catch-up time

It´s been over a week since I last wrote on here, so there´s probably too much to tell, and I probably don´t remember most of it because my memory is terrible, so I´ll do my best. I know I should write more often, but I´m just so lazy...well, ya kind of, but also by the time I´m done a 10 hour day I just have no motivation to sit and think and write about my experiences here in a somewhat intelligent manner. Even now, I wish I was doing something else, heh. But there are some people out there who read this and tell me to keep updating it, so here I go. Ok, so between last Thursday and now, what has happened? Last weekend was rather dull if I recall correctly. We went to see Valentine´s Day in the theatre for the second time because there is literally nothing else playing here that is worth seeing. And it´s a fairly small city so there aren´t that many things to do, and there is only one theatre here, so on a Friday or Saturday night half of Ibague is in the mall or at the movies. Last Saturday I don´t think we left the house at all. Oh wait, we actually went to the gym which is about a minute walk from the house, and it´s pretty ghetto looking, and it´s dark and the equipment is pretty old, and some of the machines don´t really work too well, but it´s good enough. I´ve decided to try to get in shape while I´m here...and by this I mean tone and try to build some muscle. I bought a month pass which came 20,000 Colombian pesos or about $10 Canadian which is a pretty good deal I think. My fellow volunteer Leonardo who will be here for 2 months is going to be my personal trainer, because he´s pretty in shape and knows what to do. I on the other hand have no clue, so it´s a good thing he´s here. Although on Tuesday he decided we´d work on our legs, so I did 3 sets of 30 doing squats with a bar with weights on my shoulders, and I literally could hardly walk up and down the stairs or sit down on the toilet without being in so much pain! My legs are still sore from it, and it´s been 5 days since then. But hey, at least I know I´m getting a good workout. We tried to go to the pool last Saturday as well, but it turned out to be closed, so we just had some ice cream instead. We ordered food in that evening and didn´t do much else. On Sunday we went into the centre of town and the boys really wanted to shop, and Juliette and I couldn´t have cared less. We´ve decided that they´re the girls in this house, and Juliette and I are more like guys for sure. While they ooed and aahed over shoes and preppy clothing Juliette and I were bored to tears and just wanted to go eat and go back home to watch the hockey game, haha. So finally we had lunch and bought a dozen donuts and went back to the house, and I celebrated as Canada beat the U.S. in the gold medal game. Juliette who is American was a really good sport though. That evening we watched The Fourth Kind which I never thought was real, and didn´t really enjoy too much either. This past week was long, boring, tiring, and frustrating at times, but also really good at times too. I guess I became a little disenchanted (that´s a word right?) with things this past week, and things started getting to me, but I think I´m better now. I realized that I have to change my attitude and try to be positive about everything and not complain so much. I´ve been selfish at times, and I have to remember that I´m not here to serve myself or make myself happy at all times, but I´m here to serve the children who come to the centre with a joyful heart no matter how I´m feeling on a particular day. I´m doing my best to be positive and thankful for everything I have, no matter what the situation is like. Because being here has made me realize again just how blessed and spoiled I really am with everything I have in Canada. I don´t have to worry about a place to live, or if I can afford to eat, and I have an amazing family, boyfriend, and friends. So that´s just a little window into my thoughts this week. I also started taking dance classes with the other volunteers here, althought Juliette couldn´t take them because her ankle was still pretty bad. So Anders, Leonardo, Liliana (one of the teachers), and I took a class on Monday. Our teacher is the same girl who teaches the kids at the centre to dance, so she just comes to the house to teach us which is really nice, and it´s also super cheap!! Like a buck per person or something ridiculous like that. So we started with salsa, and Leonardo and I are partners, and we´re actually picking it up pretty quickly. It´s a lot of fun, and very fast at times, so I hope by the time I get home I´ll know quite a bit. We´ve had 2 classes so far, and have another one tomorrow night. Sadly Juliette left here yesterday morning, so on Friday night we all went out for dinner together. We sat on a patio and it was pretty nice, and I had lasagna which was alright. On the walk back to the taxis Juliette had a little bowel emergency, and thankfully Berenice knew a lady who lived in an apartment on the street we were walking down. So we quickly buzzed up and she let us in and Juliette and I both used her bathroom. I didn´t have the same problems though, but it was pretty bad for Juliette apparently. She had to use it 3 times! This lady is actually the aunt of the guy who runs this organization and its partnering ones. Her apartment was really nice, and it kind of felt like I was back in Canada visiting a grandma´s house. She was such a sweet lady and she made us tea which is commonly made here to calm upset stomachs. It seemed to work and we visited with her for about an hour, and then took a taxi home, and Berenice made me some chocolate cake which was soo delicious. For some reason I´ve had quite a bit of chocolate here but it hasn´t given me a migraine yet...I have no clue why. Let´s just hope that I can keep this up! Last night we were supposed to go see Alice in Wonderland with Thomas the white guy and a few of his friends. But when we got there it was sold out, but he and his friend had a ticket, so they went, and me and the two boys and one of Thomas´s friends went and had a few drinks and some food while we waited for the movie to finish. After that they took us to a discoteca, or a club, and we danced for a while, and then the guys were hungry again so at 3am we sat outside on a sidewalk on wet seats because it had rained, and I watched the other guys eat. I just wanted to go home I was so tired. But it was a pretty fun night. Today we were supposed to go to another botanical garden and hike a mountain, but it just poured so I don´t think we´re going anymore. I´m tired anyway so that´s ok with me. There´s a new girl from Belgium coming today, so I only had to be the lone girl for one day. She´s only staying for 2 weeks though which sucks. I really want to have a girl stay longer, because it´s nice to have a girl who speaks english to talk to when I´m so far from home. Not so lonely then at times. Well, that´s all for now I guess. It turned out to be another long one...sorry to all of you who don´t like to read very much, but you don´t have to if you don´t want to. Alright, bye for now friends!