two TIUA students showed up at my doorstep

ok, so that's an exaggeration. Actually I got a call at 9:42pm on Sunday night from Kazuma, who was on my TaB trip, saying that he was at the Greyhound bus station in New Orleans with his friend Kohei. I asked "do you want me to come get you?" he said "please." So I picked them up and they said they'd like to stay for a couple of days and I said I'd show them around.

Their plan is to travel all around the US on Greyhound buses. So far they've been to San Francisco, LA, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, El Paso, Houston and New Orleans. From here they are going to Atlanta, Washington D.C., New York, Chicago, and Yellowstone... crazy. They will have seen more of the US than me!

So yesterday and today my friend Sheba and I showed them all around the French Quarter, ate some beignets, took a ferry across the Mississippi, ate some po-boys, listened to some live jazz... basically it was really fun playing tourist for a while.

My brother got his wisdom teeth out this morning... I can already tell the wisdom is gone. jkjk. Also, this weekend Sheba and I are going to a concert by a latin bachata band from New York called Bachata Heigtz. OH yeah.

That's it for plans. Oh, and I called my Scottish university this morning and could barely understand the woman who answered the phone. Their accent is rough.

aaaannnnd then i found 20 bucks

...only i really did! but it's not a cool story, so don't be excited. my dad and i were in a casino in washington, and there was a $20 bill on the ground next to where some lady was sitting. i picked it up, and i considered asking her if it was hers, but then i figured she'd say "yes" no matter what. so, i found a security guard and told him i found it on the ground next to her. he took it from me, and i asked him if i could have it if it isn't hers, and he laughed at me and said, "no." so then i left and told my dad. and then i realized how stupid i was because the lady left and the security guard still had the twenty, and i still didn't have it. anyway, i questioned him further, and he said that there was also a man sitting there earlier, and they have to "review the security tapes." anyway, my dad thinks he's going to keep it...and i kind of do, too. and now i feel dumb because somebody else (who didn't deserve it) got the money instead of me. but then i was also thinking that if i had just kept it, i would have also felt guilty. so the moral of the story is: money sucks. because i would have just been better off if i had never encountered it, anyway. but instead, i thought about it for a few hours last night, and there wasn't really a good way out.

I didn't play futbal. There is a big difference between soccer and futbal. So if somebody invites you to play futbal with them in South America, they are just messing with you.

Holy Shit Kids, I Jumped Off a Bridge

And dropped 43 meters, attached to a giant rubberband. We went to Queenstown this weekend--FUCKing sick--and did a number of things. First, we went to a winery and tasted wine at a place owned by the cofounder of bungee jumping (which actually I technically went "bungy" jumping--I guess because the two guys who invented it trademarked that spelling) to calm our nerves before the fall. (The two places were about 100 meters apart haha and don't worry, there was a spit bucket for me and anyone else who wanted to use it.) So then I jumped off a bridge!! It was SO scary, but so awesome--my first thought as I flew threw the air was exactly that--("OH MY GOD I JUST JUMPED OFF A BRIDGE WHY DID I JUST JUMP OFF A BRIDGE". "OH MY GOD!!!!!" was what I screamed out loud on the way down--no swear words, go figure. and then I didn't even realize I closed my eyes until I opened them on the way back up again, and then I just kept swinging--it was so much fucking fun!! My stomach drops just thinking about it! So that was friday, afterwards we went hot tubbing (too many people in one tub and not enough time haha fun combination) and then to dinner at Speights, which is a brewery here, and they had VERY good lamb. It has been so much fun talking to the people on the trip--they are all very interesting and there's one or two of them I hope to talk to many times again in the future... ;) We wlaked around town for a bit and there was a fudge shop open till like 11pm, which is the best idea ever, and then we went back to bed because the next day we went skiing at Coronet Peak. It was so beautiful, it's different though because just the slopes had snow--if you looked down at Queenstown there was no snow, and there were also no trees on the mountain--but great, GREAT views. We went hot tubbing again, had some dinner--the place was called Hell's Pizza, and you could take the pizza box and punch out a cardboard coffin that was "for you remnants". Then Martin, Katie, and I (Martin=Danish flatmate, Katie=our coincidental friend) went out to town and talked and danced like crazy. (Mads, I wish I could see what you were talking about with everyone dancing in Ecuador, that sounds amazing). Then the next day we went Jetboating--which is a speedboat that only needs 6 inches of water to go through and is nuts--it goes about 75 km/hr--which is fucking fast for a speedboat, especially going through a canyon and doing 360 degree spins. It was so fucking cold though, my face went numb. After that we went up a gondola to amazing views of Queenstown and went lugeing. And now we are back! And I have school tomorrow...

