Hi everyone,
It is Friday! I hope you all had a wonderful week. I've really been enjoying this week. The people continue to surprise me by how kind and generous they are. On Thursday, I helped out in my regular English classes, and then was asked to come back at 4:00 in order to lead an English 6 class in a conversation for an hour. The professor had already left so it was just me and the students, but it went extremely well.
Last night, I met up with a friend who I met two weeks ago at school. His name is Alejandro (Alex) and he lived in Portland for 3 months a couple of years ago. Last night we went out to a restaurant where there was a live jazz band playing. There were a lot of people there. I then had an opportunity to try the Mexican version of pepperoni pizza. It was actually really good, just with thinner crust and different spices on it. We listened to the jazz music for about 3 hours and were talking the whole time. Good Spanglish conversations. He speaks English fluently, but I asked him if we could speak Spanish, so it kind of turned into a combination. Overall, it was a really nice night. It's nice making new friends.
Today, I went to my first English class at 9:00. Honestly, I wasn't completely awake, but eventually I started to help out with the grammar exercises. Then, towards the end of class, one of the students (Monica) asked me if I wanted to go with her and her family to visit one of the museums downtown after class. I was supposed to help teach the second English class at 11:00 but the professor told me that I should go with Monica and learn more about the culture.
We picked up the rest of her family and went to the Santa Monica Museo, which is an ancient convent that was turned into a museum. It was actually really interesting to learn about how the nuns used to live. I don't remember when this was, but at some point in time, I think in the 1500s, women had to be married by the time they were 15, and if they did not find a husband, they had to become a nun and join the convent. In this particular convent, they were no longer able to be in contact with their families and could not leave the property. Wow! Things have definitely changed over time.
I got back to the house about 3:00 and started relaxing because I am planning on going out salsa dancing tonight. However, the weather changed and all of sudden, there was thunder and lightening. I'm the biggest wimp when it comes to lightening. I don't know why, but I have always been this way. We aren't used to having thunder storms in Portland or Seattle. The rain got heavier and really started coming down. I was trying to stay calm but Tonio (my host dad) could see that I was nervous, so he took me outside and started asking people "es una tormenta?" (Is this a thunder storm?) He asked about 5 different people and they all started laughing and said no. I just have to get used to this I guess. I am trying to calm down now so I can still go out dancing later.
I hope you have a great weekend! Talk to you soon. :-)
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