Got up around 12 this morning. Had come home at 6. Had gone to pala at 18:00. Had not exited the premises in twelve hours.
Pala is looking very, very good this year. The second years have built themselves their own little personal environment, where they have made themselves extremely comfortable. I watched Bruce Almighty with them two nights ago, it was an extremely refreshing night, with movie, popcorn, good company and whisky+cola. The movie was funny. Nothing to write home about, basically a remake of Liar Liar where the Deus Ex Machina walks in at the beginning to make the trouble begin instead of at the end to make them finish. Now that's a twist. Made me realize how long it's been since i'd last seen a conventional, absolutely predictable hollywood movie. Relaxing nonetheless. After seeing it we all walked around talking like Jim Carrey. And hearing "one of us" on the supermarket loudspeakers the following day made me crack up in laughter.
But anyway, what really surprises me about pala this year are the first years. It's probably the friendliest crop we've had in a long time. I very often go to the dayroom, brought in by my automatic homing system(still not used to old offices), and enjoy very nice conversations with the people there. Then i sometimes look around and notice i'm surrounded by first years, and fear i might be becoming something like Noce, i.e. seen as "the old guy who sometimes shows up but nobody knows what he's doing with us seventeen-year-olds". But then when i make for the exit, much to my surprise three or four voices ask for me to stay, wondering what could be so wrong that would want me to leave.
Another good thing is the so-called Midnight Club. Some more adventurous first years have taken up the habit of always sleeping in the dayroom. Where by sleeping i mean "staying up talking until four or five in the morning when we all eventually doze off, and then going up to one's room around eight in the morning and sleeping till dark".
Last night, for example, i had gotten back from one of the weekend beer buying sprees Fred and i usually have when his parents are away, and got invited by Andres, the mexican first year, to stay around for dinner. He, Cristobal from Chile, Agi[Agnes] from Hungary and i all cooked together, mixing ingredients from different countries to make extremely interesting, although not necessarily healthy servings. After this long, interesting conversations ensued, eventually culminating with Agi's production of a Scrabble board thus beginning a match that would have continued until almost one o'clock in the morning. Around two, i was outside in the large concrete circle in front of the elementary school(i can imagine what whoever built the thing was thinking. "What can we build for the children to play in? I know! A large, concrete circle1 they'll love it!")with much of the same gang, plus Claudia from Ecuador and Marta from Latvia, drinking wine and generally enjoying the not-too-cold environment. Departing from the trodden path, Marta, Yael from Israel and I climbed to the elementary school roof and atched the world from above. Philosophical, sentimental and linguistic discussions followed. Then we pulled away our aura of intelligence and started talking about Paprika Island.
Sleep caught up with most of us in pala dayroom, all lying half-dead on the sofas we had amassed together, listening to Agi and Sara from Spain chatting away. Around six i decided it wouldn't have been a very good idea to stay around, since in any moment PS would have come down to check on the milk supplies. Once again, my departure was almost blocked by Agi's puppydog eyes telling me to stay a little longer. Denying her requests makes me so guilty, on the way back i felt like Hitler invading Poland. As usual, i was extremely punctual in my departure, for only minutes later he would have come down and, as Fred related to me some minutes ago on the phone, dropped his luggage on the dark pond outside the dayroom which, as they discovered, was nothing but a certain second year's lunch and dinner of the previous day. Remember that beer i'd told you about? Ecco.
So today i got up at twelve, and started working on the program for my project in Rome. Instead, wasted time making a CD for a friend and updating this blog. Oh, well.
