As a warning, I might write a lot here, and I might brag excessively about how great my life is, so if that’s going to piss you off, just go look at porn instead.

So I had a great weekend. No no, really. I had a GREAT weekend. And I’m going to tell you all about it, because I can. So where to begin…

My class on Friday went very, very well. I am teaching Excel now, which I don’t have to tell you is pretty hard to teach and understand anyway. The whole idea of spreadsheets and formulas is tricky at best, particularly in a language like Creole, which doesn’t have any mechanisms to explain complex ideas. But I apparently did a damn good job, because nearly everyone finished the exercise perfectly. Having failed utterly at explaining cell selection and formatting on Thursday, I took a different approach that I think I will now stick with. So I was already in a good mood when I got home and Paulo picked up Nadia and I for dinner.

We went to a restaurant that I had never seen, or even heard of. It was closer to the fisherman’s harbour, and it was rooftop, bar and everything. Paulo took charge and ordered everything for us, including pinchos (little shish kebab kinda things, but with pork) and grilled lobster for me and Nadia. And ohhhh man, I’ll be damned if it wasn’t some of the best lobster I’ve ever had. This could be a problem if I develop a lobster addiction, because that shit is expensive. After the food, plus plenty of wine and whiskey, we left to go elsewhere. We heard live music coming from a different rooftop, so we went up to check it out, and lo and behold, the omnipresent morna band Djalunga was playing. Seriously, they’re everywhere. More on that later. I was a bit tipsy and feeling friendly, and spectacularly enough, the roof was filled with people I knew. After spending a while chatting with people and listening to the music, we decided to leave, but took a detour at Pub Makena, which I normally avoid because it is way expensive and is entirely geared towards tourists. The bar was filled with them, but we just sat and chatted until 1-ish and then headed home. So, really fun night #1 ended.

Saturday, I spent all morning in bed reading, which was fine. In the afternoon, I headed to Boa Vista Wind Club to try (again) to catch a windsurfing lesson. There was only one teacher there, and he was occupied, and by the time he was done, it was too late to start. But it wasn’t a total loss, as I made some friends. First, I hung out with Te (spelling?), the instructor, for a while. Then his student (who had waved to me from the water already), came ashore and turned out to be a cute Swiss girl named Veronique, here on vacation alone. So I made another friend. I loafed around with them and François most of the afternoon and made vague indications that we should try to find each other later in the night. I relaxed at home briefly and then went to the praça to try to catch a car to João Galego, because I had been told that there was a huge party there that night and I could get a car at around 7. Well, there were no cars and nobody at the Coke kiosk where the cars generally gather to go to other towns. So I gave up and dropped in at a local bar where I know the bartender, a mellow guy named Alves from Guinea-Bissau. I mentioned a thought that I might go to Mazurka (the only discoteca around, an idea suggested by Veronique), and he said he would close up around 11 and go with me. So I struck off back to the praça, having sighting someone with a guitar heading that way. Sure enough, Djalunga again. I hung out a bit and ran into Nadia on my way back. She was all about going to Mazurka, so we met up with Alves, and waited the hour-plus it takes to catch a ride to the disco. Everyone just clusters around the Coke kiosk and when the bus arrives (I guess Mazurka hires it every week), everyone pushes and shoves like 4th graders to try to pile on. When we finally got on, people were even opening the windows and climbing onto laps to squeeze in. It’s Africa, maximum capacity is just a vague suggestion. In any event, the club was packed and totally different than the last time I was there. People were mingling, tourist and local alike, drinking and dancing. I had a damn good time, though I could do without the slow music. They have a tendency to play a lot of couples dancing music, which I don’t dig at all, mostly because I have no clue how to dance like that and could only succeed in making an ass of myself with some poor unsuspecting, but probably attractive, Cape Verdean girl. Veronique was there with some friends, including Te, and she seemed to be enjoying his company an awful lot, so I threw out the idea of flirting more, which I had intended to do. But the important thing is that I danced and drank and revelled until 4 am and had a fucking blast. Awesome day #2: check.

