Lazy Day

Today was weird, period.

Me and my sister had planned to spend today recovering from the last few mornigs we had to spend waking up early. So we slept in late enough for me to feel guilty. We had planned for this to be a sort of baking day and refilling. I managed to use up all the memory on the SD card of both my camera and my sisters. I find that a bit scary, goes to show you just how much of a tourist I`m being. My sister and I also wanted to make some goodies as a sort of thank you to our host family for taking care of us in this strange land. Of course, though, we had to plan to do this on a Sunday.
All the stores were closed. I can see why, it being a church day and all but it was just WEIRD. Back home only some stores close and usually the smaller ones, not ALL of them! We didn`t know what to do with ourselves! We did a bit of laundry, my sister finished the last of the books she brought with her (and has resigned to the curse of boredom as such), we went to the creek that runs next to the house we`re staying in and got drenched by some boys who were tossing buckets of water on the unfortunate  passerby not to mention sink to our knees in mud at the creek. That part was fun, as strange as it sounds. I was wading through the creek when my sister (who had gone ahead of me) comes up to me shaking in fear and sandleless telling me that she just escaped from the cold grasp of the river. Looking at her I could see the pant leg of her right leg was caked with mud up to her knee and that she carried only one sandle in her hand. So of course I laughed at her, saying it couldn`t be that bad. Being the good sister that I was, I told her I would find her other sandle. According to her, it was lost deep in the mud somewhere, she didn`t know where she was so scared that she didn`t notice when it fell off. So I follow her to the bank and watch in amusment as she prodded the earth in front of her carefully each time before she took a step. Eventually I just pushed her aside, heading where I could see a footprint she had left in  the mud.
I will never admit this to her, but I nearly had a heart attack. No sooner did I take that step that I plunged straight into the mud, a foot away from the actual creek. I felt my heart in my throat but I plastered a grin on my face. My mind went to accounts of quicksand and the adventurous stories I read of the main characters who almost met their demise in such a way. I went to try to get that foot out when my other foot sank in the mud to meet it. I was completely cemented, knee-deep in mud that would not release me. I laid myself out over the mud, trying to work myself loose and learned how my sister lost her sandle. My own sandles were weighing me down, making it nearly impossible to drag my feet out of the muck. I say nearly because I ended up dragging myself out through brute force. The whole time, of course, I`m laughing at my sister and asking how she could have possibly been scared with something to entertaining.
Eventually I realize that you could only sink so far in the mud, there was a sort of floor underneath created by layers of packed clay that prevented me from sinking farthur. By then I had also given my sister my sandless so the murk didn`t have anything to hold me by. I also found my sisters shoe, by the way. My arms could reach deep enough so I ended up just stepping in her footsteps which eventually lead to me stepping onto her shoe, heavily caked with the mud/clay.

We also learned a different to make Mac`n Cheese today. Unlike using the powder mix that we are so used to in America, we literally melted cheese and cream to coated boiled noodles. The result was...interesting, to say the least. The cheese cooled on the noodles before we could mix it properly and so we had cheese clumps and noodles.

All in all, we are very recovered.

Till next!
Alex and Jesse