Caroline Around the World

home again, home again, jiggity jig

2009-04-15T04:26:00.001+02:00

Bali is Pretty Sweet

2009-03-27T08:50:00.002+01:00

Oh yeah, the elephant...

2009-03-16T12:20:00.005+01:00

I started my journey in India in Trivandrum, Kerala. From there i went to Kovalam, then Amritapuri, then Ooty, then Mysore, then Tiruvannamalai (via Bangalore. I just like to say Bangalore), and now i'm in Auroville, just north of Pondicherry.

I went to Tiruvannamalai on kind of a whim - okay, i went almost everywhere on kind of a whim, i only planned to do Kerala and Auroville. I'd heard of it, it's supposed to be a very sacred city, and one of the major Shiva temples is there. The city lies in the shadow of Mt. Arunchula, where Shiva purportedly appeared in a column of fire, and the mountain is revered as a manifestation of the god.

The temple, Annamalaiyar Temple, at the foot of the mountain is amazing. It's centuries older than the gothic cathedrals of Western Europe and rivals them in both size and beauty. Leaving my shoes somewhat nervously at the entrance, i was greeted by beggars and monkeys as i walked into the first part of the temple complex. I was wandering through, slack-jawed, watching devotees do puja, drawing mandalas in colored wax on the temple floor, and prostrating themselves on the ground in front of Nataraj, Ganesh, Parvati... I was given permission to go even into the inner sanctum, which non-Hindus typically aren't allowed to do. It was incredible, but my most wonderful experience came as i was passing through one of the minor sanctuaries. I looked to my left and there stood....

An elephant. Her face was marked with both the bindu and the three white horizontal stripes of the Shaivites. As i stood gawking, someone approached her, held out a coin, which she reached out and took with her trunk! She swung her long nose around, gave the coin to her handler, then swung back to the person in front, and gently bonked him on the head.

Of COURSE i was next in line. I got a little elephant snot on me, but it was totally worth it. I got blessed by an elephant!

Mangoes, and the Tamil Word for Honky*

2009-03-14T12:05:00.003+01:00

I don't know what it is, but i believe it's being directed at me a lot. Today i was handwashing my laundry, and i think i brought much amusement to the Indian women walking around the place where i'm staying. One of them brought me a bucket, said some things in Tamil (one of the oldest languages in the world), pointed at some things, and then walked away.

*clueless white person

Mangoes have JUST come into season, and i'm extremely grateful. yesterday at the fruit stand, the young mother running the place said to me conspiratorally, "They just arrived today. Very fresh, very sweet." I bought 4. I didn't know i'd never really eaten a mango before. This morning i had for breakfast a little green and pink one, small enough to fit neatly in the palm of my hand. Tree-ripe, not cargo-ripe, it was the most divine thing i'd ever eaten. The yellow-orange flesh was like silk dissolving into sweetness in my mouth. I paid 34 rupees per kilo - less than a dollar. Slightly more expensive are the big ones that are yellow when they're ripe. They're even sweeter. 4 mangoes lasted me less than 24 hours; luckily the fruit stand is just down the road.

Tiruvannamalai

2009-03-11T11:26:00.005+01:00

She was walking down the street with her mother, who was carrying her baby sister. She stared and grinned at me, like most of the children do. I grinned back. As i passed, she let go of her mother's hand and turned to walk with me.

"Hello!" she said brightly in almost unaccented English.
"Hello!" i replied, charmed immediately.
"How are you?" she asked.
"I'm good! How are you?"
"I'm fine! What's your name?"
"Caroline, what's your name?"
"Sasika! Ten rupees please!"

She was probably 7 or 8; i only give money to the children.

Seen in India

2009-03-04T11:18:00.002+01:00

An elephant, a saint, lots of stray cows, lots of colorful silk, a festival, a white-bellied sea-eagle, a pale white crab scuttling towards the sea under cover of 5 AM darkness, many many kind smiles, even more wide-eyed children.

Willow Goes to the Aquarium (picture heavy post!)

2008-12-22T21:44:00.008+01:00

Last Friday, Angie and i took Willow to the city aquarium! We had a wonderful time. She and i both have a close relationship with him. He and his family live at Twin Oaks as well, but because his mother is Dutch, they come to Europe frequently, and they'd been staying with me for a couple of weeks in Barcelona, which i was thrilled about. Anyway, Angie and i are kind of like his crazy aunts. And we adore him.

The aquarium is near Port Vell. You walk into a atrium area where there are lots of plants growing, and walk down a ramp to get to the main aquarium.

Willow is an extremely smart child, and i say that without the bias of the "crazy aunt." He's engaged and he remembers and thinks quickly and critically.

Willow and i were both quite into the blue lobsters. I was particularly interested also in the fish in the Wrasse family, which were all very colorful.

I loved sharing this with Willow - he and i were equally excited about the animals! Okay, i might have been more excited.

The best part was the tank that was tube-like, with a moving sidewalk going through the tube. Sharks swam over your head!

It was SO COOL.

After the tanks, we came to a playground-like area.

There were tanks that you could get underneath, with manta rays in them!

There must be something very interesting up there...

Willow is an underwater explorer!

After the aquarium, we went to lunch with ice cream for dessert!

And then we headed home...

A VERY fun day!

Strange Paths

2008-12-22T21:38:00.004+01:00

When i was three, we had an exchange student from Spain - from Sitges, to be precise, which is within Catalunya, and only about an hour's train ride from Barcelona. After thinking about it and being busy and not getting around to it and forgetting, i finally got in contact with her and we met for lunch last Wednesday!

It was a little strange, meetings like this have a high potential for awkwardness. The last time we saw each other i was maybe 7, when she surprised us with a visit at Christmas.

And twenty years later....

She took me out to a restaurant in Gracia, the artsy, high-end fashion area of Barcelona that is home to lots of Gaudi's work. The place we ate, Cerveseria Catalana, was very typically Catalan, as one might imagine from the name. We had tapas, and she introduced me to a Catalan onion dish that was delicious.

Roasted green onions, from which one peels the outer layer, then dips the soft white part into a sauce made of oil and vinegar, roasted red pepper, spices and some other ingredients. Yum!

We barely made it - she was leaving for Prague with her family the next day, and i would be gone by the time she got back, so it really was our last chance to meet, and i am really, really glad we did!

Dali is Not Overrated

2008-12-20T20:03:00.004+01:00

On Thursday, Ethan and i went to Figueres, a town almost to the French border, to see the Dali Museum. We got on the train early in the morning, and an hour and a half later i was thrilled to see the Pyrenees mountains in the distance!

There are several, of course, but this is THE Dali Museum - the one he put together himself, which is what makes it so very amazing. It's supposedly the largest surrealist object in the world, and i believe it. It's so much more than a gallery where paintings hang; the whole thing is one big installation. It's like walking through one of his images. I LOVED it. We both did.

The building that houses the museum is a theater that was damaged during the war, and when it was rebuilt, it was rebuilt specifically for this purpose, but Dali apparently loved the idea that it was a theater and so it wasn't changed much, to my understanding. There's a courtyard that houses this sculpture:

Inside, there's a stage like setup where there's a massive, massive painting, and the tiers of the theater where the seats would be have been enclosed to make gallery hallways. The wings of the stage also have galleries, and everywhere there are alcoves housing curious installations, like this sculpture which included some kind of piano and the whole thing had music playing in the background.

One of my favorites was a piece where you walked up to a hole in the wall, looked in, and discovered a magical wonderland on the other side.

One whole room was taken up by "Portrait of Mae West," and you had to climb up this small staircase to get in the right place to view it. Coming in, it looks like this, and from the staircase, you see...

I was also excited to see a lot of prints and drawings, which aren't usually featured, seems like the curators pass over them in favor of melting clocks.

I also loved this drawing of his wife, Gala, who features prominently in his work. It looked also to me like some of the signatures on the pieces said both Gala and Salvador Dali. I wondered if she assisted in his pieces or if some of them were hers and she didn't get any credit.

After the museum, we went to this restaurant i had found online the night before, the only vegetarian restaurant in Figueres, El Cafe del Barri Vell. It was AMAZING. A tiny little restaurant with a funky exposed-beam ceiling and warm red walls with creative but simple food that was clearly prepared with a lot of care.

We had this sampler of guacamole, hummus, and baba ganoush, and all three were some of the best examples of each. I also had a salad with avocado, fresh soft cheese, peanuts, and a mint-orange vinaigrette. Here's the best part - it was cheap!

Then we walked around a little while longer, and came home on the train. DEFINITELY worth the travel time.

[ Fill This Space ]

2008-12-20T18:41:00.006+01:00

The end of semester exhibition, [ Fill This Space ], was last Friday, the 12th, and it went well. I wore the fancy velvet dress i made, and i got lots of compliments on it! I was very happy that my framily was able to come - Ethan, Angie, Pax, Hawina, Sky, Kassia, and Willow were all there, as well as some friends of Pax's that happened to be in town that day. The school looked great and there seemed to be a healthy turn out, though i left after an hour and a half.

Some of my work i displayed in my studio, and my main piece was displayed as more of a "showcase" piece, with almost a whole room to itself. Those of you who have been reading know that i've been working with the theme of the body, and this was a continuation, or rather the first step in a project that is the culmination of all these thought processes. At the beginning of the year, i sent a ton of emails out to friends and acquaintances and posted on forums and facebook and myspace asking for people to send me their "body stories" - we all have them, and i'm fascinated by how they affect us and how we carry them within us. The response was completely overwhelming. I was humbled by how many people chose to share some very raw and hard things with me; as well i received poems and ecstatic tales of joy. So, naturally, i froze. I had no idea how to carry on, how to do this justice. It felt like i had been given a great responsibility.

Then we got to the "Minimalism" theme at school, and though i was quite skeptical at first, after hearing the arguments for minimalism, i decided that instead of trying to create some elaborate, showy, complicated work for the Body Stories, the best thing to do was just to let them speak for themselves. So what i decided to do was to make simple white plaster casts of bodies - no faces, just bodies, mostly torsos, in different positions. Then i put one line from each story, in black transfer letters, directly on the cast. I displayed them very simply, though i'd toyed with the idea of making like forty of them and filling the whole wall, but i wanted each individual to be able to speak for itself.

