my poor parents

Umm. Alright. So, my parents are supposed to be here. They were actually supposed to be here at 2:35 this afternoon. I waited for them to get in, oh-so-patiently. I even figured out the "system" of announcing flights at the Merida airport - I say "system" in quotes because there is no system. There are no monitors. If you want to know if a flight has arrived or is arriving, you either watch the sky to see if it's coming in or you have to ask an airline representative. Otherwise, ya just stand around and wait.

Anyway, like I said, my parents are supposed to be here right now. I don't know where they are.

After waiting for a while, around 3 I asked someone if their flight from Caracas had been delayed, and sure enough, it had been. They told me it would probably arrive around 4:30. I waited and waited some more, and meanwhile, the valley Merida sits in got foggier and foggier. 4:30 rolled around, I looked to the sky, no plane. 4:45 there came an announcement. (My God, an announcement! That's a step up.) The announcement basically said that, due to the fog, all flights had been redirected to the airport in El Vigia, 45 minutes away. The airline told me my parents flight would have been redirected there as well. Great.

Since my Spanish-speaking abilities and my level of stress have a direct correlation (in other words, the Spanish part of my brain doesn't work when I'm freaking out like this!), I ran down the street to school to get help from Astrid, the study abroad director. She called the airport in El Vigia, and they said no flights had come in yet, but to keep calling back. Now I'm just waiting around until Astrid calls again.

As far as I know, all this means my parents are still in Caracas, but I have no way of knowing that for sure. They also have no real way of getting a hold of me to tell me where they are. They have my homestay family's phone number, but as my homestay family doesn't speak English and my parents certainly don't speak Spanish, a lot of good that does when I'm not there.

I'm sure this will all get figured out and that my parents are fine. I hope that they aren't terribly worried because I'm doing enough worrying for all three of us. Probably end up prematurely gray. I'd just feel so much better if I knew where my monolingual, very gringo-looking parents were...

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Hope you are all safe and warm, enjoying the holiday with your families.

I'm missing my family a little bit today, though I know I will see my mom and Mike tomorrow afternoon. It just doesn't feel much like Thanksgiving here today at all because Venezuelans don't celebrate it, of course, so it's just another normal day here.

I had a Venezuelan-style potluck dinner with the other American students and some of our host families. There was no turkey, no stuffing, but plenty of chicken and rice, and fried plantains. Thanksgiving just isn't Thanksgiving without fried plantains. Actually, it was a nice break from tradition, in a lot of ways. The only thing I really missed (other than my family) were the pies. Venezuela suffers from a lack of pie. Very sad. Here is my mission for you all: eat some pie for me, whatever kind it may be - pumpkin, pecan, apple, lemon meringue, no matter! And please, do me the favor of getting so uncomfortably full that you can't imagine eating for the next 48 hours. That's what Thanksgiving is all about.

Home in a week and a half!

Yay! Hooray! Go me!

Three 10-page papers, one 6-page paper, and one lonely 4-pager later, it's all done. All five of my papers are completed, turned in, out of sight and out of mind, WHEW! and I'm nearly done with classes altogether. It doesn't seem quite possible, but somehow, it's true.

You know what else doesn't seem possible? I've been in Venezuela for over three months now and I'm going back home again in two weeks. That just can't be. It's gone by so quickly. Three months ago I was crammed into an 18-seat plane with a bunch of other adventurous Americans, cruising over the Caribbean sea, wathcing the sunset over the water and wondering what on earth I was doing and what the next few months were going to bring. And now I know. At least, sort of, because I still haven't stopped wondering - if Venezuela is anything, it's full of surprises.

And now it's almost time to go home and who knows what surprises await me there... things like PEANUT BUTTER and a washing maching with a SPIN CYCLE. Have I ever mentioned how the spin cycle on my homestay family's washing machine doesn't work? And I have to wring out all my clothes before I can hang them out to dry? Only to have them get rained on anyway? Yeah, I'm looking forward to doing laundry when I get home.

Anyway, more on what I'm looking forward to when I go home and what I'll miss about here next time I write. My parents will be here in four days!

can't make any promises

This past weekend I made my second and last 12-hour overnight bus trip to go to the beach. This time, 'twas Anna, Stephanie, Sara, and Megan, so we didn't have to deal so much with the stress of keeping a large group of people happy. We went to a place called Chichiriviche, which is Spanish for the place of teal water and islands covered in white sand and palm trees. Actually, I have no idea what it means but that's probably not far off the mark. It was a pretty nice time, except for having a mysterious illness that left me incapable of doing anything except sleeping and watching television in my hotel room on Saturday, while my friends all went off to another lovely little island to enjoy the Caribbean.

The next couple weeks I will spend working on my five term papers that are all due very, very soon. I've been feeling a little stressed out about it, even though I know I will get everything done without much trouble. But at the same time, there's all this other, end of my time in Venezuela stuff that I want to be doing, like hanging out with the friends I've made here, many of whom live in Minnesota and I can see them if I want, but some of them (one in particular!) lives in Sweden and though I would like to make a trip there sometime, it's probably going to be a while. Not to mention my Venezuelan friends, who knows if I will see them again.

A lot of people are away this weekend at various beaches, so I'm hoping I can use this time to get the majority of my work done. My last day of classes is November 25th (Thanksgiving) and then the next day, my parents are coming here! To Venezuela! To see me! And I get to be their tour guide. I'm pretty excited. And then I'm going home! Wahoo! Anyway, what with the endless paper-writing, I can't promise there will be a lot of blogging. Hope everyone is doing well.

sin agua, otra vez

Sunday morning, my host mom went to turn on the kitchen faucet and the noise of the pipes trying to puke out water was quite audible. My mom and I watched in shock as the sink gave out enough slightly brownish water to fill a glass, and then the pipes gave a horrible death groan and the faucet SHUDDERED and then all was quiet. No more water came out. Not like we were going to use the poopy water anyway, but it's the principle of the thing, people.

So my house is without water, AGAIN. For who knows how long. We actually didn't have to go 7 days without water, because it came back on again last Tuesday evening and it seemed for good. And there was much rejoicing in La Quinta Froilana°, by Americans and Jehovah's Witnesses alike! Oh, but the rejoicing commenced too soon.

This time we don't even have an estimate of how long it will be off, because apparently a pipe ruptured somewhere and it could be a week before it's fixed! Trying to take it in stride is not working for me right now because I HAVE NOT SHOWERED SINCE SATURDAY MORNING. I'm actually skipping class this afternoon so I can take a shower at someone else's house. I'm just hoping my professor will understand because I'm also doing it for the sake of everyone around me. It's not pretty.

°"La Quinta Froilana" is the name of the house I live in. It's actually an official part of the address! How many people can say they've lived in a house with a name? How cool am I?

the AMAZING trip

Here it is, Halloween night, and there is not a thing going on this city. Movie theaters are closed, bars are closed, restaurants are closed, everything is closed, all because of the election. Well, everything except for this little whole in the wall internet cafe Steph and I found in the neighborhood we used to live in, where we ran into two other bored Americans we know, also lured out of their homes after spending the entire day indoors due to the torrential downpour and the fact that nothing is open.

So, about my AMAZING trip - I don't think I've mentioned yet that I went on an amazing trip. Along with my friends Anna, Brigid and Erin, I went to Lake Maracaibo, which is about a three hours drive away. We went with a local travel agency in town that does adventure tours, so we had a guide and went in a jeep and had all our meals provided, etc. As I said the other day, our guide, Cesar, was the coolest. He really made the trip; he was knowledgeable and funny and just a cool guy to hang with. There was a middle-aged biology teacher from L.A. with us, traveling around South America on her own. We had a really good group.

We started out on Friday by making some stops at some "cultural sites" - we went to a sugar cane factory and a coffee plantation, which was really cool. I learned that coffee beans grow in berries, which makes sense but I never realized it before. We also visited a xerophytic forest, where there were cacti growing so tall that they had bark around their trunks and moss growing on them and plenty of tarantulas hiding in holes in the ground. We also stopped for lunch in a little village in the mountains, where we "investigated" a whole in the wall bar with its own little "disco," which just shows that even tiny Andean mountain villages have some sort of nightlife.

After that, we drove to the lake and for the first time since I've been in Venezuela, there were no mountains in site. Eventually we got to the port town and met up with our boat guy, Eddy. We loaded up the boat and headed out on the channels that lead to the lake, and we saw tons of red howler monkeys in the trees, and birds and even some iguanas that Eddy spotted from the boat while it was speeding down the middle of the river. That night we stayed in a house on stilts on the lake (literally ON THE LAKE - we had to take the boat to get there). We had an awesome dinner of fish and crabs and grilled vegetables and the park ranger who lived in the house told me all about the National Parks of Venezuela (did you know Venezuela has the most national parks of any country in the world?).

After dinner, around 9 pm or so, we went back out on the boat again, with flashlights, LOOKING FOR CROCODILES, and oh, did we find crocodiles. We had to shine our lights out across the water of the river, looking for a flash of red in the dark - the red was the eye of a crocodile. Then the boat guy would just shine his light directly into their eyes, blinding them, until we were close enough where our guide could grab them out of the water. We only saw little ones, one or two years old, but it was still pretty awesome. Cesar, being a herpitologist and all, taught us all about each one he caught. We also saw some snakes, and our guide pulled a boa constrictor out of a tree for us to look at. After spending the night in a hammock open to the breeze, we went out in the boat the next morning, and saw dolphins and fishermen bringing in nets of crabs and catfish, and plenty more birds. And on the ride home, we saw a guy with an American crocodile he had caught, selling it on the side of the road, and our guide bought it for about 50.000 Bolivares (roughly the equivalent of $25) and we took it back to Merida in the jeep with us in the cooler! I rode in a car for two hours with a crocodile!

