Last night, we all slept over at Pamela's house. She live on a beautiful golf course! Her family is really nice and very funny—her mom likes to joke with us, and took away Luisa's cell phone because she was texting. Her mom made some really good food and juice, and made sure to ask us if we could eat what she was making.
This morning, we woke up on and off as soon as the sun came up, but didn't get up until 10:45 when Pamela's mom came in abruptly and woke us up, laughing at how tired we were. She made us breakfast of refried beans and a mix of turkey sausage and potatoes, which we ate at about 11:40. Luisa, Zyanya, and Pamela are really sweet to prepare all of our food without letting us help (unless we insist!) . Then, we all hung out for awhile in pamela's room before we left for Luisa's house to swim. On our way, Zyanya's mom drove Z and me to pick up the daughter of one of Macrina's friends who attends a different school. Her name was Amairani (they all have GEORGOUS names), and I feel like I describe everyone the same way, but she was just so nice and cheerful. They all have a great sense of humor, and in a way don't seem as insecure as some american teenagers, but I'm sure there are all types of teenagers everywhere. Ok now this movie is scaring me I'm going to finish blogging when it's over!
Alright...now I'm in bed. We finished hearing the blair witch (well they watched and laurel and I closed our eyes) and afterward we started the movie that Zyanya and I saw yesterday to lighten the mood. The mexicans claimed that they weren't scared, and i do believe Luisa thought it was funny, but as the movie went on, Pamela put down her phone to watch and Zyanya put a pillow in front of her face haha. Haley and Laurel thought it would be totally fine to watch a movie in spanish (they only had potruguese subtitles), since Pamela would tell it to me and I would translate to english, but I wouldn't exactly say I'm qualified for that, so I'm not sure how much they really understood! But Mario Casas es muy guapo, entonces no importa las palabras. 30 minutes in, pamela's mom came at the same time as the delivery pizza, so we stopped watching and ate pizza quickly before they all left. The two types were shrimp with some other stuff, and fish with some other stuff. I almost ate the fish one, but realized there was shrimp on it. So correction: there was one with shrimp and stuff, and one with shrimp, fish, and stuff. It was fine, since I'm not usually hungry at 10:30pm, but I had to secretly and nonchalantly slip the pizza into the trash and cover it with my napkin so they wouldn't feel bad and try to bring me other food! Also, they keep asking me if I want milk, because they're so thoughtful and they must think it's an american custom to drink it, but I honestly don't even like to drink milk.
So back to today. At the pool at Luisa's gated community, we brought chips (spicy of course) and soda, and they brought and made us try this fruit stuff that looked like little cactus branches but open with tons of huge seeds. At first I liked it, but then it all of a sudden it felt weird, so I swollowed it whole. Z just told me it is called Tunas, which reminds me of when they asked us what it's called in english and Haley shouts "Tuna!" without even realizing it was cactus, not a fish. Even more embarassing, I have never seen a tuna fish before, so for a second I thought it was a tuna fish ahah.
It was SO hot out that I put on sun block and jumped in right away with laurel and Amairani while Pamela tanned and Haley pretended to tan while she actually just adjusted her position 999 times on her lounge chair before jumping in. It was fun to talk with Amairani, because she speaks good english and doesn't know the other girls very well, so she hung out with us. She is very intellegent, but I could tell when she was listening but couldn't understand us, because she would smile nervously and nod. I definately know that feeling...maybe from chemistry class. Laurel, Haley, and I were so hungry that we talked about all the American foods we missed for a good 20 minutes, and had a fun time. Zyanya came over, which made me happy, because I think she felt more comfortable today. She speaks great english, but is so nervous of messing up that she just listens. She says she knows what she wants to say, but doesn't know how to say it, so she doesn't say anything at all! I hope we will soon be able to communicate better, and I know she really does know a lot of english. I always tell her as a joke that we will only speak english in america to make her practice, and I hope she knows i'm joking, because I know that there are some spanish-speakers I would love for her to meet, especially because the hispanic population really defines Phoenix, and I wouldn't want her to have the misconception that no one actually speaks spanish! Later, we were going to go to the Plaza, but were all tired (it's rough waking up at noon and hanging out by the pool), so we stayed in. It took us so long to figure out what to do, but I guess being flexible and to indecisive is better than stubborn and inflexible!
After the movie, I chatted with Macrina, Sarhoma, and Zyanya. I was glad, because I feel bad sleeping in Macrina's home without ever seeing her during the day, and I think Sarhoma was mad that she had to move so her little sister's friends could watch a movie. I guess sibling relationship feelings are internationally unique. She's a great person, though, and I'm so glad to see her around! When Macrina told me we were going to Kino Bay tomorrow, they all started cracking up, because I responded with "que padree" which means "how cool" and is an inside joke because Zyanya and Sarhoma messaged it to me on fb before I came, and when i put it into google translate, it came up as "how/what father". Yay, I'm picking up on spanish phrases! I can't remember if I wrote this last night, but we also laughed about how when we were swimminng in Pamela's neighbor's pool anoche, and he walked out to say hi, Luisa was sprawled out on the top of the slide, ready to slide down head-first. It was so funny, but the neighbor was an older man (sooo linda) who turned on the pool lights and music and brought us cold grapes. What a nice man!!! I wouldn't even recognize some of my neighbors at the store.
Also last night, we were chatting by the pool with Diego, Pamela's friend, who spent a year in Missouri for school and told us all about his experience (Zyanya and Luisa warned us that he loves to talk...a lot). We asked him lots of questions about how he perceives americans and race, and he was very candid and open. After we ate part of HUGE burritos (at like 1am), and we were heading back, Luias apologized for saying "gringos" in front of us, thinking it was an insult. She is the sweetest, and we told her it was totally fine to call Americans that, but it did make me wonder what the implications are if she was so worried, since I've never really heard it. Although "Gringa" was on the menu at The Patio, so I'm a little confused on that one. Diego said something interesting; mexicans are also technically americans, and Americans should refer to all of us while the mexicans just refer to the Americans as gringos. How funny, but I see how he can see it that way.
Altoids. Before I left, I was on a no-mint/altoid spree (that's gross and also I think it's more of a strike) because i found out it eats the enamel on our teeth. but anyway, I grabbed the box of altoids from the car and threw them in my bag the morning I went to the airport...it was really sporatic, since I don't eat them and it was literally the ONLY food I brought, so I guess if there were a famine I would live on altoids and sacrafice my enamel. Anyway, again, I have recently surprisingly been eating about three each day, which I think is due to the fact that it is a subconscious comfort to taste, smell, and touch something that connects me to memories from my home. Wow, I'm so strange! Maybe that bs and I'm just hungry or something lol.
Lastly, before we went to bed, Macrina told me my eyes were red, which was really really nice that she was worrying about and looking after me, even though I didn't see any red when I took out my contacts. I really appreciate that the people here are very nice and thoughtful.
One thing I really don't miss is American pop music, and I will miss the mexican music. It is more creative and peppy! They love our american pop music, but literally they played an american hit today that literally says "when I met you in the summer and the skies were blue" THAT'S IT. So boring...their music seems more like talent, and less like some famous person mumbling. Who knows.
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