July 2, 2007

Today I got up at 8:45 and got ready and ate my normal breakfast plus part of a pastry that Fani had bought in the bakery the day before. I didn’t like it because it had lots of nuts and weird candied fruits. It made me think of yulekaka (sp?). For those who don’t know, yulekaka (sp?) is a Norwegian Christmas bread that my grandma makes every year. By the way, I started eating a new container of dulce de leche about a week ago. This brand is called Fortuna and is runnier than the other kind, but tastes similar to the brown cow brand. I like this one, but it is messy! Anyway, after breakfast I got ready and left about 10am.

I went to a store called Don Boton (Mr. Button) and bought some safety pins to make my little backpack more secure. I then went in search of the post office because I needed to stick some things in the mail, but when I found it, it was full of people and you had to take a number and wait in line. I didn’t want to do that because it would take forever and I just needed a mailbox because I had already purchased the stamps, so I left and went to ISA. I was a little early to meet Tammy, so I worked on my homework a little bit more. Tammy came soon after I did and we finished our homework together. I asked Guillermo about mailing my postcards and he said that the stamps I had purchased were for a private mail company and so I couldn’t mail them in the normal mail. He suggested that I go to the post office and just buy new stamps and put them over the old ones, but then he looked up the mail company (Seprit) online and called them and asked where I could mail them. We found out that this company does not have an actual branch, but will come anywhere in Buenos Aires to pick them up! I left my postcards in the ISA office and Tammy and I headed to Freddo to take advantage of the Monday special: 2-for-1 ice creams! We both got chocolate waffle cones with one scoop of Espresso ice cream with chocolate-covered coffee beans (My mom would love this flavor!) and one scoop of Chocolate Freddo (Fani’s favorite) for slightly more than $1 each! It was a very good and healthy lunch (ice cream has milk and eggs in it, right?). After our ice cream, we headed to school. Nothing too exciting happened in the UB today. We went over a lot of grammar stuff and did some hard exercises in the workbook. In a way, our class is a lot easier this month because there are almost twice as many people and so we are not expected to contribute as much. This probably is not as good for learning, but it is more comfortable when we are doing exercises that I have no idea about! I am excited because we are learning the prepositions that go with certain verbs. I know this probably sounds strange that I am excited about this, but you have to understand that I have been making errors with this concept forever and I am excited to finally know how to write more correctly. Tomorrow we get a list of the prepositions! Hurray!

After class, I had to go to the ISA office for the meeting about the trip to Córdoba, so Tammy decided to go home because she had a lot to do. The meeting was slightly disorganized as they tried to decide who was going. I had first priority along with the other five students from last month who wanted to go, but couldn’t. After figuring this out, Juan talked about the schedule. We are going to leave from the ISA office at 6:30 on Friday night and will return to Buenos Aires Tuesday morning before class. We don’t actually miss any classes because Monday will be Independence Day and so we don’t have class. Anyway, we paid our money, I checked my email quickly (because the office was closing), and then Will and I walked to La Pampa where I turn to go home.

I got home slightly after 7 and Fani was surprised to see me home so early because since Tammy has been here, I have been spending time with her after class doing things like shoe shopping and eating cakes and ice cream! :) I told Fani about my day and why I was home so early. It is getting to be a lot more natural to speak in Spanish. Several times I have even caught myself thinking in Spanish! More often, however, I find myself thinking in Spanish. For example, “I need to eat breakfast by 9:30 y después de comer voy a ir a la oficina de ISA.” (Translation: I need to eat breakfast by 9:30 and after eating, I will go to the ISA office.) Also, my English is worsening and if you can’t tell from reading this blog, that is thanks to spell-check!

Fani fixed dinner and I ate almost directly. I ate soup, shredded carrots and big cucumber that was not big, cheese ravioli (not green) with red sauce (very good), and flan. I was “too full” to eat the flan. What a shame! I hate telling Fani I don’t like her food because she always gets sad and apologizes profusely. I told her one time that I don’t like flan, but she sometimes forgets things and, unfortunately, this is one thing she has forgotten! After dinner, I got my list of –erías out and Fani helped me add to it. I now have exactly 50 words that end in –ería! How fun is that! I am going to keep looking and Fani is going to keep thinking. This morning, the first thing she said to me was, “Santería,” which is, as Fani described it to me, “A place where they sell saints.” I had to laugh (in my head), but I think what she means is a place where they sell pictures of saints and icons and such. Anyway, Fani washed the dishes and went to bed. I took a shower, but waited five minutes before getting in to give the water time to get warm. It didn’t work very well as the shower was, as our friend Andrew in Hong Kong said, “Lukecold.” I had goosebumps, but I didn’t shiver. I started my second bottle of shampoo. I need to wash my hair a lot in the next 18 days because I am not bringing it home! I organized some stuff in my room, skimmed a book that Tammy is borrowing me full of Chilean slang (it is really entertaining to read), got my clothes ready for the laundromat man tomorrow, checked my email and read the blogs of Tammy and Nicole, and wrote this blog. I learned that Tammy went to “our” favorite café without me tonight which is not fair. How come she lives next to our favorite café? Hehe. I am going to do my homework now and then read a bit and then go to bed. Tomorrow, Tammy and I (and maybe Will) are going to go to a colonial museum and visit an old church before class.