So last weekend I was supposed to go to this awesome dance festival but I got sick and stayed home. My friends had a great time, but they were going to stay up all night. This was mostly because the small town would be so full of people that there wouldn't be anywhere to sleep. I was sad to miss out on the fun with Felicia and Kate, but I knew that with my cold I would have been miserable.
Then this week was Ollie's last week in the house, he left on Thursday morning for Bolivia. So on Wednesday we made cookies for him, and his friend Morgan. I used a chocolate cake mix to make the cookies and then I made cream cheese frosting. They were a huge success. Later that night we all went out to give them a good send off. We had a good time until some guy got really aggressive and wanted to fight someone, anyone, even Stephanie. We ended up leaving the club because we didn't want any trouble and then Levin remembered that when we first got there that guy had offered him coke in the bathroom. That explained a lot, but it was a pretty tense few minutes. I was glad that all of my friends were so level headed.
Ollie was a great guy to have around and the house feels empty without him. However my roommate Kate and our housemate Levin still manage to have a good time. Last night we went out with some people from my project, who we managed to loose rather quickly with the exception of Yvonni, who is from Greece. She is an engineering major and might come to a big convention in Houston in November. We are facebook friends now, so that if she makes it we can meet up for dinner or something. We were looking for her roommates and ended up at a club called Mythology. It's been closed for construction so we hadn't been there before. I liked it, there seemed to be less people who were super drunk, less cigarette smoke and fewer creepy guys starring.
I am looking forward to church tomorrow. Last time I was there one of the Sisters wanted to know if I could teach them to decorate cupcakes at a relief society activity. I didn't think I'd need anything, so I didn't bring any supplies. I'm not sure they'll still be interested once they see how much you really need to get started. Maybe someone in the ward already has some of the stuff though, that would make things much easier.
One of my roommates Nivea went to the planeterium here and she said it was really cool. It was one of her favorite things that she did while she was here and we want to go do that soon. She said that it was really awesome because they pointed out a whole bunch of constellations that you can't seen in the Northern Hemisphere. The only ones I can find here are the Southern Cross and an upside down Orion.
I have been really bad about remembering to bring my camera, so I haven't taken any pictures all week. I will try and be better about that!
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
The Russian National Ballet
So Monday night I went with three friends from the house to the ballet. Kate, Levin, Felicia and I were treated to a compressed version of Swan Lake that was about 45 minutes long, followed by selections from other shows. Overall I thought it good, but the male lead in swan lake was almost completely expressionless and at times he almost seemed to waddle, rather than dance. He gave off the impression that he was only there to stand behind the ballerina except for a few specific times when he tried to look happy. I decided that his expressionless death mask was better because his "happy face" was creepy and forced. Other than that the show was very good, although the audience had interesting ideas about conduct. Everyone had snacks, one woman took constant photo, and one man answered his phone! There was a cute kid behind us who oohd and ahhd when there were lifts or impressive dresses.
Things have been going well at my project. We moved into a new room which is bigger. Both of the girls I was working with last night had terrible colds and were having a hard time but one of them couldn't say would. She could only say good. I think she needs to move down into the beginner class and I felt bad because I was loosing my patience a bit with them. Mostly because they came to class too sick to really work.
Last night when I got home from my project several people were going out and so I went with them. I didn't think we'd be out that long but I ended up staying out with Ollie and Levin until almost five in the morning. We had a good time though, some girl thought they looked like The Beatles and took a whole bunch of pictures. She definitely wasn't interested in me, apparently I was cast in the role of Yoko because every time they talked to me she would get a little annoyed. We danced and Levin and Ollie even got up on the bar for awhile. Their dancing was very entertaining but since I didn't realize we were going dancing, or how late we would be out I didn't bring a camera! I did get some pictures from before the ballet which I will get posted ASAP. Next week is Ollie's last week and when we go out I'll be sure to have my camera with me!Thankfully there wasn't anyone being obnoxious like last time. The last time we went out I kept having to elbow this drunk guy who wanted to lean on me. Last night there was just a polite Peruvian who offered me some beer and then left me alone when I declined.
This weekend we are supposed to go to some dance festival a few hours away where we would camp in the middle of the city. I'm not sure if it's going to work out, and the idea of carrying around everything I bring with me all day definitely doesn't sound fun as my sleeping bag is neither small nor light. If my house mates get the tent rental worked out I'll go anyway.
Chao
Things have been going well at my project. We moved into a new room which is bigger. Both of the girls I was working with last night had terrible colds and were having a hard time but one of them couldn't say would. She could only say good. I think she needs to move down into the beginner class and I felt bad because I was loosing my patience a bit with them. Mostly because they came to class too sick to really work.
Last night when I got home from my project several people were going out and so I went with them. I didn't think we'd be out that long but I ended up staying out with Ollie and Levin until almost five in the morning. We had a good time though, some girl thought they looked like The Beatles and took a whole bunch of pictures. She definitely wasn't interested in me, apparently I was cast in the role of Yoko because every time they talked to me she would get a little annoyed. We danced and Levin and Ollie even got up on the bar for awhile. Their dancing was very entertaining but since I didn't realize we were going dancing, or how late we would be out I didn't bring a camera! I did get some pictures from before the ballet which I will get posted ASAP. Next week is Ollie's last week and when we go out I'll be sure to have my camera with me!Thankfully there wasn't anyone being obnoxious like last time. The last time we went out I kept having to elbow this drunk guy who wanted to lean on me. Last night there was just a polite Peruvian who offered me some beer and then left me alone when I declined.
