GO TO CHURCH!

I know I've been pretty bad at this whole blogging thing lately and I do apologize for that. I will strive to be better. Last week was a great week! I turned 20, which is just plain weird. I don't really have much to show for having lived for 20 decades. I don't drive, I don't smoke or drink and if I were America, I couldn't even if I wanted to, and I don't care enough to go buy dry ice. I might was well just perpetually be 17, which doesn't sound like a bad idea at all. My fellow teachers were very sweet though and surprised me with a cake. And not just any cake. A CHERRY CHIP CAKE!
  

And on top of that, I currently have more Coca-Cola than I ever should. Everyone knows I'm a bit of an addict, especially here. Coke has become my comfort go-to. I bought a 2 liter Wednesday night to hold me through my homesickness during my birthday (Yes, I missed you guys). Then the morning of, Dima shows up to Russian lessons with another 2 Liter for me. And then the girls, had ANOTHER 2 Liter waiting for me along side my cake. I no longer feel justified in purchasing Coke when we go out to eat knowing I have 6 liters of it sitting at home. That's a lot of caffeine. And we all know how I am on caffeine.

Dima also played us this song for my birthday. It's a crocodile. And a really weird song. And yeah. You'll just have to watch it yourself.

It would take an eternity to re-cap everything that happened last week, especially given my tendency of being detail-oriented, but some more highlights of the week included exploring Old Town, seeing the Presidential Palace, seeing both the Avengers and Titanic in 3D and on the same day, and playing the ukulele with my little students. Funny story from yesterday though: So after sacrament, Areil, our head teacher, wasn't feeling too well. The poor little bug has caught my little bug that put me out last week. Furthermore, I had a headache, which was only made worse by listening to the headsets given to us to listen to the translation of church, and Hillary wanted to come home to skype her family. Thus, we decided to go catch the next bus with every intent to just come home and crash. 5-2 minutes before our bus arrives though, we realized that we had left the keys with the other two girls. But the walk back to church isn't exactly short when you're in heels and not feeling well plus it was super cold. So we decided to head back but just go grab lunch at Charlie's Pizza next to our apartment building till the other two girls get home.

It seemed perfect. Charlie's is this little pizza parlor themed after Charlie Chaplin. After getting off the bus, we immediately went over seeking refuge from the cold. We order, we eat, it's delicious. I really enjoy the pizza at good ole Charlie's. But apparently, I have absolutely no luck there.

Let me break this down. I have been to Charlie's a grand total of 3 times. The first time, I was screamed at by a Russian. The second time, the waiter next down the coca-cola bottle sitting next to me. The third time, this time, I believed I had my debit card in my wallet and turns out I didn't. And it just so happens that Hillary forgot she didn't have money with her either. So we all sat there stunned and frantically searching out purses and wallets for any spare change. We managed to gather together 26 of the 34 litas our meal priced. We sat there unsure of what to do. Luckily, church was almost over so I called the other girls and told them to get on the next bus. They left church but unfortunately missed the bus. Meanwhile, afraid of getting kicked out of the restaurant, we decided while we waited for Elise and Janese to come to our rescue, we better preoccupy ourselves. So we ordered a single thing of ice cream and literally ate it as slowly as possible, taking the tiniest bites of ice cream imaginable. Yes, we ordered more food because we couldn't pay for our food. It made sense at the time.

Janese and Elise on the other side of town were stranded with none of our regular buses coming any time soon. Soon I get a phone call from them where they proceeded to tell me that they've decided to just get on a random bus and try to find some place familiar to get off. That really freaked me out. But it actually worked out. They got off at a nearby mall and caught the next bus which took them right next to Charlie's. They made it to us and saved us and we were finally able to eat our ice cream at a normal pace. The moral of the story is though 1. Never leave church early and 2. Always double check your wallets. Cheers!