Placement Exam, Walking, Workshop, More Walking,

June 2

7:30am: I wake up and get dressed.

8:00am: My host mom calls me to eat breakfast. I have toasted bread and butter and café con leche. The bread resembles French bread but not really so it was quite stiff after a few minutes of being toasted. The coffee was really good =)

8:30am: I leave for CLM. Surprisingly, I didn’t get lost. I think I made a couple of wrong turns but I think I’m generally good with directions so I still found my way.

You have to understand though the streets here are a bit confusing. The minor streets are narrow and meander through the city without a pattern. There are many plazas all over the city and they make great landmarks. The city is very old – very very old. This city has been around since like the 10^th century. It is very fascinating. The streets are made of stone. Most parts are made of shiny bricks (? Lol are they called something specific? ) Anyway, some parts are made of cobblestone, marble, or little pebbles. You get the general idea. It’s very fascinating and interesting.

9:00am: I found Veronica and she showed me the aula (classroom) where we had to take our placement exams. I also meet the other girls. It was such a relief to speak English again!!! I was definitely excited.

11:00am: After taking the oral exam and having been placed (I placed advanced), Breanna and I walked back together coz we had to take picture in our houses for Central College’s pictures.

11:30am: I make it back home and in a few minutes the photo people arrive. We took some pictures of us three talking in the dining/living room, a picture of me and Ma. Luz “preparing” coffee, me sitting on the bed with my laptop and of me “studying.”

1:00pm: I walk around for like 30 minutes just to get to know the area better.

2:10pm: Paco serves lunch. I had lintejas (looked like mung beans to me. He says it’s not a type of bean though. I couldn’t argue. Lol. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t have known how. :P) So he offers if I want paella. I had about 4 spoonfuls of the lintejas but it was too rich. I respectfully say that I wasn’t fond of the lintejas and said that I would like paella instead. So I get paella and I was a happy camper.

2:50pm: I leave to meet Breanna outside her house and we both walked to the gas station to meet with everyone else who wanted to go to the internet café.

3:15pm: We’re all at the internet café. It’s cheaper to buy hours by the bulk. It’s 1.80 euro for an hour and it’s 20 euro for 20 hours. So we all bought the 20 hours. It would run as $1.50 an hour which isn’t bad.

3:20pm: I get into the cyberworld for the first time in like 40 hours. I was so ecstatic!!!! I checked my mail, sent a couple emails and setup a Skype account. It all went too fast :P

4:15pm: We had to leave to go back to CLM.

4:30pm: Veronica gives us a tour of the Centro de Lenguas Modernas.

4:45pm: She takes us to the second office of Central College where there are actual classes where we will be holding meetings and workshops. There we go over our handbooks. We shared about our initial reactions about the city and how our host families are, etc.

5:40pm: Aurelio arrives. Aurelio is our tour guide for this afternoon. We start in our “meeting point” near the Isabel Catolica plaza. We basically toured most of the city. From the plazas, the city hall, the little jewelry shops (Aldevinco sa davao lol), the youthful shops, la Capella Real where Juana La Loca and a few other of her relatives are entombed, the Cathedral, and some major streets.

We basically walked for like 2 hours. I seriously think we walked at least 3. 5 miles just in that tour alone.

8:40pm: I got home and I rest for a bit.

9:15pm: I wake up and Ma. Luz knocks on my door to tell me that we’re having dinner.

I definitely had a feast! Yum! First she gave me some sort of egg soup which was a tad salty but was good nonetheless. Then, she gave me a plate of fries and cordon bleu (nuggetty thing with ham and cheese and deep-fried). Then, her daughter-in-law which lives in this house during the week because she takes classes here, had fried eggplants – las veregenas (flour, milk, salt + thinly sliced eggplant then deep-fried). It was soooo good! :)

10:20pm: I realize I had to go. I put on my hoodie and go to Breanna’s house (outside). We walk to Calle Campos to “pick up” Amanda then we all walk to Café Futbol. Everyone else except Laura arrives. We look at the menu. They had a crazy menu of desserts! I had Copa Futbol – coffee ice cream, amaretto, walnuts, whipped cream, more nuts. It was very good and very large. Met some other Americans who were crazily loud :P We then figured out that in the next meals we will have to just start sharing and splitting. It’s more economical :P

11:45pm: I get back home. I’m supertired. I’m kinda glad though coz I seriously think I might lose weight from all this walking :P If I add it up I think we must have walked at least 5 miles today.

2:00am: I just got done typing. lol. :P

Hasta luego. En unas horas tengo que levantarme, arreglarme, e ir a la casa de Breanna e ir a CLM. Tenemos clases a las 9 de la mañana todos los días. (See you later. In a few hours, I have to get up, get ready, go to Breanna’s house and go to CLM. We have classes at 9am everyday (M-F). =P

xoxo

Kristia