Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Friday, January 25, 2008
como es xela (i know i cheated)
Xela is the shortened name of the place I am staying (quetzaltanango). And for brevity and time, I am going to describe it with the 5 senses plus etc...
1. Sight: Colors. many many colors. guatemala is a place of brilliant color. More than half the population of the Xela is indigenous and most of the woman wear ropa tipica, with consists of skirts, shirts, and aprons, scarves in the all of intricate patterns and designs. The handmade blouses are very very expensive becaues the flowers are all hand stitched.
2. Touch: Bumby. The part of Xela where i live and go to school is old xela, so the streets are bumby, made of cobblestone, the sidewalks are uneven. Today I rode in a bus and car in on these bumby streets. I twas kind of exciting to be in my maestros car rather than walking and always dodging these honking cars. (we went to a picnic at the zoo, where there were about 3 animals...two of them were juguars pacing pensively in a patheticlaly small cage and staring at the cow tied to a treeoutside the cage)
3. Sounds: Turkey and Roosters howling, fire works going off all night (my family told me this was because its a way to celebrate and every day has a patron saint that someone may be celebrating. This morning really early, i thought i heard more fireworks REALLY loud bangs, but no, it was ahouse exploding. their gas stove anyways. I also hear a lot of spanish that I can not understand and sometimes this is frustrating. I also here a lot of english, because there are an amazing amount of extranjeros aqui. there is also a french guy who speaks spanish with a french accent... thats pretty cool.
4. Smell: besides the standard smells of most foriegn countries there is the smell of beans and tortillas served at just about every meal. and of couse the small of Xelapan. This a chain store, a panadaria, that every time i walk by is sending intoxicating fresh bread frangrances into the air. Hard to resist.
5. Whats the 5th sense.. oh yeah, taste... cafe con leche. ´nough said.
6. Como Estoy, yo? you ask... I am great and greatful to be here. The other day I was feeling fairly lonely and unknown. and rather without a backbone... these other gringos invited me out but i didnt go because i wanted to stay home and read harry potter (yes, i found a used copy here in english for a very good price of the harry potter 4 that i had been wanting to read before i left the states) and because i heard from this group of estudiantes from minnesota that they often dont get home til 5 in morning, ... and it was wednesday and i would have to come to spanish class on 2 hours sleep. i`ve never been very good at that... i´d rather hang out with gringos in the us than when i am here... anyways the next day i regretted not going out and and then i was feeling sad about feeling sad, and then i was feeling sad about caring about what other people think of me and then i was praying, God i just want to make a friend, and then like 5 minutes later this girl i know for ucsc who also happens to be in xela studying spanish called me on my cellphone (i am so high tech).... we met up and it was fun to just talk in english and spanish... that night i also invited the other students (they are guatemalan) and live in the same house where i live they study at various of the schools in xela and i eat with them most days) to come iwth me to the movie that there were showing at my spnaish school that night... All to say, after hanging otu the friend from ucsc and Lucas and Selvin, the guatamaltecos who came the movie with me, i didnt feel sad anymore,i felt more human afterwards... that may be a wierd discribtion of how i felt, but i think its fits.
1. Sight: Colors. many many colors. guatemala is a place of brilliant color. More than half the population of the Xela is indigenous and most of the woman wear ropa tipica, with consists of skirts, shirts, and aprons, scarves in the all of intricate patterns and designs. The handmade blouses are very very expensive becaues the flowers are all hand stitched.
2. Touch: Bumby. The part of Xela where i live and go to school is old xela, so the streets are bumby, made of cobblestone, the sidewalks are uneven. Today I rode in a bus and car in on these bumby streets. I twas kind of exciting to be in my maestros car rather than walking and always dodging these honking cars. (we went to a picnic at the zoo, where there were about 3 animals...two of them were juguars pacing pensively in a patheticlaly small cage and staring at the cow tied to a treeoutside the cage)
3. Sounds: Turkey and Roosters howling, fire works going off all night (my family told me this was because its a way to celebrate and every day has a patron saint that someone may be celebrating. This morning really early, i thought i heard more fireworks REALLY loud bangs, but no, it was ahouse exploding. their gas stove anyways. I also hear a lot of spanish that I can not understand and sometimes this is frustrating. I also here a lot of english, because there are an amazing amount of extranjeros aqui. there is also a french guy who speaks spanish with a french accent... thats pretty cool.
4. Smell: besides the standard smells of most foriegn countries there is the smell of beans and tortillas served at just about every meal. and of couse the small of Xelapan. This a chain store, a panadaria, that every time i walk by is sending intoxicating fresh bread frangrances into the air. Hard to resist.
