1-8-08

Way way way too long since last update. I can't count the number of times I've sat down with the intent of writing about all the things that have happened the previous but getting sidetracked with the multitude of events going on.

To put it simply, I've been the busiest I have ever been in the 26 years I've been on this planet. I'm not sure how it happened really, the job was going well and I was connecting with old friends but I needed to do more. So I found my old dance teachers to try and get back on the dance team (I used to dance salsa competitively). You know, to get back into the dance community. It turns out they needed another dance instructor for the new La Jolla studio (opening up Dec. 8th) and invited me to take instructor training, lots of ballroom classes and private instruction to bring me up to speed. So just about every waking hour I'm not working or sleeping (yes I can sleep while awake) I'm either dancing (amateur team, taking lessons, teaching) or en route to some dance event. And there are so many! Since I dance about 6 days a week in one form or another I've become quickly familiar with the local hot (and not-so-hot) dance spots.

But what else has kept me from updating, let's see. Oh yeah, I spent a few days in D.C. attending a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer conference that was awesome. There I was in a room full of people going through the same readjustment issues as I was, flipping out about traffic, fast food and hot water. Perhaps the strangest thing was meeting 3 other Vanuatu RPCV's at the conference. I immediately switched back into Bislama and started conversing, not even realizing that I was doing it. Our conversation went something like this (translated).

"Brother in law, how are you?"
"No, how are you?"
"No, I haven't seen you in a long time"
"Yes my brother in law, it is true we have not seen each other for a long time. When I saw you I thought you looked fat."
"Yes it is true I am fat now. But you are also fat! In fact I think you are more fat than me!"
" Haha, *expletive* I think you are right!"

So that was fun. We carried on for a little while longer, went to all the sessions and got caught up on all the gossip we'd missed out on. Later on I met up with some other RPCV's and took a tour of the D.C. monuments at night. I'd been to D.C. years and years ago with my family but had forgotten how everything looked, how European things resembled, and how the the area between the Lincoln Memorial and the reflecting pool was exactly like the view in Paris from the water fountain to the Eiffel Tower. Coincidence? Nope, they took the idea from Paris.

I got back home and some things happened. Can't really remember but that's because I don't have my journal on me right now and I record everything in there.

Right, Jenneric got married! For the uninformed Jenn and Eric (Jenneric, get it?) are two of my friends who met in Peace Corps Vanuatu and got married in New Jersey. I'd been looking forward to this wedding for a long time since it would be the first time I'd seen so many of my Peace Corps friends after leaving. Of course I wasn't disappointed, I arrived with my friend Katie and after some coordinating met up with what seemed to be 100 RPCV's, all cramped in two rooms, all drinking. The wedding was lovely, everyone looked great blah blah anyway at the reception there was a big kava bowl which was manned by my friend Joe. I'd heard that Jenneric had brought home about 10 kilos of kava and here it was, the vile elixir I used to drink every day for a year straight, smelling of fermented cucumber and tasting like mud and the silt from the bottom of the ocean. I don't remember how many shells I drank or how many people I got to drink with me or how I ended up supervising the drinking, but it all happened. And I have the photos to prove it.