Friday already.

Siiigh. Well, it's Friday already. Everyone else on the planet loves Fridays, but I dread them. Friday means its the weekend, and the weekend means I have to work. I mean, I'm so glad that I even have a job, its just that my job is 40 minutes away from where I live (because I live at the apartment instead of my parents' house), and I have to pack up my stuff and stay at my parents' house for 3 days. Not that I hate going there, its just mentally and physically exhausting to do that every week. If I have homework (which I invariably do), I have to make sure I take my laptop, and all of the right books/binders/notebooks; and of course I usually leave something at their house when it comes time to pack everything up and go back to Shipp. So then, M0nday morning, I'm usually on the phone with my sister asking her to bring my schoolbag, the textbook on the table, a pair of socks, etc. etc. etc. I am so glad that next week is the last week before finals. Now I just need to put in a transfer at work and hopefully go to a store that's closer to here.

Ok, I'm done complaining for now. Sorry.

In better (but no-less boring) news, I worked on my huge research project poster last night. I don't know if I've mentioned this project on here before, but its been hanging over my head for like 3 months now. When we went to Curacao last January for class, we had to create an individual research project that we would present to the campus and community at a colloquium at the end of the year. Well, this Thursday is the colloquium. My poster isn't quite finished yet, but I'm really liking it so far. I forced myself to work on it last night around 7:30 (because I was bored and Teddy's out of town), and I got on-a-roll, so I worked until after 11:00 last night.

I'm actually pretty proud of my project... its about the historical and present socioeconomic differences of the population of Curacao, as evident through the different styles of architecture. On one hand, there's the influence of the African slaves in the rural areas, and on the other hand, you've got the rich Sephardic Jew merchants in the Scharloo district of Willemstad, and the result is a really interesting contrast in the buildings on the island. Many of the buildings have been there since the 1630s, which is amazing.

Top: Kas di Pali Mashi, a traditional kunuku ("rural house)- African-style dwelling with thatched room, wattle-and-daub frame structure, and a cactus fence to keep out feral animals. Bottom: A modern kunuku with corrugated metal roof. Its amazing that this style of house is still being built today, nearly 4 centuries later. These houses are EVERYWHERE on the island, and they're usually yellow and red.

The two pictures above show the historic buildings of Willemstad. They've been restored, but the row of tall houses in the bottom picture have been there for 400 years. They originally housed the wealthy Jewish and Dutch merchants on the island.

So, yeah. I think after the colloquium on Thursday I'll try to put up my research online...