two months

as far as i can tell the city has calmed down a lot since i wrote my last blog. there are no more large gatherings of people, and no more violence. or at least a lot less of both of these. the bill was passed though to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62, and at least two more protest days have been planned - october 28 and november 6 i believe - but i'll be gone for one of those becauseee i'm headed off to germany until the 1st!

in the meantime though, i have been trying to keep myself busy so i don't go stir crazy waiting to start traveling since classes have been canceled all week. i am starting to forget what school is/ that the reason i am here in the first place is to study! but i have gotten a few things accomplished this week. including finally buying some boots (now all i need is a peacoat and i will be ready for winter! - well maybe..) and got a haircut! thanks to a 5 dollar pair of scissors for ages 10+ and some amazing friends, my hair is shorter and split end free. :)

i also got the opportunity to feed my host family this past weekend. kirstin was going to be staying over (for the second night in a row - she lives right by where all the protests were going down, and didn't really feel like heading back that way the first night, and then was invited to stay over the second night), and my host parents were going to be going out, so we set out to make some spanish rice, salad, and chocolate cake. during our cooking fest my host parents showed up because they decided to wait to see the movie they had planned on seeing. turns out we had tonsss of extra rice anyways, so we invited them to join us! my host mom declined for the night because she was tired and not hungry, but my host dad loved it and took extra servings. and there was plenty left over to make it part of lunch the next day, during which my host mom told us it was pretty good too. so overall a successful evening :)

and my package from my parents arrived! super excited about that since it contains a brand new camera for me :) mine is old, still working, but old. and now it's missing a couple screws for some reason and is starting to want to come apart... so i figured it would be a good idea to get a new one before this one really decided to die on me. plus i got some reese's which i've been craving, and tea which i had recently run out of! a little sad this packaged didn't arrive 2 days ago when kirstin was still in town since she got a camera too. butttt at least it made it just in time for my trip!

and as of yesterday i have officially been here for 2 months. time flies so fast here its ridiculous!