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Published: August 31st 2008
Hey Guys! I am finally going to catch you up on my first week. I am so lazy i don't know if this whole blog thing is going to work. haha. like my arms seriously get tired from typing. haha. anyway, i am going to update you.
Sunday, 24th of August (Day 2 of Trip)
So something freaking hilarious happened this day and I am just going to focus on that. So by this point me and my roommate were definitely clicking and then we had already met our friend from CEA that lives here too. We had orientation at CEPE (the school)...we took a taxi there which was fine. The orientation was pretty boring. Just a lot of rules and more of it applied to people that are living in homestays. We did meet a really nice girl who lives here and is like the host sister of one of the CEA girls. Her name was Fernanda and she was super nice and gave us her number, etc. anyway, afterwards we walked home to see how long it takes. it took like an hour...but then again we had to stop every street to see exactly where we were... now it only takes us like 45- 50 minutes to walk. so we got back home and we were like we should go to the grocery store (which is like a 4-5 minute walk from the house). So we put down our bags in our rooms and get our money and we head off. I actually changed into my flip flops because it was so close and my feet hurt from walking home in my tennis shoes. So we walked outside and were like ooohh the weather is so nice because there was actually a breeze and it wasnt super hot. so we were all happy and etc. so we walked over to the store (like 3 blocks) and then went in. We started shopping and stuff and about halfway through we here this loud noise on the roof and we are like what the flip? It turns out it was freaking POURING. and we are like oh great. we spend like 10 more minutes and start to check out. We check out and get time for our cellphones. (let me know if you want the number by the way, i can get texts for free!). and then we walk to the exit. There are all these people standing in the exit because there is a freaking downpour and nobody wants to walk in it. we wait like 5 minutes and the girls are like screw it we only live like 4 minutes away and there are a bunch of overhangs, we'll be fine. i am like hmmm i dont know. i mean i am wearing flip flops and those puddles are like 6 inches deep...one of the other girls is like i can't get my hair wet... but emily insisted that it would be fine. so lamonica (the other girl) went to get a plastic bag to put on her head. so she tied this bag on her head...looking like a freaking crazy american and said she was ready to go... so we decided to go. from there it was all bad. as soon as we start walking i step in a puddle and my flip flops and feet are soaked. so now not only am i getting wet but my feet are all slippery and i have to like clench my toes to make sure my flip flops don't fall off. in addition to that i have open blisters from the day before and now they are all getting infected with dirty street water. anyway we cross the main street as fast as possible and stop at the corner with the overhang. at this point emily realizes that hmmm that arent really very many over hangs on this street afterall. it is even funnier because we are the only people walking and the people in the stores and cars are looking at like we are crazy. pretty soon the girls are like a half a block in front of me because i cannot walk as fast with my slippery shoes. so they get to the house before me and buzz in. So martin goes to open the door for them. Emily later told me that he looked confused because i was not there with them. and this would make sense because a second later i see him holding the door open looking down the street. and then he saw me and started smiling, like he was trying not to laugh. i was sooo freaking embarassed because i was SOAKED and walking super slow, trying not to slip. i finally got to the door and as i walked in i asked him in spanish..why are you laughing? and then laughed. he didnt say anything. and i am not sure if he understood i was joking. anyway. here i am soaking wet slipping on the tile floor, barely able to walk and once again i am sure martin was thinking these freaking crazy americans. so dumb. especially cuz i was wearing flip flops and lamonica had a freaking bag on her head. from this day on i took my umbrella everywhere. after that i ate some cereal and called it a day. it rained most of the night after that.
Monday, 25th of August.
So this was the first day of school and we had orientation at 9. We walked to school at 8 and got there just fine...even though it did take a long time. I saw all the CEA girls again and we chatted. then we went in for orientation. it was pretty boring. a lot of repetitive information. After this we were split up for the test. The test consists of like an interview and then a written test based on how well you do on the interview. During the interview i definitely opened up to my interviewer (prof. rosa). i told her about my identity problems and how i never feel like i am mexican or white and like i never know where i fit in and how i hate speaking spanish to natives because i feel like i sound funny. she told me that i should and that i speak well and that i have certain speaking characteristics of mexicans. that made me feel a bit better and i probably owe that to my oakland tech kids (and nancy) and irene because now i say este when i get stuck with my words or am thinking of the word and i say pues all the time. so yeah thanks to you guys. anyway she gave me the test for level 7 and 8 and i took it. it wasn't bad. when i finished she graded it in front of me which was weird. but i did well i didnt miss more than like 4 points but she said it would be good for me to take 7/8 and not 9/10 because i should practice the past subjunctive, etc. i was fine with it because i have 3 sessions while i am here so i will have plenty of time move up and take electives and i really did want to make sure i understood all the grammar, etc. so yeah i got put into levels 7 and 8...which turns out is pretty easy. after that we got free lunch...tacos and jamaica. i realized i do not like the after taste of jamaica. after school we went with this other girl from the casa that we had met to the mall (its only like 10 minutes walking from the school). She had to buy a cell phone. while she went to buy a cell phone me and emily went to the ice cream store. we were both feeling adventurous so we got stuff that wasn't just ice cream. first she got something called a chamayada...which she most def didn't like. from the picture it just looks like a slushy, but it turns out that isn't what it is... basically it tasted like those watermelon lollipops with the chile powder on them..you know that mexican candy? anyway she most def did not like it but i thought it tasted good. I got a ice cream bar type thing that was dipped in chocolate with sprinkles but i didnt like it because it wasn't ice cream it tasted like really sweet vanilla yogurt that had been frozen...so yeah i didn't like it. so we ended up switching. anyway after this we walked home a different way to see if it took less time...yeah it didn't. haha.
