Another Weekend Begins

Holas!! These short weeks and longs weekends make hard for me to remember what day it is, but I'm not complaining. It's Friday evening, but I keep thinking it's saturday. It's a good problem. The last two days have been fun filled. On Wednesday, I went to class and then worked at my internship. I was pretty much on my own at my internship. I took measurements of cement blocks for about a half hour, and then continued to do research related to my project. On Monday, I'll have to explain everything I found to Silvia. That will be challenging but a good experience. I feel like I've already expanded my vocabulary significantly since I got here. it's very exciting. When we got home, I had a message from Juan Carlos that said they were having a get together at his apartment and that I should come. So after we ate dinner, Mercedes, Juanca (Juan Carlos), and Isma picked me up. It was a lot of fun. I taught them some of the card games we play, and they taught me some card games they play. I played soccer for the first time on xbox. I was very horrible, but that's not any different than in the US. I found out that Juanca was born in Houston, and his family is from Mexico. So he knows english very well. It was nice because I could ask him how to say things I didn't know. It's very exciting to have Spanish friends. It really helps in learning the culture as well as improves my use of the language. A funny scenario that night was when I went into Juanca's apartment, I just out of habit took off my shoes. A few minutes later, Mercedes asked me why I did that and if it was a custom in my country. I told her yes, we usually don't wear our outside shoes in the house. We wear slippers or nothing. I also taught her the words "barefoot" and "tum-tum". She learns english in a very unique way when she's with me.

On Thursday, we went to class, and because it was such a beautiful day, a group of us decided to walk home. It took about an hour but we walked fast. I want to walk it again slower and take some pictures of the beautiful scenery. We decided during the walk home to try Spanish Chinese food. So at lunch we asked our mom about the chinese restaurants here. She told us of a really nice one that was kind of expensive but the food was really good. So we met Ginny, Kathryn, Sean, Bridgett, and Erin at 7 and headed to the restaurant. We got there and had some trouble figuring out how to get in. We found a door eventually and went in. We we got through the door there were couches and a lady in an apron. It did not look like a restaurant, but we told her there we seven of us and she just looked confused. She then realized we wanted to eat. She told us the restaurant didn't open until 9, and she would get us a reservation for 9. So we left and noticed as we left that above the door it said Masaje or massage. We had gone into the massage place owned by the restaurant. It was very embarrassing. No wonder she looked so confused when we said there were seven of us.

So we headed to a nearby cafe and had some drinks and snacks. We talked and told fun stories. It was a good bonding experience. Then we headed back to the restaurant and managed to go into the correct door. The restaurant was beautiful with plants and even a little river under the floor. We were seated with a nice view of the street below. We proceeded to look through the menu, an interesting experience. When you go to a chinese place and look at the menu, you usually don't know what the names mean, but there is usually a decription below. It is the same in Spain except its the spanish version. So you're basically translating twice. Eventually, we were all able to find something that seemed safe to order. I had Pad-Thai with gambas (small shrimps), and it was phenomenal. The shrimp were fresh and sweet. It reminded me of the shrimp in Louisiana. Maren had pinapple chicken which was served in a pineapple half. The dish was called "pollo con pina natural" (chicken with natural pinapple). They weren't kidding. When we finished our meal, the waiter asked if we wanted dessert. What do you think was our response?...of course we want dessert! I had "tarta mousse chocolate" (chocolate mousse cheesecake) and Maren had "tarta queso fresa" (strawberry cheescake). We split the two so we could have some of the both. They were the perfect ending to a fantastic meal.

We then headed to the bar where I met the Argentinians for a while, and then went to Down, the disco. We danced for a while, and then ran into Nacho and his friends. We all danced together til about 4, and we then headed to another disco to dance some more. I went home and slept well for the first time in abuot a week. I slept so hard i woke up in the same position I went to bed in.

Today we climbed the montain outside of town. It took us about and hour and a half to reach the top. We were pretty tired after the long walk/climb, but it was an incredible view. We could see the entire city and university campus. We took lots of pictures, and had milkshakes at the cafe. We also went inside the sanctuary at the top. Sitting in the pew was just a surreal experience. It was so quiet and the beauty of it was breathtaking. I felt rejuvenated after sitting there for a bit. We also got to see the sunset while on the mountain. We made the trek back which was much easier going down than up. We just had a hamburger for dinner, and are preparing for another night on the town.

I learned another lesson: If a door says "Masaje" it probably isn't a restaurant.