I will only post about half of the pieces as close ups, but i should let you know that most of the stories i got were about hard experiences (to put it mildly), and so it may be triggering for some folks to see this stuff.

I was very, very happy with the way this came out. Unfortunately due to cost constraints, i'm leaving these pieces behind. However, i'm proud enough of it and i think it's important enough that i intend on pitching it ruthlessly to galleries and remaking it when i get back to the states.

It's Been A While...

2008-12-08T17:58:00.003+01:00

So! It's been a while since i've updated, and there's been a lot going on. The Expressa't exhibition opened with my installation in it, and an image of it was used on one of the promotional postcards, so that was really exciting. I presented my minimalism project, which went over very, very well - some people really loved it and some people were really offended. I don't have any images of it yet, but i am cleaning it up and adding to it to hang in the exhibition. I've been working on a bunch of sewing projects, i've finished a very fancy dress and a bag using materials i salvaged from a dumpster, finally got the hems done on the first pair of pants that i made, and am planning on working on a couple more things before i lose access to the sewing machine. My classes are over now, and i have my "exit interview" tomorrow, then we set up for the exhibition which opens on Friday.

Ethan got here about ten days ago, and i am so, so glad he is finally here! We have been hanging out at home a lot but also have been to two art exhibits and the beach, and have walked around the city a bunch. We have been through the Gracia neighborhood, where much of Gaudi's work is, and to Santa Maria del Mar, a gothic cathedral that is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. We also saw a great collective street art project. Pax and Hawina and their son Willow (who's almost 7) got to Barcelona last Tuesday, followed closely by Sky and Kassia, ex-members of Twin Oaks and good friends. So, this group that we are calling "Framily" (friend-family, as opposed to biological family) is almost complete - Angie gets here on Wednesday!! We are all orbiting around Willow to some extent, though i am pulled away by school. Last night we all piled into the big bed in the room that Pax and Hawina are staying in and watched "Stardust", this great kids' movie with Robert de Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer. Loved it, and loved the feeling of all being together, much better than being on my own all the time.

However, Pax, Willow, and i all have colds. Sick again! Hopefully it is something in the air in Barcelona and it will get better once i leave... one good thing to look forward to about leaving.

Ethan and i are hoping to go to the Dali museum in Figueres, but it is a good train ride away, almost to France, so maybe we will do that this coming weekend, or sometime in the week between the exhibition and when we leave for Amsterdam, on the 21st. My time in Barcelona is winding down quickly!

Mara, a classmate of mine, took this picture of the opening of Expressa't.

Here's Ethan looking at some boats. We thought they were - or at least one of them was - battleships.

When we went to the beach, we sat by the sea for quite some time, and Ethan made this nice sand sculpture:

This is my favorite painting from the street art thing we saw, though there was lots of really amazing work out there:

Sunday we all went to Can Mas Deu, the community nearby that i've been to many times. This is where Sky and Kassia are staying:

Probably the Best Thing I've Ever Seen

2008-11-23T22:06:00.001+01:00

Work, work, work!

2008-11-19T20:43:00.003+01:00

Another post about two kinds of work, art and kids.

Yesterday was my weekly gig with Alexandra and Arthur, with whom i play and speak English for two and a half hours. Alexandra and i are like two peas in a pod, and we get along famously even when we don't understand each other. Although, when i tell her i don't understand her, she often says with frustration, "Jopé!" (DARN it) with LOTS of emphasis on the "h" sounding j. She is charming. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible for me to understand her brother, with his 3-year-old's version of Spanish, but Alex "translates" (from Spanish to Spanish). Arthur is usually with his mom or at a playgroup for at least part of the time, so often it is just me with Alex, much to my relief. Arthur is a volatile child who likes to be at the center of attention all the time, and when he's not he can react quite violently, throwing things with wild abandon and biting. Luckily i have started to figure out how to handle the two of them together. Yesterday the solution was two harmonicas. I will miss these kiddos a lot when i go.

Today i finished my project for the Expressa't exhibition. This is an annual exhibition that Metafora participates in, in conjunction with the Ambit Dona resource centre, for World Aids Day. The title of the exhibition means express yourself, in Catalan. All of the works are a response to or a commentary on HIV/AIDS, and i'm really excited to be a part of this. Here's the piece i'm submitting, minus the installation component (yes, i, the painting snob, have made an installation piece):

And here's what i wrote about it:

I chose to focus on joy. Though my project began with a very important element of collective oppression, as my paper people came to life, they were undeniably dancing. So i decided to liberate them instead and let them wind their way freely through the space. Though i also experimented with a mulitcolored set of figures, i chose to make all the silhouettes red, to more intentionally represent the HIV/AIDS community. As i finished the piece, i worked more deliberately to let the figures dance, and i based many of the images on forms from dance around the world, as well as trying to capture casual movements that the average person makes during the day. Some of the figures are very sensitive and emotionally expressive, others are more still, and each one genuinely seems to have an individual personality! The message has become one of hope, a celebration of the resilience of humanity in the face of whatever we may face. Suspended in the air on a lightweight thread, they are always slightly moving, and always connected to each other.

My plan is to install this piece in a spiral or circular manner. I'm quite excited about it, people really respond to them, though i wonder if the response will be different in a gallery setting.

And here's a painting i finished today:

The photo doesn't represent the color very well, it's represented better in this slightly out of focus detail.

Tomorrow i am hoping to go to the nearby community to work in the garden, and then i have my second and likely final acupuncture appointment, which i am very excited about. Our next round of projects is due next week, so i need to get cracking on that, and we will be installing and opening Expressa't. All my "to-do" stuff wraps up next Friday, which is good timing, because that's the night that Ethan arrives!

Deux Fourchettes, Pas de Stylo

2008-11-14T13:33:00.004+01:00

or, what language am i speaking, anyway?

I've finally gotten connected in Barcelona. I'd been having a good time, but not really feeling a part of the city, not really meeting people i was interested in spending a lot of time with. This was partly due to the unfortunate experience i had at Yara's. However! A few weeks ago i finally went to visit Can Mas Deu, a community on the northwest side of Barcelona.

It's amazing.

There are around 25 people that live collectively in this old building, which was once a hospital and before that a hacienda of some kind, and the whole house is a massive do-it-yourself. They run their own plumbing with horizontal wells, grow their own vegetables, run a bike shop, share meals and common space, and on Sundays they open to the public and run workshops and classes and show movies. They also cook lunch and have a coffeeshop. I've been out there every Sunday since then. I love the chance to get out of the city - though it's relatively close to a metro stop, it's situated on a beautifully wooded hill - and everytime i'm there i meet wonderful people.

Last Sunday i met Juako, a Spanish guy living in Barcelona, and Meela, an exuberant Turkish nomad, as well as her British friend Charlie. They're all staying in another collective house, which is right in the centre of the city. They invited me to come over on Tuesday to have dinner and hear a talk by some French activists about their social projects in Lyon.

And so i discovered another amazing place in Barcelona. I love it because it's this funky activist centre, the whole thing is very DIY, cozy and colorful, with a wide variety of people running in and out, right on one of the poshest streets in Barcelona. I have no idea how they came to own this property.

The talk by the French people was great. It was all in Spanish, but i understood amazingly well, i suppose because they weren't native Spanish speakers either. Their projects sound wonderful, and i hope i get a chance to visit them when i'm in France. I was talking with them afterwards, and it was this beautiful melange of languages, all three of us moving in and out of French, English, and Spanish, and never missing a beat. Most of the time i was talking to them, i wasn't even aware of which language was currently coming out of my mouth. When i asked them if they had any contacts in Paris, the guy asked me for a pen, and i dug through my bag, and produced two forks (deux fourchettes), but no pen (pas de stylo).

I've unfortunately just been through a week-long bout of mysterious illness, in which i had no real symptoms, just extreme, extreme fatigue. Following advice from my favorite naturopath and a visit to an acupuncturist seem to have me back on track. Also, the charger for my laptop arrived today, so coming soon, along with stories of the acupuncturist, are pictures of Halloween and new artworks.

An Exciting Week

2008-11-06T00:01:00.004+01:00

On Saturday, my laptop charger caught on fire! I smelled smoke, looked down, moved my legs away from the cords, and momentitos afterwards, the connection between the charger and the cord burst into flames. Okay, it was one flame, but nonetheless very dramatic. According to the guy in FNAC today, Dell doesn't have a retail presence in Spain, so it will be at least a while before i get a new charger. So i am without laptop, and blogging on a public computer isn't very appealing, especially posting pictures. At the moment i am using my kind and generous Austrian flatmate's computer, so updating at least.

I said before that this is not a political blog. Nonetheless, i momentarily suspend your art/travelblog experience for reflections on the elections. I wrote this in my paper-journal last night.

I am watching the 2008 presidential elections from a swanky, smoky bar in El Raval in Barcelona. This will possibly be the most pivotal election i will ever witness and the outcome is so unclear. The polls have only just started to close, and we're watching CNN on a cinema sized screen. They're posting the results little by little.

In a way i wish i was in the country, but this is a remarkable experience. This bar is packed with Americans, but also people from all over the world - Finland, New Zealand, Great Britain, Poland and more. I was talking with this Polish woman sitting next to me and she said in perfect English, "We're just here for support," and cheered wildly when the first numbers for Florida popped up with Obama in the lead.

I don't really believe in politics as such. I basicallz gave up direct political activism after getting burnt out in college, and decided that living well and in line with my principles was the more important. Living in community, radical intimacy and communication, herbal medicine, becoming a doula, teaching yoga, and my new healthy beauty project are all forms of social activism that sustain me, rather than burn me out.

All that being said, it is an incredibly heartening experience to be in this room full of excited, engaged people. ~~And if John McCain wins this election, i'll be job-hunting in Barcelona.~~

Obama is a politician, like anyone who could conceivably win an election. And i'm skeptical and waiting to see if he sticks to his guns througout his term. Even if he does, there is still plenty i don't agree with. Also, i think it's quite a potentially dangerous trap to see his election as proof that racism no longer exists, which i've heard a lot of hinting around at. There's also that the whole thing is kind of culty, what with the chanting and all. But seriously? If i had to pick something for so many people to chant, "Yes we can" is not at the bottom of the list.

