Hey all-
You know that feeling that you have in the morning, right after you wake up (we're talking minutes or seconds here), when you are shuffling to the bathroom out of sheer necessity, but for all intents and are purposes still mentally asleep? That was me four minutes ago. That's not me now...
Let me give you a quick layout of the hallway situation that is going on here at 11 Calle Deporista Manuel Suarez, Apartment 2B. My bedroom door opens, and I have a blissfully clear shot to my bathroom...no lefts, no rights, no stopping at go to collect $200. We are talking "todo recto" here (straight ahead). My madre's bathroom is immediately to the right of mine, so that our bathroom doors make a right angle. Now that you are familiarized with the terrain, let's take a quick trip back in time, to today.
I wake up, still extremely excited about the content of my latest dream: Reese's peanut butter cup candies with the form and function of Kit Kats (the innovation, of course, being the new and improved wafer layer and golden nugget shape). I open my eyes about as wide as the slots on a piggy bank, throw a silent prayer of thanks that the grandchildren that I heard were from the apartment upstairs and not residing in mine, and pad my way to the bathroom in what I believed was my empty apartment. As I walk past my madre's open bathroom door, I notice that the light is on, so I turn my head from my bathroom destination to my right....where my Madre (vital stat: 65 odd years old) is wearing a small, very small, tiny BIKINI that is white/see through on top with an American flag pattern on the bottom. After she finished curling her eyelashes with the new heated eyelash curler she bought from Sephora, she continued to nonchalantly flit around the house (and on the terrace) in this stunning number, which, might I add, I would not have been allowed out of the house in.
At this point, all I can hope is that we don't cross paths today on the beach and I find her topless.
Good morning to all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKlUcmuCwlo&feature=related
domingo, 22 de mayo de 2011
viernes, 20 de mayo de 2011
As close as I will ever get to becoming an artist.
My politics class has been working for the past two months on a project that's part of a global art movement of graffiti to raise cultural awareness worldwide. I have had to keep it a secret this whole process because, well, it sounds worse than it is until I explain it...
TED is a nonprofit organization that gives grants and awards to inspirational people in the realms of art, sciences, etc worldwide. Every year they hold a global competition for inspirational projects, and this is from their website: TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences -- the TED Conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh UK each summer -- TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations, the inspiring TED Fellows and TED programs, and the annual TED Prize.
The TED prize is awarded every year to an inspirational individual who receives $100,000 to pursue their "one wish to change the world". The man who won in 2011 is named JR, and his project is called "the inside out project". It is a global art movement that is designed to raise the global awareness of other cultures and create a new sense of global community. He gave a really inspiring speech at this years awards ceremony that yall really should watch when you get a chance, it's so inspiring. The link for it is here:
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/
In February our professor gave us (my class and the other class) the option of joining him in a technically illegal, yet not dangerous or bad for society, activity that would possibly have an impact on our community, and set up a meeting to tell us what it was. We decided collectively to participate in JR's project here in Alicante by pasting black and white pictures of our faces, blown up, on the smaller castle near Luceros, where there is already a lot of graffiti. Our point was to try to inspire people in Alicante to explore themselves, as well as to create a sense of community, or at least just make people think. We went up to the castle at midnight last night, dressed in all black, with all of our gear (there are 9 of us, plus two of our professors' friends from France and Spain who documented everything last night and will be sending us more professional pictures), and put up our faces on the castle (note: no names or identification of any kind are being used, and these pictures are not on any social networking site).
Our professor released a press release of some kind and video with a mission statement to the media of Alicante today... The video can be found here http://www.youtube.com/watch?
"Realize, understand what makes you, you. Do you know who you are? Who you want to be? We are going beyond the limits, without expectations, to a place where what society thinks of us no longer matters. In uncertainty we have evolved, discovered, and come to know ourselves as individuals. This is our statement. Make yours."
I just got back from running to the castle and took these pictures of what we did yesterday...there will be better ones when the friends of Jaime's send us the pictures. These were from my phone so they are really grainy. It's also hard to get an idea of the scale of the pictures from here- they're like at least 3 feet tall.