I woke up early, despite a headache, and headed back to François’ shack, as I had promised him I would do. Te showed up late, so in the mean time, François set up a board and sail on the sand and told me that everyone has to practice there first. It saves a lot of time falling over in the water all the time. So I practiced regulating the sail and adjusting to wind changes, as well as using my weight to balance the sail against the wind. I got the hang of it pretty well, so I think I’ll do all right when I get in the water. Veronique showed up with Te and they clearly had a hell of a night together and spent a lot of time making out everywhere all morning. Ah well. At that point, the previously calm bay erupted out of nowhere with waves and conditions quickly turned very bad for a first lesson in the water. So instead I practiced on the sand a bit more and hung out with Te and Veronique. Some of the more expert windsurfers hopped on their boards and took off, and god damn it looked like fun. François’ oldest son, Shon, is about 11 years old and already good at virtually every watersport ever invented. I guess that’s what happens when you grow up on the beach and your dad is a former windsurfing champion. I also met Tony and Spela, two Slovenians who are business partners with François. They are going to help me find a used board and sail so I don’t have to waste money renting all the time. François gives me a discount, for being a volunteer and a semi-local, but I think this’ll be better in the long run. In two years, I’ll just leave it for the next volunteers here. An Italian showed up, and everyone decided to go surfing. Spela showed me how to stand on a surfboard, and it’s fucking hard. I accompanied them down the beach to watch them, along with the Italian surfer’s girlfriend, who spoke no English. So I sat on a dune with her for about an hour and tried to hold a conversation in Italian. She was blessedly patient and helped me out a lot, and overall I did better than I have in the last few weeks. Still, there’s plenty of room for improvement. I made my way home after a full five and a half hours of fun in the sun.

I got home and showered and had a brief nap, interrupted by Cecy knocking on the door, saying that Iva and the CEJ needed me. I had already agreed to help out at an event that night, so it wasn’t a surprise, but I though I had plenty of time. Anyway, there was another homage-style event, this time for a guy named Plá, who plays with… Yeah, you guessed it, Djalunga. I had made a slideshow of about 150 photos of Plá and the band during the week, and they needed me to do projection for the event. I set everything up and then proceeded to wait while everything started two hours late. But no big deal, my friend Joari (man, I just don’t know how to spell these names) was there and he fed me ponche and beer the whole time. Veronique and François were there as well, though they both left shortly afterwards. The music started, I projected my little thing, and all went pretty well. Iva and Cecy were there, as well as some other friends. Veronique came back and we hung out until midnight or so. The music finally ended at about 1 am, and I packed everything up and went home, completely and totally exhausted. But I had the best weekend I’ve had in Cape Verde so far.

I am mostly still elated by the feeling that I live here and have friends. I also have given up on disliking tourists and I now view most of them (the younger, cooler ones at least) as vehicles to practice languages. François’ shack is ground zero: I can practice French and Italian, chat in Creole with the windsurfers, and every once in a while run into someone who speaks some crazy language I’ve never heard. Windsurfing lessons are just icing on the cake.

So what I’m saying is that my life is awesome and you should be jealous. Road race in 5 days… everything seems to be set up to go smoothly. We’ll see…

So I though I would be starting my Excel class today, but apparently it starts on Wednesday. Which gives me a slightly longer break from being here all night. But it turns out the class is 2 full hours, and I will be here pretty late, so that kind sucks. Ah well.

I had a pretty satisfying weekend. It was kind of divided between "friendly active Leland getting out and meeting people" and "semi-comatose relaxed Leland who just wants to stay in and watch moves in English." I thought it was a good mixture. The latter personality managed to watch the entire series of the show Firefly, which I apparently missed entirely while it was actually on TV. In any event, it was actually a good show, and now I'm kind crabby that it got cancelled. So that took up about 9 hours spread over 3 or 4 days. I've also been reading Greek history for fun, because apparently the Classics major in me has not yet been fully purged. I am at risk for reinfection. If I try to enroll in grad school for it, somebody put me down.

