I still haven't taken any pictures of Boa Vista, but I did find this on the computer I'm using, so I decided to upload it. I have no idea where on the island this is, but this could basically be any beach anywhere, except Vila Sal-Rei. Beaches are beautiful, interior is heinous. See what I mean?

As I indicated in the last email, I've been struggling to get this apartment thing handled. But of course, we weren't able to see it last week. The landlord got back from Italy yesterday, so we are waiting for him to show it to us. We bumped into his wife last night, and she said that it is best if we wait until evening to call him and set it up. Clearly, this is not ideal, but I am slowly learning to deal with things like this. Hopefully (HOPEFULLY), we will be able to see the place by tomorrow morning and we can tell our director to jump on a contract. Holy shit, do I ever want this apartment. It's located in another section of town that I very badly want to live in...

Ok, to explain that: I've sort of figured out how this town is divided up. Nadia and I always just thought that this was a quiet and less social town than São Domingos. Not so. On weekends, there is never anybody in the praça (town square), and the whole end of town that we are on just seems deserted. But a walk around on Saturday with Nadia, and then a separate solo journey of my own on Sunday proved otherwise. The other, older part of town is buzzing with life. Every Cape Verdean is sitting on the stoop, drinking at a bar, lounging by the boats, playing soccer, swimming, or one of any number of other random weekend-y kinda things. So yeah. It was very uplifting to see that this town has more than meets the eye. With some luck, we'll get to live there and then we'll have a balcony to relax on and make friends with our neighbors. Ohhh, the balcony... It overlooks some rocks and then the bright blue harbor filled with fishing boats, with Ilheu de Sal-Rei just past it. The ilheu (a long island that protects the harbor from the ocean) is almost totally barren, except an abandoned 16th century Portuguese fort and a lone church. Anyway, the point is that every evening, the sun sets over this nice little vista right in front of my potential future balcony. Oh god, I will cry tears of blood if I don't get this apartment.

So last week was kind of a downer. I think other volunteers are having similarly rough experiences. Natawnee and I (obviously) keep in constant contact, and she had a bad one as well. I was feeling pretty down all week about the housing thing. I can't possibly express often enough or strongly enough how much I despise living in a hotel room. Ugh. So I ended up downloading a bunch of cheap games to my laptop and hiding in my room for like 4 hours on Sunday. Not the most constructive way to deal with the situation, but sometimes it can't be helped. Afterwards, I decided to get up and go for a walk. That's when I wandered through the cool section of town and my spirits were much uplifted. Saturday, we just kinda floated in the bay for a while in the sunshine, and did a little shopping. I also bought a backpack for work, which is significant because it is the only concrete purchase I have made in over 3 months. Wooha.

Also, I miss my girlfriend a lot. A lot a lot.

Ok, off to do some work for a while, because I teach my first computer class tonight. Introduction to computers, 17 students, 7 pm to 8:30, Monday through Friday, for two weeks. Fun.