catching up.....Wed. and Thurs.

I HATE it when I don't get a chance to blog the day of, because then I forget about all the food that I eat, and almost every day I get to try something new and I want to write about it!! AHH!!!

I'm just going to bullet the events of Wed. and Thurs. below:

WEDNESDAY

• 8 am class - International Political Economy. We watched a movie, I forget what it's called, but it was about a Swedish ambassador living in Chile, I believe, who helped all these people escape from this corrupt group that was basically treating everyone the way the Nazis treated the Jews during the Holocaust. It was really interesting. Based on a true story, in Spanish, but we had English subtitles!
• I regret to say that I can't remember what I had for breakfast or lunch, but it was good, of course.
• I spent the afternoon studying and doing homework for Thursday. I thought that it would take all day Wednesday to finish everything, but I actually finished in a few hours, in between siestas and such. I had to do some written work for my Advanced Spanish class, read a chapter in a book for A.S., and read 2 things for literature class about Christopher Columbus and his letter to the King and Queen's scribe about America.
• The book we are reading for A.S. is by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, famous Hispanic Author, who wrote lots and lots of books, including Love in the Time of Cholera. We are reading Cronica de una Muerte Anunciada, or Chronicle of a Death Foretold. It's very short, 5 chapters long, and a bit difficult to read because the language is very colloquial, but still interesting. It's available in English, and I recommend it if you are looking for a quick read, because the plot is interesting and it's so short!
• I did a bit of research on strategic planning for my internship, but not too much.
• I had a cafecito with the familia. I am not getting tired of the coffee here at ALL.
• I headed to school just before 5:30 because a lady came to teach us how to make some fun jewelry!!! We made some cool necklaces and earrings...I'll have to take a picture to post on here! I left a bit early to head to "La Oracion" con mi madre.
• They had already started praying when we got there, so we entered and sat quietly. The scripture this week was from Isaiah 54 (verses 1-8), one of my favorite chapters in Isaiah! I was able to understand a lot more this week, and basically the lady who led was talking about how we need to open and willing to receive what the Lord has promised us. It was really good! We had lasagna afterwards, but I was just sleepy and not hungry at all, so I had my hot tea and I was ready to JET!
• We took home madre's 2 aunts and then got back to our casa just after 10. I went immediately to bed instead of blogging!

THURSDAY

• I slept late today - 6:30 am - and had a great breafast of scrambled eggs, pancakes, mango, juice, and coffee. Mom, I'm really going to need you to come to Clemson everyday in the spring semester and make breakfast for me. I headed to my 8 am class, Literatura. I was looking forward to the class more this week because I really felt like I understood what we had to read. Class was good. She does a variety of things, making us answer questions and then discuss them in pairs and with the class, so we aren't necessarily just sitting there the whole time. Class overall went well. I talked with some of my amigos when class was over, and then headed home. I had planned to blog then, between getting home and lunch time, but the internet wasn't working so I was unable to blog about Wednesday, or else I probably would have been able to remember what I'd had to eat!
• Speaking of food, I can't even remember today what I had to eat yesterday, which is unusual, because it was delicious and I remember loving it. Anyway, I enjoyed it, and then went back to school.
• Some people from the police station were there to take some of us in. Kidding. We had to get fingerprinted and stuff as part of the visa process, so we missed about an hour of class! We started around 2 and sat outside since it was nice, but it soon grew cloudy and cold, so we went inside. The rain POURED once we got inside!! It rained for a long time yesterday, hard rain too!
• At 4 pm we went to the cafeteria for gringo-tico friend, a program the USAC staff arranged for us. We all talked with ticos...they talked to us in English, we talked to them in Spanish. It was fun! The girl I talked to was really nice, and she works at a rappelling/bungee jumping place, so I think I am going to meet up with her on Friday sometimes and go rappelling, and eventually, bungee jumping!!!
• We had dance class at 5. Gerardo failed to tell us that it started at 5:30 instead, so we waited for a while until Michael and I found our dance instructor waiting in the office. We just laughed about the whole thing and went to dance class, my favorite clase!
• I was a little off today...We started with Bachata, which has a different rhythm than salsa. Normally we start with salsa, but starting with bachata threw me off. I couldn't get the rhythm right for anything. I even tried dancing salsa with the instructor and normally I can do that fine but today I couldn't. I was glad to see 6:50 come.
• I headed home and ate some leftover lunch. I sat in the room with my host sister for a while, watching Clemson on GameTracker. I got online just before the 3rd quarter started and got the delayed play-by-play there, and the play-by-play from mom via Skype. I had talked with amiga Kelsey earlier about going out somewhere with her older host brother, so I had to leave during the 4th quarter right when Clemson and GT were tied up to meet them. It was hard to leave the game. I'm glad I didn't wait around now, because they lost and I would have been sad.
• I took a taxi to Kelsey's, then we met up with another of her brother's friends and proceeded to this place near the mall on the edge of town. There weren't a lot of people there to start with, but as it got later, it got really crowded! We hung around and talked to her brother and friends for a while, and then Kelsey and I met and talked to some other ticos! Somehow we all ended up dancing together and it was a BLAST! I did learn, however, that I need to learn how to dance the way they do here...it's a bit different, though hard to explain. Eventually a couple of salsa songs came on. One of our tico friends who we met was from Venezuela but studies medicine at UCR, and he told me that Venezuela was the salsa capital of the world or something. So of course, all of the salsa moves I had learned in class were insufficient...I couldn't keep up with the expert, but I tried and seemed to get along fine. Some meringue songs came on too, and that was much easier! I think I was doing okay, I don't know, but it was fun. Overall it was a fun night, and hopefully we will get to go back there soon to dance MAS! I sure do need to practice!

So far today, I have done nothing. I slept in, till 8 or so, but didn't get out of bed till almost 9. I have spent the morning cleaning up a little and catching up on some emails and stuff. We will probably have lunch soon and then I am going to the store this afternoon to pick up a few things I need. We are playing soccer around 3, I believe, and then at some point I think I am going to the mall with my host sister! I love not having class on Fridays!!!!!!!