A lesson learned... at least for THIS weekend

I’m not one to learn anything the easy way. But I have to say that the lesson I learned last weekend stuck pretty close this week. So when tonight rolled around, I decided to apply what I’ve gleaned and so passed on the big fiesta happening tonight. If I HAVE to tell the truth, I passed because tonight’s get-together was going to be mostly of the American English teachers at the academy that I attend; had it been a party with Chileans, I would have totally gone! But since I can hang out with Americans any old time I want, I decided that I would value sleep more. But let’s just call it a lesson learned, anyhow!

So I came home tonight and mentioned to Maria that I was thinking of going to see the movie “Atonement” (in Spanish it’s called “Expiacion Deseo y Pecado”… how did one word become four?!) and I could tell that she really wanted to come with me so I invited her to join me and she immediately and very excitedly jumped at the idea. As we were getting ready to leave, their 17-year-old granddaughter stopped by unexpectedly and ended up joining us as well. What a fun time it turned out to be! Poor Edgar stayed home by himself as, in his own words, he can’t stay awake through a whole movie so why bother wasting the money. Maria felt bad leaving him home (but not enough to miss the movie, obviously) and we were teasing him that he was really going to be lonely without us. He scoffed at the notion (literally, scoffed) but it seems he just must have been as when we got home he had gotten the dinner all ready and set out and had made up a cute little sign welcoming us to his “first class” dinner. Too sweet! Especially from a man who I have yet to see lift a dish.

About the other random pictures today, I went to the grocery store after class this evening and it seems that no matter how many times I go to other countries and see it, I just can’t used to seeing milk in boxes and bags in a regular aisle. (Tonight I was looking for milk at home and saw there was none in the fridge so I assumed we were out; then Maria told me which cupboard to get more from… how freaky is it to get a new thing of milk from a CUPBOARD?!?!). Anyhow, they also do the same thing with their eggs. Maybe Americans are just too hyper about refrigeration but it somehow still makes me cringe just a little to eat an egg I know has been sitting unrefrigerated in the pantry for days on end. And all sorts of things come in bags: mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, salsa, jelly… in bags. Yeah, bags. Anyhow, being the total nerd that I am, I just had to take some pictures. Oh! and the coolest thing I’ve seen so far in the grocery store was the bread in huge, open bins. No plastic bags, no covers for the bins, no bread from a factory, just fresh baked bread out in the open. And then when I was picking some out, this little window thing behind the bin opened up and one of the workers started filling it up with fresh, piping hot little buns. Hot buns, hand made, right out of the oven! I almost started to weep with joy. They were still warm by the time I got them home…. makes me tear up just thinking about it.