"My love is like a blueberry..."

Take note: this post has a title!

Oh. You're not impressed? Well, it's just that it almost didn't. Because once again, I was suffering from acute title writer's block. It's as serious as it sounds.

See, this is going to be another random, stream-of-consciousness type of post. Basically, it has no subject (maybe I should post a warning: "Welcome to my brain. Prepare to be confused. Even more confused than I normally am. No comments from the peanut gallery on that one. :P Also, abandon all hope, ye who enter...").

Randomness defies titling, hence the title writer's block and the resort to a weird quote...which I'll explain later, if I remember.

So yes. This post is just going to hop from topic to topic, because that is how my brain works. Except on exams and papers, when I can't say things like, "Because Madison defined tyranny as the accumulation of all power in one person or body, tyranny would be prevented by keeping the powers separated. Do you like blueberries? Well, I do. Anyhow, that's why Madison proposed institutionalizing a mechanism that would take advantage of each branch's desire for the acquisition of more power, using ambition to counter ambition in order to blah blah blah..." Never mind. I don't think that would quite cut it with my professors.

Also, can you tell I just finished a Freedom's Foundations midterm? I have decided that I will never have enough time to write everything I plan to say on those exams. Study guides with potential exam questions are great, but I end up planning out so much to say and there's just not enough time to type it all out in 75 minutes!

However, the exam was improved greatly by...atole, which I managed to gulp down in between essays. And yes, I just linked to wikipedia. I feel like a terrible college student.

Atole is basically like intense hot chocolate...it was perfect today, because it's been FREEZING! In fact, we're planning to head to a nearby mountain tomorrow morning to play in the snow that apparently fell there today. And yes, I am highly amused at the idea of driving toward snow ON PURPOSE.

Speaking of snow, this brings me to:

You know you're in Mexico when....

...it snows and everyone's facebook status involves the word "nieve" together with exclamation points of...excitement?!

...you bump into someone and have to turn around to see who it was so that you know which language to apologize in.

...your sisters talk about sledding and you wonder how they're able to sled in 70 degree weather...oh wait.

...your sidebar ads are usually in Spanish (and news websites automatically take you to their .mx page).

...everyone is complaining about losing an hour of sleep and you can't commiserate (actually, DST starts here on April 3rd. But I will gloat while I can.)

All right, I'll explain the title. It's actually something I said...man, I'm quoting myself. How self-centered is that?! (That was a rhetorical question...i.e., don't answer. ;)) Basically, I heard this Spanish song at gymnastics. In my failed attempt to sing it, I confused the phrase "mar azul," meaning blue sea with "morazul" or blueberry. Which is why I was singing that my love was like a blueberry. (And googling the lyrics just now, I realized I botched the song even more than I originally thought. Great. I'm just a natural at language learning, obviously.)

For this easily baffled person, some Spanish words are just waaay too similar. For example, cabeza and calabaza (cabeza = head and calabaza = pumpkin/squash). Ok, fine...they're really not that similar. But in a rare moment of idiocy, I mixed them up. Y'know that verse in Ephesians that talks about how the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church? Yeah. Try substituting pumpkin for head and you'll know why Reme and I were laughing so hard at my translations during Spanish class...

On the bright side, there are an awful lot of cognates between Spanish and English. (Cognate = basically, a word that's reaaaally similar in both language). I LOVE COGNATES. They just might be my favorite thing right now, besides atole.

Buuut, at the same time, I also tend to assume that a bunch of words are cognates when they aren't. In technical terms: I use false cognates. In plain ol' English: I've made up a lot of words lately. Words that seriously ought to mean what I think they do, but just plain don't.

Oooh, but good news. I used listen to random Spanish music as background music while I was studying. It was great because I couldn't understand a word, which meant that I could focus really well. But this week I tried it and had to stop because I was understanding too much and it was distracting me (it was weeeeeeird music!). So that's got to be a good sign, right?

(And now, hello, Swahili music!)

Also, I had a dream where I was trying to talk in Spanish. True, I failed, but I have to applaud my attempt. Yikes, the self-centeredness increases.... :P

On a serious note now, I want to ask if you guys could keep a girl from church in prayer. Her name is Vanessa, and she's just a few years older than I am. She came over for a sleepover last week, and it's clear that she's really struggling with some things from her past and with her singleness. She lacks the support of a Christian family, which makes things tougher. Thanks for praying!

Speaking of sleepovers, Rachel and I spent the night at Jason and Danielle's house on Saturday. They're a young missionary couple here, and they took us to downtown Mexico City, to the Zocalo (like a town square...only bigger, if that makes sense). It was pretty cool!

Incidentally, the Zocalo is where I met the new boyfriend.

That's right, I'd like you to meet...

um, I don't know his name yet. Pshhh, insignificant details....

This picture was, of course, taken very covertly, meaning that I only stood there gawking and fiddling with my camera for five minutes. He never noticed, I'm sure.

Aaanyhow, I always thought the Aztecs were cool, but I'm not so sure we'd make the greatest couple. After all, I have nothing that would match the boots. So I'm going to have to give that idea up...

Maybe at some point I can write a little bit more about what it was like downtown, on the metro, and such, but my bed is calling...

Ooh, one last random thought: I'm becoming a TOTAL expert on sports these days...yesterday (here's where you spit out your gum to prevent asphyxiation) I actually filled out a bracket for March Madness. And...that's basketball. That's the extent of my knowledge, but I'm sure my predictions will come true (and don't ask what they were because I have no idea anymore, haha). Proud of me? I am. (Just kidding...here we are back to the self-centeredness stuff...)

As I sign off, I have a ridiculous request to make: if you comment (no biggie, I'll just never blog again if you don't), could you use google translate, that often hysterically wrong but still-helpful tool to leave it in Spanish? It would crack me up, especially if it's completely nonsensical.

Good night!