"She's not a girl who misses much...

do do do do do doo... oh yeah"

If you know what song that is, you are cool. If you don't you are still cool, but not quite as cool as the other people.


I bought my new guitar today. She's a beautiful acoustic-electric and her name is Lua (portuguese for "moon"). We even wrote a song together today. Lua is the only one for me. ;)

In other news, I looked online to see if I could figure out what went wrong with my digital camera. Turns out that after about 18 months, the lens motor always breaks on that type of camera and then you end up paying more to get it fixed than you would for a new camera. How about, not gonna get that thing fixed. Freaking Sony. Bought a 35mm to hold me over until I get back to the states.

My ISP is going alright, I was starting to get really stressed out but I did some tweaking of my topic and focus this morning so I feel a lot better about it. It's crazy to think that this time next week I need to be out of the field and writing a 30+ page paper. Last night me and Kevin took "how do you feel about the ISP?" pictures. In mine, I am pulling my hair out and screaming and Kevin is giving the middle finger. Words truly cannot do them justice.

Well, Lua is waiting for me so I better go. I'll be home in 20 days...

Thanksgiving

Well, yesterday was my first Thanksgiving away from home, and it went very well. We decided to go all out, so Jes made chickens (we figured that we were less likely to mess up chicken) and stuffing, mashed potatoes and deviled eggs and bruschetta as appetizers. I made macaroni and cheese and sweet potatoes (which both turned out good, thanks Mom and Mille). Kevin whipped up some guacamole, Nia brought a vegetable dish, and Carter, Jen, and Anna made apple pie. It was a really good time, I think we were all a bit amazed that we pulled it off and that the food was actually good. As if that weren't awesome enough, I also got a call from Anh-Thu yesterday, all the way from Cameroon. It was so unexpected but so great to hear from her.

What else...

This past Sunday was the Black Consciousness March in Salvador, it was really cool, I wish we had something like that in the US. I went with some girls I met through my ISP (which is going ok), they're really cool. Also, since it was Black Consciousness week there was this giant free concert at the lighthouse (which is only 6 blocks or so from my apartment). I missed Olodum, but I got to see Margareth Menezes and Ile Aiye with Daniela Mercury which was awesome.

My apartment is fabulous, and Kevin is a really good roommate. Besides being one of my favorite people on this trip, he also always leaves the toilet seat down, and I really appreciate that. And the other day when I got home he was cooking dinner. Yay Kevin! lol

Okay, I need to go and get some work done... or take a nap. Yeah, I'm probably just gonna take a nap.

back in Salvador

Woo, I'm back in Salvador! But I don't really have time to write right now.

I got a cell phone: (55 71) 9168 - 3780

Until later...

"Why I will never eat sushi again" (and other stories)

This week was, well... pretty rough. On Wednesday I had a big group presentation in the afternoon. We all thought it was in the morning so we showed up at 8:30 only to find out that we were supposed to present at 2pm. Fast foward to a couple hours later: the girls conviced me to go out for sushi with them. This was a big mistake. We went, I had some California rolls, they were okay, nothing too exciting. Then in the middle of the presentation I started to feel really sick to my stomach, dizzy, and feverish. I pretty much spent the rest of the day throwing up and wanting to die. When I woke up the next morning, I discovered that my eyes were red because I had popped some blood vessels. Today my entire left eye is red, I look like a freaking demon or something. Anyway, back to Thursday. So with red eyes and a body that's exhausted from being sick, I pack up my bags and head to a fishing village for the weekend.

Rude Awakening

Farid and I arrived in Batoque on Thursday night. Our host sister Rafaella met us at this market and took us to the house and we met the rest of the family. My favorite person in the family by far was Rafaella's 3 year old daughter Maria Duada (aka Duda), who is one of the friendliest and cutest little kids I've ever met. Unfortunately, my camera is still broken and I didn't get to take any pictures of her.
So the first night, I slept in a hammock that my host mom set up for me. Farid slept in a bed (bastard). One side of the hammock was secured to a hook in the wall, while the other with a rope tied to a ceiling beam. About 2/3 of the way through the night, the rope decides that it's not going to support me anymore. I'm half awake and I can hear it start to snap and there is absolutely nothing I can do about it. BAM, I fall flat on my back on a concrete floor. Then for the next two days we went hiking through sand dunes...

I also have more stories from this weekend, which don't involve me getting hurt. Like how I made friends with a little monkey named Dudú, or how I went out onto the ocean on a little fishing boat, but I need to get some rest, so that will have to wait.