September 25th: I feel so clean

    I just got out of the shower an I feel like a new person. Living here is the equivalent to living in a jar of honey, pleasant but sticky. I showered this morning, ate breakfast and headed out to my Chinese classes at 9:15. We got to leave the house late because Idalia had to bring Ximena to the doctor so she didn't go to class. As always, class was fantastic. I relearned a lot from last year and she help me learn the small things that make sentences like saying, 'a little' or describing how something tasted or looked. She is an extraordinary teacher, and I think she likes having me as a student. Every once in a while I'll catch myself saying something in english, then in a panic I'll speak some french before I finally get around to spanish or Chinese. It's hard to train myself to default to a different language but I'm getting there.
    When I got home, I actually did school stuff. I worked a lot on psychology and let me tell you, if you have never taken a psych class, I suggest you do. It is so insightful and amazing to find out how our bodies work. Right now for intense I'm using my somatic nervous system to type up my blog. How cool is that, theres a word for that. Anyways, for lunch, I chowed down on some vegetables and rice. Estelita can find the most basic ingredients and has this power to turn them into a gourmet meal. She told me she never took a cooking class in her life, everything she knows she has learned from cooking shows and stuff on the tv. AND YOU THOUGHT THE TV WOULD MAKE YOU DUMB. Fun fact, it can teach you stuff if you're on the right channels.
     I gave in and watched an episode of friends but it was raining so the quality was so poor that I gave up after that first episode. At around 5 I wandered into the kitchen to find Estelita starting dinner and I decided to help her. We made empenada's and they were splendid. First, we  boiled plantains so they were soft enough to turn into mush, then we strained them and let them sit for a while. As theses were drying out, I went back to my handy dandy laptop and texted Abbie and Jordyn and watch youtube videos with Abbie (we were watching them at the same time so it counts as watching them together). I also did a bit of my school stuff again. At around 6, Estelita fed Mena and Ari while I started on the empenada's. She had the beans, plantain mixture and another banana mixtures all ready so all I had to do was roll some cheese into strip so they were easier to put in the food. I had to get my hands white with flour before I could even touch the plantain stuff or it would be a sticky mess. Estelita came into the kitchen at that time to show me the drill, first we made the plantains into patties then I filled mine with beans and cheese and she filled hers with the banana mixture. We had a nice system going on. When we were done rolling them, we put them into a pan with oil to fry them. Once they were done, we split one of each in half and tried them and it was so crazy good. The bean and cheese ones were like a dinner taste and the banana filled one were more dessert tasting.

    Once Nine got home, she put down Ximena and I went for a run. It was only 25 minutes but I got lost and it was weird. I ran for 10 minutes then I was really close to home so I took a turn that I had never ran and it took me away from home and after fish minutes of running it turned into a dead end so I turned around and ran back home. I knocked on the door and as soon as they let me in, I hit the shower. I have gotten used to taking cold showers and they are so refreshing. I probably won't feel that way when I get back to Antarctica but for now they're nice. By the time I got out, the whole house was dark and everyone was asleep. I got my pi's on and went to the living room where I'm not blogging and jamming out to Jesse McCartney's Beautiful Soul.