Let's All Go to the Movies

I kept busy this weekend, and since it was my last weekend before the vacation ended, I tried to enjoy myself, especially after being sick all week. On Saturday afternoon I was walking around the center and when I was walking out of a movie store I ran into my friend Claire who was on her way to meet our other friend Annie. We sat in a park for a while talking and then eventually Annie and I agreed to see a movie that night.

We went down to Millennium Plaza, a mall not too far away from my house that I've only been to once, and saw "Valkyrie," with Tom Cruise. I thought it was a pretty good movie, but was also just excited to be in a movie theater. It was the first time I'd seen a movie at a theater since leaving the United States, and I was surprised by the quality of the place. Granted, it wasn't as nice as the theater back home, but it had stadium seating and popcorn at the food stand.

Along the walls I saw posters of all the movies I hadn't heard of, and took in all the previews of movies to come. It was exciting, like being a child at the movies. Unlike in the States where you can go into a movie an hour before, we weren't allowed into the theater until about 5 minutes before the movie was supposed to start. I guess they don't want freeloaders.

Once the movie was over my student called and invited me to come to a dance club, and though I didn't want to go dancing, I went to say hi to her. We talked outside for a while until she finally guilted me into going inside and paid the cover charge. We wound up staying until closing time at 2 a.m.

The next day my host sister invited me to go see a movie with them at Millennium Plaza, so for the second time in two days I went to the movies. This time we saw "Watchmen," only we were not happy with the movie. It was very long, over two and a half hours, and it didn't seem to have much of a plot. We were all pretty confused by it and agreed that the best part of the movie was when a child in the row in front of us yelled out, "He's naked!" when a character wasn't wearing pants.

After the awful movie we were so frazzled that we needed a beer, so we went to an open place on Calle Larga and got a couple of rounds before heading home. It was a good weekend, and unfortunately I now have to get back to reality and become a teacher again.

Things are already shaping up to be a bit of a mess for this semester, and it's been so long since the last class, I just hope I haven't forgotten what to do. I've been given a new class with adults, yet I haven't been given the book yet. It's also an hour later at night now, which means I'll have to kill more time during the day and walk home later at night. I don't even know what the class is about yet. As for the other class, I was given the wrong book, so I wasn't able to plan anything. This means that I'm walking in on the first day with nothing to teach. So basically, it's going to be a typical disaster. It will definitely be a long day.