Pretty A-OK

As I sit in my bed, cuddled up with a hot cup of manzanilla tea while Carlos Varela sings "Siete" from my iTunes, I realize that life is pretty dang great. I had sort of an off week, mostly due to a so-so start. I forgot about a birthday dessert party for Anyel on Monday evening while I was frantically researching Eugenio Espejo in between power outages. The rain brought comforting memories of home, of running to class in flip flops with my jeans rolled up to my knees, nevertheless managing to soak myself. It also brought darker afternoons than usual, which is difficult for me. I like a full day of light, whether it is overcast or not, but these clouds seemed to make the sun disappear at 4pm instead of 6pm. Who knows whether it was the change of weather or something in my hormones, but I was in a bit of a funk.

Tuesday I found out that, like always, I had done more work than I needed to in comparison with the rest of the class, and was more than prepared to share my research with my classmates. Never a bad thing. But come time for sociology I was ready to skip out for a pinguino and then a nap. I spent Monday night dreaming about not having enough information, not being prepared for Thursday's test, forgetting Anyel's birthday altogether, not being able to get tickets for Saturday's soccer game, and kept waking up in a kind of panic. I went to class at 2:30, and ended up being glad that I had. Again, like always.

Lupe and Marcelo had warned me that there would be a loooong line to buy tickets, and they would probably sell out the first day that general tickets were available. So, Anyel and I woke up early on Wednesday to stand in line. We showed up at 8, thinking they would open at 9, and nobody was there. So, we went to ACLAS to take care of some paperwork, returned at 9, and there was definitely a line. Come to find out, contrary to the information from friends and the newspaper, they were still selling only abono tickets, or tickets for this and the next game at the same time. We stood there for about another hour before they actually opened, and then another 10 minutes before we found out they weren't selling general admissions. So, I went to Mensajeros for the rest of the afternoon.

Lindsey and I were both pooped, but we managed to help them have some fun anyway. We brought crayons again (Teresa's favorite) and some big LEGOS. Maria did pretty well, almost better than Teresa with the LEGOS. I was surprised by that, but Teresa didn't seem to understand that stacking heavily on one side would cause a tower to fall over. She got frustrated and I interpreted her signing to mean "It doesn't work. I can't do it." I worked with her a little bit and she started to get it, but I don't think she'll be much of a builder. She much prefers to color. Pancho was a real sweetheart on Wednesday. He stood behind my chair, watching over my shoulder as I colored or building towers with Maria. He put his hand on my shoulder for a while, and though I was tense the entire time, it left me feeling pretty high on life.

I can't remember what I did Wednesday night, but it was definitely not studying. I tried to nap, but the thunder and lightning was like nothing I've experienced in a long time. I was just nodding off to Lord of the Rings when lightning struck so close as to set off all the car alarms in the neighborhood. My windows were shaking from the wind, and the thunder managed to drown out the airplanes flying over the apartment on the way to the airport. I have absolutely been in awe of the weather here this week. I wake up chilled, leave the house with lots of layers, and am sweating by the time I get to the bus. The mornings are warm as ever, but about 1 or 2pm the clouds roll in and the rain pours down all afternoon and sometimes all evening.

I got up early early again on Thursday to stand in line again for tickets. I waited at my house for Anyel to bring me some money, because I was going to try to buy tickets for her friend as well. 8:15 actually ended up being 8:45, so I arrived at the stadium at 9 to find a line all the way out the gates and onto the street. I had exactly 1 and a half hours before I had to catch the bus to school, so I was praying that they'd open on time unlike the morning before. About 9:15 people started to move, but the next hour was absolute chaos. Nobody knew which window was selling what, one line turned into two, then back into one. When a window would actually open, people from the back of the line would run up to the front. When our two lines merged, one man was trying to pull me out of line while another was holding onto me for dear life to stay in line. I used my strongest "Perdon. Déjeme en paz, por favor," and kept my spot, sandwiched between Mr. Dandruff and Mrs. Cellphone. I did, finally, get 4 tickets, and that was the start of the better half of the week.