June 23, 2008

What a long day! I woke up early and ate breakfast. Then I spent a few minutes talking with Mama Inés about her garden and the different plants she grows. She told me that whenever she gets upset, she spends some time in her garden and then feels better. I had plenty of time, so I stopped by a store on my way to class and bought some bizcochos, a specialty of Cayambe. They were ok, but definitely not my favorite. They are simply a small, semi-dura, piece of bread.

In the morning the four of us asked Cissa questions about phrases or words we heard, learned how to explain what the Peace Corps is, and practiced some vocabulary. Around noon we left for lunch and ate a local restaurant. Kat is a vegetarian, so she couldn’t eat the food. She got really upset and had a protein attack—whatever that is. Honesty, I think she is going to terminate. After we finished eating, we went to another restaurant for Kat where she ate frijoles y papas fritas.

Our afternoon assignment was a competition/ scavenger hunt between our group and two others from other towns. We were given a list of questions that we needed to answer by walking around the town and talking to people. For example, “What is the address of the post office and what is the schedule?” After we finished answering the questions, we had to buy certain types of strange fruits and find out where they came from. All the groups then met to share the purchased fruit and explain what it was.

After class ended I walked home (in the rain). When I arrived I read a story book with (learn kids names!!!). It was a lot of fun. She would read two pages and then I would read the others. When I didn’t know what something was or had trouble with my pronunciation, she would help me. She is 8 and I think she loved being smarter than me. I then went for a run and ran into Lauren. We then proceeded to run together for about 45 minutes. I’m adjusting to the altitude!!! When I returned the family ate dinner and then I played cards with the kids. After several rounds I actually began to understand what was going on! Just as I was beginning to get the hang of the game it was time to drive two of the children home. I accompanied them home and the eight year old quizzed me on words that begin with different letters of the alphabet. What a great teacher I have! After dropping the kids off, Marcos and I took a drive through the city talking. He is really nice and patient. I can understand him!

Anyhoo, it is only 9:30 but I am exhausted. Constantly having to converse in a foreign language is mentally exhausting. Ciao!