Blog - 1, Ali - 0

So, clearly I am just about the worst blogger ever. Ask any English teacher I had from grades 6-11, and if they could remember who I am, they would tell you that I am bad at journaling.

But, we persevere. :)

Sooooooo - waaaaaaaay back when I left you, I was just coming home from Buenos Aires and my family was about to visit. So here we go -

My parents were here for about two weeks, and it was great fun. I think they're a lot less worried now that they see that I do not in fact live in the middle of a third-world jungle. I was busy working while they went to see a lot of the country, which was sad, but I'm glad they had the opportunity to check the place out a bit. My dad was rocking his traveler's Spanish, and my mom bought lots of pretty stuff. :) Yay! Photo op at the futball game:

During their visit, I had a crime-fighting adventure. So, I'm on the bus, writing a text message, when some guy (early twenties, maybe, and about 5'8" or so?) grabs the phone OUT OF MY HAND and jumps off the MOVING bus. Well, I'm sick with a cold, I'm tired, and this just plain pisses me off. So, naturally, I throw my bag over my shoulder, run to the front of the bus and jump off after him.

That's right - I jumped off of a moving bus. Brilliant, I know.

Now, since I am not accustomed to jumping off of moving buses, I ate it. Like, I full-on rolled head-over-heels into the gutter. But whatever. From my crumpled heap position, I see the dude running across the four-to-six lanes of traffic (there are no lines on the road, lanes are fuzzy here) to the other side of the street. Well, I hadn't jumped off of the bus for nothing, so I likewise run into the traffic to chase him down. Brilliant, again. I saw him getting on another bus going the opposite way, and started to get on after him. When he saw me getting on behind him, he spun around, threw the phone at me, and ran away. I should mention that this whole time I've been screaming and cussing at him and probably seemed basically insane.

So, anyway, I got it back. Yay. There were some scrapes and bruises from throwing myself off the bus (let's not kid ourselves, "jumping" is too elegant a term for what I did!), but no major damage.

Now, I know, I know, not worth it for a cheap phone. But the cheap phone was not the point. Just because I'm a girl and I'm small and I'm alone doesn't mean that you can walk up and take whatever you want from me. I swear that during the split second I was standing face-to-face with the guy, I just wanted to swat him on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper and say "NO".

This whole ordeal left me standing on the sidewalk, phone in hand, shaking from adrenaline, and not knowing what to do with myself. I stopped by the house to clean myself up and vent to my roommates, and was only a little late to teach that afternoon.

So, that was exciting.

My parents finished their visit, and it was good. The day after they left, we began performances of the ballet Raymonda, which they were able to see a dress rehearsal of. It's killer hard (at least my part) and we were a little unprepared, but it came off ok. At the last minute I had needed to ask one of my students to come and play the piccolo part with us, and we worked so hard on it together - it was his first time playing in an orchestra, his first time playing piccolo, and he had less than a week to get it together. But he worked his butt off and did an AWESOME job - I was so proud of him!! The maestro, who is normally very quiet and doesn't talk to me much, even went out of his way to tell me that my student plays very well. Quite a compliment to all his hard work. Although I felt terrible putting him in such a stressful situation, sometimes that happens in music, and he really pulled through. Props to Diego. :)


The next couple of months were really busy and really blurry - we performed Norma, which was great fun (Casta Diva, yay!).

Oh, and we moved to a new apartment. Now it's me, my friend from the States, and two Paraguayans (a couple). Everybody's super-chill and we are a happy little family!

Just after the move, my boyfriend, Jake, came to visit:

It's tough having him so far away, and I was thrilled that he was able to come down for three whole weeks. He and I and my friends here all had an awesome time hanging out together, even though we weren't able to travel and see much because of my work. But we had such an awesome time, in fact, that he has decided to move down here with me for the next season! I am SO EXCITED for that adventure! I am so lucky to have such a supportive love in my life. xoxo


After Jake's visit, I had to leave the country because my visa was about to expire, so I figured I would take a quick little weekend trip to a border town in Argentina.

Nope.

The police at the border said that I would be allowed to pass, but he wasn't going to stamp my passport because I wasn't going to be gone for more than five days. However, if I were to only pay a small fee, he would talk to his boss and maybe they could extend my visa . . .

Bullshit. (Oh, yeah . . . I live in South America . . . right . . .)

So I hopped on the bus back to Asuncion, told the maestro that I had to miss a couple of days of rehearsal, called my teacher, and the next weekend I went down to Buenos Aires to take another couple of lessons. And of course they were amazing! Claudio Barile, you rock my socks. I also got to see a great performance of Wagner's Tristan and Isolde by the orchestra of La Plata thanks to a friend who plays viola there. All in all, things worked out for the best even though the border cops were a pain on my first attempt to travel.

Let's see, what else . . .

Oh. The new apartment is only a few blocks away from a large and beautiful park:

(Oh, yeah, and my parents brought my camera down from the States. Aren't you glad? :))

Now, this park happens to have a 5k running trail, so Jordana have decided to get our butts in shape with the Couch-to-5k running plan coupled with some pilates videos courtesy of YouTube. So far, so good! We're kind of pathetic at the moment, but it feels really good to be working on it. We're only a little bit of the way in, but there's been some progress already. And now that EVERYBODY knows we're doing it, we really can't flake out, ha.


That's all I've got time for right now, but I PROMISE to write more often. Like, within the next week. If I don't, please do give me hell, thanks.

Chau! :)