FRIDAY

So after I stopped typing last night, I went into the shower and when I got out, I heard this screaming. I was pretty sure Enrique was pulling out Felipe’s tooth. I went about my business and sat down to my essay on political, sexual, and personal repression (so much fun. Why couldn’t I have picked feminism or something??) and the guys went in to use my bathroom for the mirror. The three-year-old Pedro (who is drop-dead cute) asked me what I was doing. I can’t tell you how exciting that was because one, foreign exchange students are scary and two, I actually understood him; little kids are a little hard to understand. Our conversation didn’t last too long; I think I scared him away. Later on I went to the bathroom to see how they were doing, and it turned out really funny because the boys were all over the place. I have left a bunch of stuff out because I hadn’t expected them coming, and Pedro grabbed my deodorant. It made Enrique really embarrassed, which was funny for me. They left, Z practically passed out after doing so much all day, and I finished my essay. More or less. The next morning the bus was late-ish, and I started reading about the Popol Vuh (Mayan Bible) because I was pretty sure I’d have to change the topic for my research paper. At school I corrected my essay then looked up JSTOR, this great collection of academic journals, to find some knitting. I found no knitting, but plenty of textiles, so I’m just changing one word in me thesis: “knitting” to “textiles.” Easy, and AM approved. I went to her next to help me go over my repression essay. Next it was off to the library to find some books with some success. I talked for a bit, checked my email to see if I was supposed to meet with my university buddy for lunch, went to class, realized I’d forgotten my book at the computer that I had been revising my essay, interrupted a class to retrieve it, and made it back to Survey class in time to talk about incest, militarism, and Puerto Rico. We read aloud a lot, which I liked because I’m really vain about the way my voice sounds in Spanish, especially when reading. My lunch buddy never made any contact, so I hung out with Margoh, Andrew, Lola, and Brenden for a while, then we met some Ecuadorians Rodrigo and José for lunch; Jacob the Clevelander and another Ecuadorian Stefi joined us. Another proof of Latin American’s weird health fetish: I rarely eat sweets at the apartment, so I do so pretty much every chance I get at school. I ordered a crepe with nutella, strawberry, banana, and cheesecake, and I enjoyed it. Germán came up to me and told me that I was punishing myself. I didn’t know what the heck he was talking about. I mean, I know that “castigar” means “to punish,” but I had no idea what he was referring to. He repeated himself about twenty times used motions, and translated to English, but he had to say that I was punishing myself because I was eating dessert for lunch. Really? I mean, really? It’s a crepe, it’s my lunch, and I’m not morbidly obese. It did bother me that I could not use my usual running excuse, but the entire ordeal was a little irritating. I don’t know how Latin Americans got to be such health nuts. Anyway, we had a good time talking about Chicago, kickboxing, cloistered nuns, lacrosse, and Amish people with the Ecuadorians, then we went to class. More talking about the Spanish conquest (it seems like that’s ALL I ever talk about here) and how colonialism is still present in Latin America today, getting sidetracked a lot. Next we talked about the novella “An old guy who read romance novels” loosely translated, of course, which actually has a lot to do with the rainforest. We had a nice average bus ride back, it started raining as I walked home, and I did homework. Kind of. A lot of solitaire. Problem is that my internet isn’t working tonight, so I can’t go online to find the journal articles I need for my humongous paper. So I worked, but not on what I wanted. Dinner was cold tea, quinoa soup, tomatoes, chicken pastelito (sandwich that has rice instead of bread that is so flipping good I’m going to try to make it as soon as I get home) and fried plantains. I showered (good, right?) and I guess I’m going to bed now, although I’m thinking of waking up early to try to get some internet.
For your entertainment: Because I am blatantly American, all of my catcalls in are English, but Ecuadorians are really bad with pickup lines. Example: walking back to the apartment today I passed by these three super ultra mature high school boys. After I had passed by, one of them said, “Beautiful woman.” Really? There’s another really creative one, too: “Pretty girl.” If Ecuadorian girls are in any way attracted to these guys (with translation, of course) they’ve got some serious problems. Anyway, I know this sounds super naïve, but I thought that hibiscus flowers were only in Hawaii. There’s some at the school. There have been police outside the Music Conservatory when I get out in the mornings. I think that there must be someone really important visiting because I can’t see my neighborhood as having a high crime rate (I also live next to a ballet school and a swimming school…) I have some exciting stuff planned for the weekend; get ready for some surprisingly not-mediocre posts!!