My nephew Joe is taking an international studies course in Ecuador. Here’s his latest message.
From: Joe
Sent: Wednesday, September 03, 2003 10:21:20
Subject: Another Mr. Blue Sky Day
Well, today, like every other day here, is bright blue skies and warm sunshine. The crazy thing is, people here never say, “my, its a beautiful day today.” I think that its just so common during the dry season that they take it for granted.
This week has shown an improvement in my classes. They all have actually started, and the proffesors are all back. To answer my Aunt’s question, I have 7 classes, but i only picked 2 of them, the other 5 are obligatory for my program. My Tejido (weaving) class is amazing. My prof is a bit of a quack, but she is amazing at weaving. On monday we built our marco’s (loomish things) and started to weave. I can’t say that my first one is going to be all that beautiful, but i’m getting the hang of it. I’m excited that i will return to the states with a skill that people here actually use. Weaving is very much a part of indigenous culture.
Speaking of, on friday I am going to Otavalo on our first trip! Otavalo is an indigenous town that has a HUGE market place on saturday morning. I’m excited to use my improving spanish by bartering with the locals. “15 for that, you must be mad!” Basically, i hope to buy all of the gifts for people while I am there. My fear is that I’m gonna buy something for someone that I could have just as easily purchased in the states. How silly would that be?
My spanish class here remains a joke. For you people that have studied spanish, this will be funny. My prof asked this question, “Cuantos han estudiado el subjuntivo” and guess how many out of a class of 10 raised their hands. THREE!! Three people have studied the subjunctive tense!
I almost died, right there, just died.
Oh well, I don’t mind having an easy class. My ecoantropology class makes up for it. Its not hard, but the prof talks at a million miles a second, which can be rough at times.
Also, almost all of my 5 obligitory classes have 12 page papers due dec 12 … which i’m sure will be a barrel of monkeys.
I’ll talk to you folks later, TTFN, ta ta for now!
Joe
It’s football season and Frolixo just can’t get enough gameplay. Here are the latest standings, as of 2:18 last night:
At last: an explanation of why I always wet myself and run away screaming whenever I hear the THX logo.
I’m still not sure what the problem was: my cable modem would start resetting as soon as I turned my computer on, as if there was some problem with the power. It would constantly reset itself even if I moved the plug to a different line, as if, like Greg said, my new graphics card loaner was causing interference. Even with the computer off and unplugged, late at night or early in the morning, the cable modem would continue to reset itself and when it actually configured it would only maintain connection for a few minutes — meaning, it would work fine until I might try to use it.
My cousin Elizabeth had this year’s big family picnic yesterday. I already uploaded some pictures to my photo gallery [since moved to Flickr], but here’s a photo that couldn’t fit. It’s a panorama of the Detroit River, photographed from her street. It’s not the best, and certainly not on par with the the 3D panoramas here, but it’s not bad for not having a tripod.
It’s Friday and my brain has turned to mush. How else to explain why I feel so listless and am so easily distracted by bright lights and shiny things. Good thing it’s quiet at work, since I don’t think I could function properly if called upon to actually do something. Instead I’m just sitting here mesmerized by this webpage. (It’s especially cool when you reload it.) I also can’t get the Ronnie Dobbs “How High the Mountain” song out of my head.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, along with French President “Black Jacques” Chirac, is refusing to support the recent US draft resolution asking for international assistance in running post-war Iraq, according to today’s AP article. “Their stance threatened to reopen a barely healed trans-Atlantic rift over their ardent opposition to the Iraq war,” says the article.
Just found out that, according to her website, Loreena McKennitt will peform on Thursday, September 25, at “historic Fryfogel’s Tavern, 12km east of her hometown of Stratford, Ontario.” The short solo performance “is part of a fundraising evening being held by the Perth County Historical Foundation” to restore the Tavern, and it will follow a lavish dinner based on an old-fashioned menu, predominantly venison. Participation will cost $250 CDN ($182 US).
