo wanted to talk to Claudia about it so that she can explain what the expectations would be for me (in English), and then we will go from there in deciding if it's something I want to do! It sounds interesting, and I really liked the doctor. I may visit another couple of places to see what other options are before deciding.


I returned home and spent some more time doing homework, and then I decided to have a siesta. I watched Project Runway (in English, on lifetime...ha!) and took a nap for an hour or so. It was very nice to rest. Then I woke up and had a small snack and some coffee with the familia, and headed back to school for DANCE CLASS!


This is by far my FAVORITE CLASS, and I knew it would be. The instructor is VERY good! Today we learned basic salsa and a little of bachata. Luckily I had some salsa lessons in Ecuador last summer, and it was fun to be able to do it again! That's one thing I love about the dances here - they are all FUN and easy to do, especially for the female, because all she has to do is follow the lead of the male!

At home, I had leftovers from lunch, which were still very delicious! I then washed up a bit and changed clothes, and headed up the street to another student's house, to go meet another student to go to the park area for a while. We walked around trying to scope out some places to visit for future reference. We finally found somewhere to sit that was relatively quiet and we spent some time talking for a while. After that we walked around, back to the park and got CHURROS. Yes, again. And just as delicious as the first time! We enjoyed the sights and sounds of the fiesta in the parque and around the church, and then headed home kind of early.