Friday, October 15, 2010

What We Remember About Our China Trip

  1. JUMP ZAZZ!!!
  2. cafe con leche with Rafael and Estephania
  3. Executive floor breakfast in the hotel
  4. Sichuan dinner, sticky gummy desserts
  5. blueberry fried muffin desserts
  6. McDonald's rat
  7. wine with gold flakes sprinkled in it
  8. "muuuuuuy guaaapo"
  9. little boy on bus with long braid (signifies health)
  10. "plea for help" hands sticking out of top of truck
  11. Miguelin, the big damn confusing baby
  12. Miao-miao part of program
  13. getting mauled by photographers in the expo while we were in costume
  14. congee was awesome (boiled rice porridge) with croutons, green onions, boiled egg, some weird kind of gelatin, and black fungus
  15. Barfers on the trip: Caitlyn (during trip), Erik (his own fault), Jeremiah (3 times!), Miren, and Bryan
  16. horrible makila disaster
  17. Nick A. peeing next to security guard on street
  18. WORST LUNCH BREAK EVER!  Basque Gov't snafu, food was cold, I accidentally ordered chicken feet.... terrible
  19. Indian food pavilion was awesome
  20. "This had better come out of me within the next day"... Miren loking at her plate of paella, after not having gone kak in 4 days
  21. little kid taking a kak on a newspaper, mom rubbing his head and telling him it's okay
  22. Shanghai is like Christmas, with all its light shows!
  23. the happy slap game
  24. Walking from Africa to India - which is a longer trek at the World's Fair than in real life!
  25. Walk to Saudi Arabia, and find out we can't eat at the restaurant
  26. "Mendi-tiki-tiki-tiki-ko Jaialdia!"
  27. Shangkari
  28. Miao-Miao's obsession with "Little Nick"
  29. "Damn you, Myron!"
  30. Falling at the performances (Izar, others?) slipping on the wet pavement
  31. breaking 2 glasses at Kuluska
  32. taxi driver singing
  33. John! our tour guide (Anna get back on that)
  34. blind Chinese men rubbing our feet and singing to us
  35. Angry Irishman at Irish pub in Expo
  36. Belgian Waffles
FLIGHT: Boise -->SLC-->Tokyo-->Shanghai
  • Jill was late
  • Nick  was cranky
  • Caitlyn got sick
  • Andoni's first flight EVER
  • Twinners' first sushi was in Tokyo
  • beer on flight was free
  • energy supplements didn't work for Lael and Izar
  • Jackets helped unite us...."what team do you play for?"  (PJ was assumed to be the coach)
  • Arrived Sunday night (Shanghai time) and 9pm ish
  • Fairy, our guide, greeted us
  • Crammed into tiny van (see pics)
  • Checked into the Golden Tulip hotel
  • Beds were shockingly small, and pretty hard
  • Room 2322 - Andoni, Bergs, Nickolas A. watched Chinese TV until 3 in the morning.  Hilarious!
DAY 1 Monday:
  • 7am, met at the bus
  • bus took us to World's Fair - Expo park
  • Met Iber at the Spanish Pavilion
  • practiced on tiny stage - re-arranged dance list accordingly
  • at 9:30 Nick B. did Agurra for lehendakari and friends
  • we planned performance in the big windowed conference room upstairs
  • danced 3 performances that afternoon
  • reception with delish tapas - croquetas, paella, chocolates in Spanish pavilion
  • Had authentic Chinese dinner - sticky rice dessert, fried sweet potato, carp soup
DAY 2 Tuesday:
  • Basque delegation reception at a fancy hotel downtown Shanghai
  • Arzai, Berozategui, Zubijana (sp?), tapas and golden wine
  • food wasn't actually cooked by the Basque chefs, just "inspired" by them
DAY 3 Wednesday:
  • stayed late at Expo - ate Indian food for dinner
DAY 4 Thursday:
  • Bilbao pavilion "visit"/trick
  • met Pei-pei, Miao-miao's boyfriend
  • ate Yunan chinese cuisine with John, Anna Bender's friend that's living in Shanghai
  • taxis to the Bund waterfront
DAY 5 Friday:
  • Izar, Maite, Lael, Caitlyn, Jill, Anna and Miao-miao went to Yu Gardens and got blind massages
  • "Gua Chi Qua Le" Happy National China Day!
DAY 6 Saturday"
  • Dressed up Miao-miao, until the costumes were too hot for her and she changed back
  • presented Iber with poster and shirt
  • played with Txalaparte (Ttukuna) sisters
  • talked with Jesus, director of protocol at Spanish Pavilion
  • Miren's wound is swelling!
  • Miao-Miao replied on email (?)
Events and are missing days to go with them:
  • one day we got rained out and only performed once, at 4pm
  • Lael left her badge at the changing room in the Spanish pavilion, group went to Italy and she couldn't get in
  • Olaia was shoe-less, money-less; one of the Spanish Pavilion staff let her borrow a pair of Crocs for her to walk around in