My main interest in going on this trip was to see this thing called the Catatumbo Lightning Phenomenon. It's "eternal" lightning that happens approximately 300 days of the year, without clouds, without rain, and without the accompanying thunder. This phenomenon occurs nowhere else in the world and there is no solid explanation for why it happens. But... because of rainy season, I didn't really get to see much of the lightning, only a little bit at night when I was drifting to sleep in my hammock. Ironic that the lightning wouldn't be visible because of rainy season...

Anyway, that was a long story and I even tried to keep it brief! Looking back on it a week later, I still can't believe that I was there and did those things... I wasn't exaggerating when I said it was amazing, all caps. It really was an incredible experience.

Tomorrow is the first day of November, which marks the beginning of my last month or so here in Venezuela! Oh me oh my!

pictures

Since I don't have a digital camera, no one will be able to see my photos until I return to the states, muhaha!

However, here are some pictures, taken by Jami, one of the American students I go to school with. Most of them seem to be just random pictures of people out partying, so take a good look at the crazy people I've been hanging out with for the past weeks.

To point out some people: In the first group shot (the first picture I'm in), Jami is the fourth from the left. The girl in the middle with the platinum blonde hair wearing the yellow shirt is Anna, the Swedish girl, and my closest friend here! In the three pictures after that (of three girls, including Jami), the girl in the middle, wearing the white shirt, is my roommate Stephanie. There are other assorted pictures from the beach, as well as a soccer game, a bullfight, Jami's host family, and Merida, etc.

This weekend is Halloween and VEN-USA is having a party tomorrow night... and the cultural activity for the week is carving pumpkins! So tonight Venezuelans will learn what it feels like to bury their hands in lovely slimy pumpkin guts. Mm, pumpkin guts. Then the rest of the weekend will probably be kind of slow, as city and state elections are being held here on Sunday and everything is closed on Saturday night and all day Sunday... it's rumored that the buses might not even be running, which doesn't make a lot of sense because that prevents a lot of people from voting.

Either way, I'm glad that the election is almost finished with here, because it's been quite the hoopla. There are signs everywhere and there are these jeeps that drive around, decked out in the signs and colors of whatever political party, and they have megaphones blasting music and political slogans and jingles and it's insane! I get handed at least five fliers everytime I walk down the street, even though I tell the people handing them out that I can't vote here anyway. They just tell me to give them to someone who can. I don't know, it seems the political propaganda here is way more intense than I ever remember it being in the States... but then again, I am not there right now, and November 2 is almost upon us!

Anyway, that's about it. I will write about my AMAZING trip... someday.

I might be a dirty girl for the next 7 days

Holy AMAZING weekend. Not going to go into all of it right now, because I know I would get carried away, so maybe tomorrow or sometime later this week. But believe you me, it was AMAZING - there was hammock sleeping and boat riding and monkey viewing and dolphin chasing and crab eating and snake touching and crocodile holding. That's right, you heard me. There was not only touching but HOLDING of a crocodile. I HELD A CROCODILE. And I might have become slightly infatuated with Cesar, the Spaniard who was our guide for the AMAZING weekend, not only because he's an anthropologist and a herpitologist, but also because he did a hilarious impression of Gollum. But yeah, more about my AMAZING trip later.

On Saturday, after the AMAZING trip, I went to a birthday party for Jailynn (one of the English teachers at my school) and Brian (one of the American students I have classes with). Jailynn lives in this beautiful house with a couple other English teachers and a Venezuelan, and the smelly dog Aldo, who tried to hump me at a previous party. There was cake and music and bilingual conversations and a PIÑATA! A Hello Kitty piñata, no less. After the birthday kids took their swings at the piñata, someone made the foolish decision to blindfold me and spin me around with the large stick in my hands... and then I nearly took out their television! Everyone was yelling and I thought that I must be really close to hitting Hello Kitty, but apparently they were just yelling for me to stop. Anyway, the birthday party was pretty fun.

And my house has no water. For eight days. The water was out in the whole city for 24 hours from Thursday-Friday, and now it's back on. Except in my neighborhood, which is one of the nicest neighborhoods in the city, so it doesn't make much sense. I got back from my AMAZING trip on Saturday and at that point hadn't taken a shower since Wednesday, and I was sticky from bug spray and sunblock and sweat, and there was STILL no water at my house. The firemen had come, even, and filled up with water every single pot, pan and large bowl my family owns, just so we could have some for cooking and drinking. I had to go to Anna's to take a shower before the birthday party. I felt really bad for Stephanie because she got home yesterday after being in Los Llanos (the plains area of Venezuela) for four days, where she rode horses and held an anaconda and touched all kinds of animals and got really dirty, and she couldn't take a shower. The water comes and goes (which almost makes it more frustrating), but it was on for a little while this morning so we both got to shower really quickly before it went off again. But agh! We have to suffer, waterless, for 7 more days!!

Anyway, that's all for now. I will write about my AMAZING AMAZING trip later.

Oy, what a fun, yet frustrating weekend. Or maybe it's the other way around, I'm not really sure.

Have I ever mentioned how I love my "new" host family? They're really great. Have I ever mentioned how I hate the cash machines here? They're really not great. I know I said on Friday that I was going to go paragliding and bungee jumping and all that, and I really wish I had some great things to say about how much fun that was, but I couldn't go because the cash machines have not been working here... so I couldn't take out the money I needed to pay to go paragliding, and the agency didn't take credit cards or anything.

Not only are the cash machines not working, they are essentially ripping people off. I tried taking money out and then got an error message, saying it couldn't complete the transaction because it couldn't communicate with my institution. This happened to two other American students I know, Sara and Ryan, and they both had money deducted from their accounts, even though they didn't actually receive that money. Sara had over USD 600 taken out!!! Sure enough, I just checked my bank statement online and I had USD 78 withdrawn, but I never actually got that money. Arg, how frustrating. Gah, now I don't want to use the ATM here ever again, and yet going into the bank to take out money is a ridiculously complicated process. Oh well. :(

Well, despite all that, and not getting to go paragliding, it was a pretty good weekend. On Friday night, the power went out at my house (this happens a lot, actually) and my family was out, so Steph and I lit candles and talked in our kitchen. Then our family came home from Bible study (have I mentioned how they're Jehovah's Witnesses? In a country where 97% of the population is Catholic?) and we all talked and ate hot dogs til the power came back on. Then on Saturday night, Steph and I ended up babysitting our two "nieces" and one "nephew" for an hour and a half, and that was really fun. Mariana is our niece who lives with us, she's 8; then there's Genesis, she's 12 and Jose Alejandro, who is 2 and really, really cute. He makes me miss my nephews. We made them grilled cheese and taught them words in English. I also went out on Saturday night to an Clover's, which pretends to be an Irish pub, but really isn't, because this is Venezuela. It's not even owned by an Irish person. Who are they trying to fool?

This weekend I'm going on a trip to Lake Maracaibo, which is the largest lake in South America... there I will sleep in a hammock in a house on stilts... and see (hopefully) monkeys and freshwater dolphins and maybe some crocodiles... and the Catatumbo Lightning Phenomenon!

I voted

Imagine that title in white, all capital letters on a round red sticker right smack dab in the middle of my forehead. For all those of you who were worried (because I know I was), my absentee ballot finally came yesterday and I filled it out as soon as it was in my hands, then promptly turned it over to Rosa, VEN-USA's representative in the U.S., to take back to the States with her where she will drop it in a mailbox and it will be on its merry way to the Minnesota election officials! Hooooooray!

I really didn't think it would make it here on time, or really, at all. Or it would show up on October 28th and there would be no time for me to get it back to the States. Then my plan was to write a fiesty blog, directed at no one in particular, just saying that if there's anyone out there thinking about NOT VOTING, whether because they think it's a waste and it doesn't make a difference anyway, or because of pure laziness, or because of just not caring... they should think of me, NOT VOTING because I'm in SOUTH AMERICA without an absentee ballot, and go out and vote, no matter who for, just to exercise the right every American citizen is granted once they reach 18. And even now, though I did get to vote(!), everyone still has to do it. DO IT! NOVEMBER 2! Ok, fair warning.

So tomorrow, I think I'm going paragliding, which I have wanted to do before I even got here. It's a package from one of the local tour agencies, and Jami, the girl who arranged it all, just told me it might include wall climbing and bungee jumping, as well. Eek! This may be the end for me everyone! Wish me luck!

Hey! Yesterday was my blog's one-year anniversary. Happy blog birthday, then, I guess! Also, I've written nearly 100 posts. Here's to another year of blogging.

Yesterday was also Dia de La Raza here in Venezuela, a.k.a. Columbus Day. They don't call it Columbus Day here, however. Dia de La Raza literally means Day of the Race - referring to October 12th, the day Columbus first reached some part of the Americas (a tiny island in the Caribbean) as the beginning of the creation of the Latin American people from the European conquerors, the indigenous tribes of Central and South America, and the slaves that were later brought. Sometimes it's also called Dia del Encuentro de Dos Mundos (Meeting of Two Worlds), but some people dislike this name because it implies that the conquerors and the indigenous people were on equal footing. Sorry for the history lesson.

Anyway, I didn't have school yesterday so I celebrated Dia de la Raza by walking around downtown for 7 hours or so, getting sunburned and eating ice cream and running into half the people I know here. It was really nice! And then I realized I have less than two months left here. That's just plain nutty.

did someone say "American Cooking Night!!!"?

