Drip, Drip, Drop

I am so incredibly sick of rain. It is the rainy season and they are not kidding around with that name. Almost all day, every day it rains. It is also almost always cloudy so there is no way to predict when the rain will start and when it is going to stop. It can go from an ordinary slightly cloudy day to a complete downpour in 5 seconds. The laundry is all line dried on the balcony and none of it will dry. My towels have been perpetually damp for a week. No umbrella is large enough to keep a person dry. I am so thankful for covered streets and people who let you drip in their stores while you wait for the rain to slack off at least a little. My internet cafe guys let me sit in here even when I am not actually using a computer.

There are a few positives to the rain. The first is that it washes the poop off of the alley and into the drainage ditch. As long as it is raining you also cant smell it. Another benefit would be that everything is an amazing color. The plants look like they are glowing. The other thing I can think of is that even though people are really nice here for the most part, they are even nicer when it is raining because we are all soaked and cold. It doesnt matter what language you speak to know that it is no fun being wet. Something that really amuses me is that when you greet someone on the street as you pass them, they often say things like, "It is a beautiful day" or "Isnt it nice to be outside" and then they laugh as they walk away. Gotta love sarcasm in spanish.

There is a shop on the way to parque central that I like to stop in from time to time. It is just a little clothing store and I rarely buy anything but the shopkeeper is a sweetheart and she always shows me what is new. Anyhow every day there is a police guard standing at the door to the shop. Police guards are really common. They wear uniforms really similar to police in the US only subtract the hat and add a really big rifle. They wander through town, guard banks, and direct traffic, normal police things. For a week I have been wondering why this tiny store needs a police guard every single day. Yesterday I found out the reason and it is a very important one. The police guard is the shop girls boyfriend. He spends his entire day keeping the peace by hanging out with his girlfriend. Talk about serving the people.

Lets see what have I been up to recently. On the night of the presidential debate Sarah and I went over to Doug and Brandens. Sarah is one of my roommates and Doug and Branden are two students from CSA. We all sat around, watched the debate, and talked a little. This other man who lives in the same complex as the guys was watching with us too. He thought all of the really dry debate jokes were the funniest things ever. He actually fell out of his chair when John McCain said something about trying to nail jello to the wall. I mean, dont get me wrong, that is sort of funny, but seriously, the guy fell out of his chair! That was pretty much my biggest amusement for the week. Afterwards when Sarah and I got back to the house we bought pizza from Dominoes with Pablo. Dominoes has 2 for 1 nights so we got 2 pizzas. We ate 1 of them and I think Pablo ate a piece off of the other. We put the leftovers in the fridge and went to bed. The next afternoon Adita marches Bryan upstairs and into my room. She says to him, Bryan, what do you have to say to Anna. He looks at me and says, "Lo siento much Ana porque yo tuvi much hambre y you comi su pizza, todos de tu pizza." This translates out to, sorry Anna I was hungry so I ate your entire pizza. The kid is seven! It was a large pizza. The whole situation made me laugh. His dad bought us a new pizza. I didnt really care, mostly it just amazes me that he ate a whole pizza in between meals. You probably had to be there, but its the little things that keep you going.

School is going well. Tomorrow we are going on a field trip sort of thing to the city for the Corn Festival. A whole bunch of students and teachers are going. I am really excited, should be some good photo taking opps.

I hope this finds everyone well.