Sunday, September 19, 2010

pelotas

Lo que pésame más en mi vivo es la conocimiento de no haber aprovechado de ciertas oportunidades.  No estoy completamente segura como expresar esta palabra en castellano... si es pesadumbre, o remordimiento, ¿cual es?  Pero es un sentimiento terrible. 

Recuerdo que empezó listando mis pesadumbres en el colegio, y mis primeros especificos eran: lamenté que no jugó fútbol hasta que era niña, y lamenté que no tomé clases de debate.  Debate a mi no me importa mucho todavía, pero fútbol todavía habría sido excelente. 

Después, mi lamento era mi viaje a Australia y como no trabajé tanto duro que debió.
Entonces era no asistir bastante clases en la universidad, (porque ei, puedo dormir cuando me morir).  Ahora es esta oportunidad para publicidad para los Oinkaris mientras en China.  Supongo que es mi trabajo como PR persona que yo hago esto, pero soy nueva a esta posición y no creo que supe mis responsabilidades.  uhhhh..... sigh.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

on favorite colors

Lael's response to James Mulder's post An Orange and an Allegory Walk into a Bar:

This is really nerdy, but I don’t have a favorite color, so much as I have “color combinations that are aesthetically pleasing.” When I see a dark red, deep gold yellow, and forest green schema, I feel happy. Or a bold magenta, teal and eggplant. I appreciate a complementary sampling of the rainbow in three or four colors.  Don't give me the Fisher-Price-children's-toys combo of standard red, yellow, green and blue.  This is not primary school, these are the visual buttresses of creativity and style.  This is important, people.

I’ve always liked, not one particular color, but COLORS!! eee!!! (as a 10 year-old girl would scream when she found the 64-crayon Crayola behemoth box). Instead of stealing one marker and hoarding it from my classmates to practice writing my name, I used to take three or four, then carefully write out my full name in alternating colors.  I’m greedy with them,  my colors. I don’t want one special color for my very own—no, I want ALL of them, and I want all their shades and hues, and I want them now and I want them in rainbow order.

Friday, June 25, 2010

yard work

On rationalizing putting money into my house, even though I'm renting it and will lose all the work when I move away, my mom noted that "it doesn't matter if you're just renting a house; it's good to leave a place nicer than you found it." So we made this garden today.  Where before there was a hard-packed, semi gravel-filled patch of barren nothingness, now there's a nice green space.  And green spaces are good for the soul.

I was motivated my finishing this project, so I took a shovel to my back yard and laid waste to the dandelion population.  After doing yard for for five hours, I had to finally stop, fan my face with some junk mail like a southern lady at church, and contemplate recipes for mint juleps.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Notes on the Stanley Characters, summer 2009

Just as Phil D said, everyone in Stanley has a story. “We’re all broken toys,” he mysteriously explains. Amidst the backdrop of a beautiful, touristy mountain town, there are only about 40-60 people that winter over or live year-round. It would absolutely suck to winter here, and so it only makes sense that the people that do are either a little bit crazy, or running from something.

