lapa lapaaaaa quiero papassssssss

It has been busy, busy, busy here in Mérida.  On Wednesday I went to class again and the first thing we did was play Manzanas con Manzanas to practice vocabulary.  It is one of my favorite games, so of course I enjoyed class.  After class I went back to la casa de Dona Patricia (Mrs. Patricia's house) courtesy of Claudina's car.  Claudina is an administrative person at Central College and she is also my friend Katie's host mom.  I had lunch with Dona Patricia and she told me that she normally watches TV while she eats since she is normally here alone.  So since we were already eating at the table, I told her we could do that next time.  After lunch, we watched some news on TV, but I went up to siesta.  Surprise, I couldn't fall asleep, but I did get some good rest in before Christy and I walked to Starbucks.  We met up with Liberty, Valerie (a student, not the director), Teagan, and Mindy and did some planning for our Cancun trip this weekend!  (Ten students all together will be going on the trip together)  Coincidentally, we ran into Valerie (the director) at Starbucks.  She said that she already called a hotel, explained to them we were students, and got us a better "non-tourist" rate.  Then she explained to us about the bus systems, and the taxis we would have to take to get there.  Not to toot  my own horn or nothing, but then Valerie grabbed my arm and told the group that we would need to use our best Spanish speaker to negotiate with the taxi drivers because they would try to rip off all of us gringos.  Ah, what responsibilty.


Yesterday, class was not as awesome as Manzanas con Manzanas.  We checked over the crap done of homework we had to do including reading a novel called Un viejo que leía novelas de amor by Luis Sepúlveda.  I think it is ridiculously hard to understand but Chris and Katie understand it perfectly.  Silvia (the teacher) seemed to be slightly irritated with me, so I guess I better get my act together.  After class, some of Silvia's students from a different school came and chatted with us.  I got to know Candy first in Spanish and then in a little bit of English.  The deal was speak the first 50% in Spanish and the second 50% in English, but not gonna lie, we spoke more Spanish.  


Last night was a ton of fun!  Central College pays Mexican students to be our "language partner," or someone to hang out with and be our friend but also someone who speaks Spanish and we can talk to and learn from.  It turns out that my "language partner," Erika is friends with Christy's "language partner," Vero.  Last night, our "language partners" picked the two of us from my house to hang out.  Those girls are so much fun!  They drove us in their air conditioned (air conditioning is an important detail since I do not have it at neither my host home or school and it often reaches upper 90's and goes over 100) Chevy.  First we went to the centro (downtown) and saw La Plaza Grande (the big plaza).  There were people, vendors, historic buildings, etc. EVERYWHERE.  I like this section of Mérida way better than the section near our school.  There is so much more life!  After La Plaza Grande, we were going to go to the mall but then realized it was going to be closed since it was almost 9:00 PM, so we went to a restaurant called "Lapa Lapa," shared a HUGE plate of appetizers, Christy and I tried our first Mexican mixed-drinks, and talked and laughed a ton!  After drinking my drink, I noticed that all was left in my cup was ice.  which is made of water. which if it is from the tap, I will get super sick.  So I freaked out.  But Vero told us that the ice in our cups, which was completely see-through is the good kind of ice.  Ice that is white is de llave (from the tap) and we will get sick from that kind.  *whew*  She also said that her Daddy is a doctor, so if something bad like extreme diarrhea happens to me, I could be in safe hands.  I had so much fun with Erika and Vero and felt so much more at ease speaking Spanish with them since they weren't A. of grandmother age like Dona Patricia B. my teacher like Silvia, or C. some random person on the streets.  They were both 22, and super nice!  Next week sometime they said we could go shopping and out to a club somewhere and meet all of their friends.  All in all, I like the new friend that gets paid to hang out with me!


Today, Central College is going on a field trip to Celestun (I've mentioned it previously in a pre-departure entry) and we're going to see tons of flamingos!  Afterward, 10 of us from the group are making the adventure via 4-hour bus ride to Cancun!  I'll be gone until Sunday night, but I'll come back with lots of stories and pictures!