Celebrate!

As I now have 29 single spaced pages of fieldnotes, I believe it is time to celebrate with an avocado, some skyping with those I love, and my current favorite songs (judge as you will)

Sie7e's Tengo Tu Love   This opening sounds like John Meyer's Why Georgia, but it gets better, don't worry. I love the product-dropping, the alternate use of the word  "guagua" and the ska-respect. Sie7e is just chillin with his lady friend and taking goofy pictures of yourself, and we've all had weekends like that, or we're waiting for that summer, that beach, that special someone. Also, I like the person who's love he has isn't that super hot and all showing off her sexy bod. She's pretty, sure, but its not about how good her ass is and how he has that. He's just happy to be with someone who he gets along with. When I tenga the love of somebody, I'll be sure to play Sie7e for them. 

 

Plain White T's Rhythm of Love. Ok, this is really embarassing. I listen to Radio Disney a lot here, it's on most buses unless they are playing folklorica or traditional dance music that I must admit is indistinguishable to me from one song to next. the Doc also plays radio Disney in her car as we drive home, and I tried to ask if she knew this song by being like "Sabe la cancion que dice 'play the music sweeeeet and lowwwwww'" and everyone in the car took their eyes off the road to stare at me in bewilderment. 

 

 

Kanye West's Get 'Em High, Ratatat Remix.  In my avoidance of these 29 pages, I've been looking at music blogs that are way out of my level of music coolness, interest, and knowledge. But I know Kanye is cool, electronic music is getting popular, and I understand the drug slang in this one! Also, it's chill and talks about online dating. Also, "I won't give you that money that you asking for. Why you think me and Dane cool? We assholes" Dane Cook is an asshole, but I'ma let the song finish. 

 

The Avett Brother's Kick Drum Heart. Britta will be proud of me on this one. I've always resisted the Avett Bro's appeal but the line got stuck in my head and I found they were inside me the whole time. I've been working on transforming anxiety into anticipation, and there's been moments where all I can do in grin out the bus window and double-bass pedal my heart. Mom's will like this band, more than most of the other ones. 

The Tiny Dancer Montage from Almost Famous. I watched this really sweet clip like four times last night around 11, than Mona Lisa and Mad Hatters. than I listened to Wilco until I fell asleep. I just have a lot of feelings. 

 

Nicki Minaj's Super Bass . I've written elsewhere  about how her videos are, if not groundbreaking, really good at communicating. This is another one about listening to your body being happy and just groovin. In the club. Also, I like songs with onomonopia. 

 

not super interesting, just summer life

I almost hit a woman in the crosswalk today.

I cut fruit for sangria, I boiled beets for salad, I made peanut sauce and a yogurt dressing. I cut cucumbers into crudites. I watched Anis Mogjani endlessly (until it ended). LINK.

I ate at elevation burger and spent time with my neighbors, realizing I've lived my life paraleell, next to, so damn close, to thiers for years. And that people have always done that, lived close to people they have no real connection to before the cloesness started and they started understanding and forming opinons about each others lives. That's something really interesting.

Nap in the sun burnt airconditioning of ma's room. I fell asleep 45 seconds after I lay down and snored. According to reliable sources.

I saw Terry (link to shark blog) today, we ate caloric pot pie and watched TV. I bet its totally #trending but that show Wilfred is really weird. It's the first show to feature weed so prominantly, I think this means that it will soon be legalized.

As I was walking with him back from the house he was house sitting to the house were he lives, we heard this woman scream and yell "oh, please don't hurt me!" It's a nice residential neighborhood in Takoma Park, so it was quiet and abnormal. We listend, my keys between my fingers, his phone out to call 911. Two teenagers walked by, holding hands, smoking a j cooly. We talked about how we had heard someone yell soon, but they couldn;t do anything, doing drugs in public and all. And so we walked, and when a cop stopped us and asked if we had seen someone running with a purse we exhaled. Purses are worth less than the Girl-With-The-Dragon-Tattoo Sex-den-rapist-killer stuff we were both thinking.

As I got home, I slammed my knee into the coffee table and I'm pretty sure I'm out for the count. Thank you for ice packs and healing.

To look into further:

-jerrymandering in Florida

-what if you asked people to draw thier own district maps? What would that show you about people's understanding of geography? of neighborhoods?

-slam poetry

-me writing slam poetry

-Digital Voice Recorders (really look into this one, you need one for Ecuador)

-The TV show "Louie"

Back to Writing

Today's Achievements:

1. Renewed Driver's License
2. Procured Costco (oh glorious American land!) membership and bought a buncha stuff including:

-many genetically modified fruits for sangria

-an external hard drive

-allergy medication that was unfathomably cheap. Why can I buy 360 Allerteckzx for 12 dollars but people cannot afford their antiretrovirals in this same zip code? this is shameful

-Salsa

3. Called my grandpa for father's day, talked about Eriksonian developmental psychology. What do you talk to your grandparents about?

