Ballad Of A Thin Man

Tomorrow marks the day I will be moving out of the house of my host family, and into my own house. Since one door will be opening, while another closes, I thought it would be good to take a look back at the past three months in my new home. To do so, I`m going to use some of the lyrics from the Bob Dylan song ¨Ballad of a Thin Man¨ to help me out.

You try so hard
But you don't understand

Even though my Spanish has improved quite a bit, there is a lot of times, I still just don`t understand. The Spanish language is a bit more complex than I thought it was. Present, Past, Imperfect, and Subjective all lead to a bunch of different conjugations of verbs.

And you say, "Oh my God
Am I here all alone?"

Yup. I’m here all alone. However, I’ve never thought of it this way, but there has been times when I wake up and it takes me a second to remember just where I am. It’s kind of a weird feeling as you might imagine.

Who immediately walks up to you
When he hears you speak
And says, "How does it feel
To be such a freak?"

I feel like this happened to me sometimes when people would see me for the first time. In a lot of ways I felt like a freak.

To just give a check
To tax-deductible charity organizations

With my salary, this year or next I won’t be writing any of these types of checks.

You've been through all of
F. Scott Fitzgerald's books
You're very well read

I haven’t read any of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s books, but I have read quite a few. I have read some very interesting ones from Liars Poker to The Omnivore's Dilemma. Coming up next ranges from a book about Robert Kennedy’s life to the movies of Stephen Segal. It should be quite an educational ride.

And he says, "Here is your throat back
Thanks for the loan"

I’ll be finishing up my service on October 21, 2010.

And he screams back, "You're a cow
Give me some milk
Or else go home"

Instead of some milk, I ‘gave’ someone my bookbag. Or more like it was stolen. The one setback thus far cost me my camera, iPod, passport and some other things. Not fun.

Because something is happening here
But you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?

The famous line from the song, gives me a chance talk a bit about the main project in my community. Working with a fishing co-op, we are trying to secure funding to ramp up efforts of the co-op. The group is working with some different agencies and I’m helping them in getting materials ready for those meetings. My hope is some money will come soon. In the meantime, I'm going to try to figure everything else that is happening in my community.