Nadia invited two of our friends, Tony and Helena, over for dinner on Thursday, along with their kids. We made pizza. This was a breakthrough event. I made the dough, Nadia made the sauce, and we put together a melange of toppings. And I'd have to say that it was some god damn delicious pizza. Friday night... Umm... I don't remember what we did, so clearly it wasn't exciting. On Saturday, we took a walk up north, past MarineClub (the huge Italian resort), because a friend had told us that there was a little protected inlet "like a swimming pool." So we found it, right near the ruins of an old colonial church by the ocean. But the waves were gigantic, so it wasn't particularly swimming pool-like that day. On the way back, I stopped to go for a swim while Nadia continued home. Again, the waves were gigantic, and I gave up after about 15 minutes of playing in them, after I got annoyed with being knocked over by waves above my head. If I knew how to surf, I probably would have shat myself with joy. So Saturday night, Nadia and I made a quick dinner and sat around drinking grog and beer. We ducked in at the small bar across the way, because I made friends with the bartender there earlier in the week. After a few more beers and some ponche (if I haven't explained that before, it's grog mixed with honey, sometimes sweetened condensed milk and various other flavors: coconut, strawberry, lemon, whatever), we returned home. Booze makes Nadia sleepy, so she went to bed. But I was feeling antsy and friendly, so I struck out for nowhere in particular. I head music from the praça so I went over that way. Per usual, there was the standard morna band playing in the café. I grabbed a beer and joined a friend and his brother whom I had spotted. We chatted for a bit, and then he announced that he was headed to a birthday party, and asked if I wanted to come. Of course I accepted, and before too long, I was at a small party for someone I didn't know. But Iva, my counterpart, was there, along with Cecy, a mutual friend. I met a few random people, and more drinks forced on me. Note: It is not really possible to refuse a drink from a Cape Verdean. They will give it to you anyway. Ex: "Leland, would you like another beer?" "No thanks, I'm all set." "Ok. Here." "Umm, thanks." Anyway, I stayed out late and generally had a good time, particularly when I noticed that I was speaking Creole without even noticing anymore.

Sunday, I spent the morning reading and generally combatting a headache caused by the night before. I tried to go for a bike ride in the afternoon, but was thwarted by the pressure valve on the inner tube spontaneously popping off for no particular reason. It is actually physically broken, so I have to find a new inner tube somewhere here. Hmm. So I substituted another swim with gargantuan waves and had a hell of a time, even though the big waves threatened to de-pants me pretty much every time.

So my only fuzzy realization to make here is that I actually feel like this is home now. Sure there are a few things that irritate me, but over all, I really really like it here.

The grad school thing captured my mind for about 4 hours last week. I spent a while looking into programs in the US and Europe, and I am tantalized by all of them. The University of Geneva's Master's in International Affairs still is the forerunner, but I'd have to find substantial aid to afford it. Oxford is another one, but I'd probably be trying for a Fulbright on that front, and both are a long shot. 25 slots for the MPhil (300ish applicants), 3 for the Fulbright. Yikes. On the domestic front, the University of Denver, Johns Hopkins, Columbia, Yale, and Harvard's Kennedy School have all caught my eye. I suppose I should also develop some safety schools instead of a fantasy list... UD and Yale have Peace Corps Fellowships though, which will help a lot. But before any of that becomes really relevant, I need to figure out what to do about another year of work in the interim. I sent an email to my friends the Helseth family, most of whom work or live abroad now, in Afghanistan, Sudan, and Cambodia. I am trying to see what direction they can throw me in, particulary Gary, who has been working with the UN for years. One of my mother's students worked with them for a while and now she is with UNOPS in Sudan, just barely out of undergrad. Now THAT is a hell of an opportunity.

Now off to try and get a fucking phone line installed. This shit is impossible.

One more class down. I finished up with my Word class the other night by giving an exam. It was actually more frustrating than running a class, which I had grown used to and was starting to enjoy a bit. It's frustrating because, while you expect high school kids to cheat, you don't expect it out of 25 and 30 year olds. There was a point where I had to walk individually to three pairs of people and tell them to stop talking and looking at one another's screens. One person in particular I had to tell about 7 times, because she just kept asking other people how to do things. Anyway, I think a lot of it is a cultural thing. Not like "Cape Verdeans are cheaters," or anything negative like that. But I don't know if having a silent, do-your-own-work computer exam is something they are used to. And since none have a university education, the idea of working with one another on a test probably seems fine, as opposed to the violently fierce anti-plagiarism policies most of us have had rammed into our heads during college. Ah well, other than the one case, very little helping went on after I made it clear that they were not supposed to. And in the end, nearly everyone seems to have done well, though I have yet to correct them. I am waiting for one guy to finish up right now, because the poor fellow finished the whole test and then somehow lost everything, so he is back this morning to do it again.

