Thursday 11/27/08

Happy Thanksgiving! I celebrated by going to class from 8-5 (what fun!). That’s right, Thanksgiving isn’t celebrated here at all and so we had class all day. It actually ended up being quite an interesting day as we spent the morning reflecting on all our different experiences and then in the afternoon having a class dedicating into orienting ourselves for our trip to Cuba. I came home and Mami was the only one home. She left within minutes of my arrival and told me she was going to pick up Pamela and would be right back and that afterwards we would head to her mom’s house because it was her birthday. Sadly enough, I ended up spending most of my Thanksgiving evening home alone and hungry (a stark contrast to how I have spent every other Thanksgiving in my life). There was literally no food in the house, but it was already dark and knew that Mami wouldn’t want me to be out in the dark by myself. They finally came home much later than the told me and then disappeared again to go pick up the birthday cake. After sitting around waiting for Mami to come back with the cake we finally just decided to go to my aunt’s house, where the birthday party was supposedly supposed to take place. When we got there, my grandma had already left to go home and everyone was in bed ready to go to sleep. This is where I have yet to understand Latin American culture. Mami finally showed up around 10 and made my grandma come back to my aunts house so she could blow out the candles, even though everyone else was already asleep. It was somewhat strange and immediately after they scarved down a piece of cake, Mami said it was time to go. We came home and waited another 1 for dinner. We didn’t sit down for dinner until about 11. Afterwards Mami and Papi said they had to go to a candlelight service for the owner of our house who passed away. So, Pamela and I had a sleepover and talked and talked and talked knowing that this was our second to last night together. If you’re at all confused about the second half of my day and this entry didn’t make any sense, don’t worry, I was just as confused as you all evening!