Cuando tengas ganas, solo hazlo!

This is a conjunctive effort from Hildsup and Luces’up

While Hilde goes outside… I can just say that we have eaten too much bread with too much flour in it.

Thursday: We went to Papallacta! Papallacta is tucked in between two huge mountains where we knew pools of hot springs awaited us. We left Tumbaco (Luci´s home) after helping Christian (Luci’s brother) with an essay on “shame”… go ahead, try and think about an essay where the theme is just shame, the minimum word requirement is 5000 words and your professor says you can write just 5 paragraphs … and on top of that, you only have 3 hours to finish it. Anyways… we dressed up as we all always do; pumped up the tunes and navigated for an hour or so through mountains and the biggest forest of “árboles de papel” (they are gorgeous). We arrived to Papallacta around 5.00 and we submerged ourselves in the steaming hot boiling ouiiiii waters that come from Antizana volcano. We spent two hours in the hot springs singing (we taught each others’ songs like “Santeria” and the famous reggeaton song “ Atrévete te te te”). We stretched out in the pools and watched the sunset ha ha ha how romantic! We switched from a hot pool to another hot pool and then to the river and then to the other hot pool and finally to the freezing cold cold pool to wake us up for the trip home. On the way back, we stopped several times and turned off the car lights to admire a place where artificial lights don’t mask nature’s beauty and the stars light up the pitch black night. What a night! Luci was running on 1.5 hours of sleep so we came back and passed out.

Saturday: We decided to make “Colada Morada” and “guaguas de pan”. This is a yearly Ecuadorian tradition for the “día de los muertos” where indigenous people bring these delicacies to the graves of their dead death loved ones family members (we had an argue on how to say this). Well, we said we were going to meet up at four in Luci’s house. Hilde should have remembered the first conversation we had when she arrived: “You can take any bus BUT the one that says “LUMBISI” on it”. Well, she took it. Two hours later than we had planned, we met up. She loved the cows and the crazy drunk people on the two hour bus ride that brought her back to where she started. Bien, we bought: moras, mortiños, ishpingo, fresas, harina… y … just in case Nori for sushi. When we finally arrived at Luci’s house we inflated the swimming pool and met up with her two friends.

As the pool filled with water, we prepared our meal. Lu was in charge of the Colada and Hilde prepped the dough for the bread. It was a very interesting process that ended with us adding pounds of sugar to the colada to savor the taste and pounds of flour to the bread so that it would keep its form. Somos unas carishinas (really really bad at cooking).

At around midnight we finished cooking, put on bikinis, grabbed mugs of colada morada and the extra herbs (to infuse in the pool) and relaxed in the inflatable jacuzzi – pool.

Today we have indulged in too much colada morada and guaguas de pan, we want to puke or rather … share this food with all of you, our wonderful friends. We always think of you and wish you could all be here swimming in the inflatable pool with us YAY!

LES QUEREMOS MUCHO!!!!!!!!h/&%//)(/%”#!wr

If anyone wants to come to the beach (two weeks traveling the "ruta del sol") with us in May for Luci's graduation the offer is there...please!!!! Lets do it!

More stories to come,

Hilde y Lucia.

Photos of Phlorence

been takin' some pics...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chlm/
if you have flickr, add me
keep an eye on your mailboxes folks
more to come
love
chiara

Today it rained HARD in Oaxaca. The smell of wet cement, the gray light entering the window, the sounds of the full drops hitting the roof and windows, and me inside, working on a paper while listening to Ratatat all reminded me of Willamette. I wish I was going down to gouds in an hour to see all my friends in sweatpants and with their best hungover-and-sick-of-homework expressions.
There is no word for homesick in Spanish.
dana

Fall in the east

Hey all,

I've been "home" for a little over a week and a half now, although I haven't actually been at my house much. Since it's been so long since I've gotten to enjoy a fall in Maine (which any Mainer will tell you is the best season here), I've been out and about enjoying it as much as possible before I sit down to figure out what I'm doing next. I went up to Acadia, my 5th national park in the past month, to meet up with my roomie from Alaska for the last few days. She drove up from New Hampshire. It felt great to be camping, hiking and enjoying the simple life outdoors again... but the "mountains" around here look so small to me now!

The road trip was a great adventure involving many things I'd never seen before as well as some old familiars. I drove back down with 2 friends I met at work this summer, both from Michigan. We followed a pretty similar route to my last trip across the country but chose to take more back highways instead of the interstate. Although it may take longer, it's so much more rewarding and interesting and led us to some pretty neat and unexpected places. We met some memorable characters on our way through Canada on the Cassiar Highway, an old logging road-turned-highway that lacked any road lines and, for an occasional 20-mile stretch, pavement altogether. One of my favorite memories is driving up a narrow bulldozer track to a lookout behind an RV park in BC, as recommended by the owner, and having a lazy picnic above the valley with guitars and a bottle of red.

