2010.04.30_re-entering the atmosphere

I woke up this morning thinking about how awesome my blog name is, and decided that being as awesome as it is, I shouldn't waste it not writing for months, so here I am, with nothing in particular to say but a whirlwind of festering disjunct thoughts. If you're one of the many people I've been neglecting lately, you'll be pleased to learn that you're not alone.

To recap the past four months really quick. I went on vacation and a penguin bit me,








I went on another vacation with a bus full of old people doing things like


and I live in the microcenter now, in a fifth-floor apartment, directly above the action. This means that every morning, if I'm not waking up to the synchronized drum beats of a demonstration, I'm at least waking up to the roaring bus engines, honking horns, sirens, and (I know this sounds entirely too cinematic, but it's real) the faint blare of tango music.

The view from my balcony...


is much prettier than the view from the street.


My Spanish is pretty amazing. I can now laugh at the me from seven months ago... the me that responded to "hola linda" (hi cutie) with "noooo, it's LISA." Or the me that used "ciao!" (strictly goodbye here) in attempt to warmly welcome someone that came to my door. Don't get me wrong, I still order zapatillos (shoes) instead of zapallitos (leeks) in my tarta at times, but at least I get the joke now after I do it.

I've been having a love/hate relationship with consumerist culture lately. On one hand, I love that most households are minimalist. We don't have mops -- we have a trapo (rag) and a secador (it's like a squeegee with a broom handle). Of course the trapo is used for other things, and the secador is used for other things, but together they clearly constitute a mop. Because I can't buy everything, I'm learning that if I can't buy it, I can usually make it out of something that I already have. On the other hand, I really could use some non-flouride toothpaste and tweezers with the angled tip.

Feliz cumple Steven Lim!

All the while my dad's been keeping me informed on life. The dot over the letter 'i' is called a tittle. I'm not sure what the dot over the 'j' is. By slowly raising your legs and lying on your back, you won't sink in quicksand. This I'd very much like to believe, but I saw Princess Bride, and there is just no f-in way Buttercup had time to "slowly raise her legs." And finally, a raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top. This is true. I used this theory test as an excuse to buy champagne and raisins. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the raisins. Blech.