a grandmother, a muslim and spanish night life

(this is my Spanish class: 3 girls from Holland, one guy from France, one girl from Lithuania, and me and Mike.)

So when I was in Loja one day I went over to one of my roommates house with a bunch of their friends. We were all hanging out with her grandmother. Her grandmother is soo old, she was sitting at the table in a rocking chair all covered up with blankets. When they introduced me to her they said, "this is molly" (the way they pronounce my name sounds like "moo-lly"). The grandmother was like "what?" and they said, "moo-lly!" and I was saying, "molly, molly" (the correct pronunciation... although I've started introducing myself as "moo-ly" now because everyone always says what? and then the person introducing me says, "moo-ly" and the person I'm meeting says, "aaahhh moo-ly!" ) The grandmother could not understand how to say my name and kept saying "what?" and everyone kept saying my name louder. So I said, "un momento" and I wrote my name down on a napkin and held it up right in front of her face. And everyone busted out laughing and they said, "Molly, she's blind!"

The other day I was sitting in the park and this guy walked up to me and said in Spanish, "are you English?" and I said, "yes! I'm from America" hahaha I understood do you speak English... Anyways he said he just moved here from Jordan and was anxious to meet friends. He told me he was a Muslim and I told him I was really interested to learn more about Islam and he said he was interested to learn more about Christianity. He ended up coming to an English worship service we were having that night (he speaks english). I think he is really connecting with some of the guys here!

Yesterday evening when I got home from the grocery store my roommate was like, "hey molly do you want to come to a suprise party me and my friends are throwing right now?" So I went to this party at 6:00 on sat. evening (it kind of reminded me of the parties we used to throw in college). Later that evening we came home for an hour and got ready to go out. I am learning a lot about the Spanish night life, im learning that it lasts ALL night and requires endurance. I have to mentally prepare for it all day..... SO we leave the apt at 10:30 and meet up with a huge group of their friends. We hung out at this one bar until 4. It was great practice for my Spanish, but thinking and talking in loud Spanish for extended periods of time really makes me tired. SO at 4:30 we went to get food and at 5 arrived at the discoteca. We danced until 7:00 in the morning. The sun was rising on our walk home. It was so fun to connect with their friends and get to know them. I went to bed at 8:45 sunday morning. That was 14 hours of "fiesta". It was a very cultural experience and even though I was tired and drenched in the smell of smoke... I really enjoyed myself and the people who took the time to reach out to me and listen in patience to my broken Spainish and really tried to help me. One of the friends made sure that no one would allow me say a word of English. So many of them talk slow for me and would explain things in a number of ways until I could understand. I am so thankful for the way my roommates have been including me and letting me become a part of their lives. Even with the lack of language, I feel welcomed and more connected as I am settling in here!

When people ask where I am from sometimes I say North Carolina and other times I say Memphis. I get two different reactions for both. When I say Norht Carolina everyone says "ohh ok" and I say do you know where that is and they say no. When I say Memphis everyone says "aahhhh! Paul Gasol" Apparently he is really famous here, maybe there too? He is a Spaniard who plays basketball for the Memphis Grizzlies. I don't know much about sports, but I love how excited everyone gets about Memphis! Now when I introduce myself I say "my name is moo-ly. I am from Memphis (mem-fees)". And when they get all excited about this basket ball player guy I just act like "of course I know who he is!... I am from Mem-fees!"