So, we left off at 29th when I had the trip to Cachon de la Rubia. The next day, I went over to Naco and spent the day with a friend from AFS, Maja. It was really great to see her again, just hang out a friend's house and catch up and relax like I would back home. We went out and caught a film together, and it was really nice just to unwind for a bit in a way that I hadn't really got the chance to before.

The next week at school was fairly uneventful. We had an art project in which we had to make some sort of clay sculpture, which lead to me spending hours trying to make some sort of anything out of clay, getting it all up my arms and at various points almost losing faith completely. But, I persevered, and by the end of it I had produced the mushroom shown in the photo for this post.
The next day in school was a trip for my class and the class above, but it was one that I didn't go on; it was about universities and so wasn't really at all relevant to me, and despite having considered going I asked about and apparently there would be a fair few other people from various classes not going, so I decided to stay back with some others. That was kind of a good plan, until it came to the day and (after everyone setting their clay artwork out on a display) the people who had previously said they weren't going seemed to have changed their minds and decided to go. In the end, only me and one other girl in my class stayed behind, but it was still a really nice day because Katharine and I just hung out, chatting with the teachers and various students and all of it was in Spanish, so it was nice to see how far my general conversation skills had come, and of course I spent half the day reading Harry Potter y la Piedra Filosofal which I'm actually getting on with pretty well when I put my mind to it.

I had a really nice, relaxed weekend, a fair bit of it was spent up on the roof of my building, which I recently discovered is a lovely place to go and listen to music and drink coffee. I was having a bit of a shopping spree with Jenny and Evelyn on Saturday, and bought myself a t-shirt which is both adorable and a wonderful play on words, that refers to a bit of Dominican slang, and I find it really cool that I, Jasmine Bown, am officially Dominican enough to get why this t-shirt is hilarious! That Sunday was the birthday of one of my grandmothers, so we had a nice family get-together with some lovely barbeque food and cake and just a generally nice time.

So in short, the end of October and start of November was, in general, a VERY lovely, relaxed and a nice time for me. Everything has happily settled into a nice routine, I even watch Criminal Minds every evening just like I did at home, and although I do still miss everyone terribly it's nice to just feel normal through it all. I hope this makes up for the lack of posting recently! I'll post again soon and try to get you completely caught up. Until then, my love to you all!

- Jazzy x