Bad Days and Good Days

Wednesday was one of those days where nothing bad really happens, yet you just seem to have trouble enjoying the day.  One of those days where your hair is in a frizz, your clothes don't seem to match, and you wonder why one earth you can't get yourself to do even a couple of push-ups or sit-ups on a daily basis.  You get your normal amount of email, but aren't excited about it.  The weather is nothing to complain about.  You realize at lunch that your morning coffee has made you jittery and anxious and you have trouble focusing on anything.  For me, I felt like I couldn't control my feet in my salsa lesson and when the bus got stuck in interminable traffic coming back downtown, I was feeling a little blue.

The nice thing about days like that, where nothing really bad happens, is that little things can pick you right up.  For me on Wednesday it was a nice IM from my sister-in-law Karin.  Momentum shifted, and suddenly I was on a path to having a very pleasant Thursday.

Thursday was everything that Wednesday wasn't.  On the bus up to my lesson, I had brought along my mp3 player, listening to and visualizing salsa the entire hour long journey to the school.  I did my steps with confidence and made it back to the hostel afterward in record time.  The evening was spent with friends made here in Colombia.  First was dinner with my Costa Rican friend Alejandra.  Alejandra has spent months in Bogotá and other cities doing research for her PhD thesis.  Back in January, when Abe was here, we had all become friends, so it was nice to have a send off dinner.  We returned to the hostel in time to see that the Celtics were playing a tight game against the Cavaliers and she turned to getting the remainder of her items packed.  Meanwhile I went out to have a beer with a German couple I had met at the Spanish school.  Patrick and Frederika are two incredibly nice people, and seeing their apartment and five-inch thick binder of visa's and legal documents did make me a bit wistful for my own documents not coming together.  We had a lovely time and will undoubtedly be seeing one another again before I depart.  In fact, I may go with Patrick next Saturday to see where he is teaching German to children.

Today could not live up to yesterday, but it has had its pluses.  With Alejandra gone, I have moved up to her room, up a steep ladder above the rest of the dormitory beds.  I will post pictures of this soon.  For now, I am drinking yerba mate from a gourd and getting down to the business of doing some computer programming.  I will leave you with two pictures I took on the way home, with the sun shining through a mist coming down from the clouds.