y mas

sitting in the sand by the Mediterranean

looking back out over part of Roquetas

John and Fatou

NDeye making poulet yassa- my favorite!

NDeye and me a few days before I left

the campos at night

my first English class

Rachel and I with some guys at Mojonera

A few of the women at the weekly Friday Women's Class

Es que...

I'm back. I'm processing. Give me a few and I'll fill you in :)

My Angry Semester

Ok, I don't really mean angry, but it's a short word and more provocative than "The Semester Where I Was Upset, Defensive, Sad, and (In General) Crazy for No Particular Reason."

I blame it on the winter. It was COLD. For a long time. The sun didn't shine, the birds didn't chirp, and I couldn't go outside without bundling up and running from heated building to heated building. I was MISERABLE. Usually when I'm miserable, I cry about it and hug it out. And go outside where the hot and shining sun warms and hugs my soul. This winter, though, created a monstrous beast inside me! I was angry at the cold weather! Pissed off for being cold ALL the time! And, as there was no one with whom to snuggle it out, my only resort was punching it out. But there was nothing with which to punch it out, either, so I just sat (inside) and stewed. I would dream of the warm beach and curse the cold weather. Impulse control was the only thing that stopped me from shoving my fists through the tiles in the shower as, morning after morning, I was literally shaking from being so cold - even though the water was on full hot.

Now it's warm. It's sunny. My soul rejoices!! And yet...sometimes I still want to wield a baseball bat and smash tiny delicate glass objects. Instead, I skipped class this morning.

Now I know why Northerners have such a reputation for rudeness. Poor folks are just cold.

Giddy :)

Say say oh playmate won't you play with me and bring your dollies three into my cellar door and we'll be friends forever more. one two three four.

(fake trumpet solo)

:D

If all the rain drops were lemon drops and gum drops

Yesterday I tripped and fell while running. Well, let me be honest. I tripped and FLEW forward, landing squarely on my chest with my legs flying up over my head...yep, I felt my legs FLY up into the air. I had lept out of the way as a car came closely down my side of the road. There was plenty of room - if he/she had hugged the center line all would have been fine, but he/she didn't and I tried to give him/her a wide berth and consequently tripped over something in the gutter. I've fallen before while running (tripping over my own feet), but then I just fell straight down and stayed there. This time, I kind of skidded forward when I hit the ground. I cut up my finger and hand, and really bruised my left knee. It's all big and blue and purple and swollen. My right knee has a bruise on top with a lovely raspberry in the middle. And I have some scratches on my upper leg. I limped back to campus and a friend drove me home :)

THEN! Today I slammed my middle finger in the bathroom stall door at school. SLAMMED. I almost fell down it hurt so much! Instead, I tried not to scream (the bathrooms are very echo-y) or throw up. I went back to class and told my friend and shook it off. I now have a little bruise under my nail and I couldn' t type with my middle finger for the rest of the class :)

Maybe I should pay more attention and pick up my feet more...nah. I think the solution is to run on marshmallows and have doors made of clouds...

Pandora Internet Radio

Has taught me a couple things:

I do not like Dave Matthews Band. Sorry. Just don't.

I do like James Taylor! I know, who knew? Apparently, I've liked him for a while, just didn't know he was the guy singing all these songs I like. Ditto for Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, and Tom Petty. Dude.

I have music ADHD and Pandora is a really good fix...I live off the Shuffle feature on iPod. This is 10x better.

I have no idea how music, the internet, or sound waves work.