Yesterday I finally called some friends. There were a couple of phone calls that had to be made to a couple of friends in Caracas. So made my first phonecall entirely in Spanish! I was really proud of myself, tuulettaing (what´s the word in English when you e.g. score a goal and then you go around punching air and stuff. In Finnish this is to "tuulettaa") in my room hissing yesss yesss to myself. Enjoying the small mirakles in life.

Maybe I should add that I have some mobile problems - I can´t send any SMS or make phone calls from my mobile cause I can´t rechange it. Two phone companies, Digitel and Infonet, are merging and for some strange reason I can recharge my Digitel phone card only after September 15th. So msn, email and my fixed phone have been my means to communicate with the outside world.

I´ve actually been fine without my mobile sofar, but last night I started getting strange phonecalls and I was unable to call the number to check who was fooling around with me. At 1 a.m. my phone rung, and at first I thought it was the alarm and turned it off. Then it rung again and I answered, "Elina", and the other person ended the call. And then s/he called again, and ended the call as soon as I answered. Then s/he called again and I turned my phone off. I still have the number and if I wouldn´t be such a coward I´d call there now to see who it was. Maybe later....at 1 a.m.

Today we had a water desaster at work. There was a thunder storm and water started pouring from the sky. And pretty soon water was pouring into the Idiomas Ruge office. I didn´t notice anything at first. At the time I was probabaly trying to explain (with drawings, my folder, hands and feet) to my student what x-ray is. But when the class ended I noticed that there was a process going on in the office. All the books had to be taken out of the shelves and folders dried. I could not help but wonder how the building would survive a snowstorm. It probably wouldn´t. Somehow I managed to restrain myslef from explaining what kind of weather conditions buildings in Finland have to suffer.

By the way, when I was giving my presentation about Finland to the Aiesec gang, I was asked what was the biggest choque (I´ll never learn to spell this word, I really need to learn how to use the spellchecker) for me here in Venezuela has been sofar. I could not think of anything. But today when I was in the supermarket I remembered when the guy in a supermarket in Caracas told me: I only have one life, when I asked him to help me (or he offered to help me and when I was unable to say what I wanted immediately, he said, "I only have one life" and walked away). That was the biggest choque. It was unbelievably rude. So I´ve had it pretty easy here sofar.

The student I had today was Colombian. I asked him about the differences between Venezuela and Colombia and he said that the people in Venezuela, especially in Maracaibo are much ruder.