I went down to Tortuga beach over the weekend to talk with François, but unfortunately there was no wind at all, so lessons never happened. But I hung out with him for a couple hours, and made friends with his bartender and some random Italian guy named Marco (of course) who is visiting for a month and spends all day just chillin there. I was reminded once again how far my Italian has fallen. I tried to make conversation, but I kept forgetting stupid things like the loro form of potere (yeah, it's possono, I remembered half an hour later). Fortunately, I can still understand pretty well, so we did all right. Anyway, because there was no wind anywhere, the bay was glassy calm, so later in the afternoon I came back with Nadia and we floated in the warm water for a while, until the sun went down and it started getting chilly. By chilly, I of course mean 75-80, but I am already turning into a cold-wuss. How's the fall treating everyone?

I also went for a bike ride, which was nice. I haven't ridden a bike recreationally in many, many years. Yes, my thighs were less than happy the next day. I'd like to continue to do it as part of my "Leland actually gets in decent shape again" plan for the next two years, but my schedule is so damn irregular that I don't always have the time to exercise every day.

Also, HOW 'BOUT THEM DEMOCRATS?! Wooooooha! Ok, we're not supposed to put political things in our Peace Corps blogs, plus this is about Cape Verde, not the US, so I'll stop there.

Oh yeah, my English classes have been postponed/cancelled. After several weeks of having sign up sheets available, NOBODY signed up for the beginner's class, and only 4 for the advanced, including my counterpart and a friend in the câmara. I'm pretty sure it's because the class was too expensive, which I had mentioned before, but I deferred to the knowledge of people who actually live here, thinking maybe the price was more normal for Boa Vista. But no. Lots of people told me they wanted to sign up, but couldn't afford it. So we are waiting for 6 more people to sign up for the advanced course. After the holidays and IST (In Service Training - we all reconvene on Santiago for a conference), I am going to give the beginner's class another shot, only at about half the price. I would just as soon not charge, but the CEJ needs to income to fun other projects, and to pay for materials for the class.

I am running out of things to blog about these days. Maybe I should just make these things weekly.

Still permanently exhausted. We are all moved in now and the bathroom is finished. I even got to shower last night. Not that I smelled or anything. Oh wait. Yeah, I did. The only thing missing is the shower curtain rod, which they are putting in tomorrow morning. Also, I dunno what the hell is going on with the water there, but when you take a shower, the sink turns on. No kidding. It's like Poltergeist. Also, the (extraordinarly attractive) girl who works here just gave me some kind of fruit called a tambro (I have no idea how to spell that) that is small and yellow. It was kinda dry, but tasty in it's own way. Continuing...

I actually had a fantastic conversation today entirely in Creole. I was on my way with a coworker to meet the head of the Assoçiação de Atletismo in the câmara, but he turned out to not be there. This is in no way unusual - scheduling a meeting with someone doesn't guarantee that they will be there, or even on the island. In any event, we decided to wander into a little hole-in-the-wall bar/restaurant that I've been to a couple times. It's usually packed, and only has 4 tables, most of which are occupied by European tourists. But today it wasn't, so we settled down and had a couple beers. In any event, I actually held a long conversation about politics, religion, economics, immigration, war and peace, the weather, family life, and on and on, entirely in Creole, with no trouble, for about an hour. Needless to say, I feel pretty damn good about that. I also have almost no problems teaching my classes these days, and even my listening comprehension has picked up, which is hands down the hardest thing for me.

The road race planning continues. Once we get the athletic coordinator from the câmara involved, I just have to hook the Red Cross, but they have already expressed interest. All I really need from them anyway is pamphlets and informational materials, and hopefully a speaker as well. In return, we are going to help them with their own activities for WAD. The high school is also doing a march around town with signs and posters and stuff, so I'm sure we'll dig our grubby little fingers in that and help out, too. My counterpart spoke with one of the vareadors (like a local government department head, or the President's Cabinet on a smaller scale) about the 5k, and he absolutely loved the idea. So to get funding, which is tough to come by here, we are petitioning a Spanish construction company that has projects on the island. Good publicity for them, provides t-shirts and water stations for our race. Rock on. My aunt got Brooks, the shoe company, to donate 200 number bibs and two pairs of running shoes, for male and female winners. Did I write this already? I don't even know anymore.

Nadia made me a curtain for my bedroom window, so I no longer have to deal with the street lights. She made one for herself as well. Mine is blue, hers is red. When the sun shines really brightly, her room glows hellish red and mine is electric blue. It makes for an interest effect when you look down the hall. Also, the dog heavy metal band has eased up at night, so I haven't spent too much time glaring out the window praying for a slingshot. We hooked up the stove today, because the boat carrying the propane tubing finally arrived, two days late. We'll hopefully do a bit of cooking tonight. We do seem to have a minor cockroach problem in the apartment, but it's not all out awful. Just mildly gross. We do however have a severe lack of furniture problem. We just found a local carpenter who is going to make us shelves and bookcases for our rooms, but we don't have anything in the way of a couch. The living room consists of lawn furniture basically. It's nothing to complain about really, but the only soft surface to relax on is my bed. I'd rather use the not insignificant space in the living room.