Big Phil is so named because there's another, smaller Phil that works as a cook at MV as well. More than anything, I feel deep sadness for this man. Phil’s dark story begins with his profession as a town sheriff and ends with a semi-scandalous affair/relationship with a girl here in Stanley. I don’t know all the details, but according to the Stanley rumor mill, one right there was a scuffle involving his girlfriend and the girl’s husband (or ex-husband, I don’t know exactly).

 Phil somehow showed up at the girl’s house in full sheriff uniform (off-duty) and pulled a gun on the guy. This may not have been as big a deal, but Phil was off-duty and dressed up in a uniform and went to a house with no probable cause, without the police being called. So, he was fired from that job, and apparently his demeanor is such that he has been kicked out of every other job besides MV.

Toward the end of my job contract (early August), Phil inexplicably somehow got a bit nicer. I'm not sure how much of it was me getting used to him and how much of it was the fact that a cute 20-year-old Mountain Village hostess from Turkey had a fatty crush on him. Not sure if he figured out or not, but I'm really hoping his sufferable demeanor wasn't because he was getting some. Ewww.

A Snapshot: Wintertime in Hi X

"High Expectations", the high school varsity choir I sang in during my junior and senior year of high school, was a cornerstone of my teenage life (the others were probably Oinkari and the AP Nerds social group).  Hi X could get particularly hectic in the wintertime, since much of the group's tour funds came from singing carols for office holiday parties or private gatherings (often paid for by Boise High parents who knew the group could use the money.)  Ah, yes, my first foray into the entertainment business...

One particular vignette I remember with fondness was a cold morning in December, when a few of us Hi-Xers decorated for Kandor (a home and gift shop in downtown Boise) for Christmastime.  Ashley Dunbar's mom worked there, and we did it as a fundraising opportunity for Hi X. We had to get there really early in the morning (5:30?) and downed several cups of coffee from Kandor's free carafe to help us wake up.  I think Gregg was there, or some other boy I had a crush on because I remember being really excited to go down there, despite the ungodly hour. 

A typical week in December would see us trying to balance a heavy homework load, sometimes sports, and Hi X gigs.  I remember, several times, pulling on black tights as fast as I could while driving a stick shift car, brushing the lint off my Hi X dress, praying to the Gods of Professional Appearance that the dress would be relatively wrinkle-free as I stepped out of my car, and trying to stay on pitch in an a capella group when many of us were battling winter colds.  We somehow always pulled it together, though, even though I would get death glares from the director when I showed up in the nick of time to mouth the opening words of "Fum, Fum, Fum." To her, early was on time, on time was late, and late was unacceptable.

    Wednesday, June 09, 2010

    dappled

    I walked down the driveway of my new house today, and am beginning to think it's maybe what I like most about the house. We're at the back of the lot, so to get to our house from the street you have to drive down about 200 ft of driveway.  I was barefoot, walking to get the mail.  The trees overhanging the driveway made the sunlight show dappled onto the pavement.  I am in the quiet, peaceful, sidewalk-less North end, with horses across the street and a hiking trail up the road.  I'm going to start growing tomato plants tomorrow because the patio and yard outside of my bedroom gets direct, hot southern light all day long.  It is beautiful.

    Thursday, June 03, 2010

    shirt ideas

    Still very rough drafty, but fun!  The shirts are kalimotxo-themed, with the nicknames of our koadrila written on each of the coke bottles (I found a sweet coca cola font online for free). Designed using Adobe Illustrator and the input of the Gavica sisters.

    Wednesday, June 02, 2010

    onward and upward!

    I just finished my last NFRU household today for the Census.  I didn't love the job, but it gave me some good people experience, like how to have doors slammed in your face, how to deal with reluctant respondents, and how to navigate weird neighborhoods.  Plus I had to practice my Spanish, which was really great.  Hopefully there will be more Spanish opportunities ahead.  I'm searchin....

