Well, I am enjoying myself again here, but life is changing quite a bit. For starters, Nadia has been transferred to São Vicente, so I am living alone now. It’s a really, really long story, but in short, a single individual on Boa Vista managed to make things difficult enough for her that Peace Corps and CV’s Ministry of Education saw fit to move her. It’s shitty for her obviously, because she had a life and friends here, not to mention a boyfriend. And it’s shitty for me, because I liked living with Nadia. I speak so much less English on a day to day basis already, and the house is too quiet for my tastes. And I don't think the neighbors are enjoying the loud music I now play for several hours a day to make up for it.

On the other hand, some things are looking up. The wind picked up big time this week, so that promises 6 months of great windsurfing. Tony and Spela, the Slovenians from last year, aren’t coming back this year, but a different guy, Sebastian, is managing the club. I went snorkelling with him and Moises a couple weekends ago, and they showed me a great spot out by the islet with a ton of fish. There’s a little reef drop-off that is filled with grouper, morays, and other delicious things. I tried to go buy a speargun, but the guy here wanted 27.000 escudos (~$300) for one. I’ll try and get one elsewhere.

Kyle was here this last weekend, which always results in some crazy things happening. We mostly cooked, ate, and drank. First there was Thanksgiving, which was actually pretty successful. Shon, Betty, and Tânia came over, and I invited François and Moises, although Moises couldn’t make it and François seems to have just sort of forgotten. Oh well. In place of a turkey, I roasted 4 little chickens (after brining them all day with a lot of rosemary) with vegetables, made some awesome mashed potatoes, and baked homemade bread and an apple tart. The tart burned on the bottom because I am an asshole who drank too much wine and put it too low in the oven, but the apples and the rest of the crust were delicious. The bread was absolutely excellent as well, even though it was an experiment in a different method of baking. I think I could have improved on nearly everything, but it was also a first for nearly everything, too. So no complaints. The next day, we put together some ridiculously good pizza. We made an approximation of buffalo chicken pizza, a garlic mashed potato pizza, bread sticks, and then a more normal pizza, too. Those two meals inspired creative leftover meals for about 4 days. He was supposed to go home on Sunday, but TACV cancelled his flight twice, and he stayed until Tuesday morning. On Monday night, we had nothing to do, so we ended up sitting at a bar for about 5 hours, drinking whiskey and messing with the waitresses. They liked us, and we ended up going to their house at like 2 am, but then going home shortly afterwards. The whole event is really pretty blurry.

Anyway, at the moment, Shon and I are planning for World AIDS Day and International Volunteer Day more or less simultaneously. WAD is basically almost put together, with minimal contribution on my part, but we just remembered about IVD two days ago, and it’s Dec 5. So I think it’ll be a small thing. Ah well.

And now I have to go look at the high school’s computer classroom and then perhaps yell at the guy who is supposed to be delivering my water, but keeps not doing it.

I can't believe I didn't get to watch the Colts/Pats game. Seriously. It's pretty upsetting. Especially since we won. I am currently trying to stream highlights. It is not going well.

So I still suck at keeping this thing updated. I'm going to try and get better at it, as I plan on doing some more blogging after Peace Corps service, as I adventure around the world a bit. More on that as details pull themselves together...

I guess the reason I haven't been keeping it up to date is because not much has been happening. Highlights of the last month include:

-The new airport opened up on the 31st. International flights don't start for a few weeks still, but eventually there will be flights to Italy 3 times a week and once or twice to London. Not bad, huh? I think I can expect an influx of English speaking tourists in the future, which means I already know I am doomed to teach many more English classes. Ugh.

-I went to João Galego twice this week to hang out with Nilton (Nadia's boyfriend) and his buddies. Once was for a BBQ on Thursday, and then I was there on Saturday for another BBQ, this time for Nilton's birthday. They're a cool bunch of guys, though I will say that it is difficult to get yourself "in" with a bunch of guys who have been tight friends for 25 or 30 years. Not that they are exclusive, but it's tough to get the thread of the conversation, especially when it's in rapid, drunk Creole. Still. Fun times.

-No water. Nadia and I managed to use our reserves, and our neighbor forgot to come by to refill our barrels. Nothing had come from our taps in weeks, and more like 2 months since we had gotten anything resembling pressure. In any event, we saw a water truck putting a hose up to our roof, so I wandered up there to see what was going on (because we certainly weren't getting anything from up there), and it turns out that the landlord has installed individual tanks for each apartment. This is after he has been telling us for weeks that they haven't managed to arrange a water contract yet. Which is clearly true, though he never once mentioned that we had our own tank now and could in fact get it filled on our own. In any event, I got the water guy to give us the remainers of the tonelada of water that he had been filling from, but still nothing came to our apartment. Apparently, our pipes are blocked. Awesome! Fortunately, our neighbor dropped by with his truck, so we got 3/4 of a bedon of water, which is enough to last us a while. Yeah that's right, 75 liters of water can last me and Nadia most of the week. We are efficient if nothing else. Anyway, the point to take away from this (other than that I didn't shower for 4 days) is that communication is not always, or ever, clear. It is generally expected that you will find out about something, although if you were to ask someone how, they would have no response. Things are not usually advertised here, except maybe on the radio to which I never listen, and word of mouth is everything. Which may be fine, if you are overhearing a lot of conversation. But no matter how good my Creole gets, I am not going to be overhearing conversation on the street, unless I am intentionally eavesdropping. Thus, I miss out on little things like "we installed a tank for you on the roof."

-I've been reading a bunch more lately. I have decided that I am done with fiddling with computers and watching DVDs in my house. Books are better. I'm most of the way done with The Songlines, by Bruce Chatwin. He goes to Australia to learn about Aboriginal Dreaming tracks, which crisscross the continent all over. It's pretty good, and definitely makes me itch to get out and do some exploring.

-I need a vacation. Italy is in about 8 weeks, and it couldn't come fast enough. I've been getting burned out on life lately. I need a good project to commit myself to. My software class ends tomorrow and my English class is done, except for some test correcting today. Afterwards, I won't have to develop any new courses. I've got 6 computer courses and 3 English ones planned out, including manuals and outlines, which should pretty much leave me in good shape for all future material. So now what?

-I am in terrible physical shape. Miserable. I have lost nearly all upper body strength, my legs are twiggy, and my stomach is getting soft. Either my body is just going to be another sacrifice to the Peace Corps, or I need to figure something out já.

Ok. Time to really seriously start my week.