Day 10

For breakfast today, scrambled eggs and pineapple.  Josh and I mostly ate alone though Ordelia came and joined us for a bit.  Hector came in later and I could hear Ordelia from the kitchen ordering him to speak to me, "hablar a Christina!"  I guess that means I'm understanding more Spanish, no more talking about me behind my back in Spanish!!!  He and I briefly forced some kind of conversation with me not understanding what he said to me.

Learning more verbs at school.  We played a memory game with opposites cards and Scrabble, but I'm not much good at Scrabble even in English.  For lunch we had a breaded eggplant served with a lentil risotto dish (I thought I was finally eating rice and beans but was corrected by Ordelia).  I'm trying to figure out why Hector is always around.  At the end of the meal, it was again just me and him hanging around.  He says he works in a pharmacy but he never has work clothes on and always seems to be home.

Went back to the garden for the week's cooking class.  We made a fruit punch out of fresh fruit.  Back to studying at Fernando's.  I'm surrounded by such serious students that appear to be picking up the language so much quicker than I am.  Maybe their work ethic will rub off on me.

Stopped by my old house to say hello to Sunny again.  This time she was there and I talked to her and the other two students from Sweden for awhile.  I felt like part of a team as we struggled to communicate with one another in Spanish rather than English.  The other girls also seem to have picked up so much more than I in just a few short days.  It just seems so much warmer over there both physically and emotionally.

Back at the main house, it was just Josh and I for our dinner of a fried wonton-like shell filled with cream cheese and topped with a creamy tomato like sauce (asked later and was informed that it's called "doblada de queso") in addition to a green bean side dish drenched in butter.  I'd imagined the other girls in the warmer home chatting away with Ordelia wishing I were there instead of struggling to understand awkward Josh.  Ah, the grass is always greener on the other side.

I'd wondered why the rest of the family wasn't eating with us.  When Hector showed up I asked him why he wasn't eating and he said he had a stomach ache.  As I retreated to my room the rest of the family's take out food arrived and they ate a separate meal.  So strange!