Yes, it’s true, I went to the United States last weekend. If we were not in contact, I apologize profusely, but I didn’t have a phone and so I was limited in my communication. It’s not that I didn’t want to talk to you, it’s that I ran out of time.
I arrived on Thursday at midnight and passed through JFK without any trouble. Then I hailed a Taxi and headed to my new home away from home on Bleecker Street. Which is really just Chris Anderson’s apartment. He met me on the street, took me up into his new Studio and I unloaded my things. I had assumed that I would be too tired to think at 1 AM, but I found that I was strangely recharged at the sight of my dear friend. He sensed my eagerness to explore the city and took me out. We went for a drink and I helped myself to a Jameson and Cranberry, which I had been craving for some time now. (A girl can only take so much cheap Costa Rican Beer.) We went dancing and stayed out much too late, but what good is sleep in Manhattan?
The next day was spent roaming New York. Coffee for breakfast, a leisurely stroll around the city and a detour for a haircut. Then to Balthazaar for lunch and out to JFK airport to pick up the one and only Nancy Jane Lathan at the airport.
Mama Lathan and I made the drive up to Gun Wavin’ New Haven in about 2 hours, where we met Auntie Carolyn, Reid and his roommate Sean. We spent another couple of hours trying to decide what we wanted to eat for dinner, at which point we were all ready to kill each other. Luckily, Reid kept his cool and suggested his favorite local pizza place, which shut us up quickly. Nothing can dilute a Lathan fight like a good meal.
After dinner, I went back to Reid’s dorm, which is muy tuanis (very cool). I have to admit, I was a little jealous that his room is bigger than mine was Senior year. Some kids get all the luck. Reid and I stayed in and I tried to catch up on episodes of The Office. (The Office coincidentally is back to its Season 2 glory if I may say so. I was a particular fan of the part filmed on my old Pardee Tower floor in Episode one.) The next morning I tried to catch up on Heroes, but ran out of time as I had to hurry to breakfast and the Yale-Penn game.
I bundled up in long pants, a turtleneck, a sweater and a scarf, which was a welcome change to the constant heat and humidity that has been my life these past 10 months. Unfortunately Reid was injured and so couldn’t play or suit up. The game was not as exciting as I would have hoped and unfortunately, the Bulldogs lost, but I was still glad to have been able to see a game for the season. Uncle David, Cousin Ben, Auntie Carolyn and some of my Mom’s oldest and dearest friends made it out for the game. It was a pretty great reunion, even if it wasn’t quite the outcome we had hoped for.
That evening we all went to dinner and my Aunt Carolyn decided to help me drive the Rental car back to the airport. I got up at 4:30 the next morning to go the airport, however when I got there at five, I couldn’t do automatic check-in. So I got into another line to check my reservation. At which point the woman checking me in (a gray haired woman with a bitter voice, bad attitude, outdated wardrobe and mean eyes) told me that My reservation didn’t exist and that I wasn’t booked for the day. So I hightailed to a payphone and called my Mom who pulled up my reservation on her iPhone only to realize that we had booked the flight for the 23rd of November instead of the 26th of October.
Oops.
So I changed my flight for the next morning and headed back to the Hotel. Then Mom and Auntie Carolyn drove me into the city where I spent the rest of the day with Chris. We brunched and wandered and lived the dream. I was a little overwhelmed by the end of the day because I hadn’t seen that many people in who knows how long, but I still had a great time. I felt a little bit lost without a cell phone, but now that I am back on the reservation I realize it probably wouldn’t have been good for me to get used to it. We went out to Indian Food for dinner in Hell’s Kitchen and then headed back early because I had to leave at 330 in the morning.
So, a car came to get me at 3:30, I slept on the way to the airport, and then on the plane and then in the next plane and the next taxi and finally on the bus. I arrived in El Vergel at 8 pm to find that my host family had cleaned my room and done all of my laundry. SWEET!
Tuesday Morning I had to tell all of my kids where I had gone for the weekend and why I had missed Monday classes, which was actually a little bit uncomfortable, because they already think that I have more money than god. My fourth graders are working on writing and I brought back a bunch of magazines so that they could describe the pictures, which I think they enjoyed. My first graders are learning the body which is fun to watch because they all go around singing “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” all day. My third graders are still a nightmare, but at least it’s almost over. Melissa, my host sister, made me an amazing Halloween card this week complete with pumpkins and a cut out vampire. She also spelled Halloween “jalowin” which is phonetic in Costa Rica I suppose. Maybe next year’s volunteer will have time to teach them spelling.
I submitted my absentee ballot and have dreamt about the election for the last 5 nights in a row, which is simultaneously concerning and sad. I can’t wait until it’s over, just so that I can sleep again, one way or another. Unfortunately, I’ve had to watch Fox News, because that’s the only channel that we get that is covering the election non-stop. It makes me angry more than anything else, but it’s still better than nothing I guess.
My host mom bough me a new pair of earrings yesterday that matches the Necklace they bought me in the Spring. My host brother Pablo has promised to teach me how to make my favorite food (Patacones). Yesterday my host brother Quito (1st grade) put together a whole sentence on his own. Well it was basically a sentence. He asked me, how to say ‘laying’ and then I told him and he said, “Entonces hay un Chicken laying eggs.” I jumped for joy, well it was more of a leap, but still, I was airborne. I know it doesn’t seem like a big deal considering that he has had English with me for a year, but it really shows progress and I was extremely proud of him.
I finally got a couple of care packages that had been sent to me ages ago. I would like to send a big shout out to the one and only Lindsay Dencker, who sent me an incredible supply of “fall” goodies like pumpkin lip gloss, Pilgrim hats, leaf decorations and spooky music for Halloween. I have decided to make Halloween a 4-5 class celebration, just because. I am considering having a haunted house on Friday. Maybe I’ll make the kids bob for apples. I also can’t wait to do some of the Thanksgiving activities that I have planned. Making pilgrim and Indian caps, decorating turkeys and building cornucopias. Oh what fun. I was also delighted to get a big package from my Mom, complete with flashcards, paper plates and other excellent teaching supplies. I can’t believe it’s November.
Okay then, that’s all from this end. I have no travel plans for this fin de semana and am looking forward to some time at home reading and planning my life for the next year. I would like to take this opportunity to let you know that there are only 44 days left until my return to America and that you had better start revving your engines, because it’s going to be epic. Thanks for reading, stay tuned for More Radventures, same rad time, same rad channel.
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