Tuesday-Thursday
So classes started which was good. they start at 8:10 which is freaking early which means we catch the bus at like 7:30ish. so on tuesday we didn't know how to get on the bus so we asked these japonese girls that live in the casa if they did. they said they did and that they would show us. well they had to make their payment so it took forever and we ended up leaving a bit late. so i was freaking out. so we got this corner and saw the bus coming and it didnt stop. we saw another and waved our arms and once again it didn't stop. it turns out this is because we werent at a bus stop we were just standing on some corner...stupid i know. anyway we walked to this bus stop and finally pulled over a bus. the bus was SUPER packed. all five of us barely fit on it. so then we were on the bus and i was already almost 8 and i was freaking out because i hate to be late. the japonese girls ended up telling the driver to stop and we got off. we made there on time and everything but the buses are crazy and i don't know how much i like them. haha. but at least it is cheap. like 50 cents.
On tuesday we went on a bus tour which was cool. i mean it was like an hour and a half or something and there were a bunch of cool things to see. but it was hard to take pictures because we were moving so fast. i have some that i will eventually post. after the tour we went out to dinner at this good restaurant called la chata. i had puerco con chile and it was freaking bomb. it was fun to chat with the people at dinner. i also learned some cool gestures that are popular in mexico.
Wednesday or Thursday we went to the mall again. we went to this taqueria to eat. i ordered tacos and when i asked what type of meat she said some word i didn't know and i was like oh okay... so i got it.... it was good but i have no idea what it was, for all i know it was brain or tongue. i decided not to look up the word because i dont really want to know. haha. after that we walked through the mall while waiting for the other group of girls to get out of chili's...yeah the went to chili's...they were in mexico and they went to chili's. so finally they got out but one of the girls had to get minutes for their phones so emily and i decided to wait downstairs while they went to get minutes. this is where it gets funny. so we start to walk to the door when the security guard comes up to us. and i was like ooooh great i just broke some crazy law that i have no idea what it is. so he asks me (keep in mind this is all in spanish)...do you speak spanish? i was like yeah a little. and he was like are those girls going upstairs your friends and i was like yeah and he asked me y las morenitas? (which means like the black girls). and i was like yeah and he was like what are their names (las morenitas)? and i laughed and i told him their names. and he was like hmmm thanks. and then me and emily went outside. well i thought this was hilarious. but it gets even better. he comes out and continues to talk to me. he was really nice.. he started asking like what are we doing. where are we from. why are we in mexico, etc. it turns out he had visited california before. so we were chatting it up while waiting for the other girls. and then he kept like talking on his little radio and walking away and then coming back. and emily was like this is weird and first i thought it was too but then i realized that he was probably just bored and it gave him something to do. finally the girls walked out and he was like oh your friends are here. then one of the girls walked back to CEPE and we decided to take a taxi. right before we got in the taxi the security guard came up to me again and was like oh where are you guys going and i was like oh we are going home, and he is like oh well nice meeting you and i was like yeah you too. and that was the end of it. but it was funny later because i told the girls that he had asked about them and they were like why did you give him our names? and i was like i don't know, i was just so excited that i actually understood what he said i wanted to answer so he didn't think i was like an idiot. haha. anyway that was the extent of that day.
Thursday
This day was dumb. so after school we were all like we are going to meet at four for the mariachi festival. we get there at four and it turns out it was cancelled. so then we are in a group of like 11 people. and just kinda walking through the streets and i was sooo annoyed because whenever we stopped we like blocked the whole street. but it was alright. we looked at some pretty churches, took some pictures, etc.
i met a nice girl who goes to school here. she was friends with one of the CEA girls. it was cool. after this we went to a karaoke bar with Fernanda...Jazmine's host sister. i didn't sing but the other girls did. i was going to but we ran out of time and were tired so we left. that was pretty fun though.
well i have to go to walmart now, so i will be back with more stories of this week later tonight.... just get ready for our trip to the park/walmart, meeting the mexican guys and hanging out with them and then the mariachi parade.....
Miss you all!
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betty
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hehehe
I love reading your blogs because it's as if you're telling me the story... and they're funny! I want your number btw! Berkeley misses you! (and i do too!)