Bonn Voyage!

So... I´m going to Bonn for my birthday! It´s so exciting. Liz and I will have a couple days together to hang out and then she has a game in Halle Sunday night. Her coach said he´s 95 percent sure that I can just ride with the team to watch the game. Isn´t that cool? I get to see Liz play basketball in Germany! I´ll be sure to take pictures for the blog so you can all see too.

I had my first language share with Lourdes this morning. I loved it. We talked for almost 2 hours, which is extra long. My head was spinning by the time we were done, but she says I´m understanding her a lot better than when we first met and that she understands me when I speak, which is good. Now I need to get the grammar and more vocabulary down.

Going over to her house is like going to see one of my grandmothers. She just welcomed me right in, had an extatic smile on her face the whole time and fed me cookies and tea. We don´t even speak the same language and I know very little about her life, but I know she´s one of the sweetest people I´ve ever met. If anyone wants to come visit, we´ll certainly swing by her apartment to say hello.

Tonight my team has a game, so I´ll go watch, which is cool and lame at the same time. I´d so much rather be out there playing. Last night at practice, Maria got stuck guarding me, meaning she´s a guard, not a post, so it´s pretty easy to score on her. Everyone is a little bit impressed with the hook shot right now because it´s unfamiliar to them. Just wait until I start launching them from 15 feet out, they´ll get tired of it really quick. Anyhow, she and I would just laugh every time I scored on her. We also played this game where it´s one on one, you start at half court and just go at the basket and try to score over the D. Once I faked like I was going to one hoop and went to the other one and that got a good laugh because it left Maria in the dust.

I´m not meaning to toot my own horn here, I just think it´s cool that jokes and silliness can come across even though we´re not using words. We chatted a little bit more last night, some of the girls on the team and I, but the true evidence of our characters and who we each are as people is shown while we play better than when we attempt to talk. It´s pretty neat.

One thing I do understand though is when the girls cuss. And, it´s a lot, they have potty mouths. If they ever miss a shot, it´s "mierda", shit. Yesterday I heard a new one, "hijo de puta", which is son of a bitch. And those are the only two I´m familiar with, just wait until i have a larger vocab. Hilarious.

I don´t curse too much, only yell when I get pissed, thanks to the excellent training in biting my tongue I received at GFU. So, it always sort of shocks me when I hear it and understand it. Funny stuff. Watch out... I may come back with the mouth of a Spanish sailor : )

As you can tell, my first weekend alone is going pretty well. I felt lonely last night, but after practice, I felt better. I watched Mrs. Doubtfire for some nannying tips after my language share this afternoon and had fresh tomatos and fresh buffalo mozzarella (that title is so funny) with olive oil and a little fish dish for lunch. Yummy! Now, I´m going to shop a bit more for my mom´s birthday present and try to explore downtown. Hasta luego!