Back in the states, we first stopped in at Willamette and visited for a few days before heading to Yellowstone, probably the part of the trip we were all most excited about. Even after being in a national park around wildlife all summer, the three of us were blown away by what we got to see there. Buffalo, elk, moose, fox, deer, eagles left and right... it put Denali to shame! It's a very diverse park, and we didn't even get down to Grand Teton. As we crossed the midwest, we got to visit a lot of friends from work this summer, which was also really fun. Everyone's feeling rather lost now that our jobs are over and we're back in the real world, so our friends were pretty excited to hear about our adventures. I posted some photos on facebook, so feel free to check 'em out.

I'm about to go sailing with my family for the long weekend, but after that I'll probably start looking at new schools and coming up with some sort of (escape) plan for the winter until I can go back up to Alaska again. I'm thinking of applying to the New England Culinary Institute in Montpelier, and possibly WWOOFing somewhere farther south and warmer. Any suggestions? Bye for now!

Field Season Report Completed

Today I received the preliminary report that Sarah wrote based on my songbird research conducted this summer.  To say the least, it is a great feeling to see my hard work translated into a cohesive report that will hopefully help her obtain her master's degree and, fingers crossed everyone, get the National Parks in the Mid-West more money for conservation efforts.  Attached is the report if anyone is interested (I am not promising anything too exciting for non-birders but I'm just really proud of myself and my research team!)....Actually I can't figure out how to attach it and I have class soon!  I will return.......

New Years Eve, Suenos, Mel Gibson, and John Kerry...on a fine Yom Kippur Day

Let's have a New Years Eve Party for everyone that will be in Oregon! I think I will be in town from like Dec. 20-Jan. 4.

I did peyote with Marleta and Dana in my dream last night, only they called it "coyote." It was awesome. I saw a diner drive down Main St. in Northampton. That dream was so wild. The New York Times had an editorial about Willamette and how WU students' ironic sense of humor has become dangerous, and there was a picture of Kaneko with broken windows and flames. Also, I tried to get a deer to lick my hand at Sam's grandparents' estate, but Sam's grandpa yelled at me and told me that I could only pet the deer. The FBI was looking for Sam throughout the whole dream, which I believe had something to do with the coyote. It may have just been that he thought the FBI was looking for him though.

Oh, I had another dream the other night that might be more meaningful than last night's dream. I was in the mountains of France, and I realized that the Tour de France was about to start at the exact place where I was standing, and I just happened to have my bike. I thought that I might as well join in the race as I was already there, but I was apprehensive since I knew the ride might be beyond me. But, when the race started, I just joined right in. The beginning of the ride was all downhill and all I needed to do was coast. The whole time I was going down this steep hill though, I was getting more and more aware of the fact that I might not be able to continue the ride once it got harder. At the same time, I felt like I had no time to think about my decision, because pretty soon I would be so far down this steep hill that I could not ride back up. The whole dream was a perfect analogy for what I'm feeling in my classes right now. I feel like I just kind of came here because the opportunity presented itself, and it sounded cool. Now, I am sort of coasting through these beginning weeks, but we are just now getting into starting these work-intensive semester long research projects in my two women and gender study classes, and I'm going to need to start peddling faster and harder than I ever have. I just hope I have it in me.

On another note, Mel Gibson came to Northampton to film part of his new movie yesterday. I believe the entirety of the scene was him driving down Main Street and throwing up out of his car. (This part is no longer my dream. It's just ridiculous.)

Also, I am eating dinner with John Kerry and the Smith Dems tonight!

What it is.

Hey yall. Sorry my voice on this blog has been muted for quite some time. Life's been crazy busy for this ole bo'. Let me start by quickly rewinding to August. It was a busy, difficult time for me.

Earlier in the summer, I scheduled a trip home to MN to visit family and friends (also help facilitate my 5 year class reunion... oooold man winter here...) Due to this vacation, my bosses needed me to work more than the usualy 45-50 hours I put in... So that was stressful. On top of that, I had to say good bye to our good friend Sarah, which has been quite a challenge for me to deal with / overcome to say the least. During the middle of this already crazy month, Tom Salina invited me to move into a house he was looking to lease... this added another thing to my platter. Our future / potential landlord was overwhelmingly controlling, intense and possibly an outright liar, so this made for a very stressful decision for me to move into the house (HOWEVER, the house is effing badass... covered front porch w/ rocking chairs, hot tub, three car garage converted into a music grotto)

Anyway, that was the end of August for me... MINNESOTA was amazing. It was my first time back to my roots for the whole year, and it was good to be back (fair chance I may end up there). The highlight of my trip was seeing Cloud Cult perform twice (once at the MN State fair opening for gnarls barkley, the other time at 3am at Minnesota Orchestra Hall for a free performance, it was as epic as it sounds).

Class reunion was pretty good. Had a turnout of about 30-40 people of about 300 in my class... it is what it is.

Lately, the presidential election has dominated the majority of my thoughts... I am very concerned at how far McCain's sharade of having such shallow judgment in choosing his running mate.

I have smelled the roses and no longer have a blank-check infatuation with Obama... But I am still volunteering on his behalf because I honestly think he is what our country needs.

