A - E - I - O - U

11 hours of sleep paired with hot showers = Loren and Robin being ready for the first day of school!

But before class there was the great grape massacre of 2007.
Yes, Robin did eat these but they did NOT really look like this, they were actually quite lovely. (Though not lovely enough to make Loren eat them...she stuck with a granola bar). Just to be safe, Robin washed the grapes with purified water and then flayed them, only eating the guts. Mmm. They were yummy and did not make her sick at all...and we figured when they're not suitable for eating anymore, Robin can stomp on them in the shower and make vino! Bonus!

After breakfast we headed to our first Spanish class. We are with 2 other students: a man who is the rector of a church in Idaho, and a woman from South Carolina who recently completed her master's degree (and will be spending the next year teaching at the bilingual school at Our Little Roses). We spent the first few minutes getting to know one another while we repeated "Ah, Eh, Eee, Oh, Ooh." Robin and I quickly realized that, when it comes to saying vowels, we are naturals. However, when it comes to saying B, D and R, we are not quite as gifted.

After class we spent the afternoon in the city, and it was muy calor..106 degree heat index. We went to 2 ATMs (the first was broken) and then tagged along with our driver as he went through a bank drive up window...where we waited for 40 minutes. Muy, muy calor.

P.S. Our driver's name was Don Juan, and he totally lived up to it, as he wooed Robin by pretending to put on the deodorant she had just purchased and then calling her "stinky" (which is one of the only English words he knows). No, seriously, he was a very nice man who thought we were funny and was very kind to take us around the city...which driving in is something akin to a live version of Frogger. We were the frogs.

We came home and took naps, which was very peaceful until Robin awoke to the sound of someone in our living room. Someone committing grape larceny (in order to give them to the big group which just arrived today...which was fine with us because, c'mon, who eats random grapes they find in a refrigerator in Honduras?) Oh...see above.

The group which is now enjoying our grapes is from St. Alban's in Annandale, Virginia, and includes our classmate Denise. Hooray! We are glad she is here...and, as she is sharing a bathroom with 5 other people and we have offered her use of our apartment, we're pretty sure she's glad we are here too. We think Denise has really taken to mission work. This evening she led the girls in Evening Prayer. But before that, she did what every good missionary should do to bring together 2 cultures...

We just watched. And studied. A little bit.

Now we're going to try to say Compline in Spanish. The operative word here being "try."

Buenas Noches!