Halfway Through!

We are officially half-way done with our first session of classes!
Time is just whizzing by!

This week of class was pretty hard because I was so worn out and sick, and it's hard to sit back and relax in class when I'm the only one in the class.  I still had to try to concentrate for 4 hours on everything my professor was trying to teach me.  I also got my professor sick, so I'm sure we were a sight to be seen!  Things are going to really pick up homework-wise this week because I have a big paper due, my first test, and one of our professors from Bethel is coming down to teach lectures in the afternoon.  I will need some prayers to get through it all!

Anyway, this past week, after school I went to the market a couple times just to look around.  I also got to Skype with Nikki for the first time!  It was so good to see her face!  Then, on Friday, a couple girls from the group and I went to a restaurant called Dona Luisa, where we were told has really scrumptious inexpensive ice cream...and it definitely was!  After that, we all had dinner at our respective houses and met at the Students International Office to figure out what we wanted to do.  We wandered toward Central Park and ended up talking to a 9-year-old boy who wanted to sell us scarves.  None of us bought any from him when we said goodbye, but some of the girls went to get him a little treat.  After wandering around some more, we finally decided to go to a restaurant called Mono Loco to hang out.  We had a really good time getting to know each other and being loud Americans.  When we were done eating our big plate of nachos, we headed out to see what we could do for a half hour before curfew.  We ended up just sitting in Central Park, talking some more, and playing 20 questions.  I would say that it was a successful night!

Yesterday was filled with Skyping for me.  We had thought about going to a pool, but it didn't work out, so we'll probably end up doing that some other weekend.  I headed to the office around 1:30, and saw that my parents were on Skype!  I talked to them and Emily for a while, until my parents decided I should probably do my homework.  However, after I got done talking with them, I saw that Jesamine was online!!  We got to talk for about a half hour before I had to go to dinner at my house.  I then went back to the office, hoping to get some homework done, but some folks were going to go to a cafe with live music!  I couldn't pass it up!  I did get a little done at the cafe, but I mostly listened to the dude singing and playing guitar...he played a bunch of American classics!  He was so good!  After he was done, we thought he said there would be a circus show coming up...there was no way we could miss that!  We saw the performers getting ready and moved up to where they were setting up, just in time because it got really crowded after that!  The show started and it was AMAZING!  There were four performers, and they juggled, did fancy things with firey torches and hoops, and even some contortion!  The most amazing thing about it was that this incredible show was absolutely free!  Of course, they asked for donations at the end, but you could give any amount, and they definitely deserved it!  Once again, a successful outing!

Today, I woke up around 9:30 and tried to read my economics textbook until around 11:30 when I headed to the office, hoping someone would be there with whom I could eat lunch.  Thankfully there were, so we all headed to Dona Luisa where I had a club sandwich and lemonade for a really good price!  Now I think I will try to get some work done before heading to dinner!

Love you all!

Rosita