In more radical circles, it's considered passé to some extent to be interested in the elections and sometimes even to vote, but i just have to be excited about this. Despite my reservations, i'm excited about Obama. I think he's great. I think what he stands for culturally is incredibly important, and i'm excited to be around to see how it unfolds.

Though, what will i read about on the internet if not Sarah Palin? (Okay, so it's lowbrow, but booing her, along with the whole room, when she was on the screen last night was really fun.)

Also, my adrenaline from staying up nearly all night and excitement at the results fueled a painting that's going really nicely. Pictures of it someday...

Images from My Project

2008-10-29T23:20:00.002+01:00

So i heard complaints that the images on the .pdf weren't visible enough, and that the .pdf was inaccessible. So here is a .jpg of the statement, and here are the three images discussed therein.

First Critique at Metafora

2008-10-25T16:01:00.003+02:00

Yesterday i gave my first presentation for critique at Metafora. It was a little nerve-wracking! We were given the theme of "The Tower of Babel (Culture and Identity)" as the basis for these projects.

My statement, with images included, is here (the link is to download a .pdf file). I got decent responses, there wasn't lavish praise, but nobody trashed me either or asked what the heck i was thinking. I wasn't totally happy with my project - what i said in my presentation was that the anger piece was particularly hard for me to work on, because i'm not angry much these days and it's hard for me to access that emotional place, not to mention that i don't really want to. I feel like in a way i've been there, done that, and to force myself back to it now, without a genuine impetus, would be artificial. I'm happy with the sculpture, which is shown in my statement in full, and the painting, also in the statement, but the collage piece (only a section is shown), i could toss. I like the approach i've taken with the painting, which is the same as a couple of other pieces i've done this semester. Using organic matter to "stamp" onto the page, using cutouts to work with negative space, etc. I really want to keep working with that type of imagery.

However, the next theme coming up is minimalism, and while usually, minimalism does not interest me in the least, i think it will be an excellent vehicle for a certain project that i started conceptually in August. I plan on working with the body casting technique - maybe some projection, too.

I got some very plush corduroy fabric yesterday, to make another pair of pants, and my plan was to cut and pin this weekend so i could jump straight to sewing on Monday, but i brought the wrong pattern home. Boo! I'm so very into the clothes designing at the moment, i hope i continue to have success and inspiration. There is a very upscale fabric store here in Barcelona and going in there is so exciting. They have so much beautiful, lush fabric - i want to pull everything off the shelves and roll around in it. The sequins! The silk! The lace! The pants i already made, while the hem needs to be let down, fit me perfectly and are exactly what i wanted, which i can never find in stores. Very pleased.

Aaaand tomorrow i think i'm going to Segur de Calafell, south of the city, to nanny for a few hours. Yay euros!

Leading A Charmed Life

2008-10-22T18:24:00.004+02:00

My mother and i often talk about how we lead charmed lives. Here's the latest example of mine.

I love Ani DiFranco, a folk singer who is politically outspoken, eloquent, and funny in addition to being an excellent musician. I've often said her music is like a portable therapist in the CD player. I saw her live for the first time the spring semester of my senior year of high school, and at least once a year since then. Though, i've listened to her less and less these days, as i've started listening to more dance music, trip-hop, and kirtan. I still always go see her when she's nearby, because she puts on an incredible (there's that word again) show. Last time, it was in Richmond, in July.

She came to Barcelona on Sunday, and i was a little sad, because tickets were outrageously priced, and i'd decided to pass. A friend of mine from London was coming in for the show. When he called me, i said i wasn't going because i didn't want to spend the money on a ticket. "Well, we can't have that!" he said, did a little string pulling, and somehow got me on the guest list! So i got to see my 11th Ani DiFranco show for free, in orchestra seats. And, it was... incredible. Of course. No matter how much i see her, she still makes me laugh and cry. She's recently had a baby, and her songs about her daughter are so sweet and poignant.

Also, the woman who opened for her, Anais Mitchell, was also pretty awesome. She didn't play long enough for my taste, and i usually find opening acts annoying. The only other exception i can think of is the guy who opened for Ani in DC, a slam poet. He was great too.

Anyway, yes. Charmed life.

Friday i give my presentation/defense for my project. The theme was the Tower of Babel, and afterwards i'll post my statement here.

Rome 3: Sistine Chapel and The Colosseum

2008-10-20T21:04:00.004+02:00

The last day in Rome, which i need to post about so i can move on to the exciting happenings of yesterday, began with Katrin waking me up at 11, with some nonsense about the Sistine Chapel. Oh! Right, that. Yes, i do want to go see that. Okay, i'm up, i'm up.

We took a bus from where we'd been staying with our host, Matteo, to the center of Rome. This took a long time, though we weren't actually that far away. And what they say about Italian drivers extends to both bus drivers and METRO drivers. We finally got there and took a train from there to the Vatican, which is on the far west side of the city. From the train station we walked and walked until we finally saw the city walls, and soon we were standing in front of St. Peter's! I'm not Catholic, but i've studied this stuff so much, it was very cool to finally see it.

We followed a long train of signs pointing the way to the Sistine Chapel, which is inside the Vatican Museum. Katrin and i both used our outdated student IDs to get the discounted entrance, and followed yet another long train of signs to get to the chapel itself. The palace of the Vatican is like a rat maze, it's quite impressive. We tried very hard not to get distracted on the way there, and were pretty successful except for when we encountered the old maps, which both of us were very into.

We finally made it to the Sistine Chapel, which was just as amazing as it's reputed to be. It was also absolutely PACKED. I'm sure you've all seen it, so i won't go overboard with the pictures (which i wasn't even supposed to take...), and just post this one of my favorite panel, The Expulsion from Eden:

After we'd made it to our destination, we were free to get distracted in the rest of the museum, though hunger kept us from tarrying overlong. I was impressed by the papal jewelry, which was too gaudy even for me, and Katrin and i were both amused by this hysterical "artwork," entitled, i am not making this up, The Mute Swans of Peace.

A gift to the pope from, who else? The United States. Sigh.

Our hunger drove us from the Vatican back into Italy (we did not need our passports), in search of pizza. We succeeded, though i was being needy Nancy - the Italian ATMs refused my card repeatedly. Apparently i needed some kind of special chip in my card, and they couldn't do anything without it, so i had no access to cash. I'll take Katrin out for dinner in Paris or something when i'm there. Anyway, this was our post-Vatican snack:

Incredible. You know, French food is supposed to be so wonderful, and it's pretty good for the most part, but nothing really outstanding generally speaking. I think they get a little too focused on being fancy. Italy is a different story. The pizza lives up to its reputation as well as the ice cream and the pasta.

My time in Rome was drawing to a close, and so Katrin and i parted ways. She wanted to relax and i wanted to see some other things, so i headed on and saw this thing - you might know it:

I didn't go in, seeing as it was quite costly and i was short on the paper kind of money. I'm a little sad about that, actually. Next to the Colosseum is the Foro Romano - less talked about, more impressive.

Again, you had to pay to get up close, so i skipped that, but i walked around the perimeter of it and ooh-ed and ahh-ed. The roads going around between the Forum and the Colosseum have ruts in them that are track marks from chariots. Chariots! Rome is really old.

At that point it was time to head for the airport, so i grabbed one last gelato (of course), and that was that.

You know, i almost didn't go. I was on the phone with Matteo only hours before my flight was scheduled to depart telling him i was probably not going to come. And for whatever reason, i changed my mind, and i can't even express how glad i am that i went. Though i suppose my effusive blog entries speak for themselves.

Rome Part 2

2008-10-17T19:34:00.006+02:00

The next day i slept quite late to recover from my early flight and a couple of little-sleep nights in a row. I awoke to a kitchen full of tasteless Italian bread (they don't use any salt!) and Nutella, jam, and orange juice. Italian Nutella is the best i've ever had, and it really is different in every country (the US is the only one that has high fructose corn syrup).

Many more folks had arrived at the house, the DJ was already going, and the yard was covered with Burners draped about in the sunshine. I happily joined them, and we talked and ate and i met new people all day.

Food appeared at random intervals, with no lack of vegetarian options after the fit we'd pitched the night before. Pesto pasta, cheese toast (again with the flavorless bread), fruit, potatoes... Katrin set up the lino cut table, and lots of people made prints. A station for making tomato sauce was set up out back, and everyone was gifted a bottle of homemade tomato sauce to take home (which the airline took away from me, tragically). The day was very pleasant and relaxing, and as night fell, things got more exciting, with the DJs picking up the pace and a heck of a dance party.

One of the funniest things all night was the scene in the kitchen. Apparently the cooks decided there were too many people going in and out, so they barricaded the doorway with a table and if you needed something you had to place an order. They were making homemade tagliatelli, so we weren't complaining. The effect was very theatrical, the dining room was packed with shouting, wildly gesticulating Italians, and the kitchen was occupied by shouting, cooking Italians. It was quite the scene.

Well, i finally went to bed around sunrise after an amazing night, slept until 3 PM and then 3 hours later hit the road to Rome with Katrin, her boyfriend, and 2 London-based ladies. We stopped to visit some new friends in Calvi d'Umbria, who are starting an art community and run an "agriturismo," which is like a bed-and-breakfast, but with olive trees. We had an adventure trying to find the out-of-the-way place in rural Italy in the dark, but we stopped and walked around the village, population 900, and had gelato, which i deemed the best ice cream i'd ever had. I'm partial to nocciola (hazelnut), and it tasted more like frozen nut butter than ice cream. The town was utterly charming, the agriturismo ideal, and the wine plentiful! It grew late as we talked Burning Man, art, and voodoo, so we left in search of dinner. Italians eat late, as is common in Europe, but not as late as Spaniards, so we counted ourselves lucky to find a pizza place open at 11 PM. And this was no drive-thru - we had a full meal, from bruschetta to (even more!) wine and sparkling water, pizza, dessert, coffee, and lemoncello. We were the last customers of the night, but they were not about to expect us to have anything less than a fabulous meal. Oh, darn!

We eventually made it to Rome, where we were staying with one of the people who had hosted the party in Alviano. I hit the hay immediately, for the next day was to be filled with sightseeing in a busy city...

Rome is Really Old

2008-10-15T23:07:00.009+02:00

So, i got well enough to put myself on a plane and fly to Italy! I was there for four days, and there's so much to tell i may have to split this into two entries. But i'll start from the beginning. Also, i took 150 pictures, so i'll link to most of them instead of posting them all here.

