A few weeks later

I'm slowly adjusting back to life in the US, reclaiming my clothes and c.d.s that have wandered out of my room over the past four months and listening to as much Latin Pop music as possible (which Amy and Laurie aren't too happy with). I went to the mall for the first time yesterday and really was disappointed by the general lack of warmth (and rudeness) with which my fellow Christmas shoppers greated me. My comments about the materialism and commercialism of this culture were apparently too frequent for my family, but that is one huge difference between here and Ecuador, at least for most of the people I was spending time with in Ecuador and the Americans I have been observing here. I especially like the Burger King commercial where they pretend to take the Whopper away and people react with shock and disbelief. My comment is that at least they have food to eat and it probably shouldn't be a whopper anyway. I will admit that I had my first McDonald's cheeseburger a few days ago and it was delicious, but I wouldn't be heartbroken if it was discontinued and I'm thankful that it filled my belly for quite a while.

I went down to Kenyon with Jennie last weekend. It was nice to return but I'm really glad that I will still be gone next semester. I still really like Kenyon and I'm (usually) glad that I chose to attend this college, but the student body becomes more and more, I don't really know how to say it, cold maybe every year. Plus it was finals week so the campus was dead and Jennie and I felt like we were intruding pretty much wherever we went. It was nice to see Riley again and the three of us will be abroad next semester (Jennie in Ghana, Riley in Russia and myself in Uganda) so it was good-bye for a while. Plus it snowed so campus was beautiful, although it stranded us there for an extra day.

My plans for Uganda are still on but there is an ebola outbreak that has killed at least 30 people since August, most of them health workers who didn't know what they were facing because it is a new strain. I still really want to go but I'm a little worried about this. Kampala, the city where I would be spending a lot of time, is under high alert for the disease. I'm not sure if SIT would cancel the program there due to health concerns but I'll keep this updated with whatever news I hear. Meanwhile, I will continue to read my books and hope that I will be able to study there beginning in a little over a month.

And now, as Shakira begins singing, I will sign off. I think I'm supposed to write our Christmas card this year and it will be late (as usual) but I should probably work on that tonight. Chao chao!