so many blank pages in my passport

I kind of can't believe I ever went to Buenos Aires. I'm pretty happy with my life (for real!), but I do need to get myself back to a place where foreign travel is a real possibility. Of course, I will most likely be going to Laos next winter break, so that's something to look forward to.

crafts!

Apparently Portland has a Museum of Contemporary Craft! Awesome. I also keep reading all these things that refer to Portland as a crafty city. I think I have figured out where I'm going for my next vacation. I wonder if I could fly to Portland, then take the train to Seattle and then Vancouver and fly home from there. I could probably do that in two weeks, right? I bet there are hostels there.

In other news, I am making steady progress on two different quilt tops. I think they might both turn out awesome. I read about this super quick way to bind quilts on the purl bee. You basically just make the backing slightly larger than the top and then fold over the back and stitch it down. The directions are toward the end of the project journal. The directions for tying off a quilt seem pretty clear too. Now I just need to finish off those quilt tops.

pita pit

I finally dealt with my hard drive space issues [first world problem!] and uploaded beau coup photos to Flickr.

Jamaica photos are here. Despite that I wasn't really in a photo mood all week (and despite the fact that I barely left the Donaldson's Inn vicinity), I took a shit ton of photos. Many different views of the sunset. And by "different," I mean same vantage point, different day. Oh, but we did get to go visit this dude Everett, a friend of Nathan's parents, and while Nathan and his dad and Everett did there whole musician thing, I entertained all the neighborhood kids. We were big news on a Saturday afternoon. All the kids were adorable, and they were so into having their photos taken that I don't feel bad putting them all over the Internet.



This is one of my favorite photos, as it is the least posed. They were posing pros, it was crazy.



And this is the post-sunset view from Nathan's parents' porch. Seriously, Donaldson's Inn is the best place to stay in Negril. It's locally owned by awesome people, there are only 12 rooms, and the rooms are under $100 and literally on the beach. If you stay at the few wood huts that are left, it's like $30 a night or something crazy. Totally amazing, and you stay on the beach while avoiding all the shitty all-inclusive resorts. Okay, but more on Jamaica some other time.

More photos tomorrow; I've been doing a lot of baking and a lot of sewing, and lord knows I'd rather write blogs about that than do my schoolwork.

cardinal zin

I am (almost) sure that I'll write more detailed posts about this New York trip, probably with photos (I took a few). For now, on this, my last night in NY (for now), I will just say that New York is exhausting. I didn't even do that much; I walked around a lot and went to a few museums and did some shopping (mostly fabric and books), but really there was a lot of hanging out with Kira and not much else. And yet, I am exhausted and very ready to go home. But there are still so many things I want to do in New York! But I don't want to do them now, because I'm broke! And exhausted! And it's rainy! It rained almost the entire time I was here, and it's very hard to convince yourself to go all the way to Brooklyn (I'm staying in Harlem, so Brooklyn really is a trek from here) when it's raining AGAIN. The rain doesn't help the exhaustion thing; you walk around all day, get rained on for at least part of that day, then you wake up the next morning and you're so tired, and it's so rainy, and maybe you'll just go to the Met. And then you go to the Met, and you feel sick, so you have (overpriced, but at least you're supporting the Museum, right?) lunch, and then you feel worse, so you cancel on your friends, but then you're standing by the bus stop on the Upper East Side, and you really don't want to admit defeat and go back to the apartment, but it's rainy and you're sick and SHUT UP MARINA STOP WHINING.

Okay. Anyway. My point is that I am glad I came to New York, and I am glad that I'm going home. And I will have many photos and maybe some slightly more coherent words about New York once I've actually left New York.

colonia del sacramento

This wall was one of my favorite places in Colonia; I don't actually remember why.

remember when I went to Argentina?

Hey, you know how I posted those photos from Louisville? I took way more in Buenos Aires, and I hardly posted any of them. I'll be doing that over the next few days. Something to look forward to, right?

red penguins in louisville

I'm back from Louisville.

dispatch from Louisville

There was an earthquake this morning! I slept through it, but my hotel roommates both woke up. There were aftershocks during a workshop on archiving emails & websites (way more complicated than you would think). They weren't strong at all, but it is so weird to feel the entire room shake.

Books That I Bought In Buenos Aires

Inspired by Jeb

Fiction
Rayuela Julio Cortázar

Non-Fiction
El Socialismo Latinoamericano: Un Recorrido Hasta Nuestros Tiempos, ed. Claudia Korol
Nación y nacionalismo en Latinoamérica, ed. Jorge Enrique González
Neoliberalismo y sectores dominantes, eds. Eduardo M. Basualdo & Enrique Arceo
Reforma Financiera en América Latina, eds. Eugenia Correa & Alicia Girón

Pamphlets
la américa latina y los congresos del partido comunista ruso, Víctor Alba [1960s?]
los EE.UU. y América Latina, H.L. Matthews and K.H. Silvert [1963]


In case you were wondering, my Spanish skills are not nearly up to the task of reading all of these books (case in point: I'm not entirely sure of what "sectores dominantes" means--the literal translation is dominant sectors, but I think it might be more 'domestic sectors'), but hey, that'll just make things more interesting, right?

¿donde estas, sergio?

todos se gustan listas

Things That I Love About Buenos Aires

1. Nonna Bianca's Super Dulce de Leche ice cream

2. Gibraltar, a super awesome pub with Staropramen. Staropramen! Czech beer in BA!

3. taking a day trip to Colonia [pictures on Flickr eventually]

4. getting home from a night out and drinking more wine and watching American movies with Spanish subtitles [oh, if only I could think of some good examples. cock=miembro? I swear I'm not watching Spanish soft-core porn, though I could as it's on channel 35 after midnight]

5. shopping. Look, I'm sorry, consumer culture in the US is terrible, but I have bought two different bags that make me so happy, so so happy.