The impetus for going to Rome was for a "Burning Weekend," a weekend long party out in the country near the city for European Burner types. I arrived in Rome early on Friday, and was to meet up with two women from the group who would hang out with me and then go with me on the train to Alviano, a nearby town closest to the party site. They were just getting on the bus when i arrived, so i figured i would look around some while i waited, and then meet them in an hour. I took myself to get a sandwich, see a Baroque/Romanesque cathedral (Santa Maria Maggiore), and have some gelato. No chance of avoiding gluten in this country! I got totally distracted and when i finally looked at my phone, it had been an hour and a half and i was late. But just then i recieved a text message from them saying they were also late... ah, Europeans! They fit my attitudes towards time perfectly.

We finally rendezvous'ed at the Spanish Steps. Helen (English/Irish) and Aurelie (French) were emissaries from the party organizers, and we also met Katrin (German). The four of us bonded quite quickly, and were pretty inseparable for the whole weekend. I was delighted to find that both Aurelie and Katrin live in Paris, so now i've got some friends there!

Our first project was to go to art stores to find supplies for making linoleum cuts, which was Katrin's project for the weekend. We strolled leisurely around Rome, popping in and out of art stores, stopping for a panini and wine, until we found a place that had what we needed. They also had this incredible counter where they would custom blend oil paints! I just about keeled over. Just look at those pigments!!

I also spotted some very funny and well done street art.

After our art store expeditions, Katrin went in search of flip-flops, as it was quite warm and she was wearing tights and boots, and the other three of us headed for the Trevi Fountain, which somehow i'd never heard of. It was incredible!

It's "good luck" to throw a coin in, but i don't know about that guy next to me, who was pulling money OUT of the fountain!

We headed to the train station after that, and had a really fun train ride to Alviano, where we waited for Massimo to pick us up in his tiny European car. No one was at the house yet, so we dropped our things off, and then went to another little tiny town nearby to get food and wine. Katrin and i walked around looking at things - she loves these little cars, which are like enclosed scooters, and they're everywhere in Italy. After groceries, to get wine we went to a winery! It was the first time i'd been to one, and they actually opened it after hours for us, so we got a private tour. I was such a total tourist, everywhere with my camera, but it was SO COOL.

We tasted wine (Aleatico, Merlot/Sangiovese, Grechetto, and Malvasia) and and took back six very large bottles. I thought the wine was amazing. I could really taste the difference between the wines, and they even had a white wine that i really really liked. I thought it was some of the best wine i'd ever had, and we paid less than 2 euro/liter! After we got back in the car, the Europeans were all like, "Yes, well, it is not so good, this wine, but it will do." Ha!

We drove back to the house - and by way, what they say about Italian drivers is VERY true - and other people had started to arrive. The sound system was getting set up and dinner was cooking. We opened the bottles of wine, and i started meeting lots of really amazing people, including a group of Americans who are starting an art community between Alviano and Rome. The DJs got going and people were dressing up and dancing, and the kitchen was full of Italians shouting and cooking. Dinner took forever to cook, and though i and another vegetarian had reminded them continuosly that we needed food too, and they'd assured us there would be something for us, when they finally spread out the polenta, just dumped it on the table, the meat sauce was dumped all over the top of it, and their answer to our indignation was to scrape off the sauce and call it vegetarian. No thanks! So we made some pesto pasta ourselves, and it was quite delicious.

I have to say, the pasta was incredible. Okay, obviously, it's Italy. The bag i opened was Barilla, the same thing i can buy at Food Lion in Virginia. But it is NOT the same stuff inside! I couldn't even believe how good it was.

This is already long, so i'll stop here, and write more in the next couple of days.

(In reading back over this, i realized how may times i've said something or other was "incredible." I don't mean to be hyperbolic, but it was all very awesome. Maybe i need a thesaurus.)

I'm Sick!

2008-10-08T12:50:00.002+02:00

I have a horrible cold. I almost never get sick, and so it really throws me for a loop when i do. My nostrils are taking turns being totally stopped up, my head feels like it's full of bubbles, and every time i swallow my ears pop. I have no energy, no appetite, and i'm all achy too. Yuck! I'm taking care of myself the best i can but there's just not much you can do for colds.

I hope it clears up soon, i'm supposed to go to Italy day after tomorrow!

Markets and Bakeries

2008-10-04T21:32:00.005+02:00

Though i don't have a gigantic budget here in Spain, my nannying jobs are keeping my life comfortable, and provide me with cash to spend at the markets. I *love* the vegetable markets, the small bakeries, and, oh my goodness, the recently discovered flea-market.

Most weeks i go to the large central market on La Rambla, La Mercat de la Boqueria. It's incredibly famous, and the first ten feet across the whole front of it is always crammed full of tourists, taking pictures of the unusual fruits and the amazing spreads of nuts and candies. The vendors there at the entrance sell cups of squeezed juices, all combinations, for 1 euro, and not-tiny packs of sliced fruit for 1 euro as well. Well, the ones in the very front are sometimes 2.50, but if you go on back a stand or two, you find the cheaper stuff. Most of the produce, even the fruit, comes from Spain, elsewhere in the Iberian peninsula, or somewhere in Northern Africa. I usually buy enough vegetables for at least a week for under 3 euros! It's not a market for haggling, but i love shouting in Spanish over the noise to the vendors. I love the whole experience.

Today i went to the market at Gloriès, which is a massive flea market. It's not as big as El Rastro in Madrid, which seems to go on for miles, but it's a pretty good size. There's everything there, from chandeliers to sunglasses, piles of old clothes to new boots that probably came from the black market. I'm not interested in the vendors there who have stuff that's wrapped in plastic, made in China, and bulk ordered. But oh, the junk vendors! I didn't buy anything, because i don't have a home to decorate, but if i did... The stuff there was just amazing. One of my favorite things was the boxes and bags of old coins. Rubbed flat pence, pesos, the old European currencies, probably things older and more foreign. Lots of stuff salvaged from old buildings. I just love the sense of all the stories laid out there on the tables. One man had a massive pile of old silverware for sale, and he stepped right in the middle of it to get to the other side of his booth! At one point, i wandered out of the "official" market area and into the street market, where there were lots of people selling things from blankets on the sidewalks. Definitely a more eclectic range of things, but just as interesting. The most interesting and hilarious part was at one point, someone at the end of the row shouted "Agua!" and there was a sudden scramble as all the sellers scooped up their things into their blankets, tossed them over their shoulders, and shouted, "Agua!" to each other. The cops had shown up. I was amazed at how fast they'd moved! I suppose you have to have a permit of some kind to sell things that they didn't have.

Now, the bakeries. This is something i never really experienced growing up in small town USA. We had a local bakery, but they were, in my memory, mostly donuts and cakes and sweets. The bakeries here are every ten feet and they have baguettes, croissants, magdalenas (kind of like cupcakes), meringues, and depending on the place, different varieties of sandwiches, pastries, pizzas, and so on. Palmeras are one particular kind of pastry that seems to be "native" to Spain, they're everywhere and probably my favorite. Same kind of flaky dough as a croissant, but shaped into a heart and crunchy/chewy with some kind of glaze on. The one closest to school, Forns Enrich, is the one i've visited most often. Forn is Catalan for oven, and pa is bread, so most bakeries are called some variant on one or both of those words. Anyway, Enrich has incredible stuff, including whole wheat bread, which isn't always easy to find. They also have a house specialty pastry called a Tarragonina. The dough is like a cross between a palmera and a croissant, in a braid or a twist, and both ends dipped in chocolate. It is incredible.

Now here's the problem. I seem to have some kind of intolerance or allergy to gluten, the protein found in wheat. I had stopped eating it for seven months before i left the states in order to get a skin problem under control, and when i would eat it, the skin problem would flare up AND i would get feeling bad, with particular problems of heartburn. Ick. Since i've been here, i've been ignoring those two things, eating gluten in moderation, a few times a week if that. Unfortunately, the other day it got so bad i couldn't ignore it, so i'm going to have to lay off for a while. I did find some gluten-free stuff in El Corte Ingles, but it's expensive and not very good. Sad. Maybe once a week would be a reasonable amount to have a sweet pastry. Ironically, it seems to be the whole grain stuff that results in the worst reaction! Fortunately, there's a sandwich shop right around the corner from my house that sells gluten-free bread with their entrepans - the best Catalan word ever. It literally means "between bread."

Now, if you'll excuse me, it's Saturday night and i have some serious dancing to attend to!

Work: Art and Otherwise

2008-09-29T21:19:00.002+02:00

(Sigh, this should have been two entries. I'm verbose - where on earth did i get *that* from??)

So, i have a strong desire to not spend *all* of my money in Spain. I'd like to have enough to go to India and Bali and then a little to get set up in Charlottesville for a few months. Jette is the funky way cool director of the art school i'm attending, and after meeting her children i offered her my babysitting services. She immediately said she could send my information to a list of "mummies" that she's connected to in the area, and shortly after she did that, i was flooded with job offers. Hooray! I've taken two; i need time to work in the studio and do yoga and enjoy the city, and with two i'm making 60+ euro a week, which makes my life much more comfortable.

One family lives on the edge of the city. They have two children, and i work with their daughter, Alexandra, primarily. She's five, and precocious and adorable. Her favorite movie is the Little Mermaid. We get along famously. Their mother is very insistent that i only and always speak English. The first day i was working with Alex, she was tenaciously trying to teach me Spanish, asking me to say names of colors and animals - the same approach i was using in English! It's hard, using only English when she doesn't always understand (sometimes i cheat and whisper to her in Spanish if i really need to). Her little brother, Arthur, is terribly rambunctious and i can't possibly teach Alex any English if i'm having to wrangle him too, so he stays with his mom while i'm there, mercifully. The first day i was there, she did have me with both of them, and afterwards i thought, "What have i gotten myself into?!?"

