Caramelo?

After 6 months and some of living in Venezuela, what happens when someone offers you a piece of candy is still weird to me.

The conversation usually goes as follows:

¿Quieres un caramelo?,

They say (do you want a piece of candy?)

Sure! Thanks!

you reply enthusiastically, thinking that you will receive a delicious sucker or maybe a jolly rancher or something...

And then they reach into their pocket and pull out a thing of Halls cough drops. They hand you a sticky menthol lozenge, and you take it begrudgingly, and have to eat it to not appear ungrateful...

Everyone eats cough drops like candy. They may eat and entire package of cherry cough drops within an hour just because they like them. Once again, the strange things that happen here in Venezuela.

I need help.

An excerpt from one of my students´ exams:

I have a problem. I don´t know what to write in this paper, I shouldn´t have thought about my girlsfriend, I could have studied more english because I sure that I don´t know nothing about english. I need help.

At least he was honest. The funny part is that I´m not sure he bothered to ask the girl who was dictating an answer to him WHAT exactly his answer might mean. Hilarity continues in Valera.

Sorry I have been MIA for a while. My plan is to start writing again soon. It´s just a testament to how busy I have gotten here, I swear. My mom and step-dad come tomorrow, so I am sure there will be many tales to tell about that adventure. :) Later, dudes.