Dawson on the Run

anyone still reading? if so, then hello from argentina! just crossed the border today without any problem. if you care to follow me on my trip, here is the itinerary so far-
24th- night bus to puerto varas, chile
25th- day in puerto montt looking for an affordable ferry. no luck
26th- day trip to frutillar, chile just hanging out on the waterfront, relaxing
27th- bus to bariloche, argentina where we just bought a rafting trip for tomorrow along with a completely crazy unaffordable tour for the days after
28th- rafting out of bariloche
29th- start of crazy tour down route 40 ending on april 3rd in el calafate, argentina

you guys can write me! if i get a chance to check my email i´d love to hear from you! time is out! bye.

i am avena obsessed lately. avena is oatmeal. i want avena for every meal, but seeing as how that is just plain against the rules, i make an acceptable lunch/dinner, but then always end up eating avena! even if i´ve already eaten dessert. thanks for listening- there is no support group for this addiction.

i have now been sequestered to the gym (the small gym room in the school.) i am supposed to stay in this clausterphobic fisher price happy playland and teach 8 classes a day. i do not like this sam i am, i do not like crazy playland.

vacation muy pronto. maybe i´ll see some penguins. yeah, and maybe this time i´ll take some motion sickness pills- sorry about pisco guys! is it possible to get motion sick just thinking about a boat? is there a support group for that?

sup my loyal friends. thanks for coming back to the blog. after a week of no internet, i am freaking drinking the electronic impulses back into my skin. ahhh....

we had a great week at the school. the kids were dropping like flies with a diarrhea/fever/vomiting combination, which fortunately i have successfully avoided. i did get in trouble for not wiping all the kids´ butts which really pissed me off. i always ask, and if the kid says he can do it himself, then great life lesson learned. but apparently, it should have been OBVIOUS to me that at a montessori preschool which supposedly fosters independence, butt-wiping is seen as something you don´t learn until kindergarten.

perhaps you don´t know, but i am lucky enough to work for an all but self-proclaimed prophet basking in the glow her own unconventional brilliance and the mono-esque looks of her 14 year younger jungle boy husband. this "unconventional brilliance" is what causes her to put cement stones down on the once safe grassy playground, spend weeks hand-stitching homework book covers (for preschoolers that don´t get homework mind you), and tell the students that the homeless people are bad and sick and also responsible for making violent tv shows, and that the kids should stay away from both- what?! apparently, this combination of intelligence and spontaneity also prevents you from being able to clean your dishes, be sincere, and give a damn about the people that basically run your business! she has no idea who i am. frustrating and upsetting, but in the end i will have to let it go. no vale la pena.

i have a new roomie now- can you say college dorm? it was between me and the other volunteer amanda which one of us would have to share and i actually offered- to which my director replied "well...i guess you are BOTH nice...." see what i mean? rrggh. yes, i did say i would let it go, but there are SO many ridiculous stories about her contradictions and condescension.

it is ok though cuz winks just wrote me with news of our terps winning the ACC´s! wish i could´ve seen that game- suck it dukies! wonder what dickie v had to say about that one. i can´t watch the tournament down here of course, so feel free to keep me updated. patagonia in a couple days!

my internet runs out in 5 minutes, but i wanted to throw out a quick update.

1. the internet at the school is mad broken.
2. i CAN go on my trip to patagonia- leaving in a week and no plans- yikes.
3. school has not been hellish.
4. pharmacist gave me some allergy pills for the bugs- he´s like, duh, there are pulgas everywhere, everyone knows that. you must just be allergic. i´ve doubled the allotted dosage and they are starting to work. WONDERFUL.
5. 30 seconds!

sup ya'll. i´m not even going to get into all the injustices that befall us volunteers everyday, or how misled we were before coming here. i´m not feeling that negative energy at the moment (wait ´til the end of the day tomorrow). suffice it to say that i thought i was being provided with more, much more. so i gots to go get me a job people. imagine that- a job, like every single other person out there. today i went to a ymca to see if there were any chance i could get a job teaching aerobics, he said no, not really, but there is a class in 20 minutes at our other location. go teach it. uh, okay. and i did! crazy. joy taught spanish step in chile. just wanted to brag about my newest accomplishment. i´ll leave out the part where i did it for free. chao amigos.

the gestation period for a doe (female rabbit) is 31 days. the rabbits at the school are freaking reproductive machines. is there a saying mate like rabbits? i can´t remember the animal in that particular analogy, but if it ain´t rabbits, you can start saying it anyway.

there have been 2 litters at the school since i arrived here a month ago (okay, each from a different doe) and 1 litter the month before that. so the babies are a few weeks old when yesterday, cristina walks outside to see the buck (male rabbit- i might as well be the discovery channel) going at the one mama we have left WHILE SHE IS GIVING BIRTH TO ANOTHER LITTER! i guess i shouldn´t describe too graphically, but she said it was so nasty. lucky i got tuesday off! that has been your bio lesson for the day. good job class.

