Remember Me?

Here I am again. Maybe you've been missing hearing me ramble, and maybe you didn't even notice I was gone. Even I didn't quite realize it's been a whole eight days since I've had anything to say.

It sure is a rare event when I quit talking...and when I stopped to think about why I haven't had much to say as of late, I realized it's because we've turned into locals.

Not really, of course. But we've developed a level of comfort here in this tiny surfing village that has made it start to really feel like home. Most mornings we wake up, without the aid of an alarm clock, to a darkened bedroom...dark only because we close our windows at night to keep the wild animals out. (We do live in the jungle, remember?) We open all the windows up as we make eggs and Julia drinks maté...and then we eat breakfast to the sound of the waves outside. Most days start this way...and I promise not a day goes by that I'm not thankful for the fact that I get to spend every morning waking up slowly and eating breakfast with my girl.

After breakfast, every day is a bit different. Most every day, Julia finds time to read and translate, and I find time to send e-mails, immerse myself in wedding plans, and work on applications for graduate school. The internet has become a funny thing for us...as in, can't live with it, can't live without it. I absolutely love that the use of the internet is a bit of a process for us, and involves walking to town and crossing our fingers that it actually works that day...this process makes our internet use very intentional, and most days I find I have an organized list of things to accomplish with the use of the world wide web. That said, it does make me a bit crazy that it is our only connection to our lives in 'merica. Simply picking up the phone and making a call or sending a quick text is a luxury we don't have...and frustrating as it can be, I'll go so far as to say that I'm fine with it.

Some days we go to yoga, or I go on a long walk up into the mountains. There was a day last week when we spent our afternoon investigating what to do with our empty propane tank. It was a bit of an adventure carrying the empty tank into town, trading it in for a full tank, and hauling it back home. By the end of the afternoon, our mission was accomplished. There was another day last week that we spent the morning surfing, and were so exhausted by the time we got home that it was all we could do to stay awake long enough to eat dinner and go to bed by 8pm. We've been to a local baptism, celebrated Julia's second local poetry reading, watched movies at a local film festival, and drank a whole lotta watermelon juice.

At this point, I'm sure you're becoming aware of our greatest gift here...time. It's quite a joy to not have to hurry anywhere...no rushing down subway stairs, or frantically looking at the clock...it's given me a better sense of taking my time and making the most of the moments I'm given.

So I haven't had much to say recently because our adventures just feel like...life. It's a life that makes me thankful everyday...and isn't that one of the things life is all about anyway?