Birthday

First of all, thanks to everyone for all the cards and birthday wishes I've been getting! It's good to know I'm remembered even when I'm 5000 miles away. I came down to breakfast yesterday morning to find that my mom had made me a cake (with trick candles, of course).

Cake!
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I had my examen de ubicaciòn (placement exam) in the morning, and I placed into Spanish Level 5 (out of 7 levels). Kate and Erin also got me a cake, and after classes, the seven of us sat out on the quad and polished it off. Then we had an orientation session by an assistant to the US Consul, which was utterly unhelpful (I should have copied Braulio and skipped). After that they took us on a tour of campus (also unnecessary and unhelpful, as we only need to know about three buildings and we've already used them all).

During lunch, we went shopping so I could get a bathing suit. Of course, when we got back to school, Marìa Ìsabel told us we weren't going to the beach. But we at least had fun being squished on the Ecovia.

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We skipped the last session and I went home to take a nap. I figured mom would wake me up for dinner, but she didn't, and I woke up at 8:16pm to the realization that I still had to eat dinner, and had no time for a shower, before meeting my friends in the Mariscal at 9. I got there late, more like 9:30, and us three girls hung around and celebrated my birthday. Braulio was going to come, but couldn't, because the locks had been changed on his house that day and he didn't have keys yet, so if he went out, he wouldn't have been able to get back home. Still feeling sick and wanting to get better, I just had one drink, and we were all home by midnight.

My birthday drink (a Hummer):
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Alcohol or water? Let me think...
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I considered skipping the first orientation session for today, because it started at 8am, but I dragged myself out of bed and went, because it was labeled on the agenda as "Orientaciòn Mèdica." Thinking that we might be getting essential health information, like how to use our insurance cards and where to go in an emergency, I went. I shouldn't have bothered; it was some freaky guy speaking kindergarten-level Spanish and telling us not to drink the water. An hour in, Marie and I were trying not to laugh, not looking at each other for fear we'd explode. That was when I dropped my pen, leaned over to get it, and came up short when I smacked my forehead with impressive force on the chair in front of me, which I had somehow failed to see. At that point we gave up and just laughed hysterically.

The course was a complete joke, because after all, if they were going to warn us about bad food and worse water, they should have done it when we arrived three weeks ago. The reason all the orientations are now is that all the other exchange students just arrived this weekend; Keene and Oregon are the only ones who have been here for three weeks. We did get three extra credits for the last three weeks of classes, but we should have had our own orientation.

We skipped the second Orientaciòn Mèdica in favor of snacks, came back long enough to sign up for our U classes, and then took off again. We were supposed to be back at 2pm, but skipped that one too and came back at 3 for the Clubs and Sports session. That was short, and Liz and I decided that we want to join the Spanish Dance club, which is Flamenco.