This weekend...

... I became a fan of The Hunger Games. I started the first book on a bus ride to Bristol and I finished the next day.  I was reading around other people who kept asking if it was really that good. If you're only into literature or complicated characters and plots, then maybe The Hunger Games isn't for you. But I love good adventure fiction written for kids. It's simple and powerful. Oooh... I just watched the movie trailer and got chills.

Speaking of adventures for kids, my friend Megan and I went to see We Bought A Zoo. I hadn't been to a light hearted PG movie in a long time. (They say "bad words" in PG movies these days! Or did I just not hear them when I was eight?) In short, Matt Damon's character buys a zoo and lives on the property with his two kids. There are lions and tigers and a big ole grizzly bear. I may have cried a little bit. Did you know the movie's based on a true story and the actual zoo is in England?  Stay tuned. I'll most definitely be taking a day trip this spring.

Happy adventuring,
mb

Linking with love: Hunger Games, We Bought A Zoo

Thoughts & Ireland photos

So many evenings I'm power walking through London's business district, headed home, bundled up in my trenchcoat and scarf, zig zagging through business suits and shoppers and bicyclists, and my mind is overflowing with thoughts. Questions, goals, guilts, revelations, confessions. And I consider blogging some of them. But I've become self-conscious about saying too much online. Honestly, I've become self-conscious about asserting an opinion in any forum, be it over dinner with friends or at work meetings.

You'd think I would become more confident and articulate as I got older, not less.

Maybe doing it in reverse isn't bad.

To break the blog silence... here are some things on my mind.

(a) Just DO something is one of my current mottos. I get easily overwhelmed and I'm learning that committing to small concrete actions is the only way forward. Taking a job at an investment bank - just do it. Running for 15 minutes - just do it. Reading with kids once a week - just do it. Praying for a couple of minutes - just do it. Calling a family member - just do it.

(b) For the past year, I've been concerned that I'm becoming more frustrated, cynical, demanding, and whiny than I've ever been. A few weeks ago, I had a revelation that maybe this is because historically, things have always come easy for me. And I've continued expecting everything to be easy... work, relationships, happiness, money management, public transportation, writing... No longer! Now, my expectations have changed. Now, I expect most things to be difficult. This way, I always have my game face on. I'm always ready to work hard.

That's the theory, anyway. I sure it's flawed.

(c) Reason #34 working for the investment bank was a good choice: I've volunteered more hours since September than I did in three entire years at college in Auburn.

(d) Most days, I feel like such a sell-out working in a bank... but it helps my sanity to spend time reading with middle schoolers and working on charity projects where everyone looks like a dirty hippie. It reminds me of life outside the corporate world.  Often fellow bankers are working alongside the dirty hippies, and that reminds me that (some) bankers want to save the world, too.

(e) Reason #209 I hate being a grown-up: knowing that you're ordinary and despite your third grade goal, you're not going to become the first female president of the United States of America.

(f) I love reading fiction these days. The last two novels I read were amazing. Read them: The History of Love by Nicole Krauss and The Glass Space by Simon Mawer.

Dave and I went to Ireland last weekend. It was pretty sweet. Beautiful blue skies, chilly autumn air, delicious comfort food, good books, seaside rocks and green hills to climb...

A great place to stay in Northern Ireland: Heathfield Farm

It's a great location for exploring major sights; the rooms are lovely and comfortable; the host, Heather, is friendly and has good travel trips; *and* she cooks such tasty breakfasts, which include several kinds of homemade bread (like the hobo that I am, I kept pieces of fruit bread in my pocket for snacking throughout the day).

I love Ireland. You should go there.

On a final note, a big happy birthday to both my parents. And... congratulations on the upcoming move to Italy!  I look forward to "going home" on the weekends...

The northern lights

Despite the sunshine, I've been in a grumpy mood for the past few days. The one thing I'm enjoying is rereading Phillip Pullman's "Northern Lights." I read the His Dark Materials trilogy when we first moved to England in 2002 and loved it so much that I named our dog after the heroine, Lyra. The books contain so much raw and beautiful adventure, and Lyra and the other kids are so innocent and fierce... they make me want to be ten years old again... preferably traveling across universes atop a loyal armored bear.

 Right now, Lyra is in her world's equivalent of Norway. I stumbled across this beautiful photo of Norway earlier... and it reminded of this song. Have a listen and have a good day.

The world is a weird place.

Here are three things I like.

[edited on Tuesday, May 3 to correct the MLK quote]

Quote by Martin Luther King Jr. 

"Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."

"Prince Harry, in a suit, holding a puppy."

(For aesthetically-pleasing comic relief during these serious times.)

via my sister's Facebook, via Pinterest

Day 5: A book you love.

John Irving's "A Prayer For Owen Meany" 

If you haven't read it, do. I recommend it to everyone. It's both weird and conventional. The characters are real, it makes me laugh out loud, and it says meaningful stuff about growing up, family, faith, friendship, war, and the supernatural.

Fairly makes your heart ache

It's spring fever. When you've got it, you want --- oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!

