ROSCA!!!!!!!!!

the best way to describe wednesday is boring. after waking up i perused the internet, which was boring also. for breakfast i had two pieces of toasted bread with cheese and a brown sauce. i'm not too sure what is was and i didn't ask because i am still nervous about initiating conversations in spanish....i should work on that.

after breakfast ivonne drove me, her friend, and her friend's grandson to the market. i really wish i knew her friend's name because she comes over all the time. i should work on figuring that out too. at the market place we went to one of the many meat stalls. it turns out that ivonne's friend's husband worked there. while they were talking, i took time to look at my surroundings. none of the butchers used gloves, on their cut fingers was electric tape, and cutting boards that were made out of wood. these so called cutting boards probably hadn't been changed since the day the stand was built...yum. i also saw the husband cut a whole pig head in half with this sting-like electrical saw cutter thing. the only thought that ran through my head when i saw that was that if i was trying to do that, i wouldn't have any fingers. shudder.

after waiting for ivonne to pick us up, we went home. i of course went straight to my room to hide. i really need to work on becoming less shy....an hour later, ivonne's son and his family came over. we ate soup with meat in it. apparently it was a VERY mexican dish. i liked it.
for dessert we had the sweet bread again, i think it's called rosca, but i could be wrong. ivonne's daughter-in-law explained to me that it was a special treat for day of the kings. which is a holiday that celebrates the arrival of the 3 wise men to Jesus' manger. inside of the cake are little dolls, they call them monos, which means monkeys in spanish, but somehow i don't think that's the meaning in this context. if you get a piece with a mono in it you have to make tamales for everybody on february 2, which is another holiday.

the daughter-in-law had a piece with 2 monos in it! she gave them to her son so he could lick them off. when nobody was looking, except for me, her son put back the mono into her piece of rosca. he looked at me and i knew to keep quiet and i smiled at him. a bit later, longer than i had anticipated, she found the "3rd" mono. she couldn't believe it and everyone was laughing. then her son told her that he had put it in there. the look on her face was priceless. good memory....
after they left i drove around the city with ivonne. she was telling me where i could catch the bus, how to get back to the house, and how to get to the market. i didn't get any of it. a few things that i do remember is seeing a restaurant named Te Amo Lucy's, which means i love lucy's! i think i saw a glimpse of i love lucy episodes playing on the tv. i will have to check that out. i also saw a building for alcoholics anonymous. that made me smile, although i don't know why.

after arriving home i forced myself to "talk" to ivonne. it was mostly me listening and awkward silences. i somehow managed to excuse myself so that i could go to bed because the next day i had to get up earlier because i was going to orientation for my new school!!!!!! i'm excited, but nervous because the bus is going to drop us off near our homes....i hope i will be able to find my way back!