From The Desk Of...

December 19-22: Syria

2010-01-31T04:44:00.000-08:00

So these may be slow because I have a lot of catching up to do, but I am finally trying to report on all of my adventures...

Travel companions: Alex and Dionne, two girls from my program - they're staying in Amman all year and decided to travel instead of going home over the break

We left Amman (later than hoped) around 1 pm on the 19th. It's just a few hours by cab to the Syrian border, and Damascus is only a few hours beyond that, but if you happen to be traveling on an American passport without a Syrian visa obtained in advance (which will cost you at least a hundred dollars, plus a great deal of hassle if you are not in the US when trying to get one) you are required to wait at the border until a copy of your passport has been faxed to Damascus and Damascus has responded to approve your entry. This may take anywhere from a couple hours to the rest of your day, so never make plans for the day you're trying to enter Syria. We ended up waiting at the border (which fortunately has a hotel with nice couches in the lobby, plus a duty free and decent shish tawouk) for nine hours - ie, until midnight - and then had to pay an extortionate amount to get to Damascus and then to our hotel. Fortunately for us, we had joined forces at the border with another American traveler. He had been working in the red zone (ie outside the Green Zone) in Baghdad - that should make you feel better about my choice of residences, mum and grandma - so he had cash to spare and insisted on paying for most of the taxis and the entire first night at the hotel, since he had somewhat inadvertently (it's hard to say anything is really planned out at 2 in the morning) ended staying in our room and left before we got up in the morning - we didn't find out he'd paid for the whole thing until we checked out several days later. Thanks, dude.

Our first day in Damascus, we (not too surprisingly) slept in pretty late, then woke up to admire the fabulousness that was our hotel. Located in a legitimate vintage house, it had high ceilings, big rooms, and a lovely covered courtyard with a fountain (dry in the winter), Christmas tree, and argeelahs - plus free Arabic breakfast. After we'd gotten over our wonder, we set out to see the sights. In Damascus, the main things to do are 1) visit the Ummayyad mosque and 2) browse the souq. Fortunately, the mosque is located right at the edge of the Old City where the souq is found, and both were within walking distance of the hotel (yet another point in its favor). The mosque is pretty spectacular, and nearby is the tomb of Saladdin, of defeating-the-Crusaders fame. Let me just say that I was duly impressed by both (despite the small size of the tomb, it was very very cool to be there) and if you desire to know more, I'm sure both have been photographed and lauded to death on the internet, and at this point (writing five weeks later) I really have nothing constructive to add. Dinner was in another of the vintage houses. We got a few traditional mezze dishes to share - which I recommend as the best way to eat at Arabic restaurants - all of which were much enjoyed. Aside from the usual hummus and such, we got two more Syrian dishes, kibbeh (meatballs wrapped in bulghar) and fattah with chicken (chickpeas, pita, oil, and I'm still not sure what else).

The next day, we decided to make the trek to Palmyra, about three hours by bus from Damascus. Typically, we got started later than intended and didn't arrive in Palmyra until around 3 (which had something to do with us, but also something to do with the lateness and rarity of buses), leaving us in the end only an hour to explore the ruins. Being there at sunset, however, was well worth the drive, and we did get to see more of Syria - mostly mile after mile of desert.

Our final day in Damascus was much the same as the first. We'd wanted to go to the Historic Museum, but finding it was closed on Tuesdays, had to settle for the National Museum instead, which was essentially another vintage house filled with vintage objects, mostly without signs. We had some trouble finding the building - sorry guys - and once we were there it wasn't particularly impressive. Fortunately, even full-price admittance to most Syrian museums isn't more than a few dollars - I believe this one was a dollar and a half. After that we did more souq-wandering and actually did some purchasing this time. We went back to the ice cream shop in the souq, which is famous and we'd visited on our first trip. You can watch them making the ice cream, which is made with sahbel, whatever that is (also the name of a yummy hot drink made of the same thing), and there is pudding as well. Between our two trips, we sampled all three - I recommend only getting one at a time, because they are all very filling. In the evening, we went to the Christian Quarter to split a bottle of sweet Syrian red wine. Late in the evening, we were joined at our hotel by (girl) Kris, also from our program, who had previously been in (!) Yemen (!!).

Travel Note!

2009-12-23T10:41:00.000-08:00

After waiting at the Syria-Jordan border for 9 hours, I made it to Damascus late last Saturday, and had three excellent days wandering the souqs, visiting the Ummayyad mosque and traveling to Palmyra for a day (bus trip: 6 hrs round trip, touring the ruins: 1 hr), which was awesome.
And today we headed into Lebanon, a much easier border crossing and currently I am in Beirut. Tomorrow we are headed to see a really cool cave and Baalbeck, home of awesome ancient ruins and Hezbollah.
Much love,
Happy holidays,
Kirsten

Updates!

2009-12-17T04:44:00.002-08:00

I'm leaving for Syria on Saturday, so it seemed like a good time to add some new posts, before I go off and have adventures that will require even more posts. I had a couple other adventures (hello, massive Dana hike) but hopefully those will come with time. Insha'allah. Who knows. Maybe sitting on a train to Istanbul for hours and hours will prove beneficial to my writing. Until then, Happy Holidays! (If you were curious, I'm hoping to spend Christmas Eve in Beirut, Christmas Day at the Cedars ski resort, and New Year's Eve in Istanbul, all with good friends.)

Love, Kirsten

A few notes on language

2009-12-17T04:44:00.001-08:00

So... Arabic is really hard. There are lots of weird letters, some of which I still struggle with pronouncing. There are two letters represented by the English "s", "d", "t" and (the one that I think is hardest to tell the difference between) "h," as well as three different "th"s. Modern Standard Arabic (fus'ha - formal Arabic used in newspapers, on TV, and in official contexts but not really spoken) also has ridiculous grammar rules and case endings. Even a lot of Jordanians don't really know how to speak fus'ha well.

A'amiyya, colloquial Arabic, is a lot easier. It has very few grammar rules, no case endings, and a lot of the words are much easier to say. In addition, because its almost exclusively a spoken language, there are no hard and fast rules for spelling, which makes it a lot easier for me since I don't have to remember which letter is being used. Plus most of the "th"s are actually pronounced "t" or "z".

What this means is that I am almost learning two separate languages, although there is some overlap between the vocabulary and very conjugations. As a result, I've gotten pretty good at speaking - my host mom and I communicate almost exclusively in Arabic now - but my spelling is not great. Reading can also be difficult, because I may know a word from hearing it but not necessarily recognize it written out.

Also, though I'm pretty good with the vocabulary from the first ten chapters of my Arabic book, it's much easier for me to speak in a'amiyya, but this limits the people I can talk to, because I struggle with accents that aren't what I'm used to. For instance, one of my office mates is Iraqi and I can only speak to him in fus'ha. And sometimes people will assume that because I'm foreign I'll only understand them if they speak fus'ha, when in fact this is pretty much the opposite of the truth.

Food!

2009-12-17T04:34:00.000-08:00

Definitely one of the best parts of living in Amman is the food. Honestly, though occasionally I wish there were more fresh fruits and vegetables, I think I could live on Middle Eastern food for the rest of my life (and to be honest, its not that there aren't fruit and veggies, its just that I am not very good about seeking them out).

My first meal of the day, before I go to school, consists of bread and a shifting array of toppings. Generally there is honey, cream cheese, jam, olive oil and zattar, and sometimes yogurt cheese as well. After my morning classes, I get something to eat - falafel sandwiches or schwarma are common. Across the street from the university is a fast food restaurant called Lebnani Snack, and I go there a lot. In addition to delicious wrapped sandwiches, they have amazing fruit cocktails (here, the word doesn't generally have any alcoholic connotations). There are also a number of little shops around school and near my internship offering sandwiches for as little as 30 garsh (less than 50 cents). When I get home, no matter what time it is, my mother will have some "lunch" for me. Lunch, which is eating sometime in the afternoon, is the biggest meal of the day. If I stay up late enough, there will also be dinner, probably just a sandwich with cheese or yogurt.

I've learned to cook a number of Arabic dishes - most of them aren't really that hard, just some combination of rice, vegetables and meat. One of the things I was most excited to learn was mansaf, which is basically the Jordanian national dish and seems pretty hard to find in the US, since most Middle Eastern restaurants are Lebanese (although I've done some research and there is a Syrian restaurant in Portland that serves it). My host mom has been promising all semester to show me and finally last Friday she made it on a day when I wasn't in school. The way she makes it, its not that difficult, but I've heard that it's supposed to be very time consuming, so possibly there's another way.

I had another cool cooking experience two weekends ago. My Arabic professor is totally awesome and very sweet, and since there were only four girls in my class she invited us all to her house to cook with her. We made a number of really delicious dishes, including tabouli with spinach and a eggplant-pita-yogurt layered thing, but the things I was really excited to learn were stuffed grape leaves and stuffed kousa (a vaguely zucchini-like squash, but one that I actually like). I've watched my mom and her sisters rolling grape leaves, but I've never actually tried it myself. It's difficult, but I think with enough practice I could be pretty good at it. The kousa is easier, the hardest part being hollowing it out, but they have specific utensils designed for the purpose.

Other favorite foods:
Mamoule, which are date-filled cookies made for the Eids. My mother's are amazing, and she gave me her recipe...
Kenafa, another sweet, made of crunchy, sugary stuff over cheese, which sounds weird but is actually delicious.
Magloubeh, literally "upside down" because you cook rice, potatoes, meat, and vegetables all together in a giant pot and the turn it upside down onto a tray.
Kubbeh, which my host mom said is actually more Syrian/Lebanese, but she showed me how to make. Basically a bulghar wheat shell stuffed with meat.
Manaqish, Arabic pizza without sauce, generally just cheese, zattar, or both.
Spicy eggplant in a jar, which I forget the name of, but my host mom's sister made a big batch for us and it is so delicious. My professor described how to make it, so I may be able to attempt it at home.
Basically any sandwich with french fries on it. It's amazing how the most basic turkey sandwich can be improved by the addition of hobez arabi (Arabic bread) and batata (potato).

Also, I am learning to love cucumber, which has never been a food I've liked much, and even to tolerate olives - they're actually pretty good raw and plain, though I still prefer to avoid them on sandwiches and pizza and the like. The one thing I've been served that I really just couldn't deal with was the yogurt-milk-salt drink, which I'm sorry but ick. My salt tolerance has definitely increased since I've been here, but still! Fortunately, that's pretty much the only thing I've found that I don't like. Everything else is at least edible.

Basically, you should all just be prepared to eat lots of Middle Eastern food whenever I'm cooking.

Internship

2009-12-17T04:31:00.000-08:00

One of the classes offered through my program is an internship for credit. You submit a resume, they try to match you with a Jordanian NGO or company, you go to some classes and write a case study on your organization and it counts as college credit. Though I'm not actually doing this program for school credit, doing an internship sounded like a really good experience. I had some trouble finding an organization, but at the last minute I was offered a spot at the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature and I have been working there since the beginning of October.

It's been a really interesting experience, especially since I've had to keep a journal of my work and my thoughts on the organization to help me write the case study. Writing the case study (the final version is due today) has also been really interesting. It's forced me to take note of details and ask questions I might not otherwise think to, and really helped think deeply about the mission and functioning of RSCN in particular and NGOs generally.

I've actually been working in the Public Relations department, which I have to admit was not exactly my first thought when I decided I wanted to intern with an NGO, but has definitely been a good experience. I've been doing a lot of different things, ranging from as boring as entering membership data to exciting things like getting a free trip to one of the Reserves. I've probably spent more time doing data entry than anything else - RSCN has a new free membership program called Friends of RSCN that always has some new names and emails to enter - but its hardly been the majority of my time. I have also had to spend quite a while recording and trying to fix email address that come back undelivered, which is pretty similarly monotonous, but I've also gotten to write quite a few (English) press releases and articles, which has helped me learn a lot more about the organization. In addition to writing English, I also occasionally edit it, as in tourism brochures and sometimes my supervisor's emails.

Probably the most exciting part of my internship, though, was the day I got to go to Dana Biosphere Reserve in southern Jordan with a team doing evaluations, computer work, and interviewing for a new manager. That was a really great day, partly because I got the opportunity to talk to a group of employees with perspectives and tasks I don't normally really get to see (almost all the staff in Amman speak English, so communication is not a huge problem), and partly because Dana is absolutely gorgeous. I walked through the village and down to the gardens, but didn't go too far because it was hot. I got to visit both the fruit preserving and silver working workshops, where local women create products for the RSCN gift shops. One of the things RSCN really emphasizes is combining socio-economic development with environmental conservation. Dana was actually the first place they started a handicraft enterprise, and now they have workshops at all the Reserves, employing local women who have very few other opportunities for work. (Sorry if I sound a little bit like a press release; at this point I've written so many articles and brochures about the Reserve and RSCN that I can't help it.)I got to talk to some of the villagers working at the Guesthouse and workshops as well, partly in English and partly in Arabic, which was really interesting as well.

I've also gotten to attend a few RSCN events. The first week I was there, they were having a clean-up in Amman National Park, so a friend and I went. Most of the time was actually spent waiting - I helped by passing out membership brochures - and then listening to the Minister of the Environment speak. Afterward we spent about 45 minutes picking up trash, which to be honest didn't make a huge dent - litter is a big problem here, and people don't seem to think twice about just throwing garbage out of car windows and so forth.

A few weeks later, we had a jewelery launch for a line of necklaces created by a Dutch designer using rocks from the shores of the Dead Sea. That wasn't super exciting, another visit from the Minister, some of the Cafe's amazing herbal tea, and browsing through the gift shop. The stuff there is really nice, although pretty expensive for Jordan. I guess its going to a good cause, though.

One other really excellent part of my job is the office I work in. The Public Relations Department has its offices directly underneath the Cafe, and the window next to me looks out over downtown and across to the Citadel on the hill on the other side. (The neighborhood I work in is called Jabal Amman, meaning something like "mountain of Amman," with good reason.) I had an exciting moment wandering around downtown the other day when I encountered the "Quick Sandwich" sign I stare at when I get writer's block on one of my articles.

Also really enjoyable is the Arabic fondness for sharing food. There are occasional big inter-departmental breakfasts (at 1 in the afternoon - meal schedules are weird here) and sometimes smaller breakfasts with the other employees I work with. The food is basic, pita and things to dip it in, but always really good, and its nice to relax and meet the other people in the office.

Overall, its been a really rewarding experience, and despite my complaints while struggling to write it, I think being forced to write a case study was really educational as well, and I'm glad I did it. (It's pretty long and probably not of interest to everyone, so I won't post it here but if you are interested in NGOs and the environment and would like more information about my experience at RSCN, just let me know and I can send you the case study.)

Arabic Wedding

2009-12-17T04:13:00.000-08:00

So as you may recall, the son of my host mom's aunt got married back in November and so I got to go with my family to all of the wedding festivities, which was a really interesting experience. Though the wedding itself was on Friday, the fuss surrounding it really got started on Wednesday, when Niveen's older sister Nisreen and her younger son, who is four, arrived to stay at our house. That first night, Niveen and her sister shared the bed with the three kids on mattresses on the floor and Hamada on a mattress in the living room.

On Thursday, in the evening, all of us but Hamada went to a pre-wedding party at the groom's mother's house. It was all women (except for the bride, who was probably somewhere else getting her henna done) so there was music, dancing, and de-hijabing, which is always really interesting. (I love it when we're with Niveen's sisters without any men around so they can take theirs off - it makes such a difference.) At the end of the evening, Niveen's youngest sister Naimeen howed up, with her husband, son and Nisreen's older son in tow. They had a car so we all (if you're counting, that makes a total of ten) drove back to our house together. The sisters took the bed again, with the littler kids on the floor in the bedroom and the older son by himself in the living room, while Hamada and Naimeen's husband went to stay in Niveen's brother's apartment in Jabal Amman.

Friday, the wedding day, was mostly just sitting around the house entertaining the guests. In the morning, since it was just Niveen's sisters in the house, it was pretty relaxed. Part way through the day Niveen's other sister, Suher, came with her husband and three kids, and then the other men came back, which made everything a lot more formal. There was a lot of sitting in the living room with tea, coffee, a cake that Niveen baked, plus seven little kids chasing each other around.

And then in the evening there was the wedding itself. Now there were two cars for the sixteen of us, and since that number included the seven kids this was a lot more comfortable than the night before, although as it turned out the wedding hall was just down the road from us while the aunt's house was out near the airport. When we arrived, there were a lot of men standing around outside, but the women and some of the children (some of them stayed with their fathers) were directed to a room upstairs. There were a bunch of tables scattered around the room for guests and a platform in one corner for the bride and groom, decorated nicely, with a fancy couch and low table on it. There were just women, so there was dancing again for a while. On a screen on the wall, they had a video feed of the bride's progress. She wears the hijab, so while she was outside surrounded by men she wore a cloak with a white hood.

Eventually she and the groom made in inside and upstairs to where we were all waiting for them. The first step was to take about a million pictures together. There were no vows or that kind of elaborate ceremony that Americans expect. They just exchanged rings and danced two dances together, one slow and one fast. After that the other women started dancing for a while, until the cake was brought it. It was multi-tiered, really pretty, and the bride and groom cut it together like at an American wedding - except that they used a sword. Which I thought was pretty cool. Then there was the feeding each other the first bite, which was familiar, although there was no cake smeared in anyone's face. Then they went through a few other cute little food-sharing rituals: there was a slice of pineapple that they both bit into from opposite ends at the same time so they were almost-but-not-quite-kissing (public displays of affection, even between married couples, are not really approved of here) which I actually thought was a lot more romantic than I've made it sound here, then they took sips out of each other's glasses, then out of the same cup (using straws) - I'm not sure what they were drinking, though I can say pretty confidently it wasn't champagne.

After that, they returned to their couch for the "Wearing of the Gold." There was a red heart-shaped box filled with various pieces of gold jewelery - in Islam, a man is supposed to give his wife a certain amount of money when they get married, and often this comes in the form of gold - which the groom then had to put on the bride. He actually did pretty well, though he needed a little bit of help from her sister for the earrings.

After that, it was mostly just more dancing - the bride and groom danced together again, and some other women danced, and then the bride put her cloak back on and all of the men came in. At this point a lot of the women left - probably their husbands and family left as well, but that was less noticeable for me. However, the dancing continued. In addition to just dancing to the music, they do a circle dance called the dubkeh, which is mostly pretty simple once you get the hang of it, but looks really cool when everyone is doing it. I know the most basic steps, but I'm not very good at it. At this point I think it was mostly just the closest family of the bride and groom, and everyone was really happy. They lifted the groom up onto one of his friend's shoulders, and then also his father, I think. My host mother's younger brother jumped up onto a table where a lot of his aunts and older female relatives were sitting and started dancing, which everyone found really entertaining.

In the end, everyone filed out, with a lot of people packing into two buses or their cars, and the bride and groom getting into a nice, new, well-decorated convertible. I think generally there's some sort of car procession, with everyone honking and yelling, but if there was I didn't get to see it because we were just driven back home - not without some honking, though - and all of the Irbid families set off home (hamdulliliah).

