Friday, July 16, 2010

Getting used to it


Entrance to my room from the garden!

haven’t even been here a week, and I already started to feel like I was stuck in a rut. Things with my family felt a little awkward, I hadn’t quite clicked with the other students, and I was feeling a little under the weather. Yesterday I basically slept all day, ate dinner, then went back to sleep. This morning I woke up feeling pretty uneasy.

But today ended up being a very good day. Yesterday, our homework was to go to the market. We had to find a fruit that we had never seen before, ask about it, and bring it to class today. I bought a tuna, which I think we just call a prickly pear (that is what my dictionary tells me). My host dad told me all about it. It grows on a nopal, which is a type of cactus. Everyone brought their fruit to class, and we had to talk about it and then eat it. The tuna fruit is really sweet, with lots of seeds. I also ate a mamey, which I didn’t like at all. The fruit is the color of pumpkin and it has a really strange texture. Mangoes here are way sweeter and more delicious than back in the states, and also way cheaper. Right now I can go buy a mango for 1 peso, which is about 12 US cents. And they are soooo good.


After class I finally found a store that sells bars of soap and shampoo. I live right in the downtown area, so there are no supermarkets or anything like that. I finally asked my mom and she told me where to go. I followed her directions and found the store on my first try (which is AMAZING- have you Google mapped my city yet? It is unmappable and impossible to get directions that make sense.) I also found my way downtown from there, so I’m getting the hang of this. I think.

Then I went out with some of the other students, which was fun. We watched a creepy clown who liked to chase people down and kiss them, then went to a restaurant. Yay for being able to drink a beer with my food!

The best part of my day was after dinner, when I came home and had my first real conversation with my parents. So far I have been really shy about my Spanish, and our conversations have been really limited. Tonight we talked about learning new languages and about how Spanish is viewed in back in the States. It was the first time that I really felt at home here, and I feel a lot more relaxed.


Random side note- Today my mom made me hot dogs with avocado and mustard for breakfast. Interesting.

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