Monday: El primer día de clases

Today was the first day of classes, and they went.... okay. :) We found out that we share a bus stop with another girl who lives super close named Adrienne and we went to school with her.  It was funny - we were supposed to get off the bus after a bridge so Jill and I stood up right after passing the bridge... but then we were a stop too early and no one else from school that was there with us told us not to get off, so we were off the bus when Jill realized we were in the wrong place and grabbed me and we got back on :)  But then, they have these sensors inside the door so that the checker guys know how many people have entered the bus (and how much money the drivers should have), so we weren't allowed to get back on and go to our seats - we had to just stay standing on the stairs.  It was funny :)  

Class was BORING.  And our teacher is blind.  which makes it super hard to stay awake - it's at 7:00 (so we have to leave the house at 6:00), it was boring material, he doesn't walk around or anything since he's blind, the room was warm and the chairs comfy, and and he talks suuuupppppeeeerrrr ssssslllllooooowwwwwllllllyyyyy.  It was ridiculous.  I pretty much was asleep the entire time but trying not to be.  It was not that fun.  Hopefully it gets better.

After school, only the people from our class were done for the day so Jill, Adrienne, Nati (Carmita told us we should call Nate Nati instead of Nate, to sound more Mexican :)  (Not-ee vs. Not-ay) decided to go to El Centro.  We met at our house and then walked over to the bus stop where Nate told us that today, he didn't know anything, and we were the guides.  I was pretty nervous, but it turned out so well!  We got to our bus stop without a hitch, got to El Centro perfectly, and at the end got home great, too!  It was so exciting. I'm glad he did that because it made both of us feel a lot more comfortable, especially after last night with the whole fireside thing.  And it was fun to spend some time with him and Adrienne and Nate.  Nate speaks Spanish really well, so before today Jill and I have been a little intimidated to talk to him, but today helped a lot!  And Adrienne is really nice.  I like spending smaller group time together because then I get to know people better and feel more comfortable when we're in bigger groups later.

Anyway, so we went to El Centro because Jill wanted to find a purse and Nate knew a good place.  When we got to El Centro, though, he told us that it was "close to Street 65" and also close to the old post office, but he wouldn't tell us anymore than that. He said that if we wanted him to, he would talk to natives and tell us what they said, but that's all he would to do guide us.  We decided we wanted to practice, though, so we talked to people (all by ourselves! :) to find out where the old post office was, and we ended up in the perfect place without any trouble!  It was soooooo awesome.  You should see the place we went - it reminds me of NYC or something.  There are a billion little stores and artesanía stands all over the place, tons of walking people crowding the sidewalks, and other people sitting outside the stores asking for money or selling little bags of fruit and stuff.  It is exhilarating!  And there's a part where it's all inside and there were tiny restaurants, and stands selling toys, clothes, hats, cell phones, even a place (right by the food part, oddly enough) selling rabbits and dogs and chickens and ducks!  At one point, over by the vegetables there was a little cart set out that was super low to the ground and Jill tripped over it, but she apologized to the guy standing next to it.  I was behind her, and as she was walking away I heard him talking about the "gringa who just ran into his cart, blah blah blah."  I like when people talk about us because they don't think they can understand :)

Oh man.  It was all so cool. I want to go back to that part of the Centro every day.

We came home for lunch and then I decided to take a siesta while Jill was going to go to the beach.  She ended up going to some people's house to swim instead, though, because there wasn't enough time before FHE at 7:00...

When I got up from my siesta, Jill was gone, so I had to figure out how to get to Profe's house.  I had a map of everyone's houses in the cit that showed I lived pretty far, but I didn't want to take the bus because I was afraid of doing it wrong by myself.  Anyway, so I remembered that Adrienne and her house were close (and between mine and Profe's) so I walked to their house first.  When I got there, though, I found out that the map was wrong and that I actually live closer by about 7 blocks :) but it was okay.  We all walked over together and it was really fun to get to know the girls there better.  They're really nice; I'm glad they're the ones that live close to us.

We had a Family Home Evening activity tonight at Profe Laraway's house and it was really fun!  When we got there, there was a pool, so we all sat around it with our feet in.  We talked a little about missionary experiences that we've had and then had an opening prayer.  Después we played a get-to-know-you game planned by Profe's wife Michelle which was actually really fun!  A lot of times I don't like those.  She had us move until we were sitting by someone we didn't know and then ask them four questions: What's something you can say about yourself that no one else here can say?  Tell me about a brush with fame you've had.  What's a guilty pleasure you have?  and What's a good way to remember your name?  and then we had to introduce that person to the group.  It was super fun!  I liked it.  I got to know a girl named Cat, who happens to be one of the girls who lives close.  After everything, our two houses of girls walked home together; first we passed our house so they would know where it was, and then we decided to walk them to their house because we kind of felt like their big sisters and that we wanted to make sure they got home safe.  :) We like them a lot.  We invited them to come swimming whenever because we have a little pool and theirs doesn't have water in it.  That'll be fun if they take us up on it! :)

Tonight was pretty cool.  Jill and I talked for a while and it was neat.  It's so crazy how being here has made us notice that everything points to the gospel.  She likened going to El Centro today with Nate to how Christ leads us.  He gives us some hints as to what we should do, but then He lets us decide.  If we're about to do anything that would mess us up, though, He lets us know first.  And sometimes the hints have a different significance according to the situation - when Nate first told us the street number, it didn't mean anything because we were just trying to find the old post office.  When we got conflicting answers from people, though, he reminded us of the clue he had given earlier and that time, it was significant and helped us make sense of other information.  Anyway, it was a fun talk.  It made me think of the scripture that says that everything in the world testifies there is a Christ.  

Well, we have school in the morning at 7 so I should probably go to bed.... Have a good night! :)