My host siblings are adorable

2009-11-09T03:20:00.000-08:00

Indisputable photographic proof can be found here.

When it rains...

2009-11-02T03:26:00.000-08:00

I feel like, having grown up in Eugene and studied in Portland for two years, I am a pretty well qualified judge on the subject of rain. And the rain in Amman is CRAZY! It doesn't rain very often, but when it does, it rains buckets and dogs and basically floods the city for the duration. The ground doesn't really absorb water, and there are very few flat places in the city, so the result is massive rivers pouring down most streets and large lakes forming at the lowest points. As soon as it stops raining, though, things start to dry out, until sometimes only a few hours later you can see stretches of dry street between the puddles.

I've been told that Jordan really does have four seasons, but right now I'm having trouble believing it, since we went from a week of +70 F temperatures to wind, rain, and chill. I actually considered wearing my down jacket today. This transition was made even harder by the fact that I spent the weekend in Aqaba, where it was even warmer, while in Amman in rained and got cold during that time.

The News

2009-10-29T01:30:00.000-07:00

A Ms Kisertin Anderson is now a resident of Jordan, but at least I have the stamp in my passport to prove that it's really me.

The Day of Exceeding Strangeness

2009-10-29T01:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was just one of those crazy, slightly unbelievable days. To begin with, we were scheduled to go on a field trip to a waste water treatment plant and King Talal Dam with the water politics class. Alright, so far so good, we all met at the bus at 9 AM to set out. From there, events just sort of progressed.

Step one: Drive to Samra wastewater treatment plant near the town of Al-Hashimyya in northern Jordan, about an hour from Amman. Stop at several points outside the town to take pictures of the oil refinery and power plant, earning more stares than normal from the local population.

Step two: Tour of the Samra plant. There were too many of us to take a walking tour of the plant, but they showed us a video (followed by a coffee break), a explained the process using a model, took us up to the plant overlook, gave us a guided bus tour of the plant – we were only allowed to get out at the last stop, between the final settling pools and the chlorine purification – and finally they took us to where the water, now clean enough to be used for irrigation, is released. The smell in certain parts of the plants is incredibly horrible, but remarkably almost nonexistent once you reach the final stages of the cleaning process. (If you want more information about any of this, let me know. I have to write a report on the entire trip so I have lots of notes about it all..)

Step three: Board the bus. Eat whatever lunch you had packed. Drive for an hour to Irbid, where we stopped at McDonald's for more lunching. Then back on the bus headed for extreme northwest Jordan (we'd wondered when he said it, but yes, we really were going to go look at the Golan.)

Step four: Our peaceful bus ride towards Syria is interrupted by texts from several people's friends claiming that there is no class Thursday or Sunday. After some initial confusion about whether this refers to one specific class or all the classes, Stewart (our academic director) is called and he confirms that ALL classes are canceled on account of an outbreak of the flu, giving all of us an unexpected four-day-weekend. Casual ideas about extending trips to Wadi Rum or Aqaba quickly spiral out of control into wild speculation about the possibilities of hopping on a plane to Kurdistan or India.

Step five: Plotting is semi-interrupted by our arrival at the “highest point in Northern Jordan” where some government official wants to charge us three dinar to enter some old ruins so we can try to spot Lake Tiberius. A helpful local says he knows a better place where we won't have to pay, so we get back on the bus and proceed through a series of military checkpoints towards the border. Our student IDs are checked, and we are forbidden from taking pictures.

Step six: Arrival at a rocky overlook near a cave where Jesus allegedly hid when he was fleeing from Nazareth (we can see the mountain from where we're standing. We are surrounding by olive groves and litter, leading to questions about who, exactly, is being permitted to come out here to create so much garbage. Below us, we can see the path of the Yarmouk River, and on the other side, Syria-as-occupied-by-Israel – the landmine fields of the Golan Heights. Our teacher points to the vehicles traveling along a road on the other side of the river and tells us, “Those are Israelis.” A little further away, we can see the clean waters of Lake Tiberius and on the other side, the town of Tiberius. The contrast between the greenery of Israel proper and the arid land of occupied Syria is stark. After the view, stepping into the sheep-poop carpeted cave is kind of anti-climatic.

Step seven: Head back toward Amman and King Talal Dam. Stop by the side of the road several times in order to, respectively: see a large dead snake near one of the checkpoints; take pictures of cows standing near some cacti; have the teacher buy us all a pomegranate from a roadside stand (ie a collection of boxes of fruit set next to the highway).

Step eight: Continue the long busride back. Weekend plotting continues, but reality increasingly forces its way in. Numerous phone calls and texts are sent to friends in Amman in attempts to facilitate plans.

Step nine: Attempt to stop and see the King Talal Dam. The bus driver asks for directions from several locals, but the closest we are able to come is a hillside that overlooks the lake but does not actually permit us to see the dam. Our bus pulls up next to a lone couple leaning against the from of their car. The woman shoots us one of the evilest looks I have ever seen, but its hard to blame her. The sudden arrival of a busload of American students would be a mood-killer for anyone. We all dutifully take pictures, then wearily pile back onto the bus to return home.

Step ten: Arrive in Amman, finalize weekend plans (I am going to Aqaba, just as I had been planning before we got school off), check email (I will have to translate my resume to French for my spring internship in Morocco) and of course get on Facebook (first live interaction with Jackie since I've been here!), then finally at 8 PM get a taxi home. Arrive, eat dinner, watch a little TV, then fall asleep at 10, before my host father has even returned from his job at the airport.

!الحمد لله

2009-10-27T03:59:00.001-07:00

Alhamdulilah! I am finally, finally done with midterms! I am only taking two classes this semester, but somehow that meant a total of 6 separate tests (one in water politics, and 5 - FIVE - in Arabic) spread over a period of a week and a half. Plus I was at Wild Jordan for 8 consecutive hours last Tuesday because we had a big jewelery launch. Not too surprisingly, it has been a stressful, unhappy week and a half for me, but now it is over. I will be celebrating by taking a field trip with my water politics class tomorrow, to King Talal Dam and a waste water treatment plant. Joy.

In happier news, we ALMOST have residency in Jordan. We should be getting our cards and passports back soon, insha'allah. So that's good.

Spent the past weekend in Irbid visiting all of my host mom's family. Her mother is in Dubai with her father for the next few months, and her brothers are living alone at the house. So after spending the day visiting her three sisters, we went to the house and Niveen and one of her sisters did some serious cleaning. But on Saturday we went shopping, so I now have one genuine Jordanian shirt (which randomly and amazing perfectly matches a scarf that one of Niveen's sisters gave me on Friday) and a pair of Jordanian jeans.

I'm learning to cook some Jordanian food from my host mom. Current favorites: stuffed chicken, rolled grape leaves, several wonderful rice dishes, cucumber yogurt, salsa, and of course ice cream. I'm still hoping to get to watch her making mansaf, though.

New french fry food: turkey and cheese sandwich on pita.

Also, despite being left all weekend without food, all four fish are incredibly still living. Apparently Jordanian pet fish are a hardier breed than the ones you get in the US.

Miscellaneous

2009-10-21T02:20:00.000-07:00

- Almost two weeks later, the fish are remarkably still alive

- Foods I have eaten with french fries in/on them: falafel sandwich, two different types of chicken sandwich, scrambled eggs

- New favorite sandwich: chicken, french fries, ketchup, coleslaw, garlic. Mmm.

- Favorite part about my internship: "breakfast" at 1 in the afternoon with my coworkers - pita, hummus, assorted other yummy things to eat with pita including aforementioned eggs and french fries.

- I have a peer tutor. She speaks Arabic, English, German, and Urdu - and is pretty much fluent in all of them. I am in awe (although it really doesn't help me when she starts chattering in German)

- Went to a really cool environmental film festival at the Jordan Royal Film Commission. Amazing venue (views of the citadel and downwtown behind the outdoor screen) and really interesting movie (The Age of Stupid - go watch it) that was partly set in Amman - at the end, there's a shot of a Middle Eastern street with a Burger King and McDonald's on it - the University of Jordan is across the street and I walk by those restaurants every day on my way to the computer lab.

The most fantastic place on earth

2009-10-19T02:18:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I (finally) went to Wadi Mujib and I have to say it is now one of my favorite places in the world, and definitely one of the most incredible hikes. I have no photos (I didn't bring my camera, for reasons that will become obvious) but I really wish I could have, because there is no way I can adequately describe its mumtastic-ness (mumtaz = excellent or fantastic in Arabic).

This photo was not taken by me (you can find it and several other nice Wadi Mujib pictures on Flickr or by doing a Google image search for "Wadi Mujib") but I think it'll help you get an idea of why I'm so in love with this place. We didn't actually climb the waterfall depicted (you need a guide and equipment for that) but we did hike to it.

There were four of us (we were supposed to be joined by some other friends, but they got a super late start so we hiked separately. We were expecting to see them at some point on our hike back, but we were almost to the end by the time we passed them) and we hired a taxi from Amman for the day (only 30 dinar = about $10 apiece!). According to new RSCN rules, you have to wear a life jacket on your hike, kindly included in the price of admission.

We took the Siq trail, which is about two and a half hours round trip hiking through an incredible canyon. You walk in the river (shockingly clean, especially for Jordan) essentially the entire time. Almost all of the pictures you'll see of the canyon will be of the beginning of the hike or the end at the waterfall, for the reason that it would be very difficult keep a camera dry and in your hand for most of the rest of it.

Not too far into the hike, you have to climb your first waterfall. This one is short and easy to get over, but as you continue the falls get higher and more difficult to climb. In some places, you have to haul yourself along a rope just to get close enough to scramble up the falls. You clamber across wet rocks and through torrents of water, with the walls of the canyon rising up around you and occasionally overlapping above you until you finally arrive at your destination, a gorgeous waterfall. You walk through it, the water pounding your head, and there is a small hollow. There are fish in the calmer water back here, and they nibbled at your legs until you wedge yourself between two rocks. Don't try to talk too much, because you won't be able to avoid getting the spray from the falls in your mouth and the noise will drown out your voice anyway.

The walk back is easier (and cooler) if you give up on walking. You can float almost all the way back (occasional climbing down rocks is still required where the falls are dangerous, and at some points you do have to roll from one side of the river to the other) with only a few bumps, enjoying the view of the canyon as you go.

As if the hike itself wasn't awesome enough, on our taxi ride back to Amman we passed a large fleet of motorcycles. Now, in Jordan, not many people have motorcycles and there are pretty strict limits on the amount of horsepower you can have. So when you see a bunch of massive bikes coming down the road followed by a string of black cars with tinted windows, you know something's up. As the motorcycles went by, our taxi driver indicated the last, largest, shiniest motorcycle and told us, "That's the king." So, so, so cool.

Daily Life

2009-10-12T01:11:00.000-07:00

So I haven't been writing about a lot of things that I've been doing because they seem really normal and everyday to me, but it occurred to me that most of ya'll probably have no idea what a normal day is for me here. Weekends are different, but I'm starting to get into a schoolday routine.

My school week is Sunday through Thursday. I wake up around 6:30 every morning. My host mom is usually up helping Yazan get ready for school, and most of the time she gets breakfast out for me - if not, I get it out for myself. We have bread with yogurt, cheese, olives, zattar, and sometimes fuul or eggs as well. Around 7:15 I leave to catch the bus to school with Kris, another girl in my program who lives in the neighborhood. We have to walk down to a big street a little ways below our apartments in order to flag down the bus, which is basically just a van with the route written on it in Arabic. They're called services, they're privately owned, and they just run specific routes constantly. We just go down and wave one down, like waving down a taxi, and it takes us to school, stopping occasionally to pick up more people. During Ramadan, the trip took a really long time because a lot of the buses would wait at one of the circles to try to get enough people to fill it, but not many people were going to UJ because it wasn't open yet. Now that classes are in session, though, it only takes 15 or 20 minutes.

From 8 to 10:30 or 11 everyday, I have my Arabic class. Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday I have two hours of Modern Standard and then an hour of colloquial, and Monday and Wednesday we have two and a half hours of Modern Standard. It can be kind of a lot, and I always feel a little overwhelmed when we leave, but I think I'm learning. There are only four of us in the class, so we all get to talk a lot, which is really nice, but it does mean that the teacher can kind of pick on you if you don't know what's going on.

On Sunday and Tuesday, I have to go to my internship (with the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature - more on that later) around 12 or 1. I've been going to get lunch near campus beforehand with one of the other girls from my class, but I think I'm going to start going directly to Jabal Amman - the area where my internship is - and exploring the places to eat there instead. (I had really good shwarma there yesterday). I've been going to RSCN on Thursdays as well, but in the future I think I'm just going to go then if there's something specific that needs doing, to give me more time and to cut taxi costs. I'm there until 4, so I get home around 4:30.

Monday and Wednesday, I have another class in the afternoon, so I go to lunch with friends around 11 and hang out in the computer lab (like I am now) until I have to leave for class around 1:30. The class is from 2-3:30, but the building is really far away. The class is the Environment and the Politics of Water, and it's a combination of scientific discussion of hydrology and a political discussion of water shortage in this region. It's all really interesting, though some of the science seemed a little basic. We're definitely getting just one perspective of the political situation - Israel stole all the water, and now they're giving it to the settlers and not letting the Palestinians have any, and isn't their lifestyle so extravegantly wasteful of water? - but as long as you keep that in mind most of the information is at least useful, and defintely does provide a good idea of the Jordanian viewpoint. Sometimes I go to the computer lab afterward, or else just go straight home. I take a different bus to get home. The final destination for this one is Zarqa, another city near Amman, so I have to explain to the control (the guy who takes your money and figures out where the bus needs to stop) that I want to get off in Arjan, which can be difficult.

I started meeting with a peer tutor last week, so far just Mondays at 4. We try to talk as much as possible in Arabic, and she says she's going to show me to all her favorite hidden places in downtown sometime. We're both really busy, so it's a little hard to plan meetings, but (insha'allah) we're meeting again this afternoon.

Every other Monday, I have an internship class (I'm dong it for credit) at 5:15. It lasts till at least 6:30 usually, so I don't get home until around 7. When I get home, Niveen usually has food ready. Depending on what time it is, whether Hamada is coming home soon and who has already eaten, I may eat by myself, with just the kids, or with the whole family. After dinner I study, play with the kids, watch TV, and just hang out in the house. Usually around 7, we'll have something else to eat - sometimes chips and chocolate bars from the little store next door, sometimes apples and grapes, sometimes cucumbers and carrots.

Sometimes in the evening I go out with friends to a bar or cafe. Kris and I hang out a lot, which means we can share a taxi (there isn't really anything to do within walking distance of Arjan). We have a couple drinks, or smoke some arghilah, or get something to eat (and I like to watch football, which is available at most places we go), all very chill and laid back - Amman is not really a party town. My weeknight curfew is 11, so I'm back and in bed in time to get at least a little sleep before I have to get up and do it all again.

Photos!

2009-10-11T05:28:00.000-07:00

Now on Facebook.

More here.

A most profitable visitation

2009-10-11T02:13:00.000-07:00

This is going to be just a brief note (I promise more is coming soon) to describe several interesting things to happened to me this weekend, mostly involving going to visit Niveen's aunt. Hamada works on Saturdays, but Niveen and the kids and I spent most of the day there, with good results.

1) They were making filled pastries (with meat, cheese, spinach, or zattar) when I got there, which were excellent. They wouldn't let me help, but I got to watch, and I think if I knew how to make the dough and what the baking instructions are I could do the same thing.

2) The aunt's son is getting married in November, so we're going to his wedding! I'm super excited to get to go to a real Jordanian wedding.

3) A cousin somehow convinced Niveen that it would be a good idea to buy some fish for Yazan (they had a tank there and he was fascinated by it) so we now have a fishbowl with four fish in the kitchen. Knowing the delicate nature of most pet fish, I have serious questions about their long-term viability in our house, but we'll see. Expect samak updates in the days to come...

Eid

2009-10-08T04:48:00.000-07:00

I spend the first few days of our break with my host family in Irbid. My host mother's mother lives there, as well as my mom's brothers and sisters. The first night, Friday, all of them came over for dinner. The sisters are all married and have kids, most of whom are in the same age range as Yazan and Sadeel, so the apartment was loud and could be dangerous to walk around in. We ate on the floor, from a large spread of shared dishes, picked up using pieces of pita (although I was given a plate so they could try to force extra food into me). There were kebabs of various types, meat cooked between pieces of bread, cucumber and tomato salad, pickles (the only thing I was permitted to do to help out was cut the pickles), and juice, which seems to be the Ramadan drink of choice. None of them speaks much English, but with my limited Arabic and Hamada as translator, I managed to tell them, when asked, that I liked Jordan, liked Obama and not Bush, and was not currently looking for a husband.

Niveen's brothers are the youngest in the family, I think, around my age, and still live at home. In Jordan, children typically are supported by their parents while in college and in fact live with them until they get married. Niveen's mother wears the hijab (Niveen seems to be the only one in her family who doesn't) so when they have friends over there is a specific room where they can hang out. I was confused when I arrived about why the apartment had two doors right next to each other, but it's so that the boys' friends can come and go without ever going into the apartment proper – the door between that room and the rest of the residence is, of course, kept closed.

On Saturday evening, it was announced that Eid would begin the following day, causing great jubilation particularly among those who had been fasting. And to make good news even better, later that night I had the opportunity to learn the Arabic word for rain – the first precipitation since the spring.

As generally happens when people have no morning obligations, we had been sleeping in late every morning of the holiday, and this pattern was continued even on Eid. Even when we were all up, for a long time the day didn't seem like anything special. The only real difference was that the men in the house, who had been the only ones fasting, could now eat with us, which for me just meant more people shoving Eid cookies (we ate practically nothing else that day) at me and ordering me to keep eating.

Finally, late in the afternoon, Niveen's mother and brother got dressed up and took Yazan out visiting or maybe to ask people for money – Eid is kind of like Halloween that way, except that kids ask for cash instead of candy. A little bit later some other relatives came over – those of us who were home were still in sweats and pyjamas, this being typical garb in Jordanian houses, but apparently that was all right. Finally, after they had left, Hamada and Niveen and Sadeel put on their nice new clothes and I put on the nicest clothes I have here and prayed it would be good enough, and we went out visiting.

We went to Hamada's brother's house, where his sister in law had made her Eid cookies by hand. It started raining again while we were there, which made all the kids super excited. Hamada's brother in Oregon called while we were there, so everyone, including me, got a turn to talk to him. His daughter, who is a sophomore at PSU, is thinking about coming to Amman with CIEE next year.

We went back to collect Yazan, now armed with a brand new toy gun that someone had unwisely given him, before going on to see Hamada's other relatives. There were a lot of people at that house, and I never really figured out how all of the were related to each other and my family, partly because I had barely been introduced to everyone inside before I was kidnapped by a group of younger girls and allowed to escape outside. Unfortunately, they were just as insistent about feeding me chocolate as the older women, but it was fun trying to talk to them. They spoke in a mixture of English and Arabic, which actually made things harder sometimes because I couldn't tell what language they were trying to talk to me in. I spent the last half of my time there walking up and down the street with a chatty 12-year-old, which was upsetting for Sadeel because she didn't want me to leave but she really didn't want to go too far from the house, either. I only understood about half of what was said to me, but she and I had a very nice conversation.

