Estoy Muy Cansada Hoy (I am very tired today) 

This morning we took our placement exam and I placed into Intermediate 1 which is going to be alright I hope. By the time they had our exams graded it was time for lunch and we went to an Italian restaurant and I had a pizza. It was alright, but not as good as the local food here. Everything I have tried here has been so delicious. They eat A LOT of ham and cheese. It is on EVERYTHING!

I will attend classes every day for 5 hours. We start our class at 10 am and get done at 3 pm. We will find out tomorrow what kind of breaks we get. We had to go to the grocery store today to buy food to take in our lunch for this week. Our books for the class cost 65 pesos. That is comparable to 15 USD. I never thought I would get to buy a textbook that cheap. I also bought a SIM card for my regular phone for 5 USD. What a deal! The cards to recharge them are not that expensive either and have pretty good rates. This will be very helpful to communicate with the other students, the locals, and for calling taxis!

Lea and I have been practicing our Spanish all the time. We have been trying to speak only in Spanish and I find my English sentences forming like they would if they were written in Spanish. I am very excited to start classes; however, they say we have lots of homework and lots of studying to do. Yikes!

The weather here today was 100% humidity and would’ve have been chilly if not for that, but I love the weather here. My hair does not love the weather as you can see by the pictures I posted yesterday. There is nothing I can do with it. Oh well. I think it will get a lot colder here in June and July when winter sets in. The weather here at this time is not normal so we will see what will happen. I am just glad it is not hot! My only complaint is that there are a ton of dogs here and the smell walking to the University makes me want to lose my breakfast. They do not carry around little blue bags like they do in the United States :)

I know these posts are better with pictures, but taking pictures in this big city labels you as an American instantly and you become a target. So, when I am in tourist areas I will most definitely take pictures to show you all, but around where we live it is not exactly the safest thing to do. Things are very corrupt here and you have to be on the lookout at all times and protect yourself and your stuff. The police here will even rob you and leave you naked in the street. DO NOT PANIC! I am going to be fine.

I have not partied here yet. Since it is not safe to be out in the dark, the people here go out at 3 am and then stay out until 6 am so they can walk home in the light. We all know how much I love being awake at 3 am. NOT. The weekends is the most popular time to go out so that you can sleep all day on Saturday or Sunday. Kind of like in Manhattan, KS. I am sure I will go on a weekend when I don’t have anything planned.

I am very exhausted today and this afternoon I relaxed a bit. I feel like I am writing a lot on this blog, but there is so much going on that I want to write about and share! I hope all is well at home.