Sunday, November 22, 2009:

Last night, I went out with Marlo, my missionary friend that I met on the plane. It was SO fun, she is so nice. Also, the food at Crepes and Waffles (the restaurant we went to) was fantastic and really not too expensive. I asked her if I could live with her family over Christmas break, and she said she didn’t see why that would be a problem, but she would talk to her husband and let me know. So I am still homeless, but it sounded promising. Today, I am just going to go to an internet café to call home and then back home to work on my essay that is due tomorrow. Boring. But this week will be anything but boring…on Monday after school I have to go to the post office, and from what I’ve heard, that is always a three hour ordeal with tons of fees and who knows what. Then on Tuesday, I have to go get my CENSO, which again from what I have heard, will take three or four hours, and then Wednesday is the day before Thanksgiving, and I have to make a traditional dish to share at CIMAS, but I have to be able to do it without an oven, because I don’t have one. So it should be an interesting week…but for now I think I’ll head out to the café so I can stop procrastinating about this essay.

Also, the milk here comes in bags that sit on the shelf (not refrigerated for up to 9 months) and now I know why: In the US, when they pasteurize milk, they do it at a low temperature for a long time as to kill the bad bacteria but not burn the milk. Here, they do it at a really high temperature (like 135˚C) and for a short time, which kills everything, but also burns the milk a little. So because they kill EVERYTHING (good bacteria and all) it doesn’t need to be refrigerated until it’s opened. But it is a little burned, which is why it tastes funny. And then to top it all off: All the bags of milk are now marked with an A or B. They used to be marked with a 12345, and sometimes some of the numbers would be crossed out. The numbers that were crossed out were the number of times the milk had been taken off the shelf and repasturized, so if you bought a 4, it tasted REALLY funny (because it was almost three years since it had been taken from the cow). Now, apparently, they only do two repasturizations, with A or B. But still I will only be buying A’s from now on.