**In the email that I sent to my parents, I explained that we were waiting for the reaction from the local art community/press in the aftermath of our project. Now, three weeks later, I can equate our message to the sound the proverbial tree makes when it falls in a forest when no one is around. In other words, no one really cares. Still though, you win some you lose some, and I got to wear all black without looking like a punk, angsty teen who shops at Hot Topic**
TED is a nonprofit organization that gives grants and awards to inspirational people in the realms of art, sciences, etc worldwide. Every year they hold a global competition for inspirational projects, and this is from their website: TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences -- the TED Conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh UK each summer -- TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations, the inspiring TED Fellows and TED programs, and the annual TED Prize.
The TED prize is awarded every year to an inspirational individual who receives $100,000 to pursue their "one wish to change the world". The man who won in 2011 is named JR, and his project is called "the inside out project". It is a global art movement that is designed to raise the global awareness of other cultures and create a new sense of global community. He gave a really inspiring speech at this years awards ceremony that yall really should watch when you get a chance, it's so inspiring. The link for it is here:
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/
In February our professor gave us (my class and the other class) the option of joining him in a technically illegal, yet not dangerous or bad for society, activity that would possibly have an impact on our community, and set up a meeting to tell us what it was. We decided collectively to participate in JR's project here in Alicante by pasting black and white pictures of our faces, blown up, on the smaller castle near Luceros, where there is already a lot of graffiti. Our point was to try to inspire people in Alicante to explore themselves, as well as to create a sense of community, or at least just make people think. We went up to the castle at midnight last night, dressed in all black, with all of our gear (there are 9 of us, plus two of our professors' friends from France and Spain who documented everything last night and will be sending us more professional pictures), and put up our faces on the castle (note: no names or identification of any kind are being used, and these pictures are not on any social networking site).
Our professor released a press release of some kind and video with a mission statement to the media of Alicante today... The video can be found here http://www.youtube.com/watch?
"Realize, understand what makes you, you. Do you know who you are? Who you want to be? We are going beyond the limits, without expectations, to a place where what society thinks of us no longer matters. In uncertainty we have evolved, discovered, and come to know ourselves as individuals. This is our statement. Make yours."
I just got back from running to the castle and took these pictures of what we did yesterday...there will be better ones when the friends of Jaime's send us the pictures. These were from my phone so they are really grainy. It's also hard to get an idea of the scale of the pictures from here- they're like at least 3 feet tall.
**In the email that I sent to my parents, I explained that we were waiting for the reaction from the local art community/press in the aftermath of our project. Now, three weeks later, I can equate our message to the sound the proverbial tree makes when it falls in a forest when no one is around. In other words, no one really cares. Still though, you win some you lose some, and I got to wear all black without looking like a punk, angsty teen who shops at Hot Topic**
Graffiti, Buddhism, and Politics in Spain
Hi all-
Current countdown to my return to America is (gulp!) 19 days. I have completely lost track of what day of the week it is here, and it seems like literally just yesterday that I was posting about Bin Laden's death. Sort of a morbid benchmark, now that I think about it. Final exams are over, and my only class that remains has us doing yoga in the middle of campus for hour long sessions. Hardly stressful. The weather today is bad by Alicantino standards (72 and windy/sunny), so I decided to wait until after comida to head out and maybe venture to the beach.
Normally I'm pretty good at structuring written assignments, blogs, etc, but I'm finding myself at a loss of organization today, so the following may take the form of stream of consciousness and make no sense at all...but such is life. Particularly life abroad, when you are sort of ready to experience creature comforts of America, but afraid of the feeling of loss that will accompany you when you get there.
