June 4th 2008

When my alarm went off at eight, I woke up. Then I went downstairs and had a piece of bread and a cup of tea for breakfast because there was no water safe for my consumption. Next, I got ready to go to the language school even though my classes are not until later this afternoon. I did my morning devotional and then relaxed for a little. Today, I decided to leave early to go to the language school because there is an informational meeting at ten thirty that fives insight to the differences in culture. This desire came about because I enjoyed the information and discussion about power distance. The informational session today was about communication and the difference between an individualistic culture and a collectivistic culture. This was very helpful and helped me to see some of the cultural cues that I have missed. I had a lot of time before I had any classes so I took some time to study. Also, some former missionaries from SAMS visited so I had the opportunity to talk with them. They were the McDonald’s who visited my church on Sunday but I had missed them because I was called into work. More people showed up for this session than last weeks so I took time to talk with the other students at the school as well. It was good to talk to everyone because they were all very encouraging. My first class was with Maite, we look at the subjunctive a bit and then using other words to describe something to find out the item that I am trying to describe. This class I told Maite how to make baked ziti and also this class I finally understood what the purpose of using the subjunctive. It is used for giving emotions, instructions, and for prayer. My next class was with Mauge and we worked on my usage of the past tense. This class we look at the stories of Ruth and Joseph in the Bible and I had to retell after Mauge told me them. I learned a lot in this class, but this class was frustrating because I felt that nothing I said was correct. Also, in my class with Mauge I had the opportunity to talk about some of the concerns that I have and she was very helpful and giving me the information that I needed. Then I had a class with Viviana in which I continued to work on the past tense. I discussed the difference in the seasons in America and also what I did last year. The final class I had, was with Ana Maria and once again I went over past. This time I described a person that I admired and all their actions that made me admire them. The person that I chose to describe was my mother and while I did the description Ana Maria wrote down what I said and the corrected what I said. This was very helpful and my sentence structure is getting a lot better. My problem now is that I am putting too many words in my sentence and my problem before was excluding words from my sentence. It was a late day today so I arrived home around six, but today helped me know what tomorrow will be like since I have the same schedule. When I returned home I talked with Susana about Lucas because she said that he is in a lot of pains. So I described my experience and told her the information that my mom gave me in her last email about what we did when I was in my cast. For dinner I had chicken, pasta with some beans that I have never had before and a potato. After dinner, I studied what I have learned by typing up my notes and rewrote a story that Mauge asked me to do for homework. While I was doing my homework, I received a phone call from Larry to set up a meeting. So we are going to meet this Friday afternoon after my classes which is very exciting to me. This phone call also reminded me that my internship officially starts tomorrow. When I was finished with my homework; I decided to shower, do my evening devotion, and go to bed.