Home to Venezuela

I´m currently in Venezuela, but a lot has happened to get me here. I thought I´d fill in some of the gaps before arriving. I flew out of Knoxville very early Friday morning and arrived in Madison, WI before lunch. This gave me a chance to spend some time with Aaron and meet some of Liz´s half the aisle. We went to dinner that night, but I had to abandon the bachelor party and get to be early.

I arose at six Saturday morning to the concerted noise of three alarms, each of which I checked almost hourly between 1 and 5. I then got ready and headed downtown to the UW campus to take the MCAT. I probably left at seven, wanting plenty of time to get lost and still make it by eight. I arrived at about 7:12. There were already people there studying flash cards. I walked around the block a couple times, then just sat and try to relax. The test went well. I think. I´m going to think it did anyway -- I won´t actually know until the middle of October. I left at 5:30 and went to the bride´s mother´s house for supper, then to bed at a reasonable hour.

I have to say I enjoyed not having a vehicle. Having me where I needed to be was someone else´s responsibility. A lot of people from college met at a neat restaurant, then we started getting ready for the wedding. Everything went well. The service was in Frank Lloyd Wright´s famouse Unitarian Meeting House, and everything was very well done. Afterwards we celebrated and had a great time. I got to spend some time Monday with Aaron and Liz since most people had already left. They took me to the airport and I was off to Venezuela, or at least St. Louis.

I´ve been on the giving end of the ASP hospitality network many times, and this was my chance to make use of it. I met and stayed with Aileen, friend of Abe, past and future ASP staffer, and wonderful hostess. Then, another bleary eyed start to Miami. I arrived there around ten and didn´t leave till 5. It was a long, boring day. But, by the end, I was in Maracaibo.

Throughout all this, I don´t know that I had any particular feelings about the trip as a whole. It was just a lot of stuff to do in a few days, and I was going to get through it. I think my first moment of excitement and panic was walking through the Maracaibo airport and seeing NOTHING in English.