Nevadageddon

I've been trying to keep myself occupied for the last several days, essentially having been snowed in by the great blizzard of 2010, aptly named "Snowmageddon." After being released from work early last Friday, I've been trapped inside for 5 days now by the mammoth amount of snow that has paralyzed the city. I drove around a little last night, taking some videos back to Blockbuster, but soon realized I needed to get back home ASAP because the roads were still treacherous and the temperature was dipping back down below freezing. Work was cancelled again today, so to stave off my cabin fever and to avoid any "Shining" like bouts of mania, i.e. "Here's Johnny!," I decided a new posting on the Rambler was due. Unfortunately, I don't have that much to update.

My Spanish training is heading into its final few weeks, and I can't wait for it to be over. I'm to the point where I can have in-depth conversations about nearly anything. My only weaknesses are dealing with local colloquialisms, idioms, and reading poetry in Spanish. As long as I can avoid those topics on my upcoming exam, I should be OK. I am slightly nervous however, because a number of my coworkers have not be passing the exams recently, caused by both the recent overcrowding of our Spanish classes (resulting from the hiring surge of the last year) and the simultaneous increase in the difficulty of passing the Spanish fluency tests (furthering FSI's hopes to make State's language training program preeminent in the nation). Because this is a government job, however, failing the test only means an extra month of language training is added to the schedule, then another month and another month. The dirty truth is nobody ever gets fired for not passing their exams.

Last week, I took a very quick trip to Vegas. Originally, I was going to go with a group of friends to watch my very first title-fight (Boxing), but one of the boxers was Haitian and pulled out at the last minute because of the devastation caused by the recent earthquake. As such, the fight was cancelled, but because of all the non-refundable fees I had already paid for on my flight and hotel, I opted to go anyway. Instead of the prize-fight, we saw Penn & Teller's magic show.

Furthermore, I just received my diplomatic passport. Even though I'm not allowed to use it until I travel officially, its still fun to have. Also, I've started to stock up on hous

ing goods and consumables to take down to VZ. While in reality, most everything I will want will be available down there, post recommends that I bring anything with my that I know I will want/need. Because of the precarious political situation, and frequent shortages of even the most basic staples, its best to be prepared. Therefore, within the past week I've spent over $2K on all kinds of stuff, like bed sheets, towels, dishes, silverware, and even 400lbs of cat-litter. Seriously, I have ten, 40lb buckets of litter sitting out on my patio right now for all of my neighbors to see. When my departure date gets closer, I'll do a Costco run to stock up on goods with shorter shelf lives.

Other than that, and finishing up my series of vaccinations, writing an essay about the religion of "Bolivarianism" for my regional studies class, and studying, I don't have much more to report.

M