Another Great Weekend!

Hey Everyone! It is your favorite international daredevil Melissa. I hope all is well with you all as you begin this blog entry. I just wanted to inform all of you of my latest whereabouts. For starters, it is Sunday, July 2nd, about 8:30pm. We've just finished our dinner (surprise...it was curry!) and now we are all just laying around relaxing and getting ready for school tomorrow. This weekend we had another great outing. Yesterday, after our Saturday school session, we spent the day with everyone's favorite Sri Lankan Brother: Bro. Augustine. It was so much fun!!! He took us out to lunch at this Greek Restaurant and then he took us to buy some fish, for we were going to be having dinner at his sister's house. So after lunch, we bought our dinner (and got to watch the fish butcher slice and dice the fish into pieces. Some blood from the fish had gotten on my leg--it was pretty cool!) and headed to Bro. Augie's (only cool people like me are allowed to call him this) sister's house. We hung out on the front lawn and ate some "tasty" (I'm using the Sri Lankan lingo) Sri Lankan fruits and drank some tea as we all became acquainted with one another. But then Bro. Augie's sister was going to start preparing dinner, so we drove to this lake house place where one could ride in a canoe across the lake. Unfortunately, we didn't get to ride in the canoe because canoe rides were no longer allowed. But we did manage to see a lot of farm animals, hang out by a lake, and take a walk along the beach. It was all really beautiful.
After our short outing, we went back to Bro. Augie's sister's house. While we were waiting for dinner, we hung out outside on the lawn and laughed, drank Arak (strong Sri Lankan Whiskey), told stories, told jokes, and learned songs (in various languages such as: Sinhalese, Spanish, and French). It was the greatest time--a type of event you wish you can do over and over again. We all really had a good time. Dinner was excellent and the company was incredible (hint: Bro. Augie's very attractive former student joined us)!

Today was another fun day. Ravi, one of the "Old Boys"(St. Benedict's College Alum), (and the nicest man ever) picked us up and took us to the beach. The beach is also the site of his hotel. He owns two hotels and so today we passed the day in his hotel with his family. We met and spent the day with his mother, father, wife, and two children. It was nice. We layed on the beach, played in the pool, and drank lime juice all day. We also had this fantastic brunch!! Seafood everywhere! Well, at least for me--I ate up all of the shrimps (they call them prawns, but I call them Good) and crabs. I felt like Homer Simpson when he ate at the "All-You-Can-Eat" Restaurants. It was so good. After fun in the sun (P.S. I got darker), Ravi drove us home. So, all in all, this weekend was goooooooooood.

Until the next episode...


P.S. The following message is for all those individuals who are worried about me due to the writings on the blog:
I am Okay. I do miss home but I'm having a great time in Sri Lanka. Do not take my blogs so seriously because I don't. I like to have a sense of humor in the face of danger: teaching is a very dangerous job, but it's worth it. It's even more dangerous than those crazy Tamil Tigers.