Who doesn´t like a top ten?

Iquitos Perú Friday, February 29th noon

Okay, so I didn´t like blogging my journal entries everyday. A bunch of them are just boring, and no one would be interested in reading them. So instead, I´m going to only post the ones that people might find interesting. So expect blog entries about 2 to 3 times a week. This will make it easier for people to keep up with the blog as well, if they desire.

On the eve of the adventure I might as well come up with a top ten list of things I wish to do. It´ll be interesting to see how this list will stand up to the actual best ten things I do. Here goes:

10. Zipline through a rainforest.
9. Watch the sunrise on the Atlantic and set over the Pacific on the same day.
8. Visit the Mayan ruins.
7. Celebrate Cinco de Mayo in Mexico while wearing a sombrero.
6. See a jaguar, panther, or puma in the wild.
5. Do more hiking throughout the Andes.
4. Take a Greyhound bus from Texas to Alabama.
3. Learn to surf.
2. Relax in a Columbian coffee plantation while sipping on their finest.
1. Hitchhike in the back of a truck full of chickens.

Hopefully they´ll all get done, especially the top 5! Make sure to vote on which of the top ten you would prefer most! It´s to the right.

Iquitos, Perú Wednesday February, 27th 3pm

3 more days until the adventure! 3 more days. I just read my first journal entry from January 7th. I wrote it while on the plane to Lima, somewhere over the Caribbean. Aside from the horrible writing and penmanship, it discussed my goals for coming down here. Listed were: learning Spanish, traveling, learning tropical medicine, enjoying this culture, volunteering, eating healthy and getting into shape, journaling, and maybe learning to play a musical instrument. So far all but two of these have been met. Learning tropical medicine and playing an instrument.

So I´ve been volunteering here, but I don´t think I´m learning tropical medicine. That takes studying, and I don´t wish to do that now. I´ve decided that I´m very likely not going to live anywhere near here, so what´s the point? I can scratch that goal.

As far as learning an instrument...I CANNOT scratch that goal. In fact, this is currently the only regret I have in life. I wish I knew how to play an instrument! I could buy a cheap guitar down here ($50), but I´m not sure about lugging it around. As far as piano, that´s out of the question. Maybe harmonica? I´ve always loved the harmonica and actually bought a harp and book to learn back in high school. But that was back before I had any discipline. Who knows? Maybe I´ll buy one, or else I´ll have to prolong this goal until the States.

Blog Point:
1. In case anyone was wondering, post office lines in Perú are just as if not slower than in the United States.

Iquitos, Perú Tuesday, February 26th 9pm

Picture: This is just a cool picture, but I definitely look like a drug lord. For the record, I´m not a drug lord.

Countdown until the adventure begins: 4 days!

So the past couple of days I have been back studying Pediatrics. Back to the grind, not fully, but studying like 5 hours a day. And to speak honestly, it has been very refreshing! I´ve loved it! I love medicine and cannot wait to get back working hard in the hospital.

I just count this blessing as one that carries much weight. I love what I do, and that is so fortunate! I may be cursing these words later, but I´m looking forward to residency. How fortunate to have a chance to work hard and learn a trade that you love. Bring on that challenge, it´s not a challenge but an opportunity.

It´s been a while since I´ve done actual hard work. Not that studying pediatrics for 5 hours a day for three days is hard work, or anything close to it, but it has reminded me that I enjoy hard work. That´s the weirdest thing, but I do enjoy working hard. It´s part of me.

Blog Point:
1. So that date the other nite? We went out to eat at a respectable burger joint, as opposed to street burgers which might taste better. Well my friend Rhett came as well to eat, and as he bought my previous meal, I bought his that nite. So there were three of us sitting down for burgers, fries, and drinks. I picked up the whole bill. It was all of six dollars and a quarter. God bless the dollar!

2. So it´s hard to find bourbon or a good whiskey down here. When you do it´s normally Grants or something just terrible. Well I was shell-shocked the otherday when I walked into a cornerstore called Marthita´s. It´s a little grocery store that if you saw it in the States you would think, DO NOT GO THERE. Here it´s normal. Sure enough, Martha sells the nasty normal bourbon as well as Johnny Walker Blue Label!!! For those that don´t know, it´s like $150 a bottle wholesale! It blew my mind. The bottle retailed for $200. It is probably the most aged whiskey in South America as no one here will ever be able to afford that, much less go to Marthita´s in search of good whiskey.

Iquitos, Perú Sunday February 24th, Noon

Am I a bad person for going on dates to practice my Spanish? No, I´m kidding, but it is funny to me because there is a hint of truth in that comment. Any couple who speak different languages will tell you the quickest way to learn a language is to date somebody in that language. I can see how that´s true.

Several days ago I met this girl in a lab next to Eva´s lab. She is a friends with Eva´s coworkers, and they told me I should ask her out as she wanted to go out with me. Well me, being the person never to turn down a date, asked her out for Friday nite. Now we had a great time! We went out to eat, hung out in the Plaza (central square), and just had a great time. She´s smart, sexy, fun everything I would want in a girlfriend, but I know it will go nowhere because I leave in six days. She knows that too, which is obviously important. But nonetheless we went out again last nite, had a great time, and she wants to go out dancing tonite!

Well of course I´m not going to pass up a good nite dancing, especially in South America! So we are going out again tonite. And all the while I get to practice my Spanish for 4-5 hours a day when we hang out. Which begs the original question, Am I a bad person for going on dates to practice my Spanish? I don´t think so.

