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.