- I'm currently reading into Buddhist philosophy by a Frenchman named Matthieu Ricard...he speaks a lot about the origin of our own happiness coming from within, rather than depending on the conditions of the world or the moods of those around us. One thing I particularly like that he says is "While it may be difficult to change the world, it is always possible to change the way that we look at it". He has a few talks on studies of monks' brains (particularly the balance of electrical pulses between the left lobe (responsible for positive feelings, happiness, contentment) and the right lobe (more negative)) that has shown that those who meditate have less brain activity in the right lobe and are actually capable of avoiding negative sentiments altogether
I digress...
- There is a political movement right now in Spain against the two-party system called the "revolution" where people are camping out in the Puerta del Sol in Madrid, and other large cities right now in the country. They don't have a very defined goal, but their idea is to occupy every city center until the municipal elections on Sunday. They have to take shifts to avoid sleeping in the Plazas (as this is grounds for arrest/illegal), and don't drink alcohol or do anything against the law other than simply be. The numbers are massive- 15,000 in madrid, 5,000 in Barcelona (I just completely made those numbers up...) but these people lack an objective, which really bothers me. The problem in Spain right now is unemployment-(**Shout out to Google blogs for the Draft function... I just accidentally closed this window and reopened it to find my entire post still here**) 21% of the entire population is unemployed, and I have heard rumors of as close to 40% unemployment among young people. The current candidates for municipal positions are facing corruption charges from fraud to embezzlement, most of which involve the cooperation of national banks. The young people in this revolution think that the proper response to the crisis is an ethical one, not one defined by particular goals or laid out by some sort of outline. Maybe it's my Western mentality coming out, but I think I really annoyed my politics professor and his friends with my frustration and questions regarding their lack of organization. At one point, Jaime/James (our names for my professor) actually said "Casey, you really ask a lot of questions, don't you?" To which I responded "Check my CIEE application...you had fair warning" (I wrote down on my program application that I would ask lots of questions). It's not easy discussing political philosophy in Spanish, but it has definitely helped me gain an understanding of the group mentality here- largely defined by a sense of community and cynicism toward the upper classes (generally, Spaniards think that the upper classes don't deserve their wealth, or should somehow feel guilty for what they have, rather than the American "they worked for it" perspective).
- I am fascinated by street art. One of my goals before I leave Alicante is to document literally everything in the city in photos so I don't forget anything. I think maybe I'll just have 1000s of pictures of the city and put them up on my walls at home so I feel like I'm still here. Back to the graffiti topic, I'm going to paste in another blog entry after this one the email I sent my parents explaining my participation in part of a global art project... (suspense ensues)
- I am baffled by the ability of ONE older/more advanced in years woman to take up seven feet of horizontal sidewalk space. Maybe she has a shopping bag, maybe she doesn't...but regardless, when I am running out of my neighborhood to head toward the castle, she is impassible. I end up having to do a two-step, sprint-walk-jog-dance-jump off the sidewalk-stand on my head combination to get around her. I will never take for granted the trails at W&L or the track at Boling Park again.
- In related news...things I miss about America (family excluded, that's obvious):
1. Reese's peanut butter cups
2. Going to the gym every day/arm exercises/lunging in general
3. Braves games
4. Schmedley
5. Cooking
6. Hummus
Speaking of cooking, I had a close encounter with the gross kind at lunch two days ago. My madre decided that it would be a great idea to stack one piece of turkey lunchmeat, one piece of white cheese (white equivalent of kraft american singles), and another piece of turkey lunchmeat on top of each other...then to place this three tiered nugget in batter and fry it. These are the types of combinations that I will not be recreating for myself back in the U S of A. Its like eating a gooey cholesterol cake with saltmeat icing.
Sorry for the scatterbrained lack of organization of all of this information. My mind is a cornucopia of thoughts and confusion, trying to cope with the short nature of my weeks here while realizing that realistically it is probably my time to return to the land of the free and the home of the Brave(s). Speaking of which, the Braves were swept by Arizona yesterday... sub-.500 teams keep me up at night.
|> /> |> /> |> /> |> /> ,
Casey
(Those symbols up there are the tomahawk chop...reason #34 why I love Twitter)
Current countdown to my return to America is (gulp!) 19 days. I have completely lost track of what day of the week it is here, and it seems like literally just yesterday that I was posting about Bin Laden's death. Sort of a morbid benchmark, now that I think about it. Final exams are over, and my only class that remains has us doing yoga in the middle of campus for hour long sessions. Hardly stressful. The weather today is bad by Alicantino standards (72 and windy/sunny), so I decided to wait until after comida to head out and maybe venture to the beach.
