Rainstorm

It's inevitable. One day, it will start raining in my room - and when it does, it won't be pouring water, but half-used Labello sticks. Oh, and tuning forks. My room is ten sq m big, I have twelve drawers and only so many coat pockets. Why is it so easy to lose things? From now on, I'll have to ask at the counter if Labello comes in packages of 100 sticks. If they look at me strangely, I'll say something about stocking up for Armageddon and customers' rights.

It's been a while since the last blog post. After a beautiful September came October with its rainstorms straight from the Flood. The funny thing about our winter light is that, no matter how bright the sky is on a clear day, you'll probably still need to keep your lamps burning. Keeping physically active is probably not such a bad idea, if only to keep your eyes open, and so I have decided to explore the many different sports & fitness possibilities offered by the university.

My first excursion was to a half-hour session recommended for people who haven't done a lot of moving lately, and so I thought this would be something suitable for me. On the contrary, the rather slow and meditative pace of the lesson made me almost fall asleep, and so a few days later I confidently arrived at an Afro dancing lesson. The African beats, rhythms and wild movements soon got me hopping around the hall together with about forty female students, which I didn't think much about until the teacher suggested we shake our boobs with a bit more vigor. Happens what happens, next Friday will see me flapping my hands around with no less enthusiasm.

On the travel front, things have been extremely active. This past month has seen Dea and me queuing over an hour for immigration in Miami, depending on American Airlines for nourishment, taking one of the scariest chair lifts ever, spending quality time with our cousins, uncle and grandmother, crying over the non-existence of a Starbucks in Terminal E and spending the last hours of a 24h trip behind a screaming baby. Meanwhile, Hamsa and Carlos have been flying all over the place - from Iceland to the Ukraine via Finland: Carlos cursing Icelandair for the delay which made him miss a daytime landing in Reykjavik and Hamsa joining the bulging masses at Kiev's metro stations.

After a family reunion, I walked home today with some really exotic gifts from Iceland's Blue Lagoon spa: a bottle of algae & mineral shampoo and a bottle of algae & mineral shower gel. I have to admit I'm extremely curious as to what the effect of a shower with this stuff will be. I see myself confidently walking into my lesson with some very wind-blown hair full of solid minerals raining out of it, seaweed on my neck and volcanic sulfur blowing out of my ears. Suddenly, Hair & Shoulders is just so last season - however, I still have half a bottle to use up before opening my souvenirs.

As for studies and work, it's all the same old fun. However, now it's Sunday evening, and before the clock starts ticking on Monday, there are some more moments to lie down and read, listen to music, have a chat with my new flatmate Julia, and listen to Sarah Palin making a fool of herself. Then, the lights will go off and I'll dip into newly changed sheets.