The Story of the Fox and the Cat

Once upon a time.....
There was a mound in the sagebrush behind a little house. In the middle of the mound there was a great hole, but who lived there? A family of foxes, of course! There was a mother and her two babies and they had lived in that hole for a long time.
But one day....a cat moved into the little house nearby. An old cat named Jasper.
One day the mother fox was sniffing around outside the mound and the old cat was also sniffing something close by. What's that smell? The two sniffed towards each other through the high grass until they were nose to nose! The cat surprised the fox and the fox surprised the cat and they both jumped straight up in the air and then took off in opposite directions.
The two great predators met in a most unexpected way. Will there be a fight? Will one have to move? Will the people in the house have to fear for the life of the old cat? No, not now. For now, neither knows what the hell the other is.
The End.

This is too long for facebook

SO I checked out the date Aug 25 because it looks like at that time, Portland will become a Mecca to my favorite Willamette-ites and I wanted to see if I could join in the mayhem. Turns out I'll be unable to do so unless your schinannigans last past 10pm because that will be my last week as a canvasser. HOWEVER, I will be promptly be heading down to Salem to see everyone before I catch the train on Sep. 5 on my way to San Fran, and from there to Lima with Natalia.

I've got some favors to ask though. First off, is anyone headed down to Salem via Portland anytime between Aug 28 (my last day of work) and Sep 5 (when I catch my train from Salem) that would deign to give me a ride? And also, after this whole South America adventure is over, on Dec. 15 I will be arriving back in Salem around 2pm and I was wondering if someone from there would give me a ride up to Portland after a couple of days recoop. on campus. It will be finals week for you Willamette-ers so I could wait until you finished up the sem or if you had a free day or something and wouldn't mind an hour break to take me home....

Last favor. For my time in Salem, can I crash on somebody's floor?

SIDENOTE: Natalia, I bought my Amtrak ticket for Sep 5 out of Salem (if you don't come to campus beforehand, just board at Portland and I'll join you 45 min later. Save me a seat! Just to be sure, it is Coast Starlight train no. 11.) Return ticket is Dec. 14, Bus #5014 and then switching to train Coast Starlight no. 14 later on. Since Amtrak has so many stops for San Fran, select the Ferry building one -- it's closest to the airport.

Let the frenzy begin!

estoy en casa

y solamente mirando televicion que es en espanol... it's sad.

la familia

Well, I'm in Quito now. I have a nice family, who is patient with my broken Spanish.

Yesterday I went to a small Catholic church (my mother describes herself as very Catholic) and met the rest of my mother's family. Later that night we all went over to the mother and father of my host mother's house (boy that was a bad sentence) for a family get together. There I got to experience 3 conversations at once with the TV on in the background. Later they taught me their version of poker (in Spanish), and I ended up winning 6 dollars. Of coarse I felt really bad because my host dad lost like 2. I used my winnings to buy jabon.

Tomorrow, my host brother said I could come with him to play futbal in this small covered arena. Basically, he and his friends challenged the guards who work their, and that way they get in free. Of coarse, my host brother says that basically all he does is play soccer, and I basically never play soccer (since the glory days of Willamette intermerals that is), so I am a little hesitant to play with a bunch of South Americans who live and breath soccer. Basically, I am going to get destroyed.

Irapuato y mis enfermedades

Hola amigos,

So I´ve been in Irapuato now for 2 weeks working for a prof at the University here and living with his family. Basically I´m reading and analyzing all of his students reports on compost and microparcelas that they did this last semester, and am writing a report of my own. All in spanish. Its not the most exciting work ever, but I´ve learned a lot.

So when I arrived I still had a cactus espina stuck in my arm, and it got infected. They immediately started trying to dig it out, but couldn´t find it and started telling me horror stories about how they can go into your veins and travel about your body causing damage. So after a few days when it was still worse, we went to the emergency room and the doctor was able to get out a lot of pus and clean the infection. She couldn´t find the espina either, but said that the infection probably ate it. The visit plus the antibiotics only cost $10 and took about 45 min. Whats this about substandard health care?

So after I recoverd from the espina I got pretty sick, really sore throat and headache and totally exhausted for about a week. As of yesterday I´m feeling better now.

