i'm home

whatever that means.

worse things have happened to better people

here are the things that have happened in the past week:

the twins i was staying with had their 4th birthday and it was precious (insert mental image).

i fininshed classes and met mom in liberia.

we went to granada and san juan del sur, nicaragua.

i got on a bus and was stripped of everything, but my dirty laundry. so this is where i would post a picture if my camera had not been stolen. the picture that i want to post would look something like a bunch of angry costa ricans yelling and pointing at a man as he pushed people out of his way to get off the bus with a bag. eventually this man was stopped and his stuff searched, but he didn't have my stuff so they let him go. apparently, he had tossed my stuff out the window to one of his buddies who was also long gone.

...time lapse...

got kicked out the US embassy twice, but they did let me take a picture for my new passport that they refused to issue. as you can imagine, it was worse than my last one (and the last one was real bad). i had the puffy-eyed "i've just been stripped of all of my important worldy belongings and gotten kicked out of the embassy twice and it's raining" look. you know the one. anyway, so if anyone has a clue as to what goes on in embassies, i'd like to know. i think it's an international mafia front and they're all in the back playing diplomatic games of bridge or betting on cock fights.

so it's all good. i'll just come home in a couple of weeks and be broke and homeless and unemployed. pura vida.

adios, samara

it was nice knowin' ya.

good news and it´s accompanying bad

so you may recall that I bought this beautiful machine in April.

you may also recall this unfortunate occurrence.

the good news: i have been determined to be 0% at fault for the accident. the city has been found at fault for the cruddy road that threw my bike off balance and propelled me into a parked car.

the bad news: anyone know how to get the city to pay for damages?

happy hump day to me

so i´ve been here 3 weeks and i have 3 more to go.

here's another glimpse of my life in samara.

my room:


my walk home:



**this is where i was going to insert a picture of my legs which have acquired over 50 new mosquito bites this week alone just when the old ones were healing. then after several takes, they were really too disgusting to post so this is where i´m not posting a picture.

also, i just realized that when i get back to new york in 3 weeks, i will be homeless and unemployed. funny how that hasn´t occurred to me at all until now. any suggestions? i´ve been reading che guevera´s motorcycle diaries and i think it is giving me some bad ideas.

semana de tiburones y ramas

so I went surfing today after classes. gavi, the surf monk, had said that he was going to go out with me, which was a huge comfort because i still really suck and have pretty much no idea what i'm doing. of course, once i got there he informed me that his surf brethren had tipped him off to bigger and better waves and he was making a pilgrimage to another beach to wave worship.


so i strapped myself in and went out. my plan was to stay out long enough to get up 10 times. after 30 minutes when I had managed to get up once, i lowered my expectations to 5. thankfully, the next 30 minutes allowed me to make that happen. it wasn't pretty, though. i was constantly amazed at the strength of the leash--that mere rubber and rope could manage to keep itself together while i was frequently and violently separated from my board. my own toenail proved weaker than the leash and, i´m sad to say, is floating somewhere in the deep (if toenails are bouyant or if it hasn´t been washed ashore).

there wasn't anyone else out today when i went which killed my normal method of go where everyone else is and do what everyone else does. i was pretty much flailing around, pleased when i could paddle hard enough to keep myself in the same position (mind you, i was trying to get further out). so as i was bobbing, desparately trying to stay afloat and waiting for the next wave, i´m telling you, i saw a shark fin fly past in the water. i could see its little body underneath the water as well. it couldn´t have been much bigger than my arm and there aren´t really sharks at samara so i decided it was lost and couldn´t eat me. of course, a few minutes later when a branch surfaced right next to me, i almost wet my trunks (not that it would have made much difference).

i´ve had this problem all along of not being able to read the waves well even when someone is pointing things out to me. thanks to my practice today, i can now identify which waves i can manage to get over (or under) and which ones will throw me and my board in opposite directions and which ones will result in a wave wedgie. that´s not surfer talk because i´m pretty sure people who actually surf don´t experience these with the same frequency that i do (maybe because they learned long ago to identify such waves and accompanying conditions). so there are times, when i think, "hey, this looks like a good wave. i can catch this one." so i´ll lay down and start paddling and as the wave meets me and my board, by some miracle of physics, it grabs my board and my suit and hauls them to shore (keep in mind that i am attached to the board with my ninja grip) and somehow my body misses the boat...yield = wave wedgie.


(you probably can't tell that these kids are less than 10-years-old and some of them are not using a leash)

so after an hour or so of getting schooled by Lady Mar, i rinsed off, watched a really stupid movie in spanish (that was supposed to be about the environmental destruction of oiling companies, but ended up being about lots and lots of sex) and then i went back out and read and watched people enjoy the waves while the sun was setting.

eclipse total del amor

so i heard this song in its original english the other day and it brought a smile as it is laced with many a wonderful karaoke memory. then on saturday, i heard this version. i`m including the lyrics in case you want to sing along.



Mírame...
De vez en cuando siento que me estás olvidando
Y que no regresarás

Mírame...
De vez en cuando pienso que ya estoy muy cansada
De estar sola y de escucharme llorar

Mírame...
De vez en cuando miro atrás
Y veo con miedo
Lo mejor de nuestros años correr

Mírame...
De vez en cuando quiero escaparme
Y tu mirada me envuelve
Y me vuelvo a perder

Mira mis ojos...
De vez en cuando siento enloquecer
Mira mis ojos
De vez en cuando siento enloquecer

Mírame...
De vez en cuando sueño con alguna locura
Y no quiero despertar

Mírame...
De vez en cuando miento cuando buscas mis ojos
Y preguntas cmo estás

Mírame...
De vez en cuando muero de rabia y de celos
Pero nunca te lo dejo saber.

Mírame...
De vez en cuando quiero escaparme
Y tu mirada me envuelve y me vuelvo a perder

Mira mis ojos...
De vez en cuando siento enloquecer
Mira mis ojos...
De vez en cuando siento enloquecer

Y esta noche quiero más
que me abraces fuertemente
Que en tus brazos soñaré
que el amor es para siempre.
Que en penumbras un rayo de luz
nos envuelva a los dos.
Vivimos atrapados en un juego de azar
Tu amor es una sombra para mi libertad.
Ya nada puedo hacer y no logro escapar
De un fuego sobre pólvora que puede estallar
Y así te tengo que amar
El tiempo acaba de empezar
El tiempo no terminará

Erase una vez una historia feliz
Y ahora es solo un cuento de horror
Ya nada puedo hacer,
eclipse total del amor
Erase una vez una hazaña vivir
Y ahora ya no tengo valor
Nada que decir,
eclipse total del amor...

Mira mis ojos...
De vez en cuando siento enloquecer
Mira mis ojos...
De vez en cuando siento enloquecer

Y esta noche quiero más
que me abraces fuertemente.
Que en tus brazos soñaré
que el amor es para siempre.
Que en penumbras un rayo de luz
nos envuelva a los dos.
Vivimos atrapados en un juego de azar
Tu amor es una sombra para mi libertad.
Ya nada puedo hacer y no logro escapar
De un fuego sobre pólvora
que puede estallar...
Y así te tengo que amar
El tiempo acaba de empezar
El tiempo no terminará

Erase una vez una historia feliz
Y ahora es solo un cuento de horror
Ya nada puedo hacer,
eclipse total del amor.
Erase una vez una hazaña vivir
Y ahora ya no tengo valor.
Nada que decir,
eclipse total del amor...
Eclipse total del amor...
Eclipse total del amor...
Mira mis ojos...
Mira mis ojos...
Mírame...