    Tuesday, June 01, 2010

    ahhhh, employment

    In the last few weeks more than ever, I'm wishing that I had a standard 40-hr/week job ONLY because it is so hard to prove my earnings without one.  Because I live hand-to-mouth, or at least that's how it appears on paper, I have to compile several different sources in order to justify my meager earnings.  Questions like "attach a recent pay stub," or "take-home monthly earnings" make me sweat because the answers to those questions for me are so long and complicated!

    Tuesday, May 25, 2010

    the end of an era

    LOST's finale reminds me of some papers I've written: I start out the paper bringing up creative ideas, intriguing back-stories and compelling mysteries for a few pages.  Then I realize I'll have to double or triple the page count in order to satisfactorily answer the questions I've posed, and, being too lazy and probably on my 6th Starbucks doubleshot and 2nd hour of sleep, decide to just go ahead and wrap it up.  I quickly funnel the loose ends into a shitty "well see, you should really think about that and be good humans, and what if it is all a dream, meaning of life blah blah" catch-all ending, and pass out with my head on the desk.  So you see, ABC writers, we're not that different.  My professors were probably just as let down as SEVERAL MILLION VIEWERS are right now.  Not a big deal.

    Friday, May 07, 2010

    ¡Deséame suerte!

    Today is officially the day where I start making use of my degree.  I took a job with the U.S. Census, and under "languages spoken" in the application, I entered Spanish, because a) it would help me get the job, and b) I actually do, on some level, speak Spanish.  It is very very entorpecido, rusty, but how am I going to brush up on it again if I don't practice?  This will be the right combination of pressure to perform and not actually mattering too much in order to get me to do it, I think.

    Tuesday, March 23, 2010

    ahh, why yes, the real world. nice to see you again

    Fast forward about 6 months.  I'm back from Antarctica, jobless and purposeless and living at my mom's.  It sounds really pathetic, but it actually rocks....for now.  I know I should find a job, but my unemployment check just got processed and if the numbers are right, I'll be making almost as much per week NOT WORKING as I was when I worked 50+ hrs/week in Antarctica.  Plus, I don't feel bad collecting unemployment because I already paid into unemployment insurance with my last two jobs.  But, I've been home for three weeks and as much as sleeping in rocks, I feel guilty for having it so easy and while I don't necessarily want to get a job, I feel that I should.  So, I probably will. 

    Jaialdi is coming up this summer, as is Josh's weeklong family reunion, so finding a flexible job is probably pretty key.  I don't care if I don't get paid vacation, I just need to be able to take time off when I want.   Time is MUCH more important to me than money (says the girl who has never paid more than $200/mo rent in her life....)

    Friday, February 19, 2010

    a snapshot of our new zealand trip

    “thank you for pulling over!!” Josh waved to a campervan as we streaked through the Alpine Pacific Triangle section of Highway 1. We’re headed to Kaikoura, a beach town two hours North of Christchurch on the coast. We’re driving through what looks suspiciously like the Snake River plain, with arid farmland, foothills, and fields of sheep butts (the sheep’s heads are down to their task of grazing). We just left an area where there were wineries on either side of the highway for miles, and I imagined what it would be like if came back here someday, and could afford any of the attractions of the region-- namely, wine. The last couple of days Josh and I have been staying at the South Brighton Motor Camp, sandwiched between the beach at New Brighton and the estuary of the Avon River, on a wildlife preserve. Motorcamps are pretty interesting institutions.  The closest comparison in the States is an RV park; indeed, there are several motorhomes and hookups and trailers.  But there are also tent sites for rent, in which Josh and I gladly partook.  When you rent a tent site, you also have use of the amenities block, which includes showers, a kitchen and sometimes a pricy internet connection or wireless tokens. 

    Kaikoura, in Maori, means "dinner of crayfish," and I'm hoping to feast on some fresh crayfish when we roll into the little beach town this afternoon.