Yesterday's Post

Today was the kids’ orientation day at school. Whew. The first class I had were a little wild, but the next two bunches were very quiet and well behaved. I found out that sixth graders are very small, and look very much like sixth graders, without yet having the awkward look of seventh and eighth graders. My plan didn’t go as it was supposed to, as per usual, but overall the day went pretty well, especially after the first period (read between the lines, the first one was a trainwreck). I forgot how tiring teaching is though. I only had the kids half the day and I was exhausted by the end. But as promised yesterday, I was not going to laze around the apartment all afternoon. I came home, had some coffee, ate lunch, and then went for a 2 hour walk with Melissa through the botanical gardens which are north of our apartment. It took some convincing for them to let us in, apparently we were supposed to pay but we didn’t bring any money, but we got in eventually after Melissa demonstrated, through a combination of Spanglish and hand gestures. that she did not, in fact, have a purse or any pockets. It was so beautiful in there. It felt like you were in the jungle but there was a magically paved road in it. I will definitely be going back there. After we came home and took showers (even a walk leaves you drenched in sweat here) we decided to go to an Indian restaurant that Bridget found out about in her old edition of Lonely Planet.

 

This is where the adventures of the day began.

 

We went took a taxi across town to the neighborhood where we thought the restaurant was, and in its place was an Indian looking vegetarian place. This sounded good enough so we went inside and were greeted by two walls of buffet tables. Vegetarian Indian Buffet sounded nice, except that all the buffet tables seemed to be empty. In one corner there were four little trays of unidentifiable foods, and that was all the restaurant had. We decided to try another Indian place from the guidebook. We hailed a cab and stood on the corner consulting the guidebook to find the directions to the restaurant (a sure-fire way to get overcharged) and then were taken there. Or at least, were taken to the place on the map. There was nothing even close to an Indian restaurant in a 4 block radius. In fact, there were really no restaurants at all except for a chicken place and a fancy French restaurant. We circled around a few times before decided to get Japanese at a place close to our house (which was delicious, by the way, I had the best Miso soup I have ever had). It is very interesting trying to figure out what sushi is in Spanish/Japanese. We got it basically right, even though Bridget’s food didn’t come for a long time and the “Chicken Wonton Soups” turned out to be a plate of wontons. Apparently it was just a clever name.  Anyway, after that Japer and I walked home (at night you get less, but still considerably, sweaty) and here I am, blogging to you all. Miss you! Can’t wait to read the piles of emails you are all composing to send to me!