*Rain me a River*

In an attempt to beef of this blog so I can beef up my English grade, I dug through my journals for inspiration. Ms. Christian said I can use actual entries too, but I've found I'm not ready for the general public to read my innermost thoughts, secrets, and pie recipes. Also, I often get caught up on getting facts onto paper, and the quality of my writing suffers for it. It's probably safe to say that my best entries have come from observing nature when life isn't in the way. My favorites are about rain. Some have been edited slightly, but I didn't change anywords. What you're about to read is as close to my actual journals as you'll ever get. Repititions, excessive punctuation, and the like are how I actually write. Enjoy.


August 28th, 2008
It’s raining! ¡Está lloviendo! After a suffocatingly humid morning, we’ve been blessed with rain! Well, it’s still suffocating, but at least there’s actual visible water. I can blame my damp clothes on precipitation, not perspiration.

September 20th, 2008
I’ve noticed a pattern here. It occurs just about every week. Saturday and Sunday are usually cold, then around Tuesday or Wednesday it warms up to comfortable. Thursday and Fridays are almost always HOT, with Friday being very HUMID also. You go to bed with only a sheet because of the heat and the bizarre desire to ignore the AC, but when you wake up, it’s almost certain to have rained in the night and made everything cold again. It’s like our weather is a sick person, always feeling too hot or too cold so it’s always changing.

November 6th, 2008
There is nothing quite like a 1pm Thunderstorm to boost your mood. Just had to mention that brief, amazing spectacle of nature before going back to school. A quick splattering of raindrops, a few sharp flashes, and rumbles that just get farther and farther away. Beautiful.
¡Que fantastico! I thought I had gotten a special 5 minute storm, but Oh-No! Just as we got to the school, the heavens were unleashed and buckets and barrels and casks of water dropped down on us. And hey, it was the last day of classes, so several Bolivians and I ran around in the blessed wet, until the Headmistress started yelling at us. Something about us being seniors now, or something to that effect.

December 10th, 2008
The heavens are dropping down fat, heavy water bombs of rain. The air smells hot and wet and very much alive. It's the kind of rain that makes you inhale more deeply in an attempt to get more of it inside you without drowning.

December 11th, 2008
…then it started to rain so I went outside and danced in it, and that was great, but I think the water broke one of my earbuds…
…I texted until almost 2am, all the while I was sitting outside watching the rain. I didn’t start to get chilly till the very end.

December 13th, 2008
I just participated in a fun little family-frenzy activity. Today started out cool, then got very hot, then very humid, then the heavens opened all over the drying laundry. Aida, Carola, Edu, and I ran outside and pulled it all off the lines as fast as we could. I love rain.

December 22nd, 2008
Está lloviendo. Había relampago, y yo puedo oyer mucho thunder ahora. Estaré triste cuando el estacion de lluvia termina. Es mi favorito estacion acá. No en Sitka, pero aquí es perfecto.
Translation: It’s raining. There was lightening, and I can hear a lot of thunder now. I’ll be sad when the rainy season finishes. It’s my favorite season here. Not in Sitka, but here it’s perfect.
December 25h, 2008
I’m sitting out on the patio of the resort, passing what is, I’m quite sure, my most unusual Christmas. Perhaps in an attempt to make the lack of snow more bearable, Santa Cruz was blessed with a soft rain and a temperature that, while by no means cool, is at least not too warm to wear my hair down.

January 29th, 2009
…Sometime after I fell asleep, it began to rain a deliciously rhythmic rain that made the humidity bearable and my sleep, well, fun. I had some rockin’ dreams.

February 7th, 2009
I started reading sometime around midnight. It had been a muggy, cloudy evening. Rain started up, and thunder rumbled now and then, so I slipped on sweat shorts and my Fireweed jacket and leaned against my door outside until the mosquitoes drove me back to my bed. It was there, on my bed, with Christmas lights and rain in the background, and a book featuring Fork, WA (a small town that is, incredibly, rainier than Sitka,) that I felt so completely at home.
…And then with thunder grand enough to set off car alarms (or some weird beeping, whirly sound) I fell in love.

