Aerobics, understanding more, and other weekend news

Well, it appears I'm not going to go running much, because basically I'd have to take a taxi or bus to a good place to go running and that would just be silly. Now if you are wondering why I wouldn't just jog in the neighborhood or to the good place to go running, the answer is that I like my ankles the way they are. The side walks here are pretty uneven. On top of that there are lots of people and dog poo to avoid. So some of the girls and I have started to going to a local gym to do aerobics. On Saturday, I went to my first aerobics class which was Body Combat (Cardiokick boxing/ Taebo). So basically after a few weeks I'll be able to beat someone up if there is a good beat. Ok, maybe not. The instructors were really funny. Both were men, I don't know why, but male aerobics instructors always crack me up.

The nice thing about aerobics is you don't have to understand much, you just have to follow. Although most of the time the "boxing" term was either the same as English or they used the English word: jab, cross, upper cut. And it is helping me remember Spanish words like knee, elbow, and hook. Anyway, its a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to trying to figure out step aerobics on Tuesday.

In other news, I made the mistake of just before leaving Abilene saying that I don't get sick unless it is a cold or a stomach bug. I've been here two and a half weeks... and guess what??? I've now had both! A cold the first week. When I headed to the gym yesterday I didn't feel good, but I figured it was weird new situation nerves. I won't go into the gory details, but I feel much, much better today. I even got up and went to church this morning. Oh one funny thing about it... I woke up in the middle of the night and my shoulders were hurting... and I thought, "Oh, what's wrong with me now???" Then I remembered that I had done push-ups in aerobics... I hate push-ups!

After church, those of us who went to church went out to lunch with Eric Rama. His father teaches at ACU and he's in school down here. Eric went to ACU last year and almost came as part of our study abroad, so we all knew him before. He lives in the same building we do, but we haven't seen him much since we've been here. It was really good to catch up with him.

Tonight at church was exciting because I was able to follow what Oscar was preaching on. For some reason, I understand Oscar the best of the mean who preach. I don't know if its because I know where he's going or because he's speaks a little more slowly... but I followed the sermon well. I also made myself ask people to slow down and understood more in conversations with people after church.

After church, Rhonda, Kimberly, Anne, and I went out for Chinese. It was the first time I had eaten much since Friday. (I had only picked at my lunch.) But, wow, I feel great now.

One funny thing about teaching at Study Abroad is that students and teachers have much more access to each other. I got home and printed out study guides for the exams I'm giving this week. I went around and handed them out to the students I could find. Then at 10 PM, a student came in to get help on homework. Now at home I refuse to do chemistry after 10, I'm usually in bed, but here I keep much later hours. I'm enjoying all the contact though.

I guess that's all for now. Some time soon I need to introduce you everyone and tell you about watching Rugby in Spanish, my favorite thing to watch at the moment. Until next time...