rain and randomness...

I have received a few requests for personal updates on the webpage.

Today it's raining and as cool as it gets in the tropics. It's beautiful. Yesterday a cool wind blew in and the dead leaves shook loose from the trees to fall slowly, lazily to the sand below where they crunch beneath our feet. There was the slightest hint of autumn in the air, perhaps more like a ghost of a memory only perceptible to the most sensitive. Tomorrow it will be sunny once more, and the air will be warm and humid once more, but today I can imagine the seasons that lie half forgotten in the recesses of my mind after ten months of summer.

My life? I study or work ALL the time. That's all. Those on the islands that aren't in my classes don't see me more than once a month. I do generally take a daily swimming break, but this week I'm too busy with my Director of Studies project for my diploma course. It's 1500-2500 words due on Monday, and I've written the introduction and almost finished the pre-writing research. sigh.

A friend of mine here that I used to hang out with most every night of the week before this course ran into me going up to my office. I blocked his way coming up the stairs and instead sat down and talked with him for a few minutes. He took the hint that he wasn't welcome in my office. It's only because the last time he came, after talking for a few minutes I lacked the will power to continue studying and instead went back to my room and to bed! He said, "You've changed." I responded by NOT breaking down or strangling him or yelling about how I hadn't changed, but just worked or studied all but 7 hours a day (and 6 of those are for sleeping).

My birthday is coming up in just over two weeks and I'm wondering if I'll have the funds to get out of these islands for a week. My ticket to Spain for exams might well cost me about $1400, then there's the cost of living there for a month where the Euro is 30% higher than the dollar...and I'm only bringing home about $500 a month. I've been saving as best I can for months, but the books for the course cost me nearly a month's salary. The thought of not leaving this island until the end of July makes me panic. I know that I'll have to go somewhere...I just don't know where or how. It has to be cheap. I had dreams of going to Bali for my birthday, but I think that airfare is going to prove too expensive.

On the bright side, I'm everybody's secret sweetheart and from most every department people do little extra things for me, or slide the rules a little bit to help me out. When I'm on holiday, my phone rings and rings with students calling to say they miss me and can't wait for English classes to start again :-)

Is there anything else? Let's see, my hair is a dark auburn-brown and very short and funky. My face, arms and shoulders are darker than they have ever been, but no one notices cause I'm still very white. I've only just surpassed the whiteness of the sand by a shade or so.

I had a practice grammar exam which I did TERRIBLY on. I thought I was feeling much more refreshed than usual until I got the results. They were a rather obvious sign of exhaustion. I gave a very thorough answer to the question, "Give two uses of Present Perfect Continuous and its uses with examples." Unfortunately, the question was actually "Give two uses of the Present Continuous and its uses and examples." that was a big fat 0/4!

All in all though I think I'm going to survive. It's difficult right now. I have no personal life, but I'm not suffering at the moment. At least not like I was a few weeks ago. The study/work load is hard, but I think I'll get through.

One fun thing is that I have been randomly working up songs with the guitarist here. We do "Power of Two" by the Indigo Girls and "Fotografia" by Juanes. I'm still learning the second guitar part for Power of Two, but we really rock on Fotografia! We've got about 6 almost performable songs to date. He's more of a backup, or second vocal and I'm more of a backup or second guitar part. It's good fun though! When we have enough fun stuff, I hope to get a recording or even a DVD made of us to send to family and loved ones.

The best thing about today was the feeling of the wet sand crumbly and surrounding my feet and squishing inbetween my toes. The feel of the rain on my face, and the breath of frangipani flowers in the cool damp air. It was a different day, and here that is a treasure!