weak, southerly hibernal sun
Yup, winter arrived while I was gone. Thanks to Guatemala's lack of Daylight Savings Time, I'm now up at sunrise, or what should be sunrise; the sun has attenuated and can't make it through the thin sweep of cloud on the horizon, roiling and yellow-gray like a Goya painting—
Speaking of which, I sure do want that new Goya book. But it'll have to go into the Deferment Stack with all them other things I want, because we're scraping the bottom of the bank account and I have to find a job. Hmm. Jobs. Last night some political talkshow host was ripping Labor Sec. Elaine Chao a new asshole on the CNN airport network.
The world passed through Guatemala, especially Antigua. I heard and failed to understand French, Italian, German, Dutch, Hebrew, Japanese, some flavor of Chinese, not to meantion Quiché and Achí and Poqom'chi and whatever other Maya languages they speak on the bus. My Spanish had good days (on which people would ask if I was from Spain) and bad days (on which they would hold up their fingers whenever saying a number). But I do have an excuse to remedy my lack of German, at least; for the prospect of incipient employment has sent me scurrying back to grad-school applications. I'm restricting myself to a few snooty schools, so it will be in God's hands. Even so, after the $320 in application fees I should have just enough left over for the dual-language Kafka book before I have to start panhandling.