Last night it rained and rained and rained, OF COURSE, but that is not the point of this story. Last night was "Cultural Activity Night" here at school. Every week they have some sort of planned activity to bring the Americans and Venezuelans together with some silly, I mean, meaningful, cultural thing. One night it was "Sangria and Cheese Night" (sangria, I would like to point out, is not even Venezuelan, however tasty it might be). Another night was "Salsa Dancing Night," which was kind of fun and/or embarassing, depending on your point of view. We Americans have a sad lack of rhythm, let me just say, and some were really shamed by their awkward steps. I, on the other hand, really enjoyed the salsa-ing and embraced my lack of grace wholeheartedly! Look at me, my feet said, we can't dance but we're still having a hell of a time!

Anyway, last night was "American Cooking Night!!!" The sign-up sheet for the activity really had three exaclamation points - "American Cooking Night!!!" Ooo, "American Cooking Night!!!" Wow!!! So, so exciting!!! I can hardly stand the excitement!!! I got all worked into a frenzy over American cooking!!! I wonder what we will eat for "American Cooking Night!!!"??? Maybe it will be chocolate chip cookies, since this country produces a sad lack of chocolate chip cookies!!!

And do you know what we ate, for "American Cooking Night!!!," by any chance? Do you know? Not chocolate chip cookies, oh no, my friends. We had a nice, big, steaming bowl of... wait for it... I know you're excited... buffalo wings!!! Woo-hoo! That's some downhome American cookin', that is. Mm, I love me some buffalo wings.

Okay, I know there are buffalo wings fans out there (talking to Amanda, here) and there really is nothing wrong with them. I have nothing against the personally or anything, in fact, I enjoy the occasional buffalo wing. But the thought that buffalo wings somehow represent American cooking here sort of makes me cringe, I guess. That's like saying that Buffalo Wild Wings is there very pinnacle of American cuisine, and that just can't be true! Can it? Oh well, I guess if buffalo wings is American cooking!!! for Venezuelans, that's okay with me.

ah, winter in a sub-tropical country

Last night it rained and rained, for several hours, and my laundry was hanging out to dry in the backyard, of course, because it wouldn't, it couldn't be any other way, clearly. Don't you know, silly, that once you put your clothes on the line and leave the house, it's only a matter of time until it starts raining? And, of course, you must be far away, sitting in class for several hours with no chance of rescuing your defenseless clothes once the rain begins. OF COURSE.

It wasn't so rainy the first few weeks I was here. It was sunny all day and then there was a light shower, a sprinkling, really, at night. However, in the past two weeks, the amount of rainfall during the late afternoon/early evening/nighttime has grown in noticeable increments until sometimes when I'm going home at night, the water sloshes up into the buses. It seems my feet and the bottoms of my pants are forever wet. This is what they call winter. Have I mentioned how it's rainy season here? And it never stops with the rain and the water falling from the sky and the wetness? The infinite wetness everywhere? The rain that is slowly sapping my will to live? Now I know how Anne felt in Munster with the rain rain rain. Hell, now I'm beginning to understand how Noah and the fam felt, except I don't have to share a boat with a bunch of smelly animals.

I'm finally starting work on some of my term papers that are due at the end of the semester. I have one for every class, and some of them I am more excited about than others. For Latin American Folklore (with Prof. Vincent MORLEY), I am working on a paper about traditional medicinal plants and herbs of the region. It's more interesting than it probably sounds; I can't say the same of the class itself, however. I just feel like it's a waste since all Sir Morley does is just ramble on forever, sometimes repeating himself and nothing has any relevance to anything else we talk about. He's a nice man, if a little crazy, and he knows more about Venezuelan folklore than most Venezuelans, I imagine, but I don't feel like he is a very effective teacher. Anyway, I have four other term papers to write and no real idea what I'm doing yet, except for Children's Lit. I suppose I should get on that. At least I no longer feel like I'm just on vacation and I realize these classes actually do count for something.

As for the night life, Danielle , I guess I haven't really talked much about that. The night life is pretty thriving here, even though this isn't a huge city. Going out, dancing, and drinking are big parts of the culture here, not just for young people, but for middle-agers as well... it just kind of depends on where you go. There are several big discos that are similar to American ones and that play American and European pop and techno, on top of the usual salsa. (Salsa and merengue are the most common music/dance styles.) Then there are tons of bars all over, some with live bands and dance floors. ¿Que mas? My favorite place to go out here is el Hoyo de Queque, which is more like a bar but has a dance floor... it also has live bands and is packed on the weekends with ULA (University of the Andes) students and usually some European and/or American tourists.

Venezuelan fun fact time!:

Venezuelans, typical of most Latin Americans, have a very relaxed sense of time. If they have an appointment or are meeting someone, it's not unusual for them to be at least 20 minutes late and think nothing of it. When they say something is happening mañana, which literally means tomorrow, it could mean it's happening tomorrow, or the next day, or maybe four days from now... maybe even next week, eh, who knows? Not a single movie I have been to has started on time. The closest was once when a 7:30 movie began at 7:40.

Still alive and still non-parasitic, coming to you directly from Venezuela. I just had one of those weekends where nothing seemed to go according to plan, and yet all the mishaps made for funny stories because I probably had more fun than I would've if everything had happened how it should have. If that makes any sense. Some highlights of my misadventures:

-a going away party for two of the English teachers from my school at their amazing house where I was...
-humped by a very rained on and smelly golden retriever named Aldo
-had the lower half of my body completely soaked because it was raining so hard the streets were flooded (there are no storm sewers)
-tried to see a movie that turned out to be playing NOWHERE despite seeing it on a theater's marquee
-talking with various taxi drivers, every one of whom mentioned not liking President Bush
-falling in a small manhole and having my ankle cut up, in front of the police who stand guard outside the mayor's house, who laughed at the stupid gringa
-trying to play bingo at Rotary and not succeeding because things never start on time here... bingo supposedly started at 6 but the first game was not played until 8:30... oy, these Venezuelans
-yelling out "bingo!" at a very inappropriate time and having all the elderly Venezuelan Rotarians stare at me

But for now I have to run to class. More later.

bus rides and beaches

Picture this: a jungle (a cloud forest, to be precise) growing in the mountains. Full of assorted banana trees and flowering things, hibiscus, and enormous bamboo stands. Clouds pass in and out of the trees and waterfalls crash down from cliffs and there are more kinds of birds here than any other part of the world. That is Henri Pittier National Park.

Now imagine a bus. A school bus. Loaded with 70 or so people, some with backpacks, some with bags of coconuts, and some even with babies. And there you are, wedged into this bus, your back sticking to the plastic seat because you are sweating so much in the humidity and there is a small child practically sleeping in your lap, which is no small feat considering you also have a substantial backpack invading your personal space. Back to the jungle. Remember the jungle? The beautiful National Park? Well, this school bus is barreling through this mountainous loveliness, on an 8-foot wide road, twisting and turning around switchbacks, for 2 and a half hours. Hope you don't get motion sickness.

That was just one small part of the adventure of this past weekend, which turned out to be an amazing time. I finally got to go to the beach! On the Caribbean! In Venezuela! It was definitely the best weekend I've had here, and the first time that I really that I really felt that "wow" feeling here. I left on Thursday night, along with about 14 other of the North Americans, and took a 12-hour bus ride to a city near the coast called Maracay. The overnight bus trip wasn't too bad; it was a "buscama" which means the seats recline practically into beds. Then there was the crazy trip through the cloud forest in the crowded bus, but it was completely worth it because the drive was amazing.

Choroni, the town where we stayed, was charming and colonial, lots of pastel colored houses and an old church and plenty of people willing to help the tourists. And then there was the beach! The beautiful, white sandy beach with palm trees and coconuts and turquoise water and seashells! I sat on the beach and read and ate ice cream and floated in the ocean. It was great, so relaxing. However, traveling with so many people was a frustrating at times. And I had heat stroke on Saturday, which was pretty miserable. I drank several liters of water at the beach but once I got back to the hotel I had a massive headache and was dizzy and pukey. Not at all how I wanted to spend the evening, but Sunday was much better. I just had to stay out of the sun. Watch out for the blazing Venezuelan sun.

Anyway, I'm done bragging about my beach trip. Back in the sort of real world this week, back to classes and such. Last night was my roommate's 21st birthday, so we went out to celebrate in true American 21st birthday style - plenty of drinks for the birthday girl! I was in charge of the drunk girl, being her roommate and all, and it was entertaining to watch the drunken action unfold.

Who can believe it's almost October? It's actually the "winter" season here - the rainy season. Sigh, I'm having an October without fall and Halloween. In my tropical mountain land.

P.S. Over half the North Americans have had some sort of parasite or intestinal bacteria (some have even named theirs), but me and my intestines are still holding strong against the invaders!

Today I waited for a bus for 10 minutes, tried flagging down three before one stopped to let a passenger off and I could get on. Then it was jampacked and I found myself holding onto a bar for dear life, hanging out the door while the bus careened down the road. Because that's what buses do here. They careen. It's like they're trying to dance to the salsa that is being pumped out of them at insane decibels. Bus drivers here (drivers here in general) are demented. They are heedless of everything - not only the lives of their passengers but probably their own lives, as well, and certainly the lives of any pedestrians who even think about stepping from the sidewalk to the pavement. My organs try to evacuate my body all at the same time every time I try to cross a road.

