hollaaaa

Hello my beautiful family and friends...
today was a wonderful day. I feel like usually, I wake up so happy and glad to be here. I went to class, and after had a delicious lunch of soup with noodles, banana, and yucca (potato like vegetable... REALLY good),m rice and avocado. I went to visit my friend Arlene, on the beach. A cruise ship came today, and she doesn´t speak english and was upset because the vendors around her were getting more sales
ha ha, whenever i start typing in english... i forget that i am in a spanish speaking country. i just saw carolina because she walked into the internet cafe )my house sister= and her firend, and when they greeted me i accidentally said hey hows it going= in english. lol. its tricky switching from language to language.
ive decided that i want to learn indonesian. my friend who studies at USAC with me lived in indonesia, and he is learning spanish for the first time. he said indonesian is the easiest language to learn'' it doesnt have any exceptions and very few tenses and rules compared to english and spanish. if i can learn it one day, id like to. being here, i really have learned the importance of speaking more than one language. to continue upon my story from earlier, arlene doesnt speak english so she was having trouble getting as much business from the cruise passangers as the others...so i offered to make some signs in english for her. unfortunately, the day was still not very profitable.. for her and everyone else.. even though the english speakers who could grab the american tourists and sucker them in to buying something got a few more sales. I´ve been trying to advertise the cute bracalets she sells to my firends, so that hopefully she can get some more business.
On the front of my planner, there is a picture of my mom and i at my high school graduation. I showed her the other day, and she asked me to take it out again to show her friend. They kept talking about how alike we looked. I told her that my dad and I were even more identical, and now they are eager for me to bring a picture of us :) . As much as I love all of my new friends and my experiences here, I think and talk about all of you to everyone I meet.. I am so happy, tara and ma, that you guys get to come here to enjoy it with me in december for sure now :)
Also, grandma, since I´ve been learning salsa and merengue and other latin dances here, a lot of people have heard about your wonderful dancing skills and i´ve even told a few people about the award you won for attending the classes so often... LOL.
It´s interesting because the culture here is so much more affectionate than in the United States. Usually, I won´t really hug or touch a person too much unless I haven´t seen them for a while. In my day to day life, with friends or people I see on a daily basis,there isn´t much affection. Here,people greet each other with a kiss on the cheek and a hug, even if it is an aquaintance. I went to volunteer the other night at an english conversation class, which I go to almost every tuesday, and one of my friends who is a local here and I were sitting in the library during the classes break. A cute girl came in, and he was being incredibly affectionate with her, moving the hair out of her eyes, complimenting her, holding her hand. When she left, I laughed and was grilling him about their relationship, I seriously thought they were boyfriend and girlfriend. He confided in me that he would like more with her, and she knows it. But, she does not feel the same way and they have agreed to be friends, and are now very close. Reineer )my friend) confided in me that that is just how people treat each other when they are very close friends here'' they constantly remind themselves of how they feel about one another.
I remember reading a psychology article about how human touch brings instant happiness. Don´t be surprised if I smother you all when I´m back in the states.
Anyways,this weekend I´m off to visit your friend Ken Jacqui!!! Ironically, my friend Jackie (same name, ha ha ) and I are going to visit him together. We will be staying in their house Friday and Saturday night. I leave tomorrow, so i´ll definitetly let you all know how it is.
Ciao,
Kelly