Still Spinning

The weeks are spinning faster and faster, like a roll of toilet paper as it comes to an end.  I realized how long I had been here when I went to get a mani/pedi yesterday and realized that my last one had been a month ago.  A month! I see that I have accomplished quite a bit, both personally and professionally, but I also see I am just starting my journey up the mountain and the peak is still a long ways off, obscured in the haze somewhere....  I still haven't found a routine I am happy with, between being sick and (shhhhh don't tell my Mom!) twisting my knee, I haven't gotten to spend much time exercising.  Also, the schedule at school has been a bit screwy with all the back-to-school stuff, along with less predictable matters like country-wide electricity blackouts.  

Regulation will come, sooner than later I am sure.  This last weekend I was able to finish up getting things I needed for my apartment, learned how to pay my utilities online (so I don't have any Tracey Apartment Blackouts), and remembered again why going out with Gordon ruins my sleep schedule.  Ivan invited me out to a Ska concert on Saturday night, and for good measure, we brought along Gordon and a friend-of-a-friend Anne.  Yes, gentle readers, I have only been here for roughly six weeks and already have friends-of-friends.  Pathological extroversion at it's finest! Anyways, the bar where the concert was held reminded me of a dive bar in the US (similar to the old upstairs of Starr Hill for you Cville folks who may remember!), but unlike the US, the band didn't come on until 1am!  An additional surprise was, after noticing that our table was in fact made of an over-sized red bull can with an advertisement for red bull on the top, I ordered a red bull and vodka to drink.  The waitress said they did not have any redbull in the house, at which time I pointed to a RED BULL REFRIGERATOR WITH RED BULL IN IT and she said that they were "props" and not, in fact, cans of red bull.  Ironically, three hours later, when I was well lubricated and definitely no longer needed a red bull and vodka, the waitress magically found one. That was probably the beginning of the end. The concert was fantastic, and in true Tracey style, we went for late-night arepas after the show and rolled home at roughly 6am.  Thus, another unaccomplished Sunday.  I have a lot of those here.  

My expat friends who have been around the expat block all say that six weeks is when the honeymoon starts to wane, but so far, I haven't seen many signs of that yet. My first real feeling of homesickness did come this week though, when I learned of some troubles that some of my friends were having back home. Knowing that those I love were suffering and that I had no way of physically reaching out to them hit me pretty hard on Sunday night. That was a risk I knew I was taking when I came here, but it is harder to face this fact when it is actually happening. I would love advice on how to best reach out to my friends back home who are suffering.  I hate the idea of just sending an email. Sigh. First world problems in the third world.

Anyways, it's off to the beach this weekend!  Fifteen of us (yes, I have fifteen friends!) are going to Choroni, a three/four hours drive from Caracas in Aragua, Venezuela. Expect a full report (and pictures!) next week:).