Today I learned...

On the bus ride home, I brainstormed a lot of the stuff that I learned today. I usually have to brainstorm because my Mami always asks me, in the usual greeting, Como estas? Que tal? Como fue el dia? Que vas a hacer? Que paso? (essetially all the greetings i have ever learned in spanish, all in the same breath of course). But while I was thinking, I came up with a few humorous things that I learned today that you might enjoy:

1) never shower when Mami's washing the dishes from breakfast. Caliente becomes a bit more like frio...

2) when washing clothes, make sure you have at least two outfits left before you ask to wash your clothes because....

3) when washing clothes remember that you must dry them afterwards. And if you don't have a dryer, this means you have to hang up the clothes. And if you don't have a laundry room like the Henlsey household, this also means you have to hang up the clothes outside. Which means you should choose a sunny day to wash your clothes. But you also must remember that it is the middle of winter. And it may or may not be the case that every day at 4 or 5 it rains for an hour. So when you ask if your clothes have dried when you get home from school at like 6, the answer is probably no- they're wet. They might be dry in the morning. 

4) try and eat all the food that is served to you, or else your family may develop some false precepts. For example, my family thinks that i don't like bread. But this is entirely incorrect!!! I am a bread lover!!! But for some reason, for the first time in my life, I have met my match in regards to eating. (Btw- you are talking to the girl who on a semi-regular basis eats dinner at her own house, then marches over to the Rierson's house and eat dinner with them a few hours later.) But here, when for breakfast Mami makes me a big bowl of papaya, mango, banana, oats, granola, and yogurt, then gives me a plate of eggs, and a glass of whole milk hot chocolate, and then tries to feed me bread, I just have to say no. There is no possible way. I just can't do it. 

So I learned quite a bit today before the clock struck 6pm.  

But then my life changed drastically.

I LEARNED HOW TO MAKE CHOCOLATE!!!!!!!!! :) 

Let me show you a snapshot, literally, of how my life has been transformed:

There's me with the cocoa beans that have been roasted in a pan and are now peeled because the shell just cracks off.

 Here's the ancient machine that grinds the beans into cocoa, more like the consistency of slightly moist coffee grounds than the dry cocoa stuff you buy in the store. The machine most of the time works off a motor, but often needs a little man power. You feed in the beans one by one (we really need to up the voltage or something so it goes faster, but honestly, i'm not complaining)

 Mixing it together...

 Forming the cocoa into small balls. I wish i had a picture of my hands after doing this. They were sooooo black, and smelt sooooo good. I was tempted not to wash them because i wouldn't mind the smell the rest of my life :)

Add a bit of sugar and mix it together and we had our very own chocolate. If you add a bit of milk, it'll look a bit more like chocolate, but let me tell you... SOOOOOOOO GOOOOOD!!! All natural: grown on their farm, made in the kitchen! And the best part? Now I have homemade hot chocolate for just about every meal. Yes, my life is complete. :)