This weekend, I am going to go back and visit François and hopefully get my first windsurfing lesson on Saturday. My only plan for Sunday is to maybe go on a recreational bike ride down to Rabil or Estância de Baixo. I've been slacking on the exercise this week, mostly because I've been totally pooped since Saturday.

Gotta continue planning out some English classes. Now that I have an idea of what to teach, I just have to come up with plans on how to actually teach it. This is where my expertise runs completely dry and I am stumbling blindly. But hey, try everything once, right?

First: VOTE. I don't want to hear any bullshit about "my vote doesn't even matter," because anybody out there with a brain knows that that is a load of crap. If you do not vote, and you whine about what's happening in the country in 6 months, I will slap you. Hard.

Ok so today I'm going to talk about some good things, then some bad things, then some more good things. It's what I like to call a "compliment sandwich..."

Well we moved into a permanent apartment yesterday. So finally I can settle myself in (two months later) and start really living. Our neighborhood is much more Cape Verdean oriented, instead of being full of tourists. We already know some people in the area, and there is a store across the street, where people hang out on the porch all the time. There is apparently a British woman living in the building, too, but I have yet to meet her.

All right, I'm going to move into my negative whining binge ahead of schedule, and then talk about more good shit. Problems with the apartment: bathroom isn't finished yet. Nope. Has a toilet, but with no back, i.e. no flush. Has a shower base, but no head, i.e. can't shower. Has a si- no, scratch that, sink is on the floor of the living room. So what happened when I woke up to pee last night? Plastic water bottle. Welcome to the Peace Corps. Please don't drink that, it's not scotch. What else? Ah yes, because our previous apartment was furnished, we now have to buy everything. We spent all day yesterday buying stuff and lugging it around (note: it was 90+ degrees), but still don't have much stuff. The kitchen is still being touched up, so we can't plug in the fridge, thus not much food. And we just got gas for the stove this morning, so we will actually be able to cook tonight. Also, my bedroom window is right next to a street light. Fortunately, Nadia is sewing me curtains, because otherwise, there is not a chance in hell I could sleep. I didn't much last night. But that was also partly because of the dogs. Oh the dogs. I'd guess there were about 15 of them last night, in full choral arrangement, for just over an hour, with short breaks to catch their breath and sniff each other's butts. Lovely.

Also, I broke up with Natawnee last week. There were several reasons for this, all catalyzed by an incident that I will not publicize here. A lot has to do with the fact that it wasn't much of a real relationship. Considering I only knew her for about 10 weeks before splitting to other islands, maybe it's that I didn't know her well enough or feel close enough to her to make it work. But even though I am not the type to think about the future with a girl, which has bitten me in the ass more than once, I kind of had to realize that living apart on other islands for two years, seeing each other every 2-4 months for a week, and then moving back to god knows where in the US isn't much of a relationship. Anyway, I had kept these thoughts private while I worked them out, but then aforementioned incident occurred, moving along the process in a much quicker, if less pleasant, fashion. Oddly enough, I'm not too bothered by it. Don't get me wrong, I liked her a lot, and still do. But when you've already been apart two months (almost as long as we knew each other beforehand), it somehow just isn't all that strange to lose that one last connection. So that's that.

Ok, onward to the good stuff. My road race project is in full swing. I wrote up a proposal for it last week and translated it into Portuguese yesterday. We've contacted the high school gym teachers, who are going to tell their classes about it and get them to participate. We've spoken with the local Red Cross, and they have lots of info. They are doing a bunch of World AIDS Day activities on the 1st, and then they will help us out with materials and information for the race on the 2nd. I wasn't sure how to get numbers for the race, until I emailed my awesomely cool aunt in California. She's a marathoner and all around serious runner, as well as an AIDS activist and volunteer, so I knew she'd have ideas. Well, she got Brooks, the running shoe company, to send me 200 race numbers, and she is working with the owner of a San Diego running store to donate two pairs of new running shoes, one each for the male and female winners. Score! That should encourage people to get involved and get competitive. So far basically everyone we've spoken with is really into the idea and is pretty excited about it. I've got a lot of planning work to continue to do in the next few weeks. I've gotta plot out a 5k course, pick a start/finish line, show the map to the police so they can block off the roads, contact several organizations to get materials on HIV/AIDS, get a speaker for the post-race event (with music, of course, because it's Cape Verde, and everything has music), and recruit volunteers to man the finish line and water stations. It's a damn good thing I've run a lot of races or I'd be totally lost. So even though it's a lot of work and was pretty stressful yesterday and Friday, I think it's going to be endlessly satisfying when it actually happens and is hopefully a success. Whew.

