Oh Happy Day!

The title of this post will reoccur once more on this blog. That will be the day when everything magically clicks in my mind Spanish-wise. Because I can hardly spit out the proper conjugations for present tense, I can't even imagine what it will be like for everything to make sense. I'm told that it will be in few months. Until then, this post will share the title because it marks my first day of talking in Spanish (almost) all day! I'm not saying it was very good Spanish, but the fact that I went out with friends who weren't from ACA and who only spoke Spanish to me (though if I really, really couldn't get it, one of them would explain it to me in English) has made me one happy chica. I feel like such an adventurer! Even though our adventure was only to the park five minutes away.

The goal of the trip: to drink terere. That's it! After today, I have officially decided that I like terere more than mate. For those who don't know, terere is basically mate, but ice cold, mixed with something sweet. I'm very much a hot tea lover, so to admit that I like a cold tea is a little surprising for me. However, it is the truth. Here's why it was so good. Today, we used some TANG , lemon and orange flavored drink mix to sweeten the whole deal. I felt like I was drinking heaven. All five of us shared one cup and one bombilla (strainer/straw). Each person drank from the bombilla until the cup was empty when it was then refilled and passed to the next person. Mate (the herb) contains caffeine, and technically caffeine is not allowed to be consumed on campus. It was funny to look around and see half of the UAP sitting on blankets in the park, sharing terere as they played guitars or kicked around a soccer ball. And you thought Adventist schools in America were strict? Think again.

 Terere. (Yes, of course I brought my hammock.)

All in all, it was a good day filled with lots of learning, laughing (when I actually understood the jokes), and making friends. Perfecto, perfecto, perfecto.