The next morning, Hamada went with me to the bus station so I could take the 10:30 bus back to Amman in order to get the bus to Aqaba at 2. Rachel (the girl I was traveling with) and I spent that night in Aqaba and, since it was finally allowed, went out for drinks with some other friends who were in Aqaba for Eid as well.

In the morning, we went down to the ferry dock and spent pretty much all day taking the “fast” ferry to Nuweiba and then getting a service to Dahab. The ferry ride itself was just about as advertised, just a bit over an hour, but after it departed late and we were then forced to wait on the boat for ages waiting to get off in Egypt, the whole experience from the time we got on till when we could finally leave took probably around five hours. Once on the ground in Egypt, we had to walk into a small air conditioned pyramid and back out the other side. Nothing happened inside, and there were no fences or barriers of any kind to prevent one from going around it, but for some reason passage through that pyramid was completely mandatory and we were all herded through, the few tourists and the masses of workers returning home. (For whatever reason, Egyptians are willing to do all the menial tasks Jordanians are too proud to do, and so despite high unemployment among young Jordanians, there are massive numbers of Egyptian workers in the Kingdom.) We managed to get a service with a bunch of other tourists, most going to Sharm el-Sheikh, and the ride to Dahab was mostly without incident. We did have to pass through several checkpoints, which presented no problem for any of us except the three Syrian men in the taxi, who had their passports checked every time.

In Dahab, we met up with Kris, our third travel buddy, who was already in Dahab getting dive certified. Actually, as Rachel and I were wandering about asking for directions to our hostel and looking lost, Kris and some of her diving friends happened to be strolling down the street. We spent the next two days lazing by the beach, splashing in the ocean, drinking milkshakes and $2 beers, and eating amazing, if expensive (for Egypt) food. It was really relaxing – Dahab is a really nice little town, despite being a huge nest of drug smugglers. (Because of the weird legal situation with Israel concerning the Sinai, Egypt doesn't do a lot of law enforcement in the area, and drug traffickers take full advantage.) One of the nicest things about it was that, though it was obviously a vacation town full of non-Arabs, most of the expats I met were actually living in the region (several were actually from Amman) and we met several Arab Jordanians as well.

On Thursday night, after a satisfying day of doing nothing, the three of us took a trip to Mt. Sinai. We departed Dahab at 11 PM and started climbing at about 1:30 in the morning. The monastery at the base was closed on Fridays, and that's apparently important to a lot of people who visit, so it was just the three of us and our guide on the path. We took a back way up, so once we got close to the top and met up with the main trail up, there were more people and some camels, but we were pretty close to the front of the back and kept working our way forward – I think the three of us were probably a bit younger and fitter than the average Mt. Sinai climber.

The last stretch up to the peak is entirely stairs, supposedly 750 of them, though I would like to ask whoever counted them how exactly they determined which rocks were stairs and which were just large irregularities in other stairs. We got to the top at 3:30 or 4 in the morning – it is entirely possible that we were the first to arrive on that particular day, aside from the Bedouin guides and coffee vendors – and had about an hour and a half to wait until the sunrise. It had been nice and warm hiking up (climbing hills will do that to a person) but once we had seated ourselves on an appropriately scenic rooftop, the chill and wind really started to make themselves felt. The three of us huddled together under every piece of clothing we had brought – our guide was smarter and rented himself a blanket and two mattresses – and tried to rest despite the cold. Somehow the time passed and eventually we sat up and discovered that we were no longer alone. There weren't huge crowds, but definitely more than there had been when we lay down. Now wearing literally every piece of clothing I had with me (FYI, if your ears are ever freezing and you lack a hat, a t-shirt with the sleeves tied behind the head makes a great hijab/kufiyyah-inspired head garment that does a great job of protecting not only your ears but your neck, forehead, and even nose, if need be), we finally got to see the sun rise, which was lovely. By this point, however, sleep deprivation was making us giggly and a little crazy, so we spent as much time taking photos of each others' bundled up forms and making ninja shadows on the rock wall behind us as enjoying the traditional view.

Eventually we did have to walk back down, which would have gone faster if we hadn't been stuck behind a large family of German tourists who were for some reason very cautious about descending steep uneven stone stairs. We had to wait a bit for the bus to take us back to Dahab, and we were all pretty much falling asleep by the time it got there. I remember almost none of the ride back. We ate lunch in Dahab (a tip if you ever go: for an excellent cheap lunch, go early enough to order one of the breakfasts – the Egyptian breakfast, for instance, includes pita bread, hummous, and enough other things to be plenty filling, and its much cheaper than getting one of the actual lunch dishes) then back to Nuweiba to ferry it home to Jordan. Again, the waiting around (to get on the boat in Egypt, on the boat in Egypt, on the boat in Jordan, to get our passports back in Jordan) was what took the longest time, and it was getting pretty late by the time we were ready to go anywhere. Luckily, our hotel did serve dinner. While we were eating we made the acquaintance of the group of South African pilots drinking at the next table, and ended up staying up a bit later than we had intended. As it turned out, they all lived in Amman, so we exchanged numbers and agreed to meet up again back home.

Only Rachel's cell phone was still with us and charged at that point, and somehow in the transition from Egypt to Jordan it had acquired the wrong time, so we missed our bus in the morning. This turned out to be a good thing, because the JETT buses run from Aqaba to Amman every two hours and now we had time for breakfast. We were back in Amman by 2, just in time to get started on homework for school the next day.

I am alive!

2009-10-04T03:27:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been so long – we got back from Dahab midday last Saturday, I napped all afternoon and I've been trying to catch up ever since. We've had a lot of Arabic homework, plus extra studying to make up for everything I forgot while traveling and speaking mostly English, and I finally got an internship, with the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature, which is cool but does take up time.

But I am all right, and I'll attempt to get information about what I've been up to posted in the next few days. Hope everyone else is doing well also!

Update

2009-09-17T01:58:00.000-07:00

Not too much exciting going on this week, just school and the last week of Ramadan. I've got my schedule worked out - I will be taking the Politics of Water, 9 credits of Arabic, and auditing the internship class (I don't have an internship yet, so I can't enroll, but hopefully I'll be able to get one worked out after Eid.)

I'm going to be out of internet range for the next week because we're getting the whole week off for Eid. I'm leaving for Irbid tomorrow with my host family to visit their families. It's in the north of Jordan, the second largest city, but I've been told it's really more of a village. I'm coming back to Amman on Monday and heading back down to Aqaba, where I'll spend the night before taking a ferry to the Egyptian Sinai. I'm staying a couple days on the beach in Dahab, then climbing Mt. Sinai before I have to come back to school on Sunday.

That's going to be a little weird because UJ will actually be in session, so there will be about 40,000 students on campus, and everything will actually be open during regular hours, including places to eat. I'm actually really looking forward to it.

I hope everyone's doing well, and if we haven't talked recently you should think about sending me an e-mail telling me about your life. I want to know. Really!

Crazy Weekend

2009-09-13T02:23:00.000-07:00

For some reason, the people who planned our program thought that it would be a good idea to take the first week of school, cut off the last day, and attach it to an insanely busy weekend of traveling. We saw Wadi Rum, Aqaba and Petra in the span of three days, and then I still had almost 300 pages of reading to do when I got home.

We left early Thursday morning for Wadi Rum, stopping on the way at a large guest house where we were invited to buy overpriced paintings and Bedouin swords. The postcards were decent, though. At Wadi Rum, we got lunch at the Visitor's Center, watched a laughably breathless and psuedo-profound movie about the marvels of Wadi Rum, then wandered the exhibits of the Center. I'm sure that they were fascinating, but I was more interested in reading the French descriptions that accompanied the English. Most of the time, the translation was decent and seemed to say roughly the same thing, but occasionally I would run across two side-by-side paragraphs with similar headings that shared entirely different information.

When we were all totally fed up with that, they bussed us out to the middle of the desert and put us on camels. It was of course an interesting, unique experience, but camels are bad-tempered and riding them for three hours is not my idea of comfortable transportation. The sound of eighty angry camels is astounding. The scenery was incredible, but I felt as though I would have been able to appreciate it far more if I had been walking with our Bedouin guides instead of sitting on a saddle made of a worn out tweed suit jacket.

We stopped for the night at a Bedouin tourist camp. Watching the sunset from some rock outcroppings, I started to feel a bit more impressed by the area. And that night, lying under the stars, I really understood why so many people love Wadi Rum so much.

The following morning there was a three-hour ride in the back of a bouncing pickup, which was actually a lot of fun, but by the end I felt about as dusty as the time I hung out the back of a jeep on one of the dustier legs at Headwaters. The buses picked us up by the side of the highway and we headed to Aqaba.

Lunch was there, then out in boats for swimming and snorkeling. The coral reef near Aqaba is fantastic, even though I ran out of patience with salt water in my nose, mouth and eyes pretty quickly. We lept and dove off the side of the boat and hung out in the sun for several hours, then rinsed off and headed back.

We spent that night at another Bedouin tourist camp near the back entrance to Petra. We ate dinner, then climbed sand dunes and played star tipping in the dark. A large group of us took our mattresses out of the tents and slept in a prepared area outside, which was fantastic because all the lights in the camp turned off around 10:30 so we could enjoy the stars until we fell asleep.

The next morning was an early one so we could avoid the heat of the day. We walked from our camp to the Petra Monastery, about four miles up and down hills and across narrow ledges. I really enjoyed it because the scenery was beautiful and I haven't been getting enough exercise since I've been here. The monastery itself was incredible, and I hiked up to a view point with a great view of the mountains and desert around.

By the time we got down to the main part of Petra, ate lunch, and started wandering the other sights, I was getting pretty tired and hot, and so I didn't enjoy them as much, but it's all really cool.

Finally, we got to get back on the bus, and headed back to Amman for a late night of studying and finishing homework.

Birthday Celebrations

2009-09-13T02:00:00.001-07:00

To reassure anyone who was afraid that being in a foreign country would somehow stifle my celebrations, be reassured that I had a very good birthday. To be honest, most of the day didn't really feel like a birthday. I've spent the past month obsessing about traveling, so it kind of snuck up on me. I had to go to class in the morning, then to an internship interview which I failed because I didn't live close enough to the building.

Once I got home, though, life was pretty good. I did have to do homework, but I talked to my parents in MT for a few minutes before dinner. Iftar was a fantastic barbeque - three kinds of meat kebabs and grilled tomatoes and onions. Afterward, I went to a very cool lounge with some friends. One somehow managed to procure a mango and chocolate ice cream cake. I am determined to find it again while I'm here. We smoked hookah, ate Ramadan crescent cakes, and played charades until late.

I was thinking that spending a year traveling was a sufficient gift for any birthday, but in addition to the cake, I also got a snickers bar and a beautiful blue scarf from Syria. So yeah, I had a pretty good day.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!

2009-09-08T04:15:00.000-07:00

So yeah, I'm twenty today. And I'll be going out with some friends tonight, but in the meantime: I fasted for the first time yesterday, sunrise to sunset. By choice – my host family keeps asking if I'm sure I don't want to eat. It was, for me, a really interesting experience. I was really tired by the end of the day, and I did feel really hungry in the middle, but it wasn’t all that bad.

Anyway, I know you may have some questions – I've been in Jordan for over a week now, and all you've heard about is the orientation. So I wrote up some descriptions of various parts of my life. I tried to stay on topic, but most of them have a lot of random information thrown in with the main theme. I’m hoping it’s all useful or interesting, though. And if there's something you've always secretly wondered about the Middle East – or about me – I'll try to answer for you.

Family Life

2009-09-08T04:06:00.001-07:00

As apprehensive as I was about my host family assignment – seriously, I was almost crying when Rana gave it to me – I have to say my first few days with them have been a success. They're taking very good care of me and my Arabic is improving already.

My host dad is Hamada. He works at the airport getting things through customs – Rana described him to me as an expediter for a logistics company. Oddly enough, his brother lives in Portland a few minutes from LC. I talked to him on the phone the other day. It was raining there, which is weird for me because I've seen maybe two clouds since I've been here. Hamada has the best English of anyone in the family, and he's super nice to me. He told me as soon as I got to their apartment that their house was my house and I should make myself comfortable. There's a minibus that I take to school and back, and he came with me in the morning then met me at school to go back so I would know where the bus stops were the first day. He's the only one in the family fasting because his wife, Niveen, is pregnant, the kids are too young, and I'm not Muslim so I can eat with them. Niveen doesn't speak a ton of English (although more than I do Arabic) but she's helping me with the words she does know. I started a notebook of words and she helps me spell or say them, and now that I've started classes offers to help with my homework.

The kids are adorable but really high energy. Yazan is five. He goes to school one day a week, likes to play with lego blocks and guns, and has so far taught me the words for airplane (tayara) hospital (mousteshfa) and animals (haiwanat). I wasn't sure we'd get along at first, but even though I still don't understand everything he says to me. Sadeel is three and just about the cutest kid I've ever met. She's kind of crazy sometimes – she spent probably the entire day Friday jumping up and down or running in circles around the living room. This led to some severe crankiness by late Saturday, but even though she's calmed down a bit she's still likes to blow me kisses and sit next to me, like she is now. Saturday, she spent at least half an hour brushing my hair, mostly the same section over and over and over.
Hamada and Niveen are trying to teach the kids English, which is really helpful because at this point the strategy is mostly to repeat English words and their Arabic equivalent over and over. I've learned most of the colors this way.

Their house is in a residential part of Amman, a neighborhood called Arjan. It's definitely not the richest part of the city, though it's hard to tell exactly how well off anyone is here, since appearances are a big deal. Hamada and Niveen's apartment is pretty small by US standards, but all of their things are nice. Around the house, everyone wears sweats or pajamas, but to go out we get dressed up. They all looked very nice when they first came to get me, in a friend's car.

I have my own room, although it used to be the kids’ and a lot of their stuff is still kept there, so they’re in and out all the time. For the most part I don’t mind, but Hamada and Niveen always worry that they’re bothering me, so last night Niveen gave me a key. I enjoy spending time with the kids, so I don’t think I’ll use it much, but it’ll be nice when I get tired of their constant energy.

The First Jordanian Food Post

2009-09-08T04:05:00.001-07:00

It may be Ramadan, but I'm definitely not starving. There's always a ton of food for iftar, and so far there are very few things I don't like. Now that I'm in a homestay, I haven't seen anymore hummus, but cheese (joobn) seems to be a fixture wherever I go. I'm always being offered juice or tea or coffee. We start most dinners with noodles in cilantro broth, and Hamada breaks the fast with dates. Breakfast is usually pita with yogurt cheese, jam, honey, white cheese, olives, cucumbers and so forth, although on Saturday we did have cereal and milk – here, they heat the milk before pouring it in, which makes cereal a little weird.

Dinner the first night (Thursday) was rice mixed with noodles and a meat and vegetable stew. Lunch on Friday was leftovers from the first dinner. That night, we had the last of the noodles and rice with baked chicken and a green sauce, and Saturday we had the same thing with just rice.

Any poor college students planning on living on their own in the Middle East will be happy to hear that there IS ramen, which is what we had for lunch Saturday. It was called something like 'instant noodles' on the package but as far as I could tell it was pretty much exactly what's available in the States. There are ads on the cartoon channel for it all the time. Actually, it seems like you can get almost any American food here in Amman, although obviously it may not be quite the same thing. There's Burger King, Subway (one of the only places open, for takeout, near the university during the day - a lot of kids get food there), Hardy's, Chili's, Tony Romo... And a lot of the grocery stores carry things like bread, jam, and so forth. Hamada brings home candy and chips a lot of the time when he goes to the store, and the first birthday gift I got today was a Snickers bar (thanks, Briana!!!)

Sunday was my first day of school, and eating is definitely not allowed on campus - most of us just sneak our food in bathrooms or stairwells - but when I got home Niveen had a snack ready. In the evening there was lentils and a cucumber-tomato salad – we mixed them together to eat – eaten by hand with pita bread, as well as yogurt and cucumber sauce, eaten separately. I stayed up really late that night that night, so we ate again, a breakfast-type meal, before I went to bed.

I decided on Monday that since I had eaten so late the night before it would be a good day to try fasting, so I didn't eat again until iftar at seven. We had the most famous Jordanian meal, mansaf, which is rice and meat with a yogurt sauce poured over the top. It is excellent, and after fasting, I had room to eat a ton of it. Our late evening snack was potato chips. They came in little bags like American chips, but instead of normal chip shape, they were formed into a little ring. They tasted pretty much the same, though. If you typically eat your chips paprika-flavored.

"Study Abroad is Not a Vacation"

2009-09-08T04:01:00.000-07:00

So yeah, I do have to go to school, Sunday thru Thursday, at the university of Jordan. So far I’ve had three days of Arabic classes and one session of each of my other courses. Currently I’m taking a class on the politics of water and one on recent Islamic thought, but I’m hoping to get an internship and if so I’ll drop one. They both seem really interesting, though, so I’m not sure which it’ll be. It depends a bit on my schedule – if I have to go to the internship between classes I’ll keep the later one (my Arabic is in the morning and the others in the afternoon, with several hours in between) but if not I might want to go home sooner. Also, the politics of water class is held in a building that’s about twenty minutes from everything else. The teacher is trying to get a new classroom, but if it’s still that far away I may just have to take the other class.

The University of Jordan is a huge campus with around 40,000 students when it’s in session. Because it’s Ramadan right now, the normal university session has been delayed until after Eid al-Fitr, the celebration at the end of Ramadan. Even so, there are people all over the campus, and I’m not really looking forward to how busy it’ll get once classes are in session. (It will be nice to have the cafeteria open, though.) For the moment, the campus is only open from 8 til about 3, so our class schedule has been compressed to fit within that time. Normally, I’ll end class around 5, but right now I get done at 3 on my longest days (area studies classes are only M/W though), with no scheduled breaks in between. However, almost every class so far has gotten out half an hour before the time listed on the schedule, if not more. This may be partly because we’re just starting out and still figuring out where things are and how things work, but someone did tell me it’s fairly normal.

More on school later, when I know more.

Last Day of Orientation!

2009-09-03T05:47:00.001-07:00

I'm freaking out a bit right now because we just had our home stay meeting, and my family speaks “functional” – i.e., very little – English, and I speak very little Arabic (and even less USEFUL Arabic). I am trying very hard to convince myself that this is a good thing, that I will be forced to speak Arabic and get much better this way, but it's still super intimidating. Plus they have small children – I'm so bad with little kids, much less those who don't speak English. By lucky coincidence, though, one of the gifts I brought is a Missoula coloring book, so I have something to offer at least. It's going to be okay. Really.

