The day a feather fell from the sky into the house...

Today, many things happened to me that would never happen in the US. A few examples, today was the first time in my life that I have ever ridden a mule, the first time a US embassador recognized me and asked me where we had met, (I think) the first time I have ever drank canteloupe juice, the first time I saw a lime the size of a football, and definitely the first time I have seen that a feather had fallen from a bird in the sky directly into my house. All this and it`s only 5:33. When I return from the university director`s house in a few hours, where I will be socializing with the American ambassador and company, I`m sure that I will have more experiences to report on.

So, let me be clear-- the US ambassador arrived in Valera today. While it seemed like nobody really knew that he was coming, the preparations that went in to two very short events were somewhat unbelievable. Security people, embassy people, university people, community members, etc… everyone rounding up to show the ambassador and his wife and daughter a good time, to take some pictures, donate some cheesey toys adorned with American flags, and photograph the ambassador with some donkey-mule-horse animals. His arrival was part of a larger trip, in which he traveled to three or four major cities in Valera to do various things. In Valera, he was meeting with Bibliomulas because they are donating $7000 to buy another mule, books, materials, etc, and he was going to inaugurate the American Corner, which was going to involve ribbon cutting and little kids speaking English.

Sounds nice, right? Well, there were only a few problems: 1) The fact that nobody had really done any of the preparations until this morning/afternoon, and 2) The violent protestors blocking off the streets.

When I came home, I said something that I hear my family say all the time when something gets messed up, “Se jodio la verga.” But when I said it, they all burst out laughing. Apparently, that means roughly, “Shit got all fucked up.” This is when I realized just how much my host mom swears, and how much I am like a little kid, repeating whatever I hear. Haha. I kind of love it. They wanted me to say it to the ambassador. I told them that I didn`t want to get sent home…

In other lack-of-news, there is no word on my computer. The police have been overly nice to me, in that they have not only helped me look for the ugly beast of a man that stole my stuff, but they have also asked me on dates and said things like, “I thought about you as I went to bed last night.” Real nice, huh? Well, hopefully my blonde hair will attract enough help that my stuff will be recovered. Word about the robbery traveled fast, for example, I met someone from the embassy in Caracas today. I said, “Hi, I`m Anna.” To which he responded, “I`m really sorry about the bad thing that happened.” Awesome. In class, one of my students said, “Why were you at the Petejota (police station) this weekend? My dad works there and he said a gringa came.” But seriously, a lot of people are really mad, and a lot of them happen to know people who work in the police station. The more eyes, the merrier. In the meantime, I am considering buying a netbook. Any thoughts? Opinions? Objections?

I will leave you with my biggest epiphany of late--- that I`m pretty sure our dogs are actually more fashionable than I am. For example, they went to get haircuts last week (something I rarely do) and came back with little bows in their hair (or should I say on their ears?). The old blind one has pink bows, while the young spastic one has yellow bows. They have been wearing them for about a week, and every time I see them I think that maybe I should go buy a headband, or at least a sparkly scrunchie or something…

....nahhhhh.