once again, the bugs have taken over. i feel like they rule my life. i am totally unprepared for this battle, not having prior experience in the realm of bed bugs (or whatever the hell they are- that is yet TBD!). i have very few weapons at my disposal as we are lacking hot water, a dryer, a vacuum, a place to air out a mattress or comforter, etc. i am on my own in this mission- my host/director having chosen to sit this one out. so army of one, bottles of raid and anti-itch cream in hand (and lights on- thanks keith!), i continue to fight the good fight, and will do so until the little parasites and their tapeworm friends have sucked the blood right out of my soul.

gross? yeah, well, that part´s over. i am trying to focus on the positive aspects in each present moment, and have been surprisingly successful for a life-long cynic. like right now the muffled cries of kids outside the computer lab are not my responsibility. :) that´s due to ari´s Way of the Peaceful Warrior recommendation, which made me popular here among the volunteers.

now my shout-outs: thanks to those of you who have been keeping me updated on RBAC, i miss you and everything that goes with it. if any NOMS peeps read this, i now can look back and love the way the school was run, comparatively. and i always loved you guys as teachers, so that´s nothing new, but i never truly appreciated your professionalism until now. home friends, nothing else like 'em on earth and can someone please get me in contact with yoder? are my terp friends even out there? i am finally starting to live my college years, and i would have been a lot of fun if i could´ve done this back then! travel buddies, keep me posted, cuz if the bugs win the battle, i will be forced to flee (to pun or not to pun) the area. later on ya´ll. i keep you in my thoughts.

i feel like freaking barney. i´ve never actually seen barney, but i bet i am getting close to his human female friend equivalent. a little lacking in repetoire, but anything can be a song if it rhymes. the kids have no clue.

i specifically asked for a list of playground rules before school started. i tell hannah to wait her turn on the monkey bars and remind enzo not to pick living things. but everyday new playground rules are invented, and i end up getting in trouble for not following them. totally undermined in front of the kids. rrrrrrgh. so to vent today, we volunteers bonded and went crazy on the positive energy (hence the barney-esque sing-a-long.) we have fun by going overboard with this nonsense, but i don´t know if it´s enough to last me 3 more months. i had tried to vent at lunch by buying a bottle of wine, but neither madelaine nor i could open it. so now work is done and amanda says it´s time to hit the bar. i used to blow off steam by exercising, but am open to change. :) check ya´ll later.

sup girlfriend. that is what i am going to teach "dora," the 3 year old that lives with me. someone told me her mom will have me sleeping on the street if she really says that.

anyway, i found out today that all my kids have bites too, and they were like, duh, from pulgas (fleas). so i guess it is common and one of the other teachers told me they sell spray for it everywhere and i can just spray it on the mattress. we´ll see.

i am so tired from work. even though all 3 volunteers are working this week, there is never a second of down time. it is very frustrating because we feel like the kids are just dumped on us and that the actual teachers should be around more-how mysteriously they disappear. left to our own devices, the kids end up playing outside alot, randomly banging on musical instruments, and sometimes we can get them together enough to sing songs. i didn´t even know that i knew where is thumbkin, all the verses of mary had a little lamb, here we go looby loo, etc. the words just flow out of my mouth, but my brain doesn´t know what´s about to come next. that damn itsy bitsy spider just won´t go away- him and that twinkling little star follow me wherever i go.

no gym for me either- the yoga place i went to on monday also decided to close for good on monday. what?! so floja i shall be. "peace out yo." that is what is next on the list of things to teach "dora."

i can´t take it anymore! i must fill you in on my horrible filthy secret.

i have bed bugs.

there, i've said it! i do bathe, i do wash my bedding, and i do wash the clothes i wear to bed. where the hell are these bugs coming from?! i thought maybe the mattress. (that´s what all the other volunteers think too.) i told the director and she said they must be mosquitos, cuz the mattresses were relatively new. she recommended that i close the window (the window is in the bathroom down the hall.) i say, "okay, thanks, i´ll do that" but i think "wtf, buy me a freakin' new mattress already because there ain´t no such thing as invisible mosquitos." i have surveyed my bare mattress, individual sheets, and comforter from very close proximity for several minutes- nothing! but i can feel them crawling and pinching every time i go to sleep.

so last night i was actually scared to go to bed because i could feel them crawling all over me. cristina, i had to use your bed- SO much better! but what am i going to do? i am covered in red mountains (i am very allergic- my body must not be receptive to bug toxin, imagine that) and scratching all the time so the parents at the nursery school are probably thinking i have fleas (which maybe i do!)

if you have any suggestions you could give me, or just want to comment on how cuchina i am, or my blog in general, you can click the comment link on the bottom of this entry. until then,

good night, sleep tight, and pray those damn bed bugs don´t bite!