20 April 2005 San Lorenzo

Tonight we will give our first presentation to the Rotary group of San Lorenzo. We hope they will enjoy it.

Today we visited a ceramics and porcelain factory. We got a tour of the factory where they make all the plates, cups and many other pieces. We saw the oven where they cook and then cool for 2 days. They are installing a new oven that will only take 9 hours.

Then we saw where they decorate the items. Some have stickers that are put on and then baked, and other pieces are hand painted.

There was a ¨factory outlet¨ there where some of us purchased some of the items. They are very beautiful.

We then went to the city hall of San Lorenzo. We were supposed to meet with the mayor, a 40-something woman, but she had an unplanned meeting in Buenos Aires. We instead met with to other officials in the mayor´s office and had coffee and talked. We got small banners with the city´s symbol and we were read a decree that said the city considers us very special guests. It was really neat and we felt very important.

We had lunch at a nearby restaurant where we had.... meat! It was a very good steaks and french fries.

We went to Jamie´s host family´s weekend home where he and Karen and I played ping pong and drank Mate, a wired green tea. It is made in a small mug with a special straw. The Mate is put in the cup with sugar and then hot water is poured over it. The bottom of the straw has a screen that keeps you from drinking the Mate leaves. It´s passed around and more and more of the leaves and sugar are added to keep it strong. It´s a really neat custom.

Last night we went to the weekend home of Hector and Olga where we had asado, a cookout with lots of meat and potatoes. It was wonderful to sit around a large table with many people and eat wonderful food.

I am understanding more and more Spanish and getting a little better at speaking it. I know that if I have learned this much in 3 days, everything will be great.

This morning I didn´t hear the alarm clock, so Marco woke me up. I was talked to Marco after my shower about the weather and was going back to my room. I knew I was running a little late since I missed my alarm, but he called after me and said, ¨Tiffany ... Run!¨ I guess he doesn´t know how to say hurry, but it made me laugh so much. He is great. I will be sad to leave this family tomorrow.