Getting lost, getting confused and getting home.

Today was another day at school and our first free day after 2:30 p.m.  A group of us went to the bank and then were going to meet up with others at an ice cream shop here named Freddo’s.  However, something went terribly wrong with our sense of direction and we ended up just walking around for about an hour in the same 12 block square… and finally decided just to get ice cream at another place.  Here are the two girls I journeyed with today ordering their much deserved ice cream.

I chose the following flavor:

Translation:  American Cream
I can only imagine the ridiculous amount of sexual jokes that would be made at home if there was a white ice cream named “American Cream” there.  I should note that the ice cream is a little different here and is more like gelato in my opinion.  It was pretty delicious, I paired it with a hot chocolate because it was pretty cold here today – it says that right now it feels like .5 degrees Celsius which is about 33 degrees Fahrenheit.
After the ice cream debacle I had to go to the cell phone store to figure out how to purchase credit for my phone.  I have a pre-paid SIM card and needed to put money on it.  I had a very nice (read: confusing) 20 minute conversation with the courteous woman at the cell phone store.  I thought she was confused about what I was requesting because of my lackluster Spanish skills, but it really turns out that she knew exactly what I wanted from the very beginning and was politely trying to explain to me that she couldn’t help… and it was really me who wasn’t understanding.  Turns out I just needed to go to one of the many kiosks in the city to buy a card… when I finally figured it out – it took my about 30 seconds to obtain what I needed from the appropriate store.
So, that is a brief run down of today’s local encounters.  I know I said I would post about the accommodations in the house that I am staying at … so it’s below.

This is my desk in my bedroom.  I have my head phones, lotion, cologne, camera, alarm clock and some school stuff there.  I have a window and it looks directly into another building, which for those of you that know I am a people watcher… can be VERY distracting.









This is my bed.  It’s just big enough for me and obviously that is some storage for my clothes and things above the bed and my clothes hamper at the end of the bed.  I have three pillows and two blankets and it’s not fantastic, but it’s comfortable and much more comfortable than trying to sleep on the plane.








This is my bathroom.  It’s actually nice because I have my own bathroom in my room, which is pretty good I think.  Also, the button at the top is the button to flush the toilet and you have to hold it for a long time.  Right next to the toilet is obviously my shower… it’s small, but it’s all mine.  It turns out that there is no difference in the floor of the toilet and the shower, it just slants – which I think it pretty efficient.  It takes a bit for the water to warm up, but two of the girls said today that the hot water broke in their building – so at least I have hot water! 










So… now you know a little bit more about where I am going and what I come home to each night… be on the look out in a future blog post where I feature the family dog Mia and some other things…
Ciao (spelled chau or chao too),
Tim