January 6, 2009

Today is el Dia de los Reyes Magos. I feel like it might actually be Christian’s birthday, too, but I’m not sure about that. In either case, this morning my family gave me a gift of galletas (cookies). That is the typical sort of present on el dia de los reyes magos.
It was off to school really early this morning. 6 o’clock came ridiculously early and we were out of the house at 7. This morning was chilly, which means that all of you would be wearing shorts but in my t-shirt in jeans I would have liked a light weight sweater for a little while if I hadn’t left it here in the room.
Orientation was…orientation. I don’t remember really what we talked about. Most of it was probably common sense. We did a couple “case studies” wherein we read about people who did stupid things while they were on the program (one girl got so drunk she came in, was hungry made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches but left the jar open and the stray cat she brought home got paw prints of said peanut butter and jelly all over the white furniture).
At this point is when I reached into my purse for my saving grace of which I have little left. Caffeine Gum. I went from struggling to keep my eyes open to quite wide awake and generally just a little happier. I probably need to watch my caffeine consumption to make sure it doesn’t drop to low with all this water-consumption.
Lunch was easy, and we had plenty of time to socialize and stuff. After lunch we took our Spanish placement tests. I’m not sure exactly what they were trying to test in the beginning. I had a fifty-fifty chance of getting the answers right on the first page. As it went on guessing became a little more difficult, but I don’t know. Some of it was vocabulary based, and the test wasn’t exactly what I would call extensive. Who knows how that went. I suppose I’ll find out relatively soon.
After the test, we had a lecture on the Maya. Basically an entire overview or their art and culture. Focusing on that was a little difficult, like it was really easy to space out, but it wasn’t particularly difficult to understand if I paid attention. I had an answer about the Rosetta stone and something else.
When I got home, I had dinner that was something a kin to a really nice Smart Ones that was nothing like tv dinners. Kind of like a dish that seemed sort of “specialty” with yellow rice, potatoes, chicken, and roasted red peppers. After dinner, I finally managed to unpack.
I would like to inform you that I have a problem (besides just a general inability to pack). There is absolutely no reason for me to have 5 pairs of pajamas down here. Now, some of you are thinking, honestly Kate, are you just now coming to the conclusion that you have a pajama obsession? Well…I don’t know it’s complicated. In either case I really don’t think I probably need 5 sets of pajamas but I’m not complaining now that I have them down here.
In the evening, my host family had over a bunch of family and friends over to come over and eat la rosca del ray which is something like a coffee cake with some type of fruit strips and almonds on top. If you get the muñeco, you have to throw a party on the 2nd of February. And a muñeco is a little plastic baby Jesus that’s baked into the cake. =)
Well, I miss you all; I’ve thought of many of you often. <3 Kate