Monday, July 31, 2006

Back to school

Before classes start tomorrow (today) may as well remember some of the fun things from this past week-and-a-half.

One of the fun things is the prices. (Multiply prices by 3.06 to get the amount in pesos) Taking a colectivo (city bus) for 45 minutes costs about 26 cents, a tren to another side of the city only a few cents more. So going to church costs me about 52 cents every week. There are three very good ice cream places (Chungo's, Persicco, and Freddo) that give two nice-sized scoops for $1.63. Of course, one can get more by paying more, but the stuff's so richly good that two scoops are plenty (especially flavors such as chocolate amargo and dulce de leche con brownies). And the movies? Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays the cinema costs around $3.92; Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays it's a whopping $2.29, including IMAX theaters. That's less than I pay to rent a new movie at our local grocery store!

Speaking of movies, that's another fun thing. Sunday night I watched Pirates I... for only about the seventh, eighth, ninth time... on the Disney channel with Silvina and Emilse and Alejandro (Emilse's boyfriend)... It was dubbed into Spanish, which was interesting since I know nearly all the English lines by heart and could analyze the change in sense. And it was fun to explain parts of the plot to a first-timer. Not to mention we had some really yummy sweets from the birthday party of Silvina's sister-in-law to eat up...

Monday night last week I went with some people from church to see Pirates II for the second time. It had just come out down here, July 20, almost two weeks after the States. I think it was an IMAX theater. I'm not exactly sure what an IMAX theater is because I never bothered finding out, but it was a nice big screen and great sound. There were some people sitting on the steps, preferring that to the row way down front.

(warning -- movie spoilers ahead)

Now I understand the movie a little better, but I'm not sure if I could see it nine or ten times in three years like the first one. We had a great audience that broke into applause when Jack popped out of his tomb-canoe and when Captain Barbossa appeared, then again after the end. There may have been more clapping at one of the other high points, such as one of those rare victories over the kraken, can't remember now. Only thing was that we thought the movie started at 9:30 p.m., only to find it started at 10:30, so some of us didn't get to bed before 2:30 a.m. that night ... morning... that's what sleeping in is for.

Oh, that's right, we also went to see a movie Tuesday night... Silvina, Amy and I. We went not knowing what might be showing and ended up choosing Superman Regresa. Of course, since it didn't start till 10 p.m. and we got there around 9, we were forced to eat ice cream first. The movie's pretty good, but frankly, Superman is too perfect and too good. I prefer Spiderman.

Now back to real life and classes this week. All my classes are on Monday (3 p.m. to 9 p.m.) and Tuesday and Thursday (1 p.m. to 7 p.m.), leaving Wednesdays, Fridays, and mornings free.

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