Real Life

Now that Andrew and I are getting settled into our new home, you'll be hearing a lot more from me, because Andrew is heading full force into his job, and I'm just starting to put together my schedule of "useful things to do with myself". And, to be honest, the blog might not be that exciting anymore. After months of gallivanting around Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico, paying little attention to where our money was going and doing every interesting cultural and adventurous activity that came our way, we are now going to have "real lives" again. By "real lives" I mean:

1. We get to/have to go to work.

2. We get to/have to stay in one place and make a community here.

3. We get to/have to go grocery shopping and cook delicious meals on our very own stove!

4. We get to/have to use an alarm clock to wake ourselves up.

5. We get to/have to clean our apartment.

6. We get to/have to save money for things like: paying off our loans, buying a plane ticket to the US or Africa, maybe going to grad school (either here or in the US), and someday building a submarine to return to the Gulf of Mexico and find the "shark" that scared the beegeebies out of Andrew last year.

As we have been moving into our new "real lives", I've begun to realize how cleansed I feel to be in a new space with minimal "stuff". Our apartment came furnished with a bed, a dresser, a kitchen table with chairs, a couch, a fridge, and a stove (along with a pot, a pan, and dishes). Andrew and I both have about 7 shirts, 3 pairs of pants, and 3 pairs of shoes (sandals, dress shoes, and tennis shoes). I've always known that I generally just feel more relaxed when I have less clutter, but being forced to fit everything I want for the next six months to two years in one backpack has been a great reminder of that fact. Now I just need to figure out what to do with all of my relaxed but excited energy...

This afternoon I sent out a notice to the university staff and students, saying that I am interested in doing a Spanish-English conversation exchange. I got about 9 eager responses within 30 minutes. Any suggestions on how to pick out the BEST of them?

And, last of all in this scattered post, I've really been missing witty people. So, for all you witty (or semi-witty) people out there, please feel free to email/comment something witty that your witty self comes up with.

(It turns out that "witty" sounds totally weird when you say it more than about five times in a row. Try it.)