Sometimes being here is one of the most amazing experiences in the world and I love every second of it and everything I do... and then there are times when it's the most frustrating thing and while I don't hate it, I can't help but compare life here to life at home, and how some things are "better." And then I want to yell at myself, because things aren't necessarily better at home, they're just different. Today, for instance, with the buses not stopping. Sometimes I feel like they don't stop just because I'm a gringa and they can spot me from miles away. Then I remember that's just how buses work here and I just have to deal with it - plus, that's part of the fun and the reason I came here... to experience the culture. And part of the culture is being ignored by bus drivers.

Going on the teleferico on Saturday was amazing. It's hard to explain the whole thing here, but like I said, it's the highest and longest cable car in the world. The top station is on Pico Espejo, which is at an elevation of about 16,000 feet, and I went all the way to the top. It was so cloudy at the top that I couldn't see anything but the station itself and the statue of the Virgin Mary that resides there. And it was cold! Luckily, I'm a hearty Minnesota lass and can handle it. I don't think the Venezuelans quite knew what to do with themselves. They were all wearing heavy coats, hats, scarves and gloves. As we were coming down from the top, it actually started snowing. Just to put that in perspective, once we got all the way back down to the city, it was 83 degrees! It was weird to go through such a temperature change, not to mention the altitude difference.

Here's a Venezuelan Fun Fact to shed light on the craziness of public buses:

Public buses do not have a set schedule here. There are no times for when certain buses will stop at certain places. Individual drivers decide when they want to work and will just drive around, stopping if someone flags them down on the street or if someone wants to get off. On the main roads there are set "bus stops" but on the smaller roads, sometimes you just have to look for people congregating and join them, with the hope that they're waiting for the bus, as well.

Can anyone explain to me why my feet are so cold, when it's 79 degrees and sunny out?

How I found myself packing up my stuff exactly a month after I did the first time, or, Sometimes you get a crazy host mom

From the first week we had some worries about living with our host mom, as she had a lot of rules for us. Some of her rules that were just cultural - like that she wanted us wearing shoes and/or socks inside all the time. Most of the host families don't really go for the whole barefoot look inside, so that was normal. Other things were a little weirder and were clearly just our mom's personal preferences and idiosyncracies - like she yelled at Steph one day after Steph didn't come home for lunch. Sometimes she wouldn't make dinner for us if we came home after a certain time (a certain time that varied each time) and once she made dinner for herself and not us, even though we asked. She told us that we had come home too late. She also wouldn't let us make food for ourselves if she wasn't there. She had a housepainter come and didn't tell us, and he got paint all over Steph's stuff. Steph took a lot of blame for things that our mom thought we were doing wrong, and we felt like we were walking around on eggshells half the time. All my friends told us about their families and how they would have good talks with them or their moms would just let them help themselves to food.

I'll skip over some of the details, but the main thing is that Steph and I talked to Astrid, the study abroad director, on Thursday and she took care of it all. On Friday we hauled all our stuff (packed rather hapzardly into our suitcases last minute) to school and met our new "mom" - and I love my new family! I live in a house now with a mom and two of her daughters, who are both in their late 20s, and one of their daughters, who is 8 years old. I've already had more fun with my new family and gotten to know them better in the past few days than I did with my old mom in a month. It's also nice having a little kid in the house. I played "El Juego de la Vieja" a.k.a. Tic Tac Toe with Mariana today and she is really cute and smart. Our house is also in a really nice neighborhood (the mayor lives down the street!) and it's only a couple blocks from a shopping center with a movie theater. Anyway, having to pack up all my stuff after only a month (two and a half months sooner than I expected) was frustrating but I'm really glad because it's turned out well.

Speakin of families, here's a Venezuelan Fun Fact!:

Family is very important to Venezuelans. Children will live with their parents well into their 20s or 30s, or until they get married (hence my two "sisters" still living at home) and all the people who live in a household try to make it home for lunch, the biggest meal of the day. And their lunch is usually bigger than any meal I ever eat at home - meat, rice, soup, salad, potatoes, plantains, fresh fruit juice, etc. It's a good thing that dinner is always light - maybe a tortilla (not like a Mexican tortilla; it's more like an omelette) or bread and tea.

On Saturday I went on the teleferico, the world's highest and longest cable car, and on top of the mountain I met a middle-aged Venezuelan guy who studied abroad at University of Wisconsin-Superior and lived in Duluth for a year! Of all the crazy things. But more on that later, I've got to go. Adios!

Looks like it's about that time here in blog-land and it's a doozy of a day to blog -the internet could probably not be any slower today. It's possible, but highly unlikely.

Last weekend I was going to go to the beach, to a place called Choroni, with several of the other students here, but Hurricane Ivan decided it was not to be. All the beaches ended up being closed and we had to change our hotel reservations and bus tickets to next weekend. A little disappointing but I'll get to go really soon. And my weekend ended up being really nice despite that, though the hurricane definitely affected the weather here. It was rainy and windy all weekend; usually it's sunny and hot here in the morning and afternoon, and then it rains later in the evening. It's nearly perfect weather.

Oh, I went to the ice cream shop that holds the Guinness Record for the most flavors of ice cream in the world! Anyone who can guess how many they have gets a cookie when I get back. Among the flavors being offered the day I went: cinnamon, passion fruit, salmon, shrimp, chicken and rice, garlic, ham and cheese, power ranger and I wait for you in bed (don't ask).

Haven't been blogging much because there is so much to talk about and so many things that happen every day, but obviously I can't write about everything! This past weekend felt like a turning point in my time here. It was by far my best weekend here - my best three days here, period - and I feel like I made it over some invisible hurdle of culture shock and homesickness. Obviously, it's not over just like that, it's a continual process of adjustment, but I finally feel like I've settled in here and started making connections with the culture and with people. There isn't as much struggle with certain aspects that were hard to deal with the first few weeks - like comments from guys here, and the noise, and getting stared at everywhere I go (seriously, it's like they've never seen an American before; sometimes I feel like I must have an ear growing out of my neck the way these people stare). Well, you get the idea. Anyway, now I feel like I just take all that in stride and can even laugh about it, and I feel at home now.

And there are still no parasites making a nice little home inside me! I did have a cold but it got better quite quickly. It feels like colds last longer at home, probably because it's cold and gray. But here in this land only five or so degrees north of the Equator, there is no way my pores could hold on to a cold forever.

In the meantime, I'm ruining my feet by wearing showah shoes all over the city. Anyone who read this entire blog also gets a cookie when I get home.

New on mostly true: Fun Venezuelan Facts! Time for a fun fact about Venezuela. Are you ready, kids?

You can't flush the toilet paper here because the plumbing can't handle it. TP goes right in the garbage. However, count yourself one of the lucky few if you happen upon a public bathroom that even has toilet paper. Or soap.

And in completely un-Venezuela related news...

Can this man be stopped? And do we really want him to be stopped? Look at that friendly Mormon face!

Merida is one noisy place, let me tell you. That has been one of the harder things to get used to, maybe more so than not having a car or not being able to use the phone or the language barrier. And by noisy, I mean, all the time noise. This noise doesn't stop when the work day is done nor when the sun goes down or even after a certain point in the middle of the night. This noise continues, round-the-clock. Cars zooming. Cars honking. People yelling at each other. The turkeys that live beneath me from dawn til dusk. Music being pumped at varying decibels at all times, from cars and from doorways, even on public buses. The bus drivers here love their merengue! Drunks wandering down the street at all odd hours of the night, singing very loudly. (Public drunkenness is a-okay here.) Dogs barking. Frogs that sound like birds and windchimes. And the pollution, which is another kind of noise. The por puestos (public buses) spew exhaust all over the road and I've had a sore throat every day since arriving. I've gotten used to it somewhat but there are moments when it's too much to take in, and I just want to find some private place to hide myself.

Then there are moments like this weekend. A bunch of people went to a National Park called Sierra La Culata. It's in the Andes and you get there by driving through a beautiful valley surrounded by the mountains. We took a rocky trail up through the valley, passing by groups of cows and houses with scary looking dogs tied up outside. And then I got stomach cramps and felt dizzy and almost passed out and had to stop. Which was really frustrating... but it's good that I didn't try to push it, as everyone else who went on ended up stopping as well. And Anna stayed with me while everyone continued on, and we just sat and watched the clouds roll by. They were so close it looked like you could touch them, and the air was so clean and it was so, so QUIET. Absolutely quiet. I also took a nap on some very soft grass, in between a couple of petrified cow pies, which was lovely. I imagine that's probably why the grass was so soft...

This is a place of such contrasts that it almost fails description. Things like that - the noise of the city and the secluded calm to be found only a half hour away - seem so normal here. It rained during the night on Saturday and when I woke up, there was snow up on the peaks of the mountains, and yet it was 77 F at 10 a.m. down in the city. Maybe it's just a big contrast for me... for instance, going up in the mountains I'm used to seeing things like pine trees and such... here, there are banana trees and riotous overgrowth of tropical plants and colorful flowers.

Anyway, classes have been fine (one was cancelled today, hence the blogging) and I would like to announce that so far, I am parasite-free! And injury-free! Hard to believe, I know. Alexis went to South America and has gone hiking and gone out dancing and has yet to hurt herself? Fascinating. You would be even more amazed if you could see the sidewalks here and what I navigate on a daily basis... tree roots have broken through the cement making the sidewalks a crazy rollercoaster ride for your feet. It's a good time.

Anywho, I have another class in a few minutes and I should get going. Chao!