March 9th, 2009
It’s started raining and thundering and, as ever, it’s spectacular.
…It’s absolutely dumping at the moment. The splashes are misting my legs. If I didn’t have to go back to school I’d go dance in it.
…Now the lawn’s flooding and the roof gutter pipe is gushing water, shooting it out like the pipes at the top of a waterslide. The laundry’s swaying slightly on the line, dripping. If I watch, I can actually see the water rise over the grass. One little lime on the baby lime tree is stooping so low on its branch that it’s nearly touching the water. I’m still being misted. Snails are appearing. They love this.
Why did watering Mom’s bathroom aloe vera plant kill it? Our aloe’s experiencing a high pressure shower and will be fine tomorrow.
There is now a visible current in front of me, and at least a good quarter of the yard is submerged.
I want some rubber boots to wear to school with my uniform. Xtra-Tuffs would rock
I wonder where the snails go when it’s dry out.
It seems the only place it’s cool in Santa Cruz is the sky. This water’s cold!
Now I have to get ready to go back to school. And still it rains. Joy, peace, love.

Español Miércoles

Hola. Estoy en la clase de computadoras, pero porque nadie está aca (todo están mirar una exposicion de Leonardo DaVinci pero Olesya y yo.) asi que podemos usar internet.
Hoy hay mucho frio y un poca lluvia. Es diferente. Casi llevé mangas largas, pero en lugar de ese trajé la chompita del promo.
Ahora juego en el internet...especialmente en Facebook.
Arrghh. No sé que debo decir. No dormí mucho anoche...estaba escribiendo hasta tarde--medianoche no más. Probablemente creerías mi diario es aburrido. No sé. Solo, cuando estoy aburrida, escribo. A veces por paginas y paginas y más paginas. Espero que, un día, cuando no puedo recordar nada de la vida, puedo leerlos y recordar Bolivia y mi vida aca.
Ahora en el cole, todos piden cuando voy a salir. Cuando digo julio, están sorpendido que no voy a terminar el año aca. No voy a ir al viaje del Promo a Cancún. No voy a ir a ''Prom.'' Y voy a regresarme? No sé. Sí, quiero volver algún lugar en tiempo (esta es una pelicula, jajaja) pero no sé cuando. ¡Tengo que ir a la universidad, pero primero tengo que terminar mi año Promo en Alaska! En la universidad quiero estudiar español. Si hago este, podría a viajar, ¿pero a Bolivia? Entonces, sí, quiero volver. Además, quiero viajar a otros lugares. Lo haré. Y después aprender español perfectamente voy a aprender otra idioma. ¿Japonesa? ¿Italiano? ¿Portugues? No sé.

RANT, and my shoes

Ooh. I'm upset. I'm really really freakin' real upset. Yes, upset enough to purposely use improper grammer. Why? Because for the last, what is it now? 5, I think, days I've been without Facebook. I don't get it!!! I wanna get on Facebook and I can't. Even all of those proxies I memorized Freshmen and Sophomore year don't work. It's driving me crazy.
Oh yeah, and the city's under seige. Not really. But all of the businesses are closed down so everyone can go home and eradicate mosquito (aka dengue) breeding grounds (any stagnant water.) I'm at a loss as to what to do, and I haven't had my drug (Facebook, jaja) in ages.
Sooo....what I would have told you on FB if I had FB:
Mom, Dad: Thank you!!! I got two packages, yesterday and the day before yesterday. I'm using the Spanish work book, a couple pages a day. And I ate my Valentine's candy already. :D Thanks for everything. I love it!!!!!
Brittany: I've been thinking, are you going to practice any Spanish for when you come down? I'm reallly reallllly looking forward to translating everything for you and feeling really smart. Super excited babe.
My dear various friends: I've had little moments when I've wanted to write you here and there. The problem is, now I don't remember them. But I still love you all.

I guess in reality, maybe I should cut down on all of those little notes. But I really don't think they hurt. I really missing reading bits of Dad's book though, and finding out when people's birthdays are.
So, díme: why isn't it working?