We've spent yesterday and today at and near the University of Jordan learning our way around. The campus is large, but very pretty. It's closed for Ramadan, so there are very few people around except our program. I survived the placement test, and hopefully I'll be told sometime soon that I got into the appropriate class. We got a campus tour and watched a movie about the coolest places in Jordan according to the king and his skydiving, rock-climbing, waterfall-rappelling family. So cool. The reporter accompanying the king, however, was overweight, rude, annoying, and just so unbearably American. I wanted to strangle him, I was so uncomfortable watching it.

We went to the American embassy in the afternoon for a security briefing, which was more useful than I was anticipating. The embassy, though, is basically a fortress. We had to go through probably three metal detectors, have all our passports checked and go through a long succession of revolving barred gates. There were Jordanian jeeps with machine guns at every entrance – although these seem to be pretty common throughout Amman. The military is everywhere here, lounging under shade covers or in tanks and jeeps, and they're all very well armed – constant reminders that the security forces here are some of the most powerful in the world. (And the intelligence service is better maybe even than Israel's – don't misbehave here!)

Last night we had a fancy dinner in the courtyard of what was basically a castle. It was really awkward going in among all the other patrons, eighty loud Americans. I'm going to be really happy to get out of the tour group situation. There was so much food – soup and bread and hummus and salads and three kinds of meat, with the crescent cookies, this time with walnuts and raisins.

After we got back, I was in the lobby talking to a girl who spent the summer here on a CIEE program. She was going out with some friends and invited me along. I was tired but said yes – I was so sick of doing the big group, organized activity thing. We went to a very cool coffeeshop near the first circle (Amman has lots of circles) and met up with a friend of hers and some friends of his who were studying in Damascus and were in Amman for the week. A couple other girls from the CIEE program showed up – including one who had grown up with one of my freshman roommates. We hung out and talked, and plotted trips to Syria and Lebanon – I am becoming determined to visit both. We walked up to the third circle to visit Reem Shwarma, apparently the best shwarma in Amman. It was past one by the time we got back – my last late night for a while, since my homestay curfew is 10 PM.

Update: We got our Arabic placements and class schedules, finally. I'm in the class I wanted (on the politics of water) and the level I think is right (second beginner). So I'm pretty happy about that. I went to a bookstore and got a dictionary – I'm not sure I could meet my host family without one. And now I'm sitting in the hotel waiting to meet them in fifteen minutes. It should be a long, awkward weekend of broken conversation and TV watching.

Marhaba min Amman!

2009-09-01T11:46:00.000-07:00

I've been in Jordan for just over a day right now, and I'm not sure I'm much closer to being non-overwhelmed than I was when I got here, but I'll try to chill out enough to tell ya'll (whoever you may be) what I've been up to.

Because I know sometimes I get bored reading about everything someone's been doing, I'll simple and build up to the most detailed description of events. Just read as far as you're interested.

Important events:
Monday - arriving in Amman without loss of luggage, being really tired, meeting lots of new people, smoking sheesha with about thirty other American students
Tuesday - waking up early, orientation presentation, going to the Dead Sea, seeing the mountains of Palestine, learning about my internship options, swimming in the Dead Sea, going to a Jordanian grocery store

Assorted observations and notes:
- Jordan has a long life expectancy than the US, despite having much less money and water
- I am finding lots of people who want to travel after the program ends, which bodes well for a trip to Lebanon
- I have eaten hummus for every meal so far, including breakfast - I wonder how soon I'll start hating it (not even close yet)
- I have internship interviews with two NGOs that are promoting the development of democracy in Jordan! Wish me luck!
- I turn twenty in a week!!!

Ramadan: The lunar calendar says that Ramadan is to be celebrated from 20 August until around 20 September. (They won't know exactly until they know when the crescent moon will reappear, which makes it interesting trying to plan ahead, since holidays from school are scheduled around the end.) It's a very important holiday here, and you can get in trouble (UJ security will kick you off the university campus) for not obeying the fast in public from dawn till dusk. Even drinking water is prohibited. During the day, restaurants aren't allowed to serve anything but takeout, there's no smoking, and only five-star hotels are allowed to serve alcohol during the month, no matter what time it is. (One girl in the program turned twenty-one today. She will not be celebrating in properly American style for quite a while - and even when alcohol is sold, the 200% tax makes it a bit pricey here.) There are exceptions to the no eating/drinking rule for things like travel, and food is still served during the day at touristy places like the Dead Sea resort we went to for lunch. But starting tomorrow, we're going to have to be pretty much fasting for the rest of the month. School days will be shorter than normal, though, which makes that a little easier. One other difficulty is that many foreigners (especially Westerners) leave the country during Ramadan, so a lot of the internship interviews with foreign-controlled NGOs won't happen until after it's over - luckily one of mine is run by one of the Jordanian professors here.

First impressions of Jordan/Amman: there's not very much color here. Everything seems to be shades of brown and tan - the houses, the land, even the sky is colored by dust around the edges (although so far it's been incredibly blue overhead.) The Jordanians use a lot of limestone for building, according to the guide we had today. Nearly all the buildings are similarly colored square blocks of stone in various sizes and states of (dis)repair. From a distance, it can be hard to distinguish which buildings have windows and which don't, and none of the ones we passed seemed to be really crumbling, which made it more difficult to visualize the economic conditions than in some countries. There are some more temporary structures, mainly tents, and maybe all of the people in the stone houses are moderately well off (Amman is considerably wealthier than the south and east of the country) but I'm not getting as much of an impression of poverty from the buildings as I have in the other countries I've visited, despite the unhappy economic figures we got in part of the orientation - the numbers are pretty similar to Guatemala. Maybe I simply haven't seen the right parts yet.

Upcoming:
Tomorrow - an Arabic oral interview and placement test I am going to do terribly at
Thursday - moving in with my host family
6 September (yes, that is Sunday) - beginning of classes
8 September - my birthday (I want to be really sure you remember it's coming)
10-12 September - trip to Wadi Rum, Aqaba and Petra

More details: I got here on Monday at about 5 PM, which is 7 AM Portland time, after having slept for approximately six hours out of the previous 48. I was so tired I almost fell asleep in the car from the airport (where I arrived, obtained a visa, found my luggage and got through customs without any problems). There were ten or fifteen CIEE students on my flight (direct from Chicago - twelve hours!) so there were lots of people and cars there to meet us. There were two other students in the car, but it was entirely silent all the way to the hotel, except for one occasion, just before we arrived, when the driver pointed out the commercial district nearby where we could find shopping and - of more interest to most of us - coffeeshops where we could go to smoke sheesha (which, for any family members reading this, is simply flavored tobacco smoked in a water pipe - it's legal in the US).

We got to the hotel, got checked in and met our roommates (I'd actually met mine in the airport in Chicago - it was pretty to pick out the students on exchange from the other people on the very uncrowded flight), bought Jordanian phones, got our orientation packets and so forth. It's Ramadan right now, so only really touristy places serve food during the day, but by the time we got to the hotel we didn't have long to wait before iftar - the evening breaking of the fast - was served at 7. The food was good, nothing particularly bizarre, at least among what I tried, but my hands were shaking I was so tired.

Afterwards, a big group decided to go out to a sheesha bar. I wasn't really sure if I wanted to go, but my roommate and a couple other girls I'd met on the plane or eaten dinner with were going on a walk with some of the (female) student interns from UJ. Most of them speak three or four languages (a couple are studying Spanish and Hebrew in school, and they all have really good English), and they gave us useful advice about living in Jordan. Eventually they had to go back, and the rest of us wandered on to the coffeehouse where the other CIEE kids were hanging out and smoking water pipes. The waiters pulled a table over to the end of their table and we sat and smoked and talked for a while. I was tired so the sheesha made me light-headed really quickly, and eventually it got rough and made a lot of us start coughing, but it was really cheap and lasted a long time.

We went back and I tried (and failed) to get on the internet - so many Americans trying to get online at the same time had totally destroyed the wireless network at the hotel. Eventually I gave up and passed out in bed.

We had to wake up early this morning in order to eat breakfast before being bussed to the Dead Sea. There was a mixture of Jordanian and Western food available - pita and hummus, eggs, corn flakes and milk. It took about an hour to get from Amman to our first destination, the Dead Sea Panorama Complex (exactly what it sounds like - a museum with a spectacular view of the Dead Sea and across to Palestine). We had a guide who told us many interesting things about Jordan, most of which I don't remember. When we got close to the Dead Sea, I started to get texts on my new phone from the phone company welcoming me to Palestine and urging me to "Smell the jasmine and taste the olives." I love this country already.

At the Panorama Complex, we had a chance to take pictures before we were all herded into a windowless meeting room for our orientation. We heard about strategies for coping with being in Jordan (don't forget you're not in the US!), some of the major obvious differences between the US and Jordan and their implications, reviewed the schedule, played a mass 'getting to know you' game, had a lovely coffee/tea break with yummy pastries, and at the end had some time to see the museum and explore before the bus took us down to the sea itself.

We were taken to a four-star resort hotel on the shore of the Dead Sea, where we were served a fabulous lunch buffet along with all the wealthy European tourists there. It was incredibly hot - much hotter than Amman - probably because the Dead Sea is the lowest place in the world, leading to warm temperatures year round. I had to wait to get in the water because I had a meeting to talk to the directors about internship placement - I have two interviews that I'm really excited about, and I really hope I get picked for one. After that, though, I had almost two hours to swim in the sea and the less salty swimming pools nearby. It is incredible how well you float - I didn't really get it until I actually felt it. When the waves were strong, it was really hard to stay standing because your body just wanted to float up. Also, the salt really stung around my fingernails, where the edges were a little raw.

I didn't get the black mud put on me, but there was a guy there with a bucket who would if you wanted. I did have to shower off the salt before going up to the other pools - my skin was slippery with it. Because it was a tourist place, in addition to getting lunch we could wear our American swimming suits, and luckily I picked my one-piece, because there was a lap pool and I was desperately in need of some exercise. In one of the other pools, there was a water slide, but it ran almost horizontally and if you tried to go down sitting up you had trouble making it to the bottom - I figured out that you had to go down flat but the girl in front of me hadn't, so we briefly became very close friends. The next time around, she worked out that you could go down very quickly if you went headfirst, so that became the new method and there were no further collisions.

Coming back, we went by a more direct route. At the north end of the sea, across the Jordan River, we could see Jericho, and the guide said that you could see the lights of Jerusalem in the hills above - maybe when it gets dark? I dozed part of the way, tired from sun and general lack of sleep.

Back at the hotel, I managed to get internet (hooray!) but didn't do anything useful and then we had dinner - fried fish and dates in addition to the ever-present hummus, pita, cucumber and tomato. There were crescent cakes filled with coconut and walnut, which I guess are traditional at Ramadan, as are the dates. Post-dinner, I went with some girls to an ATM and then to try to find a shop selling phone cards. We ran into another group who said all the little stores were closed, so we went to a grocery instead. They had phone cards there, but there were so many of us they were starting to run out and I decided to wait until tomorrow to get one. Other than the Arabic lettering all over the place, though, the store could almost have been an American grocery - just as well stocked, many of the same brands, bright clean modern facility (and you know, a lot of grocery stores that I can think of in America are located in square, tan-brick buildings too).

And then I came back, gave up on trying to study for the placement test (no matter how much I review, I just don't remember enough for it to be useful) and got on the internet - and this time I actually communicated with people!

Basically, I'm an amazing cook

2009-02-08T13:49:00.001-08:00

Or else just really good at finding amazing recipes. In either case, I've been bringing some pretty nice cooking smells to my hall recently.

First were these incredible triple ginger cookies - I actually stuck pretty close to this recipe. I forgot to roll the cookies in sugar, and I didn't have lemon rind so I used a tsp or two of extract instead. So good!

And after those were gone (I made many, many small ones, but they still disappeared very rapidly) I made pineapple cookies, since my collection of various interesting nonperishables was beginning to seem a bit large and I was looking for an inspiration to try a new cookie variety. I used one of the many basic recipes on Allrecipes (I think this was it), but added ground ginger, cinnamon, ground cloves, and walnuts for a more interesting taste & texture. The dough is really sticky - a little more flour might do well - but the cookies are great.

Then, yesterday I made my first yeast bread ever! I was so proud of myself! The recipe, for a Rosemary-Olive bread, came from my "Sun-Drenched Cuisine" cookbook ($5 at my favorite used book store!). I didn't have any olives (and I don't like them anyway) or fresh rosemary, so my bread was thyme and red pepper (for some reason, I have a whole jar of sweet roasted peppers right now). I have to say, it turned out pretty well. And now I can make my own interesting bread, instead of spending so much money on specialty breads at the store.

And for brunch today, since I have also a whole bag of yams and sweet potatoes needing to be eaten, I made sweet potato friatta (the original idea is here, although I only used the recipe as a really basic guideline). It's super easy, though it does take some time to cook. I chopped up a couple of small yams - I think that's what they were, though I had both those and sweet potatoes and don't necessarily know the difference. Anyway, I chopped them up (you might want to peel them at this point), threw them into a pie pan (that being the baking dish from my limited supply that seemed most suitable), and baked them at 375 degrees for a while, basically until they were soft. At this point, I removed the yam peels, chopped up some onion and some more of those sweet peppers and added them to the yam chunks - which I also cut a bit smaller, though the size is really up to your preference. For once I did the smart thing and beat my eggs in a separate bowl. I only had two, so I used those, about half a cup of cream, and the end of a bag of shredded cheese, probably somewhere between a fourth and half cup. (As you may have noticed, I was not really into measuring things today.) Instead of using nutmeg as the original recipe recommends, I stirred in some garlic powder (minced would probably have been better, but I was too lazy to bother), sage, and basil - I'm really not a salt and pepper girl, so those got left out also - then poured the whole concocotion over the veggies in the pie dish. Some thyme sprinkled on top and into the oven it went, turned down to 325 and then 315 when I decided the edges were cooking too quickly. When it was lovely and bubbly and just starting to brown on top, somewhere around half an hour, I took it out. Perfect Sunday morning food: easily adjustable for whatever you happen to have about, not too difficult to make despite the lesuirely pace of the process, and both yummy and filling!

J'ai passé une bonne journée

2008-10-24T20:09:00.000-07:00

It was sunny, it was Friday, and I ate good food. I do not ask much more from my days,especially here at school. The sun tends to go AWOL between mid-September and April here in Portland, but today it managed to keep in sight from one horizon to the other. Really, just a spectacular autumn day. I am told that fall on the west coast doesn't even begin to compare to the east coast, but honestly I am of the opinion that a lot of that has to do with very different cloud cover and precipitation pattern. When the sun is shining, and there's just the hint of a crisp breeze to keep you on your toes, and the leaves are glowing gold in the light, autumn is just as beautiful here as anywhere else in the world. I took a bike ride this afternoon with a couple friends, on a borrowed bike - my first ride since this summer.
I had spinach and feta tart for dinner, one of my finer cooking moments in my opinion. And the Boys and Girls Club brought a few groups of kids to the dorm for trick-or-treating, so a couple times our dinner was interrupted by small children in typical small-child Halloween get-up: pirates, devils, and, so my roommate tells me, the cutest kangaroo ever.

I'm too lazy to write a whole post

2008-10-21T21:20:00.000-07:00

- Letter from a Texas Republican, via Salon's War Room

"I am sick to death of the negativity and lack of substance offered by McCain's campaign. The Ayrs [sic] "connection" is ludicrous, and the attempt to paint the "good touch, bad touch" training program for kiddoes is disgusting. Books could, and will be written about Palin's shallowness, and the arrogance that attempted to foist her on us. If these are products of the "'Straight Talk' Express" then I'd hate to see full blown Bushism.

"BTW, I am a white Southerner, the descendant of a Civil War-era Tory. My family was voting Republican by 1868, if not 1864 -- way before all these Johnny-come-latelies, whose ancestors were in the Klan. Regardless, I cannot stand any more hubris, incompetence, cronyism, profiteering, lies, malfeasance, mismanagement, or perversion of justice -- whether by Bush, his enablers in Congress, or their successors.

"I have guns and plenty of them. I am not fearful of losing them.

"I have several Bibles. I am free to read them or not; and to interpret them as I wish. I am not fearful of losing that, either.

"And I am not looking over my shoulder for some gay who will ask for my hand in marriage. And even if one were to do so, all I need do is decline.

"I believe in the literal truth of the Bible; and I believe in my heart that it teaches abortion is murder. But the GOP has been in power more than long enough to overturn that. I conclude that it is not going away.

"The concern I have -- greater than "God, guns, and gays" -- is going to war for a pack of lies. Bush's hands are bloodier than any abortion doctor's and he has exchanged the nation's moral high ground for a miry pit. He has perverted justice, and permitted Alberto Gonzales and Monica Goodling to pervert Justice. And I don't think Bush has the capacity to even realize that he's done anything wrong."

- I made the Spaghettis Bolo as directed, substituting broccoli for meat. I'm not sure that this really counts as a new recipe, even though I don't eat spaghetti much here, since it is almost identical to my mum's recipe. Essentially all you do is throw some broccoli, onion and garlic, chopped up, into a saucepan of whatever size you require, add mushrooms when the broccoli has started to soften up, then add crushed tomato, oregano and basil when the mushrooms are as cooked as you want them. Simmer until you're happy with the broccoli and serve with noodles.

I don't have a pan or the time for making lasagna, so I was considering at least making the bechamel to have with the tomato sauce, but the link doesn't work and I was getting lazy, so I just tossed some Parmesan on top. Strangely, even my roommate who rejected the last homemade tomato sauce she tried liked this one. I think I just have less discerning taste.

- Since I already finished this week's recipe and neither my cooking skills nor my budget were excessively tested, I figured I could afford to try another challenge. Oh, how foolish of me! On the very first blog I was sent to, I discovered a recipe for asparagus and feta tart that really called for me (easy enough to substitute real pastry for the pre-rolled stuff). And then I made the mistake of scrolling down. The moment I saw the next recipe, I knew I would be making it as well, only partly because I have spinach in my fridge at the moment that is begging to get used. I was intending to stop there so as not to tempt myself too sorely, but in the end couldn't resist looking to see what else I could find to tease my appetite with. I think I may be stuck cooking through this blog for a while...

- I'm partway through watching Monsieur Ibrahim right now. I have kind of a thing for French-language movies, but also for French speaking actors. I couldn't help but wonder what Pierre Boulanger, who plays the young Jewish boy in the film, looked like grown up a bit. Well, it's been five years, he's now 21, and he's just as adorable as he was in the movie, except now in a very crush-able way. Aww.

Cookie + caramel + coconut +chocolate = pure deliciocity

2008-10-19T22:25:00.000-07:00

So I finally got around to trying out that samoa recipe. I figured I'd wait until the weekend so I'd know I'd have enough time, which turns out to have been wise. The caramel-coconut-chocolate process is pretty time-consuming, especially when you're just figuring out what you're doing. I'm still waiting for the chocolate to harden, so I can't tell you yet how close the final result is to a samoa. I know they don't LOOK exactly like samoas, due to impatience, carelessness and lack of skill on my part. Nevertheless, I can at least assure you with complete certainty that this recipe tastes good at every step of formation from cookie dough onward.

