Look Ma - I'm a lawya!

Its started. The feeding.

When I lived in Spain I basically spent the whole time eating. Anyone who knows me knows that I like to eat - a lot. But this kind of food intake is beyond even me. It is pushed on you by kindly older women - "Are you sure you don't want some pasteles?" - in a way that you cannot refuse. Tonight for dinner I ended up with carrot cake, split pea soup, some sort of eggplant dish, meat and potatoes, tortillas, rice, and a lovely after dinner tea. It was an amazing assortment and Eugenia seemed slightly insulted that I didn't eat every bite of every dish. She is very concerned with my weight and wants me to eat as much as possible - but if I do, and I gain 10 lbs, I will surely hear about that too. I still remember the day when my Spanish house-mother (Purificacion Palma Sanchez - I love her name, it rolls off the tongue) told me I'd fattened up while I was living there. I wasn't sure if it was an insult or a compliment to her homemaking skills.

This time I will just have to go running - I miss it anyway, since people won't let me leave the house unescorted because I'm an extranjera and it is not safe. But there is a gated community pretty near by, so I figure if I can make it a few blocks over without being mugged I should be good.

My spanish is improving drastically in a very short amount of time though, and I'm really excited about it. Today at lunch my new friend Ligia (25 year old lawyer) and I decided to exchange spanish and english lessons. It is mutually agreed that if we stay in one language too long the other person will change it up. Then I get thrown right over the language barrier when I get home because Eugenia and Raul, the other border here who is getting his Phd in architecture, talk so incredibly fast. I fully expect neck pain from the whiplash endured while following their conversations. Today I began zoning out until Eugenia started talking about finding a giant snake in one of Raul's coats. It turned out to be a dream she had - one in which she also ended up talking with Jesus. She blames bad pillows.

I have no idea what I'm going to end up doing at work... firms here aren't like at home. Everybody does almost every type of law. I got in a bit of an argument today about sustainable development with one of the partners. Or a very polite disagreement; its hard to say when you aren't speaking your native tongue. Tomorrow I'm reading over contracts for a stock purchase from Con Edison worth 50,000,000. I cannot imagine that kind of money, so I better not mess things up.