Day 4 - Conversations and a Visit to the Mall

I am still in Barranquilla and will continue to be here for a while. (Although, in reality, I have no idea what is going to happen when. I seriously find out the day before. But I think that we're not going to visit any other city until at least a week from now.) Since we didn't have to go to class today, today was a day of rest. I spent the day talking/spending time with my host family. When my host father came home from work, my two host brothers and I went to the mall. The mall is really really big and one of the nicest malls I've ever seen. There was a good amount of American stores such as Payless Shoe Store and some others that I forget, haha. Later, when we picked up Shari, my host sister, she said that most people go to Forever 21 here. I'm not completely sure how big the mall is since we didn't walk around all of it, but there are two buildings that are the same size and are connected by a bridge. The first building had 4 levels of floors and I think there were at least 3 levels of parking underneath.

I don't remember seeing too many levels in the second building, but the second building is where the movie theater is located. I think there was also another level in that building that had food but I don't quite remember. I noticed that they had a 4D theater where the seat move, you can feel a breeze, sometimes there is water, etc. In the US, I have only seen these types of theaters in theme parks like Disneyland, but they have one in their mall! We also made a stop at Juan Valdez, the Colombian version of Starbucks, once again. I ended up getting the same thing as last time although it seemed like what they ordered was different that what I asked for when I was by myself ordering in Cartagena. This time, it seemed like it was called an arequipa granizado frappé. I ran into several other people on the trip at Juan Valdez. I also noticed that when we were entering the mall from the undergrown parking garage, there was a moving ramp instead of an escalator. In the US, I've never seen a moving ramp. We have flat planes that move, but I've only seen those in airports. They also had a flat plane that moved in the bridge that connected the two buildings. I don't really understand the necessity of a moving ramp instead of an escalator especially since I believe there was an elevator that went to the parking garage levels as well. After we went to the mall, we stopped at Price Smart, where my host mom works. It's basically a Costco and it has pretty much everything that costco has, with the addition of things that are popular here, like yuca. I only took one picture today, which is the one above of the mall, Playa Vista. I'll have more pictures of tomorrow since we actually have class tomorrow, though it's a Saturday!

During the conversations with my host family, they like to throw in some English every once in a while or ask how to say what I said in Spanish in English. They keep trying to ask me which of them speaks the best English! :P ..and I've tried to help them with their pronunciation. I taught Davíd Junior, my host brother, the concept of American pickup lines and examples of them. Now, he has memorized some pickup lines in English! :P Earlier, they also asked me about "rednecks" and "biker gang" type people. My host father was also telling me that children become way more independent in the United States. It seems like children here stay in the house and depend on their parents for way longer than Americans do. That's just so weird to me since I currently basically live completely on my own. I get some help from my parents every so often, but my tuition, my bills, my food etc. is all paid out of my own pocket. I wish I could still live with my parents and not have to pay for any of that!!