Oh, something cool though, I got to acompany el profe to this tiny little community en las sierras where he taught a course on microparcelas ( a system of gardening thats really efficient) and we built the little raised beds and passed out seeds and taught them how to plant them. It was such an amazing experience. They didn´t even have electricity. The old women were the most enthusiastic, and one woman, probably 70 was wielding a pick to loosen the soil. It was incredible.

I love reading about everyone's doings, I have such awesome friends. Butchery and bees and environment and Quichua and mexico and music and cherry trees and travel, its so great to hear about it all!
My life has been kind of crazy lately-we fished in the same cove for a month straight for sockeye ssalmon.
On July 6th, my dad ran his boat into a rock and basically sank it. It was insane. There were coast guard helicpoters and jets, like 8 boats helping him, and it was front-page news for two days in Kodiak. It was salvaged to shore, but my dad has basically destroyed his life's work and home, it is pretty devastating for him. Losing that boat has almost felt like a death in the family or something. It is amazing how attached we can become to boats.
Aside from that, weve still been having a lot of fun..beach bonfires and fishing and exploring and whatnot...summer in alaska is just perfect. The fireweed and lupine are blooming, and salmonberries and just starting to get ripe. Everything is GREEN, like every shade of green you could imagine.
I am ridiculously tired right now, ive been up for 40 hours now. Im finally living on land again, for a short while anyway, and am looking forward to a regular bed and some shuteye. night night

OSPIRG

This week I have switched from canvassing for Environment Oregon to OSPIRG. It's weird after having done this for 6 weeks to be "experienced" but at the same time totally back to the beginning because I don't know a lot about OSPIRG yet. For the week or so I am taking a break from field managering, which means I get to sleep in and hang around the house a bit more and also get off work earlier. Suh-weet. On Monday I am taking the day off for a dentist and South America inspired doctor's appointment but that won't take all day.... ANYONE WANNA HANG OUT?? Haha, I'm seriously starved for company.
On other notes, my sister is in Bangladesh right now working at the brand new Asian University for Women. She left on the 4th of July but all I've heard from her so far is that she got there safely and loves it. She's going to be working in their writing center or something. My sister is so cool...

bees and trees

My title reminded me of a convenient store that they have around here called "Loaf 'n Jug." Isn't that a terrible name?
Anyways, I have been trying to get a beehive going up here. I ordered a whole beekeeper starter kit and built a hive. There were ten million pieces to it but it turned out pretty well. I was drilling and hammering on our dining room table for two days...Unfortunately, I started too late in the season and bee keepers around the country are sold out. Seriously, I have been calling people in Texas, Georgia, California..nothing. Anyone know anyone selling bees?
I guess I will have to wait until next spring to start my honey farm!dang
My brother just went back to Arizona to work at a camp teaching little Korean kids English. It's a pretty fun but tireing job. I did it one year, never again!
Now I am building a shelter with my dad for our horses cause when that 30 below weather hits they are going to be cold puppies. ( I know they aren't puppies)
So we are going into the woods and choppin wood. We like to call it humping logs.
The bark beetles have just devastated the forests up here. It's really sad. We been collecting the already dead trees. not new ones.
That's about it. Oh, except that it was recently Rendesvous weekend here and a big rodeo. all fun.

dancing::ecuador -as- ?:: the US

Last night was my sister's graduation party. It was a school sponsored thing at a hotel. Strangely, there were only 15 people in her graduating class. Not sure if that's a sign of a small school or low grad. rates. Anywho what inspired me to write today is my appreciation of a certain aspect of this culture: dancing.

I feel like we have no equivalent in the US. Here everyone dances. Not only can it be a way for young people to meet and interact (and in some cases, let out some of that angsty sexual tension), but adults do it too. It's just what people do here to socialize, all the time. As soon as the meal was over, the lights went low and the DJ started the music, everyone booked it to the dance floor- moms and dads, grandparents, and the kids too. And the dancing went on until 2 am.

This is what I am currently loving about this culture. Why doesn't everyone in the US dance? Especially men. I'm not gonna lie, it is so cool to see men and guys who are able and are not scared to dance, and shake their butts a little. I feel like dancing is taboo for men in the US- unless you're humping some girl to gangster rap. Why isn't it cool? It is here.

this was a crowd fave: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL1hlzLsUaU
though a lot of it was salsa too, not just reggaeton

Yo Brett

You have to call me

Home

Dear, dear friends,

I'm Back in Bremerton now. Been here about 24 hours. This is my first post, because I didn't know this blog existed until a few weeks ago. It'll be cool to read it and catch up on y'all, though.

