Classes and such...

We now find ourselves learning spanish, and forgetting english. The other day, Alli said, "Not so quite." and Charlotte, "I want my water without gas." We have started pronouncing each others names with spanish accents, a-BEE, a-LI, char-LOTE, gor-DON, and say okay like ho-KAY. I was watching a telenovela last night with my housekeeper (SOOO DRAMATIC, these telenovelas! I'm starting to get addicted to at least one of them...) and Cassy called me on Skype, and I started out speaking in spanish! We have also discovered that we dont really realize when our profesora switches from english to spanish anymore. Its WEIRD to realize that our language skills are starting to change the way we think.

Classes started yesterday. At 9 we have either an anthropology class, taught by an intelligent man who is from Canada but married a Oaxacan woman and obviously speaks spanish with an accent, or instead of the anthropology class, a Mexican Identity class taught by our very own Profesora. We get a half an hour break after that, then at 11:30 our spanish classes start... the group is split in half with a more advanced class and a less advanced one. My class, the higher level one, is taught by a Mexican man in his mid 20's named Saul. Every day we start out the day by playing games! I know the rest of the group, who has their class right next door, is jealous of us because we never hear any laughter coming from THEIR room... ;) which is rather sad for them. Anyways, the games we play are vocabulary games... today we played Muerte Subito (Sudden Death), where the rounds consisted of each team naming "places to go when you skip school," or "parts of the body that are NOT usually complimented," etc. The way he teaches the rest of the class is actually really constructive, I've never had a spanish class that I've liked more!

After class, at 1:30, we all head back to our houses for lunch. At 2:30 we eat the biggest meal of the day, la comida, which consists of a small salad, soup, and a main dish... With this amount of food I'm usually never hungry for dinner, which is served around 8, and is usually just something small like cereal or fruit. Anyways, after lunch I take a little nap until 3:45 when I have to go back to the school for intercambios at 4... we meet up with a student from here in Oaxaca and we practice speaking spanish, for our benefit, and english for theirs.

I met my intercambio today... her name is Mayra, shes 17 years old, a little bit timid, but so sweet! And we managed to talk for the entire hour about random things, the weather in Oregon, our families, our boyfriends... she doesn't seem like it, but this girl is pretty much a bad ass... She's been dating this guy for a year tomorrow and her parents dont even KNOW because they say that she can't have a boyfriend until she's 18 and she's been sly enough to keep it from them! I'm rooting for her, she still has about a year to go before she can come out and tell them about this boy of hers... she says " He es not vary cuute but he es a vary goood man." Which made me laugh. At the end of our time up, we did the weird awkward hug thing, and she did the awkward try to kiss me on the cheek thing and so finally had to stop the dance of awkwardness that we were doing and ask how we should do it and she said just one kiss on the cheek then bye. Haha.

Quick side note, I MUST tell the story of Alli's intercambio... The first thing she says when our group slowly starts to meet up after intercambios is, "Well, mine was DRUNK." Apparently, her intercambio had gone to a bar before this with her cousin, because her boyfriend was acting weird... Alli decided to give this the benefit of the doubt, thinking possibly this was a relationship of several years and they were going through a rough patch... but no. 17 days. A relationship of 17 days, and the girls is already freaking out. Her eyes were completely glazed over the entire hour they were talking. In Alli's words: "She said, 'This is my first boyfriend,' and I thought, 'Well this is your LAST intercambio." I kind of feel sorry for the girl, but come on honey. Pull it together.

After the intercambio I work on some homework... today I stayed at El Instituto and just sat down at one of the many tables they have on the patios outside every bright yellow colonial style building... there was music in the background because someone was teaching a dance class outside, and there are these bright redish-pink flowers and a large trellis covering this sitting area, and a courtyard with green grass and big trees and kids playing in the shade... It's so relaxing. It was weird to me to think that, so far away, all the people I love are under the same sun, that the same sunlight thats glowing on my skin is also on theirs... Which makes me feel like we're much closer than we actually are.

In the evenings, I like to talk to people on Skype before bed, and I usually keep my door open unless I'm changing my clothes or having a private conversation. My host dad finds it quite amusing to come in and see who I'm talking to and wave at them and make funny comments, which I and the person who he's waving find freaking hilarious. When he found out I had a boyfriend he got super excited and just HAD to talk to him, even though Tyler still doesn't have a camera. "Hallo Ty-LAR!" When he met Brittany, he asked me if we were twins, and said to Brittany, "Estas muy guapa!" You're very pretty! Brittany just laughed without comprehending, and I had to translate for her. My host family is basically AWESOME, haha. :)

I've only had brief glimpses of homesickness so far, little things like the bus that took us to Oaxaca was playing Milo and Ottis, and it reminded me so much of Brittany and Cassy, when we use to watch that when we were little, or on the news when they showed an american football game which reminded me of Tyler, or when its dark outside and I think about having to use my mase, reminding me of my Dad... I'm sure he'd like that, haha. Or yesterday when I was listening to my iPod and country music came on and I thought of the fair in the summertime and then my mind went off on all the great things about summer in Oregon, or how I was talking about the rain today with Mayra, and how it has a smell. Its weird all the things I dont realize have an impact on me when I'm at home until I'm away from them. I guess it's just a process of knowing yourself a little bit more than you did before you left.