4. Wrote so many emails. Yeah communication

5. Got chiropracted. Yeah health insurance. Yeah bone allignment

6. Ate spicy Indian food in the Union Station food court. Saw my buddy

7. Snuck in/didn't pay for this Irish dance class that I really enjoyed and was so so bad at and will have shin splints as a result of tomorrow

8. Went to a Jewish-Irish pub on H st and Michael told me this joke:

-What's the difference between a bear and a semicolon?

-A bear has claws at the end of its paws, and a semicolon has a pause at the end of its clause. LULZ

-also, did you know that hackers took over SEGA? That's so awesome. The internet isn't safe and that's great. Keeps people on their toes.

9. Lots of planning, communication, following through. Many many text messages. Eye contact, handshakes, nods. I CAN, as my facebook status proclaims, ACHIEVE IT ALL.

#inane lists #daily life

Culture Shock? More like Culture MOCK!

My internet in Quito was too slow to read most of the webcomics I usually keep up with, so I kept myself to Thursday Savage Love and incessant facebook. But I just spent the last hour and a half reading the last five months of my favorites ( Toothpaste For Dinner, Natalie Dee, Married To the Sea, XKCD, A Softer World, and, to a lesser degree, Questionable Content and SuperPoop)

NOTE: these links have bad words and sekzual references in them. some reference marijuana. Please avoid if this is not funny for you.

Another NOTE: It's much easier to get all this if you open each comic up in its own tap (Right Click, choose Open Image in Another Tab). Just for your help, grandma.

Reading them has really brought back all the things I am looking forward to about my life in our great nation: joys of the English Language, brilliant industrial developments the continuing drug war, liberal nut jobs, immigration reforms.

Things are going to be just great at Kalamazoo, too. I can look forward to classroom dynamics, people who think just like I do , playing games, cooking with my friends, bizarre fashion choices of my fellow students, making things smell good, having a really clean house, hip hop remixes at parties, working on my major, living with other people, yelling at people for eating cookie dough.

and in my own personal life: hypochondria , anxiety, getting at the clothes in my storage locker in Kalamazoo, personal transportation, speakin spañol, chillin out, interacting with local law enforcement, being a vegetarian, making fun of pop music/promoting public health, my own personal brain chemistry, puns, feelin great.

And of course the future: finally getting a Big Brother, havin babies (and pets!), staying in hotels all around the world, craft projects.

Enough links for you? Just one more? Okay. Gotcha with that one, didn't I? It's not all fun and games here in Washington. Now I must smack myself for writing that sentence.

I hope everyone has a nice friday and a good weekend. I'm off to eat breakfast foods, see "the worst movie ever made" and march for women's rights. See you pre-Oscars!

Sunday Survey

Hi Everyone,

I'm feeling lazy right now and don't really want to write anything that involves constructing a paragraph, so here's a survey about 2010.

30 Q’s on 2010!!

1. What was the hardest part about the year 2010?

Leaving, moving around, finishing things. Lots of thing ended or just came to a close. Sorry to be so general.

2. Pick a song that encompasses spring 2010

The Rabbit, The Bat and The Reindeer by Dr. Dog

3. Describe your spring using words that start with the letter “N”

Nighttime, Nearby, Nearly, No More Qualitative Reasonign Class Please

3. Tell three quick funny stories that happened

a. One time, the sus house was still really dirty when it was time to check out of it and we had to clean it like twice more and that was embarassing!

b. One time, to avoid doing the dishes, an unnamed friend hid all the diry dishes in a laundry basket under his bed

c. One time, my mom came to Quito and she got really oxygen deprived from the lack of oxygen (obviously) and began giggling non stop and we yelled at her

4. When you were stressed, what did you do as an outlet?

Well, I tried and got better at doing exercise and certainly writing. But there is always the tried and true favorite of complaining, eating carbohydrates and taking a nap.

5. Did any of your beliefs change?

Lots, about my self, the world, politics, other people. Not so much spiritual stuff.

6. Who was the last person you kissed?

Thats my business

7. What food did you eat a lot of?

Applesauce, veggie bugers, chinese food, soup, french fries, salads.

8. Pick a song that encompasses summer 2010

Not contrived at all, but Chllin by Wale.