Normally I'm pretty good at structuring written assignments, blogs, etc, but I'm finding myself at a loss of organization today, so the following may take the form of stream of consciousness and make no sense at all...but such is life. Particularly life abroad, when you are sort of ready to experience creature comforts of America, but afraid of the feeling of loss that will accompany you when you get there.
- I'm currently reading into Buddhist philosophy by a Frenchman named Matthieu Ricard...he speaks a lot about the origin of our own happiness coming from within, rather than depending on the conditions of the world or the moods of those around us. One thing I particularly like that he says is "While it may be difficult to change the world, it is always possible to change the way that we look at it". He has a few talks on studies of monks' brains (particularly the balance of electrical pulses between the left lobe (responsible for positive feelings, happiness, contentment) and the right lobe (more negative)) that has shown that those who meditate have less brain activity in the right lobe and are actually capable of avoiding negative sentiments altogether
I digress...
- There is a political movement right now in Spain against the two-party system called the "revolution" where people are camping out in the Puerta del Sol in Madrid, and other large cities right now in the country. They don't have a very defined goal, but their idea is to occupy every city center until the municipal elections on Sunday. They have to take shifts to avoid sleeping in the Plazas (as this is grounds for arrest/illegal), and don't drink alcohol or do anything against the law other than simply be. The numbers are massive- 15,000 in madrid, 5,000 in Barcelona (I just completely made those numbers up...) but these people lack an objective, which really bothers me. The problem in Spain right now is unemployment-(**Shout out to Google blogs for the Draft function... I just accidentally closed this window and reopened it to find my entire post still here**) 21% of the entire population is unemployed, and I have heard rumors of as close to 40% unemployment among young people. The current candidates for municipal positions are facing corruption charges from fraud to embezzlement, most of which involve the cooperation of national banks. The young people in this revolution think that the proper response to the crisis is an ethical one, not one defined by particular goals or laid out by some sort of outline. Maybe it's my Western mentality coming out, but I think I really annoyed my politics professor and his friends with my frustration and questions regarding their lack of organization. At one point, Jaime/James (our names for my professor) actually said "Casey, you really ask a lot of questions, don't you?" To which I responded "Check my CIEE application...you had fair warning" (I wrote down on my program application that I would ask lots of questions). It's not easy discussing political philosophy in Spanish, but it has definitely helped me gain an understanding of the group mentality here- largely defined by a sense of community and cynicism toward the upper classes (generally, Spaniards think that the upper classes don't deserve their wealth, or should somehow feel guilty for what they have, rather than the American "they worked for it" perspective).
- I am fascinated by street art. One of my goals before I leave Alicante is to document literally everything in the city in photos so I don't forget anything. I think maybe I'll just have 1000s of pictures of the city and put them up on my walls at home so I feel like I'm still here. Back to the graffiti topic, I'm going to paste in another blog entry after this one the email I sent my parents explaining my participation in part of a global art project... (suspense ensues)
- I am baffled by the ability of ONE older/more advanced in years woman to take up seven feet of horizontal sidewalk space. Maybe she has a shopping bag, maybe she doesn't...but regardless, when I am running out of my neighborhood to head toward the castle, she is impassible. I end up having to do a two-step, sprint-walk-jog-dance-jump off the sidewalk-stand on my head combination to get around her. I will never take for granted the trails at W&L or the track at Boling Park again.
