February 27, 2009

Well today I had my first presentation in migrations class and also turned in that crazy test she assigned us. My presentation was only on giving a summary of the book I read a while back, so that being considered it wasn’t super difficult. It would have been nice though if I could have presented when I was supposed to: I had already turned in my paper to her on it so I didn’t have anything to go off of once I was standing in front of the class…plus by that time it had been a good two weeks since I’d finished reading it. Either way though, I glimpsed a little bit of humanity in my professor after class when she said I did a good job and that it must have been hard for me since it was in Spanish. Maybe she finally has an inkling that doing everything in her class does require a lot more effort/though/brainpower since it’s not in our first language.

Moving on though, after a trip to the photocopier and the library I got on the bus and headed home, pulling out the book Velocity. Unfortunately, I got so wrapped up in the book I missed my stop at Plaza Fiesta and just kept right on going til I got to El Centro. This wasn’t really that big of a deal. It cost a little more time but 2 pesos less.

When I got home I knew I reallllllly needed to do laundry. So I skipped on down to the laundry mat (not really by this time I was pretty tired, so I kind of trudged along carrying my 8 ½ kilos of laundry) and got that all settled. Back at the house, I was caught going back to my room for an earlier lunch. Maria Regina was playing hookie from school since her cousin was here so we didn’t have to wait til 2:30 like normal. They had fixed fish, however, so I was a little out of luck in that respect, my host mom told me there was cochinita in the fridge so I had that instead which was quite tasty. Cochinita is pork cooked a particular way, or seasoned a particular way. It’s a dish that I think is specific to Yucatan.

After lunch, I came back to my room, read a couple more chapters from Velocity and took a nap that went from around 2:30 or 3 to 5:10 when Chelsea texted me to do something tonight. She said she wanted to see the movie Slumdog Millionaire, and I was down for that. I didn’t really feel like seeing a chick flick so that seemed like a good option even if I didn’t really know what it was about all.

Keeping in style, we also grabbed dinner before the movie. We went to the food court in AltaBrisa (the newest mall in Merida) and ate at some place called like the 60s or something like that. We had chicken strips and I had curly fries (Chelsea had straight fries). While the curly fries were more expensive, they were well worth it.

After dinner and three cups of Coca-Light (I was apparently rather thirsty at dinner and we got free refills), Chelsea and I stopped into this really sweet store where I bought Maria Regina’s birthday present. It’s a picture frame, but it’s a chalkboard, and it comes with 5 different color chalk pieces. It’s pretty neat I think =)

Chelsea and I also applauded ourselves when we got to the movie theater. Well, no, back up. First we went to the bathroom and I had my wits scared out of me when I went to walk into a stall and there was this evil little boy standing there. Surprise much? Well, he wasn’t *actually* there, it was one of those wall pin-ups type things; I selected another stall.

Mexicans don’t really feel much need to get the theater early. They don’t have a 20, so I guess I understand, but the seats are so amazingly comfortable and high-class I’m definitely going to miss that aspect when I get home. No more cheap movie theaters with fantastic viewing and sitting pleasures. But in either case, that just meant since we were a tad early (later than I would normally be to a movie theater I think) we had more or less first choice on seats so we got a central location. And then the rest came filing in til we had a full theater. We applauded ourselves on choosing to do something that the rest of the people in Merida do for their Friday night.

The movie was amazing. You’ve probably heard it won Golden Globes or something like that. I didn’t actually see the awards ceremony, but go see that movie. It’s worth it.

At the end of the night, we caught a taxi back and I came into the room, drew “Feliz Quinceañera” on the picture frame, packed it up, and headed to bed. =)

Cheers! <3 Kate

PS: you guys must think I’m dying or something by your comments, but I’m good, no worries lol. =D