I was in a really bad mood today. A certain person was really getting on my nerves and there really wasn't any good reason. We just think and operate totally different and today I really let it get to me. I think part of it is that I don't really sleep too well. I've also heard that after a while, Larium (the malaria preventative medication I have to take weekly) can make you depressed, and today was Larium day. Even so, I don't really have an excuse for getting so upset. It's also becoming frustrating not having anyone to relate to. Josh and I are just too different. It gets kinda lonely at times.
Today was much better than yesterday. Must have been the Larium. Bruce was supposed to come over at 8:00 to start training on converting clients over from cc:mail but he had a meeting with a social worker concerning the Indian baby he and Wendy are adopting. He didn't show up until 10:00 or so. Josh and Bryan slept pretty late and Bruce Wied was at the hanger, so I had a nice peaceful morning that I used to get a couple emails out and read a little. When Bruce finally got here we had a pretty productive day. He caught on to this stuff real easy. On a slightly different note, yesterday we were at the hanger setting up a new system there when Dan mentioned to us that local phone calls were billed per minute. This was news to us. We've got unlimited internet access at a local number, so Josh and I had been spending a couple hours a day total online because we thought it was free. Turns out it's somewhere around 20 cents a minute. Yikes!
I woke up this morning around 7:30 or so and decided to get up, though that's about an hour earlier than usual for my lazy self. Josh has been staying up real late working on his Perl scripts, so consequently he now sleeps late. I can't seem to remember what I accomplished before lunch. I think it was email, which is now becoming a very time consuming yet very worthwhile activity. After lunch I went out to the hanger to work on the computer there. Victor gave me a ride out. He doesn't speak English and I don't really speak Spanish too well, but we were still able to establish that I was from Washington, the state not the capital, where it was cold and that it was hot here. It was a good experience because I think it's the first time I've actually tried a conversation with someone who doesn't speak English at all. I was able to pick up on most of what he was saying from context and a couple of words. I sure wish I'd put in a little more effort in my high school Spanish classes.
"Sink me! Your tailors have betrayed you." Tonight I watched The Scarlet Pimpernel for the first time. We were invited over to a singles party at the home of one of the New Tribes missionaries. We played volley ball until it got dark, ate arrepas and then watched the movie. We stopped half way through for coffee, icecream and brownies. It was a fun time. Earlier this afternoon, Josh and I caught a taxi out to the airport. That was an experience. He charged us 1000 Bs and we later found out that he ripped us off. A short run should be 500 and a long run should be 700, but the excange rate is 600 to 1, so it was still less than $2.
This morning Dan and Tracy took Josh, Bruce, Emily and I (plus their kids) to this arrepa place, the name of which I will fill in later. It was pretty nice and the arrepas were really good. It kinda reminded me of the fish market on Pike Street in Seattle because the guy making the arrepas was talking really loud to everyone and moving around really fast serving people. It was crowded because there was some sort of millitary ceremony at a park just down the street. Afterward we went souvenier shopping and I spend way more money than I realized, but since there is a very good chance this is the only time I will be here, I figure I better get as much as I can. I'm getting to that point where I want to go home. I miss my friends and family. And though I enjoy having lots of time to relax, I miss having an occupation that fills my day, such as my job or classes. But it's only two more weeks and if they go as fast as the last two weeks have gone, I'll be home before I know it. But in the meantime... I got to know Emily a little better today. She'll a really nice girl and pretty easy to talk to. I think she's staying with Dan and Tracy, so I may see her a little more than I thought.
It was Children's Day at church this morning. The kids sang songs and read verses and did a little number with hand bells. It was pretty cute. The missionary kids were the most misbehaved ones on the stage, though. Didn't do much this afternoon. At church this evening, someone brought a giant strawberry pinata for the kids. It was fun to watch them swing at that. I talked with Joel a little bit. He's a funny guy and probably knows as much or more English than I know Spanish. After dinner he did some magic tricks which were pretty cool. I finally got up the guts to say hello from Marco (Mark Nonhoff). It was a challenge trying to say something that simple with my limited vocabulary. It's frustrating trying to communicate when you really can't get through or just can't understand. I really think a lot of the time in training would have been better spent going through a crash course in Spanish. I think if I just had two weeks study, I would be 100% more effective in communicating.