- In related news...things I miss about America (family excluded, that's obvious):
1. Reese's peanut butter cups
2. Going to the gym every day/arm exercises/lunging in general
3. Braves games
4. Schmedley
5. Cooking
6. Hummus
Speaking of cooking, I had a close encounter with the gross kind at lunch two days ago. My madre decided that it would be a great idea to stack one piece of turkey lunchmeat, one piece of white cheese (white equivalent of kraft american singles), and another piece of turkey lunchmeat on top of each other...then to place this three tiered nugget in batter and fry it. These are the types of combinations that I will not be recreating for myself back in the U S of A. Its like eating a gooey cholesterol cake with saltmeat icing.
Sorry for the scatterbrained lack of organization of all of this information. My mind is a cornucopia of thoughts and confusion, trying to cope with the short nature of my weeks here while realizing that realistically it is probably my time to return to the land of the free and the home of the Brave(s). Speaking of which, the Braves were swept by Arizona yesterday... sub-.500 teams keep me up at night.
|> /> |> /> |> /> |> /> ,
Casey
(Those symbols up there are the tomahawk chop...reason #34 why I love Twitter)
lunes, 2 de mayo de 2011
A Big Day For America- The Spanish Reaction
Hi Everyone!
I'm sure that yall are all celebrating today's festivities of Bin Laden's death today, as are all of the students here with me in my program. I thought that, while it is fresh on my mind (as I haven't done anything all day except watch coverage online), I would share with yall the Spanish perspective on the whole matter.
I woke up this morning to an old 8:00am alarm of mine from a productive day in the past, highly agitated (today is a holiday and I don't have class), and also confused as to the reason why I had recieved about 10 messages from friends of the likes of "GO AMERICA" and "check the news!!" or, my personal favorite "we lookin for you, we gon' find you, so you can run and tell that...homeboy" (if you don't understand this reference...see the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzNhaLUT520 and become the 33,429,940th person to watch). So.. naturally I woke up a little bit and checked FOXNews (sorry, center/leftwing European channels) to find out about Osama's death. I was shocked, needless to say. Hadn't thought much about what was going on with Bin Laden, in years, but it was a moment of surging American pride and a surprising appreciation for the Obama administration. I felt alot like we all did on September 11th or when we hear the national anthem played at the Olympics for a gold medal winner. After satiating my desire for conservative news sources, I decided to take advantage of my time here to learn about the international response (aside from that of my madre...which was "OH! great. I'm going to a friend's house for lunch so I'm leaving you some pasta in the microwave. We've known each other since we were 15...etc.")
Coming off of writing a 15 page paper in Spanish on the causes of suicide terrorism, I have a little bit of an ego about my knowledge of the subject...and a much more liberal one as well, I must admit. The news sources here have noted how monumentous this day is in the history of the war on terror and an opportunity of closure for victims of Bin Laden's regime. Everyone stands behind Obama and the CIA/Navy Seals who took the time to plan the operation, and is in agreement that death was probably the only option. It takes some coaxing and rationalizing to get them to understand that death, as opposed to letting Bin Laden chill out in his hideout while waiting for him to go out and get the morning paper so we could capture him, was likely the only and most realistic option. Europeans are very strongly anti-death penalty, even for killers, and also make the point that a life rotting in prison is worse than the opportunity for Bin Laden to appear as a martyr figure. The other large sentiment of note here is that Americans are celebrating the death of a human being- the jubilation in the streets of Washington DC, New York City, and in Times Square have been seen as another example of American cowboys/fanatical conservatives (ie Bush, Jr) who are out for blood and unaware of the global consequences of their reactions. The primary concern here (of which I think many Americans are aware) is the possibility of copycat attacks and the use of footage of "USA" chants as fuel for jihadist movements in the West. There are a good number of Spaniards who are going about their daily life, largely unaffected by his death, because they don't have the same sort of attachment to the hunt for Bin Laden as we do in the states (despite the attacks in Madrid in 2004). They are all in agreement that the disposal of Bin Laden's body in a proper Muslim burial, at sea, according to the Muslim tradition of disposal within 24 hours after death, was the right thing to do. I am very impressed by the foresight of whichever official within the Obama administration made this decision- and think it was the right thing to do. There are a few conspiracy theories about where the body actually is and whatnot, but for the most part I'd say the Spanish media is in line with the BBC and other European news channels, which echo the same sentiments as ours in the states. I'll be curious to see whether or not the real death photo of Osama is released. We have basically no sense of censorship here, so if it gets out and for some reason doesn't get to America, I'll have access.