6. Wine. Vino. Tinto o Blanco, me gusta vino.

7. I'm sorry about the shopping thing. Buenos Aires has bookstores on every corner, and I bought five books today. Five books in Spanish. Spanish. Which I... can read? Maybe? We'll see.

8. Everything.

All right. Buenos Aires, so far.

[There was going to be a photo here, but it was taking far too long to load.]

I've had a lot of cafe con leche.

I've purchased two bags so far; I may buy more. I am all about consumption in Buenos Aires.

We went to the San Telmo Feria (Feria de San Pedro Telmo) which was full of tourists and jewelry and old things and generally very full. I wanted to buy an old cigarette case, but the cheapest one I could find was 450 pesos, which is something like $125. I don't need an old cigarette case that much, but maybe they'll have one at the Feria de Mataderos. I think I'll enjoy that one more; apparently it's not nearly as crowded.

What else have we done... we went to a few museums. The Palais de Glace and el Museo de Bellas Artes (I think). There were some amazing pieces by modern Argentine artists at the Art Museum, and the Palais de Glace had a really impressive photojournalism exhibit. We'll get to MALBA eventually, which is apparently the best art museum in the city. We also went to the Museo de San Telmo and tried to go to the Puppet Museum (fuck if I remember the Spanish name). We walked by the penitentiary museum and the Museo de Arte Moderno; the first one we'll see later, the second one has been inexplicably closed since at least March. We went to the Toilet Museum too, which was pretty great.

We've walked around a lot, mostly San Telmo and Palermo. Argentina empanadas and ice cream are both delicious, and I'm basically in love with dulce de leche. We're going to Uruguay tomorrow during the day (the ferry only takes an hour!) and then the Hippodrome at night. If we time everything right, we'll see the last horse race of the day.

There are other things, but they can wait I think. I swear I'll have pictures on my flickr soon (I know you're all waiting with bated breath), but the wifi in the apartment is spotty at best, and I have a lot of photos to upload. I'll get to an internet cafe by Tuesday at the latest, and maybe I'll try to upload everything later tonight when no one else is online.

still alive!

Buenos Aires is aaaaaawesome.

Kira and Max's wireless is aaaawesome as somehow it automatically sends me to Argentine Google and Argentine Blogger, so el titulo as "still alive!" y voy a publicar entrada en uno minuto. Vamos al Aquabar pronto pero ya bebé una media botella de vino Malbec que cuesta 8 pesos. That's like $3! And it was amazing!

Pictures tomorrow, probably. I think we're going to the San Telmo fería and various San Telmo museums.

update

So. I leave for Buenos Aires in less than 24 hours. Actually, I leave for Houston and a 6.5 hour layover in 24 hours, but after that, it's on to Argentina! I'm bringing my computer (obviously), so there's a chance I'll update from Buenos Aires (BA, as the cool kids say). If nothing else, I will be updating my Flickr on a regular basis.

My grandparents are selling their house. Jeb pretty much said everything I would've said. I'm really not okay with the whole thing, and I can't believe they'll have moved out by the time I get back to Wisconsin.

This is a little late, but I'm thankful that my friends and family weren't driving on 35W last Wednesday. I don't know what else to write that would be appropriate or fitting to this kind of tragedy. But really, how does a bridge just collapse? I still don't understand.

I sent in the last parts of my UWM application. The deadline isn't until September 1; I'm going to call and check that everything arrived when I'm back from Argentina, but I'm basically done. Three weeks before the deadline; this is a first for me. I really hope that they'll accept me; I think this program would be really perfect for me, and it would make this whole "moving to Milwaukee" thing a lot less frivolous.

I decided that I'm going to Prague in January. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to save enough money by then, and I bet my parents will help me pay for the plane ticket for my Christmas present.

I didn't pack as much as I wanted to, and I'm not going to have time to mail anything to my new apartment before I leave. Still, I got a lot done, stuff that I won't have to do when I get back. I was able to throw away a lot of old papers, and I packed up almost all of my books. They only filled three smallish boxes; I feel very inadequate.

But I did finish my UWM application, finally, so I guess that makes up for it. The past month has been fairly... tumultuous. I can't really believe I'll be in the Southern Hemisphere tomorrow. I get to go to Argentina for almost two weeks. I get to move to a brand new city that's within driving distance of home. My cousin is visiting me in New York before I move; one of my favorite people is coming to New York for a few days before taking the train back to Wisconsin with me. I'm pretty lucky.

Oh god, this is getting cheesy, time to stop.

Cripes

First New Year's Resolution--no more apologizing for only writing here sporadically.

I met with my favorite professor in the world yesterday, and it was awesome as always. We spent the first half hour talking about grad school and law school and what I'm going to do with my life, and at one point, she told me I was smart and followed it up with "you know that, right?" Apparently I am (a) smart and (b) really obviously neither confident nor self-assured. But hey, she thinks I'm smart and capable! Hurrah! And I'm reasonably sure that she didn't just say that because she gave me 300 hours of research to do.

(I have 300 hours of research to do! I'm going to spend so much time in the library! EEEEEEEE!)


It looks like my Philadelphia weekend getaway is not going to work out as I have to work on Saturday and do millions of hours of research and also some web designy things. I'm definitely going to go sometime this month though, so if any of you [two or three people, tops] have Philadelphia reccomendations, you really should leave me a comment. I'm definitely going to see the Liberty Bell and the Museum of Medical Oddities (Mutter Museum if you want to be "accurate") and probably the Amish Market. Is there anything else I should definitely check out?