Remember that message I sent a while ago asking for questions (I accidentally typed "questinos" first, which sounds like a really cool bit left out of Don Quixote) to help me write about my experiences? I'll get to that pretty soon, I think. I haven't known what day of the week it was since Monday June 8, because that was my last exam. I've been travelling since then, so I haven't really had a chance to write anything coherent. Cohesive? Both, I guess. Feel free to ask some more questions if you want.

For now, a few thoughts:

Being home is not so strange. Leaving is much stranger. I left some great friends, a certain girl, a city that was beginning to feel like home, and a whole host of new experiences. I'll probably not see any of those things for years--the closest I'll come is looking at the pictures I took, listening to the few recordings I made or purchased of music and sounds I heard, and reading the occasional journal entry I wrote.

Countries I visited, in chronological order (I think):
Latvia
Estonia
Lithuania
Poland
Sweden
Russia
Finland
Germany
Bulgaria
Turkey

I think I want to live in Istanbul some day. The city is amazing. It's a collision of everything, and just about as sensory-interactive as I think a place could possibly be.

Love,
Brett

G'day!

So we're on a slightly different time schedule--I'm 18 hours in the future! I have a phone here but it's only for local calls/texts and I have like 4 numbers (my roommates lol) and I only have 500 texts...i'd go through that in like a week at home lol. (The girl who I bought my phone off was a study abroad student from last semester and when she chose the number it's 0027 GO OBAMA :):) thought you'd appreciate that!) We have a lot of orientation activities coming up so that's good, and I've been hanging out with Martin (he's my flatmate from Denmark) and Katie (who is the girl he met on the plane and they've both been here almost a week now) so it's good to have people to explore with. Yesterday we went to these botanical gardens Katie discovered on a run she went on and there was an aviary too, so we saw all kinds of parrots and stuff, and it's not a very far walk at all (I'll show you pictures of this crazy ass bird there is when I go back--I didn't have me camera that day) then we walked through some neighborhoods to what's claimed to be the steepest road in the world--it was raining and it's fuckin shit cold here. Like shit cold. I sleep with a sleeping bag, a sheet, and 3 blankets, as well as wear sweats and pajama pants, 2 pairs of socks and usually a few layers on top--no central heating or insulation. Then I went on a campus tour and came home and me and Martin made soup and we played cards and watched Dogville--have you ever seen it? Crazy movie. Today we had an info session and then we walked to the store and have just been hanging out. It's a very neat town though, all of the buildings and streets have a lot of character and the hills are rolling and everything's really green. I've never been compelled to shop much but downtown in really cool and so many people walk around despite the cold that I like just walking to see stuff and talk with people. I have yet to go down to the harbor though--this weekend we'll take a boat ride to tour it though, so I'm really excited about that--we should get to see a lot of wildlife (dolphins, albatross, penguins...we'll see!) The people are very friendly here--they are eager to help if you look lost, which is really nice, lol it's hard to understand them sometimes though with their accent. Some phrases: They'll say something is "sweet as"...but then that's the end of the sentence, like there's no completion of the simile, it's just something is "sweet as." and it means it's cool or good. "Cheers" is thank you, and instead of saying "I'm joking you," or "I"m kidding you," they say "taking the piss". I also just wrote to my parents to see if I can go bungee jumping...among other things, like wine tasting..but it's expensive, so we'll see!!

i work at safeway, too

in response to evan, i had my first day of actual work (as a courtesy clerk, like evan usually is), and the two most interesting things that happened were these: 1) i had to walk around with a customer and shop for him because he forgot his glasses and was shopping for someone else (he was also drunk), and 2) some lady ran her motorized cart into me as i was loading her groceries into her basket.

I'm dropping out of college to become a meat cutter

So today I awoke at 6:59 a.m., put on my blood-red tie, strapped on my apron, affixed the mandatory gloves to my belt loop, tied my Hush Puppies, used an electric shaver, got a burning sensation on my neck, kissed my mother, shook my dad's hand, inadvertently kicked the dog, then sped off in the Mazda towards store #4513 all the while anticipating my mysterious day labeled "Meat Cutter" rather than "Courtesy Clerk" on the work schedule.