This weekend we are supposed to go to some dance festival a few hours away where we would camp in the middle of the city. I'm not sure if it's going to work out, and the idea of carrying around everything I bring with me all day definitely doesn't sound fun as my sleeping bag is neither small nor light. If my house mates get the tent rental worked out I'll go anyway.
Chao
Monday, July 4, 2011
The First Wave
So since last week a lot has happened. One of the boys in the house had a birthday, I tried to bake, the first group of volunteers has left, and I played the piano in church (poorly).
The baking incident was, as some of you know, related to the birthday. We tried to make Fancy Birthday Brownies for Ollie (the Aussie) but we encountered a host of problems in our attempts. First of all we didn´t have a decently sized pan, and in guessing we (ahmm, I) chose one that was much too large. We left about a 4 inches of empty pan, instead of spreading our brownies too thin. Then, I didn´t know how to turn on the oven. So I asked for help, and one of the ladies who works at the house, Margo, turned it on for us. The brownies had only been in the oven about 5 minutes when I smelled burning. Alysen said it was probably just something that had fallen into the bottom of the oven that was burning but I checked them anyway. The broiler had been turned on! To be completely fair to Margo, she is not one of the cooks and it really was not her fault. Our Fancy Birthday Brownies were burned on top and liquid on the bottom. We scooped out the burned layer and reset the oven. We renamed them the Disaster Brownies despite their eventual salvage.
To make matters even worse, Ollie only got one piece! Everyone else ate them before he really even had a chance. How rude.
His birthday party was quite the success and everyone had a good time out on the town for the evening. Australians have a "speech" tradition at birthdays which consists of some gentle hazing by friends, and was quite revealing.
We went out again on Friday night because Ian, Alysen, and Chris were leaving. It was fun, but not quite as energetic as Ollie´s party. We got home late and they left Saturday night. On Saturday Levin and I tried to make them cookies, snickerdoodles, but we couldn´t find all the ingredients so we settled for Betty Crocker instant cookies. Apparently snickerdoodles are not well known. None of the Canadians or Australians had ever heard of them. It´s weird because I didn´t know them very long, but the whole dynamic of the house seems to have changed.
I am trying hard not to compare Kate, my new roomate, to Alysen. Kate seems very nice and chatty and I´m sure that before long everone will have adjusted to having new people around.
Yesterday I went to church three hours early. Somehow I had gotten the time wrong and church was starting at 2, not at noon. I got there early to practice the piano before everything started, which I had plenty of time to do. So I played for them... I don´t exactly measure up to anything I´ve ever heard before, so I´m not sure if it´s worth it. On the last hymn I only played the melody! If nothing else I can at least say that it keeps my pride in check.
Today is back to normal, spanish classes and project. I am taking in the books that were donated little by little and today I am taking the Dr. Seuss books. I hope that they will provide a new dynamic to the English studies at the school. I think we will go out tonight, to some tourist retreat, to celebrate the 4th of July. However I heard that our cooks are making tacos tonight and despite what some people might think, that sounds pretty American to me!
The baking incident was, as some of you know, related to the birthday. We tried to make Fancy Birthday Brownies for Ollie (the Aussie) but we encountered a host of problems in our attempts. First of all we didn´t have a decently sized pan, and in guessing we (ahmm, I) chose one that was much too large. We left about a 4 inches of empty pan, instead of spreading our brownies too thin. Then, I didn´t know how to turn on the oven. So I asked for help, and one of the ladies who works at the house, Margo, turned it on for us. The brownies had only been in the oven about 5 minutes when I smelled burning. Alysen said it was probably just something that had fallen into the bottom of the oven that was burning but I checked them anyway. The broiler had been turned on! To be completely fair to Margo, she is not one of the cooks and it really was not her fault. Our Fancy Birthday Brownies were burned on top and liquid on the bottom. We scooped out the burned layer and reset the oven. We renamed them the Disaster Brownies despite their eventual salvage.
To make matters even worse, Ollie only got one piece! Everyone else ate them before he really even had a chance. How rude.
His birthday party was quite the success and everyone had a good time out on the town for the evening. Australians have a "speech" tradition at birthdays which consists of some gentle hazing by friends, and was quite revealing.
We went out again on Friday night because Ian, Alysen, and Chris were leaving. It was fun, but not quite as energetic as Ollie´s party. We got home late and they left Saturday night. On Saturday Levin and I tried to make them cookies, snickerdoodles, but we couldn´t find all the ingredients so we settled for Betty Crocker instant cookies. Apparently snickerdoodles are not well known. None of the Canadians or Australians had ever heard of them. It´s weird because I didn´t know them very long, but the whole dynamic of the house seems to have changed.
I am trying hard not to compare Kate, my new roomate, to Alysen. Kate seems very nice and chatty and I´m sure that before long everone will have adjusted to having new people around.
Yesterday I went to church three hours early. Somehow I had gotten the time wrong and church was starting at 2, not at noon. I got there early to practice the piano before everything started, which I had plenty of time to do. So I played for them... I don´t exactly measure up to anything I´ve ever heard before, so I´m not sure if it´s worth it. On the last hymn I only played the melody! If nothing else I can at least say that it keeps my pride in check.
Today is back to normal, spanish classes and project. I am taking in the books that were donated little by little and today I am taking the Dr. Seuss books. I hope that they will provide a new dynamic to the English studies at the school. I think we will go out tonight, to some tourist retreat, to celebrate the 4th of July. However I heard that our cooks are making tacos tonight and despite what some people might think, that sounds pretty American to me!
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