Merry Christmas! Well. I finally picked up my Pitre-treats from the p-p-post office, and oh-my-gosh how delighted forever. Items: one gorgeously houndstoothed cap (pictured on head) which comes JUST in time, as my ears were cold; one gorrrgeous painting of my name (pictured on door) which triggered a massive synaesthetic episode (shh) and features a supine stick chick and golden dollar signs, which, now that I'm a big self-supporting teacher adult, are way appropriate. Thank you Henry! Lastly and way not leastly, yow, a mix[ed] cd (pictured in the air) from the apparently super hip Zach. Dang, Zack. "Like Humans Do" is one of my favorite songs, and you are right on about M.I.A, Gnarles Barkley, and oh man did I mention the White Stripes were like my first "real" concert experience (even though I was sober and my whole family was there). So--delicious.



Thank you! I think this is a photo of me trying to show off the hat and the hat brooch (pictured on sweater) and the sign and my great nose all at once.

Dearest beloveds,

Look what Ewan did:



That is allllll the cooking salt in the house, now with glass! Now we have only sea salt and salt of the earth.

Here is what else Ewan and Ivan did: lots of favors for me yesterday. Salt of the earth!

Dar-lings. It's been a nice weekend. I still fear deathly grippe, so I've been drinking tea. No table wine, no terrible beer. Folks and I stayed out until 5am or so dancing last night, I lightly caffeinated.

Trifles: The caffeine in tea is (colloquially) called teína. In Spanish thought coffee, café, has caféina, and tea, té, has teína. Makes sense!

Klarifikation Korner: Mama, the photos I put up here are either taken by others or taken by my computer itself. My camera, and therefore my [missing] camera-computer cord, play no part. Thus the abundance of pictures of my room and window.

Thank you. Please enjoy this memory of Ronda, which, remember, memory, Christmas.

I came here with a little rolling suitcase and a huge duffel bag Papa sweetly donated. Since arrival I've bought a current converter, a permanent shopping bag, a shirt and some socks. I got a coat and some sweaters free at a beautiful squat which is now being shut down, before I had the chance to give anything back. I have swapped books, in a casual take-these-I-will-take-this manner which may or may not have augmented my collection. Christmas brought me some curiosities, and I hear the mail is bringing me more. That said: I don't have a lot of stuff here.

But I realized--as I hung my sheets to dry everywhere in my room, the rain outside having mooted the laundry lines--if everything one owns is multicolored, one really only needs about half the stuff. Look how that space filled:

Congratulations go to Rosie for being accepted by her top choice: Eckerd College!



Waaw.

I'm glad I'm not the only one in our family whose top choice was a college nobody else had ever heard of. Big hugs to you darling: you've worked harder at more than most college students have.

Silent morning mishap.

Lightning! then the nightmare. and loosening!

I spent last night with some kids I am tentatively calling my new friends, all actually friends and classmates of my b'loved housemate Ivan. Ivan is great, awesome, we get along super. I'm always glad when he's home--which he rarely is, since he is a sort of architecture grad student and spends all his time studying in this studio he and his fellow future architects rent collectively as a study/party space. No classes: just working on some huge final project for a year. Hannah and I went to the New Years Eve party he and his archipals threw collectively in the studio, since which very enjoyable occasion I've felt welcomed by all. Ivan and I spent most of yesterday making pizza dough, and topping shopping (creme fraiche white sausage eggplant sweet baby tomatoes). About nine people altogether ate mmmm seven pizzas of varying circumference + fatness. Almost everyone collaborated on one or another pizza. Oh it was very nice, my and Ivan's first pizza making though his girlfriend is Italian and everything. Someday I'll picture put up.

Sometimes outside the living room is thus:



But this morning when I a-rose for work---thus:



And by this afternoon:




Yow!

Salamanca, Late December.



My house, Epiphany.

Ode to Hannah Sunshine



by Hannah Sunshine

Ronda! With Nick and the adorable Rhodescholars.






Dear Christmas punkins,

There will be more photos. Especially this one: