Not knowing what I am doing is kind of working for me.

So my spanish is rather . . . shaky. I came down here to learn it and I am definitely improving but I still sound like a two year old when I try to talk. And my vocabulary is limited. Extremely limited. However, I realized today that this has it's benefits. I try out all kinds of new food almost everyday. Instead of going to a restaurant and ordering something I know I will like, I end up hunting for items that I understand. It's like playing Where's Waldo with the menu. Oh! hongos are mushrooms, carne is beef, arroz is rice. It doesn't matter if they are things that I would never put on the same plate at home, I am just excited when I know what it is I am trying to say. This has meant that I have ordered carrot juice with dinner because it was the only drink offered that I understood. And you want to know something surprising? I liked it. And I don't even like carrots much. Though when I mentioned this to a friend I was told that the carrot juice here is very different than that in the US.

Then today I decided to head to a cafe that is close to the school for lunch. Only this time I didn't have a convenient friend to come with me and translate my order. Yikes!!! So I get there and decide that I don't want any of the things that I usually get there. And I don't understand what the other things on the menu are. And I left my dictionary on my desk. And no one speaks english. Oh No! Usually this is when I would have given up and gone to the pizza place down the road. Pepperoni pizza is pretty easy to order. ^_^ But today I just started hunting through the words I did understand and I eventually found something with beef, potatos, soup and salad. I didn't understand exactly what they were going to do to the beef and potato and I couldn't figure out what the soup was but I ordered it anyway. And then when I didn't understand the drinks offered (they are different everyday) I just told the waitress to surprise me.
I ended up with a curry soup, a strange but good beef mixture in a hollowed out baked potato and mango juice. Win for the Gringa!!

As a side note, the juice here is AMAZING!!! Even just the regular bottled juice is a million times better than what we have at home. It is incredible. And it is everywhere. When you head into a corner store there are three times the amount of juice as soda or beer combined!!! And when you eat out, the drink is almost alway included and is usually some sort of juice. Yum!