So, classes began yesterday here at VENUSA (my school, for those of you who don't know) and they've been going well so far. The schedule is a little weird porque we never have classes on Fridays, which is really nice, but I have night classes every day. Today and Thursday I have my earliest class, Folklore in Latin America, which begins at 8... but here's the kicker: it's taught by a man named Vincent MORLEY. That's right, folks - a Morley in Venezuela. I can't get away from them. This particular Morley hails from England originally but has lived in Latin America for over 40 years. Crazy, no? Actually, he does seem somewhat batty but a very interesting person.

Yesterday I had Venezuelan Literature and Children's Literature. Both seem like good classes but I think I will like Children's Lit. a lot because who wouldn't like reading kid's books and watching movies like Shrek and the Neverending Story and performing a puppet show for 3rd graders? We also have to write and illustrate a children's story, sort of as a final project. And as a nice bonus, the profesora for Children's Lit. told me I speak Spanish very well! I'm also taking History of Venezuela which is tonight and then tomorrow I have Latin American Film Criticism, which is only once a week.

Oh, to answer the burning question: all of Venezuela is only an hour ahead of Central Standard time - basically like the Eastern time zone of the U.S. However, it will be two hours after Daylight's Savings. So yeah, it's really not noteworthy.

Over the weekend I went with a bunch of people to a little mountain village called Jaji. It's about an hour's bus ride away and a very pretty drive. Mostly we just looked around at all the folk art type stuff and some people went horseback riding but I just sat in the plaza with Anna and chatted. I still can't get over how cheap some things are here. The bus ride to Jaji for instance - how much do you think an hour bus ride to some place in the States would be? Here it's around 75 cents. Taking the bus every day to and from school only costs about 30 cents. Seeing a movie on a regular day it's only a $1 and on Thursdays (Ladies' Night, woo hoo!) it's about 50 cents. Then again, there are some things that are definitely more pricey here than they would be at home, like books. Books are quite a rare commodity here which is hard for a bookworm like me.

Hey all you Duluthians headed back to school, good luck moving in and starting class next week! Hope it's fun!

Now that I've seen "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" on three continents, I would say my life is complete. Actually, in Spanish it's "¿Quien Quiere Ser Millionario?" and I don't remember what it is in Italian, but I think my favorite is the Venezuelan version, just because of the host. He's so much more relaxed than both the Italian host and especially that gleeful leprechaun, Regis Philbin.

This past week I've just been attending Intensive Spanish class, which was meant to be a review of Spanish before regular classes begin. It has really not been as helpful as one might think. The only thing I found useful were the Venezuelan expressions of which my favorite was "agua fiesta"... it basically means party pooper. I love it. I've used it probably eight times since we learned it, which was yesterday. Some of those times I just manufactured a reason to use it.

Today, instead of having one more day of INTENSE Spanish, our teachers took all of us to a pool nearby. (When I say all of us I'm referring to we 20 or so North Americans... and Anna, who, though actually Swedish, is now American by association.) We just lazed around in the sun and talked. I really like the other American students here; everyone gets along well and has fun together. I'm sure that a few weeks from now we'll be splitting off, getting a bit more clique-y, which will make traveling around easier... but right now it's fun hanging with everyone. Anyway, I think it's pretty awesome that we just up and went to a pool today instead of having class. You know what else is awesome? There are hammocks in the commons area here at school! Hammocks! Swinging beds with huge pillows! Ahh, what a life.

I think this weekend I will just be hiking around in some of the mountains that surround the city, possibly with Anna and Ryan (Anna, the Swedish girl and Ryan both live a couple blocks away from me). But now I must go pick up my class schedule because real classes start next week! Ahh! So much for pool and hammock fun.

So, I know this is the second time I've blogged in as many days but don't go getting too used to it 'cause I think this is a fluke. Eventually I will have, like, classes to go to and homework to do and probably some horrible virus that causes me to double over in cramps and spend all day in the bathroom so I won't even be able to make it out of the house, much less down the street to an internet cafe. (That actually might not happen but yeah, it probably will since about half of the American students usually get sick... and I am certainly excited about that prospect. Hoo-ray.) Today I went to the downtown area of the city with my roommate and two other people who live near us and we walked around and shopped a bit. It was raining pretty hard for part of the day (it's the rainy season here) but when it eventually stopped and the clouds lifted a bit, it was so beautiful. The mountains here are so green and the clouds were kind of creeping over them; we just walked around gaping at them and taking pictures like the tourists we basically are.

Anyway, oh, a little note for those of you who wish to email: send stuff to my school account because I can't seem to send email from my aol account for some reason. And I check my UMD account more than aol.

I know of some people who have gone out to bars with their professors before, or some who have at least seen their professors out drinking. How many of you have gone out drinking AND merengue AND salsa dancing with your professors before? And seen them get really drunk? And have them call you a loser for going home at 2:30 in the morning because they weren't going home and they had to teach at 9 in the morning? Well, that was my night last night. These venezolanos are quite the partiers. Thank goodness I'll have classes to go to next week otherwise I don't think I`d survive.

Two days and four planes later, I´m finally here in Merida, at an internet cafe just down the street from `my` apartment. (Some of the punctuation keys on this keyboard are a little switched around so you'll have to bear with me.) It's really beautiful here and it seems unreal that this is where I'll be for the next three months. I keep thinking that I can just take a bus over the mountains and there Minnesota will be, waiting for me. Not that I want to go home, at least not yet.

My host family is really just a host mom. Rosalba is a very sweet woman with two adult sons who both live in the U.S. So it´s just my ´mom`, my roommate Stephanie, and me in a nice little apartment. Stephanie is from Mound, of all places, and knows Tyler and Mike and the Mound boys! Craziness. We have our own rooms, which I wasn´t expecting, but it´s nice. Except for the damn turkey that lives in a courtyard beneath the apartment. And the cats that like to chase the turkey. And the roosters somewhere nearby. The roosters crow at dawn, as most good roosters do. Then the turkey begins his gobbling which doesn't really cease until the sun goes down. Then the frogs start singing until the sun comes up. Oh, and the car alarm... I'm pretty sure it´s the exact same car alarm that went off all the time in the Goldfine parking lot!! Except this one goes off even more than that one did, and for those of you who lived in Goldfine C, you know that's a lot.

Well, that's all I have for now. I have to be back to the apartment for lunch soon and I'm just hoping we don't end up wandering around La Parroquia forever.

If you thought I vanished for a few days because I went to New York with my parents, such is not the case. I seriously considered it but I'm glad I didn't go. I probably would've been stressing out a lot of the time which would have made me crabby and then a roadtrip with my parents would not have been any fun, for them or me. I tend to get ornery with them when I'm stressed which would have been amplified by hours upon hours spent in the car. Not a good situation. Besides, Chelsea came up for the weekend and Rachel and Chris came up on Sunday and stayed til yesterday. We had us some good times!

So,the real countdown begins, along with the hardcore preparation... haha. That is to say, the delayed preparation of me trying to get as much done in as little time as possible. Almost done with work, going to leave Duluth tomorrow night to spend what my last weekend at home and man oh man, beside the actual packing and everything I need to do to get ready, I have so much going on this weekend! Trying on a bridesmaid dress, seeing my stepfamily at the lake on Sunday, seeing friends, a barbeque the night before I leave, even a dentist appointment. That's a lot of stuff to do in four days. As busy as I'll be, I'm glad that I'll get to see so many people while I'm there... and being so busy will probably take my mind off of the actual leaving. Craziness.

Well, I should probably go do some stuff. I'm sure I'll get at least one more elaborately detailed and scintillating blog in before I leave... and after that, I'll try and post as much as I can in Venezuela but I can't make any promises as to the frequency. But... here's another picture of Merida!: 

Two weeks from today and I will be on my way to Miami, where I will spend a night in some airport hotel (but probably not sleep very much because I'll be lying there in nervous anticipation) and then be off to Venezuela the very next day. I'm very excited and have been very excited all summer but now I'm getting nervous too. Nervous about all the obvious things - going to a foreign country, where they speak another language that I am now doubting that I can even really speak/understand properly (I'm pretty sure it was a dream that I could ever speak Spanish). Starting school is a big one, I always get a little nervous about starting school every year but now I'm starting school in South America. Where I don't know anyone. Um, what else? I don't have my visa yet. My passport is still in the clutches of the Venezuelan Consulate in Chicago and who knows when they will release it to me. I... sort of need that. I can't leave the country without it. Give me my passport, evil Consulado General de Venezuela!

My parents decided to go to New York tomorrow, lord knows why, and they want me to go with and even offered to PAY ME to go because I would miss my last week of work. Should I go? I don't know. I won't say exactly how much it was but they offered to pay me more than I would make in a week of work but the anxiety is rising and I feel like I should stay here and do stuff but what do I have to do? I won't get anything done! PACK! I have to pack! I'm even stressed about packing and I never stress about packing and I haven't even started packing and oh my god, why haven't I started packing yet? Why am I such a procrastinator? I have to go start packing!

Haha, who gave the crazy girl the okay to go to Venezuela? Whew. Just kidding. I'll be okay. Just getting a little too anxious when I know that worrying will really not accomplish anything and that I will get everything done that needs to get done and that things are bound to go wrong and that's okay too. Right? Okay.

No Venezuela fact today, instead I have this picture of lovely Merida for you all to enjoy. And also to calm myself. Oooo, pretty Merida! That's where I'll be, two weeks from tomorrow! (Click on the picture to get the full splendor.)
 

belated fact

Merida, Venezuela (where I'm going!) was founded in 1558 by Juan Rodriguez Suarez, who was from Colombia. The town was actually under Colombian jurisdiction until 1777 when Merida became a part of Venezuela. The city's official name is La Ciudad de los Caballeros de Merida" which basically translates to "Merida, the City of Gentlemen."

