Last day in Merida :(

I hate saying goodbyes! I went to yoga this morning with Eira for the last time. I really enjoyed going every tues/thurs and although some of Eldilio's exercises were a bit strange I always felt better afterwards. Except today I had a hard time concentrating and letting my mind relax because there was one of those HUGE nasty brown butterflies just chillin' on the white wall. It was basically staring me down.

Today at school, I just had to sign in for my geography class and check my grades. Todo chevere! Then I went up to Plaza Belen to buy some cocosette in bulk. BEST DAY EVER! Cocosette fudge and cocosette cookies are packed in my luggage right now. They better not take them away from me at the airport. If they do I will scarf them all down!! No wasting of the cocosette allowed.

Tonight there was a party in VENUSA and I danced until they pulled me off the dance floor! Merengue and salsa baby! Ugh..but I had a very hard time saying goodbye to Johan. I started crying when he thanked me for being such a special person to his sons and to the whole family. He couldn't hold back the tears either. What a beautiful family! I will miss them so much, but they offered me a place to stay when I return. So I need to come back as soon as possible.

Overall this was the best experience of my life! and I knew it would be! There's nothing more I could have done to make this any better. Everything worked out so well and I thoroughly enjoyed my time here. It's sad because I spent some of my time here wishing to go back home and now that I finally am leaving for home, I'm wishing to stay in Merida. I'll be leaving in 4 short hours to head to El Vigia, ending my life in Merida......at least for now.

Ultima Dia con mi novio y su familia

I had mentioned to Johan and Yija before that mi padre venezolano made me french toast for breakfast, but they had no idea what it was. So today I went over to there house to make them french toast. Johan had a soccer game in Mucuchies with his team Los Caballeros de Merida. So it was just Yija, the boys and I hanging out all day. They loved the french toast! and then we played for futbol for a while in the street. Oh and before I went to there house I had to get the ingredients and some colored pencils for my libro infantil and I ran into HARRY! (johan's cousin). I told him I was headed over to their house and he said he would be there too later on in the day. Well, it turns out he's their neighbor! haha I had no idea. I was out playing in the streets with the little kids. Then we just had music playing and hung outside with Yija, Harry and other family members. Apparently, everybody lives on the same street. I know that Johan's crazy mother lives below them. She yelled at the boys for being too loud when they were playing futbol. They wanted me to stay longer but I had so much homework to finish up! The last week of school always kills.....even in Venezuela.

Xcor acapella concert

Angel and Rosa invited me to an acapella concert tonight because Angel's uncle sings in the group. It was incredible the way they sang!!! Angel's brother Ali came too with his girlfriend. (Man, is he cute!) Anyway, the group started off singing a tribute to Michael Jackson. I was dancing and singing along for sure. Then they sang some spanish songs and then What is love? by Cher. This just proved how americanized the music is here in Venezuela. It amazes me how much influence we have on the culture and I didn't even realize it!

Zapatos Rotos

So those cute turqoise shoes I bought yesterday...well I wore them out last night for only 2 hours and they fell apart. That's what I get for buying shoes in VZ? Well I told my mom about them today during lunch and she gave told me I should return them and see if I could either get my money back or exchange them for a new pair. I was super nervous because I didn't know how I was going to argue my point/explain what happened in spanish. So I had Marissa come along for moral support.
When we got on the buseta, the same younger kids from yesterday were sitting behind us!! as if they were waiting for us to get on the bus?! so crazy! We just started giggling and they of course were trying to tell us things in english, but we couldn't understand anything they were saying. They told us we were beautiful and then asked for a kiss when we went to get off the bus. How can people BE so forward?

Anyway, I walked into the store with my broken shoes and a smile on my face. The lady recognized me right away and asked how I was doing. Ummmmm....well not so good. I explained the best I could and showed her what happened with my shoes. She got on the phone to call the manufacturer or something. Then she offered to exchange them for another pair, but they didn't have my size. So then she said I could find a different style of shoe or get my money back! She was so nice about it! SCORE! Successfully argued my point in a nice way and got my money back. Then Marissa and I spent it at the Merengada place. Chococambur otra vez!

On our buseta home, the cutest little boy with a crooked smile sat in front of us and heard us speaking english. He said Hello! and then grinned from ear to ear. He pulled out his trompo (spinning top) and started wrapping the string around like he was getting ready to play with it on the buseta. I told him that my friend Fernando had one of those too and that I could make it spin!! He was so cute and just grinned that crooked smile of his. People here are so friendly!

Shopping day with Marissa

I love Marissa! We have so much fun together and today we hit up all the descuentos in el centro. I got some really cute dark turqoise wedges, a headband and a Venezuelan baseball cap. Afterwards we went to this smoothie place I have been wanting to try out and boy was it good! I ordered a Chococambur merengada which is banana and chocolate with ice cream. IT WAS THE BEST MERENGADA! It's just sad that I found this amazing store with only 6 days left in Venezuela. I guess that just means I will have to go everyday to try new flavors and make up for lost time.

Oh and we walked passed the gobierno in Plaza Bolivar and it was all decorated with yellow, blue and red for the 200th Independence day this past Monday. It looked really cool, but I didn't take a picture: 1. Didn't have my camera and 2. thought that maybe if I did take a picture the guard that's always standing outside would shoot me.

Then to get home I flagged down a buseta in El Centro, but sometimes they don't stop for you. However, this one looked like it was slowing down and so I literally threw myslef at the bus from the curb, fell up the stairs and then landed near the driver. Then I quickly looked back to see if Marissa made it on, because I jumped in such a hurry and she was just getting on like normal people. The driver and I were laughing so hard...as was the rest of the bus. Oh well.....brightened some people's day.

(yes another entry about food, but when you feel like you're on vacation you can make excuses for your eating habits. At least that's what I've been doing. :)

Debate

Leunam, my history professor, organized a debate today at VENUSA. It was venezuelans vs. Americans and the two topics were: Global Warming and then Politics in Venezuela. The first part of the debate was really great, mainly because I think everyone is in agreement that the climate of the Earth is changing so no hot tempers. However, when we switched to the politics of Venezuela it got a little heated. There were Chavista's there and anti-chavistas so of course they were going to butt heads. Funny part was one of the VENUSA students, Juampi, who hangs out with all the gringos all the time is a chavista?! He was getting really into the debate and actually cutting people off when they were speaking. Johan was not really happy with him! Nothing got too out of control and for the gringos we didn't have anyplace arguing with them on this subject. I feel that we only have an outsider's perspective on this and although we spent almost 4 months living here...it's not enough to justify our opinion. The venezuelans live this everyday! The debate was really great and very informative. For me, I enjoyed hearing both sides argue their point. After the debate, everbody cooled off over some Solera Azul. haha Only in VZ!

Of course when I got back from the debate I went to the tienda to buy some chocolate from my favorite tienda man. and only in venezuela can you strike up a conversation about politics and Chavez in a tienda while people come in buy what they need to buy and throw in their two cents on the matter!! I talked to him for about 20 minutes!

Last WEDNESDAY!

I HATE WEDNESDAY'S, but today was my last one! I was out of it for my last class, but who cares!? Because on our walk home, the sky and mountains were beautiful! The sun was setting behind the mountain painting the sky with different shades of orange and red, while still casting light on the other mountain range. It was so gorgeous! Great way to end the day! Then I came home and watched Friends! So exhausted tonight though. Oh and I saw Eldilio in the street today on his moto. He didn't see me though, but I can tell him about it tomorrow at yoga class!