Friday, July 20, 2007

Today is the Day of the Friend (Día del Amigo) here. I got up at 8:30 and drug myself out of bed and into a chilly shower. After some minutes, the water warmed up from iceberg to semi-warm. I got ready and ate breakfast at 9:30ish. I took a picture of my usual breakfast: two cups of hot chocolate, two media lunas, and tostadas with dulce de leche. I left my house at 10 with my computer to go to the photo store. I got there and talked to Juan. He is the man who sold me my camera and he was there the night before when he told me that the CD didn’t work. I tried to turn on my computer and it didn’t want to cooperate. The first time I turned it on, when he put his memory stick in, my computer froze and would not return. I had to kill it and then start it again. The second time I tried, a blue error screen came on. I was embarrassed that I was taking so much time and I was trying to hurry because I had to meet Tammy at 11 at her apartment. Juan is really funny. He knows some English, but he talks to me in Spanish. When my computer was misbehaving, he kept telling me that it was thinking and I told my computer to hurry, using the vos command (unique to Argentina/Uruguay). Juan told me that my computer doesn’t speak castellano which is true. Juan took out a post-it note and wrote “R.I.P.” and stuck it to my computer. It was really funny. I was a little worried that I was never going to get my free pictures and I said this. Juan told me we would get them out, and pulling out a carpet knife, he added, “no matter what!” It was hilarious! Finally, my computer turned on and let us transfer the pictures. I left the photo store at 10:35 and had to go back to my house and drop off my computer. Fani wasn’t there when I returned. I grabbed my new skirt, a white shirt, hose, and my dress shoes (or “smart shoes,” according to Tammy) and ran out the door as Fani was coming back. I had about 13 minutes before I was supposed to be at her apartment. If I would have had Tammy’s phone number, I would have called her, but I didn’t have it. (By the way, that last sentence is one of the grammar structures we have been reviewing a lot this summer.) I walked the short way (down Sucre) because it was light out. I hurried and made it to Tammy’s apartment just 15 minutes after I left my house. I got honked at seven times on my way to her house and a man on a bike practically stopped so he could say something to me. I don’t know what he said and I don’t really want to know!

I buzzed Tammy’s apartment and she said she would come down and let me in. However, a woman came to the door first and said something really quickly in Spanish and I didn’t understand her. She said something about the door and entering, but I wasn’t sure what. I mumbled something about waiting for a friend and she let me in as she went out. I met Tammy at the elevator. I have to tell you about the elevator at Tammy’s apartment. It reminds me of a ride at an amusement park. Whenever it starts or stops, you get a moment of weightlessness and then a big thud. It is interesting! We went in and I sat on Tammy’s bed while she finished getting ready. I left my dress clothes at her apartment. We headed out and went to the pharmacy so Tammy could buy more throat medicine (she is still sick) and then to a mail place so Tammy could mail some postcards and I could buy a stamp. We then walked to Tierra Santa, the religious-themed park. We had to walk near where Tammy runs so we walked over to her lake so she could get a picture. We saw a parrot and took a picture of him, too. We headed across a big bridge over a highway and then had to stop for a minute and consult “el mapa.” We found Tierra Santa and walked in. We had to ask a man where to pay and then we bought tickets from a lady wearing a Bible-times robe. It cost 15 pesos ($5) to go. Something I must say right away is that ALL of the workers where wearing robes and headpieces, even the women cleaning the bathroom! We went to give them our tickets and the man automatically started trying to explain the park to us in English. He gave us English maps so we could “understand them better.” He assumed that we could not speak Spanish very well without even talking to us! How frustrating! Tammy asked him if we could also have maps in Spanish. The lady working with him gave us each one. We went to the bathroom and then went into a big domed building to find the Nativity show. We had to walk through displays of Adam and Eve, Abraham, some prophets, and a few more characters before getting to the show room. Each one had a Bible verse written on a big plaque by it (in Spanish, obviously). We heard music and it was almost 1pm, so we hurried in to find seats for the show. After waiting about five minutes, all the lights turned off so it was pitch black in there. I asked Tammy if she was scared of the dark and she said she wasn’t because there were angels in there. The show was cool because the whole scene was set up in front of us but we could only see the characters they shone the lights on. The figures were mechanical. My favorite one was the sheep whose mouth moved. We tried to take pictures, but they didn’t turn out very well. After that, we walked around the park. It is right by the airport and so lots of planes would fly over our heads really close and really noisily! We saw lots of scenes from the Bible set up with life-size statues. It was really neat! We were taking pictures with a statue of a woman with the face cut out so you could stick your face in when a man came over and told us if we wanted to see the last supper show that we should hurry because it was starting. We hurried in and had to sit off to the side because there were so many people. We waited about five minutes for the show to start. It was really short; it