9. Describe your summer using words that start with the letter “E”

Excellent, Electricity (lackthereo), Empezando el blog, Evil Boss, Eventful, Eventual,

10. Did you develop any bad habits in 2010? Break any old ones?

Well the carb-and-nap routine got pretty strong. Stopped smoking those pesky monthly cigarettes, But started eating meat which I don;t like.

11. Look back. Describe a beautiful moment that happened this past year.

Oh man seeing ma and lester at the airport was pretty wonderful

12. Who is your best friend? Has it changed since last year?

Yes, it has. But I am very blessed with best friend all over the place and in differnet capacities. I've got my train-riding best friend, my skinny-dipping best friend, my spontaneity best friends, the people I come home to, the people I grew up with. The person I said goodbye to but still keep there at the top of my list.

13. Pick a song that encompasses fall 2010

You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go by Mr. Bob Dylan (the link is to a cover that's pretty different but quite nice)

14. Describe your fall using words that start with the letter “W”

Whaaaaat? Wired, Worried, Work, Worldy, Water, Waiting, Welcome, Wonderful

15. Tell three drunken stories (or just sum more funny stories)

Let's just do normal stories

a. One time, this lady was outside the house and pilar was like "Oh wow its my cousin Anita from Guayaquil, how unexpected! I have missed her so!" and let this lady in and made her coffee. But it was not Cousin Anita, it was a woman from the Eugenio Espejo mission asking if there were any disabled people in the house

b. One time, we made applesacue but convinced Brandon Bigler that it was shredded pork. The pork had come from a wild hog that was terrorizing Britta's yard and scaring her sister so her dad shot it. That was a total lie, but we just kept telling and he just kept asking.

c. One time, I wore my shirt inside out for a whole day of school and didn't realize it! How hilarious!

16. Name 5 things you’ve accomplished

a. Mucho Spañol

b. More independant

c. Awesome research paper

d. Yecuador

e. Better mental health

17. Name some things you regret

Not being able to stay up late, not taking more wild chances, not being more honest, taking Drawing

18. What was the saddest moment of 2010?

I've cried alot this year.

19. Favorite cereal!

This was the year that i discovered that I don't really like cerael that much. It's just not that good. But I guess good granola or shredded wheat or maybe rice krispies

20. Talk about your family.

Well, now I have two and I couldn't love either of them more. My mothers are both such nurturing, wonderful people who understand me so well. My USAmom is so strong and wonderful and has made me who I am. My Ecuamami understands me so much better than I could have hoped. And my ñaños? Angry, independant, brilliant people who I want to take with me everywhere. That might only be four people but its more than enough, an embarssment of riches, for me.

21. Did you take a vacation? Where did you go? Talk about it.

Well, I went to Ecuador, you know. I also went to Scientist's Cliffs with Eustice and Chicago and Up North with the fam. Pretty wonderful, beautiful places.

22. What was the nicest thing anybody has said to you this past year? Meanest?

Nicest: "Andrew Dombos 1:22am

if i had to describe you, i would say you're an charasmatic, thoughtful, empowered woman" Thanks bro!

Meanest? I think this.

23. Did you leave the country?

Yessir and I am so glad I did!

24. Pick a song that encompasses winter 2010

Regina Spektor's Carbon Monozide

25. Describe your winter using words that start with the letter “Y”

Yum, yearning, year, Yedlin, Nick, Yuk

26. What was your favorite song?

Overall? I think Strawberry Weed by the Caesars. Thanks, Daedal!

27. You have to write a biography about this past year for you, what is the title of the book?

Pasaje en la Mano

28. Talk about Hate in 2010

It was there, I tried to shut it down, that didn't work so well.

29. Talk about Love in 2010

More the "inward eye is the bliss of solitude" than the "honey lovey" kind but I'm glad that that happend.

30. Resolutions for next year?

Write bastante, get stronger, get a job, contribute to the universe in a postive manner, keep in touch, stay safe.

Fwiday

It's Friday and I didn't go to Puembo today and I don't really want to write an entry, but I'm more afraid and embarassed by failure. I told myself I would write an entry every day for this month (its ok if I write it one day and don't post it till the next, or if I write it for a school journal (see everything I write about Puembo) or if it is stupid or a silly list. MUST WRITE EVERY DAY)

Writing writing writing writing gotta pee.

Peed.

Some things that have happened recently

-Went to ICRP class and Galapagos seminar. We all have a lot of angst about our IRCPs and how to get good grades in the class. I'll stay quiet on the issue for political correctness, but I will share this quote

Teacher: So why were whalers so intent on hunting sperm whales in the Galapagos?

Impudent student (me): for the sperm?

Teacher: That's correct!