I do have one funny/interesting thing to say about our date last nite. I don´t mean to generalize, but I´m about to. As I´ve said before, I feel women in Venezuela, Ecuador, and Peru are much more romantic than women in the United States. Now, by no means am I knocking on women in the U.S., but rather showing a cultural difference. Here´s what happened yesterday. We are hanging out in a hammock having as what she described ¨momentos lindos¨, when she looks me in the eyes and starts singing to me. She has a beautiful voice, and the song was a Shakira song that I recognized. A romantic but not cheesy song. Now at the time it was really nice and as she said a ¨beautiful moment¨. All was well and it made for a great date.

But contrast that with America. If on a second date a girl stopped what she was doing, looked me in the eye, and started singing to me? ¨Woah babe, you´re trying a little bit too hard.¨ I don´t know, maybe I´m being unfair to American women, but I´ve been on a lot of second dates, never have I been sung to, and I would say I´m thankful for that. I think the word ¨cheeseball¨ might pop into my head, or maybe just the word ¨trouble¨. I just thought that was funny and wanted to write about it. With that said, I would kill to date a girl who has a good folk voice. So go figure :)

Iquitos, Perú Saturday Mom´s Birthday 11am

Well last nite my family celebrated my mom´s birthday! They of course went to Pablo´s, which is not only the only restaurant our family goes out to eat to, but also the restaurant we always go to for birthdays. I´m excited about becoming a regular at their bar when I return. Alcoholic? Just kidding, a regular so I can keep up my Spanish

I do wish I was at the party last nite! One major reason I took a year off was to find out if I could live apart from Alabama, apart from my family and friends. I have always had these dreams of living in exotic places. Whether they are in the United States like Boston, San Diego, Montana, or New York, or international places like Perú, Zambia, India, or China. I am also at a point in my life where I am going to have to choose if I wish to live in a different city within the US with residency coming soon. And after residency I will need to choose a place to live whether it be international or stateside.

With this said, I feel I have traveled more than the average American my age. I spent a summer (3 months) living in Zambia, South Africa and Rwanda. I spent two months traveling Europe, and now I have spent six months living in South America. I have also traveled extensively within the United States, seeing Boston, D.C., Chicago, San Fran, New York, the list goes on and on. And with that said, I love Alabama! I have spent 25 years developing an incredible family, more friends than I can handle, and several friends that mean the world to me! That´s a third of my life! Developing this wonderful life! Now I know if I moved away I would not be throwing away these relationships, they would always be there for me because they are good people. But why not enjoy them? Why not suck every bit of life and goodness out of these relationships? Is that not what life is about in the end?

So I was not intending to write all this, but it sort of came out. I am more and more thankful everyday that I have taken this year off because it has taught me that I need Alabama! I need my family and friends! And that, Lord willing, I will live in Alabama in the future. I can believe I´m even saying this, but it´s the truth!

I should be in Alabama now celebrating my mom´s birthday! I guess I´ll restart with my sister´s. :)

Blog Points:
1. I´m sorry the video didn´t work yesterday. Truly, it´s amazing. I´ll show anyone when I get home.

2. Saw some kids the other day. They were roller blading. Where? In the mud. Think about it.

Iquitos, Peru Thursday February 21st, 7pm

I just studied vocabulary for probably two hours and I feel my mind is fried. Anyone who has ever learned another language probably hates to study vocabulary. I know I don´t like it! It´s like the mail, it just never ends. You can never feel like you accomplished a lot when studying vocab. I guess I would never make it as a postal worker. I really have no news for today. I ended up not watching a movie the other nite, so I´m going tonite! Just counting down the days till we leave, which is eight!

Blog Point: 1. I have been waiting for an uninteresting journal entry to publish this blog point. It marks not only the first video blog point, but also the blog´s first ever posted video! Very exciting! I´m not going to explain it more than to say this is the greatest firework ever created. 25 feet of Bamboo and fireworks. That´s all it takes. Make sure to watch it till the end.

Iquitos, Peru Wednesday February 20th, 11pm

Well today came and went pretty fast. Part of that was due to the great teaching session I had this afternoon and another part was due to Tom Sawyer. The teaching session was about three hours today with a student Marianella. it´s obvious that she really wants to learn English, so I am glad to teach her. It´s funny because she works in a lab so she knows words like incubator and centrifuge, but I had to teach her words like ¨also¨. Couldn´t you just imagine a child learning the word centrifuge before the word also? I don´t know, but I would think the word ¨also¨ should come around age 4. If I had a 4 year old throwing around words like ¨malaria strains¨ I would be a bit nervous!

Well Tom Sawyer passed the day with me today as well. I´m sad he´s gone because that marks the last of the books in English! But boy what a good taste he has left. I simply love Mark Twain and rereading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is kin to watching Forrest Gump. It´s just goodness and more endearing everytime. I say it is my last book in English, but I still have The People´s History of the United States on Sundays, and I can always buy others, but having already read 5 books in English this trip, it is time to start the Spanish! Lord knows my Spanish needs to improve, and books are good for that. I´m half way done with a translated Twain´s Prince and Pauper, then I´m going to read Robin Hood in Spanish. Then on to Cien Años en Soledad by Gabriel García Marquez! I´ve always wished to read that book in English, so the Spanish should only make it better!

Well, I didn´t see the eclipse tonite. It was too cloudy here. I hear the next one will come in 2010. I´ll have to see that one! I´ve seen shooting stars, comet showers, and nearly been struck by lightning (it knocked me down), but I´ve NEVER seen an eclipse! I guess it will just be all the sweeter when I see one someday.