Heres a thought I had today as I walked to the Cyber. Peace Corps is all about down time, whether it wants to or not. And thats fine, as long as its not all down time. But just last night, I read Henry VI Part 2. Great fast read! Then I immediately started the next volume in the War of Rose Shakespeare octet of plays.

But the thought I had today was this : would I necessarily have read this now if I wasnt procrastinating a giant list of stuff to do? A.k.a, if I wasnt in Peace Corps now, would I be close to finished with reading Shaksepeare's complete? And its not that I dont love those plays or I dont read them at home. But why last night? And part of the reason was that theres a whole language here that I need to learn, an entire community to get to know, 6 or 8 classes each week to plan starting tomorrow ( beginners english 1 and 2, intermediate eng 3 and 4, begin Spanish 5 and 6, and advanced conversation 7) . So with all this pressure I find myself escaping into things I might not necessarily have been attracted to as at home. Just like in Bolivia there are books that were handed to me to read that I wouldnt necessarily have touched, or skills that I desired to learn to help pass the time. Crotcheting. Ventriloquism, juggling. I imagine this is the sort of spontaneous enthusiasm that you might find in prison that you wouldnt see outside of such a setting. Sort of like Clint Eastwood learning to play the accordion, which handily also conceals his get-away route.

So far Ive got 17 books, guides and novellas that Ive read since Ive been here, and am in the middle of another 5 or 6.