Would they actually have me cut meat despite my lack of training? Would my precious fingers be in danger?

Well, the only time I ended up using a knife was to open some frozen fish fillets wrapped in plastic. And my fingers survived. The rest of the day was spent being assistant to "Will", a substitute meat department manager whose disdain for the regular manager's laziness was only exceeded by his adoration of the appearance of a few shopping mothers. I stocked lunch meat, slapped "Thin - Serves More!" stickers on meat packages, and sheepishly agreed with Will on the size of the "monsters" on that woman with the stroller over there.

Aside from a few blood stains and a new perspective on crass meat cutters, I took away perhaps a decent amount of money from my day.

Dog

My dog is snapping at flies that are buzzing around my room. That is all.

cherry tree

So I thought I would share some of the highlights of being home in simple, easy to read point form:

1. This cherry tree. Any place you reach you get a handful of cherries. And.. It looks like a monster at night. Big plus.

2. My mom called my friend Jim's mom to plan a get-together with our two family's and some friends, and she got the answering message. The kicker though, was that she ran out of time, so the answering message played back the message that she left. Pretty vanilla, I know, except that she couldn't stop laughing at her own voice. She just sat back and listened to herself talking and laughed.

3. I went to Seattle to become a townie for a day. We ate ice cream at an ice cream store (no Creole Creamer) where Brian's Natalie Portman looking GF Maradeth (whom we've all met and know to be a very agreeable person) works. We consider whether to pay the extra $1 for the waffle cone and Brian denies saying that waffle cone's are too trans fatsie. We agree.

(As a side note the cups and spoons are biodegradable because they are made out of potatoes. They are called tater-ware)

4. I went on a bike-ride today with my best friend Jim down to the lake to go swimming and enjoy each other's company. The wind was high, as were the waves, so it was only us out in the water. We dove around a bit, looking for our infamous rock pile from two summers before to no avail.

5. Family and friends always seem to be changing!

Ok, there are my five points.
-Dan

Me encanta (a freakin' long blog)

I can’t really say that I’ve had that many life changing experiences. Our world is so globalized with information that it’s hard to see something really new, or to feel something incredible that you never thought you would. I can strongly say that this weekend trip to the jungle in Ecuador changed my life.

As part of the program we were taken to a resort called La Casa del Suiza six hours out of Quito in the Amazon jungle. The resort is on the Rio Napo in the pueblo of Ahuano (for those google earth junkies). We got there on Thursday and stayed for three days. All of our time was scheduled with incredible trips. Thursday after almuerzo we were taken by our guides to a mariposa greenhouse where we were shown different species at different phases and cocoons that looked like gold.

That night, of course most of our group had to find a bar (for those of you who don’t know, I am suffering on this trip only from constant company of jovenes-alcoholics). We went into the tiny pueblo (town) and walked in the dark down the road where we found a karaoke bar, along the way passing a solely-lit, packed, volleyball court in the vein of foreshadowing. All twenty four americans in this tiny bar. Beer for a dollar. Couple of locals hanging out. Drank a little, early night.

Let me make a comment about traveling with Americans. I am traveling with the Americans who embrace obnoxious American stereotypes. I am constantly embarrassed. Por ejemplo, a cultural different becomes apparent in a karaoke bar. On our “ecua-karaoke” there were of course english and spanish songs. When a local would do a spanish song, it was beautiful. I hardly knew that I was listening to karaoke and not a cd. When an American does a karaoke song, he or she brings up three of his or her friends, beers in hand and shout Mambo No. 5 into the mic off key, off tone, dancing like fools. Eff.

Anyway, so I introduced this longest blog of the century as a life changing experience. Well, the key to this came the next day when we became friends with our guides. These men, Freddy and Ronald, took us on our excursions into the jungle and showed us all of the amazing medicinal plants and cacao trees and animals. My friends and I befriended them and they invited us to a party that was happening that night. It was a graduation party for some girl, but more than that it was a Quichua (local indigenous) party. We met them at nine and ended up going to a discoteca for a while first but later Emily, Ismael, Sarah, Belinda and I went with Freddy and Ronald to our first Quichua party.

To set the stage, the town is made of hut like buildings. They are raised to be protected from river flooding and have thatch roofs. These are indigenous people living traditionally. We went off the main road and in the dark through the neighborhood dirt paths in the town. Eventually we arrived at the casa on the river. Freddy went in to ask permission, all was quiet, and then the Quichua music began... the most beautiful music. We went in and sat on a bench. It wasn’t five seconds before a couple of smiling men came over to ask us gringas to dance. I did not stop dancing that night except to pee by the river. I have never peed in a more beautiful setting.