probably only lasted for 2 minutes! The voice was easier to understand in this show and Jesus and the disciples moved their hands and heads a lot. After it was over, all the people clapped really loudly. Something about people clapping for machines made me laugh, but it was refreshing to see the respect that people had for this scene. As we walked out, I said to Tammy that we should go back and finish taking the pictures with our faces. Right then, we saw that a whole school group was clustered around them and we changed our minds fast! We walked around and saw more Bible scenes. We headed back near the entrance to see the Resurrection show. This consisted of a huge Jesus being raised from the domed building and then He turned to the right and left, shut His eyes, turned his palms heavenward, and bowed his head. The music was in English (I think it was Messiah, but I can’t remember right now) and as the song ended, Jesus was lowered back down into the mountain. I took a video of Jesus. This show was a bit funny to me, but I liked it. We headed back in to visit more scenes including the walk to Golgotha with the cross. We also saw a replica (obviously) of the Wailing Wall and there was a sign that said all the papers that are stuck in there and taken to Jerusalem and placed in the real Wailing Wall. I thought that was really neat. We looked at the restaurants in there to see if we should eat there to save time, but decided to wait and go to an empanada place near Tammy’s apartment because we thought it would be quicker and cheaper. We went to see the Creation show and the lady told us it was full, but Tammy asked if we could stand and the lady let us in. This show was interesting, too. It started out totally dark and stayed that way even after the part where God created the light! Next, light shone on two waterfalls and water started falling. Then it went dark and two platform things were lowered from the walls and they had tons of grass and plants on them. Next, animals appeared and took turns performing their special noises and actions. The elephant was life-size (as was everything else) and it sprayed mist over its back. It ended with Adam and Eve standing in the middle of the scene. Tammy and I were practically the first ones out the door because we had been standing in the back right next to the ramp. We wanted to climb the mountain of the crucifixion which was on the roof the domed building we had just been in (the nativity show had been in there, too). We walked up there and there was a sign that said, “No correr” (No running). We took a picture of it. We walked around the mountain and then headed down. We went to the bathroom and there were two robed ladies cleaning. We left the park and headed back near Tammy’s apartment. However, when we arrived, the empanada place was closed so Tammy bought some cookies in a kiosko and we went to her apartment. We changed into our fancy clothes (I wore my new purple and black plaid wrap-around skirt with a fabric flower on the front and one of Tammy’s purple shirts that was the perfect color—thank you Tammy!—and Tammy wore a cute black skirt with a bow, black shoes with little bows on the toe (very slippery shoes), and a red shirt. We both wore our coin necklaces. We took pictures with Silvia and then we had to leave for class. We snacked on the way and got there early—about 4:10. Graciana had told us to come at 4:30, but we wanted to be early. However, as we were about to take the elevator up, we saw Megan and Kelly (two of the girls from Grace) and they said that class was over and they didn’t know if Graciana was still around. We talked to them for a while and then went up to look for her. However, we saw Mallory (the other Grace girl) in the computer lab and went in to say hi. We then wandered around looking for Gloria’s (the director) office. However, we went down the wrong hall, but we heard a professor speaking Spanish and we both thought that we were in the right place (the language department) since we heard people speaking Spanish and then we realized that everyone speaks Spanish here! We found Gloria’s office, but she wasn’t there. However, we could see the tests sitting on her desk. We asked a lady in another office close by and she told us to ask Daniel (Señor Tiza—Mr. Chalk), the man who brings the chalk to our class, but he wasn’t around either. We went back to the computer lab to say goodbye to the Grace girls and then went to look for Gloria one more time. She wasn’t there, but as we were leaving, another woman walked by and we asked her if she knew if Gloria was coming back soon. She said that since the light was on in the office, either Gloria or Daniel should be back soon. We decided to sit and wait because we really wanted to see our tests. We thought about going back to the computer lab to check our email, but decided that would be a bit awkward since we had already been in there twice in the last 15 minutes without even using the computers. We sat in some chairs and talked and before long, Daniel appeared. We followed him until he went into Gloria’s office and then we asked him about our tests. He looked through a big stack of tests until he found the tests of our class. He then asked our names and started looking through the whole stack. I thought we might be on the bottom since we had not been in class and I was right. Our pages were scrambled together, but we got them sorted out. I got a 9 on the exam, an 11 on the oral exam, and a 10 in the class. I don’t understand the 11 on the oral exam because I thought everything was out of 10 and I even made a mistake. I was very happy and Tammy was happy, too, because she got a 9 in the class. After looking at our mistakes, we left and went to the ISA office. We had a million things to do and we did them. I talked