Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Wednesday, August 6th

So, yesterday I went out to eat some dinner at this place called Checkers, which is kind of the equivalent of a Chili's or a typical chain restaurant, but without a bloomin' onion. I was surprised though at the massive portions we've been served so far. I could split every meal three ways it seems. Anyway, I ordered a water and then the guy said, "Con glass, or sin glass" which I thought was weird that he was asking me if I wanted a glass and also weird that he was using English words. I said that I wanted one. He brought back my bottle of water and glass and I poured it and was talking to Tara, my new roommate, and was completely surprised when I tasted it...it was agua con gas, not glass. I had ordered a mineral water. Oops, I guess I'll just keep making these language mistakes until I become more fluent. I also had not a clue the other day when the maid knocked on our hotel room door around 4:30 p.m. She said something really fast and all I heard was cortinas (curtains). I thought maybe something was wrong with them, so I asked her to slow down please and repeat it, but she just smiled and said the same thing very quickly. I still only heard cortinas. So, I smiled and said, "sure." She then came in and closed the curtains for us, put candies on our beds, and checked to see if we had enough towels. It's all a learning experience so far.

Today we went to school and met with our principals and he gave us the low down on what we need to know for school. Then, we met with insurance people and I'm so happy to know that I will be paying nothing for my insurance each month except any copay and that I am insured both here and internationally. I also have the option to get emergency service in which you just call an ambulance and the doctor will come to you and give you what you need. It only costs a copay amount for that by the way, which is SO different from the health care I'm used to! Next, Tom, our tour guide, took us to the bank so we could sign a bunch of papers to open up savings accounts. He told us that you're not allowed to use cell phones in the bank because they used to have guys that would watch someone take a big amount out of their accounts and then would call their buddy down the street who would then rob you. Stories like that are a bit unsettling, but again, I think that if you are smart about it all, then it's all okay.

Tara, Tina, and I move into our place on Friday. Tomorrow, we get to go shopping all day for things our apartments might need. Tara wants a hammock for our patio and I want to make sure we have bar stools for our bar that's in the living room. I guess I'll have to buy sheets too since I shipped mine and my boxes aren't here yet. Perhaps I should buy some plates and silverware too.

3 comments:

PJ said...

Carrie, just stick with cerveza until you learn how to order water properly.

Amy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Amy said...

I had to remove my previous comment because there was a grammatical error. :) I agree with PJ that water seems too complicated. What's the rum situation?