stars shinin' bright above me

no work today! it was a proper weekend. or first half of one. this morning i slept late, went to latini's for lunch and did my lesson plans. had a panini and an espresso ice cream. this time they gave me two scoops of ice cream. on my way out, the owner? asked if i was from canada since most of the foreigners are, i told him no i'm from texas. i don't know why but i didn't stick around to chat any more than that. latini's is another place that it's easy to be in 'the now'. the music is relaxing, it smells like baking bread and pasta sauce, and they have mint water. i could live there. i kind of do. i've been there 4 times this week.

then dena and i went into town to try to find shirts for jeff and matt. we found one that was very funny, almost as funny as reaax your vilace, but it had a girly v-neck so i didn't buy it. i did buy a delicious jasmine tea from this tea place, and i introduced dena to those pancake things i love. i didn't buy myself anything all day which was a miracle since they have a ton of sparkley things i thought i might need.

i got a ride home with keith because he was teaching downtown. he mentioned that he was going to yoga so i asked if i could tag along. everyone here goes to this gym in a mall called thai mall that's way far away. 20 minutes on the scooter. we park in a parking garage full of thousands of scooters and then go in the doors and i look inside and it's like.. a night club full of mirrors and neon lights and rope lights, but it was the gym. you walk into a room full of all sorts of exercise machines and it has glass on the far wall so you can look downtstairs where there was a whole skating rink, basketball courts, what looked like skating ramps, and a whole bunch of other things. the "yoga studio" was elevated like 2 feet from the first room, enclosed in glass so everyone could look in, and decked out in neon. it was the most bizarre place i've ever done yoga. and it was taught in chinese. my previous yoga knowledge kept me afloat, but i'm so out of shape after not having done anything in a month that my body is really feeling tired tonight. anyway i'm going to try to find a real yoga studio that's closer to home to go to before i sign up for the pricey night club/gym membership.

then we went home and he was going to carrefour and i had nothing to do so i went too. he showed me a secret passage way to get there that i'm going to use from now on. it's basically a 2 foot wide alley that runs between apartment buildings. it probably saves you 5 minutes of walking. anyway i bought a million things that i think jeff and matt neeeeed, and a few things for myself. cous cous, andes mints, and a cute teeny tiny new khaki Lohas bag. it was jam packed full of people in there on saturday night. i've never seen so many people. it was crazy. we shopped quickly and got mint chocolate chip ice cream in waffle cones to eat on the way home and i think i'm going to get one every time i go to carrefour from now on. it was so good.

i just made some cous cous, which i didn't like at home but i get cravings for it here, and now i'm headed to bed.

news from home:
-matt got hired at this burger place called mighty fine
-pierre, my friend marisa's dad, who went to ballet with us on saturdays, got hit by a van when he was on his bike and has neck and spine injuries but is mentally fine. if you could send positive his thoughts his way, that would be lovely.
-stacy schwab got married last weekend