So I'm actually pretty much busy all the time now. I worked basically a 13 hour day yesterday, probably 10 or 12 on Friday, and I expect to be here all day again today. I don't mind so much though, because being at home is so quiet, and this gives me something to do. Plus, when I'm at work, I can always stop to write an email, or a long blog entry. But the overall point of this is that despite the stress from moving and organizing this event, not to mention breaking up, I still finished this last week feeling great. OH, and I forgot to mention that I met François Guy, a former international windsurfing champion, who is going to teach me how to windsurf for a discount. Scooooooore. So basically, none of the bad or stressful things are bothering me. It's awesome.

Posting again this week. Not too much to say though. I've settled into a pretty comfortable routine here that I am enjoying. The good thing is that I shop at the same stores often enough now that I know all the people who work there. João the baker is a particular favorite of mine. His breads are pretty damn good, and I have told my father that I will try to buddy up to him and get his recipe for coconut rolls. They are damned delicious. I think I will be modifying my routine somewhat, because I'd like to fit in some more activities. Mainly once I get some watersports gear, I'm going to have to fit in some surfing/bodyboarding time in the afternoons, meaning that I won't be able to run then. So I'll have to wake up early to run. Ugh. I HATE waking up early, especially to expend that much energy. The shipment of stuff from PC included a bike for me, so I also may start biking around for exercise. Running, surfing, biking, swimming... I'm getting tired just thinking about it.

The first person of our training group has officially ETed. For those of you not in the loop, ET stands for Early Termination. It's the PC lingo for leaving service before your 24 months are up. There can be many reasons for it. Some people are administratively separated, which is I guess sort of like being fired... You fuck up and they send you home. There is also medical separation, which happens if you need lengthy medical care out of the country, get pregnant, something like that. But then there is just plain deciding to go home. Some people can't deal with the stress, some people want to return for a boyfriend/girlfriend/job, and for some others, PC just isn't right. This is the case for my buddy Jean-Claude. His work at site is just not going well and they barely have any thing for him to do, and the idea of staying for two full years and having to fight to have something to do just doesn't sound so good. I don't blame him. It's wild how two people in the same country can have such different experiences at their work. In any event, I bring it up because it sucks that he's leaving. I hung out with him a lot during training, so it's shitty that he won't be around for more gatherings of volunteers. Fortunately, he's from NYC, so it's not like I won't be in his neighborhood in the future. Also, kind of a wake up call that PC service can some times just not work out, even for really committed and competent people.

What else? Oh yeah, Halloween was a bust. People here know of it and call it "Noiti de bruxa," translated more or less as Witch Night. But no one here does anything. Apparently in São Vicente, there are all night parties. Even in João Galego, there is no party on the 31st, but starting at midnight on Nov 1st, people go wild and party all night. But nope, not here in Vila. Fortunately, the 1st was All Saints Day, so it's a national holiday. Nadia and I got to stay home from work. Since nothing is open (at all), there was basically no reason to go anywhere or do anything. I relaxed, read, and went for a swim. The waves were absolutely ridiculous, most of them towering over me. A few times I got good positioning and managed to body surf them a good distance. After a while though, I started getting tired and the waves kept pulling me further out away from the beach. I got worried and swam back in and went back to relax.

Ok, I'm going to finish making my action plan for next year. I'm going to try to make a calendar of all my classes and when I want to work on certain projects. I've gotta get all this organized in my head.

Also, I have noticed a pattern here. Whenever I write an email to someone, I generally get one really enthusiastic reply ("Leland! Oh man, how have you been?! How's Africa?!"), to which I then also reply, but then the next exchange... just stops. Some people have broken this pattern, such as the one and only Jess Paga, and more recently, Miss Grace Chu. So thanks. The rest of you, get on your shit or we're gonna have an awful lot to catch up on when I get state side.