Thoughts

Being stuck on a small island has both benefits and drawbacks. It is somewhat reminiscent of what Siena is like. I am constantly bumping into people I know all day every day. Everyone gets catcalled here, and mine can be especially bad because I was in the Miss. Carnavale pageant. It can be hard to find a place to get away. So today, my friends Sam and Jake and I thought it would be cool to swim out into the ocean where the boats are all anchored and sit on a buoy. Sam is one of my really good friends here. He and the other two IPSL students, Bryce and Ellen, are really fun to sit and talk with. He is a clinical psychology major at Tufts, and it's really cool to have all these different perspectives because you see how other people think and why. For example, Bryce is from Kansas and goes to school there, Ellen is from Georgia but goes to school Ohio, and Sam is from Idaho but goes to school in Boston. We literally represent every region of the country! Anyway, we had this awesome conversation about philosophy and how humans have and feel the need to define everything from a human viewpoint. We sometimes don't have words for how different parts of the world communicate with each other. It was fascinating. I really am going to miss the friendships I have made here.

Tomorrow is Easter. It has been fascinating to see what a holiday is like when it's not completely commercialized. I haven't seen one chocolate bunny yet! I was planning on going to the Easter Vigil mass tonight, but then I heard it was four hours long (totally in Spanish) and I got scared away. I will go with my family tomorrow instead. It's funny that I got so scared away by that, because when I was in South Africa, I went to a 3 hour long mass that was completely in Zulu and absolutely loved it. Even though I totally am missing Reese's Eggs, the lack of commercialization has made me think about holidays on a higher level, and made me appreciate them more.