Here's a quick, funny story for ya: I went to Beni in January. My shoes went with me, but they liked it so much they stayed there. I didn't even know they were gone till the other week when I needed them for gym class. You really can't do gym in peep-toed heels. They were wonderful shoes. I'd had them forever, but they stayed strong till the end. They were there for me on various hikes. They'd gotten stuck in mud. They proudly and shamelessly modeled hot pink laces given from Ms. Wilson. They rocked out at various dances. They were with me riding horses, and riding bikes. They got drenched from rain, melted snow, and stuff I'd rather not think about. They traveled through most of Bolivia with me, and in the end, chose Bení to be their final resting place.
And it's now that I realize my shoes. Let them be free and happy and very muddy in Bení.

And please let me find some new ones soon so I can participate in gym class and workout more comfortably at home.

Woah, what a freakish blog I have. But I love it, like you. Feel lucky.

Besos

*Letters, Sentences, Stamps: MAIL!*

I’m having an awful day. I didn’t understand any of my classes, I’m not getting along with my host family, and my school shoes give me blisters. The worst part is the day’s only half over. Mama picks my brother and me up from school and we go home to eat lunch. I put on my plastic flip-flops then go join the family at the table. There’s no salad. This sucks. I say ‘’provecho’’ as soon as I’ve forced down half a plate of rice and chicken, and stand up. Then I see it. There on the counter is a large white envelope. It’s completely beaten up along the edges and has post office stamps dating back to weeks before. It’s addressed to me. Suddenly my terrible day is awesome, musical worthy. I sing and dance a little as I tear open the top of the envelope and find home.
This isn’t based on one specific memory. I’m not lonely or sad, and today was pretty fantastic. There is one thing that will always be able to brighten a day in Bolivia however, no matter how perfect it may already be. It’s the mail. A letter from home guarantees a half hour of pure joy every time I read it. Care packages have been the reason for several exchange student get-together. ‘’Here, eat a Milky Way!’’ ‘’Look what this lady from church sent me!’’ ‘’Hey, I got pirate tattoos. Want one?’’ The first time I received reading material (Thank you!) I holed myself up in my room and read half the book, wrote in my journal about it, then finished it. There is really nothing like getting a tangible reminder that people love and remember you, especially considering the distance that reminder travels.
I have in front of me a Christmas card I received this year. The envelope is smudged and the edges are slightly dented and bent. I don’t know when it left Alaska, but it was stamped in Seattle, Washington on the twentieth of December, 2008. For the next nineteen days my brave little Christmas card traveled the world. I have no idea where it went, or why it decided to take a two and a half week vacation. I did not give it permission to travel farther than Bolivia! Wherever it may have gone, it arrived in my country on the eighth of January, 2009. Four days later it moseyed on over to Santa Cruz and I got a very merry Christmas wish on the twelfth of January, only twenty-three days after my little card passed through Seattle. What took it so long? Did it see the Egyptian pyramids? Did it try surfing in Australia (with a dry suit of course)? Really, what path did it take?
Earlier in 2008 I received a different card. I can’t tell you when it left Alaska or the United States, but I do have questions about its broken curfew. If I were in Santa Cruz for three days without coming or calling home, I would be sent back to Alaska faster than a Bolivian could eat a salteña. Lucky for it, I would never send mail back, even though it was stamped upon arrival in Santa Cruz on November seventh, then stamped again in Santa Cruz on November tenth. It took less time for it to travel from La Paz to Santa Cruz than it did for it to hang out in Santa Cruz, maybe drinking some mate.
Despite my griping over the time it takes for me to finally get it, I really love mail. I love getting it, opening it, reading it, tasting it (a particularly memorable bag of smoke salmon) and composing mental replies. On occasion I even write back. True, mail is slow, expensive, and unreliable. In the modern world, there isn’t much time or space to sit down and put thoughts on paper and send them to someone else. I love emails, I love text messages, and I really love Facebook, but I love letters too. There’s something practically therapeutic about putting down worries and joys onto paper, sending them far away, then being reminded of them weeks later. It’s also fun spreading a conversation over the course of months. It doesn’t make much sense, but its fun all the same. If life doesn’t catch up to me when I go home, I may even continue writing letters. They’re a reminder of a simpler time, and they can make a day go from awful, to awesome in an instant.

And thank you Pam. I featured two of your cards in this piece. :)