adventures and school..

I started school on Tuesday. It's kind of strange because I have one teacher for Mon and Tues classes and another one for Wed, Thurs, Fri classes. Luckily they are both very nice, however, sitting still for 5 hours a day doing nothing but spanish takes its toll. We do get a half hour break for lunch, but I really haven't figured out where to go during that break yet.

I have very mixed feelings about living here now. Sometimes I'm very happy to be here and sometimes I ask myself what was I thinking? It is extremely frustrating when I am trying to speak a language that I've devoted so much of my life to, and people still can't understand me. It happens especially with people that don't have much experience with foreigners, like in stores, or when I get lost and want to ask where to go. People here immediately know I'm foreign and want to speak English with me..or think that it would be better to speak even broken english than have me try to speak spanish. I'm constantly tired, and even though I've made friends and I like them a lot, I miss home where things are easy. Everything I try to do here is a challenge, and people make me feel stupid a lot, even if they don't mean to.

On the plus side, I am walking like crazy and I bought tennis shoes today..so I should be able to start running soon and maybe I'll lose some weight. My host mom cooks really healthy food and helps me a lot, but there is only so much she can do.

Last night I went to meet my friends from my program and we drank Mate..which is a lot like tea, but SO much more work. It is a very complicated process involving Yerba leaves, sugar, a special mate cup, a special mate straw (bombilla), and hot water. You have to use 3/4 of the cup  to fill with the leaves, and then you get probably about 3 tablespoons worth of Mate. You drink it extremely fast, and it is supposed to help with digestion. I am not sure I understand why someone would go through so much work for just a tiny bit of liquid..but it's definitely a cultural tradition here.

We may go out tonight, if I can figure out how to do it. Wish me luck!

xoxo
Allie