See you soon

It's my birthday today, I'm now 23. By 19th century standards I am an old maid. I asked my parents to buy a house with an atic I can live in because we all know what happens to women who are not getting any (marital) sex.

We are leaving La Rochelle tomorrow. We'll spend one more night in Paris and then my parents and sister are flying back to Peru and I am going for a month in the Ninth Circle of Hell (ladies night at the Judecca Bar!).

I'll be spending all of August at my aunt's country house in Normandy, smack in the middle of nowhere. There is no internet, no cable TV and only my aunt for conversation (or in her case, conversion). What I'm trying to say is, I won't be updating the blog until September when I (finally!) go to England.

A bientôt!

One week left in South America!

Ack! I thought I had at least two but it turns out we're leaving for France next Friday!

As you can imagine, things have started to get hectic with my mother running all over the place dragging me to her favorite markets for clothes shopping. She's screaming at my youngest sister right now, sister is crying, other sister's getting involved now, how long until my father joins? Hahah! Is there a family that isn't crazy?

I'm driving mom insane because I'm not doing any packing yet. I hate packing. It's so final. I've liked it here very much. The food is awesome even if I can't have as much of it as I'd want. (Oh! Now mom's trying to pick a fight with me. She's wasting her time.) I loved the places I've visited, in fact, last night mom dragged youngest sister, dad and me to a farewell party for one of her colleagues which was held in the "Bus Parrandero", the Party Bus. We did a very short tour of the center by night while drinking and dancing. It was ok. Would have been a lot more fun if there hadn't been older folks but one of mom's young colleagues hit on me for a while! He's cute as hell so it's all good. Maybe it had something to do with me wearing that blue and black girly top I mentionned in an earlier post *winkwink*.

I've bought so many new clothes, I feel like a bleached blonde TV teen-girl (you know the type). I still have to get new jeans.

I'm going to be in Paris for a week, I was thinking I'd go visit Oxford while I'm there but there are so many places I want to visit since I took a history of art class that I don't know if I'll have the time. I might just leave it for when I'm living with my aunt in Normandy and do it alone.

Anyway, all this to say that if I don't post as often as I should, please don't hold it against me. I might have been murdered by my parents in a fit of travel-packing rage.

Like I said, he's going insane

Yup, my dad is losing it.

When my parents moved to Peru, they rented a house that came with all the furniture so we have a lot of stuff that just stayed in its boxes. Last week, my dad started opening boxes compulsively and getting random fits of rage. "What do you mean leave the boxes closed? What if there's stuff in there that you NEED?", "Get into the garage and look through that stuff! NOW!" etc.

Funny and scary at the same time.

Today he was convinced I absolutely needed my kung-fu uniform although I haven't used it in over four years. I keep telling him to leave the boxes alone. If I boxed it, it means I don't need it immediately and keeping everything packed will make it sooo much easier when I settle down in my own place and they have to send me my stuff. But he's sure there's big important stuff in there. I think what drives him even crazier is how (apparently) relaxed I am. He was shredding up bubble-wrap with a knife earlier, furious because I was baking a cake for my sister instead of doing important things like...oh, I don't know... ripping up my old baby clothes (mom is going to kill him when she finds out).

Already July? Gotta start packing

I just realized that it's the 30th of June.

I've been in Peru for seven months already and doing pretty much nothing productive (that includes my worthless attempts at prose *grumblegrumble*). I started my application procedure pretty late so the next two months may be hectic. At least I'll know soon whether I'm gonna be in the halls of residence.

I was so worried because I sent my deposit pretty late and I was worried I'd be in the last round of room allocations in which you only find out if you have a room in September! Can you imagine going to a country you've never so much as visited without a clue as to where you're going to live?

I'll also find out if I'm gonna get a scholarship or not. I don't have a good feeling about it. I liked my application essay but I don't think it's what they want to hear. Oh well! Besides, it might be better not to in the end if I decide to get a student loan.

The pre-move stress is officially here. My dad blew a fuse the other day about how I was so lazy and useless and totally not ready to live on my own. A lot of hurtful things were said but then, I know he's just worried. He didn't oppose my going but he does reproach my mother for "pushing me" to go. Really, mom doesn't want me to go either but she knows I have to so she gave me full support. I think my parents are stressing more than I am.

Anyway, yesterday I went to the shops in Jesus Maria to get cheap clothes and new panties. Seriously, people, if you're going to be moving out of home, BUY NEW UNDIES! You do NOT want to be seen in the laundry room washing your shabby panties (trust me on this one).
I also got a cardigan in a color I don't usually wear, it's a little old fashioned but kinda nice and did I mention how cheap the stuff here is? And I got a waterproof winter coat for a very small fraction of the cost in Europe of the same thing. It's a normal, black, feather filled thing, nothing out of the ordinary but it matches with anything. My green pseudo-suede wintercoat from Canada was very nice and warm but it's not waterproof and it's gotten too big for me (woohoo! First time I get to say that since...well...forever).

I also got a very pretty, girly top, dark blue and black that I'm dieing to show off. Soon, I'll go buy some new jeans and maybe get my old ones tightened up (more woohoo!) 'cause they're too large now.

In more shopping trips I'll buy:
- a couple of turtlenecks
- boots (rain and otherwise)
- gloves (lost mine)
- bras (can never have enough)
- some nice tops (mine are lame or too big - oh oh, I think I'm becoming fashion conscious!)
- a baggy for bathroom stuff

I'm thinking of buying the maximum of stuff I'll need anyway here where it is cheap but I also don't want to overload myself with stuff. Still, it's a whole year before I know more or less where I'm gonna settle, I mean to stay in England for a long while at which point I'll have my parents send me my boxed stuff from Canada. I can't live off two jeans, a t-shirt and coat.