Stereotypes 18/04

Gladys had us come into class an hour and a half early so that we could get a major chunk of our presentations done.  So we were in class watching presentations for three hours! It was a lot but most peoples are really interesting so it was ok.  When class was finally over it was a nice surprise to find out that Puri wasn't going to be home so she left lunch for us.  That means eating lunch earlier! Yumi and I actually ate for an hour together and had wonderful conversation.  I love speaking with her because we both practice our spanish without fear of messing up (we are at the same level) and we talk about interesting things.  I was asking her questions about Japan and then somehow we ended up talking about stereotypes.  She said she was surprised when she met me and found out I was an American because I didn't fit the stereotype.  She said she and others think of Americans as eating burgers, drinking/carrying around 2liter bottles of soda, wearing sloppy jeans and t-shirts, not caring about their clothes, and fat.  Pretty standard stereotypes but I was glad to share with her that not everyone is like that.  And it was nice to know that me being me helped break negative stereotypes of the US.  All of the stereotypes I listed about Japan, Yumi confirmed were indeed true which was funny! I said that Japanese girls dress very nicely, eating a lot of rice, you can always smell Japanese food, smart, good at math, etc.  She was pretty much just like "yep, that's about right". It was a great time. After that I had to head back to my LAST ART CLASS (with lecture). We learned about Picasso, Miro, and Dali which was actually really interesting. After art we stayed to practice our presentation that is tomorrow on Barcelona.  It went well and then I chatted with Tara and Katelin until it was pretty late and we decided to head home.  I had my last awkward dinner with the french girls, took a couple pictures with them (for their homework), and then got a chance to chat with Puri while she was doing dishes.  We had a nice chat and now it is time for bed!