I have been drinking Coca-Cola. It is delicious and I don't know why I ever drank diet coke. On Thursday I had my first Spanish class. My teacher is this really adorable woman from Peru with sort of a fashion mullet. She's beautiful and only speaks to us in Spanish. Except when we're extremely dense, she'll say a word or two in English. The only other students in the class are a Korean girl and a Hungarian boy. They are really cute and it is good we don't have the same first language so we can practice our Spanish out of necessity. Classes are two hours a day, five days a week. Class is a lot of conversation and interaction. Some grammar, but in the context of communication. So much better than any Spanish class I've taken. It is really the only thing I'm doing. I need to learn more Spanish in order to work or even volunteer. I've been having fun being a bum. I've been reading. I've read "Catcher in the Rye," a book of Haruki Murakami stories, and now I'm reading "Nudge" and poetry by Gwendolyn Brooks. Gwendolyn Brooks is amazing. Listen:
You have no word for soldiers to enjoy
The feel of, as an apple, and to chew
With masculine satisfaction. Not ¨good-by!"
"Come back!" or "careful!" Look, and let him go.
"Good-by!" is brutal, and "come back!" the raw
Insistence of an idle desperation
Since could he favor he would favor now.
He will be "careful!" if he has permission.
Looking is better. At the dissolution
Grab greatly with the eye, crush in a steel
Of study-- Even that is vain. Expression,
The touch or look or word, will little avail.
The brawniest will not beat back the storm
Nor the heaviest haul your little boy from harm.
- from Gay Chaps at the Bar
I've also been reading nytimes and gofugyourself. The latter is extremely hilarious and often devestatingly well-written.
I'm going to wander around San Isidro tomorrow, where my class is. The yoga class I was going to take was full, so I am going to try to buy a yoga mat tomorrow and do it myself. I miss my daily stretch class with the kids at the preschool. I miss having a schedule and things to do . . . I have to go do more stuff, like explore on my own. I am really lazy if I don't pay attention. I've started to get motion-sick if I travel in the small buses for a long way. They're really small; you have to duck when you get in. It's like a minivan but twice as long. And you can pack about 700 people in one. They jerk all over the place when they're driving, because they race forward to assert themselves into the 4-inch gap between two other huger buses, then they SLAM on the breaks because they can't actually fit in that gap. And the smog is really amazing. The combination makes me feel like puking. But tonight I took the big bus, a normal person bus and I didn't feel sick. Today is my dad's birthday and I wrote him a list of things he says:
I didn't go to school for 25 years for nothing.
Hiccups are an irritation of the frenic nerve.
78% of statistics are made up on the spot.
Manske´s Summer Home, some are not
I didn't realize I was hungry until I sat down to eat.
Bend back the book covers and first and last pages of softback books so they'll last longer.
Walk the opposite direction of traffic.
Keep your eye on the ball.
Do you know the longest word in the english language? Disestablishmentarianism.
How do you spell Mississippi? EM-eye-es-ES-eye-es-es-EYE-pee-pee-eye
The state bird of Minnesota is the misquito.
It's important to develop good metamemorial skills.
Kid: I'm thirsty! Dad: Swallow your spit.
Catch up backwards. Do today's work today.
to bad drivers: "You lizard!"
I'l be 2-5 (newspaper and coffee mug in hand)
Where's the hot sauce? Where's the ketchup?
I'm not fussy.
That's D-U-M.
I follow my nose.
That guy's like Officer Bird. I just say "yes sir" and "no sir."
Does this match? My kids say I'm colorblind.
I don't really need anything (said at birthdays and christmas)
Want some ABC gum?
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing expecting different results.
Everything in moderation, even moderation.
I gotta take a whiz.
I'm getting caught up.
Have you ever read "The Richest Man in Babylon?"
If you invested $1 in 1949, do you know what it would be worth today?Have you heard of the guy who won the lottery and got $1 milllion a year for ten years; at the end of the ten years he was broke.
Do you know the etymology of that word?
Democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others.
The whole Dan family.
You can always come home.
I love my dad.
I am tired, I am going to bed.