Recently I attended a meeting in Salem dedicated to opening a dialogue about the future of the city, and bringing together people who are interested and invested in making the city a better place. At this meeting, I connected with Ross Swartzendrubber, the man who organized last year's Mix-N-Mash festival where some of us were able to catch Plants (and Fun-House Strippers etc.) It was a damn good time.

It is looking like a really good time, happening this weekend. I know this is abrupt but I totally just ran out of steam. The text is changing colors before my eyes like a rainbow. These eyes want to take a break and close for a while. I will finish this latero. -bo

Home Sweet Home

friends!
It has been far too long since I've been in contact with you all, even the few of you whom I have actually spoken to since leaving the country. If you're out of the loop, I am studying abroad in Edinburgh, my home country, the capitol of the great nation-to-be of Scotland.
My first week (or two... it all sort of blurred together) was a very stereotypical study abroad experience. The one we've all seen in facebook albums, characterized by photo ops with pints, countless consecutive 3am nights, and (perhaps most sadly) safe relationships with fellow Americans. About two weeks into my program, I found myself playing flipcup with my fellow Americans, and a brief spell of depression set in and brought me back to earth. Since then I've been spending a lot more time reading, meeting locals, getting around the city and getting OUT of the city. I am still enjoying the alcoculture that envelopes this country, but in a more controlled manner.
I've been on a few fantastic day trips, but to describe them all would take too much precious time, so I'm including a link to (yet another) photobucket album. Read the captions to get a vague idea of what I've been up to. There is, however, one trip I want to write about, so bear with me. Yesterday I went to St Andrews with three of my classmates on little more than a whim. We bought our train tickets a day ahead of time, but other than that had no plans. We got of the train bright and early at about 8am, wandered around the beach (check them pics), then headed over to the Old Course. We had heard there was a tournament going on, and we figured it was some amateur shit, a prediction only reinforced by the fact that the course was totally open and didn't even have any sort of security check. We walked up to the first hole anyway and watched a group tee off... and the announcer said, "teeing off, Samuel L Jackson." I was in such shock that I really thought it must have been some pro with the same name, but it was motherucking legit Samuel L Jackson. Talk about good timing... Hugh Grant was also there, as well as Jonh O'Hurley, Huey Lewis, Luke Wilson, Wladimir Klischko and a ton of pros including Ernie Els and Justin Rose. craaazy. The rest of the day was fantastic, high points including scaling a castle wall to avoid paying admission and getting tons of free indian food courtesy of my aunt and uncle, but I won't bore y'all.
Aside from that the most exciting moment of this journey was academic. Two nights ago I found out the name of the Member of Scottish Parliament (MSP) with whom I will be interning. His name is Rob Gibson, of the Scottish National Party (SNP - a fairly liberal party with strong desire for independence). I was hoping for a Green, and they aren't taking any interns this semester, but Rob is a fantastic alternative. He's the co-chair of the committee on Economy, ENERGY and Tourism, and a member of the committee on Transport, Inrastructure and CLIMATE CHANGE. A major part of my internship is a massive research project and I think Robs interests and mine will mesh well. Furthermore, he is a former moustache competition runner up, and a representative from the highlands/islands region, so he will probably appreciate my beard and perhaps hook me up with a free trip up north. I meet him Thursday, the day after my last day of class.
This coming week is the last of formal education I will go through for about a year, as I am most likely traveling through the spring. I've been taking classes at the Institute of Governance at the University of Edinburgh, learning all about the UK Government and the newly devolved Scottish http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifParliament. I'll spare the gory details, but suffice it to say I'm quite fascinated with this political environment, despite the fact that it has inevitably distanced me from America at such a pivotal time in our history. I suppose all of you that are abroad may understand how I feel, wishing to be immersed in (or at least present for) what may likely be the most important election, in the midst of what may prove to be the most disastrous economic situation, of our generation. And to you kids still in the states - please, please vote!


anyway, here are some pictures

One moment at a Time

Before traveling to Mexico I never had a huge urge to travel abroad. After spending 5 weeks in Oaxaca, my mind has been completely changed. I am captivated and in love with this city and this culture. The way of life here has a tranquility that reminds me of my time spent on the farm this summer. Nothing is rushed. People hang out in the streets or plazas for hours, talking or just watching people walk by.

Knowing that my time here is limited, I have tried to live everyday to the greatest extent as possible. There is no barrier, no fear of talking to strangers, singing loudly in a bar, staying out until 6 in the morning. Life is too valuable, too beautiful. Probably taking in/learning about a culture through the eyes of those I meet has been the most exciting part of being here. The people here have a love of their country that is truly inspiring. Mexico's history is one of mixing cultures that has created the vibrant Mexican culture that manifests itself in the museums, art, architecture of this city. That's not to say Mexico does not have a tremendous amount of social inqualities and problems, but there is a sense of patria here that I have never encountered in the United States.

I am encouraged by the experiences everyone is having across the globe. How marvelous the world is. Everyday I am blown away when I think about how many people live in this world, and how many people I have yet to meet.

much love and abrazos from Mexico,
Katy

Oh, and the food here is freakin amazing!