It’s been raining here for a few days. Actually even pouring at times. Impressive thunder and lightning too. Yes, I’ve been loving it.

The thing is, DC is neither accustomed to nor set up for serious rain like it’s seen in the past 72 hours or so. Drainage is an issue. Roads are closed, the subway system is all screwed up, some of the federal buildings are closed, and it’s just generally a logistical headache in a lot of ways. Rain like this, while not unremarkable, is certainly not newsworthy. Or so I thought. Everyone from the NY Times to the Seattle Times to CNN has apparently written stories on it. Happens all the time elsewhere, but I guess if it happens in DC, it’s got to be major news.

Just to let everyone know, though: we’re not all treading water over here - in fact, very few homes have even been affected. The worst damage I’ve seen personally was at FSI today. Sucks to be the tree, but the grass is already way greener than it was last week.

I still say rain is a blessing. Too much sometimes for a city’s commuters and a few low-lying buildings (and some trees), but a blessing nonetheless. I’m enjoying it while it lasts.

Anyone who had doubts about the seriousness of business at the World Cup in Germany doesn't need to look far to find evidence to the contrary. Just consider the age-old tradition of event-related "kitsch" - you know, those items that everyone at an event seems to have (or at least wants to have) that become outdated mere moments after the event is over. This year's World Cup is certainly no exception to this rule, and some enterprising individuals have come up with some interesting items for World Cup fans. Even more striking, though, is a story relating to that perennial World Cup favorite: beer. This year, a beer that is undoubtedly on most Germans' (and indeed probably most of the world's) Least-Favorite list spent something like fifty million dollars to be an "official partner" at the World Cup and have exclusive marketing rights. So serious are they about this that Dutch fans wearing pants advertising a different beer were recently forced to remove their pants and watch a game in their underwear. I guess there's more than one way to make a point.

A footnote: The Department of State internal television feed that normally broadcasts only C-Span, CNN, BBC and internal State Department conferences has taken a major departure from the norm and is currently carrying ESPN's coverage of the U.S.-Ghana match.  If that's not an argument for the power of the World Cup, I don't know what is.

It's uncanny how germs seem to strike exactly when it would be most inconvenient for a person to get sick. It's almost like they lay painstaking plans to hit people at the most inopportune times. A couple of examples: the last time I got truly ill was when I had a plane to catch from Seattle back to the east coast in two days - if it hadn't been for some serious horse-pills, I have every confidence my head would have exploded on that plane. Last month, one of my Peace Corps friends who was meant to come to Chicago and join us for the "reunion" weekend got sick the day before he was supposed to catch the plane out - he ended up having to stay home and forfeit the price of his tickets. And now, just when I've entered a phase of my training at FSI wherein missing a single day is unacceptable and can screw up all of the travel arrangements on my way to Korea because any missed hours must be made up, I have gotten sick once again. This, after eight long months of Korean language training during which missing two or three days could easily have been accommodated. I think maybe germs are way smarter than we give them credit for and far more devious than we would like to believe.

My A-100 class is affectionately known as "The 126th." And in the life of the 126th, this is already shaping up to be quite a week. A little sampling of why:

Meritorious Honor Award: Today the 126th class as a whole was given an award by the State Department. Every A-100 class goes off-site for a few days to do teambuilding and leadership exercises, and everyone stays at a woodsy little resort and "works" all day and parties all night. It's called, imaginatively, "the offsite." For many years, the State Department has been using a certain West Virginian resort for the offsite. Apparently the 126th got the (un)luck of the draw, and during a party on the first night we were there, the deck that about thirty people were standing on collapsed and fell one story to the ground, people and all. There was blood, there were broken bones, and there were a lot of uninjured people who quickly came to the rescue. The injured were triaged, everyone did whatever they could to make the emergency crews' jobs easier, people were assigned to watch others for delayed symptoms, an overnight "task force" was arranged, and the class as a whole pulled together and managed the crisis remarkably well. So, to fellow members of the 126th who were unable to be there this afternoon, here is your award for "exemplary professionalism, teamwork, composure and compassion" (its permanent home will be in the A-100 suite):

Mexico-bound: With such a preponderance of our class members assigned to Mexico, those who did not leave long ago are leaving in a big group right around now. Big groups departing are always hard, and after this set of people has gone, there will be very few of the 126th left at FSI. Having spent yesterday evening saying goodbye and bon voyage (or whatever it is in Spanish) to one of my close friends from the 126th, it is finally dawning on me that they're all headed out. Happy trails to Nathan and all the rest who are Mexico-bound!

I am finally done with Korean training, and with the horrible "area studies" course that is a required part of long-term language training. Today, after almost 8 months of daily toil, I had my final test in Korean and I managed to meet my training goal. FSI language scores work on a scale of zero to five, with zero being someone who has no functionality in the language at all and five being someone who is able to discuss and explain the meaning of life in the language without any hint of an accent. (Yes, by the standards of FSI, I have my doubts as to whether I would score a five in English). They throw in pluses for nuance in the scores, in case someone is above one level but doesn't quite meet the qualifications for the next level. At any rate, today I was given a score of 2/0+, with the first score being for speaking proficiency and the second for reading. My training goal was 2/0. Realistically, they probably gave me some serious benefit of the doubt on the speaking part of that score, but I'm certainly not about to argue.

Next up: tomorrow morning I start the ConGen course. It's a class that's conducted in English and is actually about something - hooray! But best of all, there will be other people in the class. Wow, now that's exciting!

Another entry for the "better late than never" file: some photos from my recent weekend trip to Chicago for a mini-reunion of Bulgaria Peace Corps volunteers. In attendance were volunteers from the B-7, B-11 and B-12 groups, and plenty of good times were had.

Old and new landmarks: Water Tower & John Hancock Building.

Chicago cops get around in style (horses are SO 20th century…)

Almost everyone at a restaurant on Saturday night.

Chicago Scenery

Fellow RPCVs hanging out on Sunday. Mmmm, Bulgarian food!

I went with a friend to see Pericles last night.  Every year, the Shakespeare Theatre Company here in DC does what they call a "Free for All," basically a performance of one of their shows from the previous season that is offered in a large outdoor venue with free tickets for the public.  This year, the show in question was Pericles, and let me tell you it was a great time.  I realized at some point in the evening that I have not been to the theatre in about a year, and I have missed it.  Also, the oppressive heat and humidity broke during the evening with a rainstorm, so I not only got to see a Shakespeare play done well, but I also got to have a very good excuse to sit out in the cool rain and enjoy it.  All in all, a very good evening. As the aforementioned friend puts it: amazing and truly beautiful.