I hold a special place in my heart for Gossip Girls. Don’t judge me. It is shameful but I am not ashamed. From Niger, New York City in high fashion looks like a wondrous world, and when in winter, it makes a triple alliteration, which is basically just irresistible. So, as the rains fall and the sunny days swirl with a hot sort of death squad humidity, I find myself dreaming of snow in all it’s glory.

Last night I was watching an episode of Gossip Girl in which it is snowing, and the phrase “Holy cow I love girls in winter clothes,” burst out of me before I could tamp it down. These sorts of comments were received with mirth by my fellows, who promptly suggested that I was in the wrong country and I should make my way to Peace Corps Mongolia en tout vitesse.

With some fellow volunteers from Guinea whispering of early COSing in December, and my move to a place with both electricity and water (though no house), visions of America are filling my head at all hours. This tends to happen from time to time, usually with respect to the weather more than the food. Lack of American food has never been a big issue (though I will devour much good food when I return in a year). The truth is that I like the cold. I like heat also. Heck, I just like variation, and harbor an unbridled malaise against humid heat.

Gossip Girl has also convinced me that I need to work on two big things: most excellent timing and witty references. Being witty is mostly just looking out for the chance to make a witty comment, so I’ll leave that. Most excellent timing is a more difficult issue. From what I can tell, it consists of walking into rooms full of conversations that people don’t want you to hear. I figure the best way to do that is to walk repeatedly from room to room whenever there are people around and then sort of standing there as if I’ve heard some damning evidence of something. Unfortunately these two things conflict, since it is hard to converse enough to be witty while I am busy walking from room to room in pursuit of most excellent timing. Just how do those Gossip Girl characters do it?

Thanks for letting me waste your time with this one.