Old Blog.

12:30am Wednesday night, Thursday early morn 8/31

I had a funny experience tonight. My mom told me yesterday that she was going to do laundry today. So I put out all of my laundry minus my bras and underwear, because in orientation, they told us that girls must wash their own. My brother, Mario, gave me all of my clothes, then my mom came in to ask me why I don’t wear underwear!! When I told her about orientation, we had a good laugh and she said she will wash ALL my clothes. They must of thought of me as a crazy American with no underwear. I had my first dance class today. Since most of the students (67/84) are taking this class, they had to divide it into four groups. It was AMAZING. We learned some merengue, cambio, salsa, and another dance I don’t know the name of. Our teacher only speaks Spanish, but he is an incredible dancer. We danced so much and learned tons. We only have this class once a week, but he told us we have homework—we much go out and dance at the discos. Not to disappoint our teacher, most of us went dancing tonight. We were all eager to practice our new moves. Some of the girls were getting a little too friendly with the Ticos, but the locals are such good dancers! I danced with Lauren, so we could be inexperienced together. I will be speaking Spanish and a master of the dance floor when I get home. YAY. We had another good dinner tonight- rice/beans, leftover pasta from lunch (fetticini with great cream sauce, ham, and tomatoes) and some kind of sausage sauted with other seasonings. My mom’s boyfriend cooks about half of the meals here. If you remember from the first blog- I didn’t know if he was the boyfriend or what, but he is and stays here a lot during the week. Him and my mom asked me who was the better cook. I told them they were both excellent. He laughed and said that was the right answer- the last student, however, said he was better. ;)
Oh- and I haven’t mentioned the grandfather, Fernando Sr. in a while. This is because no one talks to him- I think he may even be senile. He sits on the porch all day and fiddles with the radio. He doesn’t want to watch tv, or eat with the family. He only comes in to sleep. It’s really weird. The family doesn’t really talk to him, but I can tell he is loved and taken care of. The worst part is that his room isn’t next to my and he coughs very loud in the night.
I do wish it was cooler here, but the visiting professor, from UNR has been here a several weeks and he says it took 2 weeks to adjust and then he felt great. Those from the Midwest are handling the heat/humidity better than I am.
Gotta sleep, early morning tomorrow.
Oh- thanks Briana for my first piece of mail here in Puntarenas. In fact, I was the first student to receive anything in the mail! Exciting.

Love you guys,
McKenzi

P.S. I discovered I love plantains. Muy bien!

P.P.S. Friday morning- changed my mind about plantains. When I had them they other night they were fried and tasted like potato chips, but had them yesterday at lunch and they tasted like some weird not as sweet banana that was cooked.

Also- my wireless internet is not working here. So I haven’t been able to post this, or respond to e-mail as much as I would like to. It’s supposed to be fixed on Monday and I will try to post some photos then.