Cookies ~ Homemade Samoas
(also known as Caramel de-Lites)
From Baking Bites via Once Upon a Plate
Makes about 3 1/2 to 4 dozen

I used the whole recipe, but the number of cookies produced (about 4 dozen) is a little overwhelming unless you have some specific event in mind that will require that many (and in that case, I would recommend that anyone not willing to put several hours into this project make something else). In the future, I'm going to stick to half batches.

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
up to 2 tablespoons milk (I used vanilla soymilk)

Preheat oven to 350F.
Cream together butter and sugar in a large bowl. Mix in flour, baking powder and salt at a low speed, next, the vanilla and milk, adding in the milk only as needed to make the dough come together without being sticky (you may not need any at all). The dough should come together into a soft, pliable ball. Add in a bit of extra flour if your dough seems sticky.

It's easiest to roll the dough out in 2 or 3 batches (between pieces of wax (or parchment) paper to about 1/4-inch thickness (or a little thinner) using a 1 1/2-inch cookie cutter to make rounds. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet (my baking sheet is nonstick and seemed fine without parchment or oil or any of that) and make a hole in the center. I used a knife; recommendations from previous bakers include the end of a wide straw or the small end of a large round piping tip. Repeat until the dough is used up (it's okay to re-roll, this dough is shortbread-like and very forgiving.)

Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, until bottoms are very lightly golden brown around the edges.

Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet, to allow them to firm up slightly, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Topping:
3 cups shredded coconut
12-ounces good-quality chewy caramels
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons milk
8 ounces dark or semisweet chocolate (chocolate chips will do)

If you prefer milk chocolate, by all means use that. However, the caramel-coconut mixture is quite sweet, so bittersweet can help balance the sweetness bit.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees (F)

Spread coconut evenly on a rimmed baking sheet and toast 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until coconut is golden. Watch carefully, especially near the end of toasting time; the coconut toasts very quickly once it begins to become golden.

Cool on baking sheet, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

Unwrap the caramels and place in a large microwave-safe bowl with milk and salt. Cook on high for 3-4 minutes, stopping to stir a few times to help the caramel melt. When smooth, fold in toasted coconut with a spatula.
Using the spatula or a small offset spatula, spread topping on cooled cookies, using about 2-3 teaspoons per cookie. Reheat caramel for a few seconds in the microwave if it begins to firm up, to make it soft and spreadable once again. (Any spare caramel-coconut mix can be spread on a baking sheet or other flat surface to make yummy coconut brittle candy.)

While topping sets up, melt chocolate in a small bowl. Heat on high in the microwave in 45 second intervals, stirring thoroughly to prevent scorching. (Or you can use a double boiler on the stovetop.) Dip the base of each cookie into the chocolate and place on a clean piece of parchment or wax paper. Transfer all remaining chocolate into a piping bag or a ziplock bag with the corner snipped off and drizzle finished cookies with chocolate. Melt a bit of additional chocolate, if there is not quite enough for each cookie.

Let chocolate set completely before storing in an airtight container.

Lest it be thought that I reserve all my chef-ly strength for the occasional grandiose project like these cookies, I would like to mention that I did some other cooking this weekend as well, an apple pie and the Maque Choux from my random recipe challenge. The humidity is pretty low for Oregon this weekend, which made the pie dough a little less cooperative than usual, but it all turned out well in the end.

As for the Maque Choux, it also was quite successful. I used a half cup of chili beans instead of the tasso, canned corn instead of fresh (as with any canned food, try to buy the 'No Salt Added' version, and save a little of the water from the can to replace the corn milk with), dried thyme instead of fresh, and less tomato than was called for (I never seem to have as much tomato on hand as I think I do, probably because I will eat it on/with almost anything). My roommate and I ate it on whole wheat tortillas, not the most "authentic Cajun" option, but delicious regardless, and I tossed the extra in my scrambled eggs this morning. It's easy, healthy, and versatile. I will definitely be having this again.

As for this week:

My assignment (Spaghettis Bolo et/ou Lasagne - part way down the page) is particularly appealing this week because 1) the recipe is in French and 2) I was intending to try to make vegetarian tomato sauce this week anyway (the recipe isn't veg, but I'm not intending to use meat).

Rock rock on

2008-10-17T23:49:00.000-07:00

It's almost midnight, my ears are ringing, I'm covered in other people's sweat, my legs ache, and I have a cross country race in the morning. But for the Blue Scholars... it's always worth it. I overheard some one after the show saying that they've only gotten better, and it's true. I've been listening to them for a little while now, seen a few shows, been around when a couple records and EPs dropped, and I get more in love with them every time I hear a new song.

My school (for the second year in a row!) arranged to have them come do a FREE show on campus. I don't even have words to describe how insane that is. This is the group that introduced me to conscious hip-hop and the idea that you could have sick beats and meaningful lyrics in the same song. They the were first real show I saw - Aesop Rock was headlining, but I went for the Scholars and still maintain that they were far superior. They are the only group I have ever paid to see more than once. It is because of the Blue Scholars that I have the interest and appetite for such a diverse range of music. (Props to Colin, who gave me the Scholars and several other excellent groups; without you my musical taste would be much poorer and much more limited.)

If you have never heard the Blue Scholars or the other excellent acts on their independent label Massline, I urge you to remedy this grievous deficiency in your life and go visit one of the sites linked to above, go to one of their shows, buy a few albums (support your favorite local record shop if they've got the Scholars). Folks in the northwest, though you must be either terribly out of the loop or have the wrong taste in music if you aren't listening, you are very much in luck. They like to play on this coast (and even a bit inland, they've been to my hometown in Montana twice that I know of in the past two years) and from what I've seen they do a good job of getting their music in the stores. They've also got a couple of EPs on iTunes (though for some reason neither are available at the moments).

Well, I just finished downloading Common Market (who opened tonight - holla for two times the Massline magic) "Tobacco Road," which is his latest CD. And as much as I'd love to stay up and listen to all of it, I really have to go to bed. Assuming I can, which with all the adrenaline currently pumping through my veins is not certain.

Peace!

Squash update

2008-10-16T23:27:00.001-07:00

You may not realize this, but one byproduct of squash soup is squash seed, which are amazing when baked. This is one of the easiest recipes ever. Mix your squash seeds (pumpkins are especially great) with some oil and some salt. For bonus points, add a spice or two, or some Parmesan cheese. I used rosemary and garlic. Be creative! (Warning, don't put too much salt on because these are super addictive and you will probably eat more than you intend.)

My other squash adventure: zucchini bread in a pie tin! This was actually the only thing I was originally planning to bake tonight, since I'd just discovered that my zucchini was not happy with its proximity to the freezer and I needed something to do while I was waiting up for my laundry. The squash seeds only occurred to me as I was taking the zucchini out, since I'd placed them in the fridge yesterday with the intention of baking them "in the future" (The last time I was going to bake seeds "in the future" they got moldy first, so I'm very glad the future was today.)

The original recipe is from 101 Cookbooks, but as usual I've made some alterations, and also cut the recipe in half.

1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup fine brown sugar, lightly packed
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups grated zucchini (about 1 medium), skins on
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or all-purpose flour)
1/2 cup oatmeal (my addition; if you don't want it just use flour)
3/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (the original recipe also suggests poppy seeds, lemon zest, and crystallized ginger. Again, let your imagination lead you!)

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Butter your pan(s).

Beat the butter until fluffy. Add the sugars and beat again until mixture comes together and is no longer crumbly. Add the egg. Stir in the vanilla and then the zucchini (low speed if you are using a mixer).

In a separate bowl, combine the whole wheat pastry flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, spices (the ones above are those I used; the original recipe used curry powder and I encourage you to try whatever appeals to you), and walnuts. Add these dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in two batches, stirring between each addition. (I actually never use a separate bowl, a habit I inherited from my mother, but you are welcome to.)

Pour the batter into the pan(s) and level. Sprinkle more walnuts across the top. Bake for 30-45 minutes, depending on the size and shape of the pan(s) you are using. Even though the outside edges of my bread were well done, the inside was undercooked, probably because the pan was round. Keep this in mind if you are also using an unusually shaped pan, but also remember that it will continue to cook even after it is removed from the oven as it is cooling. Remove from the oven and cool the zucchini bread in pan for about ten minutes. Turn out onto wire racks to finish cooling - if you leave them in their pans, they will get sweaty and moist (not in a good way) as they cool.

I really like how this turned out. The walnuts are delicious and crunchy, the spices are warm and autumny, and the oatmeal gives it a nice texture. Enjoy!

Debate notes

2008-10-16T12:48:00.000-07:00

I didn't watch the debate last night, but I'm listening to it on Hulu right now. We'll see how much of it I can stomach... I only got through about half of the last one. There's only so many repetitive, misleading accusations, counter-accusations, and defenses that I can stand to listen to before smoke begins come out my ears.

Anyway, here's some profound insight into this American political spectacle.

- Obama is a better debater. Numbered points = sound convincing, easier to follow than McCain's rambling. Also, he's better at subtly redirecting questions to issues that he wants to talk about.

- John McCain's spending and taxation proposals don't make logical sense. Spending freeze or new economic stimulus and energy independence spending? How is this going to work? Do I just not understand government spending?

- Why does McCain keep picking up Obama's phrases? First it was "Main Street" now it's the hatchet and scalpel. It only emphasizes the fact that he's playing catch up right now.

- It is incredibly difficult to follow McCain's train of thought. Pick a topic and stick with it, or come up with better transitions!

- The one thing McCain is better at doing than Obama is leveling accusations. Even when he has a legitimate point to make against his opponent, Obama isn't nearly as good at making that argument.

- May I make a point? Budget resolutions do not actually do anything. Kind of like rhetoric, we should not ignore them entirely, but let's pay more attention to records on bills that actually do things, please.

Food to accompany the sounds of falling leaves

2008-10-15T22:52:00.000-07:00

Butternut squash soup and cornbread! My roommate and I signed up to make snacks this week for our residence hall's weekly study break, and that is what I decided to make. It's been getting chilly recently, and organic fall squash are 69 cents a pound at the local grocery, so voila! They're both vegan, since we have multiple vegans living in our hall and its nice to make them feel welcome. Plus well made vegan food is healthy and yummy.

The original recipes both come from the Post Punk Kitchen. The cornbread recipe I didn't really make any changes to, other than shortcutting on the mixing of ingredients. I was a bit more flexible with the soup, so here's my version of the recipe, with major changes noted.

Buttercup Soup (originally South African Butternut Soup)

Ingredients
1 buttercup, about 4 lbs (Honestly, any fall or winter squash would probably work. I have difficulty making distinctions between squash types so this is what I ended up with.)
1 apple
1/2 large onion
1-2 tsp medium curry powder
4 Tbsp flour
pinch of ground nutmeg
2-3 cups water
2 cups soy milk
The original called for stock cubes, boiling water and coconut milk, but I dislike stock, especially in cubes, and this was far more convenient.

Directions
Peel, seed and dice the squash. Peel, core and chop the apple. Peel the onions and chop roughly. In a large saucepan, saute the chopped onions in a small amount of olive oil or margarine. Add the curry powder and fry the mixture lightly. Add the butternut, apple, flour and nutmeg; saute. Add water and soy milk as desired, stir and cover. Cook until squash is soft. Puree or blend until smooth. The color of the soup should be a deep yellow and the texture creamy. Serve the soup hot. (I enjoyed it with some plain fat free yogurt and an extra sprinkle of nutmeg on top.)

Due to time constraints, I was cooking somewhat hurriedly and was forced to begin saute-ing before the squash was cut, with the result that the squash and liquids were added gradually as they became available and/or necessary. I also probably stuck the mixture into the blender a little early, as there were a few hard chunks left, but that might also be due to a poor peeling job (buttercup squash were not really meant to be peeled raw, I don't think). Nevertheless, it was for the most part smooth and delicious. One of the beauties of soup (other than the lovely warm and full feelings it gives you) is how easy it is to adjust recipes to the constraints of the situation.

As much as I like it, though, I'm not sure squash soup was a great choice for food to share, since squash is not a universally welcomed vegetable. Cooking for other people always makes me nervous, since I tend to be pretty nonjudgmental when it comes to (healthy) food. I always worry that something I consider perfectly edible will totally disgust the people I try to feed it too, as happened this afternoon when I tried to help my roommate make tomato sauce from crushed tomatoes, vegetables and garlic. I didn't think there was anything wrong with it, but though poor Jackie tried several modifications to increase the palatability of the sauce, I don't think she ever found something she really enjoyed. The corn bread, at least, was a success, though it is my experience that anything remotely edible that can be simply picked up and placed in the mouth is a success with college students (we are much like teething infants that way...)

Playing with my food

2008-10-13T22:18:00.000-07:00

I spent the last hour and a half or so reading food blogs. leaving me with a watering mouth and a keen desire to cook something. I cook a lot, but for the most part it tends to be either simple things, like eggs or pasta, or else completely random combinations that happen because something is getting old or I have nothing else to eat. I haven't been making much progress toward exploring new recipes, so when I discovered the "Blog Hop" feature at the Food Blog Blog (my new favorite time waster!) I was immediately seized by the possibilities. And now I have a new game, which will allow me to entertain myself while simultaneously introducing me to new food. It's not an especially creative game, because the essential idea is that, each week, using either the Blog Hop or the traditional "flip to a random page and point" method with either one of my cookbooks or a favorite cooking blog, I will select a new recipe to try. Being a nominally vegetarian college student, I'm going to give myself the freedom to skip past some recipes.

Legitimate reasons to not use a recipe:
-expensive, out of season or difficult to obtain ingredients
-long preparation time
-fancy equipment or preparation required
-meat, unless it looks really really good
-deep frying

Illegitimate reasons:
-ingredients I don't like
-it sounds boring
-fussiness

It's actually harder than it sounds. It took me four attempts to even get a blog I could use (the first was no longer there, the second was devoted entirely to bacon, the third was an Indian food blog in which every recipe I looked at used either dried lentils - too long to prepare - or some other incredibly exotic ingredient. I did bookmark it for future reference, though. The fourth blog didn't even have any recipes.) Finally, I arrived at a blog for New Orleans cuisine. After following the link to the new site, I scrolled around for a while in an attempt to find a recipe that met all my requirements, and rather than move onto something different or compromise one of my prohibitions already, I finally went back to the original blog and followed another link back to a recipe on the new blog: Maque Choux. I don't think eliminating the meat should be a problem (I may add the spices separately, though). I'm going shopping tomorrow and will cook sometime this week.

Also cooking this week: corn bread and delicata squash soup on Wednesday night for our weekly hall snack time; faux samoas; and possibly something with sweet potatoes. Plus probably some easier type of cookies at some point or other.

Now I'm really feeling hungry...

Politicking (from 5 October)

2008-10-13T20:30:00.000-07:00

It looks like John McCain has finally just given up on the idea that his policies are better than Barack Obama's. Or at least on the idea that he's going to be able to convince the American people of that. His campaign in the past few weeks has been so ugly that even Karl Rove has said that he needs to reconsider some of his ads. But now he's planning a 'fiercer' strategy against Obama . My first reaction to that headline was to wonder if that was even possible; my second was astonishment that McCain thinks that this is actually going to win over the independents he needs. Many of the things he says are demonstrably false and/or misleading, including one of the points he will probably be focusing on in some of his new ads: the relationship between Obama and William Ayers, something that Sarah Palin has also been discussing recently. This issue has been in discussion since the primaries, and it seems to be the general consensus (as the last article points out) that there was no close connection between Obama and Ayers.

It isn't as though Obama's campaign is entirely innocent of these kinds of attacks, but it is my feeling that he has maintained a higher standard of honesty and a better balanced array of ads. Though both candidates have spent about the same amount on attack ads, Obama is spending much more overall on ads and slightly less on attack ads, so while almost all of John McCain's advertising budget is now going into negative ads, less than half of Obama's is. Looking at the current top three McCain ads and the probable future targets, I don’t think that there is any content of real substance in any of them - he's accusing Obama of trying to raise everyone's taxes (false), advocating 'massive government' (questionable and not specific enough to constitute a genuine policy disagreement) blaming the policies he advocates for sending American jobs overseas (questionable) and being 'mum' on the market crisis (severely questionable). On the other hand, Obama's attacks address ISSUES like Social Security, health care, and the economy. (Disturbing side note - commenters on this article note that the McCain ad seems to be trying to 'darken' Obama. If you watch the beginning of the ad, it is kind of striking. I don't know if this is intentional, but if it is, well, I don't even know what to say. I honestly didn't think even McCain was that sleazy.)

What this all boils down to, for me at least, is that McCain is in essence admitting that he is less suited to be the president that the American people want than Obama is (slightly different than being the best president for the American people, which I hope he still believes he is, though I may not agree with him). He knows that he's not winning on issues - as this blog describes, no Republican is going to win a debate on the Iraq war today, and voters prefer Obama on the economy as well. He's even pulling his ads stressing the good things about himself in favor of those ads talking about the bad things about Obama, indicating that he thinks he can only win the personality contest by smearing his opponent. (And let's face it, those positive ads don't ring so true anymore either. Joe Biden did a pretty good job of deconstructing the 'maverick' persona, and all the lying/misinterpreting has made American voters less inclined to believe the 'Straight Talk Express'.)

So what does John McCain have going for him right now? In my estimation, not much. Sarah Palin didn't help (she might have done better than expected in the debate, but Biden won more voters, attacking Barack Obama isn't helping, and I don't see it getting any better (even the Washington Post is considering endorsing Obama. I've never agreed with McCain on the majority of policy issues, but before this election I at least respected him for playing fair, telling the truth, and standing up for what he believed him. Today, even that is gone.

Other miscellany:
-I just watched the vp debate online - it's legal and free. Near the end, Biden starts talking about Mike Mansfield, a former Montana senator (the library at the U of Montana is named after him). That made me smile, although other parts of the debate made me pretty angry. There's a good fact checking article in Newsweek.
-A recent look at what the electoral vote is looking like - good news, especially when you consider that at the moment Obama would win the popular vote by as much as 13% right now (summary of polls, Daily Kos poll) and in almost every poll is leading by percentages outside the margin of error.

Sena Wanawake at Headwaters

2008-07-28T14:33:00.000-07:00

I'm recently returned from an amazing weekend of running and had to share. It hasn't been a great summer for me runningwise - convincing myself to go for a run after working out in the sun for nine hours is difficult even when the running is fun, but for some reason (boredom, being out of shape, lack of running buddies, who knows) I seemed to have lost whatever it is that makes running so enjoyable for me. I still don't know what it is, but I think I've found it again.

Despite my lack of training, last Thursday I set off for a 3 day, 222 mile cross country relay in south-central Montana, near Bozeman. It's called Headwaters, and it runs from Missouri Headwaters State Park to Hellroaring Creek, "the ultimate source of the Missouri River". The relay runs through an incredible range of locations: along the side of highways, down dusty two tracks, and even in a couple places on true trails. It goes across bridges, streams, and cattleguards; up and down mountains; through farmland, high-elevation sage/juniper deserts, forests, Montana-style sand dunes, and wildflower-filled alpine meadows. It begins at 4000 feet, and goes as high as 9500 on the third day. I've done it once before when I was in high school, and both times it was an incredibly demanding, incredibly enjoyable experience.

