Good Bye My Lover...

Last night was a pretty intense night. It poured rain like i have never seen before. The whole street was a little river! The thunder was really cool and all but the lightning actually scared me because it sounded like it struck right by the pizza place i was eating at. There was a flash and then a crack of a whip at the same time and the sound that followed was so loud. Recently i found this really cool little Italian place that is across the street from where I'm living that makes some really good pizza! I really miss pizza.. and sadly Panda Express.. I've had enough Mexican food i think for a while.

Some of my room mates moved out and a new guy moved in from Detroit moved in. He's not too bad at Spanish but thankfully lower than i am because now i am no longer the one who knows the least! That sounds worse than it really is.. just think. I can help him learn Spanish, while practicing my own now.

I really want to know who likes papaya? It has such an interesting taste, its not really sweet, it tastes more like it lacks a flavor than has its own big and bold one. Nonetheless, i don't really care much for it. My host mom cuts Courtney and I a fresh one every morning but i never have the chance to tell her that i don't want any because she always makes breakfast before i wake up. I also wouldn't want to insult her or make her do anything extra to try and accommodate me here, after all I'm living in their culture and her house, i should at least put up with papaya, its not too bad.

I sometimes wonder in classes whether or not ill ever understand Spanish. Its not like its difficult or maybe I'm making it more difficult on myself, i don't know, yet its hard. Imagine restarting everything from a clean slate, learning a language, what things you can and cannot say, what things you should do when you great someone and should not do, whats acceptable behavior and not. Its like trying to grow up again and re-learn the world in a different way. Now coming from a clean slate is would be easy because you wouldn't have any preconceptions, prenotions or learned any patterns of behavior, customs, cultures, or religions. We however are not as fortunate as the clean slate thought experiment, and we do come with all the "cultural baggage" that we have learned for our entire lives. It is entirely possible that we have grown up in a way learning things that are completely unacceptable in another culture. For this, we need to see that we have this cultural baggage that leads to cultural ignorance. I'm being poked to leave for lunch now so i cant finish thins but just think about it.