The second family i only started with yesterday. They live in Segur de Calafell, which is a 45-minute train ride out of the city. It's kind of a long way, but i like the train, and the air is cleaner there. They also have a daughter and a son, 4 years and 20 months respectively. It was a huge hassle to get there yesterday, with confusion on my part due to omission of detail on the mother's part. Whoops. But i did arrive, and went from the train station to pick up the daughter at a friend's house, where we lingered and lingered while the girls played. The friend's house was up on a hill with an incredible view of sea in the distance - the town is smallish, and tucked in around mountains on the shore, like Barcelona, but without the large valley that Barcelona occupies. At their house, the mother and i sat at the kitchen table and got to know each other. She spoke to me in rapid fire Spanish, and after a while i realized i'd spent the entire day speaking Spanish and that i was understanding and responding well. In other words, having real, adult conversations in Spanish about things other than, how much does this cost? and where is the train station? She's more interested in straight forward childcare than formal teaching English. She said she wants someone with fresh energy and a different cultural background to spend time with her kids, and "if you want to speak some English, great." The town where they live, curiously, is five minutes from Sitges, which is where the Spanish foreign exchange student we had when i was five (i think?) is from.

Here's what i've been working on in the studio. More cutouts, more collage, but evolving. Metafora students are invited every year to participate in an AIDS exhibition in the city. Initially i was not planning on submitting a piece, but i've since had an idea (inspired by my chicken-wire collage!) and so i'm currently researching and sketching. I've got a pretty good visual brainstorm going. I think.

Here's the final (ha) version of the dancing ladies:

This piece directly inspired by my yoga teacher, likely not the final version. I was so excited about the yellow paper and now i'm that i'm using i'm less than enthused about the results.

Same deal with this one, the yellow paper cut-outs, i believe, have got to go. I've pulled them off since this picture:

Oh yeah, ick. Those should not come back. Anyway, moving on...

No idea what will go between the trees.

I'm quite excited about this painting below. I used a hand-printing technique that didn't go quite as i'd planned, but i liked the way it turned out anyway. I used the sheela-na-gig pattern from the other piece to create negative space, as well as leaves and organic material collected from a nearby park. After the printing part, i used the leaves as a stamp. To take care of my aversion to white paper these days, i brushed over the whole thing with a tint when i was finished.

This one i made with a similar hand-printing technique, but i used a jar, and then more leaf-stamps afterwards. I am soooo rebelling against what i learned in painting class at Centre. Or maybe i'm building on it. Yeah, that's it, evolving... Whatever, i like it quite a lot, maybe even enough to let the paper around it stay white.

I'm floating the idea of the sheela cut out on this one, too. I just love her! Though maybe the dancing lady would be better on that one...

And here's my latest effort. The leaves i used to "stamp" onto the pages with looked so pretty i couldn't just toss them, so they became this:

I'm still figuring out how to get the wire to stay. Sew it to the paper, probably.

Don't worry, i can still draw people.

Gaudi and More Strange Customs

2008-09-26T19:52:00.003+02:00

So, a couple of weeks ago i finally went to see the Sagrada Familia and Park Guell, two of the major Gaudi works in Barcelona. They were cool, but i have to say i don't really understand what all the fuss is about. I like the Palau de la Musica much better, which is a modernist work, but isn't even by Gaudi. I didn't go in the Sagrada Familia, because it costs 10€! The Sagrada Familia is famously perpetually under construction, despite Gaudi's death in the 20s. The front is the newer part, and is much different than the back. It's been criticized as not being in keeping with Gaudi's vision. I walked through Park Guell, took advantage of the open space to play with my poi, talked to some jewelry-makers (i got a stunning handmade amethyst bracelet for 10€, much more worth it than going into the Sagrada Familia). I didn't stay there long, though, the tourists were kind of overwhelming. It's on top of a hill (a REALLY BIG hill), so the view was spectacular.

Then i spent the rest of the day at the beach.

Last weekend was Barcelona's celebration of La Merce, which is different than what i went to in Tarragona, which was not actually La Merce, just Catalunya's national day. La Merce is the festival in honor of the Virgin of Mercy, who supposedly saved the city from a plague of locusts once upon a time. The legend is more complicated than that, but i can't remember it all. Anyway, the whole city celebrates with free concerts and parades and such all weekend. Also, everyone gets drunk. Walking around that night, it was like being in college on a Friday night, except instead of just the campus, it was the whole city. It was pretty amazing. I went to see two amazing DJs spin at an open-air venue near the sea, as well as seeing the Carrefoc parade, which is basically a bunch of people in devil costumes running around with fireworks. Seriously. What that has to do with the Virgin of Mercy, i can't quite comprehend.

I LOVE living in Barcelona. I love riding the metro, i love the buildings, i love the sea, the market, the people in the street, speaking Spanish and getting better at it. I love my classes and my studio and the tutors. My classmates are great. I discovered an incredible area of the city yesterday, and i know there are more that i'll find. I think that if my framily was here with me, i'd just be happy as a clam to stay for a while. Though, if Sarah Palin ends up president of the United States... well, this isn't a political blog.

So that's basically what i've been up to, other than joining a gym, where i'm swimming and taking capoeira classes. Of course, i've also been busy in the studio, progressing with the paper dolls and moving in a new direction with them as of today! But that's for the next post. Happy Friday!

Finding a Routine

2008-09-20T01:14:00.004+02:00

School has started in earnest now, we're through the introductory phase and workshops began this week. I'm sitting in on the figure drawing workshop, so i can take it or leave it as i please, since i already have a lot of experience with it. Yesterday i took body casting, which was absolutely incredible! Today i took welding, which i stayed for about a third of and then got too freaked out to stay. Did you know that the mask you have to wear when you weld doesn't allow you to see anything but the light from the welding machine? I had no idea. Noooo thank you. Cutting the steel was bad enough, sparks flying everywhere and crazy noise... I think that part of the call of art for me is the kinesthetic sense i get of putting pencil to paper, paintbrush to pain, and, though i've mostly avoided 3-D art, even fingers to clay (or plaster, these days).

So i fled the welding shop to the safety of my own studio, and continued working on the stuff i already had started. I've loved working with collage so far, and i did more of it today. As i've mentioned, i'm working with the theme of the body. I thought i'd posted some pieces already, but i realize i haven't! Ah yes, i said the next entry was going to be about the art exhibits i've seen. Oops, oh well. So -

This is the first shape i worked with, a dancing lady. I love this figure, it's joyful, sensual, and unabashed. Originally this lady was part of a whole row on white paper, but the others got altered:

For some reason i've gotten quite averse to working on stark white paper, and i've been using a lot of brown paper bags, of all things. Here's the rest of the dancing ladies, which where originally on white:

I got really annoyed with the white and filled the space quickly and without thinking too hard about it, and really screwed it up, so i cut out the parts i liked and put it on the brown paper. Since that photo, other elements have been added and it looks more finished, but i don't seem to have a photo of it.

This piece is yoga-inspired. It began as this and evolved to this:

The text around the figures in the original is a sutra from a yogic text, the Vijnana Bhairava, that i study as part of my teacher training. It says:

"The flowers, the candles, the honey
that are offered in worship are
made out of the same divine stuff as you.
Who then is worshipped?"

I haven't added it back into the second version, but i will.

This little piece was inspired by the pre-Christian figure of Sheela-Na-Gig, predominately found in Ireland:

It was quite an evolution, getting the composition right. It started here, then i tried this. Neither of those worked for me, so i moved on, and ended up with the one you see above. Actually, looking at the four versions, i'm not sure which i like better. The figures aren't glued down yet, so i can still change my mind. Suggestions?

This piece is less related directly to the body theme, but i love it:

After the body casting workshop, i did a cast of my own torso, which was an amazing experience. I love the way it turned out, but, um, it's kind of like me naked from the waist to collarbone, so i'm just going to link it instead of posting the image. This is what the texture of the surface is like:

I have very exciting plans for that one, though.

So i've been buzzing along and working a lot, i'm very excited about my cut-outs and collages, though they're very, very different from anything i've ever worked on before. Because of the training i've had, i have this concept that art should be hard and should take a long time to realize. Most of these pieces have taken a couple of sessions of two hours or so, but i'm really happy with them and would put them under glass as they are, and feel good about showing them. That's a very radical feeling for me!

Also, feedback is very welcome.

Castells, Torres, y Pilares

2008-09-13T01:40:00.003+02:00

(Castles, Towers, and Pillars)

Mid-September in Barcelona sees the Festiu de la Mercè, Festival of Saint Mary of Mercy, Catalonia's "national day" - like Independence Day, except Catalonia isn't independent. So we have a four-day weekend from school. I decided to go to Tarragona, which is a short train ride south of Barcelona. It's a Roman city, with relatively intact ruins and beautiful, less crowded beaches. I spent most of the day checking out the ruins and swimming. The ruins were nice, but not much once you've seen the Pont du Gard and Le Temple de Diane and the arena (and so on...) in Nimes, France. The beach was indeed lovely, i hiked out to a sparsely populated small beach hidden between two cliffs. I swam for probably three hours, enjoying the bigger waves, the scenery, and losing an earring. A handmade garnet piece i got on the Charles Bridge in Prague, i'm quite sad about it, actually.

After a very late lunch and some sketching, i got to see the "human castles." It's some kind of tradition of building very high towers out of people. It's a little hard to explain, so i took a bunch of pictures!

There are different teams that participate, though it's not a competition and they all seem to help each other. Each one has their own little outfit. The first thing they do is wrap their lower backs with stretchy black cloth. They wrap it very tightly. This has a two-fold purpose - the first is to protect the back, and the second... well, you'll see shortly.

This guy used a neck brace as well:

Then they made a big mass of people. I'm sure there was a very deliberate structure to it, but it wasn't clear to the untrained eye:

It was obvious that they were making kind of a human flying buttress.

Then they started building...

Structural integrity requires a special kind of intimacy in this situation:

Now, even i, with my unpracticed human-tower building skills, could figure out that the bigger, heavier people went on the bottom, and the smaller, lighter ones went on top. What i didn't expect was out little and light the ones on the very top would be:

That little girl is not older than 6!

Here's the second one being built. If you look closely, you can see the second reason for the black bands - footholds!

A third one, with little teeny girls ready to scale to the top:

My favorite part was the beginning of the end. The little ones would climb to the top for just a split second, wave, and then they would shimmy down all the way to the bottom, like they were sliding down a coconut tree. I thought it was incredibly cute, but i can't imagine ever letting my own child do something like that. They must have been up three stories. And one of the towers got quite wobbly at one point!