There were fourteen teams total, four of them forming a group from Missoula. I was on a team with 8 other women, including a couple running buddies from high school. We camped Thursday night with the other Missoula teams and woke up at 3:30 Friday morning (and every morning after) so we could make it to the start of the run by 5:30. That day is the longest day, and probably the hardest for me, though it was the flattest. My first leg started out with a pretty steep uphill, which I had to walk a lot of, then turned into a long, long downhill. This day was the lowest in elevation, only 4-5 thousand feet, but I was struggling a bit with the altitude on that first run. The second run I did was actually just a part of a leg called the Miler's Revenge, where seven of us each ran a mile. That was a lot of fun, but my last leg was late in the afternoon, so it was very hot, and the leg, though only three miles, was flat and exposed and extremely boring. Because of the heat, I had to stop with .8 to go and have a teammate finish for me, which was disappointing, the next day I got to run an extra 4.6 miles because another runner had accidently been assigned two legs that were too close together. I'd run that leg the other time I did the relay, and I really liked it then. It starts with half a mile of uphill, but the rest is a great long downhill into Nevada City (which is not in fact a city but rather an old west mining town now turned into a tourist trap. There's a similar town two miles down the road called Virginia City where I think people actually still live). It was significantly harder this time than the previous time, but still a great leg. That run was midway through the day, again without much shade (there aren't many trees in that part of Montana). I'd already run the first leg that morning, which was incredible. Again, we started at 5:30, so it was still dark and a bit chilly. This was my longest run of the weekend, 5.8 flat miles through some pretty farmland. As I was finishing up, the sun was beginning to rise above the mountains on the horizon. It's hard to get up so early, but totally worth it for a run like that.

By Sunday, the final day, I was so sore and tired, but I'd done 19 miles already and only had five more to go. We started out at 5 that morning because the start was closer to our campground, so even though I was the second leg the sun hadn't risen by the time I finished. That was my hardest leg of the day, two miles of nothing but steep uphill, but after all the downhill it felt pretty good. I walked for a little bit in the middle, but fortunately by the time the first car for the college boys team passed me (their team started behind us, and didn't actually pass us for another couple legs, but the car came by early) I was running again, so I didn't have to feel too embarrassed. My next run was part of a five-mile Miler's revenge, again a lot of fun and this time mostly downhill. My last run again was in the afternoon, but there was a breeze and it was a bit rollier than my run the first day, so two and a half miles was actually pretty comfortable. And then I was done- more than 24 miles in just 3 days!

Familiar places

2008-07-16T22:52:00.000-07:00

I took a somewhat extended bike trip through Missoula today and went to a couple of my favorite places. I also went to the bank, which was nice because I had money to deposit, but more of a detour than a real stop. It did let me bike through the park, which is also nice. Some of the girls I run with say they get sick of running laps there (a lap is just a mile and a quarter) but if I'm in the right mood I could run in those circles forever. The scenery and people are changing all the time, you just have to look. Today it was a few groups of little kids at basketball camp, and the soccer player of the day (I swear, there's always someone there) was a older man kicking a ball around by himself near one of the goals. Unfortunately, though, my bank is also near the mall, which is an area that's a real pain to bike around. I felt like I was continually in the way of some car trying to pull into or out of some lot. On the other side of South, though, everything is much more residential. I rode past a little park I'm not really familiar with, then across another busy street and back into retail-land. My destination: the Book Exchange, a nice used book store in this little shopping center. The bookstore and a couple other places in the strip are locally owned, which is nice. Instead of Starbucks, the in-store coffee shop is Liquid Planet, a great local company (weird coincidence - one of the few non-MT locations is at PGE Park in Portland). I don't usually buy books - that's what libraries are for! - but I occasionally make exceptions at places like the Book Exchange and Powell's. Today, I was looking for cookbooks, which are not especially great to get from libraries anyway. I had a lot of fun looking through the books they had, though it was hard to choose the ones I wanted. I'm pretty happy with the four I ended up with (including a cute cocktail book!)
It rained, briefly and without determination, as I was biking off. These are my favorite types of summer days, I think - warm, mostly sunny, with the occasional refreshing cloudburst. All the ingredients balance out so perfectly. And there's something inherently cool in the idea of being rained upon while the sun is still shining.
Though I bike past it almost every day, I hadn't been to Rockin' Rudy's yet this summer, and it would have been a true crime if I had been home without ever going. It is possibly the coolest store on earth (I haven't even found anything in Portland that can quite compare) and it was really relaxing just to wander around soaking in the vibes. There was a lot of stuff I considered buying, but fortunately left it all alone for now at least. I'm a fan of the theory that you should avoid making impulse buys: if you still can't stop thinking about whatever it is even after you've left the store, then you can go back in a day or week to buy it. I may end up having to go back for one of the cool "GObama" posters designed by a local artist. My roommate and I are currently trying to come up with ideas to make our dorm awesome next year, and I definitely think that might help. Also, though I already have the CDs, I noted with approval that Rudy's now carries the Blue Scholars and Common Market. They did not the last time I checked, a couple of years ago.
Anyway, after about an hour there spent perusing political bumper stickers, MiSOULla t-shirts, cool jewelery and nice smelling things of various descriptions, I headed over to the library. And got a biography of Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who has been a political prisoner in Burma for years. Even though I wasn't going to get anymore books.
I just taught lessons a work this evening, which is much preferable to coming in early and having to guard as well. Teaching is a little scary, especially with all the parents watching, but it can also be really fun when the kids are listening and learning and enjoying themselves. My first class was definitely stressful, but the second was a lot better, and by the time I headed for home I was in a pretty good mood. It rained again for a bit as I was biking home, and then I was treated to a glorious view of sun rays radiating out from the single storm cloud that had covered the sun. The edges of the cloud were glowing and over the top beams of light were spilling. It's easy to see where artists get the idea for halos and deities radiating light; there is something quite so clearly spiritual about that kind of phenomenon.

Bloggish update

2008-07-14T16:19:00.000-07:00

So I spent most of the afternoon updating my link lists, labels, photo credits, and so forth. I couldn't remember where all of my pics came from, but I tried. I also added some new stuff - most particularly photos - to a couple of old posts. I'm working on a new post with lots of photos of attractive men, but have not yet completed it.

Unfortunately, I still haven't found a picture that really satisfies my desire to stare at shirtless boys in kayaks, but my search turned up several interesting things, most particularly this blog - what a clever way to get new readers! Also, curiously enough, the first thing that popped up when I googled "kayaker shirtless" was an article from my local paper. And when I switched to image search, I swear that about half the pictures were of David Beckham. Since when has he ever kayaked?

I am SUCH an athlete!

2008-07-11T21:28:00.000-07:00

Or at least, that's how my roomie described me after reading this blog. And this evening we have another unabashedly sporty post. (Expect one tomorrow, too...)

First news of the day: Mark Spitz, a swimmer who earned 7 gold medals in the 1972 Olympics, was at the pool where I was working today in order to talk to our swim teams. I didn't really get to see him or anything, since I was working, but it was still pretty cool.

In addition, today was a pretty physical day for me personally. I did sleep in late, since I didn't have class or work in the morning, but in the middle of the day I took my bike over to the university and ran the two miles home. After work, I ran back to play a couple hours of ultimate. Great fun, cool people, and as much running as you want. I'm not an especially good player, and for a while there were really too many people to do much anyway, but it's always enjoyable. And then I biked home again. I think I burned more calories today alone than I have been burning in an entire week. Of course, then I had to go and make cookies, with all the dough and cookie consumption that implies. Still, despite my heavy belly, all the exercise has left me exhausted, nursing a jammed pinkie, and quite happy.

Other note of passing interest: there was a big kayak thing last night by Caras Park. I biked by/through on my way home from work. Pretty badass. I can't find ANY info on what it was, though...

Happiness

2008-07-11T10:19:00.000-07:00

Though I had a statistics class, a doctor's appointment, and a sunburn yesterday, it was nonetheless a wonderful day. Because of the appointment, I didn't go home between my shifts at work (it was the last day of this session of classes - another reason for joy). Instead of fussing around on my computer and being fussed at by my mother, I went to the library and then to a park. Honestly, there are few things in life so relaxing as a good book, sunshine, and the freedom to enjoy both. A bike and a surfeit of trails to ride it down are also pretty nice. Lucky me, I had both. In a summer that is most remarkable for its blandness and lack of deep feeling, these truly happy moments are especially valuable.

Plus, I ran yesterday, the second day in a row. I was planning on doing a couple more runs, but then the wind came up and I chose to relax instead. But it's a good start nonetheless.

Things people do for fun in Montana

2008-07-09T21:54:00.000-07:00

Um, stare at wildfires...

Why we don't play with matches (photo stolen from the Missoulian. Never fear, copyright lawyers, it shall be replaced as soon as I get the pictures from my dad's camera.)

So I was at work this evening, about to start cleaning the party room, when my boss comes in and stares out the glass wall facing east. I come over to see what he's looking at, and half of Mt. Sentinel is black and smoking. According to the janitor, the fire had been burning for no more than an hour, but the flames had already moved almost all the way to the top of the hill. There was a huge cloud of smoke up near where the trees start.

I biked home past numerous people who had come out of their houses to stand and stare - the only thing to impede the view in most of Missoula is the trees. People had gathered in streets and parks in order to get a better view of the blackened hillside with smoking edges and the occasional glimpse of flame. Some have even hauled out the lawnchairs and beers so as to enjoy the show in maximum comfort. It's almost like people coming out to watch the fireworks on the fourth of July. (And no, the proximity to that holiday is not necessarily coincidental. Fireworks set the other hill on fire around this time last year and this is hardly the first time part of Mt. Sentinel has burned.) This is a major event in a town like Missoula, and people are definitely making the most of it. When I got home, even my parents were out standing in the street in front of our house, my dad happily snapping pictures.

As it gets later, it's easier to see the flames. By the time I got home, the wind had died down a bit and they were becoming partially visible. The smoke continued to dissipate as it got darker, colder and less breezy, so that just before I came in to go to bed, around 10:30, the flames formed a few glowing stripes up and down the mountain's face.

There were three fire trucks that could be seen in the middle of the hillside, one well into the blackened patch. Now they are only a row of glowing lights. One helicopter was making water runs, but the darkness has put a stop to that. This is a ridiculously small response to a fire of this size, but supposedly a lot of our firefighters and gear are fighting blazes in northern California at the moment. (In exchange, Missoula is getting whiffs of smoke from those fires.) Hopefully we'll have some of them back tomorrow, since its supposed to be windy. Unfortunately, we always seem to need our firefighters from July 4th on till sometime in the middle of September.

New West and the Missoulian both have articles on the fire already. At the moment, New West has more information and is more up to date. Apparently a couple of kids started it. Fortunately no people or houses seem to be in immediate danger. I'll bet the M trail is gonna be closed for the season, though...

Midnight update: I went out for a last minute viewing before I go to sleep. The smoke has drifted down into the valley, a sure portent of un-fun running tomorrow, but most of the fire has either died down or moved to the back side of the mountain. Over in the west, though, the moon looms low in the sky, glowing orange.

Just one of those days

2008-07-08T21:40:00.000-07:00

I am pedaling against a strong headwind today. I am traveling on only four or five hours of sleep and my thighs still ache from biking up a hill yesterday to visit a friend. Progress is slow and painful. The bottom edge of my shirt is crunchy with flour, or lentil paste, or yogurt; there is a streak of mango down my shorts from the time I dropped the fruit and did not catch it. Nothing seems to be going quite right for me today.Class is tedious, but I am out of absences and missed homeworks. It represents two hours I might have been sleeping but instead must spend struggling to focus my mind on a lecture I don't need and homework I already know how to do. I am only scheduled to work six hours today, though it will be no surprise when the final total is nearly half an hour more. I struggle to stay alert, finding it difficult to pay attention to the few patrons even for the fifteen minutes assigned to me. Though I look forward to the escape from the guard stand, my lessons are equally excruciating. My students are exceptionally energetic and inattentive. Even the little girl who once clung to me and had to be continuously pried off and sent back to the wall can now put her head underwater. This new discovery has made her suddenly gung-ho, and now she has to be repeatedly hauled back to our group and told to keep her head above water to listen. Another boy's father stops by to tell him that he must listen to me; the command produces little effect on the boy but provides me with yet another sign that I am losing control of my class. Back in the guard room, my conversation is awkward and stilted, even by my own low standards. I escape as soon as I possibly can, only to be faced with yet another bike ride. My legs are as dry and flaky. Though there are for once several patches of my skin that have managed to achieve a color at least a couple shades darker than my default translucent white, the tan is obscured by chlorine-fueled desertification. I have spent far too much time immersed in pool water. The smell clings to my hair, lingers on my body, and emanates from me whenever I sweat. This might be a problem if I had a social life outside of the pool, but the only people I am hanging out with tonight are my family. We play Apples to Apples and by the time my father wins the game with six cards, I have only managed to acquire one. Later, I nearly pass out into the dishes I am supposed to be washing. Perhaps it is time for bed.

Thoughts for today

2008-07-02T13:24:00.000-07:00

I'm really enjoying biking around town this summer. It's been years and years since I spent much time on a bike. I've mostly given up on driving, though, and walking takes much too long for someone whose time management skills are as terrible as mine. I may have mentioned earlier how much I love the river front trail from the university to the pool, but in any case it's worth mentioning twice. The bank is gorgeous and woodsy on the one side and you can look across the water and see little snippets of downtown on the other. Riding by Caras Park on a warm day, you can see the kayakers on Brennan's Wave and all the people who've gathered along the railing above the watch. Wednesdays and Thursdays are especially great, with Out to Lunch and then the evening version, whatever it's called. You get a strange bit of detachment from being able to see the excitement without being able to hear the music or smell the food, but I kind of like the feeling.

The past couple mornings I've had half an hour or so between my class at the U and teaching lessons at the pool, so I took the opportunity to follow the trail further west. I'd never been out that way before, and I had a lot of fun exploring. The path splits and rejoins all over the place. I rode circles through all of it, around the 'new' baseball stadium - I don't remember how long it's been there, but I hadn't actually been out to see it yet - a big, junk- and rubble-filled field that is apparently mapped out for some sort of development (just like every other vacant lot in this town - it'll be interesting at least to see what it turns out looking like, it's ugly enough now), the county mental hospital - didn't even know that was there - and even ended up heading across to downtown. I'd known in theory that there was another bike bridge somewhere, but I'd never seen it and probably couldn't have found it intentionally.

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On another note, my family is going to go see Paint Your Wagon at the summer theater this weekend, and decided to watch the movie beforehand. I'm not attending the play, but I did enjoy the movie, even though I'm not big on 60s-era musicals. It's ridiculous, shockingly lewd for its time, and still manages to be far classier than most of today's "comedies" (Love Guru, anyone?). Plus, it has some really good songs and some really funny songs - one particular favorite is "Best Things" (in life are dirty). If you've never seen it and are looking for something different than summer's normal Hollywood fare, I highly recommend giving it a try.

Oh, the pressure

2008-07-01T14:36:00.000-07:00

Go me. I managed to run for twenty whole minutes this afternoon, though I thought I might be crushed by the pre-thunderstorm air. 80 degrees and humid (for this state) wasn't so nice, either. Elevation or water in the air - I can deal (almost) with one at a time, but both just about killed me. I haven't panted so hard since I first saw that clip of Iker running around in his undies after the Euro final. There was a breeze, but its main function seemed to be shoving bricks of warm air into my face every time I tried to breath. Best of all, my pores have soaked up so much chlorine over the past couple days of lessons that every gallon of sweat that dripped off me smelled like it could have come directly from the pool. It's the only thing worse than sweating tequila.

July Preview: Reading, Running, Sunning

2008-07-01T12:37:00.000-07:00

Sadly, June has come and gone. It's always been one of my favorite summer months (yes, I have favorite months. What's it to you?) but this year I was so busy studying and working that I just couldn't appreciate it. I did enjoy having soccer on channels normal people get, but I spent far too many games sitting around in the sun hating my life instead of inside in front of the TV where I wanted to be.

Luckily, July looks like it may turn out to be a much more enjoyable month. This weekend I'm going on my first vacation since I started my job and attending a friend's wedding. At the end of the month, I'm taking four or five days off work to go run a 3 day, 200+ mile relay race in the mountains. And in the meantime, I'm working as a swimming teacher, which is more fun and pays better than being just a lifeguard; hopefully running a lot (I'm going regret it later if I don't get back in shape now...) and working my way through the tall stack of books that has accumulated on my floor. Plus, now that I know my grandparents get ESPN2, I can go watch the MLS on Thursday nights, so I won't have to go cold turkey on the soccer.

Other excitement this month::

- My little brother's birthday is in July. They grow up so fast, don't they?

- Olympic Track and Swimming trials this week! (Ooh, the last Olympic qualifier for Canoe/Kayak is also coming up. Maybe I should look into that...)

- Free ice cream at the pool for the 4th of July!

- The end of my stats class. Thank god. I haven't been so bored since I took it in high school.

List of the Month: Books I am or will be reading

-The Handsomest Man In Cuba, Lynnette Chiang. Nonfiction. An Australian bikes around Cuba. I'm a third of the way through and have started to ponder possible locations for my own cycling pilgrimage, though at the moment the only bike I have belongs to my parents and might fall apart at any moment.

-Quicksilver, Neal Stephenson. I just discovered the brilliance that is Neal Stephenson this spring, but I'm doing my best to make up for lost time. I have all three novels of the cycle in one book, which is approximately the same size as the combined Lord of the Rings trilogy. Oh dear.

-Letters from the Earth, Mark Twain.

-The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron, Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind.

-Fever Pitch, Nick Hornby. You didn't really expect me to leave European football behind completely, did you?

-Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi.

-Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov. It's a classic, I've never read it, and it seemed an appropriate companion to the previous book.

-The Puzzle Palace, James Bamford. A 26-year old book on the NSA. A Legacy of Ashes made me a fan of in-depth studies of intelligence agencies. I just wish I could find a more recent publication on the NSA that was of the same quality.

-How to win the Nobel Prize, J. Michael Bishop. Always a helpful thing to know.

-Dreaming in Code, Scott Rosenberg. Reading Cryptonomicon (by Stephenson) in May rewoke my dormant interest in computers in mathematics. Unfortunately, as the rest of this list reveals, it did not put to rest any of my other interests. For the moment I will confine my technological explorations to easy things like blogging and reading about other people programming.

-Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond. Borrowed from my grandparents, who own one of the most amazing private libraries I've ever seen.

-Septembers in Shiraz, Dalia Sofer. Also borrowed from (and recommended by my grandmother. We don't agree on a lot of things (politics and religion, for instance) but she has great taste in books.

-A History of the World Cup, Clemente Angelo Lisi. Yes, more soccer. If I learned anything in June, it was that my knowledge of international football is woefully limited. I am taking corrective measures.

-American Crescent, Imam Hassan Qazwini. I'm already partway through this book already, and I'm learning a lot about historical and contemporary Islam. Really, really interesting.

