Wow, this is officially a week late! I'll try to update again soon but in the meantime...
Monday I brought my photo book to school because I hadn’t finished reading and figured I’d do that in my long break. I took the less steep route to school but still wanted to die once I got there. That book is SO heavy! Plus I had my camera, lunch, notebook and two course packets. My first class was Translation which was pretty good. We corrected our translations and talked about interpretation. My prof is pretty weird but funny. Sometimes I have no idea what he’s talking about. I understand what he is saying just not what he means. Class always ends abruptly and it catches me off guard. Usually the professor is the first to leave!
After class I had to find black and white film for my photography class later that afternoon. I walked down to super paco hoping that on the way a camera store would magically appear. No such luck. So I bought two more notebooks but couldn’t find pocket folders. It seems that they only have file folders, essay covers and binders. What is this place?? If all else fails I’ll probably end up buying a little expandable folder thing. Then I walked back past the university to see if I could stumble across something and ran into Keunae. She said there was really nothing the direction she came from so I went back up to the digital camera store to see if they had film. They only had color film and the guy didn’t know where I could get black and white. So I gave up and went back to the university.
I found Chris and Emily sitting by the lake eating lunch so I joined them. I got to meet Emily’s Thursday boyfriend, Omar, and some of his friends. We ate lunch and I decided to drop photography. I knew that class was not going to be as fun as I thought. It was designed for photography minors, not gringas who just want a fun class. Since it wouldn’t count for anything but hours at U of I it might as well be fun. Plus it would’ve been really expensive. After I made this decision I was kicking myself for buying that stupid $100 book! If I return it I can only get store credit- I can’t get my money back. So I went to the library and dropped photo and picked up Lengua y Cine – a gringo film class which seems easy and fun. I would’ve taken a different photo class but they were all full and I didn’t want the hassle of trying to get in.
Then I went back out to the lake and Mary was there with Emily and Omar. He read us a poem- I guess because Mary is a poet too- but he kept translating each line which really messed up the flow! Haha. Then I went to buy my books for class on Tuesday. I went in and found one, took a number and when I realized that I was about 65 away from being waited on I looked harder for my other book. I figured I didn’t have enough money for both, but I was hoping I was wrong. I wasn’t. They ended up each costing $15 (they’re course packets) but I only had twenty dollars. So I asked the guy to hold them while I ran to the ATM. I came back bought them and walked home.
So now I have my giant photo book, two translation course packs, two huge new course packs plus my camera and other random stuff in my bag. I was afraid my bag couldn’t handle all of that weight so I carried my new course packs in my arms. Even going downhill was hard. Finally I got home and just fell onto my bed. No one was home so I started reading in the TV room. Then Guadalupe came home and we drank a colita (a 'little cola') together. She talked about family and how when I have children I shouldn’t work so I can bring them up otherwise they won’t turn out good. I don’t believe that at all- mom worked and I’m fine- but I basically agreed with her to make things easier. She also said that she didn’t like Bill Gates because he created a monster that has made young people lose their hearts. I’m paraphrasing of course but that’s the gist I got.
Then I went back up to do my reading for Anthropology and Sociology but the Anthro one was so difficult I didn’t really have time to read the other one. I went down to dinner and had soup and steak and mote. Mote looks like mashed up hard boiled eggs but I think it’s made from corn. It didn’t taste like much. After dinner I tried again to read but I was falling asleep. So I just went to bed not having really read for either class. Before I went to bed though I heard this really loud buzzing. My windows, and I’m assuming all windows, don’t have screens and they’re always open so sometimes I have little gnat-like bugs flying around my ears at night, waking me up and driving me crazy. This was no gnat that night, it was a really loud fly. I tried to get it closer to me- it was on the ceiling mostly- so I could kill it, by turning on my flashlight and pointing towards the wall but it didn’t work. Luckily once I turned the light off it stopped flying around and I could sleep.
Tuesday was my first day of my film class. The only bad thing about it is that it’s at 8:30 in the morning. Meaning I have to get up at 6:30, and I am no early bird. It wasn’t too bad until we started watching the movie and I started nodding off. I’m going to need a lot of caffeine for this class. The movie we watched was cool though- what I saw at least. It’s about the almost-war between Chile and Argentina in 1978 over maritime rights of a canal. A Chilean patrol gets lost in the pampas and ends up digging their trench right by an Argentine patrol that is also lost. They end up helping each other and even playing a game of soccer! I don't know what happens in the end because class wasn’t long enough for us to see the whole thing.
After class I had to go home because I’m an idiot and forgot my dance clothes. Had I been wearing pants it may have been fine but I didn’t want to be rolling around on the floor like we usually do in a skirt. So, having an hour and a half to spare, I walked home, got my pants and Guadalupe called me a taxi to take me back. There was no way I was walking up that mountain again today. The taxi driver was listening to a Village People cd! I was laughing under my breath the whole ride. I got back a little early for my next class so I sat on some steps and tried to read some more. It was still next to impossible to understand. While I was sitting there my feet were getting eaten up by those damn little bugs like in Lumbisi! They were making my feet bleed! Pretty soon I got up and went to class. Class was much less intimidating than the reading so I felt much better about it. The prof even told us that that first reading was the hardest. What was most confusing were all the names- of groups of people and places I’d never heard of. We divided into groups for presentations and our group is doing Incaic religion. It’ll be interesting and not too hard since I’ve researched it a little before.
Then I went to dance class which was really fun. We even danced to the Beatles’ All My Lovin’ one of my favorite songs! Really the only trouble I have in that class is following the teacher’s sense of rhythm. It just doesn’t seem to be the same as mine. But other than that it’s really good. Then I changed and went to Soc. We talked about what the ‘State’ is and chose our days for topic of the week for the rest of the year. I have one on the second to last day of class, ugh. I usually like to get these things out of the way before I have to start doing big projects and stuff but I couldn’t.
After class it had gotten pretty cold and it looked like it was about to rain. Danielle and I decided to share a cab back to our respective homes so as not to be rained on. I waited while she bought a book and then we went out to the traffic circle to hail a cab. We missed a couple because we weren’t sure if they had people in them or not. Then we finally tried to flag one down but the guy ignored us. While we were doing this we heard honking and there was a cab sitting right there on the other side of the street, waiting for us. So we hopped in and rode home. He gave us each a card so I may call him/ his company if I don’t have another number. Just as we pulled up to the gate it started pouring. So I ran inside but I still got a little wet. I changed and went down to say hi to Guadalupe. We talked a bit then I went up to take a nap. I did my homework and tried to go online but it wouldn’t work. I don't know what the problem was but I was upset because I couldn’t wish Kaitlyn happy birthday today. :( I’ll have to do it late.
For dinner I had soup that tasted like those pasta sides things that come in bags in the US, but better. Then I had tuna salad- without mayo so I actually ate it- and rice as a main dish. Then I drank tea and watched the same show that’s on every night when I eat dinner. I had always been confused as to why it rarely looked like the actors’ mouths were moving with the words I heard. Sometimes they seemed to match up but only kind of. But tonight there were subtitles for some guy speaking an indigenous language or something and they were Portuguese! So it must be a Brazilian show or something. I was pretty excited that I figured it out.
That's all for now.
Hasta luego,
Caitlin
"I don’t believe that at all- mom worked and I’m fine"
ReplyDeleteIf you say so, honey.