The little stuff

The weather is perfect today as we approach summer. To that end, I have made myself a glass of sweet mint tea, complete with hammer-crushed iced, and am sipping on it the way my mom always does: making a cup last two hours, or three. I am still unsure how she does that - I can only bear it because the caffeine makes me restless, and leaving it in one spot means that I can work out a little bit of the caffeine by going back and forth for more. In the meantime, I remember all of the little things that I ought to be doing, such as posting on the blog. 

(sweet mint tea break)

In literacy class, which Seth has taken over, the older students read a section out of El Alquimista, or The Alchemist. I hate the book, and every bit of the philosophy behind it. But the kids love it. So much so that one of our regulars, Luis, told Seth yesterday that he had bought his own copy - no small expense for an eleven year-old when books here in Ecuador run about $15. 

(sweet mint tea break)

My friend Carmen gets here on Monday, carrying with her a handful of stuff that my parents have bought to help me replace what got stolen on the way to Montañita. People have been so helpful and gracious, with one friend even offering to get me a new guitar. 

(sweet mint tea break)

Summited Pichincha last weekend with...

(sweet mint tea break)

... Luke, Kayle Dave and Taylor. Didn't make it last time I tried.

----------------------------------

Nothing is so beautiful as Spring--

   When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;

   Thrush's eggs look little low heavens, and thrush

Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring

The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;

   The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush

   The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush

With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling

-From "Spring," by Gerard Manley Hopkins