Ants; Bears; Shopping; Swine!

I can't believe it's December already and that I've only posted about 4 times since the start of term - time is flying by!

I'm currently in the midst of organising the Christmas Production at school. The play is 'The Peace Child', one I did a few years ago back home, but this time it's on a much grander scale! We have a real theatre (at the local university); lights; costumes; projected backdrops (created by moi!); the works! It's also nearly double the number of kids that I had last time.

The kids are doing really well, the acting is still needing a lot of work, but the singing and dancing is coming on leaps and bounds! I have been living, breathing, eating and sleeping this production for several weeks now, but last night I even dreamt about it - sad eh? The crazy thing is that in 2 weeks time it will all be over. I am loving the excuse to be a drama queen though! It also keeps me going at this point in the term. I keep offering the director of the school a role as one of my gangster Mafia bears, but he doesn't seem too keen! I have been getting quite a lot of compliments about the singing which has been great.

Aside from all the drama at school, I've had a little drama myself. I realised last week that $800 had been stolen from my Ecuadorian account. I am 99% certain that I know when and where this happened, my card was cloned at a cash machine. My account has been frozen whilst the bank investigates and I don't expect to hear anything for at least another week. This is frustrating because I'm not sure if I'll get the money back and I also would like this all sorted before I go to Colombia at Christmas - which really isn't very long away now.

Last weekend I hired a car and me, Adri and another girl headed off to Otavalo for the weekend. I bought quite a few Christmas presents, including a leather jacket and a ring for myself. I also discovered over the weekend that there's nowt so queer as folk! The 'other' girl was decidedly odd and has made me question myself and whether she behaved the way she did because of me. I don't think so, but I find it strange not to have worked her out. I think the truth of the matter is that she has multiple personalties, but y'know, a decent thank you for driving and organising the hostel would have been nice.

On the upside though, Adri and I had a lovely time and having the car meant we could go up to the Mojanda lakes. Stupidly, I didn't take my camera. Luckily Adri leant me hers. I'm finding that I'm very into black and white photography at the moment.

The ants mentioned in the title refer to the army of them that I found in my kitchen when I got home on Monday. I nuked them and they seem to have gone but it was not a nice experience.

Lastly, swine! We have had two confirmed cases of swine flu at school. I have told my class that they do not have permission to get ill! However it does mean that I get tomorrow off school.