stationary

its hard for me to believe that i went so long in my life without flossing. it seems that this has been the reason for my uncontrollably decrepit dental health. a reason that is on its way to becoming moot. my parents came to visit and brought with them, as a gift, those handheld 1 time use flossers. wow. they have already changed my life. i have been brushing quite regularly since i was little, but yet the first time i flossed with this new life-saving device, it was quite a disturbing scene invloving pounds of what had become rancid meat.

the reason why it is ok for me to be receiving packages like this instead of sending loads of things back home is that for some reason, in the last couple weeks or so, anna and i have more or less come to terms with living in cuenca. deciding not to be a traveler has taken quite a long time. even though the intellectual idea was there a while ago, the realistic motions of the thing have taken a few months to become natural. for example, before leaving to come to ecuador in july, i shopped for said hand-held flossers. however, upon packing my bags, i found that my bag would be too stuffed if i were to leave them in. so, i took them out and figured that as long as i brushed, all would be well.

point is though, that now i am able to be a consumer here in ecuador. now that im not traveling. now that anna and i have decided to stay in cuenca until july, we can begin acquiring things that will weigh us down, such as: every season of sopranos that has ever existed. windows 2007 (for $2), and dental floss.

yes, it is a big turnaround for us to be wanting to now stay in cuenca, but these things happen. and, once it has happened, everything seems better. the food, once bland, is kind of interesting and tasty if you are willing to get off the travelers budget for one second and spend $1.75 on a meal rather than $1.25 (note that the travelers budget always accounts for copius amounts of alcohol and passes on food quite often). the people in cuenca are really pretty nice once you try talking to them and it is easier to make friends when you tell people you will stay around for longer. all of these things are intellectually obvious, but not so much so when you try to act it out. so, this cuenca is where you can find us, and wherever you are in life, it is pretty important that your breath not smell like rancid meat.