-Not Buying It, Judith Levine. I admit it, I am one of those people who talks about needing to protect the environment but nonetheless owns far more things than I really need. Maybe reading this book (borrowed from the library!) about a woman who tried not to buy any nonessential for a year will help me overcome my addiction to consuming...

My newest hobby...

2008-06-30T23:31:00.000-07:00

I've decided that I have to take up kayaking, after watching one fine young kayak instructor for half an hour at work tonight. There's a kayaker group that comes in and paddles around the pool after we close, and I was fortunate enough to be assigned to watching the pool instead of cleaning for part of the time. Mmm. Wet, shirtless, muscle-y manflesh. For some reason, I can't say I mind having to close every Monday and Wednesday night anymore. Sadly, I couldn't find any sexy kayak pictures to go with this post.

The final Euro post

2008-06-30T12:22:00.000-07:00

In retrospect: the good, the bad, and some nearly naked Spaniards.

Honestly, I'm still a little bit in shock. I'm going to miss the excellent football and sexy men that have been the center of my universe for the past few weeks. I'll do my best to carry on, though, with the assistance of the MLS and the Olympics. (U.S. swimming qualifiers started yesterday!) For the sake of closure, however, I am going to inflict one final Euro-centric post upon the internet. Besides, after three weeks of drama, we could all use a final review of the finest moments to sustain us as we return to the Torres-less doldrums of normal life.

Traditionally, of course, "Best of" lists are accompanied by the matching "Worst of", but yesterday's game caused disrupted the supply of cynicism to my brain and it hasn't yet been fully restored. Thus, I have nothing snarky or sarcastic to say about Euro 08 at the moment, and will confine my attempt at balanced reporting to briefly mentioning the unfortunate injuries to the likes of Alexander Frei, Fabio Cannavaro, and half the Turkish team (Villa, you don't count since your team won without you); the Italy-Spain quarterfinal in which Italy was so boring they managed to make even Spain uninteresting; Adrian Mutu's missed penalty against Italy that prevented probably the better (or at least possibly more interesting- is it conceivable that any team could have been less interesting to watch than Italy in the quarters?) side from advancing; the previous winner's failure to score more than one goal (and that against a Spanish side that clearly didn't have much invested in the game); the ceaseless stream of photos of English footballers on vacation (not that I minded their absence from the tournament, but the could have at least had the courtesy to disappear for a month or so, or perhaps they might have even - I know it's a craaazy idea - trained a bit, but instead they had to go get married and travel to the most touristy, paparazzi-filled corners of the earth. When they do terribly at the World Cup - or better yet, fail to qualify again - I will point to this moment and say "I told you so!") and of course the inconsiderate weather, which prevented the most exciting moments of the Turkey-Germany semifinal from being broadcast.

Whew. Now that all the negativity has been gotten through, I can focus on the the things I want to - the things that made up for Holland's loss to Russia in the quarters and having to put up with Michael Ballack all the way to the final. This is a highly difficult and dangerous (who knows when I might accidentally stumble across a photo of Franck Ribery in my quest for video of Holland's four goals against France), so I hope you appreciate the effort.

And here it is, the Official top uncertain number of Fabulous Things observed, discovered, and ogled during the European Championship (TM) - the crazy American college girl version.

1: Iker Casillas. I don't know what UEFA was thinking to name Xavi Hernandez best player of the tournament. Casillas was consistently fantastic in goal and fantastic to look at, giving up only two goals and saving two penalties in the shootout against Italy. Though he certainly wasn't tested as often as many of the other keepers in the tournament, he came up with some fine saves. And come on, he was the captain of the winning team. How much better can you get? (Ok, fine, being part of Spain's deadly midfield is pretty good, too.) In addition to being one of the best goalkeepers in the world, Casillas is also one of the most likely to inspire swooning and lewd fantasies. Regrettably, Iker has a strange attachment to his undershirt and hardly ever appears without it. (Apparently the best way to get him out of it is to get him drunk after winning a major trophy.)

1.5: Iker's two saves to give Spain a 4-2 PK victory over Italy. Serves you right, you non-attacking, brilliance-stifling, beautiful-game-destroying bastards.

1.Bonus: The spectacular save in regulation time during the Italy match that made sure it went to PKs. If Italy had won I would have punched someone.

2: The Dutch National Team. I don't care if they lost in their first knockout round, they scored more goals against Italy than Spain, trounced France, and were only slightly nicer to Romania. The important part, though, is that they played beautiful, entertaining football and had the grace to lose on the single occasion when they did not. I only wish that there was some way that Spain and the Netherlands could have played each other... preferably in the final. Alas, it was not to be. Perhaps in 2010? Assuming the Dutch can find a new wunderkeeper, of course.

2.a: Edwin Van der Sar, who is awesome, gets a special mention. He was one of six players whose teams did not make it to the semis picked for the Team of the Tournament. Clearly your gladiator superpower was wearing off, Edwin. You obviously did not roll in enough mud prior to your game against Russia. What other explanation can their be for your uncharacteristic generosity in front of the goal?

2.b: Wesley Sneijder, who is adorable and was the other Dutch player on the Team of the Tournament. His birthday happened to be the same day that the Netherlands played Italy, and Sneijder had a goal on the day - the first "real" goal of the match. I wish I could do something that cool for my 24th birthday.

3: Dear Russia,
I know it was not your fault that you happened to play four games against my three favorite teams in the tournament, and I will not hold it against you. Neither can I hate you for having spawned Roman Abramovich, even if he does end up turning the Rapids into Ch£l$kiUSA. I do not begrudge you your victories over Sweden (though it was time for me to get over the Swedes anyway, at least until they find some younger players) and the Netherlands, and hope you can forgive me for celebrating Spain's victories over you. Despite all of our differences, I cannot help but admire your incredible two-game ass-kicking spree. I hope to see Andrei Ashavin in England or Spain very soon, and I wish you all the best of luck in 2010. (Unless, of course, you happen to be playing the Americans, the Dutch, or the Spanish. I'm sorry, but my teams come first.) See you at the Olympics!

Something along the lines of "the victory of attacking, exciting football" probably belongs here at number four (if I didn't mention it earlier, there's no real ordering system in use here, so the numbers are to separate the various subjects and could easily be interchanged). However, in the interests of not saying something that several thousand reporters, commentators, and bloggers probably already have, I won't bother. Similarly, I will refrain from adding silly things like "Best Games" or "Best Goals" to this list because I did not see all of the games and thus missed some of the goals, and further, all you need to do to find real discussion of these categories is type "Euro 08 best goals" into Google. (I just did. Not everything that comes up is actually a list of the best goals, but Sports Illustrated has 21 pretty photos of impressive scores.)

From this point on war, I am giving up on the numbering of things altogether, as the numerical values are essentially meaningless and most of the Things left are really too brief to require their own number.

- Turkey's run of three last minute comeback victories, ended by a last minute German goal in a game in which Turkey was first to score. If it had been anyone but the Germans, I would have loved this victory. As it was, it gave me at least a grudging respect for the Deutschelanders, at least until their lackluster performance in the final.

- C.Ronaldo's exclusion from the Team of the Tournament. Haha. Maybe you ought to take this lesson to heart and think long and hard about the potential decrease in ego-stroking that might result from leaving your world class compatriots at ManU before you sign anything with Real Madrid. (Although having discovered the fine specimens that are Casillas and Snijder I would have a hard time willing Madrid to lose. Maybe it's time for both Ronaldo and I to switch allegiances...)

- The sexy German team of the semifinals that almost made me forget that Michael Ballack was their captain.

- The overabundance of beautiful, beautiful men. All right, so there could have been much more shirtlessness, but, though certain teams (*cough*Spain*cough*) seemed to have received more than their fair share of sexiness, almost every team had a least a few players worth watching even when the football wasn't great. (Update: Ah ha! I knew there had to be at least one photo of a shirtless Spanish player who is not Ramos or Puyol. Cesc, darling, thank you. If only those other fellows had had the decency to get out of the way...)

- The vast expansion in my football knowledge and player recognition that has occurred over the past three weeks. I am ashamed of how many names, faces, and historical events I was unfamiliar with before this tournament. Ah well. Give it a year or two more and no one will ever guess that I began life as an ignorant American.

- Spain winning the European Championship. Well, all right, duh. But since there was such an eminently satisfying conclusion to Euro 08, I couldn't end this post with anything less joyful. Especially since someone on the Spanish team must have been listening to my complaints about the negligence regarding shirt removal. Warning: the following video should only be viewed by those who enjoy seeing sexy Spanish men in their underwear.
Photos and video via UEFA and Kickette.

Best ad ever created?

2008-06-29T22:39:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but I adore the excellent soccer ad that Nike ran during the Champions League. Understand, now, that I am hardly an ad aficionado. I am a person who watches the Super Bowl despite the ads, not because of them. And though, as a NCAA runner, Nike gives me free shoes, I am not particularly a Nike fan. But I am really, truly crazy about the "Take It To The Next Level" video. They had clips playing during the Euro, but it's simply not as cool unless you get the whole thing. I was actually feeling a bit bummed that I would only get the short version - possibly the only time I've ever been upset about having less commercial - but then today, in my post-Euro boredom, I discovered that Nike has posted an even longer version (the 'Director's Cut') online. Hup Nike Hup!

Bonus: I also learned today that the video is directed by Guy Ritchie, who is also responsible for two of my favorite movies ever. What a brilliant man.

(Also: the Nike Soccer page is really just all around awesomeness. Decent coverage of the US national teams and the Euro with nice pics to go with - check out this great one of Torres - interspersed with fun video from the TITTNL campaign.)

Disclaimer: Despite all appearances, I am not affiliated with Nike, am not being paid to promote it, etc etc. Really. The ad is just that cool.

¡Los campeones del mundo!

2008-06-29T14:07:00.000-07:00

Photos via Fox Soccer, UEFA, and etc.

Or of Europe, at least. Was I the only one who thought it was funny that they were playing Queen after the trophy presentation?

Anyway, a mildly interesting final from Spain and Germany. A goal from Fernando Torres in the 33rd minute was all Spain needed to secure what was, as we've been reminded over and over in the build up to this game, their first victory in a major tournament in several eons. Mostly, though, this game could be summed up as having given almost everyone exactly what they deserved. Fernando Torres got a goal, Michael Ballack got headbutted in the eye and bled profusely, and the side that played better in this game and throughout the tournament came away with a victory.

One notable exception to the theory of just desserts was the awarding of yellow cards. Casillas and Ballack may or may not have deserved the cautions they got, but Torres almost certainly should not have been carded - his challenge for a header in the 74th minute didn't look at all out of the ordinary - and David Silva most definitely would have earned a card had the ref chosen to award him one following the headbutt Silva gave Lukas Podolski.

By the time the final whistle blew, both sides looked rather weary. Germany's defending, never pretty to begin with, only seemed to get sloppier. There were far too many unnecessary, ugly fouls from both sides, yet not even Germany, whose skill with set pieces was widely remarked upon before the game, managed to score from any of the resulting free kicks. Honestly, the only reason the Germans were not beaten by a much wider margin was that Spain's attack was for the most part equally messy. Though they passed quite prettily to each other, when it came to the point they didn't have that extra fraction of energy and focus needed to score. Really a shame, considering how dominant the Spanish looked in the other two-thirds of the field.

In the end, though I would have hoped for a higher scoring game, Spain did play some pretty football, attractive men got sweaty and angry (though none of them were kind enough to take off their shirts save Sergio Ramos, who was wearing a flag for a little while instead), and the team that I wanted to win did.

Highlights, low lights, and bizarrities (in vaguely chronological order):

- Jens Lehmann's flying leap to prevent an own goal by Mertesacker. This was easily his best save of the night. If the Spanish had ever aimed for any part of the goal other than the posts and the keeper, Lehmann might have been in a lot of trouble. He let the ball get away from him on several stops, allowing Spain to get a chance for a second or third shot. However, after Torres scored, he did manage to get to every long ball he went out for.

- Torres's early header that bounced off the left post. In my opinion, a better episode than the one that resulted in the winning goal. But, as seems to be the trend for this tournament, Torres did everything beautifully except actually managing to score.

- The repeated shots of Iker Casillas's midsection. Yes, he's quite attractive but, um, why?

- Ballack's bleeding face, the result of running into Marco Senna's head as they fought for a header. I was disappointed when I learned that he would not be sitting out for this match, but somehow he became almost hot (I can't believe I'm using that word to describe Michael Ballack) with blood all over his face.

- Sergio Ramos, who is supposed to be a defender (though you'd never know by watching him most of the time) nearly scored with a header after a free kick from Xavi Hernandez. All right, Lehmann didn't do so badly here, either.

- Senna's slide across the pitch as he missed Guiza's pass entirely. That should have been a second goal for Spain, but despite (or perhaps because of) his efforts all over the rest of the field, Senna just couldn't get to it. The commentator was kind, ascribing the miss to the bounce of the ball, but really, he should have done better. It made for a highly entertaining replay, though.

- Ramos, again finding himself immediately in front of the opposing goal, managed to deflect a sharp shot from Silva away from the goal. Lehmann, though, looked like he might have actually stopped this one, too. (Oops, I think this happened before the header from Ramos. Oh well).

- The celebrations of the Spanish team and fans after the final whistle had blown. I was kind of hoping they would drop Aragones, who is the part of the Spanish team I like least, but even though they didn't it was all quite entertaining. The players seemed incapable of keeping their hands off each other. Again, I would have liked a few more of them to have gotten excited enough for shirts to come off, but I'll settle for ten minutes of man-love if I have to. (I couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for the Germans, though, who no doubt would much rather have been off drowning their sorrows in the vast beer reserves Austria had set by for the tournament. Instead, they were forced to stand around watching the victors celebrate while they waited to be awarded their runner-up medals.)

- Finally, the grin on Iker Casillas's face as he went up to accept the trophy for Spain. I would leap in front of a thousand speeding soccer balls to be that happy.

Wish I worked there...

2008-06-29T09:15:00.000-07:00

They've got college students lifeguarding the U.S. Olympic swimming trials. I don't think I've ever wished I lived in Nebraska before, but I'm a bit disappointed not to be in Omaha for this. Even if it is on a volunteer basis only and there are all those silly rules about taking pictures and talking to the athletes. A week spent staring a Michael Phelps and all those other sexy swimmer bodies would definitely be worth it.

Side note: FYI, no one does mouth-to-mouth anymore, at least not professional lifeguards. It's unhygienic. They have breathing masks and even hand pumps to do the job instead. (My condolences to anyone still harboring fantasies of being resuscitated by the sexy guard at the local pool. Sorry, folks, it's never going to happen.)

Miscellaneous soccer notes

2008-06-28T14:20:00.000-07:00

Oh. My God. At work today, I had the incredible pleasure of observing just what C.Ronaldo might look like without the skeeviness, overinflated ego, and excess hair gel. Really, truly distracting. Why do all the hotties show up on the busiest days when I'm too busy yelling at kids to do any really good gawking? They never come on the horrible slow days when I think I'm going to die of boredom. Anyway, the guy showed up with wife/girlfriend and kids in tow, but still, that probably qualifies as the best part of my day, if not my week (at least the part when I was at work).

Also, interesting article from Fox Soccer about tomorrow's match. The main point is that (according to this writer's analysis) Spain has historically not actually been an underachiever, but rather has generally been overrated due to the quality of their domestic clubs. What isn't taken into account in creating expectations for the national team is the number of foreign players in La Liga. I don't know enough about the history of football in Europe to comment on the validity of the theory in this particular case, but it does seem to be at least plausible. This might be something England fans to think about as well...

Running late, as usual

2008-06-27T14:52:00.000-07:00

I attempted a bit of running commentary on the Germany-Turkey Euro semi two days ago, but didn't post it due to an inability to get cable TV and Internet access simultaneously. I meant to post it before, but a combination of procrastination and far too much time at work have prevented that from happening until now. It was kind of fun, but I don't actually recommend it as reading if you want to know what actually happened in the match. - I'm not that good at it and spelling in German is definitely not one of my strengths. Plus, I get all pretentious and announcer-sounding in places. Yikes. But if you're really that brave...

Photo via the New York Times

7’ Just turned on the Germany-Turkey game – no score so far.

12’ Turkey so far seems to have the majority of the possession – they've forced Germany to play mainly in their own half and have been pretty aggressive on the attack.

13’ Germany has possession, but give it back to turkey after a few passes near midfield.

13’ Another strong shot from Kazim-Kazim ricochets off the top bar– why isn't this man playing for England?! Oh, right, he's much too good to play for England...

14’ Two corners for Turkey in a row, but nothing comes of either.

16’ Germany is passing it around in the back half – they finally get it forward and Turkey takes it away from them.

17’ Free kick for Germany, taken by Klose, saved by the Turkish keeper.

17’ Germany gets a hold of it from Turkey up front, a bit of passing it around.

18’ Michael Ballack misses a header, Germany takes a corner and the Turkish keeper punches it away.

20’ Germany looks as though they may finally be starting to play football… Turkey still looks the better team, but it looks a little more equal now.

22’ Goal Turkey! It was only a matter of time, really. It came back off the bar on the first shot (from Kazim-Kazim? I couldn't tell), but Boral hit it in past Lehmann on the second go.

25’ Schweistiger slides across the turf, his shorts riding all the way up. Mmm, soccer legs…

26’ And Schweisteiger scores! Podoski gets a cross in front of a couple of defenders, and Schweisteiger knocks it in. That’s the first real chance Germany has had, and they've scored! Maybe now we have a real game…

29’ Germany free kick. It comes almost straight back out for a throw in.

29’ Turkey takes it all the way back down, only for Lehmann to grab the header with ease.

30’ German corner is knocked away from the goal. There’s a bit of a struggle in front of the goal, then Turkey takes it back up the field.

31’ Turkey gets a free kick from well out, and Lehmann is forced to punch it over.

32’ Two more Turkey corners come to nothing. Someone makes a weak shot, Lehmann grabs it and off goes Germany. They’re replaying Schweisteger's goal.

34’ Podoski gets it alone up front and kicks it over.

37’ Kazim-Kazim is on the turf – free kick for Turkey.

38’ Boral takes the kick – took them long enough to set it up – he kicks it directly to Lehmann, who hits it away a bit awkwardly. He was lucky none of the Turkish players got a head on it.

40’ Someone German (Rolfes, I guess) is bleeding – The ref looks almost happy about it. Someone Turkish is gushing blood from the back of his head. I hope he’s all right – Turkey can’t afford to lose anyone else.

42’ Yet another great shot by Turkey goes just over.

43’ Great tackle by Turkey stops a promising German attack..

44’ It looks like Frings is getting ready to go on. And Rolfes is back on the field, for a few minutes at least.

Halftime – It’s been a great first half. Contrary to all expectations, Turkey is the team making Germany look slow and inexperienced. Really, they’re unlucky to be tied. Germany has not been playing great football, though they got a bit better after Turkey’s goal. Schwiesteiger has had a few impressive moments, and Podoski wasn't too bad toward the end, but Michael Ballack has been essentially invisible and Lehmann is lucky to have had so many shots going over and wide. Turkey, on the other hand, has been exceptional all the way around, especially considering what a makeshift team they have. Kazim-Kazim has come very close to scoring multiple times, and I’ll be surprised if he doesn't net a least one by the end of the game.