5. Whats the 5th sense.. oh yeah, taste... cafe con leche. ´nough said.
6. Como Estoy, yo? you ask... I am great and greatful to be here. The other day I was feeling fairly lonely and unknown. and rather without a backbone... these other gringos invited me out but i didnt go because i wanted to stay home and read harry potter (yes, i found a used copy here in english for a very good price of the harry potter 4 that i had been wanting to read before i left the states) and because i heard from this group of estudiantes from minnesota that they often dont get home til 5 in morning, ... and it was wednesday and i would have to come to spanish class on 2 hours sleep. i`ve never been very good at that... i´d rather hang out with gringos in the us than when i am here... anyways the next day i regretted not going out and and then i was feeling sad about feeling sad, and then i was feeling sad about caring about what other people think of me and then i was praying, God i just want to make a friend, and then like 5 minutes later this girl i know for ucsc who also happens to be in xela studying spanish called me on my cellphone (i am so high tech).... we met up and it was fun to just talk in english and spanish... that night i also invited the other students (they are guatemalan) and live in the same house where i live they study at various of the schools in xela and i eat with them most days) to come iwth me to the movie that there were showing at my spnaish school that night... All to say, after hanging otu the friend from ucsc and Lucas and Selvin, the guatamaltecos who came the movie with me, i didnt feel sad anymore,i felt more human afterwards... that may be a wierd discribtion of how i felt, but i think its fits.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Frame of Reference:
At 6am on a standard wednesday morning, i know who I am. i am a tired 25 year old who must pull herself out of bed to shower/dress/bus or bike to work by 7.30 am. I am generally on time, but more so lately, i am some one who is okay with being a little late.
at noon on that standard wednesday, i know who I am. I am hungry, if i have packed my lunch I plan if i should heat it in the upstairs break room, or the downstairs break room. I think about plastic forks and my carbon footprints. If i did not have it together on that standard monday morning, i am someone who will think about the cheapest thing to eat, or how to possibly get a free lunch out of someone who makes more money than me.
At 4.30 on the standard wednesday, i know who i am. I am tired, my brain a little frazzled from staring at the computer and transfering numbers from here to there and counting apps and assisting and phones and coworkers. on the bus or bike ride home i may be planning in my head what i need to do for xyz or what to make for dinner, or who i should call or pondering graffiti, or remembering the time i saw so and so on the bus.
Tomorrow is not a standard wednesday. i will not wake up with the need to head to work, I have much to do, but its not related to HMOs and PPOs. I am packing, I am heading out of town, I am leaving all that is familiar. I am leaving "I know who I am." With a new surrounding, i wont only be discovering language and foriegn lands, I will be discovering a new me.
this scares me...will i be disappointed?
at noon on that standard wednesday, i know who I am. I am hungry, if i have packed my lunch I plan if i should heat it in the upstairs break room, or the downstairs break room. I think about plastic forks and my carbon footprints. If i did not have it together on that standard monday morning, i am someone who will think about the cheapest thing to eat, or how to possibly get a free lunch out of someone who makes more money than me.
At 4.30 on the standard wednesday, i know who i am. I am tired, my brain a little frazzled from staring at the computer and transfering numbers from here to there and counting apps and assisting and phones and coworkers. on the bus or bike ride home i may be planning in my head what i need to do for xyz or what to make for dinner, or who i should call or pondering graffiti, or remembering the time i saw so and so on the bus.
Tomorrow is not a standard wednesday. i will not wake up with the need to head to work, I have much to do, but its not related to HMOs and PPOs. I am packing, I am heading out of town, I am leaving all that is familiar. I am leaving "I know who I am." With a new surrounding, i wont only be discovering language and foriegn lands, I will be discovering a new me.
this scares me...will i be disappointed?
Thursday, January 03, 2008
npr taught me about bob dylan and i like him even more
Nobody feels any pain
Tonight as I stand inside the rain
Ev'rybody knows
That Baby's got new clothes
But lately I see her ribbons and her bows
Have fallen from her curls.
She takes just like a woman, yes, she does
She makes love just like a woman, yes, she does
And she aches just like a woman
But she breaks just like a little girl.
Queen Mary, she's my friend
Yes, I believe I'll go see her again
Nobody has to guess
That Baby can't be blessed
Till she sees finally that she's like all the rest
With her fog, her amphetamine and her pearls.