Today i went to see the Olafur Eliasson exhibit, which i'll write about in my next entry. Tomorrow, the flea market! And possibly La Sagrada Familia, a massive landmark i have yet to see.

"That Guy" and More Pictures

2008-09-08T23:36:00.003+02:00

You know how there's always one? You know, that guy (or girl). As soon as he or she opens his or her mouth to talk, the whole rest of the class braces for the awfulness that will soon spew forth.

Today we were talking about our respective cultures and what they mean as far as our identity. The first theme we've been given to work with is the Tower of Babel. One of the Americans in the class seemed to think he was running the discussion (he knows everything about everything). At one point he interrupted an Icelandic woman "just so i can clear this one thing up about America." And started trying to "debunk" some stereotype about American politicians being the most corrupt - i wasn't aware of that one - making a total fool of himself and embarrassing the rest of the Americans in the room. At the same time, he managed to forcefully uphold that other stereotype about Americans (loud, ignorant, obnoxious). Finally, the tutor who was actually running the discussion said, "Stop talking." Sheesh.

Now, pictures of the apartment, inside.

My room!

This is Raul and Luis, in the ginormous-especially-for-a-European-apartment kitchen:

Hallway. For reference on the height of the ceilings, that coat rack you see on the wall is about at head level for me.

The living room:

The living room again, with the doors opening onto the balcony:

And here's the view from the balcony. It's the metro stop!

Today we were assigned our first projects and given just over an hour to do them - a 15 cm x 15 cm self portrait of our "identity," within the cultural context that we'd spent the morning talking about. Here's what i made:

It's interesting, it seems like none of us in the workshop had particularly strong feelings about our home countries. The older students, the ones from Iceland, were an exception, but also their country is tiny and isolated. There was some discussion of globalization and the internet having a big impact on our generation and how we feel our cultural identities.

Someday when i have nothing else to post about, i'll write about the washing machine.

A Spanish Sunday

2008-09-07T21:39:00.004+02:00

Left to my own devices, with no work schedule or meetings on the weekends, it amazes me how fast i'll switch to a nocturnal rhythm. Friday night i was up until 4 AM, Saturday until 5 AM. This isn't helped by the fact that the people i really miss and want to talk online with are around, because it's a reasonable hour for them. Anyway, despite my late night last night, i was able to get up by 1 PM and out of the house to do something by 3ish.

The first Sunday of every month, the Picasso museum is free, so i went there. I loved it last time i was in Barcelona, but this round, i was rather disappointed. As a general rule, i think Picasso is overrated, but i love the Blue Period stuff, and he was quite a skilled portraitist, before he got into Cubism. And of course, it's flooring that he produced so much exhibition worthy work before he was 15. I love Cézanne's version of Cubism, but Picasso's is so flat, it's like looking at a math problem. Which, of course, works for some people. Anyway, i think they rotate their permanent collection, because i didn't see any of the portraits that bowled me over before, and their representation of the Blue Period was quite small. That's not how i remembered it, i wonder if they have stuff out on loan as well. Anyway, i'm glad i went, and i'm glad i went on a free admission day!

The museum is in one of the oldest parts of the city, in the area of the Barri Gótic and El Born. It's extremely intriguing there. The streets are impossibly narrow and the buildings are tall, so it gives a real sense of being in a maze. I even passed some frustrated American exclaiming, "How do we get out of this rat trap?!" I spent a couple of hours wandering pleasantly around, enjoying first an espresso, then a peach twice the size of my fist, and then vegan gelato. I sat on a corner on Via Laietana, between El Born and La Rambla, enjoying my ice "cream" and watching people and pigeons. Then i hopped on the metro and went to the beach :)

It just hit me today that i can go to the ocean whenever i want to, and how good for me that is. I spent most of Saturday sleeping or online, and when i did go out late in the afternoon, i felt tired and lost. I was missing Ethan and Angie in particular and woke up in a funk today also. The caffeine, the sugar, and the wandering helped a lot, but as soon as i put my toes in the ocean and felt the pull and release of the tides, i really felt myself relax. It's still warm enough to swim, and will be for a while, so i intend on making the most of it while i can. I went to a different beach today, not far from the one i visited before, just on the other side of the port, Port Vell. It wasn't far, but it was a lot different! The sand was coarser and had more rocks, and the water was cloudier. After i swam, i sat there, listening to the seas around me - one (obviously) of water, the other of myriad languages and voices. Sometimes it amazes me that i made it here. It seems almost like a dream that i sat for hours and hours in JFK and flew to Iceland and was in Paris - yet here i am. I'm quite proud of myself!

I'm not doing a very good job of keeping a consistent practice. My yoga practice flares up every now and then, i'm eating kind of erratically, sleeping odd hours. I know good and well that it's important for me to have a consistent schedule, and that it's probably the most important thing for me to take time every day to get into my body, whatever form that may take - yoga, dance, poi, and to meditate regularly and eat mindfully, and i'm just not doing it, and it's showing in my volatile moods. I know my art will be better, too, if i can keep a consistent practice. Hopefully it will be easier with only a 15 minute commute to school.

Which i'll be making again tomorrow! They're introducing the first theme - The Tower of Babel - though i've already decided what theme i'm working with, which is fine they said for "more mature" artists. Tuesday i have my welcome interview, when i'll get assigned my personal tutor.

Someday i'll write about the art exhibits i saw at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Also, interior apartment pictures coming soon, as soon as i clean my room. Er...

New Digs and New Ideas

2008-09-06T15:32:00.002+02:00

After Yara and Martin told me they wanted me to leave, the very next day right after class i started scouring the internet and making phone calls - mostly in Spanish! I called and called and lots of people were like, yeah, you can come see tomorrow; or we have people looking, we'll call you if that doesn't work out... etc. And then i called Raul. "Can i come see the apartment now?" Yes!

So i went, only one metro stop from school, met Raul and saw the apartment. It was beautiful! High ceilings, a balcony in the front and a porch in the back, and bedroom 3 times the size of the one i was currently occupying (no window, though), a large kitchen... "I'd love to move in," I said almost right away. It was well within my budget, and i wanted to move as fast as possible. He said he had three more people to show the apartment to but that he would call me at 7:30 and tell me. So i waited nervously, and finally i got the word - you can move in tonight! I hopped on the train, went back to Yara's, packed my stuff in half an hour and got the heck out of there.

Now i live near Plaza Espana, and it's a 15 minute walk from here to school. There's a tiny tiny grocery store on the corner, and the metro is fifty steps from my front door. I live with Raul and Luis, a cute Spanish couple, and Clemens, an Austrian student. It's not what i expected, moving to Barcelona, but i think it's actually an infinitely better situation. As Angie said, "Yara is just doing the work of the goddess."

Here's my building:

Right now i only have pictures of the lobby and stairwell:

Oh, and this is my front door.

School is still going well, i'm conceptualizing a massive project based around the idea of disconnection from the body. I'm planning on incorporating lots of different elements, sculpture and photography as well as painting and drawing. It's like nothing i've ever done before, and i'm really really excited about it. I have the time and the space and the support to do something like this for the first time. It's ambitious, and it may not fly, or may turn out like something entirely different than what i have in my head - it's morphed a few times already.

Here are some pictures of school!

There's a beautiful courtyard in the middle of the building:

My tiny (but mine!) studio:

This is the mural i'm working on, Saraswati. It looks a lot better now!

A hallway with bees:

European toilets are always an adventure. What do i do to make it flush? This one at school has a pull chain, and the whole things is mounted on the wall near the ceiling:

This is the student kitchen, adjacent to the courtyard and the darkroom. The sign on the open door says, Please Keep This Door Closed at All Times.

And me in the window :)

Lesson Learned: Always Have a Back-Up Plan

2008-09-04T17:40:00.004+02:00

Last night, right as i was going to bed, i heard a knock on my door. "Caroline?" It was Yara. "Can you come out here? We want to talk to you."

15 minutes later, i sat on my the bed, stunned. They want me to leave? I was totally shocked. I didn't realize i'd been on trial. They decided they don't like living with me, that i wasn't a good person to have in their house, and they wanted me to leave - and that there was someone else they wanted to put in my room on the 20th. "So you have like, two weeks, okay?"

Also, they were offended that i'd put my name on the food that i'd bought. It's very creepy to me to think they've been watching me and judging me and talking about me behind my back. There was not even any space for negotiation - no, these are the problems we're having, you could change it this way and it would be better - just - get out.

So i was on the phone and IM until 2 AM with various consoling family/framily members, while i cried, angry, hurt, and confused. Not only was i upset at the way they felt about me, i liked living there. I'd thought Yara and i were getting to be friends.

I've spent the afternoon looking for places, and i have one really good prospect that said i could probably move in. They had 3 other people to meet, but said i was the only English speaking one, which is what they were looking for, so, fingers crossed.

It's only €250, including utilities, which is incredibly cheap for Barcelona, especially the area and the quality of the building - it's GORGEOUS. It's what you think of when you think of classic Spanish architecture. There are two balconies, one in the back and one in the front, and they have a washing machine. And they also really have WiFi - no more windowsill perching.

And while they want to practice their English, i'm hoping also to practice Spanish. They're two guys (the one who showed me around is named Raul), they seem very nice. The apartment has very tall ceilings, dark hardwood floors, and the room is at least double the size of the one i'm in now. There's no window, but the apartment on the whole is full of light. And without a window, it will probably be quieter. Also, it's a 10-15 minute walk from school.

They're going to call me at 7:30 tonight to let me know for sure, and said i could move into tonight if i wanted. Which i will, if it takes til 2 AM. I don't want to share space with people who are so hostile to me. Ick.

Hopefully this is the last of the difficulties - though this is way worse than cell phone purgatory.

School!

2008-09-03T14:54:00.002+02:00

It's great! I'm so delighted. There seems to be a fantastic balance between guided work and free studio time. OH. And.

I HAVE MY OWN STUDIO I HAVE MY OWN STUDIO I HAVE MY OWN STUDIO

I am already putting up a mural of Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of creativity, water, the arts, and flow. And really, i've taken pictures now, so i'll post them tomorrow or later tonight.

I really like the people in my class so far, there are a few who seem like possibly good close friends, especially the guy whose studio is right next to mine. There are a few burners here, too, which i was stunned and pleased to discover. There are about 15 nationalities among ~35 people, not including the teachers.