46’ Here we go with the second half. Frings is on – for Rolfe, I assume.

47’ Germany already looks more dangerous in the first few minutes of this half than they did for most of the first half.

50’ A bit of miscommunication on the part of the Germans, a good tackle from Turkey – but the Turkish quickly lose it again and the German are on attack.

51’ Lahm goes down in the penalty box, and the official is wagging his finger at someone, but play continues. From the replay you can definitely see that it should have been a penalty.

52’ Yellow card for Semh for an ugly tackle on Frings. Really, boys, you can do better than that.

54’ Just when you thought Turkey was going to run away with the game, Germany has really stepped it up this half.

55’ Fierce shot over the top by Hitzsperger.

57’ Another strong German attack, another tackle by Turkey – this time on Ballack – and German is given a somewhat questionable free kick. Luckily, the Turkish deal with it pretty handily.

Where has my game gone?! There’s a power outage in Switzerland, apparently… We’re getting yet another review of the first half and that foul on Lahm in the meantime. I’m not really sure there’s anything new to say about any of it. It was already pretty obvious that the ref missed a blatant foul, and I think this is almost exactly (or maybe even exactly) the same description of Turkey’s goal that we got in the first half. And now we’re back!

66’ German cross goes too high and meets no one on the other side, the Turkish get a throw-in and manage to get it down to the other end, only to pass it back.

67’ Turkey still has possession. They get it deep into the German half, manage a cross directly in front of the goal, but again there is no one on the other end.

68’ Schweistegier briefly looks as though he might make a run of it, but Turkey steals it back.

69’ Corner for Turkey. It’s pushed out, brought back in, then booted down the field, only for Turkey to reclaim it. There’s a bit of a struggle for possession at midfield.

70’ Turkey seems to have won out. For a moment it looked like they were going to get stuck in their own half, but it gets down to Kazim-Kazim, who is yanked down by his shirt near the edge of the penalty box. The officials don’t see it, though, and Germany gets the free kick.

71’ Another Turkish cross in front of the goal with no one there to finish. Kazim-Kazim appears to have been either the crosser or the intended finisher. His face keeps appearing on the screen. Can’t say I mind.

73’ Is that Hitzsperger again? Anyway, his shot goes just wide. He’s asking the official for a corner kick, but not getting it.

Oh dear god, the game’s gone again. There was a lightning strike apparently, the first outage, but who knows what this is. Possibly the same thing?

Ach, Klose has scored for the Germans! There is still no video, though…

They've just showed the stats for the game so far. The shot count is about 17 to 6 in Turkey’s favor. The Turkish have simply not been able to finish.

There’s the video of Klose's goal a nice clean header into an open goal. The keeper had come way out but didn't get there in time.

And Turkey’s scored again! Senturk just knocked it in on a cross from Sabri. Turkey has been unbelievable on the comeback in this tournament. Five minutes or so left.

89’ Senturk shoots it wide from well out.

90’ Lahm scores for Germany! Beautiful run up and finish. The Turkish really looked out of it on that one.

And Germany’s won it! I was really hoping for Turkey to pull off a miracle on this one, but you really have to give it to the Germans. They may have had a poor first half, but they really managed to pull it together at the end. What a game, for both teams. Either of them could have won it, I think, and just to have been that close was a great accomplishment for Turkey. I have to say, I didn't mind the German victory nearly as much since Captain Caveman was out of the picture for basically the entire game. My hatred of Ballack is quite irrational, I'm aware. Other than his Neanderthal looks and Chelsea jersey, there is nothing especially objectionable about him. Nonetheless, I most strenuously object to him, and I'm not excited to see him in the final. I just wish there was some chance he'd spend the whole game on the bench.

Here’s to another thrilling semi tomorrow!

Evening jaunt

2008-06-18T20:47:00.000-07:00

Well, I ended up not running at all yesterday, due to an inconvenient schedule and an unhappy stomach, and didn't think I would get a chance to run today, either, but fortunately my class got out an hour and a half early, so I went running in the park by my house. I've been doing this run for years and years now, since I first started running distance, and it's one of the few runs I really don't get bored of, no matter how many circles I have to run. It's only a mile and a quarter or so around, so I have to do multiple laps, but I love it nonetheless. It's changed a bit over the years, and even since I last ran there in December, which is always interesting the first couple times around, but some things about it never change. There aren't many trees, so it's not a great run to do during the day in the summer, but mornings and evenings are amazing. My run goes by fields, courts, and facilities for an incredible number of sports - tennis and basketball courts, soccer, football and baseball fields, a swimming pool, sand for volleyball, a skate park, race tracks for people and cars and horses, plus open grass for flying kites and playing ultimate and of course the nice gravel path where I run. On a nice night like tonight, there are people everywhere doing all sorts of interesting things.
It was great that tonight was so nice because I felt a lot better physically than I did the other two times. I'm not sure if this is a better time of day for me, or if my body just needed to be shook back into form, but running is comfortable again. Definitely a good sign.
Mmm. Ending the day so happily makes me feel better about all the rest of it.

Day 2

2008-06-16T20:37:00.000-07:00

Really quick note before bed; I have a massive fatigue and dehydration-induced headache and just want to sleep. I had five hours of class and five hours of work today, and then went for a run at 3 in the afternoon. Yesterday was nice and breezy, but today it definitely felt like summer. I'm going to try running earlier tomorrow to see if it helps, but if I don't get to sleep soon I'm not going to be able to run at all. I only have to work for four hours, but I have to get up early to print off some homework. I'll be running in a different park, so I'll get a change of scenery. Honestly, though, at this point I don't need it yet. The river is still gorgeous. And if it ever gets too hot, I can always go swimming.

Back on my feet

2008-06-15T21:58:00.000-07:00

I am ashamed to confess that I have been sorely neglecting my duties as a cross country runner this summer, namely by failing to ever run. As of this moment, I have been running precisely four times, the latest only this morning. To be sure, between work, class, and the snow on the ground last week, it has been difficult for me to find the time and motivation to run, but all the same I must accept that I am not trying hard enough.

This morning, though, I conquered my apathy (with the help of a glorious, sunny day) and went for a thirty minute run during my lunch hour. I don't need an hour to eat my sandwich, so the arrangement worked well all around, and I plan on doing the same thing tomorrow. I am lucky in that one of my places of work is located next to the river, and thus next to the trail that runs along the river all through town. It's a great place for running and cycling, and if I get bored on the one side, there is always another direction, another bank, and the rest of the city to run in as well.

It was beautiful out today, but conveniently for my run, at eleven in the morning the temperature was was mild. Later in the summer, of course, it will be difficult to run after nine, but this morning there was a nice breeze and the air was still cool from our brief flashback to March last week. The first part of my run was on an older part of the trail, where fewer people seem to go, and I saw a garter snake on the path before I was more than a half mile out. I jumped around a bit, trying not to step on it as it slithered off the path.

After that, the trail started getting busier, which was great to see. One of the things I love most about my hometown is how active all the people are. From that point until I turned around out by the university, where the path leads out of town and into a wilderness area (or, alternately, up a mountain), I could always see at least one group of cyclers and one group of walkers or joggers.

It was a short, slow run (around three miles, I think) with a pause for stretching in the middle, but it felt great to have done it. The altitude hurt a bit at first, but my body seemed to be adjusting well as I went. I still ended up a bit out of breath, but mountain air will do that to a person. The arch of my foot is oddly sore, but luckily that is the only injury I seem to be suffering from at the moment. All in all, I must say it was quite a rewarding run, especially since I am essentially starting from scratch here. With luck, tomorrow's jaunt will be even better.

I Heart Holland

2008-06-13T20:54:00.000-07:00

What's not to love about the home of tulips, windmills, Amsterdam, and possibly the most kick-ass national football team in the world today?

Maybe this just goes to demonstrate my atrocious lack of knowledge in the field of international football, but I simply never thought of the Netherlands as being anything particularly special. As a country, all they really seem to have going for them is the college student's fantasy that is Amsterdam. As a soccer team... well, to be honest, if I'd actually bothered to think about it, they are certainly not lacking in talent. Although I am proud to say that I definitely thought that anyone predicting them to finish last in their group was selling them a bit short. And after this week, I have to say Holland may be my new favorite country.

Browsing some more pre-tournament predictions, I can see at least that I was not alone in dismissing the Dutch. Despite having an amazing number of players on some of the best clubs in the world (especially for such a small country), almost no one seemed to be willing to stand up for the Netherlands. Romania was picked to be the surprise contender in the Group of Death far more often than Holland.

I'm sure many people lost a lot of money when the Oranje secured their place at the top of Group C this afternoon, and now there will be many more who will lose out should Holland fail to win the whole deal. After dominating the two World Cup finalists so convincingly, it would be impossible not to at least entertain the possibility. Yet while I'd certainly love to see a win for a team I actually like, I accept that Holland has a history of self-destruction and may not even make it beyond the quarterfinals.

No matter what happens, though, the Netherlands have earned a permanent place in the corner of my heart reserved for inspirational sports teams. I may like them now because they are winning (this fondness for victory has also imbued me with affection for Man U, an unfortunate situation I can't seem to extract myself from), but as a longtime Green Bay Packers fan I can attest that I have the fortitude to support my chosen teams through even the worst seasons.

So, with no further ado, though I speak not a word of Dutch and find my general knowledge of
the Netherlands to be miserably inadequate (a deficiency you may trust will soon be remedied), I hereby offer my endorsement of the Dutch National Football Team in their campaign for the European Championship of 2008.

Musings on "Prince Caspian"

2008-06-09T16:08:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: The Author accepts no responsibility for any Disappointed Expectations or Spoiled Endings that may occur as a result of viewing the information that follows. You have been warned.

Photo via Starpulse

I can't say I really liked the first Narnia movie that well, but Prince Caspian was not bad at all. I liked it partly because Ben Barnes, who plays the prince, is sexy in armor and William Moseley actually looks his age this time round. Overall, though, I really do think it was a better movie, at least in terms of entertainment value. It's been too long since I read the books to be able to say whether either of the movies really captured the tone of C.S. Lewis's work, but my general feeling is that neither of them really do. As movies, they may be better off for it.

The absence of Aslan for much of the movie was, for me, a good thing, because digital animals always seem just a bit off to me, especially in these movies and especially the lion, maybe because he's so big. The mice didn't bother me at all, and the badger was only moderately frustrating. On the other hand, the mythological creatures - mainly centaurs and minotaurs in this movie - were fantastic. I'm not sure whether they have better geeks doing the magic stuff or I'm not as attached to a theory of what a "real" faun should look like, but I always feel like there's a distinct difference in the quality of the animation.

Then again, maybe the reason Disney has so much trouble animating a lion is that it was never done in the Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter movies. This alternate explanation seems rather plausible, given the sizable visual debt Prince Caspian owes the creators of those films. The final battle scene in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe looked much like the battles we saw in the LOTR movies, and Prince Caspian used even more borrowed visual themes. For instance, one element that seemed particularly unoriginal in this film was the appearance of a river god to destroy the evil attackers. I don't remember how, of if, this scene was portrayed in the books, but it didn't seem as though those responsible for the movies made much effort to make its cinematic portrayal stand out from the similar scene in Fellowship of the Ring in which water horses overrun a pack of enemy soldiers. And where the panoramas and nature effects owe much to that trilogy, the blurs and slow motions of the one-on-one fight scenes remind stylistically of the Quidditch matches in the Harry Potter movies.

Perhaps it is inevitable that a movie exploiting the novel-based special-effects-laden fantasy series craze created by the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter movies leans on its predecessors for more than simply thematic inspiration, and similarity of source material may be partly to blame for many of the other overlaps between LOTR and the Narnia movies. One of the other things Prince Caspian (unfortunately) has in common with its fantasy epic predecessor in an emphasis on action and adventure rather than well-rounded characters and realistic dialog.

Peter and Susan, in particular, are hindered by awkward lines and cues. Neither William Moseley nor Anna Popplewell seem to be as willing to buy into to the movie's drama as Skandar Keynes and Georgie Henley, who play Edmund and Lucy. The older characters are further hindered by the screenwriters' attempts to make them seem "mature," with the result that Edmund and Lucy are much more convincing as characters than the stilted Peter and Susan.

Also tortuously forced is the pseudo-romance of Prince Caspian and Susan, built mostly on unsubtle camera cuts between the two and a single saucy comment on Susan's part. And then of course that awful, awful kiss. To begin with, of course, it is most certainly not in the book, though I don't think extratextuality is necessarily a mortal sin. What really dooms Disney's attempt at "creative interpretation" here is the total lack of chemistry between the two characters. Admittedly, their relationship is supposed to be more about the possibility than anything solid, but I didn't see enough actual interaction between the characters to justify even that.

On the other hand (though this is so completely unorthodox that any true C.S. Lewis fan would condemn me to hell for even thinking it), had either of their characters been female/had Prince Caspian not been a Disney movie based on a book by C.S. Lewis, I would have said there were some sparks flying between Caspian and Peter. I admit that a portion of my attachment to this idea (like my fondness for the movie) is related to the fact that I find both of them rather attractive, but I am convinced that not all of the sexual tension I was seeing was a result of an overactive imagination.

At this point, it might be wise to ask if I would have liked the movie nearly so much had I not been scouring every scene for hints of potential scandal. The answer, I think, after much introspection, is that while certainly it made for endless amusement and cause for more than one comment to coviewers afterward, the movie has merit in and of itself. It's not a great classic epic like Lord of the Rings, nor does it deal with real teenage personalities and issues like Harry Potter, but Prince Caspian is at the very least an entertaining addition to the genre. You could spend your money on many much worse movies this summer.

Reasons to believe

2008-03-21T13:36:00.000-07:00

Having grown up in a non-New Hampshire state with a population of less than a million, I've never had many opportunities to see important candidates in person (the major exception being a senator who helped put the Congress in Democratic hands). This morning, though, I had the opportunity of hearing Barack Obama speak. It was a fascinating experience, and along with his truly incredible speech on Tuesday, helped me to really identify the things that make me such a fan of his.

In the interests of full disclosure, I will admit that most of my demographic characteristics predispose me to support Obama. I am a young, upper-middle class student at a selective private arts college in an extremely liberal city who identifies as an Independent. Nevertheless, I truly believe that my rationale for choosing Obama as my preferred candidate is based on who he is, not who I am.

To begin with, there is the simply fact that I don't support either of his opponents. Hillary Clinton is probably unelectable, represents a dangerous trend toward dynasty, and, most importantly, seems to have changed her attitude toward the Iraq War simply because it's unpopular and not going well, not because her fundamental views on combating terrorism and war in general have changed. John McCain, frankly, scares me. If you can't understand why, look at his habit of "accidentally" linking Iran and al-Qaeda in his speeches. (The media is focusing on his most recent slip, at a press conference in Jordan, but Glenn Greenwald cites several other instances in which he's made the same mistake.) To make an error of this magnitude more than twice within such a short period of time seems to me to be a sign of one of three things: 1) senility; 2) ignorance; or 3) an intentional, war-mongering attempt to mislead the American people. None of these options bode well for his chances as president, and this single example doesn't fully address the issues I have with his political beliefs and affiliations.

However, none of this really explains why I think Obama is the best candidate, not merely the least of three evils (though I don't think Hillary is necessarily "evil" either, given the right foreign policy advisers). To paraphrase his words this morning, I don't just want something to stand against, I want something to stand for, and I think Barack Obama is a candidate I can support for who he is, not merely who his opponents are.

As an ideological liberal with generally "mainstream" beliefs, of course I support his positions on
education, the economy, the war, and so forth. In all honesty, his policies would probably not be that much different than Hillary Clinton's, with one huge, essential exception: how each will address terrorism, especially in the event of an attack or other crisis. Obama's willingness to engage countries like Iran and Syria in discussion and to consider other options before taking military action is precisely what this country needs. His address on racial issues proved not only that he is an extremely eloquent public speaker, but also that he is a highly intelligent politician capable of understanding and appreciating the nuances of an issue. This is vitally important in a day and age when most politicians and journalists try to simplify everything to its most basic black-and-white outline, while the problems facing us growing increasingly more complex and multi-faceted. Our commander-in-chief should be someone who's not afraid to talk to countries that we currently consider enemies, someone who will approach the problem of terrorism from many angles rather than simply the military side of it. Obama is the only candidate who has had the courage to demonstrate his willingness to see the shades of gray on all issues, even when it may be dangerous for him politically.

This honesty, courage, and intelligence appeal strongly not just to me, but to many other people all over the world, and from this stems the second key reason I am hoping so fiercely for an Obama victory next November. He has the power to change American politics, both domestically and abroad, and that is something America desperately needs. In recent years, our country has achieved historic levels of political cynicism and apathy, and if we return to that trend our democracy may be in danger. One of the most important parts of democracy is citizen participation, and Obama is helping to shore up that shaky pillar.

The involvement (or lack thereof) of young people in politics has been a concern in recent years. Voters who were younger than 25 were far less likely to vote than their older counterparts ever were. Yet in the past two election cycles, a strong distaste for George Bush's policies and competitive elections have brought college students to the polls in droves. Obama represents all of the beliefs that are finally motivating young voters to vote - the chance for discussion, inclusion, and change. This generation is more liberal than their parents, and far more liberal than the neo-Conservative coalition of G.W. and Karl Rove.

But Obama appeals not just to youngsters at home. He appeals also to those abroad who have lost faith in America through eight years of Bush's bully-boy attitude. The very fact of his election would go far to begin the process of rebuilding all the bridges that Bush has burnt. He has come to symbolize change the world over, and college kids aren't the only ones who are ready for some change around here.

It has been fashionable among right wing hawks to decry anything that might make anyone anywhere else in the world happy, but life is hardly a zero-sum game. Sometimes making nice with the neighbors makes everyone better off, and America would be far more secure if she stopped living up to the warped expectations that have arisen for her and that Bush has been more than happy to reinforce. It's time for us to take the high road and prove not all Americans are the selfish, rude, racist, and culturally insensitive cads we've come to be caricaturized as. And we can do that by rejecting the politics of fear and embracing a more nuanced approach to the world.

Much has been made of Obama's race and his struggle to become a post-racial candidate. Which is all very well and good, but regardless of his personal opinion, his race is important both domestically and around the world. Though there are very few countries left where having a woman in office could still be considered revolutionary, ethnic minorities are still struggling almost everywhere in the world. Racism and xenophobia in Europe taints the image of all Westerners. The fact that we have a candidate who can even claim to be post-racial
sets us apart from almost every other country. For all the successes of Northern Europe's Socialist democracies and our own struggles with immigration and terrorism, the truth is that America's democracy is remarkable for its ability to integrate citizens of every culture, color, religion, and ethnic origin. There are many things that are wrong in our country, and sometimes they overshadow all the things that are right in our country. Barack Obama is proof, for Americans and for the rest of the world, that America really does stand for something more than McDonald's and Coca Cola.