Eat, Shop, and Be Merry!

I know, I know!! It' been a long time since we last posted anything. It's been an incredibly busy couple of weeks for us. I'll try to summarize briefly . . .

Language class and homework as usual take up a lot of time. We have learned a new verb tense, and we've learned how to "tell time" in this new language. Really, how many different ways are there to say it's 5:30 or that we're doing something at 5:30?! Let's see . . . we've learned (well, maybe not learned yet), but we've been taught how to give directions from one place to another, cardinal directions, ordinal numbers, a long list of vocabulary/verbs, how to compare two objects/people/places, and a few medical words/phrases.

Just as important as that, we've learned a lot of cultural/social things recently. Mark is getting a taste for quite a few different national foods. He has a standing invitation to eat lunch with the staff at a friend's shop downtown anytime he wants to. I keep trying to go, too, but my "booking agent" keeps me pretty busy (I'll explain later). He's enjoyed most of the things he's been served. The thing he likes least is yogurt - they serve it with almost everything he eats with them. But he manages to cover it up with hot peppers and get it down OK!

One of the staff members invited us to her home to visit with some friends. We went at 8:30 last night and got back home at 1:30 this morning!!! There's just not room to describe what the whole evening was like, but I can assure you it was different from any other visit we've had so far! I will tell you that somehow our hosts started telling us tongue twisters in their language. Then we started telling them tongue twisters in English. We started with Sea shells . . . then they wanted something more difficult . . . oh yeah, I forgot to mention that they also wanted us to translate the tongue twisters for them so they could understand what they mean - we did get Sea shells translated with their help and our handy-dandy dictionary! But the next one we did was Peter Piper . . . they did OK with the first line. Then we told them that there was more. When we shared the whole thing, you should have heard the collective gibberish that was spoken in response! They all laughed so hard trying to repeat even part of it. We just gave up trying to translate that one!!

Hmmmmm . . . I, Melissa, have to tell you that I have my very own personal booking agent! It's quite hilarious, I think. There is a lady on the same floor as us who has "adopted" me, and we do something together at least 2 times a week. It seems that every week, by Wed., she has the rest of my week full of social engagements. It's usually going to tea at another friend's house for a few hours. She is so sweet and is always making sure I'm comfortable and know what to do. She doesn't speak any English, so it's amazing that I've only misunderstood her once! I thought she told me she was coming to my house for tea the next day, and after getting everything prepared she didn't show up. Somewhere along the way I must have confused something she said. Anyway . . . she invited me to go on this bus trip last weekend. We went to a city about 1 1/2 hours away to shop, eat dinner, and go to the theater. We left at 9:00 Sat. morning and got home at 1:30 Sun. morning. I learned that women here are so much like women at home - they love a good sale, their feet get very tired from shopping but they don't want to slow down for a second, they love to sing songs together on the bus, and homemade goodies for the ride are a must!! Who knows what she'll invite me to next!

One more thing I wanted to make sure we told you about is a special dessert a friend gave to us. It's called chicken breast pudding. And YES it really has chicken in it! It's kind of the consistency of pudding - vanilla - and the chicken is shredded very finely. A little cinnamon is sprinkled on top. If I didn't know it had chicken in it before I started eating it, I might have enjoyed it a little more, but that knowledge ruined it for me. The taste is OK - it's the texture that got me the most. Mark didn't like it at all!!

Also, we mentioned the beef/lamb mixture we bought as an alternative to beef. Well, it was very disappointing!! It smelled like Titus' dog food, and the taste was not much better! Next time we're planning to fork out the money for some real beef!!

We hope you are all able to enjoy a few good laughs and/or maybe a new food of your own this week! Let us know if anything interesting comes your way!!