Friday - Day Fourteen
I was feeling good again this Friday while I was in classes. We had a nice lesson in grammar class and didn´t have to take a test today (it will be Monday) and I just had a good time. In my two conversation classes we got off topic writing different slang/abbriviations for IMing and text messaging. Our teacher was interested to know all the ones we would think of in English (ie lol, rotfl, brb, omg) and she taught us a couple too (p.u.t.a - which is a very bad word here but with the periods means "for a nice girl friend). I think I am just more talkative on Fridays because I know the weekend is coming and I can relax more.
I chatted with Lisa about how things are going for me, and like I told her, I am feeling good about things. I have really had a lot of good insights into why content area learning is so difficult and I finally really understand why background knowledge is so important. I am in a class with people who are fluent in Spanish and yet the class is still challenging because they don´t have the background knowledge that I do in history, specifically Mexican and Latin American history. I am by no means fluent, but I understand the concepts, know a lot of the places, names, dates, and theories and so I can make educated guesses about the specifics and that helps me to understand the lectures. I also have new appreciation for why drawings, pictures, rephrasing, checking comprehension, etc. is so necessary. This really has been an exciting and instructive week.
After school Dee and I decided to go home for comida because we were starving and wanted the free (well we have paid for it actually) food. Then we decided to see what the local Walmart was like because we needed towels for tomorrow´s excursion to Las Estacas. We also have been checking the prices of camera memory cards and gigabyte jumpdrives about everywhere we go. Just like at OfficeMax the prices were really nothing exceptional, maybe $25 dollars or more for either of these items. It makes one appreciate the sales at Staples or wherever all the more. I really want to stock up on these items now. It would be so much more convienient to not have to worry about being able to take enough pictures. Anyway, prices at the Mexico Walmart are just about the same as they are in the states so don´t expect any phenominal bargains there. Go to the Mercado (or the fuica >:) ) for those.
After that we went once again to the galleria to meet some friends from USU who wanted to have fondue there. We weren´t sure that we wanted to eat that, but our indecisiveness about seeing another movie kept us from getting tickets for the movie theaters there. We both want to try the VIP movies but they only have Shrek the Third in Spanish, The Perfect Crime (not sure whether this is in English or Spanish), and Pirates in English. By the time that we decided that we would see Pirates III again and just not tell the others, it had already started so we went to where we were going to meet people for fondue and waited.
Melinda soon remembered that they had changed to a later time and it was going to be a half an hour before anyone got there. We decided that we needed to get some movies for the weekend so we went up to the Mega store that is nearby. Can you believe that we are actually bored?! You would think that we had plenty to do and see while we are here, but we have now gone to most of the places that we could easily reach in a taxi or by bus, and sometimes you are just too tired to go shopping or hang out at the Xocolo. This was such a day plus most of our roommates were on their way to Acapulco or Mexico City for the weekend and so we couldn't rely on them for entertainment (we usually don´t though except for at meals). So we searched through the cheap movie bins and found copies of the Fantastic Four and Lost in Translation that were in English and that would play in the US. We will have to borrow Quita's laptop to watch them, but we are pretty sure she is leaving it and she has always said that we could use it when we need it.
We returned in time to get fondue with those who had decided to come and it was actually really good. None of us thought that we were very hungry so we decided to order fruit and chocolate fondue, and I insisted on getting a white chocolate one although most of the other said that they didn´t like it. But regualar chocolate tastes different here. It is much more like dark chocolate or semisweet. It just doesn´t have as much sugar in it. And so when all was said and done, everyone said that the white chocolate was the best and that they had really liked it. We ate all of the bananas, pears, apples, strawberries and marshmellos that had come with our three fondue pots of various chocolates and decided that we could still eat more. Girls in a group are not afraid to be a bit piggy. ^_^ So we ordered a traditional fondue, but most everyone didn´t like the cheese in the fondue pot. I thought it was pretty good, just stronger than your average cheddar, swiss, etc. But we all had a lot of fun and took several very silly pictures that I am sure will end up on facebook.
After our nice dinner, we returned home and went looking for the laptop. Brittany had it and she said she would bring it to us when she was done, but that didn't happen. We had to go wake her up from her nap to retrieve it. We started to watch F4, but we didn't finish it because we were tired (might also be that it is pretty bland for a superhero movie). Happily we should have plenty to do tomorrow when we head out for the natural water park, Las Estacas.