October 6th, 2006: Hooray for Personal Day!

• Wake nice and late!
• Walk to post office to send home some souvenirs and extra baggage: Imagine trying to communicate that you wish to send a package, by sea, to your home in the United States to someone who does not speak the same language as you. This was a fantastic adventure. Thankfully I had already prepared some phrases, but there was a lot of hand movements and sounds involved as well. The only snafu was when she needed me to place my name down as both the sender and the receiver. I REALLY did not understand, so I had to call my host mother (thankfully she loaned her cell phone to us). Nevertheless, my stuff should hopefully be on its way home now.
• To the Mall, Wouter!
• Dinner: Tonight we had dinner with a family friend who is currently in high school. Sweet girl. She spoke a little English. Most of the entertainment came from the children who appeared to come to life tonight (I believe they are extremely shy). They began playing around with their mother’s translation computer. As I heard the English phrases, I began acting them out. The kids got a big kick out of this and it’s probably the second time that they’ve really had a form of “conversation” with Wouter and me. Hopefully there will be more “talking” tomorrow.
• Moon Festival