Currant events

Dear Blog,

So first off, don't ask about the title - it was originally going to be spelled right, but at the last minute I was inspired by some muse of pure evil to change it, just to spite you and mess with your minds. I apologize, but you'll just have to live with it.

But by now it should be clear what the topic of this blog entry is; no, it's not fun happenings related to berries (not that those aren't in abundance right now), it's about general recent occurences, the first of which I shall waste no more time in getting to. Last friday was the day my host brother, Leo, left for Thailand, and since there was only room in the car for this mother, father, sister, and girlfriend to say goodbye, I was left to my own devices around the house. I chose to use my time in the wisest of ways - youtube, facebook, and pokemon. After a few hours of this, I decided to watch a movie. I looked through their collection of films, finding a great deal of concert DVDs of Christian rock bands and Elvis and various action films, when I noticed two films that I hadn't expected in the least: Life is Beautiful, and Good Will Hunting. Having seen the latter and being in the mood for something less life-affirmingly macabre, I opted for Good Will Hunting. Now while watching the movie (and I would be remiss in not mentioning briefly that it is an amazing film) two currant events of note happened. The les interesting event is that I discovered how important it is to manage almost constantly both the windows and the lights in the house. Why? Because there is a delicate balance that must be upheld between keeping the house cool, the house lit (and thus navigable), and the bugs out. For me, the latter-most of the items holds the most weight in the scheme of measuring. So, as I found out, one cannot keep the house cool and lit while keeping the bugs out, because obviously bugs waste no time in taking advantage of open windows to get to pretty lights. But it unfortunately took me some time to realize that such a balance existed, for I had never noticed the periodic dimming of lights and closing of windows throughout the house because my family are apparently adept enough at maintaining the balance that the changes administered were subtle, yet precise and effective. So I ended up spending a great deal of my time warding insects away from my food, and rushing in and out of lit rooms and hallways to avoid the bugs.

The rest of my time not consumed either in cowaring from bugs or Matt Damons long, lustrous locks was consumed in doubt and paranoia. The reason for this was that throughout the day, from the moment my family had left, it seemed, the phone would ring at an interval seemingly designed to utterly crush and break someone in my position. Now first I should clarify my position: I am an exchange student, and I know very little Portuguese, and I learned on the first day of my exchange an important lesson about phones - on my way from Sao Paulo to Campinas, my host parents handed me a phone telling me it was Aline, my sister. I took the phone and put it to my ear, and awaited something to happen. Nothing happened. She didn't speak, I didn't speak; my family tried to hold back laughter and told me to say "Tudo bem," and I said it, and Aline just chuckled, and after a few more moments of silence, my host mother took the phone and began chatting. Lesson learned: never try to talk to someone on the phone, unless they speak English. Communication with anyone who is less than fluent requires a great deal of gesturing and you must be able to pick up on every inflection and body movement to get an idea of what they're talking about. So the reason that the phone calls caused me such agony is that I was 75% sure that it was not my family calling, that it was someone else who needed to speak with them. And as the phone rang over and over again, I kept repeating that to myself, over and over - "You don't know who that is, it could be anybody. Don't pick up that phone, no! Some gruff sounding man is just going to start speaking Portuguese very quickly, and you won't be able to take a name and number or anything-no, get away from that! It's not your family, it's not!" But the same doubt rang through my head at the same time, over and over - "But who would call 15 times in one day, only after your family left! Who has the kind of urgent business that is worth calling 15 times? Your parents aren't government officials! It must be them - they're calling because they need some piece of information that they left at the house or something that Leo needs to go to Thailand. He's probably missed his plane! And it's your fault!" "No, no! It's not them, it's not them... We mustn't risk it, we mustn't risk it!" So you can imagine how warped my state of mind was, with my Smeagle/Gollum complex at work, combined with my insect shell-shock and my Damon-induced-dizziness. Luckily my family returned and the movie ended before my mental infrastructure collapsed, and were able to restore the house to its bugless state. And as for the phone calls, I was a picture of joyful and, yes, tearful vindication when, after they had returned, the phone rang once more, right on schedule, and (since my family had returned without Leo and it wouldn't make much sense for them to call home when at home) I felt the sweetest sensation of redemption, probably akin to what Smeagle felt after telling Gollum to "Leave now, and never, come back!"

Well good night; I had more eventful currants today, but 3 am is not the time for such things. I've always wanted a cliff-hanger, so here's to a dream come true: today I watched a romantic comedy... and liked it! Now you'll all be conferring fervently to discuss this heretofore impossible anomaly, so go ahead and get started, and until next time, happy clicking.