Peel!

The power is unreliable here. Many days we come home at 5 or 6pm to no power, and it's hard to know when it will come back on. It's fine until 7 when the sun sets, and then you are left wandering around in the dark, totally bored.

Last night the power was out for a very long time, until around 9pm.
We all ate dinner by candlelight, and then played rounds of Bananagrams, which is insanely fun. It's like scrabble, but without all the boring waiting-for-other-people-to-take-their-turn.
Victor, one of the doctors here, is ridiculously good at it. He forms his words quickly, then gets bored waiting for us. No one even comes close to beating him. It's especially impressive given that English is his second language.

Having no power is much more fun with lots of people around. Also, it's not as catastrophic here.
I was in medical school during the blackouts in New York in 2003. It was like the apocalype - all stoplights off, intersections confusing and frightening, traffic backed up for hours over the bridges, no subways, long lines at the gas stations, total chaos. In my mind, it was like the London of Children of Men, but with block parties.

After the power came on, we turned on the TV and watched a National Geographic program on the Beeb called Dolphin Army. There were dolphins, squids, birds, sardines and sharks. Disappointingly, there were no adorable dolphin uniforms (I was hoping for something Sgt. Pepper-esque), but still it was pretty fascinating.