Each dance I would talk with the men and ask them about their lives. Most had lived an Ahuano their entire lives. Some had fought in militaries, and all of them spoke Quichua.

I was welcomed in to an indigenous family’s home and partied with them, traditional style. I was so honored when a woman came up to offer me Chicha. It is the traditional alcoholic drink that is made by chewing on Yuka root until it ferments. I was offered to drink it twice... and luckily have not had any stomach problems from the tap water.

To cut this shorter, the next night our friend Logan played in the local volleyball game and his team won. We were invited to another birthday party and were up until 3 am dancing with the locals. We sat in the street for an hour waiting for the guard to open the gate, and soaked up Ahuano.

My life was changed by a village of friendly, poor, but not suffering people who welcomed me so enthusiastically that I forgot to be embarrassed that I was white. I want to learn the language of Quichua and I have fallen in love with Ecuador. I have only two weeks left and am tempted to ditch Scotland and travel around America Sur with all you others. I want to continue to study spanish and return to learn Quichua. Hopefully this feeling of amazement lingers. I know yall will have a just as wonderful experience. Katie, sounds like you are :)

Less than two weeks left. Dan, you are going to love this place.

Back from the farm

Hey all! O man, its great reading everyone{s posts, Mads keep at the spanish, you'll rock by the time you get back and watch out for the ladrones. you know what? thats actually not something Ive worried about at all in Mexico. Guanajuato is possibly the safest city I{ve visited, I feel totally comfortable walking by myself at 2 am. (not that I do that that often, usually someone offers to walk with me). And en el rancho, no hay muchas personas.

Ya, so I did get a hold of Oscar, and it turns out he does have a family, but he doesnt live on the farm. This guy Alonso does though, but the day after I arrived he left to visit his familia en México. Getting to the farm was a hastle, because although I had the address, no taxi driver knew where it was. So I lived alone on this cactus farm for a week, at which point I finally met Oscar, and he informed me that his family was going to come the next day and I had to move out. I had been working everyday with the 4 workers that come every day, Vicente, y sus hijos Coco, Adrien y su sobrino Daniel. Vicente invited me to stay with his family, which I did for 3 days. They live in un rancho (basically a very small town with dirt streets and horses and trucks) and I was definitely the only guera there. I was standing outside the house with Vicente talking to a neighbor, and a school bus full of kids stared at me shouting Miren, guera! lol, whatever. Anyway, they are the nicest, most generous people ever. They already have 8 people living in a very small house, but would not take no for an answer when I told them that I didn´t want to cause them any problems. Margo, la esposa de Vicente even cried when I left, even though it had been such a short time.

So working on a cactus farm really isn´t all that bad, but hay muchas espinas. I wore long sleeve and leather gloves and still was pulling them out every hour. Basically what we did was weed in between the rows of nopales. you couldnt even squat down to do this because the cactus would prick your ass, so it was really hard on your back. Vicente and Coco dont even wear gloves to work, crazy.

Now I´m off to Irapuato to stay with and help a professor allá. Hoping that everything goes well. Cuidense mucho, todos.

break-thru

The family I live with consists of my mother, Ibis, and my 17 year old sister, Maria Elena. For the past 2.5 weeks my mother has been the most patient, compassionate, interested, and enthusiastic person in regards to my limited but improving spanish-speaking abilities. My sister however has been more of a challenge. In general she's not the happiest person and is annoyed with Ibis alot. She speaks very fast and does not exactly cater to my handicap... so we have ended up more or less saying hello and goodbye and not speaking much at the table.

HOWEVER, tonight was a breakthrough. For the first time Ibis, Maria Elena, her friend Paulina and I sat down for "dinner" and a conversation emerged. It was one which I could completely understand and that was lighthearted. I forgot all about my selfconsciousness and really enjoyed the conversation. My sister, mother and I all ended up with a mad case of the giggles which was encouraged by a moth flying into my face and my sister making fun of how much food my mom forces on me.

It's moments like these that really get me excited about being here and speaking Spanish.
Success.
Mads.

ps. I saw a whale... does this mean I'm as cool as Natz now? Oh wait, not possible :)
pps. more pictures on my flickr for all to peruse