differences

When I was in nica last semester, I kept on marveling on how "real" everything felt. Somehow the dirt and the crowds and the animals and the smells and the trash (yes, even the trash) made me feel more alive. When I came home, the first thing I noticed was how sterile everything seemed. Everything is clean and orderly and has its place. Recycling in the blue bin and trash in the green bin. The other day I was walking between the DUC and Cox, and realized that something was off. It took me a minute to realize that the paths hadn't been swept in the past day or so and leaves had fallen on the brick. How sad is it that details like that catch my attention?

But of course, that's all a matter of opinion. Life here in [the pretty side of] MoCo is just as real as when we walked by stray dogs, trash heaps and piropo-ing men to get to class, or the pulperia, or to Luis's house to spend hours doing nothing. And as fun as all that was, and as fun and crazy as I'm sure Team Nica '09 is going to be, I'm pretty sure I'm going to raise my family in the United States.

For his keynote address, Bernie Marcus repeated how lucky we were to be living in the United States. The girl beside me snorted, "He's a Republican, huh." But instead of agreeing with her, I instead found myself agreeing with him. He's right, you know. That's why my family moved back. That's why we have thousands (millions) of undocumented immigrants entering the States yearly. The only reason I would permanently move to a less developed country (say, back to the PI) is if I were offered an amazing job or if there were family-related reasons. That's pretty much it.

I called Fitness First today. It would be $130 for a 2-month student membership. Not only is that not great to begin with, but it's also 23% of a month's expenses with Manna. Not okay. I could eat for a month with that money. *sigh* Guess it's back to running the surrounding neighborhoods!