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.