resurrected bunnies.

it's easter.

and.. ..... ...... ....

i miss mark.

Questions Unanswered.

COSTA RICA recently happened.






Despite the beautiful forests, energetic monkeys with offensive genitalia, sloths, birds galore, warm waters, volcanic rocks, only one thing really was important. And stands out as the one event of the trip that left the biggest impression on me. It is in meeting this man.




ON a Tuesday morning in the Miami Airport. Sitting across from us. Me and Carrie were giggling about some silly thing and as we are laughing we glance across the aisle and see his bright shiny face beaming at us in utter ecstasy. While one might initially think this is funny, that some some stranger is somehow delighting in our joy, it was nothing but frightening at first. It was such an exaggerated expression. Scary. This photo was minutes into the incident and doesn't fully depict his animation. My heart dropped when seeing him. His head jerked abruptly whenever he turned to smile at us. Once a slight laugh peeked from our mouths he faced us and stared at us. Did he like our conversation? We were not loud enough for him to hear. Was he special? These questions were never answered. And so as he continued to repeatedly glance in our direction with his haunting smile, we couldn't help but giggle. And so I pulled out my book and we both stared at the pages and pretended to be laughing at some passages. And then he left to take a cell call.

AND so we left to our gate down the hall and boarded our plane. And there he was two rows in front of us!!! No smiles. Very calm. And I stared at him to piece things together. And that was that.

WE landed in San Jose and flew to the west coast. And on the third day we went to a local beach, and as we were riding with the waves, this very same man pops his head out of the water, waiting for the next wave!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Me and Carrie were stunned. I couldn't pass this opportunity to talk to him. To discern his personality and find reasons why he was such a creepy man earlier. And after a few minutes of casual conversation, all I found out was that he was visiting a buddy who always comes to Costa Rica, and that he works in New York. Or something like that.

And we leave.


Dear pretty Jesus,

Why was this man brought into my life? Was this fate that I encountered him so many times? Was this man you, Jesus? Come down from the skies? Eavesdropping on me? I just wanna know! What was with all those creepy faces?!



More importantly, Why did I post this snoring story?

I'm alone this house!

Okay. It's been a while. Yes. It has. But. I'm here. And that's all. What does my life consist of now? Well, Mark is still in Spain. I'm here in Michigan. No more Lola. No Alcampo. No churros. No poop on my shoe. It's unfortunate. People continue to surprise me. They always ask, "Where is Mark? Where's your boyfriend?" And I'm like, "Well, that Mark is in Spain til July. Back off!" These people! How come nobody can remember these unfavorable details!? Moving forward. I have this job interview today, well, second interview. And I still don't know if I want to pursue this job. I'm comfortable with things now. And I have so much autonomy and fluid-living right now. I'm not too eager to jeopardize that. But...we'll see. Maybe this youth program turns out to be the funnest thing in the world. And.....how influential will I even be?
Bloggy Blogginator. How have you been?
Costa Rica is in a few weeks. I anticipate panic attacks, bug bites, sunburns, sweat stains, burger pits, and shark attacks. I hope. Amsterdam is in couple months. I anticipate Mark, bike rides, smoky pipes, green hills, cheese, and a freakin break.
This blog sucks. Why oh why?
Ya know, and those that subscribe? Well, you're notified like...4 days late. I think. Doesn't that stink? I mean, how inconvenient.
I need to screeeeeeaaaaaaammmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

To the concerned and confused, rest assured, I do not have testicular cancer. Me, Lola and Mark ventured to the basement of the hospital to get the examination. Florescent lighting, rusty tiling, x-rays of diseased testicles. To take the examination, Lola had to wheel out some old lady so we could use the ultrasound in her room. I stripped down and after cold goo and bodily exploration, it was clear that cancer had not victimized me. Only an enlarged, chubby vein! We can't expect all the veins to keep a fine physique.
Amy, Mark's friend from his Peace Corps group in Ukraine, came for Thanksgiving. I like her for the following reasons: she cooked me vegetarian stuffing, uses the word "cool" a lot, has a bursty laugh, and begs us to take pictures of her in front of hundreds of trees.
I was able to see a lot of cool paintings recently at museums. Picasso, Chagall, Van Gogh, Degas, Monet, Kandinsky. It made me really wanna start painting again.

What are some highlights of my life recently? Well, here we go:
1) Mark spilled coffee on his pants and Amy naturally shrieks "Opa!" during the crisis and laughs hysterically.
2) A little girl at Mark's school was throwing paper at peers and trying to draw on their faces, and, by the grace of God, immediately after, jabs her knee into a tack and cries.
3) We visited a temple that Egyptians constructed for Spain and Mark hid beneath a wall, near a very dark and ominous room and growled like Bigfoot when tourists passed by, turning that historical monument into a haunted house.
Hmm.....we went to the Museo de Jamon and got a bunch of stuff to eat. Amy was so cute - she said "muchas gracias" like five times while ordering and picking up our food and usually such politeness and verbal gratitude when dining is absent here in Spain, so it was kinda funny. (Nonetheless, politeness and gratitude, in general, are particularly widespread here.)

Ehh....
I have to go to the bathroom so...I'm out.

An Ultrasound Sounds Good

Let's be honest here. Tengo un bulto en mi testiculo izquierda. It's been there for three years. In a world where health coverage is barren and requires me to pay at least $300 to determine if a lump is cancerous, Jina, the goddess of health and happiness, grants me a miracle.

