Day 6 - Our First Free Day

So, because I don’t actually believe in being intelligent, ever, I went to the beach today.  If I die of skin cancer, it will be my own fault and I give all of you permission to laugh at my funeral.  Today was a free day for us, and some of the members of my host family thought it would be fun to walk down to the beach closest to where I live.  The waves were really big there.  We waded out to about waist-height, and then had to jump when the waves came because the majority of them were over our heads.  I finally learned the name of the guy that I talk to the most in the family, it’s Papi.  He looks like he’s probably in his late 20’s/early 30’s, but I have no idea how he actually fits into the family.  Apparently today was some kind of anniversary of Bob Marley or something, so he was all excited about that.  I guess Bob Marley’s really big here.  Actually, in a lot of ways being here is like being in the U.S. in the late ‘90s, early 2000’s.  My family watches T.V. but it’s an older style, and everyone talks on the phone, it seems that texting isn’t popular here.  I’ve also seen several people wearing Bermuda shorts.  I’ve been enjoying watching T.V. with the family because it’s like my childhood all over again.  In the past few days I’ve watched Tom & Jerry, Elmer Fudd, Bugs Bunny & Road Runner, The Powerpuff Girls, The Land Before Time, The Pink Panther, Dexter’s Lab, and Friends.  They seem to also get some modern shows, since we watched an episode of Twisted the first day I was here, but they seem to prefer the classics.  I have no idea how people here stay so thin.  There is barely any fat on anyone I’ve met, yet they eat more in one meal than I usually do in an entire day.  My host mother is convinced that I don’t like the food that I’m eating because I don’t finish everything she gives me, but the truth is I eat until I am actually feeling sick and couldn’t possibly put another bite in my mouth, and it’s still only about a third of my plate.  The animals here are also very thin, I’m not sure that they are the same breeds as the ones in the states.  The cats are very lanky, and most of them seem to have a different bone structure (they remind me of the animals in Egyptian hieroglyphics, which I always thought were exaggerated, but maybe they are actually accurate depictions of animals in Egypt).  The horses are also different (DBAL, J&D).  They are thin, and much smaller than horses in the United States.  Most of them would probably only be classified as ponies, but they’re clearly full grown.  They are used to move carts for the street vendors, and it is not unusual to see them on the busy roads along with the cars, being forced to gallop.