Story time!

GOOD NEWS! I finally found 100 (and 101 too) on a license plate today. This is extremely rare, especially that I find two in one day, because there´s only 3 numbers on each plate.. so I got lucky. I had been looking for days.

Ok, this post is going to be lots of random little stories.. mostly humorous ones.

The other night at a church meeting I was playing with Pablo outside because he was getting antsy and disturbing our mom. We played all kinds of things from Pato, Pato, Ganzo (Duck, Duck Goose), Power Rangers, Pikachu, freeze tag (kinda hard with two people), and Veo, veo (I spy). Earlier that night I kept hearing Ixi say ¨Fijate¨ to Pablo and then he had been saying it to me. So I asked him, ¨Que significa fijate?¨ What does fijate mean? And he responded, ¨Cuando tu mueras y vas al cielo, Dios va a decirte que significa fijate.¨ When you die, and go to heaven, God is going to tell you what fijate means. HAHA! So he wouldn´t tell me. It was a pretty clever response though. He´s always making me laugh. I did later find out that it means pay attention or look here.

When I ask Pablo questions like this, he always says ¨Tu no entiendes nada!¨ You don´t understand anything! and lets out this huge sigh. Oh well.

That same night, while playing pikachu (a chinese action figure), I pretended I didn´t know what pikachu meant. And every time he said the word pikachu I´d say ¨salud¨ bless you. He was getting really annoyed and kept saying ¨NOOO.¨ I thought it was funny though.

Lots of Pablo stories.. the other day we were waiting to leave for school and we were looking out the window at cars and he yelled ¨CUCARACHITA!¨ COCKROACH! and punched me! I looked and saw a VW bug. Apparently they play the punch buggy no punch backs game here too. Cause every time we see one he yells that and punches me.

He´s a very curious boy and every day on the way to school he asks his mom different questions about what stuff means (kinda like me), and one day he asked her what ´person´ meant. It was cute. He was also asking about turn signals and when Ixi explained it to him he said ¨I´ll understand when I´m bigger, right?¨ : )

Sometimes Pablo is correct in saying that I don´t understand anything. The other night I had gone to the University here with my mom´s brother and his girlfriend. They are students there and showed me all around which was a really good experience. I found out it costs them about $12 per year here for school. Did I already say that in another blog entry? I forget. But I was shocked when they said that. And likewise they were just as shocked when I told them what my schooling costs. Anyways, they took me to Burger King afterwards and were asking me random questions. His girlfriend, Ligia, asked me ¨Te gustas pintarse?¨ And I thought she was asking if I liked to paint... since I´m a photographer major and artsy kinda. So I told her ¨No, not really. I´m not that good at it.¨ and she asked, ¨What about anyone in your family? Your mom? Sister?¨ and I said, ¨No, not really. My dad a little. He´s pretty good at it..¨ Well she gave me a strange look and didn´t say anything for a little. Then she explained that she meant ¨maquillarse¨ which is make-up. So apparently here when they say pintarse they mean to paint yourself, and I had just told her that I didn´t like to wear make up but my dad did a little and he was good at it. OOPS! Sorry dad! At least I know now..

Ok, two more stories. Tonight we were about to leave my mom´s parents´house to go to her grandma´s for our weekly tradition. I was putting my purse on my shoulder and the strap was caught on some of my hair. So I went to pull my hair out from under it and felt something strange in my hand. I didn´t look right away so I grabbed it a little tighter to pull whatever it was out of my hair. Well, I have no idea where it came from, but when I looked at my hand I realized I was holding a cockroach. Uhh, yeah. I immediately flinched and dropped it, managing to keep my shock and disgust inaudible. I kicked it to make sure it was real.. it was. BUT, it was dead. Which made me feel a little teensy bit better about the situation. But still.. GROSS! And where did it come from.. ick.

Lastly, while we were at her grandma´s house eating dinner they were talking about new shoes Ixi´s sister had bought today. Ixi asked me a question and I was having trouble understanding what she meant. I knew it had to do with shoes and me.. so I thought she was asking how much they usually cost in the states. I told her it depends but usually around $20. Well, everyone kinda reacted strangely and then she explained that she meant what shoe size do I wear. I had told them I wear size 20.. gotta love those confusing language situations! We got a laugh out of it though.

Well, those are all the stories for now. Oh also, whenever I need some comic relief here or get tired of reading my boring history books, I turn to my buddy Patrick McManus and read about shooting canoes. I´m very thankful I packed that book last minute! Well, it´s 11pm here and I still haven´t started my two page essay on migration that is due tomorrow.. written in spanish. Some things, like the fact that I procrastinate, never change I guess. To all the Groshes - enjoy butchering weekend! I pulled up my butchering project website from last year and showed my mom and her boyfriend all the pictures last night. Can´t say my mom was too enthusiastic about the whole thing.. especially the ones with red blood. But now they know a little bit more about me! I´m sorry I can´t be there. To everyone else - enjoy your Valentine´s day, while you´re NOT butchering.

Love to all,
Linds