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?