to Guillermo about my missing letter and gave him the stamp in case it comes so he can send it back to me, checked my email, confirmed where I am supposed to go for tomorrow’s airport pick-up and got taxi info, and called my mom. We talked to Kay and Tammy tried to get tickets for Uruguay tomorrow, but they don’t have any of the slow ferry tickets left for tomorrow. The fast ferry is a lot more expensive and so they decided not to go. I was excited because I didn’t have to say goodbye to Tammy today! Kay, Tammy, and I walked to my photo store so I could pick up my pictures and then to Dolce y Caffe, a fancy Italian restaurant for some rich chocolate cake that Tammy discovered with her Chile friends. We went in and got seated at a table because they had removed the couches where Tammy sat last time. The waiter took our order and even repeated the name of the dessert that was something like “trilogo chocolate.” Tammy also ordered tap water without incident although the man looked amused. Last time Tammy tried to order tap water at this restaurant, it was a big fiasco and she accidentally asked for “camel water” and “stretcher water” instead of “tap water.” However, it worked this time and the waiter brought us tap water in very tall wine glasses. In a little bit, he brought us three very good-looking STRAWBERRY DESSERTS! We told him we had ordered chocolate and he looked confused and brought the menu and Tammy showed him the menu and repeated the name of our dessert. He apologized and removed the three desserts. We had to wait a little longer and then he brought each of us the richest dessert I have ever eaten in my life. My mother would love it! The bottom layer is fudgy, then there are three layers of mousse (dark brown, medium brown, and cream) with dark chocolate fudgy stuff on top. At the back of the cake, there were pieces of real chocolate. It was super rich, but we all ate ours. The English-speaking waiter came to give us the bill. His English is not that good. Tammy had fun trying to explain tap water to him the last time she was there. Tammy paid with credit card because both she and I are almost out of money. I have more American dollars, but I forgot to change them and tomorrow none of the money changing places will be open. Kay and I walked back to Cabildo together after walking Tammy to the door of her apartment (which is right next to Dolce y Caffe). I walked home and got there right at 8:35. Fani greeted me and noticed that I was wearing a skirt which was not what I had been wearing earlier. She liked it a lot. She likes everything I buy here. The only exception to this was when I wore my shirt that looks like an Argentinean flag the other day and her first comment was about how “un-coated” I was! (That is a poor translation, but we don’t have a verb for wearing a coat, do we?) She liked the shirt afterward, though. She heated up my dinner and I went out to find that she had served me an empanada and a pizza. Now, I was already overwhelmed from eating that chocolate cake and I didn’t really feel very hungry and I probably shouldn’t have eaten my whole piece of cake (but who wastes chocolate?). I asked what kind of empanada it was and Fani told me chicken and onion. It was cheese and ham, but mostly cheese. I bet there was more than a half cup of melted cheese in there and then I had a greasy cheese pizza. I felt like I might throw up if I ate one more bite of cheese and so when Fani turned to the refrigerator to take something out, I quickly ripped the last piece of pizza from the crust and hid it in my napkin. Fani brought me chocolate mousse for dessert and I asked if I could eat it later. I finished dinner 6 hours ago and I am still not hungry for it! The combination of that rich chocolate cake and an overload of cheese is not really a good idea! After dinner, Fani went directly to bed, so I didn’t give her the picture frame with the picture of us in it. I wanted to write in a card anyway and so I will give it to her tomorrow. I shaved my legs in the sink because I might get frostbite if I tried to do it in the shower. (It was the first time in 44 days, for anyone who is interested.) I then started my least favorite task in the entire mundo: packing. I worked for a long time. It is hard because there aren’t any scales here and so I don’t know how much stuff I have in each suitcase. I kind of think my big suitcase weighs too much, but I guess I will find out tomorrow. Unlike Tammy, I don’t have enough clothes to use for padding. I probably should have brought the smaller version of my suitcase because I have so many heavy items that aren’t that big. After packing the big suitcase and most of the smaller one, I wrote this blog. Now it is 2:40am and I really want to get some sleep before I have to wake up and leave my room. I don’t really understand when I need to be out because Fani told me not to worry about when I am out, but she also told me that the new girl is arriving about 9, but she also told me that her daughter is not coming to clean my room until 10! I want to be up about 8:30 so I can give Fani her present and card before the new girl comes. I also need to go grocery shopping and buy a few last minute things before meeting Tammy and Kay tomorrow at 11am. My floor is still a mess because I haven’t packed my backpack or purse. I am going to try to get away with using my one-strap backpack as my purse because my real purse doesn’t always work so well with the zipper and the backpack is a little bigger. However, I hope they don’t count each backpack as a bag! It will also be easier to carry them around the airport because I can put my one-strap backpack on my front (like normal) and then put my backpack on my back. Okay, my goal is being in bed before 3:30 because then I can get 5 hours of sleep!