It's hard to believe . . . . .

It's hard to believe a lot of things, but here are a few:

• that it has been nearly 2 1/2 months since I last posted to this blog. I have probably lost my three loyal readers.
  
• that I am going home in 2 days 13 hours after living 10 months in Caracas
• that people here - in a country who not only did not send a team to the World Cup but probably never has - are so crazy about this tournament. You can't go anywhere without a TV tuned into the games. This includes the beauty shop, restaurants, the universities, and yes, even the archives.
• that I am so lucky. I am blessed in so many ways. I have wonderful friends scattered out around the US and now South America. I had the opportunity to live in another country, which is something everyone should experience at least once in their lives. I get to do something I really love - study history - and someday I will get to teach it, which will be really fun.

OK - enough of the list. I really have been busy these past two months. The end of April I went to Quito for a week for a Fulbright Student Enhancement program. That was fun and I got to meet other Fulbrighters from Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia. There are a lot of people doing interesting things out there. In addition to our meetings in Quito we went down to a little town called Baños and another little town on the edge of the rain forest called Puyo. I also took the weekend to do some sightseeing around the are. Saturday, Joy, another Fulbrighter from Colombia, and I visited La mitad del mundo - otherwise known as the equator. Ecuador does a pretty good job of turning something like the equator into a toursit destination. But it was fun and I took the requisite picture of my feet standing on top of the equator - a painted yellow line in this case. Sunday I rode on the teleférico (cable car) to the top of the mountain outside of Quito. It was quite beautiful but the clouds descended while I was there and the mountain was quickly covered in fog.

When I got back to Caracas I was sick for almost two weeks. First I had a cough and cold. The Monday I returned was International Workers Day (Labor Day for the rest of the world except the US) but I went in to the archives on Tuesday. I was coughing so much that one of the women told me to go home and not come back until I was healthy! But I toughed it out, just went to another archive. But then Saturday I got this stomach thing. My roommate in Quito had something similar and maybe that's where that come from. It was too bad because I started not feeling well during the birthday party for Gloria's mom - she turned 80 in May - and had to leave early. I was up all night being sick and called Gloria to come help me Sunday morning. I ended up going to a clinic and getting an IV of saline solution. That did make me feel better. But I still couldn't leave the house (couldn't get too far away from the bathroom) until Friday. So I lost some work time there.

The last week in May Betsy, an old friend from high school (by old I mean I've known her a long time, since she's only a couple of months older than me!) came to visit. We went down to Ciudad Bolívar and from there went to Canaima (a national park) and Angel Falls (the tallest waterfall in the world). It was amazing and lots of fun. I'll have another post in which I describe the trip with pictures, but in the meantime, here's a preview of the falls. The rest of the time that Betsy was here we hung around Caracas doing a little sightseeing.

So, that leaves June, which has been a really busy month. I had a little panic that I didn't have enough material yet, so I've been working long hours collecting digital photos of documents. I was asked to give two talks last week. One (in Spanish) was to a group of history students at UCV (the Central University of Venezuela) and the other was to a group of English teachers at CVA (Centro Venezolano Americano), a school for English. There were both fun, but the one at the university was a bit stressful due to poor commnication on the part of the student organizing it and the resulting poor preparation on my part. But I survived. The weekends have been somewhat busy also, though the only place I went outside of Caracas was to Colonia Tovar, which is a town that had been settled by Germans. It resembles a German village in the mountains and is quite picturesque. Pictures later. It seems my friends from here are leaving Caracas when I do. Actually, Leslie left on Sunday. Jan is leaving the Monday after I leave, and Gloria is coming to the States (actually Albuquerque) on July 4. Caracas will just not be the same.

I am excited to go home and see my friends (I hope to go to Indiana in August to see friends and family there) and Indy the dog. I hope he remembers me. Of course I'm not too sure where I'll be living, but I'm working on it. I'm sure all will be fine. I also need a job - I'm working on that too, but I may end up working at Starbucks or something similar. ¿Quien sabe?

Well, I think that brings me up to the present moment. I have been packing and getting the apartment ready to move. Today was my last day working in the archive. Tomorrow I go to CanTV to cancel internet (hopefully it will be faster than the installation) and to Super Cable to cancel cable TV and then finish packing. I sold my TV and washing maching, but I still have to figure out what to do with the desk. I have been shopping - that started when Betsy was here and hasn't stopped yet. Tomorrow I'm moving down the street to Gloria's apartment for a couple of days. Friday I clean the apartment and hopefully meet with the landlord to return the key. Actually it will be his wife, since he is in Florida. I tried calling her this evening to arrange a time, but had to leave a message. Then I leave for the airport at 5:30am on Saturday. That is probably too early, but one never knows. That's allowing two hours to get there, but it may only be an hour, in which case I'll have lots of time to drink my last Venezuelan coffee (it is sooo good) and check out the wireless internet at the airport. I get back to Albuquerque around 4:45pm local time!

Well, I guess that's enough for this post. I'll do all those trips individually, but I'm not sure if they will all get done by tomorrow. I know, I could have been doing them all along rather than waiting until the last minute.