it was a nice evening until some dude put on The Eagles

Someone in a building adjacent to mine was playing "Hot in the City" and then "L. A. Woman" (Doors' cover) by Billy Idol, which, when wafting over the tops of tropical trees and bushes that you can see outside my window, is eerie in an early-evening, 80s-throwback sort of way. It was what I'd almost call a poetic moment until the same jackass switched over to The Eagles, first with "Hotel California" (OK, on fringe of cheesy, but acceptable), and then totally destroying it with "Tequila Sunrise" or whatever else that crap song is called.

I am currently skipping the first school-organized social outing that I've missed so far, because I can't keep from sniffling all over the place because of the cold I've got. I'm also freaked out like I always get with these things that I'll give it to someone else, so I might end up skipping class tomorrow too. I was there today and every time I sneezed everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at me, and made little if any effort to mask their disgust at my condition. Not that I blame them. Because of that I'm guessing I might not show up tomorrow.

But back to the 80s music floating over the palm tree tops - I don't know if I'll ever get used to seeing a palm tree out my window. I don't expect that I will, and I think that's a good thing. One reason to come here was just for a change, and I definitely got that. At the same time I'm comfortable enough here that I don't really feel like it's a whole lot different than anywhere else. Strike that - anywhere else I've been. Take Palm Springs, CA, where I was a few years back for a rock-climbing trip. There was a man here in my Pousada who said he'd lived there, and that sort of brought that place to mind. To me there's more visible differences between New York or Maine and Palm Springs than there are between Palm Springs and Salvador. Or maybe just fewer differences between the latter two than you would expect. I'm sure there are people who disagree. But the parts of the world that I've seen, at least, which is primarily what most would still call "The West": Brazil, US, Canada, Western Europe, Moscow and St. Petersburg, are far less different from each other than I ever expected.