(Thursday, July 8, Day 22)

"The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps."


Phrase of the day:
Te Dije que no puedo cocinar!... I told you that I can't cook!

No one ever listens... ha.

Classes are getting better. Less time in the class learning grammar, and more time out in the city doing things and talking to people.

Yesterday morning we met in the center of town and tried to think what dishes we could make for lunch... because apparently we were cooking! (Yeah, there's a center in every town, with a church normally, "thanks" to the Spanish, I imagine. I forget the word for it in English though?... my English is getting worse daily I've noticed).

Well, after thinking up a menu, we went to the market and tried our best to negotiate prices. It is rough enough for me to do that in English, so imagine in Spanish!

After buying tons of food, we headed to Alex's home to begin cooking. Alex made pudding with bananas and wafers. Katie used an ecuadorian recipe and made some sort of spiced chicken. Clint made mac and cheese (not Kraft, sadly. that was expensive at the store). Teresa, our facilitator, used one of her coastal recipes and made lemonade. Anglea and I washed, chopped, and peeled all the vegis. We just boiled the carrots and broccoli. To no surprise, they were lacking flavor, so Clint and I tried to "Yves dada" a dressing. We used mustard, fresh orange juice, salt, some weird soy sauce, flour, and a few other spices. Yeah, no dice(luck) there! I mean, me and Clint used it, but it wasn't exactly impressive.
Oh no worries, we didn't forget our usual does of potatoes; Teresa made papas fritas (french fries) too.
Today we hosted a "charla" in our community. Kind of like a session to discuss/teach any topic. We invited the children from our host families and gave a presentation about self-esteem. All in all, it went pretty well. I'm not sure how much the younger kids understood, but they enjoyed the juice and cookies we brought for refreshments at least.

A few names with the faces finally... from left to right... Kelsea, Alex, Katie, Clint, Angela, me:
I know!, sorry guys, no pool pictures this issue. But I did tuck in my shirt which was new! (look how intrigued the kid in the green looks; priceless):
In fact, it was surprising how impressed our technical trainers were with us. They commented on how me and Clint looked so professional. Of course, this is exactly what we wear normally; we just tucked in our shirts for once. We're hoping everyone is that easy to please here!

Yeah, I had to teach Katie's sister how to do a proper high-five. (which I learned from Rajib years and years ago). I'll make sure to test her skills the next time I see her.
A week from tomorrow we find out our sites for our 2 year service. Then a week or two after that we go by ourselves for a week-long visit. Meaning I have 2-3 weeks to learn spanish!!! I'll keep you posted, naturally.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! All I know for sure is that I'm going to have to watch the world cup final... and hopefully play some soccer with Katie and her sister's soccer team. Oh, and lets not forget arts and crafts class Saturday morning, ha.

ps: Oh, bubs, I didn't gain weight... techincally! (We had medical exams today). But I probably lost muscle and gained fat instead. Lame, I know. I'll blame it on the fact that each day we eat lots of rice, potatoes, and at least 3 big pieces of bread. And yes, I only wrote this here in case you were thinking the same, haha.