On a happier note, I found this video from ESPN today and absolutely love it. The Phillies and Mets were playing a baseball game last night when the announcement was made...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35pfllMiLag
Love you all- enjoy America for me today.
Casey
I'm sure that yall are all celebrating today's festivities of Bin Laden's death today, as are all of the students here with me in my program. I thought that, while it is fresh on my mind (as I haven't done anything all day except watch coverage online), I would share with yall the Spanish perspective on the whole matter.
I woke up this morning to an old 8:00am alarm of mine from a productive day in the past, highly agitated (today is a holiday and I don't have class), and also confused as to the reason why I had recieved about 10 messages from friends of the likes of "GO AMERICA" and "check the news!!" or, my personal favorite "we lookin for you, we gon' find you, so you can run and tell that...homeboy" (if you don't understand this reference...see the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzNhaLUT520 and become the 33,429,940th person to watch). So.. naturally I woke up a little bit and checked FOXNews (sorry, center/leftwing European channels) to find out about Osama's death. I was shocked, needless to say. Hadn't thought much about what was going on with Bin Laden, in years, but it was a moment of surging American pride and a surprising appreciation for the Obama administration. I felt alot like we all did on September 11th or when we hear the national anthem played at the Olympics for a gold medal winner. After satiating my desire for conservative news sources, I decided to take advantage of my time here to learn about the international response (aside from that of my madre...which was "OH! great. I'm going to a friend's house for lunch so I'm leaving you some pasta in the microwave. We've known each other since we were 15...etc.")
Coming off of writing a 15 page paper in Spanish on the causes of suicide terrorism, I have a little bit of an ego about my knowledge of the subject...and a much more liberal one as well, I must admit. The news sources here have noted how monumentous this day is in the history of the war on terror and an opportunity of closure for victims of Bin Laden's regime. Everyone stands behind Obama and the CIA/Navy Seals who took the time to plan the operation, and is in agreement that death was probably the only option. It takes some coaxing and rationalizing to get them to understand that death, as opposed to letting Bin Laden chill out in his hideout while waiting for him to go out and get the morning paper so we could capture him, was likely the only and most realistic option. Europeans are very strongly anti-death penalty, even for killers, and also make the point that a life rotting in prison is worse than the opportunity for Bin Laden to appear as a martyr figure. The other large sentiment of note here is that Americans are celebrating the death of a human being- the jubilation in the streets of Washington DC, New York City, and in Times Square have been seen as another example of American cowboys/fanatical conservatives (ie Bush, Jr) who are out for blood and unaware of the global consequences of their reactions. The primary concern here (of which I think many Americans are aware) is the possibility of copycat attacks and the use of footage of "USA" chants as fuel for jihadist movements in the West. There are a good number of Spaniards who are going about their daily life, largely unaffected by his death, because they don't have the same sort of attachment to the hunt for Bin Laden as we do in the states (despite the attacks in Madrid in 2004). They are all in agreement that the disposal of Bin Laden's body in a proper Muslim burial, at sea, according to the Muslim tradition of disposal within 24 hours after death, was the right thing to do. I am very impressed by the foresight of whichever official within the Obama administration made this decision- and think it was the right thing to do. There are a few conspiracy theories about where the body actually is and whatnot, but for the most part I'd say the Spanish media is in line with the BBC and other European news channels, which echo the same sentiments as ours in the states. I'll be curious to see whether or not the real death photo of Osama is released. We have basically no sense of censorship here, so if it gets out and for some reason doesn't get to America, I'll have access.
On a happier note, I found this video from ESPN today and absolutely love it. The Phillies and Mets were playing a baseball game last night when the announcement was made...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35pfllMiLag
Love you all- enjoy America for me today.
Casey
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