Little things that make your day when you're living abroad

I'm out of it today. No se porque but I am. So anywho I went out to do a little shopping today (for foodstuffs including rice, oatmeal, greçka, eggs, marshmallows, etc.), taking my usual walk with some headphones on (and listening to some Alejandro Fernandez)...when I passed a woman carrying a child. My guess is the kid was between 10 and 14 months old, and, since it was a bit cold today, he was bundled up so that he looked like the kid from A Christmas Story (fyi: I can totally make that reference now because I finally saw the movie! After years of changing the channel away from TNT and that horrible 24-hours-of-A-Christmas-Story marathon they always give on Christmas Day, I finally succumbed and saw it. My review: pretty good.)

BUT I DIGRESS... what was I talking about? Oh yeah so I'm walking on the other side of the street from this woman and child and I look over and he's staring at me, and I can see the mother is telling him something (which I can't make out because I'm listening to my iPod). And so I give 'em a "SALAM!" (which I try to do to every female or child that looks/stares at me on the street; hey if you're gonna stare at least greet me!), and then the baby starts THROWING KISSES AT ME! It was one of the most adorable things I've ever seen, for reals. He put his tiny little hand up to his mouth and made a kissing noise and sent me the kiss with his hand! How cute is that?? It's just not possible to continue having a bad day when a baby is sending you air kisses.

So that happened, which was awesome. And then I went to the post office to say hi to the lady who works there, and she actually had mail for me! And not from the Peace Corps Office! JACKPOT! (I can count on one hand how many pieces of non-PC mail I've received in this country.) It was a letter from my sitey's mom! An actual handwritten letter! I read it on the walk back home and it was awesome. Letters are so cool. (If you are reading this Löki or Lydia, THANK YOU SO MUCH!)

So I finished the letter and was walking up my street. And I looked up at the mountains and noticed the snow on their peaks was a little orangey - sunset time! My walk home is east-ward, and so I turned around to see what the sky would look like when BAM! One of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen. There was a little bit of cloud cover, streaks at the horizon colored pink like cotton candy. It looked like a rosy vanilla sky. It was so pretty, as though the universe was telling me "Yo, Yessiquita, whattup? You see this sky right here? Yeah, that shit is beautiful, I know. This don't happen every day either, you better appreciate it fool!"

And just like that my day turned around for the better! All it took was a strangely affectionate baby, a letter from America, and a gorgeous sunset.