An overused but pertinent Mark Twain quote. What do I think I maybe want this spring?  Chocolate milkshakes all the time. And to be an organic farmer.  I just finished reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal Vegetable Mineral in which she writes about her family's year of being pretty strict "locavores": going totally local by growing and raising food on their small Virginian farm and purchasing food only from local vendors. An entertaining, delicious, and inspiring read. I forgot how overambitious I tend to be... last night I dreamt of canning my own tomatoes and raising my own rare-breed turkeys.

Back from New Orleans (where it rained and poured, see above umbrella photo) and Orange Beach and two weeks of good times with Dave Masom and other good people, I'm preparing for a final two month push in school and in forming my next major life plan. A few days before spring break, I was accepted into a UK graduate school.  Woo!  It's not my first choice, but it's still a good option and an encouragement.

In other news, I got my first speeding ticket on our way back from the beach.  Oops. If I could afford speeding tickets, I would continue to speed, but I can't, so I'm driving slower now. One victory for the law enforcement system.

Take your allergy meds and enjoy the sunshine!

Things we did in Guatemala

Happy two thousand and eleven!


Surprise, surprise - I didn't blog at all during the Christmas holidays.  Too busy eating obscene amounts of food and being happy!  I hope everyone had a great Christmas and is looking forward to this year.  I certainly am.  For the next seven days I'm having a "blog party" so to speak - one new blog post every day, maybe two or three!  Many posts will wrap up my Guatemala chapter, some will include lots of photos, and there'll be a few random posts as well.

First of all, straight out of my blog notebook: Things we did in Guatemala.  Hannah and I's trip had its ups and downs.  We didn't have the experience we had expected.  One day I was grumpy and dwelling on the things we didn't accomplish, and I decided to list our positive, memorable, and/or noteworthy experiences to remind myself that yes, we had indeed seen and learned a lot!

Things we did in Guatemala
October - December 2010

- successfully chicken bussed from Antigua from Reu, leaping off at the Esquintla McDonald's just in time.

- almost panicked (but didn't) when we couldn't find cheap hostels in Reu; settled on La Quinta in the central park; happily took cold showers and happily drank cold beers to escape the heat.


- the first camioneta to Nueva Alianza:  This bus is going to break down.  Why is everyone staring at me?  Oh my gosh, that woman has a plastic bag full of living adolescent chickens.

- eating dinner with Joel, Carlos, and Kevan during the first week at Nueva Alianza.  Broken Spanish conversations. How fun it was (initially).

- buying our Tigo internet stick in Antigua = a nightmare.  Realized how limited my Spanish skills were.

- first shopping trip in Reu = hot and overwhelming; unpleasant mercado; no idea how much to pay for produce (I was so paranoid about people ripping me off because I was a gringa); woman steals our chicken and pancake mix.

- ... how good our first macaroni and cheese dinner was, even if it was third choice after chicken and pancakes.

- freaked out after week one in Nueva Alianza; questioned my world view and life goals; received encouraging and practical thoughts from Dave on issues related to international development.

- learned to quickly - and without hesitation - light a gas stove (I'd struggled with this before, embarrassing but true).

- learned to wash my clothes in a pila.

- ate and loved cauliflower torta (cauliflower cooked in a fried egg), arroz con leche, and the camioneta's wife's homemade tamales.

- read Johnathan Franzen's "Freedom" and discussed it ALOT with Hannah (I recommend the book).

- impressed with Earth Lodge's tree houses and their work with local schools (more about this later in the week).
- saw sea turtles dig nests and swim out to sea.

- LOVED swimming in the Pacific Ocean; usually I hate oceans, so this was a nice change.

- cooked a substantial meal for thirteen people.

- volunteered at La Festival de la Tortuga, Monterrico and Hawaii's second annual turtle festival.

- riding in the back of pick-up trucks = fun and now my preferred method of transportation.

- rode a boat, truck, and three busses to Chichicastanango with Hannah and Amy and was really happy.

- climbed Volcán San Pedro and couldn't walk normally for days.

- dock at San Marcos = idyllic.  Prettiest spot I encountered in Guatemala.

- saw a murder victim in the streets of Monterrico.

- caught a ride in the back of a truck with two heavily armed soldiers.  They were among the friendliest Guatemalans we met.  One of them earnestly described (in Spanish) his efforts to learn English in his spare time, and his earnestness warmed my heart.

- avoided being stranded in Reu by the grace of the old woman selling snacks at the cuatro caminos intersection in Reu and Nueva Alianza's agua pura truck driver.  This experience, too, warmed my heart.

Happy New Year, and see you tomorrow!

"Lost in Ireland"

Today I'm eating chocolate and reading Eric Hansen's The Bird Man and the Lap Dancer. It's a collection of short travel essays, and it's very good. He has such a simple effective style. I want to learn to write more simply.

Another good travel piece to check out is "Lost In Ireland" by Matt Gross, a writer for the NYTimes travel section. Ireland might be my favorite place on Earth. The rolling green hills and winding roads and sheep dogs and crooked pubs and fiddle music and full Irish breakfasts with fried toast and the best porridge ever... If you want a relaxing, heartwarming, peaceful vacation, I encourage you to try Ireland. (The southern bit; I haven't tried Dublin or Northern Ireland yet.)

Several people have mentioned not being able to comment on my posts. I think I've fixed the problem if you want to say hi, comment on a story, or ask any questions!