I must make an entry. For at least the past month I've come here at least once a week and started to type up something, only to eventually lose interest and discard it. This time I hope to post it before I lose interest (the coffee should help), so it may be short.
I am having a great time studying art (and ASL) this quarter. Even in the writing class I mentioned last post. I still don't feel quite comfortable, but it's fairly laid back. For example, on Wednesday the teacher threatened to urinate on a student if he "fucked around" one more time, but no one seemed to mind. And we have assignments at the mall.
I'm really excited for next quarter. Well, first, the end of this one. I'm finishing a week early because my family and I are going on a trip to Vietnam for a couple weeks (with a brief visit to Cambodia and Thailand). Since we don't have an abundance of money right now but my parents had a strong hankering to travel, we're going through a reasonably-priced tour group that my mom's friend (who went on the very same tour) recommended. I'm a bit apprehensive about being such an obvious tourist in a huge, white American group wearing button-up shirts and neck scarves. Not that I haven't been an obvious tourist in previous travels, but it's usually been with just my family or with a group of obvious students. And any tour guides we had were private, local ones. I'm not too worried though, and still expect to have a fascinating, enjoyable time. It will be refreshing (I hope... maybe frustrating) to have such a structured schedule, with everything 100% planned out in advance and no worries about "We've been on this rickety boat with a bunch of chickens for two hours and have no idea where we're actually going since the driver speaks no English" (Peru, Amazon) and "Wait, do we actually have enough food? When is the next time we'll see a grocery store?" (South Africa) or "I was forced to wake up 6 hours early because I was told I was going to this temple but I've been sitting here waiting for the driver for 10--Oh, it was never actually scheduled?" (India).
Upon my return, I'll have a month before I leave for my study abroad trip to Brazil! Yaaay. I was getting a bit worried since I hadn't heard from Wildlands Studies about it. Did they remember I'd registered for it? Was it still happening? Finally, I got word that we couldn't go because the wet season arrived late to the Pantanal and it would suck really bad while we were there. SO WE'RE GOING TO THE AMAZON INSTEAD. I am inconceivably excited. I'd just been thinking how badly I want to go back there, since when my family went before, I was only 11-12 and didn't fully appreciate how remarkable the environment was. And this time I'll be there for SIX WEEKS(ish), thoroughly studying it, so I'd better fucking appreciate it.
Oh--Valentine's Day. I had class that day, so the day itself was pretty lame, but that evening I drove to Vancouver. Nik said he wanted to plan a surprise, but honestly, I didn't think he actually would. Last Valentine's Day we took a nap, and I gave him a mix CD I made for him. It was pretty lame. I don't really give a shit about celebrating the day, but as far as normal days go, it was really boring. This time, though, he followed through and made me fondue. (FYI, I love cheese.) There were also roses involved, and a cozy fire. Even a card. It was sweet. Hopefully he'll come up later today and visit for the weekend.
That's really all that's slightly-more-than-boring now. I guess that wasn't very "short". At least I didn't lose interest.
