The good stuff!
In my last post I touched on all the miserable goings-on; this time I'm focusing on all the more positive stuff.
NUMBER ONE: I leave tomorrow for Costa Rica. Now is the time to be sending me your updated addresses if you want to keep in touch with me or receive emails with pictures. I will be gone until mid-December and in the meantime my mother will be using my cell phone. Last night I deleted all the contacts and got sad because there are so many people and numbers I had stored but never called. Drifting away from old friends is always a little sad, and any and all of you are welcome (and encouraged) to get in touch with me while I'm away or when I come back. If you want my host family phone number or address, just ask.
My paperwork is in - I FINALLY got the letter (notarized, certified and duly authenticated)
and its translation done by my professor (notarized, stamped and in both Spanish and English) sent off to the consulate with the $40 fee. I have photocopies in case it doesn't get there in time. I'm setting my affairs in order and feeling very strange about it - last summer I didn't really want to stay home but was a little nervous about going away, but this time I feel like I'm leaving in the middle of all the fun. Honestly, I was supposed to go to the city with Boy and stay at his house and visit Frog and do all sorts of fun stuff, but that kind of got pushed aside because I had to help translate for our new Guatemalan employee and all and they would have had a hell of a time without me and it's still a bit shaky. BUT I still feel like it would've made a world of difference if I weren't about to leave. Then again I'd be training him and then he'd take over my job and I wouldn't have one. And my family'd start getting on my nerves or something would happen with my grandfather's health and then I'd wish I just left.
But for right now I'm kind of bummed, as I always am on my last day of a job. My dad called me punkin and bought me a camera and didn't short me on pay and my mom's behaving and my brother and I totally like BONDED when we went to Pirates of the Caribbean and we stayed out very late loitering in front of the theater making fun of people. And Geneseo isn't all that terrible and there are some really cool electives offered this fall that I would have been able to take and now I kind of feel bad about leaving. BUT I AM ABOUT TO BE IN COSTA RICA AND IT IS BEAUTIFUL!
I'm psyched, I really am, but last summer it was a lot easier to leave.
NUMBER TWO: I am growing a mini-mop. My hair, dyed brown last spring, hacked off in a fit of mid-summer fury, abused for the past two decades, has finally grown back (or healed) and is now red, swishy, wavy and in layers down to my armpits. It's nice.
NUMBER THREE: As skeeved out as I get watching punk-rock PDAs in the mall where greasy-haired, tattooed androgynous people whose pants are precariously held up by four studded belts and an erection paw each other up at the food court, there's nothing that makes me go 'aww' quite like watching two people in love interact. I saw a couple at Wendy's last week - two athletic, shiny-haired girls with complexions worthy of Clearasil ads and bright blue eyes, both wearing cargo shorts, polo shirts and clogs. They looked genuinely happy to be with each other, holding hands, stroking each other's arms, brushing hair back from eyes lit up with the glow of love. Then they kissed demurely and wrapped their arms around each other's waists before ordering chicken nuggets. Somehow I find this absolutely beautiful. And not just because they were cute lesbians.
NUMBER FOUR: Although I always find my tomboy, comfort-loving self at odds with my vain, girly alter-ego, I've finally found appropriate clothing that falls somewhere in between. H&M, one of my favorite stores, had plain linen halter dresses on the sale rack for $9.90 in seafoam, olive green and black, the latter two purchased by me. They're a simple style for a good summer sundress, skimming upper calf, and they're comfortable at the same time as being pretty. Very much recommended by me for anyone looking for cute clothes.
NUMBER FIVE: Speaking of the Guatemalan employee, he's doing well. We had ABC Chem-Dry come with their carpet zamboni and they did a great job that only took fifteen minutes. I finished the rest of the house and we brought in a chair and a TV for him as well as sheets. Grocery shopping was a bit awkward because I think my mom terrified him and because I didn't know what 'queso ranchero' was and Price Chopper doesn't carry it. He's only milked two days now with me in the parlor, but he's already gone from spastic, putting-machines-on-sideways ridiculousness to something resembling the normal routine except slower. By the end of the week he should be ok. Also, he's really really cute.
NUMBER SIX: Boy is also cute, and wonderful, and I love him. He's my best friend and I'm really going to miss him. I'm not sure what'll happen to our current relationship while we're so far away, but for now I don't foresee any real changes to the dynamic when I come back. And I am coming back, for now. Maybe someday I'll take the plunge and choose a country, playing for keeps, but for now my ticket is round trip and I'll be glad to see him again in December. And in the meantime, there will be mucho rocanrolero and boatloads of pejibayes and maracuya.
Bye, eljay, for now. Any updates from here on out will be sporadic, probably garbled, and at weird hours of the day. CAFE INTERNET, here I come!