The teachers seem fantastic, and really set on treating us like adults (Jette, the director of the school was describing their non-vertical philosophy of students and teachers). Piotr, a Polish painter (say that three times fast), is likely to be my individual tutor.

The educational structure is a module format. There are different workshops on different days. There are 132 hours of workshops offered, and they ask us to choose 40-60. They offer everything from basic welding and clothing design to introductory figure drawing. I'm currently planning on taking Body Molding, Basic Welding, Screen Printing, Textiles/Introduction to Fibres, Basic Clothes-Making, Molding/Casting, Graphic Design, Textures in Painting, Painting the Human Figure, and Portfolios/Grants/Sponsorships. I'm also planning on doing a project with Polaroid emulsion, which i did in high school and loved and haven't made the time or opportunity to do again. I'll probably also sit in on the basic figure drawing workshop, to get a review and re-teach my hands.

Yesterday i was feeling purposeless and bored and homesick. Now i'm excited and while i still miss folks back home, i'm sure this was the right decision. Looking at the spring curriculum, i'm somewhat disappointed that i'm not staying the whole year.

Now i'm off to the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, to see the Nancy Spero exhibit. Nancy Spero was a pioneer of feminist art, and while i often don't like art with a specific political agenda, i saw some of her work at the MoMA New York, and it positively stunned me. So i'm looking forward to it!

Grocery Stores and Homesickness

2008-09-02T22:29:00.001+02:00

Yesterday I made my first venture out to the grocery store. There's a small basic one near the house called Consum. Small means there are three short aisles, and one of those is toiletries, pet food, and cleaning supplies. I was getting very basic stuff that hopefully will last a while, like rice and lentils and beans in addition to vegetables and water (our tap water tastes really weird). Big grocery stores like Food Lion or Kroger are rare over here, mostly there are small specialty stores. There's a big indoor market here in Sant Boi that looks like a big box store from the outside and on the inside is set up exactly like the outdoor street markets!

So Consum is tiny, and yesterday it was PACKED with loud Spaniards, and loud music playing in the background. Grocery shopping has always been kind of overwhelming for me, and this tiny crowded noisy place was hard to be in. Add to that the unfamiliarity of well, everything, and I found myself almost in tears in front of the shampoo. Even the vegetables are different. The fresh ones almost all come packaged in plastic on styrofoam plates, like meat, and they have jars of things like green beans and corn instead of cans.

I do like that most of what I bought yesterday is a product of Spain, even the rice and the orange juice. Another perk of living outside the main city of Barcelona is that things are waaay less expensive. I only spent a little more than 11 euros yesterday, and probably won't have to go back again until next week.

Yesterday I started really feeling the absence of familiar people and things, and I was pretty sad for most of the day. I miss Ethan and Angie especially – they're the two people who share the bulk of my daily life. I miss the kids at Twin Oaks and the tall trees. Feeling homesick for the landscape is something I experienced in France, too. I'm also a little sad at the idea of missing fall and winter. They're such cozy nice times at Twin Oaks.

I've been here for over a week now and i'm all settled in (even cell phone purgatory is over!), so i've been a little bored the past couple of days. I think the lack of specific activity has exacerbated my feeling homesick. School starts tomorrow, so hopefully that will help me reconnect with my sense of purpose. Also i'll activate my monthly metro pass tomorrow so it will be cheaper for me to venture into the city. I'm looking forward to meeting my classmates. I'm hoping to find a kindred soul with whom to experience the famous Barcelona nightlife! There are two art exhibits i'm looking forward to (Olafur Eliasson and Nancy Spero, both brilliant contemporary artists), and there are a couple of touristy things I still have left to do in the city – Park Guell and La Sagrada Familia, both Gaudi projects.

Soon i'll need to do laundry. A Spanish laundromat - that should be an adventure too!

The Neighbors

2008-08-31T21:22:00.004+02:00

The first night I was here, I was talking with Yara, and she said, “Spanish people are LOUD.” She wasn't kidding. I don't live on a quiet street. It's short, only a block long, but the whole street basically is apartments, and lots of cars come and go all day and lots of the night. People walk by my window, which opens on to the street. Thankfully, it's a little higher than head-level.

The neighbors across the street are the worst. One is like a Spanish Gladys Kravitz (the nosy neighbor from Bewitched). She literally looks in our windows, not even trying to be discreet about it. And then we can hear her talking about us! She had a grandson that appears to be her babysitting charge on weekdays, and he is LOUD. He likes to stand on the balcony, which I can see from my bed, and shout about anything and everything.

Then there's Puking Guy. Somebody, somewhere in that apartment complex pukes, several times a day, every day. It sounds like a male, and it doesn't seem to happen according to any specific time of day, so I don't think it's a daily hangover. It's pretty disgusting. It goes on and on, and just when you think it's stopped... he pukes again. Maybe he has some debilitating illness and i'm being really awful by being grossed out, but it is gross.

And there are barking dogs, and the unnecessarily loud European scooters... This is not what i'm used to!

The cool thing about the building across the street is the metal shutters. We have them too - you use a strap next to the window to raise and lower them. In France, the ones in my apartment had an electric button, like a lightswitch. I suppose it's too keep it dark in the room during the summer when the European sun rises so early and stays out so late, or during siesta time. But what's fun is that across the street, people seem to raise and lower them about the same time in every apartment. So there's this funny symphony of shutters clacking up and down, depending on what time of day it is. More noise, yes, but intensely amusing.

The good news is, i've found wireless access from the house. On the roof! And it only seems to be in one specific spot. We'll see how long it lasts... and how long I can tolerate the mosquitoes... I may have to resort to the Pringle "Cantenna".

The Mediterranean, Simón, and El Corte Ingles

2008-08-30T19:56:00.002+02:00

Today I was supposed to meet up with other students from Metafora, but I was late. This will come as a great shock to those of you who have ever had a class with me, scheduled work, or anything to which I was supposed to be on time. Anyway, we were going to go to the beach, but I underestimated how long it would take to get there on the metro.

I can't explain how much I love the ocean. When I was a little girl, I believed that I was a mermaid, and I once told my mother on a vacation at the beach that I was going to go home to my real family. The last time I saw the ocean was well over a year ago, in Hawaii. Before that, it was in Barcelona in March 2006, when the sea blue and beautiful and FAR too cold to even think about getting in. Today, the beach at Barceloneta, near the Ciudad Olímpica, was packed. I stashed my stuff where I could keep an eye on it while swimming, strategically placing it near some other folks so it looked like it was with their stuff, and gratefully got into the water. It was hot today, and by that time I already knew I was getting sunburned. The water was clear and cool, the bottom was clear of shells and other things that cut one's feet, and there weren't very many critters, just some small minnows. It was incredibly lovely. There's a beach that's closer to my house than school – tough decision.

I wasn't swimming long before I spotted a Spanish guy on a pink raft giving me the eye. Oh great, I thought, and cracked up in spite of myself. He took that as an invitation and paddled over to me, introducing himself as Simón. He was very friendly, and flirted with me in a not obnoxious way, so I talked to him for a while. He didn't speak much English, so the conversation was pretty simple. He tried very hard to persuade me to go dancing with him tonight, but I politely declined, several times, until he got the picture. When he finally realized I wasn't single, he said, “But do you have a boyfriend in Barcelona?” “No,” I replied. “Well that's me!” Yes, exactly what I was looking for my third day in Barcelona. (Is it my third day? I'm having a hard time keeping track of what day of the week it is.)

Yesterday after I went to the library, I stopped at a Vodafone store to see about getting more minutes on my phone – this has been an epic struggle. I have a prepaid British phone that my dad gave me, that came with a card that was supposed to be used to add more minutes, but apparently it doesn't work for adding minutes unless you're IN England, and it took forever to establish that. Anyway, in the store, I went round and round with this friendly woman who didn't speak a word of English to establish that she couldn't do anything with a prepaid phone like I had and I had to go to El Corte Ingles to get what I needed, which was to switch it to the Spanish Vodafone network and get more time put on the card.

El Corte Ingles is a huge high-end Spanish department store, it's a chain and they have them all over the country. The thought of it kind of leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth; I had a a bad experience there when I was in Sevilla last time I travelled in Spain, over spring break during my semester abroad. Somehow, I wandered off the map after getting groceries, and got horribly lost in the dark in this city with winding streets. I'm the type to navigate by landmarks, and I kept seeing this huge green sign for El Corte Ingles. Then I would walk a little bit, and see it again, so I would turn around and then see it again after a minute – it was like being in the twilight zone, and I couldn't find my way. I was exhausted, and starting to feel panicky. Finally, somehow I escaped, and the next day I realized there were like FIVE separate buildings with that same sign, which I couldn't tell in the dark.

I knew there was a branch in Plaça Catalunya, a major square in Barcelona, which is at the beginning of La Rambla, the big touristy pedestrian walkway with flower sellers and El Mercat de la Boquéria, the famous Barcelona market. Some of the fruit vendors there have more items I can't identify than ones I recognize.

So the store there is absolutely enormous. I was a little unsure if they would really have what I needed, and my doubt increased as I went up the escalators. I kept going up and nothing on any of the floors I came to had anything to do with cell phones. Finally, on the 7th (and not the top!) floor, I found the cell phones. It was so crowded you had to take a number and wait for them to call you. The first counter I waited at was the wrong thing, so I went to the right one, took a number and waited. And waited. And waited. Finally about half an hour, they called my number, and I told them what I needed. Immediately I asked if they spoke English, because I'd been in the store an hour already, and rather than educate myself I wanted to expedite the process. The woman helping me did speak English, of course, and got me a new SIM card. I was so relieved! I grabbed a charger for the phone, since I had a charger with a British plug, and a car charger, neither of which were doing me any good. I paid, and decided to put the new SIM card in right then and there. And what else but... SIM Card Not Valid. So I got another number, back in line. Instead of sitting around, I went down a couple of floors, found an adapter for my computer plug, and came back. Still 8 people in front of me, so I went down all nine floors to the basement and got a snack (a peach – lots of lush, locally grown peaches in the stores around here), and came back. I'd missed my turn, of course, so I took another number, and thank goodness, only had to wait a little bit to discover that before I could use the new card, my phone needed to be “liberated,” which she couldn't do, but I could have it done “at the Pakistani places, you know what I mean?” Luckily I did, there's one near my house. They're these places that have international phones, internet, phone cards, etc; but after catching the train back to Sant Boi, I found out that for whatever reason, they can't do it until Monday.

