Hodgepodge

If you recall last post, I mentioned catching up on some promised posts. Well I am putting that off yet again to take care of some other assorted topics. Since this is my blog I can do that and there's nothing you can do about it!

Weather

That's right, I am going to talk about the weather. You can choose not to read this part but it's your loss. It has been extremely pleasant the past couple of days. The temperature is mild with a gentle breeze for most of the day and then in late afternoon there is a storm that comes in and it rains for most of the night. It is a gentle rain too which makes for a phenomenal sleeping atmosphere. It seems that the sweet spot for enjoyable rainstorms is a lot narrower if you live in a house with a metal roof which is my current situation. If it gets too intense then it is just insanely loud and a little unsettling. As I said, this has not been a worry recently but since things will change soon enough, I have been mindful to savor it.


Food

I am thrifty with my stipend so that I might enjoy my vacations a little more. In particular, I try to draw out my food to last me as long as I can while at the same time only buying the bare minimum required for daily nourishment. It has almost become a personal challenge to see how frugal I can be with my food (a post for another day). I get extra bonus points this time of the year because of the garden (another post for another day). Just when I am down to the last few servings of rice and beans and have to go into town to buy more food which I do not enjoy, the garden supplies me with a little treat.

Possible the most delicious sweet potato anyone has every eaten in the history of eating sweet potatoes.

Last week I had a few sweet potatoes prepared by my host mother which were incredibly delicious. Today, a few of the pumpkins were ready which means I will be eating a lot of pumpkin in the next couple of days. I have never cooked pumpkin before but on the culinary advice of my host mother, it turned out better than expected. I have no worries about eating the rest. Normally, I wouldn't say I am particularly keen on sweet potatoes or pumpkins but any change from rice and beans is amazing. This is in addition to the fact that the food was grown about 30 meters from where I live, so there is triumph and pride mixed in as well. I am eager for the actual harvest time, there is going to be some serious eating with little spending going on.

Their "pumpkins" are green, what a country!

Meteors

Ryan reminded me of the Geminids meteor show tonight which I have to say I am pretty excited about. I have missed the previous couple for various reasons: some I just flat out forgot, some were too cloudy, and one time I was mistaken about the correct date and was standing in the dark like a fool the day after it ended. I feel like this would be a great opportunity to have a solid explanation about an astronomical events and be able to point it out to my host family, unlike the last time I was tested. I just checked outside and it is cloudy but I am hopeful that it will clear up before midnight. If it doesn't then meteors are stupid and I didn't want to see them anyway.

Christmas

I realized today that Christmas is less than two weeks away. Sadly, it does not feel like Christmas in any way. This was more of a shock to me last year but no less upsetting to experience again this year. All of the cues that it is the holiday season are absent; the weather is warm to hot, I don't watch t.v. so I don't get holiday commercials, and I haven't been to town recently to see any sort of decorations.

The only chance at Christmas spirit I have control over is the Christmas music and to a lesser extent the Christmas movies I can watch. It feels a little forced but after putting on some Christmas tunes this afternoon I definitely felt a little more Christmas-y. My demeanor is decidedly more Christmas-like. A quick aside, I really enjoy Christmas music. I have learned to keep a lid on it these days but I used to like it to the point where some would consider it odd. I would listen to it a couple months after Christmas was over to the frustration to at least one of my sisters. In my defense, I was pretty young and this was when I had maybe 8 cds and Christmas music was one of my only options. Additionally, music is usually less about lyrics and more about melody and rhythm to me and Christmas music has that stuff in spades. I challenge you to listen to some Johnny Mathis or Vince Guaraldi when it is not actually Christmas-time and see if you enjoy it.

Vacation


The polling stations are closed and the votes have been counted. The people have spoken with a loud and booming voice. The St. Lucia Wetland won by a landslide unanimous vote. This is for the best, now I don't have to use my special voting powers. What I didn't tell you is that my vote counts for a billion votes and I wanted to go to St. Lucia. Everybody wins this time.