I'm going to a city that's over 400 years old!

Anne gets back two weeks from tomorrow!
 

Something is wrong with my right knee and I can't seem to figure out what the hell I did to make it so stiff and uncomfortable. I don't remember any sort of incident that would cause me such bodily harm and the only thing I can figure is that I am getting old, with a quickness, too. Why else would I have sudden random injuries from nothing in particular, it would seem? Especially when I am the Queen of Hurting Herself in Really Stupid Ways. Anyway, the whole knee injury is somewhat bothersome. A trip to WebMD was really no help, either. Apparently, knee swelling, stiffness, and/or pain could be caused by any number of things, including "repeated movement." Hmm, repeated movement? Isn't that a little hard to avoid with KNEES? Knees only really move, what, one of two ways? Good detective work, WebMD. They did offer some "gentle" exercises for home remedy, however, but look at that man! Not only is he wearing an orange shirt and green shorts, he looks like he is barely containing the agony of pulling his poor, inflamed knee toward his chest. The artist clearly forgot to sketch in the tears that should be rolling down his face into his ear, such is the pain of this "gentle" exercise. Anyway, hopefully plenty of rest will make it better, and non-repeating of the only movement my knee is capable of, the same repeated movement that all knees are forced to do day in and day out.  

Yesterday's post got so long that I decided to leave out the "Fact about Venezuela," so here's a new one, for your enjoyment:
 

Merida sits in a valley of the Andes and is a big draw for backpackers, day-hikers, and generally adventurous outdoorsy-types.  One attraction for all sorts is the teleferico, which is the world’s longest and highest cable car.  From the bottom station in Merida to the top of Pico Bolivar, it travels 3188 meters (that’s about 10, 456 feet for you non-metric folks).  Merida itself sits at about 1500 meters (or 4920 feet) above sea level.

Camp Shack 2: Return to the Woods

It started off like any normal weekend.  Five college students planning a trip up north to a shack in the woods to celebrate a friend's 21st birthday with beer, hot dogs, and good times.  Little did they know, however, of the danger lurking in the trees around them.  It swarmed around them, in and out of the trees, getting closer and closer... sensing their inebriated state, it prepared to attack!  Oh God, the FIREFLIES!  They're GLOWING!  (Or the lightning bugs, whatever you want to call them.) 
 
That's right, this past weekend marked the second annual trip to Tower and to the Shack (the Morleys have, quite literally, a shack in the woods) and it sure was fun, kids.  Aurora and I drove up to Tower Saturday morning (after much struggle in the liquor store over what to buy and then a trip to Walgreen's).  We arrived at the Morley homestead where we were met by Amanda, her sister Angie, and the sick (as in ill) man, Darren.  And Patti Morley, who plied us with beer and the most amazing sub sandwich I think I've ever had! 
 
After a trip to one of the local bars we were met by Chelsea, Kelly and Brian, and then Camp Shack weekend officially began.  We went to "the Matthew McConaughey bar," a.k.a. Bayview resort.  To fully understand this, read Aurora's account of the Shack weekend on her blog.  Anyway, it's this bar/resort place where Matthew once visited for a week or so and Aurora and Kelly absolutely insisted that we go there.  It was fun to see them get so excited about it and fulfill their wish to meet someone who met him.  
 
Then it was out to the Shack, where we looked at Kelly's pictures from Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, and Malaysia.  It is so good to have Kelly back and to see her again!  I missed her.  We drank and ate hot dogs and puppy chow and chips, and Mike and Patti (Amanda's parents) came out and drank with us too!  I agree with Aurora - I love having friends but I also love having friends in my friends' parents.  And the Morleys were pretty cool - not only did they hang out with us, but Patti gave us ice cream and Mike made us 6 POUNDS of hamburger on Sunday!  And they let us use their Shack for our revels!  Thanks to the Morleys! 
 
Everybody had such a good time... being there and being with my friends was so much fun and I think the second time around at Camp Shack was better than the first.  I really couldn't have asked for a better time with all those guys.       

It's been reunion central 'round here recently, with lots of spontaneous, unrestrained and happy meetings over lunch and drinks and some even complete with movies!

Kates and Chelsea were here for the 4th, which was fun and on which I have already expounded. We saw this movie which made me cry, but then again, what movie doesn't?

Aurora was in town on Wednesday for a doctor's appointment and we went out to lunch at Applebee's, along with Karen, who told us stories (and oh!, the stories!) about the infamous Pfauza. That was fun. (Sorry I didn't come for the rodeo, Aurora, but that's partly because of next weekend! So I will see you then.)

On Thursday I went home for my study abroad orientation meeting, where I learned a lot about my program and Merida, Venezuela. Now I'm even more excited about going and even more stressed about everything I have to get done. Funny how those two things seem to be directly correlated. While at home, Chelsea and I saw Spiderman 2 and then we went to James' new apartment/loft in the Warehouse district. I enjoyed James and Robbie's fabulous hugegantic new apartm - I mean, hospitality. No, seriously, James and Robbie are always fun to hang out with. I guess that Chelsea girl is okay, too.

Last night I enjoyed the company of Corey and some assorted people at his house. And today Messr. Brian Jessen and I had lunch at Perkin's and caught up. Despite living in the same town, we haven't hung out at all this summer so it was good to catch up.

Hopefully there will be more meetings of the happy friends-seeing variety in the near future.

But until then... are you ready for the newest addition to the "mostly true" family?

From now until I leave for Venezuela, I will be featuring tidbits of information about the city and country where I'll be living for 3 1/2 months, mostly for my own benefit. Despite years of classes on culture and history of Latin America, I don’t know very much about Venezuela, specifically. I’ll give one new fact at the end of each new blog, so you can easily skip over them if you don’t feel like lurnin’. Special thanks to Lonely Planet for all their help. :)

Did you know that Venezuela means ‘Little Venice?’ Some of the earliest explorers (among them the Italian Amerigo Vespucci, namesake of North and South America) ventured to Lago de Maracaibo to find the local Indians living in thatched huts on stilts above the water. It’s possible that as a sarcastic sailor joke they called it Venezuela because the huts were much different from the opulence of the real Venice and the Europe they had left behind. The thatched huts are gone as are the explorers but the name remains.

Aurora will be arriving in Duluth in less than an hour and a half to have lunch with ME! I'm so excited; I haven't seen her since the Saturday after finals week and I haven't seen any Goldfine girls (with the exception of Chelsea) since then. But it's just been a Goldfine 24-hours around here: contrary to popular belief, Amanda did not fall off the face of the planet nor was she murdered by the Camp Shack Killer, and she has finally blogged and sent me an email! And, wee Cassi and I chatted for a bit online this morning as well. At any rate, today is shaping up to be good. Now if only I didn't have to work.

Happy belated 4th of July, all!

I love the 4th of July. It ranks as my third favorite holiday, behind Halloween and Christmas, and not in that particular order. (Guess which order those two go in! No, really, guess.) (And yes, I really have ranked my top three holidays. You shut up!) The music, the fireworks, the spirit, the people, the hotdogs, the fireworks! I love the 4th. In a more cynical mood I might say something about how typically American it all is - blowing things up and cooking flesh over an open flame, all in the name of frivolous patriotism. I would, however, never degrade the music. I love all music patriotic and will tolerate nary a bad word about it, so don't dare make fun of "purple mountains' majesties" or "twilight's last gleaming" within my earshot. Anyway, I really do love this holiday and all that it represents and every year I go home from the festivities with a smile on my face.

But - leave it to Duluth to have some of the all-time crappiest 4th weather that I can remember suffering through. Last week: beautiful, upper 70s-low 80s, sunny, gorgeous! This weekend: grey, cloudy, sort of warmish until yesterday afternoon, then rain rain rain ALL DAY, then mist, then fog and then! Cancelled fireworks! Bah!

However, Chelsea and Katy spent the weekend here and we managed to have a good time despite the weather - had a pseudo-barbeque, played Trivial Pursuit (which I finally purchased for myself, so if anyone wants to play Trivial Pursuit... you know where I live!), watched several movies yesterday afternoon/evening while it poured, talked, etc. Last night we went to Perkin's down by the lake, hoping that if there were fireworks we could see them from there and then as we headed back up the hill to Dave's, my car was rear-ended by a Pizza Hut delivery guy. Yeah, exciting, but wait, there's more! So, I pulled off onto Superior, and I was pretty flustered from the whole rear-ending and I sort of just... ran my car right onto the curb into a no parking sign post. That thing is now reclining at a near 45 degree angle. So yeah. Luckily, there was no damage to my rear end (the Pizza Hut guy felt pretty bad) and only some minor paint scrapage in the front.

Not much else to report. The one summer class is officially over. On Thursday I have study abroad orientation at the Twin Cities campus, so I'll get to meet some of the other people who are going to Venezuela. Most of them go to the U of M Twin Cities, there are a few people from various schools in Ohio, one person from Penn State, and one from UW Madison. I'll be the only Duluthian. Well, pseudo-Duluthian. I'm really a Cities girl. My dad is going to Buenos Aires at the end of the month, the schmuck! But he wants to be there til the end of August and would like to try and visit me in Venezuela, if possible, so that would be great.

What to say, what to say. So it's been a few weeks, so what? I'm a very busy and important person with lots of things to do.

First of all, this week is the last week of class for me! I had my article presentation today, where I had to talk for a while about a study my whole class read, but I had to explain it and talk about criticisms and limitations to the study. Thursday is our final exam and then I'm home free. I decided to drop my other summer class, partly because I didn't have to take it but mostly because I really didn't want to. A four credit class in four weeks while working over 40 hours a week? That just doesn't sound like my cup o' tea.

