07's almost gone

Saying good-bye to 2007.
I don't wanna do the "cash up", I think you've read it along the year you might have an idea of what I went through during this year. But I can tell you about how these last couple of weeks went, and I should say OK-towards bottom.
It's been incredibly, absurdly hot, you feel as if you'll pass out at any second and you do anything to stay indoors (with an AC if possible). However, as staying indoors is not an option I started to get a lot of buses because it was too fucking unbearable to do my normal walking. As a result, I've been putting on the undesirable weight that took me months and hundreds of hours of walking and sweat to lose. I'm eating more as well, so you do the math. I can't let it happen but there's no way I can walk the way I used to in this fucking summer, and I'm too afraid of walking home from downtown at 10pm. I guess two summers in a row haven't made me good...

Then Xmas came along. I'd forgotten how miserable it was to spend it as a family but the moment I walked in my granparents' apartment it all came back very vividly. What a nightmare, the complaints never stop, never... No booze is allowed in the house and watching "Missa do Galo" was definitely the little cherry on top.
So I promissed to myself never put up with this again. I don't need to. So, for New Year's Eve, as I'm still not in the new apartment (that shithead needed 30 days to move out...) and mom's trip was a joke, I'm staying home alone, at least for a few hours, and try to welcome the new year the way I want to. Well, the way I want to might not happen exactly like I want to, but I'll try.

I don't know what to expect from 2008; staying alive, I guess, and paying the bills, I guess. Having some fun would be nice, too, but that would be asking for too much, right?
I honestly just wanted to have money and time to travel for a long weekend next year. That's all.
And of course, to keep the same job for more than 18 months.

Should I keep on blogging?

Yeap, I haven't been around much, for a number of reasons.
To begin with, I thought about the whole idea of keeping on writing on this blog. I haven't been in London in a while now and it's been almost four months that I'm no longer away, I'm very much here, in POA, doing a lot but not doing much, if you know what I mean. Well, now that I'm working for Cultural and possibly two other schools time is something that I'm running short of, and now the moment I get home I just don't want to sit in front of a computer and type about what's been going on, maybe because I spend such a long time preparing lessons that after I'm done I just want to chill and watch House. And I try to be outdoors as much as I can, too hot to stay at home and now I'm kinda learning how to spend some time alone and drinking, thanks to my iPod. That's why I haven't written anymore.

Next week will be my last working week of 2007. I have two students at Cultural and no more classes at Hello, not until January 2. I've been working at this immersion program, basically Business English, and the student spends ten hours a day speaking English and studying, so there are a few teachers who spend those ten hours with the person, including lunch and breaks, each one has a different subject to work on. It's pretty interesting but very demanding as well, because these students work for a big company which will implement a new system next year and they need to interact with their American peers either as visitors or hosts or through conference calls. So, they need results and are expected to reach a certain level asap.

After being denied a visa to the US I decided to wait a while and see what happens next year. We've been looking for apartments for me and I think we finally found something. If everything works out I'm looking to move out of here before New Year's Day. This is gonna be new for me but I need to go through this before thinking of leaving town again. I missed my chance when I was up there and now I'm aware that it's difficult to get anywhere.
So what I'll try to do this next year is to save some cash for either a big trip or shorter ones, like going to Montevideo, Santiago or even Buenos Aires again, since my first time there wasn't fully enjoyed. I wanted to go to Sao Paulo again, maybe in the winter. But now I'll have to pay the bills for real, big difference. And I don't know how my schedule will be next year, I don't know if I'll have any long weekends or days off (that I miss about Europe, vacation every three months if necessary). But I think one thing at a time is the right thing to do and I want to enjoy being alone, finally.

I don't know what else to say, maybe because there's nothing else to say since you've heard it all and honestly, it wouldn't be different here, in Buenos Aires, London or wherever. I need one more thing in my life and it's not totally up to me, whatever I could've done I already did and I don't know what else to do. I got tired in these past two years and I want to take a break, a 'gap year' if you will, even though I expect some hard work in the following months.
But I must confess that I feel strange being in Brazil after two years spending the holidays abroad; the weather, the people... things just don't match.
I can't wait to move out.