It's Getting Warmer

(9/10-9/13) This week was really busy. Monday started the tradition of only Spanish Mondays. All day on Mondays from now on, Katie and I are only allowed to communicate in Spanish. It actually wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be. I slipped a few times but I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who even caught it. Anyhow, about the day, I woke up and went to Lider with Eli to pick up some groceries for Donce. It took about two hours because Eli forgot the list so we would shop and then call and check the list. Then shop some more and then call to check the list. And shopped a little more and called to check the list one last time. It was fun though, I like spending time with Eli. This week’s dessert was Dirt Cookies, basically sugar cookies with crumbs of Oreo. It wasn’t hard at all but everyone really really loved them. Everyone thinks I’m the best baker in the entire world, I won’t argue. After I made the dough I stuck it in the fridge to let it cool at little while I finished cleaning the kitchen. After cleaning I baked the cookies of course. It took a while because there’s only one big pan and two little pans. I got it done though. One of the students named Koke then showed me how to do the Quaka which is the national dance of Chile. It was really fun to do. Susana, another student, helped me too. They said I was pretty good but I’m pretty sure they were just being nice. After that I showed them how to Wobble! It was really fun. We had small groups after that which mine was pretty awesome, especially now that I’m understanding a little more. Donce was after that. Dinner was a version of chicken pot pie (which was excellent) and the cookies. David gave the talk which was nice. My table didn’t lose the cleaning game so that’s always a plus. I hung out with students after and even formed my own band. It’s called the Blake Band and I play the tambourine haha! It was a fun night. Tuesday was crazy. We went to this area of the city where three colleges sit next to each other and handed out free coffee and tea and invited students to El Oasis which was kind of like Dum Dum days at GSU. After that I met with a student named Katy for English/Spanish lessons. I really enjoy that. Then we had a grill out at El Oasis for a big soccer game. These people love their soccer, they were going crazy. Unfortunately they ended up losing, but it was fun and the food was good. I helped another student with homework after that, he basically just needed a few tongue twisters to help him practice. Some students hung around the house for a while after which was fun hanging out with them. I went to the grocery store with two students randomly just because they asked me too. We had our Café a lo Gringo meeting and our exchange student meeting that night. Phil’s girlfriend Eli came over and hung out with us for a while too. It was cool. Wednesday was pretty calm. I woke up and wrote some letters to friends in the States. I went to the market and the post office and then stopped at Guaton to get a big sandwich for lunch. I didn’t really do much the rest of the day but students were over all day so I just hung out and talked with them. Thursday was crazy. I woke up and went to the staff meeting (which I only go to on Thursdays) then went with Claudia, Eli, and Brent to pick up some flowers and food for El Oasis. The first place we went was this HUGE flower market, literally thousands of flowers. It smelled really good. And Claudia somehow charmed the lady at the gate so she gave us free meal tickets that were good for an empanada and a drink, it was awesome! The second place was this huge fresh market on this really busy street. It was crazy the amount of food and the amount of people in this place. It was fun though and a guy at one of the stands gave me an orange for free. He probably just felt bad for me because I looked so lost. It was cool though. Apparently, there was a huge riot in the city. A police officer died, 26 people were wounded, and 255 people were arrested. Five public buses were set on fire to act as barricades from police and over 400 vehicles had damage. So we were stuck in traffic…for two hours. It was crazy. I didn’t see anything, but it was big news. Anyhow, after that ordeal, we got back to the house and I cooked and cleaned and then we had Café a lo Gringo. My game was Jeopardy and it was awesome.  The students had a great time. Tertulia started and this week was a little different. Since we finished the first series last week, this week was called a Break Out, just a devo between series. This one they split us up between guys and girls and the girls talked about their dreams as children and how that impacts us along with other things while the guys talked about the differences between boys and men. It was really interesting. I liked it a lot. After that I had fun taking really silly pictures around the house with some students. I enjoyed it.

my cookies

my band

the girls at Tertulia

Jorge