fried food fridays!

january 13

class was good yesterday, we worked on forming our own lesson plans from a text, worked in partners for a bit (which was actually much more difficult than on my own- i think i have a pretty well-set idea of the way i plan to teach so it's hard, but good, to figure out different ways to go about teaching). i figured out that the Fabretto center has wireless internet, so i spent a large chunk of the day playing on the internet and posting blogs (naughty callie). after class we took a crazy "scenic" route to drop people off- it took an hour to get to Silvio's hotel. i felt bad for josh and james who had to ride in the back of the truck! a bumpy ride! the girls pointed out where they're building the new american embassy- looks like some pretty swanky digs. apparently the US is building a "mini-city" for an embassy, complete with hotel, restaurants, grocery store, and hospital. priorities, anyone?!
i decided to hang out with the JV's again for the evening, it was frita friday (or something to that effect), meaning fried street food was the fare for dinner. josh and i set out to explore barrio "la luz" and finally found a place- 6 meals for 130 cordobas (the equivalent to $8 US dollars) including meat, ensalada, fried plantains, and chiles (no gallo pinto... which was very sad). i was introduced to the JV's neighbors who each made it a point to kiss me on the cheek (all 10 or so of them). i love that, meeting people here is such a process compared to what we go through in the states. it seems very important to people that every person present has met eachother and been formally introduced. it's really a very polite thing to do in general, but i know i've been guilty of not doing that in the past. something to learn! during dinner, we played a "name that tune" game with margaret's i-pod, which led to much laughter and an impromptu jam-dancing session to "i believe in a thing called love". how great to find other people who are as passionate about the air guitar as i am! after dinner, james and mary played their guitars and i broke out a tupperware drum for some jack johnson tunes. i realized i can't really keep a beat and sing at the same time... which is something i thought i could do because of bbt but, guess i'll have to work on that too! we drank a tona (one of the two basic types of national beers) and i decided to head back to my hotel. my taxi driver had to ask 3 different people for directions before we finally found it, which started to freak me out a bit because he kept asking me for directions beyond the ones i had written down and i had no idea what to tell him! i was just starting to dread him asking me to step out of the car in the middle of the very sketchy neighborhood we're staying in, but at the last minute we made a turn and found it! PHEW. dodged that bullet. i don't think i'll be heading out and about anytime after 8 or 9 PM in the near future. it wasn't an unsafe situation, i just think that until i know the language better it's probably not a very good idea. gotta go to class- then i get a day off school! love to all, cal