Eaten by Tapirs

Two rapidly consecutive posts? Will wonders never cease?

I tell you, I'm serious about rehabilitating this blog.

In half an hour, the UPeace bus will wind away from campus and through the vast park and coffee plantation (long since denuded of beans by criminally-underpaid Nicaraguan migrants) that shrouds the campus, and my first semester will come to an end. Christmas is upon us, and perhaps half the students have already fled for colder climes, and most of the rest are leaving over the weekend, abandoning those of me too poor to seek out the snow. After four months, there's fairly little to do in Costa Rica when you're not swimming in wealth.

But joyously, my parents and the Tempodog will be coming to visit in the imminent days, and we'll spend a few days wandering the Caribbean beaches and trying to find spicy food. I'll introduce my biological family to my host family, marvel at the interlingual stumbling, and probably let my folks go on their merry way up to volcano country on the 26th, simply because the area is too fantastically pricey. It'll be nice to see them.

As Krusty the Klown said in his Non-denominational Holiday Fun Fest - "Everybody have a Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, a Craaaaazy Kwanzaa, a tip-top Tet, and a solemn, dignified Ramadan." Take it to heart, please, but since I plan to post again before then, I'll hold off on final best wishes.

P.S. I was remiss last time in failling to sing the praises of Hassan El-Menyawi, an Egyptian-Canadian professor whose indefatigable enthusiasm and terrifying life experiences made his class on governance and human rights the high point of a semester that was otherwise stunning in its academic mediocrity.

P.P.S. Naturally, I accept Christmas presents via Paypal.

posted by Paul @ 2:17 PM