how did i end up here?

Enough About Me...

Let’s talk about some of the people I’ve met so far…

There’s Jacquie, Matthew and Ebony…all three from Columbia, Maryland (not far at all from me in Silver Spring). She’s a nurse originally from Jamaica and Matthew is 14, Ebony is 12. Here’s the crazy part about these three…Jacquie is going to spend the first week with the kids…then she’s leaving them here alone for a week! And I was scared about coming on my own at 30. Boy do I feel silly now. My first (really) awkward moment happened this morning at school. It was during the break and all the students were milling around, I was talking to Jacquie and co when this obviously American woman comes up to me and hands me a flyer for massages. She asks me if I like massages and I say yes, then I hand the flyer to Jacquie so she can see it too and the woman says to Jacquie, “I didn’t hand you a flyer because I have a weight limit on my table and you’re too big for it. But trust me, that’s the only reason I didn’t give you a flyer.” Uh, AWKWARD!!! I mean, what am I supposed to say to that? Then the masseuse nods at another woman in the group and says, “too big too, I guess you’re the only one in the group it will work with.” I just wanted to crawl under a rock! Who says that?

Then there’s my host family mamita, Lourdes. She’s very sweet but doesn’t speak any English so communication has been mostly through other people or hand gestures. So far I’ve had three meals in the house and they haven’t been too bad. But I’m curious if the school tells them to only cook American food. We’ve had pancakes for breakfast, spaghetti for lunch and hamburgers and ramen noodles for dinner…I’ll let you be the judge of whether our menu has been tailored to American tastes.

There’s David who is fromAlbquerque, New Mexico! True story. It’s a small world indeed.

And Samantha and Roxanne…both have been here for a few weeks and will be here most of the time I’m here. They seem very cool and easy to get along with.

To finish tonight I’ll just give a brief synopsis of my afternoon. I left the house about an hour before my salsa class to just walk around and see what I could see. I finally found the parque central. It was so beautiful! Trees and flowers and fountains, oh my! And also lots of people trying to sell me stuff. No gracias, no gracias was the motto of the afternoon. But I think I’ll be spending more time there in the afternoons reading a book or maybe honing my photography skillz.

Then. I went to clase de salsa. Let’s just say I’ve got white girl hips that have exactly no sexy in them. And to add on top of that, I’ve got no rhythm. It’s a recipe for boring, stilted dancing. But it was still fun. I’m thinking I might take private lessons…they’re pretty cheap and maybe the instructor will have some sexy she can loan me.

Estoy sonoliento. Buenas noches, mi amigos.

posted by taiautumn @ 9:07 PM