August 13, 2018: Columbus Day Should Not Be Celebrated, In My Opinion

Me and some rain.

I like Mondays here. At home, Monday (typically) signifies the start of 5 long days filled with tedious tasks (going to school, attending meetings, going to work, whatev) but it's very different here, at least for me. The only obligation I have is a literature class that starts at 5:00pm. I like this because I can sleep in and take my time in the morning and not feel like I'm diving into a week of work. Mondays are also an easy pill to swallow considering I only have class on Mon, Tues, and Wed so the weekend is always 2 days away. Yeehaw, hawyee. So today I woke up (thank god), ate a breakfast that included 2 fruits which is my new record, and then went for my run around the Parque Centario. It was a brief run so I worked out in my room when I got back. Then I got all packed up for class and sat on the couch in the front of our house and read as much as I could before class. **My teacher is always like, "Read this... but you don't have to read all of it. Ok woman how much am I supposed to read?!"** I facetimed my friend briefly, and then my pal Julie came over. We walked to a vegetarian "pegar por peso" (pay by weight) buffet style restaurant, which is conveniently about 50 meters from mi casa, got our food, and carried it back to my house to eat it. **Check my "food" blogs to read more about the different kinds of restaurants there are here. I'll be adding more to that page shortly.** Julie and I then continued to read before class (we are in 3 of 4 classes together) and then walked 40 minutes to class. Our discussion (well actually the profe's lecture) was very interesting today. We talked about Cristobal Colón's motives for going to el "nuevo mundo" and his disinterest in learning to communicate with the indigenous people. We compared this to Hernan Cortés who knew that in order to defeat the people in Mexico - who FAR outnumbered the Spaniards - he had to learn their language first. Information = power. Too bad he used this power to do horrible things. Conquistadors literally suck. After class, I walked to the subway (it wasn't raining), I rode the subway, and then as I was exiting the station on the escalator I noticed it was POURING rain and I turned around to go down the stairs and as I was on a moving escalator this was impossible. Please enjoy the selfie of me above speed walking home in the rain. Anyway, I got home and ate dindin with my host mama... see pic below.

This is her go-to meal. Milanese chicken with a fried egg on top + salad. She also made brussels sprouts and told me it was broccoli. Haha. Now I'm sitting in bed typing and will probably do nothing else productive the rest of the night... except let that baby chicken digest in my stomach.

Song Recommendation of the Day: "San Francisco" by The Mowgli's