Thursday, January 23

Today we woke up around 10 and Nancy, Tata, and I went to the feria to buy fresh fruit and vegetables. I always get excited to go to the feria because all the colors of the fruit and sounds of people selling are really pretty and everything just feels alive, but what I always forget is that carrying the bags filled with fruit is killer on my fingers and I always end up just praying that Nancy will stop buying food so we can leave and put the bags down. Anyway, after a few hours at the feria, we got home and got ready to go to a local water park called Aqua Life. We went with Abelita, Tata, Maria Jesus and her mom, Paula, Rodrigo, their kids Flo and Josefa, their baby Pascale, and Tio Pedro and his kids Pedro and Javi. The park wasn’t exactly Wild Rivers—it was 3 water slides and 3 pools surrounded by a big grassy area for picnics and get togethers. Jesus, Pedro, Maxi and I talked while Nancy used one of the grills in the park to cook kabobs for lunch, then we ate the cookies I had made for lunch, hard boiled eggs with salt, and kabobs for lunch. After lunch, even though it was pretty cold outside, I got in the pool with Monse, Laurie, Flo, and Josefa, and we swam around for a while and played games until they opened up the water slides.

I went down like 4 times but really waiting in the line in the freezing cold was torture and I couldn’t handle it anymore so I stayed in the pool a little while longer until it started pouring down rain. I got out immediately and ran to the bathroom to change into warm and dry clothes. When I got back, everyone was packing up the food and towels and making a mad dash for the car. By the time we piled everything and everyone into the car we were all soaked. We drove over to Paula and Rodrigo’s house and while they were cooking dinner, I stood by the stove and tried to warm up my frozen fingers. Then we all sat down together and ate a very long dinner with a lot of conversation. I feel like I know the whole family really well now and I can actually be a real part of the conversation because I’m familiar with the things they’re talking about now so it’s really nice. After dinner, Maxi, Jesus, Javi, Pedro, and I sat around and hung out for a while talking and listening to music and doing nothing until Nancy decided we should go home. We got back to our grandparents house around 10:30 and I was dead tired, so after talking to them for a little while, I went to sleep early.