What I did during my summer vacation

I haven't written much, actually anything really, in this blog since I came back from Barcelona, but it's now 1 week until I go to Mexico, and so I thought I'd update you on what I did during my summer vacation.

I arrived in LA on August 3, and amazingly I fell right back into my life. I didn't have much culture shock at all -- that had to wait a bit. It was great to see my friends, and to meet my friend Lydia's daughter who was born while I was away. I was only here for a week before I went to Portland to meet my new nephew Julian. I have a TON of pictures of him, and there are some to the right. Jon and Samantha adopted him from Guatamala, and the process was laborious, but the result was the cutest little kid on earth. He's really curious and energetic, and has an amazing knack of finding all the things he's not supposed to touch. It was great to be there with them, and so I ended up going back a week ago for another weekend.

I then went to New Jersey to see the rest of my family. My brothers, their kids, and I went to Great Adventure, a theme park, and my nephew Matt and I went on a bunch of rollercoasters. It was a good time. I spent two weeks there, so I had plenty of time to see all of them, and spend some quality time with the kids AND with my parents, which usually doesn't happen. (My poor parents are constantly complaining that they never see me when I go there.) Plus, I was able to go into New York a few times. My friend Adrian lives there now, and it was fun to tool around the city with him. We went to the Metropolitan Museum, which was great, and we saw the craziest show of all time, "Xanadu," a musical based on the movie. Who knew that that movie needed to be made into a musical. The funny thing about it was that it was totally tongue-in-cheek, which made it really enjoyable, and the woman who played the Olivia Newton-John role was hysterical. She did the best Olivia imitation, and again, who new Olivia needed to be imitated.

I had two great Spanish experiences in New Jersey. Well, first of all, let me explain that until I went to Spain, whenever I would hear Spanish in California, or the U.S. for that matter, I'd basically zone out. Since I didn't understand, I wouldn't pay attention to the conversation. This was even true when I would hang out with the Llerenas, and they would speak Spanish. I would use that time to recharge my batteries since I couldn't participate in the conversation. So I was on the line for this rollercoaster at Great Adventure, and this Mexican family behind me was speaking in Spanish, and I guess I reacted, like I turned my head a little or something, because I caught the mother's eye, and she asked me in Spanish whether the rollercoaster was scary, and I responded in Spanish that I didn't know. It wasn't much of an interaction, but just the fact that it could happen was amazing.

Later during the trip, I was coming into NYC to visit Adrian, and he met me at the Port Authority. When I saw him, he said that there was this Spanish-speaking family that needed help, so I went to them and said in Spanish, "Can I help you?" They needed information on how to get to Connecticut, so I gave them as much help as I could, all in Spanish. Really, it was amazing, and completely unexpected. But great. It's like a whole new world in the U.S. has opend up to me.

After my New Jersey trip, I came back to California, and basically, I've been seeing all my friends and going to a lot of great restaurants. I went with my friend Cynthia to see "Avenue Q" which was amazingly great. And it's all been fun, but I'm ready to go to Mexico. It's weird being here and not really having anything to do, while other people are working.

I'll be changing to blog name as I move from place to place. But the website will remain the same. I've decided that Barcelona is a state of mind for me at this point. On Saturday, I go to Guanajuato, Mexico for four weeks, and then I go to Monteverde, Costa Rica for four. Other than that, I'm not sure what I'll be doing specifically, although I know after the holidays, I'll be going to South America. It's completely exciting, and I feel very, very lucky.