It feels like home...

Bravo if you know where I got the title of this post. :)
Short little blurb today! ...tonight! I had physical therapy today, which is usually an 'eh' experiance by virtue of the fact that I'm put in a seperate room and leave with minimal results. However, today I got to start out in the main room...with 3 elders from the MTC (it's right down the street)!
Before we go any further, I would like to establish the fact that I wasn't excited because they were elders. I'm not boy-crazy! No, I was just happy because they were all jabbering away and heckling each other in Spanish. :) I had no idea what they were saying, but they were all just grinning and laughing so much you had to laugh with them! 'Sides, what with all the Hispanic kids in the stake - Mexican, Brazilian, Columbian, Venezualian, Guatemalan, Puerto Rican - being surrounded by Spanish felt like home! Hence the title. ;D I may not have known what they were saying, but I'm so used to the cadence and rythm of the language that I couldn't help but be happy!
I got to talk to 2 of them, while I was sitting on one of the big stretching tables (that sounds like a torture device...it's really just a low table where you can do some of the larger stretches) on a hotpack, since they had run out of private rooms for the time being and had nowhere else to put me. One of them was this short(er) black kid from the Dominican Republic whom the other 2 called 'my little chocolate.' (In Spanish, of course...something like 'mi chocolita,' or something). :)
The other was a bigger white kid from Ecudor, who kept complaining that he'd 'grown up' (gained) 8 pounds at the MTC. They were just there with their friend - I didn't catch where he was from - who was actually injured: he'd done something to his knee tendons playing soccer and his hamstring was crazy tight.
They were really friendly and didn't let the conversation drop awkwardly or anything. They started talking to me (in English, thank goodness :) ), and it turns out the Ecudorian kid had taken French in school, so we spoke French a bit! He had a bit of a Spanish accent to it, but I've heard worse. :) They were asking me how long I'd lived in Provo, if I was going on a mission...finally I told them that I was only 18 and the Dominican kid (literally!) fell over on his face! I'm not sure why...I asked him if I looked older and he said no, and I still don't really get what happened...but it was funny! But I told them I was planning on going on a mission when I was 21 (they didn't know the age for girls) and I got their stamp of approval. :) I felt cool. :)
At one point the Dominican kid started doing fancy push-ups, and the other two started yelling 'dos! dos!' to try and make him lose count. Oh, and they tried to push him over. :)
Overall, fun times! I love Hispanic people: they're so friendly and nice and not-awkward (well...most of the time). It made me miss weekday mornings, listening to Rudy and Juan Pablo chatting in Spanish and Brother/Bishop Hogan translating his testimony into Spanish...and Raquel sassing me for wasting food on Breakfast Fridays. :) I'm wondering if I should just suck it up and take Spanish: I feel like I'm kinda obligated, just cuz so many people I know speak it. (I told Liz - my roommate - and she just gave me a look. She IS obligated: her Dad's whole side is from Uruguay!!!)

OK, Mormon encyclopedia time!
MTC: Missionary Training Center (yes, the Church loves its acronyms)
Elders: men who have reached a certain level in the church become elders: you become an elder at the age of 18, then go on a mission at 19 (for boys). Thus, missionaries are refered to as 'Elder.'
Stake: a geographical area. A ward is a smaller unit, usually 3-5 towns (back East) which go to the same building for church meetings. A stake is a bunch of these wards put together.
Seminary: I jabbered enough about it that I think you know what it is, but just in case: it's religion school, only at 6 in the morning. :) It's the best part of the day! You go every weekday for your 4 years in high school.
I think I got it all, but let me know if I missed something. Being here at BYU means you use church lingo without a second thought... :)