Second of all, I apologize to all the people to whom I've written long emails. Those of you who haven't received one, don't be offended. Count yourself lucky. These aren't just any ol' long emails. These emails are of epic proportions and I'm deeply sorry to all those who may have received them. You probably think, "Oh, a nice email from Alexis! I was just wondering about her, what she's been up to?" And then you open the email and you probably change your mind, deciding that you don't really care what I've been up to because the email is so freakishly long that you just don't feel like weeding through all the nonsense I've spewed over the internet. I just can't seem to shorten any of my thoughts or stories, no matter how hard I try. I need email ad libs or something, so I can just fill in the blanks in a generic form and be done with it.

Third of all, today for lunch I had chicken and corn. And I thought about Amanda. This led me to thinking about how she hasn't blogged in nearly a month and that made me sad. Where are you Amanda?

Mostly I'm just very happy that it's summer. It's a very different summer than all the others of my experience but it's been good. I miss Annie lots, off in Germany, and how much does it suck that she's coming home on August 15th and I'm leaving on August 18th? We really should have some sort of get-together around then. A good time would be had by all, I assure you. Anyway, I'm happy and safe and in less than two months, I'm going to Venezuela. Preparations are underway and I'm getting excited. I have to send my passport off to the consulate in Chicago so I can get a visa. Before I can do that, I have to go to the doctor and get a police clearance record, among what seems like hundreds of other things I have to care of before then. I can do it, I can do it!

Well, I must be going... I have to work in a couple hours and I think my sleepiness has almost won the battle. It's naptime.

Tonight whilst scrubbing floors I was nearly overcome by a driving need to watch Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.

Yep, that's all.

Oh, but also, I'm always amazed by how much work one can accomplish when one has so very little time in which to accomplish things. Only five of my waking hours per weekday are not spent in class or at work and I get a near ridiculous amount of things done, so much more than I think I would get done if I weren't in class or at work. Motivation is a strange thing.

Cat, I'm a Kitty Cat

I am living (still) at Dave’s house (temporarily) until the clouds part and the gods decide that it’s okay if they let sneaky Alexis sneak by with her sneaky self this one time and allow a deal on a house to actually close before they change their minds again. Until then, I’m here in a room with no furniture other than a bed and blue carpeting that matches my comforter in a way that is almost too eerie for me to comprehend. Other than me and Dave living here, there is Aaron, who I rarely ever see. Oh, and one of the stranger kittens I have met in my life and believe me, I’ve known me some kittens.

The kitten is Dave’s kitten and is an orange tabby. Or a ginger tabby, if you’re my mom and believe in being very specific (or a know-it-all) when you name colors. I named the kitten Jasper and he came from a house where a crazy (I mean, absolutely batty) cat lady lives with many many cats and kittens running around. Jasper runs around, attacking invisible enemies, tearing up rolls of paper towels, chewing on electrical cords, and jumping in one direction and then changing his mind midair and flying off in another direction. Sometimes he looks directly into my eyes and I think, “Oh, isn’t he cute?” until he opens his mouth and makes no noise and continues to stare at me and then I think, “Yoses, that cat is going to kill me in my sleep.” But just like every kitten, he’s so cute, especially when he’s lying in my lap and purring, instead of running around like the absolute nutter I know him to be.

Word on the street is that I was accepted into my program for Venezuela. I guess I haven’t made a sufficiently big deal about this yet which is very bad of me. I found out right before I left for my vacation and then have been so stressed with school and work and filling out paperwork for study abroad that I haven’t been blogging much, if you hadn’t noticed. This is the sort of conversation I imagine people have about my blog:

Obsessed Fan 1: Alexis hasn’t blogged in weeks, damn it.

OF 2: Yeah, what’s up with that? Who does she think she is?

OF 1: How dare she! Let’s send her horrible emails!

OF 2: Okay, but I really want her to think I’m cool so maybe we could just ask her to please write something soon.

But I know that’s not how it really happens. Anyway, so yeah, I’m going to Merida, Venezuela. I leave on August 18 and the program runs til December 1 but if at all possible, I’d like to try to travel around so I’d be there longer than that. I’ll have to write more about that later but for now I should sleep. Adios!

The past few days have been so blissfully lazy that I just haven't worked up the motivation or desire, really, to write anything. The thought that I'm starting summer class tomorrow also fuels the laziness. Not like summer school will be terribly hard, mind you, but starting tomorrow, I'll be in class from 9-11:45am Monday through Thursday and then be at work from about 2-10 Monday through Friday. That's around 60 hours here, people - 60 hours spent at school every week. Gah. I imagine that I'll survive somehow... right?

The trip to Nevada, Lake Tahoe and Montana was mostly really really enjoyable with a side of agitation, a combination common to family roadtrips. I saw more family members in two weeks than I normally see in two years. The Stiles/Stapp family card game, Progressive Rummy, was played numerous times. Trivial Pursuit was played as well, with the Young People (me, my brother Ethan and my sister-in-law Jennie) against the Old Folks (my mom, Mike and my Grandma). If you think I know a lot of trivia you should see my brother and sister-in-law in action. Damn.

My nephews are cute and entertaining and a handful. They seemed to like me, right from the start, especially Tyler. I became his designated shoe-tier and he turned something I said into his own catchphrase - "Stop being so crazy!" My dad and I took him to see Shrek 2, his very first movie in a movie theater. He was mesmerized by the noise and sheer enormity of the screen which lasted for about, oh, half the movie. Then he started tugging on my sleeve occasionally, saying, "Yalexis, can we go yet?" Dad and I definitely enjoyed it more than he did. Tyler gives the best hugs. Jacob is much less outgoing than his big brother but he does have the cutest smile. I also discovered he's a lot tougher than his brother. After falling backward down the stairs and hitting his head on the railing, he didn't cry at all. He just sat there on my lap looking stunned, pointing to his head and saying, "Bonk." It's somewhat frightening and yet awe-inducing that these short people are my brother's kids and he's a daddy. Also frightening - somewhere in their wriggly little bodies they probably have some of the same genes I do. Interesting.

The recap:
I went on two boats (one on Lake Tahoe and one on the Missouri River), one "train" tour through historic Helena, MT, saw Reno, NV, visited the Montana Capitol building, saw two movies, made a candle, went hiking, met both of my brothers' numerous pets, saw Idaho for the first time, ate out constantly and had a lot of fun with my family. I also spent somewhere around 65 hours in the car. On top of all that, when I was leaving the Cities to drive back to Duluth last Thursday, one of my rear tires blew out. I ended up staying at home an extra day (thus successfully escaping another day of work) and drove back to Duluth on Friday, just barely in time to make it to work.

In other news, Chelsea is leaving Australia on Saturday and will be back to Minnesota next Monday! I'm so excited!

It's only been a week of sleeping on couches, having soggy sandwiches on a near-daily basis (coupled with over-priced and yet astoundingly mediocre restaurant food) and becoming all too familiar with not one but two different vans (my parents' and my brother and sister-in-law's) and already I feel like I've been away for a month. But yea, though it sounds like this girl is all vacationed out, such is not the case. This is so much more fun than being in school and/or going to work.

Vacations for me have always been about spending time with family. Some people don't agree, including my parents. Sometimes they'd rather just go on vacation where no extended family lives so they don't have to deal with relatives and can do whatever they want to do. I'm not entirely against this vacation theory because it's not bad, as vacation theories go. In darker moments this past week I wished I were far away on a white sandy beach somewhere, enjoying a fruity cocktail instead of having my hair pulled by a 2-year old boy or being treated like a 12-year old by my well-meaning grandma. But I figure if you're going to make a trip somewhere, by car especially, you might as well go someplace in convenient range of people you love but never get to see. Thus I find myself in dusty Nevada, sitting at my dad's laptop typing this while he tells me all about globalization and a sleek cat (nicknamed Psycho Cat) winds her tail around my leg and my nephew Tyler runs in and out, showing me things he's already showed me about 6 times today which shows me just how proud he is of his sticker book. Jacob (the 2-year old hair puller) just wandered in, trailing the cord of an electric mixer he's made his latest chew toy. He just smiled his mischievous grin at me, which means he's about to do something to Grandpa a.k.a. my Dad who has stopped talking and is now taking a little nap.

Personally, I wouldn't be anywhere else on vacation right now. Unless that white sandy beach and the cocktail came complete with Orlando Bloom. And maybe a personal servant. And a masseuse. But probably not even then.

Well hello.

The past week and a half or so was kind of a blur what with tests and packing and shenanigans (hehe, you Goldfiners know what I mean). And what did I get out of the whole thing?: I'm done with my third year of college (big sigh of relief), I'm never going to live in Goldfine again (exciting and yet sad), eggs are essential to finals week, and saying goodbye is no more fun than I remembered it being. Plus, packing up all your stuff to move it into someone's garage just to have to move it again in a few weeks is not as fun as it sounds.

So I've been living with Dave, Brian and Krista for the past few days and have been working since Monday. Living here hasn't been too bad but nothing here is mine so I know I don't belong. It's just a stopping ground until I can move into my house. The Twin Cities were calling me for a while and I got homesick, but I know that's not the place for me right now either. It's just weird that I'm here all summer when a lot of my friends have left. It will take some adjustment but if you ever want to spend an extended period of time in Duluth, summer is the time to do it. However, Duluth will not be home forever.

