Photos i dig: Argentina

I love this photo.  I visited Buenos Aires in 2007, but it rained the three days I was there.  This makes me want to go back!

Oooh, and this one!  Also in Argentina.

It's a beautiful Saturday morning.  I made coffee and pancakes and am in a fantastic mood.  Hope everyone enjoys their weekend!

365 photos

Hello!  I've been working on turning my lofty 2011 goals into habits.  Resolutions are hard to keep!  But I'm slowly getting used to intentionally taking photos with my phone.  Here are my four favorite photo days from the past two weeks.

sunday, january 2: before church workout in the park.

monday, january 3: 

reading and swinging at another park. (we like parks.)

tuesday, january 11:  COLD.

wednesday, january 12: 
mmm, warm.  guatemala rug & christmas socks.

monday, january 10: a day that will live in infamy.

This little boy braved the screaming mob of college kids so he could proudly wave his victory sign in the very center of Toomer's Corner.  It's a miracle he wasn't trampled.  War damn eagle. More championship celebration photos to come.

Books & dreams

It's a new year and I have dreams!  What are some of these dreams, you ask?


First: take a photo each day of 2011.  I've already missed a few days.  Oops.  But I'm not throwing in the towel yet.  Tomorrow I plan on waking up to a winter wonderland and fifteen hours later storming Toomer's Corner with thousands of other ecstatic Auburn fans.  Plenty of photo-taking opportunities.


Second:  DON'T BUY ANY BOOKS during 2011.  I mean it.  The only exception is if a book is required for school and it's not available to rent.  This goal will be difficult to achieve.


Third:  don't buy any clothes except from thrift stores.  That should be easy enough.


Fourth:  read the entire Bible.


Fifth: stay off Gmail and Facebook except for half an hour before breakfast and half an hour before bedtime.  I did well today.  My dear friend and roommate Shelley asked what I planned to do with all my Facebook-free time. I said I didn't know.  Read.  Think.  Sleep.  Write short stories.  Bake cupcakes.  (Probably the latter.)

Photo from this architecture Tumblr: http://architectureblog.tumblr.com/post/2640522366

If I can't buy books, I reserve the right to post lots of beautiful bibliophilic book photos on my blog.

Measuring happiness

Another fun find from today: Good's infographic measuring "mean happiness" in thirteen countries.
  

I like this particularly because I just finished reading Eric Weiner's "The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for Happiest Places in the World."  Not the greatest book I've ever read but entertaining and occasionally thought provoking.  

I was finishing the chapter on Great Britain as I waited for Dave at the airport and a few minutes before he arrived I read,

Watching Brits shed their inhibitions is like watching elephants mate.  You know it happens, it must, but it's noisy as hell, and you can't help but wonder: is this something I really need to see?  

I laughed hard.  It's not "SO true!"... but as a generalization it's a little bit true :)

Untranslatable words

This morning I've been perusing my favorite travel writing sites and found this popular Matador article:  20 Awesomely Untranslatable Words from Around the World.  Definitely worth checking out if you like words.

My two favorites:

Cafuné
Brazilian Portuguese – “The act of tenderly running one’s fingers through someone’s hair.”

and

Iktsuarpok
Inuit – “To go outside to check if anyone is coming.”  (I'm imagining a fur-clad head of household figure emerging from an igloo.)

E3 Kids International

My best friend from Japan is working at Royal Kids School in Kenya for the next six weeks.  She spent lots of time in Kenya during college and now she's a full time employee of E3 Kids International.  I haven't talked to JoEllen in almost a year but this morning I saw her blog post on Facebook - she'll be posting a new photo of the students every day!  Today's photo is fun :)

Great minds thinks alike!  One of my 2011 goals is to complete the 365 photography project - I'll take one photo each day of the year.  I'll be relying on my average cell phone camera for the next few months... I might use some film if I can fix my Holga and Instax cameras.  But I'm hoping the project will improve my photography skills and get the creative juices flowing!  I'll share the results every Saturday.

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!