NUMBER ONE: I leave tomorrow for Costa Rica. Now is the time to be sending me your updated addresses if you want to keep in touch with me or receive emails with pictures. I will be gone until mid-December and in the meantime my mother will be using my cell phone. Last night I deleted all the contacts and got sad because there are so many people and numbers I had stored but never called. Drifting away from old friends is always a little sad, and any and all of you are welcome (and encouraged) to get in touch with me while I'm away or when I come back. If you want my host family phone number or address, just ask.
My paperwork is in - I FINALLY got the letter (notarized, certified and duly authenticated)
and its translation done by my professor (notarized, stamped and in both Spanish and English) sent off to the consulate with the $40 fee. I have photocopies in case it doesn't get there in time. I'm setting my affairs in order and feeling very strange about it - last summer I didn't really want to stay home but was a little nervous about going away, but this time I feel like I'm leaving in the middle of all the fun. Honestly, I was supposed to go to the city with Boy and stay at his house and visit Frog and do all sorts of fun stuff, but that kind of got pushed aside because I had to help translate for our new Guatemalan employee and all and they would have had a hell of a time without me and it's still a bit shaky. BUT I still feel like it would've made a world of difference if I weren't about to leave. Then again I'd be training him and then he'd take over my job and I wouldn't have one. And my family'd start getting on my nerves or something would happen with my grandfather's health and then I'd wish I just left.
But for right now I'm kind of bummed, as I always am on my last day of a job. My dad called me punkin and bought me a camera and didn't short me on pay and my mom's behaving and my brother and I totally like BONDED when we went to Pirates of the Caribbean and we stayed out very late loitering in front of the theater making fun of people. And Geneseo isn't all that terrible and there are some really cool electives offered this fall that I would have been able to take and now I kind of feel bad about leaving. BUT I AM ABOUT TO BE IN COSTA RICA AND IT IS BEAUTIFUL!
I'm psyched, I really am, but last summer it was a lot easier to leave.
NUMBER TWO: I am growing a mini-mop. My hair, dyed brown last spring, hacked off in a fit of mid-summer fury, abused for the past two decades, has finally grown back (or healed) and is now red, swishy, wavy and in layers down to my armpits. It's nice.
NUMBER THREE: As skeeved out as I get watching punk-rock PDAs in the mall where greasy-haired, tattooed androgynous people whose pants are precariously held up by four studded belts and an erection paw each other up at the food court, there's nothing that makes me go 'aww' quite like watching two people in love interact. I saw a couple at Wendy's last week - two athletic, shiny-haired girls with complexions worthy of Clearasil ads and bright blue eyes, both wearing cargo shorts, polo shirts and clogs. They looked genuinely happy to be with each other, holding hands, stroking each other's arms, brushing hair back from eyes lit up with the glow of love. Then they kissed demurely and wrapped their arms around each other's waists before ordering chicken nuggets. Somehow I find this absolutely beautiful. And not just because they were cute lesbians.
NUMBER FOUR: Although I always find my tomboy, comfort-loving self at odds with my vain, girly alter-ego, I've finally found appropriate clothing that falls somewhere in between. H&M, one of my favorite stores, had plain linen halter dresses on the sale rack for $9.90 in seafoam, olive green and black, the latter two purchased by me. They're a simple style for a good summer sundress, skimming upper calf, and they're comfortable at the same time as being pretty. Very much recommended by me for anyone looking for cute clothes.
NUMBER FIVE: Speaking of the Guatemalan employee, he's doing well. We had ABC Chem-Dry come with their carpet zamboni and they did a great job that only took fifteen minutes. I finished the rest of the house and we brought in a chair and a TV for him as well as sheets. Grocery shopping was a bit awkward because I think my mom terrified him and because I didn't know what 'queso ranchero' was and Price Chopper doesn't carry it. He's only milked two days now with me in the parlor, but he's already gone from spastic, putting-machines-on-sideways ridiculousness to something resembling the normal routine except slower. By the end of the week he should be ok. Also, he's really really cute.
NUMBER SIX: Boy is also cute, and wonderful, and I love him. He's my best friend and I'm really going to miss him. I'm not sure what'll happen to our current relationship while we're so far away, but for now I don't foresee any real changes to the dynamic when I come back. And I am coming back, for now. Maybe someday I'll take the plunge and choose a country, playing for keeps, but for now my ticket is round trip and I'll be glad to see him again in December. And in the meantime, there will be mucho rocanrolero and boatloads of pejibayes and maracuya.
Bye, eljay, for now. Any updates from here on out will be sporadic, probably garbled, and at weird hours of the day. CAFE INTERNET, here I come!