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.