I'm in cell phone purgatory.

Next entry: The Puking Guy and Gladys Kravitz (both featured across the street) and soon, pictures!

Settling In

2008-08-29T16:09:00.003+02:00

Yara picked me up at the train station, walked me home and even helped me carry what had become impossibly heavy bags. She´s studying for medical exams - she´s in school for Chinese medicine - so after dropping me off at home she was back to the library for most of the rest of the day.

Their place is great. By European standards, it´s quite big. There´s a miniscule kitchen, a decent sized living room, a bathroom, and two large bedrooms and a third teeny tiny one, which i´m occupying. It´s certanly small, but it´s got a lot of light and good energy. It has a big window facing the street, with two big panes of glass that swing in and out - typical of European windows but it charms me every time. There´s a green iron grill outside the window, to keep people out and let air in (mosquitoes too, unfortunately). They have two dogs, so there´s a bit of a pet smell, but they´re very sweet animals. Generally i prefer cats, but these dogs don´t jump and push themselves on you, they wait to be invited for a cuddle. There´s a small courtyard in the back with an outdoor shower. They have roof access, and Yara says we can clean it off and do yoga up there.

Sant Boi, the town where i´m living, is less than 20 minutes by train to the center of Barcelona, and i´m glad to be living outside of the main city. It´s quieter, safer, and smells better. Mostly people don´t speak English, so it´s good for my Spanish, especially since Yara and Martín speak English at home. I´m a little disappointed about that. At the moment, i´m using the internet at the library, and i got a library card all by myself without asking the woman to slow down or repeat herself. There´s no wireless access at Yara´s house, unfortunately, but i´m pretty sure i´ll have it at school.

Yesterday, Yara took me to get keys made for their door, and to get sheets for the bed at the "Chinese stores" - they have a little bit of everything, for cheap. I still need to get a lamp for my room, adaptors for the outlets, switch my cell phone to the Spanish network and put more minutes on it. Then i went into the center of Barcelona, walked around and found my school (though like everything in Spain, they´re closed 90% of the time in August), and ate some falafel. My body is still adjusting, and hasn´t wanted very much food so far while i´ve been here. Very strange.

I am happy to be living with Yara. She is kind and generous and sweet and tough. Her boyfriend works most of the time, he´s a pizza boy, so i have only seen him once. Also i´ve been sleeping a LOT since i arrived, going to bed between 11 PM and midnight, and sleeping until noon or 1 PM. Today i will try to work out the rest of the little things i need to be settled and then tomorrow i´ll go to the beach to meet up with my new classmates, and then in the afternoon maybe go to Can Mas Deu, the community on the northeast side of the city.

New York to Barcelona

2008-08-29T15:44:00.008+02:00

Flying to Iceland: I didn´t sleep. At all. I read a book and wrote in my paper journal. Watching the sunrise from the airplane was incredible, and it reminded me of the last time i went to Barcelona, being on a train from Seville and unable to sleep. I was very annoyed about it, but the train tracks went right along the Mediterranean and i saw a most incredible sunrise - it was worth it, as was this one. I regretted that the battery in my camera was dead and i couldn´t take a photo! Landing, i saw the landscape of Iceland, which is about the size of Kentucky. The area around Rekyavik was very, very flat for the most part, but then out of nowhere there would be a huge, rocky mountain. The flat areas looked like what i imagine moors to look like. Lots of long grass. Then, the flat areas would drop very suddenly into the ocean. It was beautiful, and stark. The language, Isklenska, is very interesting and impossible to decipher. I read that their language is so pure that most Icleanders can read ancient Viking texts. Wow! So i was there for about an hour, and spent the rest of my American money buying fruit. The plane from there to Paris was packed with French teenagers. They must have been on a school trip to the US or something. They were very loud and the girl behind me was very put out when i leaned my chair back, being so exhausted at that point that i really was ready to sleep.

Paris: I took the metro from Charles de Gaulle (where it had taken forever to get my bags) to the Gare d´Austerlitz, the train station for all southbound trains. There, i changed my ticket to an earlier, direct, and less expensive train to Barcelona. And i did it entirely in French - not having spoken regularly since i graduated, it felt like quite the accomplishment. Unfortunately, after the sleepless flight, i wasn´t up for much exploring of Paris, so i sat in the train station and watched people and read my book and listened to people. The Gare d´Austerlitz is quite beautiful.

RENFE to Barcelona: The RENFE is the Spanish train network. My train left Paris at 8:30, and i was in a sleeper car with two other American girls who were travelling before starting internships in Italy. They were very amusing. The conductor was the only one who could put down the beds, which were folded up into the wall. He couldn´t get there fast enough! I was so excited to get into a real(ish) bed and have a full night´s sleep. He finally arrived, and i crawled into bed, put my earplugs in, and the next thing i knew, the door was flying open, and the conductor was shouting, Media hora a Barcelona! (Half an hour to Barcelona)

Barcelona to Sant Boi: I´d assumed i´d have wireless in the train station in Paris. That hadn´t been the case, so i arrived in Barcelona without the phone number and address of my hostess. Oops! So i had to schlep all my stuff around until i found a wireless hot spot. The first challenge, however, was finding the metro. The tourist map i´d gotten at the train station had big blue M symbols all over it. Obviously that meant metro; so i headed for the nearest one on the map and searched and searched and found nothing. Only after asking someone where the nearest metro was did i realize that the big blue Ms indicated museums, and the metro was marked with tiny little black and white Ms inside diamonds. Of course, how silly of me. By then i was hot and tired and dehydrated, so i searched fruitlessly for water, finding only vending machines and having only a 50€ note - the smallest i´d been able to get from the ATM. I wished for a sherpa. Eventually i got to the central train station (Sants Estació), many metro stops away from the one i´d arrived at. There, i found wireless, called Yara, and was soon on my way to Sant Boi. I got on the wrong train at first, and had to retrace my steps back to Sants. But then i got on the right one, and soon Yara was picking me up at the train station in Sant Boi, and we were on our way to her house with her dog.

Enough Airports

2008-08-25T21:00:00.003+02:00

I'm still at JFK airport, where i've been since about 10 PM last night; but i've gotten placed on a flight! I'm flying out at 8:35, i have a one hour layover in Iceland, and then i fly on to Paris, where i'll land at about 1 PM tomorrow. I'll have half a day in Paris, and i take an overnight train to Barcelona, where i'll arrive on Wednesday morning. So almost four full days of travel! Wow. I'm hoping i'll feel rested and energetic while i'm in Paris so i can walk around and see some stuff, walk through some of my favorite areas like St Chappelle and Passy, find a good place to have dinner, maybe find a small art exhibit, half a day is no time to try to even go inside the Louvre. The Musee d'Orsay, on the other hand...

And while i'm quite glad that my flight over costs less than $350, i have certainly earned it, sleeping on the cold marble floor. If i'd had the energy, i would have gotten out my yoga mat to sleep on, but it was too deep in my luggage for me to deal with it after a couple of hours of running from terminal to terminal, searching for a (comparatively) comfortable place to rest and hunting wireless internet access.

But now i know when and where i'm flying, i'm simply waiting to check in, though there is this small matter of having to have your e-ticket printed... though i'm sure i can overcome that one. I have a confirmation number and a passport.

Iceland! Cool! Maybe i'll run into Bjork.

On My Way

2008-08-24T15:17:00.004+02:00

On Wednesday, i left Twin Oaks, where i've lived since May of last year, to go to Cleveland with my boyfriend Ethan to meet his family. After three lovely days there, i'm currently on the train to New York City, where i'll languish in JFK International Airport for hopefully not more than a couple of days while i'm waiting to get a standby flight to somewhere in Europe. I'm embarking on this endeavor on a shoestring, so i'm stretching my money as far as I can – and a standby ticket, roundtrip, is only $550! This girl can sit in an airport. I'm good at amusing myself. Just another part of the adventure...

When I get to Barcelona, i'll be living with an ex-member of Twin Oaks. I'm so grateful for the world-wide network that community creates; all I have to do is ask a few people, “Hey, who do we know in... Barcelona? New Zealand? Germany? Africa?” and i'll get answers! She technically lives in Sant Boi, which is somewhat outside the city, about 6.5 miles (time to start thinking in kilometers!) from Metafora. I'm hoping to get a bike or figure out how to jump the turnstiles, because Barcelona's metro system, while very clean, safe, and efficient, is quite expensive.

I'll be in Barcelona for the fall semester, which ends on December 11th. I'll spend the rest of that month in Barcelona with some friends from Twin Oaks (members of my “framily” - Angie, Paxus, Hawina, Willow, maybe Sky and Kassia, hopefully Ethan). Angie and I will spend Christmas with one of her dearest friends, either in Belfast or in Morocco if we're lucky. After that, i'll go to France to stay near Paris with some family friends, doing English tutoring to replenish my funds and increase my fluency in French.

In March, my brilliant and amazing yoga teacher, Shiva Rea, will be teaching classes on yoga and Ayurveda in India, and further yoga and philosophy classes in Bali at this amazing sustainable Waldorf/Steiner school, the Green School, so if I can stretch my cash far enough, i'll be joining her there. The Green School has a volunteer program, so if I like it there I may stay for a month or so.

I'm nervous and excited. I'm sad to be leaving Ethan and Angie, other friends and a beloved and stable home at Twin Oaks. I'm excited to live in a city, and meet new people and get back in touch with my spontaneous creativity, which i nearly lost all sight of in the midst of the more formal art education of Centre (which i value tremendously). I'm thrilled at the idea of experiencing India and a whole 'nother continent that i've only dreamed about.

My goals are to be as open as i can to the experience as a whole, the people i'll encounter and the new opportunities that will arise, while at the same time honoring and holding space in my heart for what's already there. This semester is like test-driving graduate school, to find out if it's something I want to pursue more seriously, and to find my own rhythm as an artist. I'm looking down other paths and places and seeing if there are other directions that fit me better. After i come back to the US, i'm hoping to explore the West Coast and see what's there. Hey, if i get to Bali, i might as well just come on around the whole thing, right?

Let the adventure begin!