So it turns out that the word for sperm (esperma) is also a word for whale fat and thusly a word for candle. Meaning I could now say "Blow out the esperma, its getting late" and it would be COMPLETLEY CORRECT. Except in spanglish and I don't really use candles that much. But still!

-Just spent $430 on plane tickets to Cuenca for next weekend. For myself and two friends who are paying me back, but still. I feel like my mom is going to have a fainting spell.

-Speaking of medical emergencies, I tried to go swimming today. I was like 500 m in when I got this horrible cramp in my shoulder. Certain it was a heart attach, in reality gas pain, I kicked with a kickboard for 150 m and then got out and took a really long shower

-Speaking of swimming, I met my CONFIDENTIALLY MAINTAINED friend at the pool and we had a swimming lesson: the frog kick. she's a little scared of the ocean so we are getting ready for the Galapagos.

-So you know how my abuela has the dental clinic in her house? where malcolm lives? And the clinic has a guard to let people in and he has a girlfriend and the girlfriend won her town beauty pagent and we met her today and she is beautiful and totally silent.

-I have a cold and the main symptoms are abundant yellow-orange snot and a feeling of dizziness. It's not just normal cotton head. It feels like a combination of standing up when you have low blood pressure and having the spins when you are very drunk. Advil seems to help for no apparent reason. It doesn't hurt! How could Advil help?!?!

-I watched 3/4 of the Facebook movie and it was actually good and made me glad I left the east coast.

-Tomorrow is the 14th which means have been here for five months which means we barely have a month left. Alpha and Omega.

Monday morn

I have a ton of homework to do, so of course I´m writing a blog. Right now, I´m interested in anything besides 1000 words reacting to the Planet Earth videos we watched in my Flora y Fauna de Ecuador Class.

Things that are more interesting:
-Fleetwood Mac
-Cheddar Cheese
-How my ma and sister are coming in less than a month!!!!!
-alternative bus routs home
-swimming
-finding a way to make my hair grow really, really fast
-SIP options
-This amazing video about teaching queer issues in schools
-queer issues
-my feminist blogs
-my vegan blogs
-funny stuff
-Fiestas de Quito which is gonna be so cool!
-where I am going to eat lunch
-The Bill O´Rilley falafel incident. Not adding a link on purpose.
-amazing plans for spring quarter.

Oh, look, its time to go. Nice 1000 words, Dana

Happy Wednesday

Aw yeah, its the end of the day. Well, the end of the school day. The end of a test and an early class and a study session and a mediocre salad. After this, I´m going to take my buses home, lie on my bed for a while, go eat Indian food with my ma and bro, and study some school something with HanHan. I used all that alliteration because I have six classes and there is no way to keep up with all of them. None of them are particularly hard, but its two times the amount of homework I´m used to and I´m constantly forgetting things. I´m also keeping two journals for different classes, drawing daily, and keeping up THIS WONDERFUL BLOG. and taking pictures, though I have no cord to connect my camera to the computer. ´But I´m not a quejumbrosa, which means ¨whiney.¨ I´m cool with the level of record keeping that is going on. It helps me remember, it gives structure to my day.

Stuff that has happened lately...
1. Did an excellent skit in Spanish class that was about wizards and magic queens and used forty vocabulary words and ended with a rap. We got videotaped. Jamie and I are that good.

2. Drew alot in drawing class. My drawing teacher continues to think I am an idiot because I don´t know words for ¨crosshatch¨and ¨non-acidadted drawing paper¨and also becasuse I don´t spend lots of money on art supplies. But I can now draw strait lines, put shadows under drawings of vases, draw Bacardi bottles, etc.

3. Got my pants´zipper fixed and made friends with my local tailor

4. Got sick, accidentally fell asleep at the breakfast table. Watched Grey´s Anatomy and drank some witchy tea my Ecuamama made me and got better

5. I´m planning an Improv in English workshop! This is gonna be great!

6. Went to a horrible Oktoberfest theamed bar. It was Thursday and I was just going to have a glass of beer, but then if we got unlimited Pilsner for an hour, we got 75 cents off! what a deal!!!!!! so I watched my friend win a drinking contest while beer was litterly puddling in his clothes, and then I left. Ok, there is a reason I did not go on study abroad in Germany. No offence.

7. Ate at a restaurant called Menestra de Negro. This is their logo. Not sure how to process this.

8. Watched Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Watched it again. Wow.

9. Found a cheap vegetarian Indian restaurant. This was critical to my health.

10. Celebrated Dia de los Defuntos at abuela´s house with colada morada which kind of is like syrupy koolaid with chunks of peach and ¨babaco¨in it. We also had ¨guaguas de pan¨which looked like more like larvea or fetuses than babies, and had eyes made of green raisins. Ok, cool. Hung out with my 7 year old cousins. Retreated to Malcolm´s room to read sociology when I got overwhelmed.