Yesterday, during my chit-chat session with Lola, I vented about me and Mark's failed attempt to get free health care here in Spain. She inquired more so I let it all out and confessed my nutty issue. In this conversation, she expresses that not only does she interpret X-rays, but also ultrasounds!!!!! And she offered to perform one on me! for free! While on one hand there's the downside that she will have to examine my naked body and I will have to tutor her the next day (awkward), it is ultimately a free gift and it gives me and Mark a reason to explore Alcala de Henares, which is where her distant hospital is located. It has a river, tall hills, and a beautiful monastery. There's a photo above.

Moving on, I went grocery shopping today and checked out the local sports center and saw an old man peeing on the sidewalk outside, a co-sex locker room, and a teenager with a dreadlocks mullet.

My life is whole.

Dont Be Testi

Me and Mark hosted our first couch-surfer. She was a French 20 year old girl named Stephanie. She was fairly sweet, not too talkative, big eyes, yaddah yaddah. It was ultimately a positive experience. A new guest came last night. He's from Belgium and is looking to find a job in the field of architecture. He had smoker's breath, a big nose like me, and was really nice. He's scrambling around in his room now.
Me and Mark took a bus to Escorial. It's a little city planted on a hill. Cobblestone streets, sexy, confident cats like the one pictured here, and Valley of the Fallen, which is a cemetery established by Francisco Franco in memory of the Spanish Civil War victims. There were giant hills (moutains?) all along the city so we decided to climb it a bit. After packing some marzipan, sandwich stuff, water, and nuts, we began the hike. Mark was getting a little nervous about the great outdoors and cautioned me on emergency telephone numbers, snake bites, zig-zag climbing techniques, and bear attacks.

"Will you please stop every now and then to check to hear rattlesnakes?"

At one point I made a couple bear groans and Mark twitches around and says very sternly,

"SHUT UP. WAS THAT YOU??".

Haha. Best part was when we almost didn't climb to the top because of his fear of potential mountain lion habitats nearby. I convinced him to pursue the climb and it was beautiful reaching the top. On a side note, I just learned that most cougar attacks are on little children and are more likely when humans play dead. Hmm....also, you can get it to retreat by intensely staring at it. If only Mark knew how many years I have been playing the Staring Game with friends he maybe wouldn't have been so afraid. Oh Mark. I won't lie, though, there were some pretty beastly poop piles scattered throughout the hills, which made me, secretly, scan my surroundings a few times in a very Markesque way. In any case, we were exhausted afterwards. I was walking around like a drunk man, toppling on escalators from the exhaustion.

Mark got quite the sunburn. I, some intense muscle sores. But....we will hopefully return to this luscious place soon - to maybe defeat the mountain again and to check out Franco's memorial.

Glory be. Glory be. We now have hot water and a working oven. Life is complete.
Well....

Mark turned 25 recently. It was a ride-of-a-day. I visited his school and there was a band (Jet Lag) playing for the kids in their outdoor playground. When told this, I figured it'd be a Blues Clues/Sesame Street type band that has songs like "A-is for Apple, B- is for Bubble gum......", but it was just like any other indie rock band you'd see in the U.S. - long black hair, striped T-shirt, black vests, ......
Regardless, the kids didn't sit there like cheese muffins, but were dancing the whole time. So, too, were the teachers. It was so exciting. If a song started slow, the kids would sit, but once the tempo increased, the kids moved in a wave to their feet and into a non-violent moshpit. Two final things to say about it was that they sang Happy Birthday to Mark (which was a special thing to do and a great way to get Mark to blush his brains out) and lastly, they invited the kids to sit and stand beside them for the final song. So the kids swarmed around them like maggots on a steak. They surrounded the keyboardist and banged on the keys when his part came up and completely ruined the song (but made it so much more entertaining). It was a disaster. Teachers were running laps around these kids keeping them from twirling the guitar cords and crawling between the band's legs. Long live Jet Lag.

We went to Ikea, as well, which is identical to Canton's. It reminded us of home, which was nice.
At night, we went to a department store and layered our body in all sorts of samplings of expensive perfumes. Afterwards, we smelled of royalty (actually I think people wanted to barf).
I've had to learn some basic lessons on language etiquette, particularly on the point that English is not a secret language. I sometimes get careless and speak in English about people (while being really close to them), assuming they cannot understand me. And, of course, some end up being bilinguists and so they heard my snickery comments about them and I feel like jumping off a bridge. Lesson learned, though. For now.
Tutoring has been going okay. Lola has been helping me with my Spanish and I with her English and things are good, but I wish I had charged her mulah from the beginning. Oh Lola.
Oh and me and Mark were walking through the Plaza Mayor a few days ago and there was this group of people crowded around some Latin band, loving it. Mark comments that Spaniards love these type of groups so I catch a long glance and notice people with hands lifted and eyes closed, which can only mean one thing - they're singing mainstream Christian rock songs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hmmm...........certainly a blast from my past.
Today I plan on carving pumpkins, finding an indoor pool, researching my future job, finding a country to flee to for an upcoming excursion, find other (more exciting) people to tutor, rent a Disney movie (maybe Lion King), and help Mark at school with his bulletin boards.