I credit the weather with part of this homesickness. It would help if it were warmer here (do you hear me Mother Nature? I shake my fist at you!). Strange how the weather can have such an effect on mood.

Late tonight after work I will leave Duluth round about 11 and venture home where I'll crawl into bed and be rudely awakened around 5 or so to get back in the car and drive to Colorado Springs, where we will spend the night with my Grandma, then get back in the car (along with Granny and her sister) to drive to Reno and then on to Lake Tahoe! I'm going on a real honest-to-God vacation and I get to see my brother and my sister-in-law and my dad and my nephews! Oh, and my parents and my Grandma and her sister. And mountains! Loads of 'em! After Tahoe we're heading to Helena, Montana where we'll stay with my other brother and sister-in-law. I'm pretty ecxited about it, can you tell? Except for, you know, the whole hours and hours of driving part. That's not so cool.

Anyway, there is much to be done before I can go on said roadtrip. Must get to it.

Crikey it's humid down here in the Twin Cities. Driving for what seemed like forever this afternoon down I-35, I appreciated the way it got gradually greener the closer and closer my car got to home but I had no idea what the temperature was like. Going south on I-35 is like riding in a time machine - traveling to what Duluth will look like in the future. Yellow flowers were growing on the side of the road and when I got off at my exit, there were delicate pink blossoms on all the crabapple trees and tulips were growing along Carlson Parkway. As I pulled up to my parent's house and got out of the car the humidity was pretty surprising but not unwelcome and the smell of lilacs - oh the lilacs! - was everywhere.

One final left on Thursday and why am I here? To sign papers on my house, of course. At least here I'm somewhat isolated without the distractions of friends and roommates and the lure of packing so I can get down to studying. Riiight. Speaking of, Analysis of Public Discourse is calling me.

P.S. I found a cool site/program that posts pictures automatically to blogs, free of charge! Hence the dorky picture of me. :)

Alexis, the glasses-wearing superheroine.  

Will summer ever come to the northern climes of Duluth-land? Survey says: probably not. At least not summer in the form that our Twin Cities neighbors to the south seem to be enjoying already. However, there was a raised hair-inducing thunderstorm last night that made the sky go from vibrant orange to midnight blue in a matter of minutes. Luckily the rain gave us Goldfiners enough time to enjoy Aurora's end of the year farewell barbeque that featured a large quantity of uneaten hot dogs and excellent dill pickle potato chips... and plenty o' people and fun.

Blogger.com changed their whole set-up and added a whole ton of new templates. It'll take some adjustment but it seems to be a good set-up. Plus, Amanda and I were really excited about the new templates - it was like Christmas in May for we dorks. No, of course this template isn't my own design. Who do you think I am?

Packing is fun but I hate saying goodbye. Even if it is only for a short time.

YAY!!! I'm done with my trabajo de investigacion (term paper) for Spanish! As in I've-already-turned-it-in-so-it's-too-late-to-change-anything done, not just I'm-finished-writing-the-stupid-thing done! I actually finished it last night right 'round midnight and I think it was a fairly good paper. The presentation I gave in small group in class today was not great, however, I don't care especially and I don't think the freshmen in my group cared that much either... apparently I'm the only one interested in machismo in the book Cronica de una muerte anunciada by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. At least my tema (topic) was unique, unlike the six people who wrote about Frida Kahlo and the three about Diego Rivera. Not that I don't like Frida and Diego or anything, but there are so many interesting things to write about and everyone in the class (being students de Espanol) knows tons about them already.

However, there was a ginormous lack of sleep after I finished the damn thing... I think the anxiety of the past few days just took hold and decided that even though things are slowly being resolved in a more or less orderly fashion, I really only needed to sleep 3 hours or so before the last day of class. I think I may be a little goofy today. But at least I don't feel as crazy or anxious as I did a couple days ago. With the exception of the fiesta de toss-and-turn last night, yesterday was pretty good and today will be an improvement on that, hopefully. Chelsea called and we talked about everything, which helped so much; Anne left me a really sweet message that cheered me up; and Eric (Anne's boyfriend) told me all about Venezuela... or actually just copied and pasted info. from the CIA World Factbook but it's nice to know he's looking out for me and my drug-purchasing interests. Because I'm clearly going to South America just to buy drugs.

Anyway, I'm skipping my last Analysis class with Pfauza. As great as I think Pfauza is, I just need to eat and take a nap because today is also my last day of advising and I need to be rested up to babysi - I mean - help the 18-year olds register. Besides, it's a review session and though free answers are nice, I think I can find the answers on my own. Have a good last day of class UMD students!

...and the freaking out continues

So I'm just freaking out here, going a little crazy whilst I work on my Spanish term paper. Here's another thing I've been tweakin' about today:

It turns out that the deal on my house (the house I love, the first on the page, the 1920s house I was going to live in) fell through. Well, it's a long story and what's important is that I am not moving in there on the 14th. Which is when I have to move out of my apartment. Which means I have no place to move into. Because oh. my. god. I don't have any place to live. Not only do I have no place to live, my friends who were going to live with me have no place to live and they were counting on me, I'm supposed to be taking care of this (well, my parents are taking care of this and I'm along for the ride) and what am I going to do?!

These were my thoughts on Monday when I found out. But... Mike, my amazingly determined step-dad, drove up here yesterday and we spent a looong time looking at even more houses, comparing and contrasting and by 5 o'clock we had made an offer on yet another house. (For those of you keeping score at home, this is the third offer we've made on a house.) It looks like we're going to get it, too, and might be able to close on it by the 27th!

So some distressing stuff has happened in the past week or so. Sometimes I get pretty sad about it but for the most part it's been okay. It just has to come at one of the worst times of the year a.k.a. right around finals week, when I have so much other stuff going on and of course! I absolutely need to be dealing with two major issues like where I'm going to be the fall of my last year in college and where I'm going to live. Yeah. The week is almost over and then I'm practically home free (haha, no pun intended... home-free, get it?). In the meantime I'll just take everything a step at a time and I'll make it, I'm sure. But if anyone wants to send me cookies or flowers or anything, you know... I'm just saying.

major whining contained within

I haven't been feeling much like thinking about anything that's been going on recently, much less writing about it. I've been having some crappy days and not just due to it being the last week of classes. The usual hectic rate of the last two weeks of school has been present but there have been lots of fun little sidenotes that have made the last few days pretty rough.

First there was finding out about Argentina, which may have been the hardest thing to take of everything that's happened. Probably better that it happened first, then. Suddenly I can't do what I've been planning to do for months and I have all these decisions to make and it all has to be done in a relatively short span of time if I want to be able to go anywhere. And I'm not terribly good at making decisions. Once I make a decision I'm usually confident about the decision I've made and I don't second-guess myself too often... it's the whole getting to the actual decision-making that's hard.

So now I'm stuck - I can't decide how much I really want to go to Venezuela. It's not that I don't, I mean, it's Venezuela and it would be amazing to go there and all, but I wanted Argentina. It's hard to change my mindset after all that. I've looked for other programs that go to Argentina but most start right in the middle of July. I'm taking summer classes then and it's not like that can't change but I also need to work this summer to make money to study abroad. I've thought about other countries in South America - Chile, specifically - but for a lot of those programs it's the same deal; the semester would start in July. The Venezuela program starts in the middle of August which is better. Then there's a multi-country program that would go to Mexico, Argentina and Spain. Now that would be awesome but it's a lot more money than any other programs I've looked at, plus I think I'd rather stay in one country and be able to travel around to other places (the Venezuela program would allow me time to do this).

Anyway, sorry for the rambling, it's just stressing me out a lot and I don't really know what I want to do. If anybody has any suggestions or advice, I would really appreciate some help. Hey, you guys should find me a great program that goes to Buenos Aires and doesn't start until at least mid-August (end of August would be even better!) and isn't too far below my Spanish skill-level. And... go!

So, the word on the street is that I wasn't accepted into the Argentina study abroad program. Turns out I'm overqualified. Whhhaaat? Yeah, apparently I have too much Spanish background and it just wouldn't be the best program for me. That's the reasoning behind not accepting me. It goes without saying that I was upset. I emailed the U of M Learning Abroad center on Thursday night just to ask if they had even received my application and when I sat down at my computer Friday afternoon, they had emailed me back and that's what they said. I burst into tears as soon as I saw the email. I'm still sad about it. Ugh.

But, there's a whole new game plan in progress: the woman who emailed me was the Argentina program coordinator, and she suggested that I apply for the Venezuela or Spain programs. The Venezuela program was my second choice so I'm going to go ahead and apply for it. Argentina was my first choice, for many reasons, but I'm open and I'm willing to change my goal. It's still South America, which was my overall main choice for study abroad. I suppose I should change those links on my sidebar.

School is winding down and I finally have more things to do. I have a test tomorrow and my Spanish term paper is due on Friday. I will be watching the Friends finale, of course (who do you think I am?), so the paper and the presentation for it must be done or practically done by 7 p.m. CST Thursday night.

I went to the Attitudes dance performance on Friday night and it was awesome! Aurora is the president of Attitudes and I could see the end result of all the work, time, and tears (oh, and there were tears, poor girl) she has put into it over the past school year. Plus, I got to see her dance which is always great. She did amazing work - in dancing and in running the whole show!

I'm sick sick sick AGAIN. I was sick around Easter time and I have another cold. I hate being sick. More than anything I hate having a stuffed up head and thankfully that is not one of my symptoms this time around. You know the feeling, right? Like having your head stuck in a fish bowl? That feeling makes me a very sick and complain-y person. But hooray for chest congestion! *cough cough hack*