jan 11

Today was day 2 of classes. I had an anthropology class at 10am and then a dance class. Anthropology was very scary. Im not so sure about that one, the professor speaks VERY quickly and makes no apologies. I think it can be okay, I just will have to work really super extra hard in it. Which I guess is expected when you are taking classes at a university in your second language. Anyways, then I hung around, trying to get the wireless to cooperate with me and ate some lunch. Then I had dance class. We all took off our shoes and socks and sat in a circle while the teacher read us the syllabus. Evidently you have to write essays on dance, and at the end of the semester, each student is to choreograph and perform their own dance routine on a stage in front of a bunch of people. This is NOT what I had in mind. I thought it would be salsa lessons. Haha, boy was I wrong! Anyways, so I dropped that dance class and now I will be taking black and white photography from 7am to 8:30am Tuesdays & Thursdays. At least its photography. We will see how the 7am thing goes after next week…but I think I can do it, as long as I get to bed early.
Anyways, I came home and watched some tv. Luckily I found a channel with my own shows on it. I watched the OC and Gilmore Girls, in English! Then I watched some criminal show on a channel that resembled HBO, it had no commercials and I thought it was a movie until 2 hours later it ended without really ending the story and said “next time…”
Now I am waiting for my friend Whitney from Wisconsin to call me back and let me know she has a taxi and is coming to pick me up. A bunch of students, international ones and I think some Ecuadorian ones, too, are heading to La Mariscal tonight. It’s a downtown/bar/club area where everyone hangs out a lot. Also, I found out today I live like 5 minutes away! I decided not to go to the South American Explorers Club because I didn’t see any of those girls today on campus and I don’t have a phone number for any of them and I didn’t want to go by myself.
I also heard about this internet thing that’s like a wireless system but you can sign up and use it wherever you are. It costs like $27 and you get your own wireless. So I think I might take advantage of that so I can go ahead and have internet in the house when I am here, it would be a lot easier to do the things I need to do and I would feel more connected with the world. Also, from what I understand, internet cafes charge around 1.00 to 1.50 for an hour of use of internet. I think if I did it that way I would probably use more than $27 worth of time. Suggestions? Comments?
I went to the bank that is right beside campus today to withdraw some money. It didn’t say anything about a fee when I was doing it so I just got $50 and then it gave me a receipt and said that I had withdrawn $50 with $0.00 as the “costo transaccion” = transaction cost. So I’m not sure if I believe that or not but if you (DADDY) could look on my account and see what it says about that withdrawal, I’d appreciate it to know exactly what happened.
Nothing else I can think of for now. Tomorrow I don’t have any classes, which is pretty sweet now that I realize that Thursdays really do start my weekend.
I really do miss home, though. If I don’t sit and think about home and the people there, it’s okay. It is really just when I am at the house or at school by myself and don’t have anything to occupy my mind, that’s when I realize how alone I am and how much I miss home, family, friends, Blacksburg, etc.