Random thoughts

When the days are a little rough...and that's almost every day to be honest...I like to play around with numbers to get a feel for how much time I've been here and how much time I have left. So today, being June 3, here are some stats on our service so far:

We've been here exactly four months.
There are 688 days to COS (Close of Service, April 2013).
We have to repeat the same amount of time from swear on 20 April in to now 15.29 more times.
We've finished 6.1% of our service.
And I have about 197 days until I go home to visit during Christmas!

The other day I was walking up the dirt road home from school when I heard a rooster. The rooster I live with, about ten houses down. And I suddenly realized...I can recognize my own rooster. I don't know which is funnier, that or whenever I walk out my door a cow in a neighboring field sees me and moos excitedly.

It's funny when I call my parents, usually every Saturday but this week I called early on Thursday because I had to make an early trip to Riobamba today. I don't have anything in mind to talk about, but suddenly things just sort of blurt out. Like:

-I swear there's a UFO outside, it's a bright red and blue blinking light and it's not moving. It's probably a satellite in geosynchronous orbit (my dad logically kills the fun).

-The Big Dipper is upsidedown!!!!

-My host is so thoughtful and noticed I love Italian spaghetti, so yesterday she made it with noodles and ketchup. That's it.

-I'm seeing the sky for the first time in two weeks, if you haven't noticed.

-I'm making Christmas presents already.

-I did my laundry today by hand and it took an hour and a half and it's far from dry.

-I made spaghetti today... with noodles, tomato paste, cumin, paprika, garlic, and oregano.

-My bunnies and my host's bunnies died because they were too young but I'll be getting an older one soon.

All that in about 15 minutes and it cost me about $10.