11. Found out how awesome Google Voice is. ¿How awesome? Really awesome. You can call any number in the US for free awesome. You can talk to your ma and sister awesome. You can activate your bank card awesome. Awesome.

12. Ate empenadas for lunch three days in a row. You can get an empenada and a juice for 2.20. you can share an empenada with your friend! you can bring french fries over from next door! you can get ceviche and popcorn! you can buy beer the size of a baby bottle or the size of a carton of milk! You can buy milkshakes! There are no salads or soup or really any vegetables, but you can get two pork empenadas for the price of one! (still haven´t gotten there)

13. It was my ¨tio¨ Malcolm´s birthday! Happy birthday!

14. Wrote alot of emails.

15. Suddently got really good at Spanish grammar and spelling. I can actually correct my own work now, I don´t have to sit with my Ecuamami like a 3rd grader

16. Learned I am not supposed to be putting my toilet paper in the toilet. Whoops.

17. Loved Ecuador! (also learned the word cursis, which means cheeeeesy)

Yo Soy Una Mujer Sincera

"More and more I realize feminism will save the world. Feminism is for everybody. You can’t start with a fundamental, crazy imbalance like patriarchy. Until we have gender equality we will have crazy social ills. Feminism is a tool for men as well to escape violence and inequality."

Go Ani DeFranco.


Some pictures I like





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Enough political thinking, its the weekend!

Things that are going to happen this weekend:
-Clean room/do laundry
-take a nap
-do all my drawing homework
-do all my biology homework
-do all my sociology homework
-cry
-talk to Eustace
-Have Dia De los Defuntos, which is like the Day of the Dead, where you eat ¨Colada Morada¨which is this purple syrup that symbolizes blood, and ¨guaguas de pan¨(bread babies) to symbolize the babies that died.
-watch (not participate in!) a pro-Correa demonstration
-floss
-take malaria meds

The fun never stops here in the interandean valley.

Thats all for now folks

Alive

Nothing blew away, but my madre has one my shirts and I don't know how to ask her for it back.

Going to the clinic to get some malaria medicine I was apparently supposed to have. Nice one, health center.

No malaria, but mosquito bites looking increasingly nasty.

Too much time on facebook.

English is failing, i keep forgetting to say the "th" sound, but spanish has been really good.

Got an A on a paper! that one that i though would be bad!

So sleepy all the time.

I still need to write about my last two weekends. Blog fail.

Making friends, making plans, making dinner.

Getting amazing at riding buses, including the elusive mount/dismount while moving.

Even thought my host mom is kind of crazy, we do awesome things, like, this evening, we are having a friend over, eating cookies, and watching the full moon. How cool is that!

Also, she, my bro, and i fell asleep for two hours last night watching America's Next Top Model.

Love,
Miercoles

All These Things That I Have Done

-Went rock climbing in the country, a town called Conocoto. It was very beautiful and I took a lot of pictures and re discovered my love of rock climbing/ physical challenge / heights/ nature

-avoided eating cuy. But its just a matter of time.

-lost my cell phone. Whoops. Jimmy just got me a new one. Thanks!

-Got kicked out of my Translation Spanish class. Via note at the end of a homework. Classay.

-Found a new Spanish class that’s actually way better.

-Found a new bus route to school that's much faster but more crowdede

- Kept flossing

-Went to a state-run facility for young people with disabilities. It was very amazing. Most of these people were abandonded by ther parents or just found in the street. They were between like 10 and 25. Many had cerebal pasly, mental retardation, Downs syndrome, or had been in traffic accidents. They were very heavily medicated, but still quite independent and functioning, despite really big disabilites. We played witht them and sang. I helped one boy in a wheel chair get out, and carried him around to slides and swings. I sat with one woman while she washed dishes. She told me about how her left side didn’t work very well but she worked hard. I found out later that she had been raped several times and had two children. Woah. I think I might be an occupational therapist. I just want to help people be able to move the way they want

-still have a zillion infected mosquito bites.

-saw John Dugas! And his cool wife! Yeah! I hung out with his wife, Larissa, at that ceremony thing before I got drunk at school. Yeah!

-Learned that “you speak such good Spanish” is most often a pick up line.

-Other pick up lines attempted “Let’s have relations!” “you should move here. You could get married,” and my favorite, just a grunt.

-Went to the old historic center at night, listened to live music, drank canelazo, ate empenadas.

-watched a lot of Ecuadorian Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? where you only win 50,000. And the questions are real stumpers like ¨Green consists of what two colors?¨