She takes just like a woman, yes, she does
She makes love just like a woman, yes, she does
And she aches just like a woman
But she breaks just like a little girl.
It was raining from the first
And I was dying there of thirst
So I came in here
And your long-time curse hurts
But what's worse
Is this pain in here
I can't stay in here
Ain't it clear that--
I just can't fit
Yes, I believe it's time for us to quit
When we meet again
Introduced as friends
Please don't let on that you knew me when
I was hungry and it was your world.
Ah, you fake just like a woman, yes, you do
You make love just like a woman, yes, you do
Then you ache just like a woman
But you break just like a little girl.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1112840
Tonight as I stand inside the rain
Ev'rybody knows
That Baby's got new clothes
But lately I see her ribbons and her bows
Have fallen from her curls.
She takes just like a woman, yes, she does
She makes love just like a woman, yes, she does
And she aches just like a woman
But she breaks just like a little girl.
Queen Mary, she's my friend
Yes, I believe I'll go see her again
Nobody has to guess
That Baby can't be blessed
Till she sees finally that she's like all the rest
With her fog, her amphetamine and her pearls.
She takes just like a woman, yes, she does
She makes love just like a woman, yes, she does
And she aches just like a woman
But she breaks just like a little girl.
It was raining from the first
And I was dying there of thirst
So I came in here
And your long-time curse hurts
But what's worse
Is this pain in here
I can't stay in here
Ain't it clear that--
I just can't fit
Yes, I believe it's time for us to quit
When we meet again
Introduced as friends
Please don't let on that you knew me when
I was hungry and it was your world.
Ah, you fake just like a woman, yes, you do
You make love just like a woman, yes, you do
Then you ache just like a woman
But you break just like a little girl.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1112840
But I had No Shoes on
for the man I saw today with tears in his eyes
It was the time when I had no shoes on and there were tears in my eyes.
They stood around like silent vultures waiting for me to leave.
The man in the black coat, he had no shoes on either.
He sang with his trumpet, an elegy for the parking lot full of dead cars
And they stood like vultures in uniforms, waiting for me to leave
But I had no shoes on and the shoes I did have, the laces were untied.
And I leaned on my elbow and I saw the tears in my eyes.
It was the time when I had no shoes on and the vultures stood,
their feet in tennis shoes.
And the trumpet man played to the dead cars and the dead sky
And the dead ears of the vultures waiting.
There was another man and he had snake skin boots on.
He leaned on his elbow and had tears in his eyes but his shirt was tucked in.
And he leaned on a street pole that held a sign that said One Way.
The tears in my eyes were in front of a table in front of a window.
Inside there were many tables and they were not all full.
Some were empty like my feet with no shoes on.
The purple shirted vultures with their bike helmets and walkie-talkies
waited in silence the day I had no shoes on.
It was the time when I had no shoes on and there were tears in my eyes.
They stood around like silent vultures waiting for me to leave.
The man in the black coat, he had no shoes on either.
He sang with his trumpet, an elegy for the parking lot full of dead cars
And they stood like vultures in uniforms, waiting for me to leave
But I had no shoes on and the shoes I did have, the laces were untied.
And I leaned on my elbow and I saw the tears in my eyes.
It was the time when I had no shoes on and the vultures stood,
their feet in tennis shoes.
And the trumpet man played to the dead cars and the dead sky
And the dead ears of the vultures waiting.
There was another man and he had snake skin boots on.
He leaned on his elbow and had tears in his eyes but his shirt was tucked in.
And he leaned on a street pole that held a sign that said One Way.
The tears in my eyes were in front of a table in front of a window.
Inside there were many tables and they were not all full.
Some were empty like my feet with no shoes on.
The purple shirted vultures with their bike helmets and walkie-talkies
waited in silence the day I had no shoes on.
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Happy New..................Year
Dear 2008
I wish you adventure and safety, generosity, wisdom, hope and love.
Goals Hopes Ideas for this coming year:
- speak Spanish everyday
- a tattoo on my right shoulder/back
- leave bcc permanently
- paint or jewelry make more often
- write more
- grad school
- live unfettered and praying
Thank you 2008 for arriving with a shout, thank you for inviting me to be here with you.
Love, me
I wish you adventure and safety, generosity, wisdom, hope and love.
Goals Hopes Ideas for this coming year:
- speak Spanish everyday
- a tattoo on my right shoulder/back
- leave bcc permanently
- paint or jewelry make more often
- write more
- grad school
- live unfettered and praying
Thank you 2008 for arriving with a shout, thank you for inviting me to be here with you.
Love, me
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