Hi all,
It's been a month almost since I last wrote. Wow. It's been a busy month with lots happening. Uppermost in my mind today is that my roommate for the past many months, not sure how many, is leaving. Andrea has been a good friend and companion and I will miss her.
I am also sick today, and feeling crappy, but hopefully that won't cloud the email too much.
Last week, we went to a play called the Vagina Monologues. We filled out a raffle form and I won two free nights in a fancy hotel in Samara. It has to be used in Feb. Mar or Apr , precisely when I am busiest with Nicaragua stuff and not on weekends, but maybe I can squeeze it in...
To pick up my certificate for the free nights, I was invited to a "free cocktail". I went with Heidy, from work, and we arrived and they asked me to fill out a short form - asking how much money I made per month, what kind of credit cards I had, did I own a house, etc. Naturally, I filled out all the worst categories and then they asked us to sit down. After a few minutes they gave me my certificate and said I could leave. Seems like I wasn't rich enough for their tastes. Looks like they were trying to upsell the free nights into something else, but decided that I wasn't worth a free cocktail. Oh well.
It's been busy, with the ending of the last group and the new groups coming this week. We have been in leader orientation most of the month. Fun, but tiring. This week, they were all out visiting their projects, which gave us a chance to catch up on some things.
Our phone at home is busted and we are moving as well (so no point fixing it), so I had to come to work today to use the phone. Oh well, I like being at work 7 days in a row. Really. :)
We are moving. We found a new house that is a bit closer to work. Would be great for biking, except just wrecked my gears worse yesterday and my bike is almost unusable. Anyway, the house is nice, smaller and newer. Seems to be a safe area of town (Vargas Araya) and a good move. So far, no phone, but hopefully that will be fixed up soon. We are moving this coming weekend, at the same time as the new group of volunteers comes down. A bit crazy, but oh well.
Well, been busy at work, but I am still getting out. Went to two live bands, an American jazz drummer that my friend Mario got tickets for and Editus, a Costa Rican band that won a Grammy last year. Lots of parties of course, and much fun to be had. No need for gory details, suffice to say that I am needing to find more time to squeeze in sleep these days...
That's all for now, hope all is well with you.
Rob