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The One in the Tea House
Entry 19 of 38 | show all | print this entry |
That's where I am right now: a little teahouse. Actually it's called tea connection, but it's really cute, down the street from where I live, and it's got really comfy chairs to sit in (if you get there early enough, which today I didn't). Oh, and I like the tea. And the wireless. It only takes about 65 minutes to download an episode off itunes instead of, say, 23 hours at Flacso. I'd say that's an improvement. So right now I'm just sitting here in the busy, busy Tea Connection, sipping my tea, and sort of wasting time. It's Friday and although I don't have classes I've been sufficiently busy.
A brief run down of my day:
- Got up slightly before noon
- Headed to UCA to meet my history tutor for the first time
Thank goodness I went to that because she's basically everything I've missed since the beginning of the semester, as of right now I have 40% attendance (yes, they keep track of the percentage here)
- Joyously departed above engagement convinced that I no longer have to worry about not understanding my Spanish history professors because now have my v. own tutor complete w her own set of notes. Oh boy.
- Next appointment: psych tutor. Not so much fun. Since no one communicates via email here, it would have been hopeless for me to email her last night after psych when I learned there was no new reading that we could work on. So I basically went an hour out of my way to let her know that and make an appointment for Monday to start going over my take home midterm
- That's my day so far. Now I'm sitting in Tea Connection (as you undoubtedly already know).
- Next on list: decide what movies to rent from blockbuster for weekend. I'm thinking classics
On a much more interesting note on what has been going down here:
Two nights ago Tomás, my host brother, had some party for school. I wasn't really listening when Marisa told me about it because, well, that's what I do sometimes, but what I gathered is: it was some type of party for all the kids who had been together in school for a long time and were now graduating soon to go to different high schools. I think. Anyway it was at some club, but beforehand (although we live three blocks away from the club) Tomás insisted he go all the way to school first to meet up with his friends. Apparently some drinking ensued and Tomás never made it to the club, although he did make it home to be sick all night, which is where I come into the story. It woke me up at like 4 in the morning. But I just rolled over because I didn't know all the details then.
The next night at a dinner Marisa had for some of her friends and other students who lived with her but now live down here elsewhere, she explained to us what happened to Tom the night before. The drinking: tequila with water....
We all cringed, as I'm sure you just did. Then we laughed. Haha, c'mon that is really funny. The kid goes out drinking with his friends for the first time and never even makes it to the event and he chooses to start with tequila of all things. Lucky for Marisa, I think the experience will keep him sober for a little while longer.
It's been raining here almost all week. And the days it hasn't been raining it's been yucky and humid. It's also been yucky and humid while it's been raining too, but as of right now I felt like I can't escape the humidity. YUCK. Somehow I always have to find the most humid places to live.
For my psych class, since we have two professors, one for each day, we have two midterms. Luckily both aren't going to be that bad (b/c we're Los Pobres). One is a 6-page essay we get to write together since she doubts our Spanish abilities and the other professor decided to have the class hand in questions we were working on one night in class. She split up los extranjeros for that one and put us in separate groups to work with native speakers. So I either don't have to do any of the work b/c I'm listening to the natives speak or I get to divide it up between three people. Fabulous.
Working on the group questions with the other girls in my class was really interesting. From what I can tell they have a different conception of cheating and group work down here. I think that we tend to be so scared of being accused of plagiarism that we are always careful to put things down in our own words, try to paraphrase, and synthesis what we read. However, what the girls did was find the exact passages in the reading that answered or supported the questions and write it down in its entirety. I don't think there is as much of a stigma about stealing someone's work to use as your own here. And I guess it sort of makes sense to do it their way, but it doesn't show that you understand what you're reading in anyway, which we don't for that assignment. So does that mean we're short changing ourselves?
(That's a question only a complete nerd would ask, haha. That's me worried about whether I'm actually learning anything or just slacking off)
Anyway CSI is almost done downloading and I'm struggling to write anything. However, what usually happens is I remember un montón de cosas to tell you all. Oh well.
Un beso.
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