I gave in.

Yes, I did.

I scratched.

And now. I pay the consequences. My limbs are swollen something in between Elephantitis and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. Damn, mother ferking, little soldiers of Satan bloody hell Sand Fleas. Oh and I woke at 6am again today and was promptly bitten by another one. What the hell? What are sand fleas doing up at 6am in the morning? AND already biting people. Son of a bitch.

But its cool. Because, while everyone loves to jump on the "DON'T scratch" advice giving steam train, the scratching actually seems to be healing them. it spreads the poison (hence the swelling) and my hypothesis is that the diluted poison is then more quickly filtered through my blood. Instead of remaining within it's tiny red dot fortress it must deal with half my forearm. it also changes the itchy feeling into an ouchy feeling, which, ouchy you can ignore. itchy, well, as demonstrated above, cannot be. So, sand fleas.

Another day. It's amazing how quickly the days pass here. Not here, everywhere, why am I so old? Time, as the song should sometimes go, is NOT on my side. but we've had rain for the first time in 6 weeks here. And well, you know, I honestly don't mind now. Well, yeh, duh, it's summer. it's gotten muggy, which, Sean, is not a fan of mugginess. It makes me feel like my head is dunked in a vat of honey that is not sweet. so trying to do anything is frustrating. I passed out today I was so tired. Hee.

i'm planning my escape to Christchurch. Although, it's not an escape because our relationship (mine and my hosts) is coming on beautifully. While in the strawberry fields (forever) my host and I debated Utilitarianism. Farmers, I think, in my experience tend to be more pragmatic people, while, upper middle class people who haven't spent more than a year outside of school, with no real job experience and a penchant for uselessness tend to be more abstract and quote-unquote 'intellectual' (hah, that was redundant wasn't it?) So it was a fun and lively discussion, considering this farmer has a degree in Ecology and History. Hee.

I've also really surprised myself here. From somewhere I've received some productive value. Without really trying, I was really good at chopping firewood. Stacking timber, sawing, building a fence, picking produce, moving irrigation apparati, counting, packing, refrigerating, cooking dinners and driving on the left hand side of the road (with a backwards manual transmission) all quite naturally and to my virgin eyes, without apparent signs of underlying deficiency. I wonder if my hosts know how un-me all this really is. I don't know whence it came. Perhaps Ireland has had a nice positive effect on me that I haven't previously noticed. I guess, I can officially say, i'm really not that useless anymore. At least now, I can discern veggie sprouts from weeds.

It's been a solid 2 weeks now and it's gone quickly and been fun. But I'm looking ahead at two more months of this and wondering what it will be like. Am I going to get tired of this? I don't really see that happening since this is most definitely the most varied life I've lived ever. I'm really seriously doing something different almost every day and with new people (like really different people) every week. So, that's kind of crazy. And awesome. I guess I'm eager for Christmas to pass since it's the only set in stone date I have plans. After that I don't "have" to be anywhere and I can stay on with a family or so if I like them for longer than one week. Which would be nice.

I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of American friends in a few days. Although, I probably won't see them for at least another week or two. But whatever, it'll be nice to know they are here. And, good times are ahead. Whoopee.

What else? I wrote my resume. sheepish grin. It sucks, but oh well. I need a job in the States, which. let's see. I'm excited about and yet. I'm still a bit idealistic to be fully content or happy with any job I could potentially score. It's also difficult to conduct a job search when you are halfway across the world with intermittent internet access. Derh. but alas, it must be done. And so. I am doing it. Joooobbs. (that looks like it rhymes with boobs, but trust me, it doesn't.) Jaaahhhhhbs. There we go.

i'm drinking too much coffee. damn. i got to watch an episode of the Simpsons the other day on the television here (we have strict numbers of hours we can watch TV each day (like them too) and its limited to like 1 or 1 and a half if there's something REALLY good on. but that's fine, TV sucks. So anyway, I was cracking up, like dying laughing (looking back it must be because I'm so America deprived) hindsight's twenty-twenty right? and the two Kiwis and Englishman in the room just looked at me marveling at what a kick I was getting from this show. Well, cmon, the joke about Bart mimicking a 'grad' student by having a ponytail and Marge replying, "Don't make fun of grad students, they're just people who made a terrible life choice" hit a little close to home and had me in stitches. Then, I was upset the next afternoon when for some reason, the Playboy bunnies do Vegas show on the E! Channel was blocked with parental controls...what the hell? It's a childless couple in their late 30s, why in the world would the E! Channel be parentally blocked? Quality Control maybe, but Parental Control? Well, it's dinner time and I've written enough I think for today. So enjoy.

Oh also, the Kiwis and Englishman were not familiar with Team America, so while digging up potatoes together yesterday, they did not find it funny when I pulled up the plants with several potatoes hanging on and said, "Surprise, c**kbags"

(cmon, I had to edit, my mother and grandmother read this...)