Getting closer to Catching on.

June 19

It’s actually June 20^th today but I didn’t feel like writing last night so I’ll explain it now.

Yesterday I woke up and cleaned the pools, as I will everyday for the rest of my stay here. It’s kind of a slow relaxing process. You have to vacuum really slowly as to not disturb the dirt before it’s swept up. The motion is akin to rowing a gondola. Yesterday I still didn’t quite have the hang of it, the hose isn’t filling the foot bath as quickly as I’d like it too for the first pool. After I cleaned the pools I went to the Grocery store with Mr. and Mm. Suave. It was a huge super market that had everything from food to vespa’s. I bought enough food to survive for a week or to, I haven’t been eating much (when I cook for myself) because my appetite just hasn’t been the same, I guess that’s good, maybe I’ll shave off a couple pounds, that and I wont be spending tons of Euro on food. After we did our shopping we stopped at a farm. The woman that lives there is sick with something like Cerebral Palsy, so I think that they were checking up on her, she was nice, probably one of the nicer people I’ve met since I’ve been here. At the farm they had a really hyper German Shepard and then a Huge Shaggy Newfoundland that was really calm and would go in the pond and get his fur all wet. They also had cows and horses and a couple goats that had just had babies! So there were teeny tiny goats that were OH so cute. There were also a bunch of birds in cages and so on. It was a brief but fun little visit. Soon after that we returned home and I wrote a letter to Jon, which ended up being about 8 pages long. I guess that’s not that bad seeing that the paper is pretty small, but I think I had a lot to say. After that I learned how to work the riding mower and mowed much of the lawn. The girl that taught me how to use it was Mary, The Suaves Grand daughter, she lives on the property in a house with her family. She spoke English to me and sometimes it sounded like she had a bit of an Australian accent, I found that amusing, I wonder if she watches that Australian soap Opera that’s so popular in Europe…I forget it’s name. After mowing the lawn I took a little swim in one of the pools. I figure I clean them…I might as well use them. I did some laps and got my heart rate up, even though after pushing off the wall it only took me about 4 strokes to get to the other side. It was nice to be in the water again, I forget how much I enjoy it sometimes.

After that I did some logic puzzles, usually I can get them pretty quickly, I have more than half of my little book done, but for some reason the two I tried to do last night were really difficult, and as soon as I thought I figured it out I find out I’m wrong….. it was frustrating. Maybe they just get harder as they go on…or maybe it’s the time difference. I don’t do Logic puzzles because I feel like I have to to stay smart or something, I actually really enjoy doing them. I took my math requirement at North Park my last semester of my senior year, I had been dreading it my whole college career and as soon as I take it I find out I’m pretty good at what they’re teaching. Puzzles! Truth tables! Yay! So I got myself some logic puzzle books and now I have something to do besides read before I go to bed. Woo hoo!

That night I got to go on line (seems like that’s my routine about 7pm) and started up this blog, talked to a couple friends online, and got Jon to use this new fangled technology called skype! When I skype with my family it’s nice because they can see me and I can see them, when I skyped with Jon it was weird because he could see me but I couldn’t see him. It was good to hear his voice though, and honestly the sound quality on it is so much better then that on a cell phone, it’s like your in the room with the person, especially if you have the camera.

I was trying to figure out what to do with the 10 days I have to travel after I’m done working. Honestly I’d like to just spend a day or two in Normandy and in Paris and then get the heck out of here. I feel like 10 days is going to drain me of any money I’ve made. And I mean, I’m already pretty lonely here, I don’t want to be wandering around France all by myself. Plus I’ll only be able to pay for things in cash since I don’t have my debit card here, and there’s no use opening a bank account for one month in the middle of nowhere France……so seriously, ten days is a bit too much for now. I think I’d like to go to England since I’m right below it and it is one of the things on my list of places to see. But I just KNOW the pounds there would just suck up all my money. We’ll see if I can move up my flight or something….problem is, that’s peak tourist season for this area of the world and that will make things a bit more difficult…..including traveling in general.

I got to sleep pretty late because I started reading “Black Hole” and it’s a pretty freaky book. It’s about these high schoolers and there is a disease that is going around that can only be passed by having sex, the symptoms are different for each person, like one guy gets a tiny mouth on his neck, another girl get’s a weird little rat tail. It’s a Graphic novel too, so the illustrations make it all the more difficult to handle. Good book though…just freaky. Good thing I brought that and “Helter Skelter” with me to read, haha. Both are really freaky books. I guess I brought That Kierkegaard book too “the Seducers Diary” but that takes some concentration to read.

Alright time to mow the lawn some more.