Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Back to Blogging?
I'm going to make a wholehearted attempt to return to the world of casual blogging. Find me at www.pdxperplexed.blogspot.com. Not as much fun as my adventures in Cuba, but once in a while I might have something interesting to say. Enjoy!
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
I'm Busy
In which I'm busy, busy, terribly busy!
OK, so I really have been intending to post something on here... but it looks like my priorities are going to be shifting towards the academic department for the next several weeks. Because I do tend to need an outlet for writing I am considering re-opening my former weblog so that I can post about the other things that are absorbing my time at the moment. When I learn how to balance my 400 pages a night reading load and the pending doom of my unemployment I will return to reading and blogging about Cuba. I have been taking Environmental Sociology and I am very interested in examining Cuba in an environmental context, so occasionally class and Cuba may coincide. For the time being, however, it appears that adding any more reading to my already obscene reading load would be impossible. So I am sorry but this blog will have to be retired until further notice. This weekend I will post the address to my (revamped) general site. Again, thank you all for reading and supporting me! Hope to see you all back here some day...
Chau,
Liz
OK, so I really have been intending to post something on here... but it looks like my priorities are going to be shifting towards the academic department for the next several weeks. Because I do tend to need an outlet for writing I am considering re-opening my former weblog so that I can post about the other things that are absorbing my time at the moment. When I learn how to balance my 400 pages a night reading load and the pending doom of my unemployment I will return to reading and blogging about Cuba. I have been taking Environmental Sociology and I am very interested in examining Cuba in an environmental context, so occasionally class and Cuba may coincide. For the time being, however, it appears that adding any more reading to my already obscene reading load would be impossible. So I am sorry but this blog will have to be retired until further notice. This weekend I will post the address to my (revamped) general site. Again, thank you all for reading and supporting me! Hope to see you all back here some day...
Chau,
Liz
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Reaching Out
In Which Things May Finally Be Getting Started...
It's been a difficult few weeks for me. I've been frantically job-searching and trying not to go crazy in my big, empty house. I seem to be suffering from a streak of inconvenient luck with finances and I am starting to stress out about having no income. As is almost to be expected during periods of money-stress, a few days ago my beloved Phoebe started having difficulty urinating and I had to take her into the vet. A vet bill of around $200 dollars left me feeling a little demoralized.
It's always good to remind oneself that good things are found in unexpected places. While the doctor was examining my kitten, we small talked a little about school and work. My study-abroad program came up and he seemed very excited about my visit to Cuba. He asked a lot of questions and mentioned that he had been considering doing some work in the Caribbean himself. We talked about my veterinary research and he suggested that we grab coffee sometime when he wasn't on the clock so I could show him my slide show and paper. He mentioned a friend who does veterinary work in the Cook Islands who might be able to help us set up a donation fund and proposed starting a website for donations and discussion among local veterinarians. I have a follow-up appointment next week to make sure my Pheebs is doing better, so we'll see what comes of this.
Also, I grabbed a copy of a local pet magazine to which I plan on submitting a short article about stray dogs and animal health care in Cuba. I haven't had as much time or motivation as I would like to do more reading about Cuba, but for now it looks like things may be jumping off from what I already know.
I'll keep you all posted about what comes of this!
It's been a difficult few weeks for me. I've been frantically job-searching and trying not to go crazy in my big, empty house. I seem to be suffering from a streak of inconvenient luck with finances and I am starting to stress out about having no income. As is almost to be expected during periods of money-stress, a few days ago my beloved Phoebe started having difficulty urinating and I had to take her into the vet. A vet bill of around $200 dollars left me feeling a little demoralized.
It's always good to remind oneself that good things are found in unexpected places. While the doctor was examining my kitten, we small talked a little about school and work. My study-abroad program came up and he seemed very excited about my visit to Cuba. He asked a lot of questions and mentioned that he had been considering doing some work in the Caribbean himself. We talked about my veterinary research and he suggested that we grab coffee sometime when he wasn't on the clock so I could show him my slide show and paper. He mentioned a friend who does veterinary work in the Cook Islands who might be able to help us set up a donation fund and proposed starting a website for donations and discussion among local veterinarians. I have a follow-up appointment next week to make sure my Pheebs is doing better, so we'll see what comes of this.
Also, I grabbed a copy of a local pet magazine to which I plan on submitting a short article about stray dogs and animal health care in Cuba. I haven't had as much time or motivation as I would like to do more reading about Cuba, but for now it looks like things may be jumping off from what I already know.
I'll keep you all posted about what comes of this!
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Resolution Revolution
In Which I Make A Resolution
"Ideas are capable of more than arms." Photo courtesy of Issac Holeman
(for more political art, check out his flikr)
It is a brand new year, and as with every flip of life's old odometer I like to take a step back from things and see how far I've come. The year 2007 stands out in my two-decade lifespan as one of many changes, and thus this year the processing of life's events is taking more time and more toll. I must admit that my blog, though always lingering at the back of my mind as a little voice saying "Please feed me!”, has not been a priority this Holiday season. That is not to say that I do not have many things to write- many more adventures to tell and many more ideas to propose. Readers, do not fear- if you've stuck with me this far, I won't let you down. There is so much more to come. I just need to find the time and the words.
This chilly January finds me one again in a new home, once again living with strangers, and once again hunting for new employment in a competitive job market. If it weren't for my Phoebe-Kitty keeping me company in my nearly empty house I would be going crazy in this college-town still waiting for her students to come home. Portland seems lonelier and colder than I remember, a stark field of grays in contrast to the warmth and vibrancy of Havana. My priorities now lie in getting settled into my new-old life. I need an income to pay my bills and a little preemptive preparation for the heavy load of classes in my penultimate college semester. As soon as some of the anxiety of errand running and my own pending poverty wanes, I will find myself entering the New Year with an important resolution.
I suppose it is because I have never had anything "important" to say before, but I have never found myself much inspired by the prospect of resolutions. I usually just hang up a new calendar with the same vague promise that this year I will figure myself out. I neglect to make any concrete goals with the knowledge that after three weeks I will stop going running, start wasting time watching YouTube videos again, and still not have gotten any closer to finishing that beaded silk scarf I started knitting three years ago. Resolutions have never really worked for me. I never had much motivation to make changes. This year, things are going to be a little different.
For those of you who are asking through emails and comments: Yes, I plan on continuing to blog here (and most likely will not be re-opening my previous blog, as I have enough hungry mouths to feed with this one and my cat). I have seen too many things and done too much thinking about it to waste the experience and not share it. I was given a gift by being one of twenty-seven privileged Lewis and Clark students permitted to study in Cuba with a legal visa. The other bloggers on the trip have moved on to other things (one is in the Dominican Republic and another has taken a blogging hiatus, the others seem to have faded away), so I feel more obligated than ever to speak about what I have learned. Very few people I have encountered know anything at all about Cuba, and with CNN being one of few sources of Cuba information American citizens have access to I feel a significant duty to tell "the other side of the story".
That being said, I am still processing my experience. As is my nature, I will probably never stop processing it. And because I feel such an obligation to share my thoughts about Cuba, I intend to do so with as much eloquence and responsibility as I can. I refuse to continue to conduct a blog about Cuba with the limited scope of my experience there as my only resource. I am not an expert. Honestly, I know very little about Cuba to be able say the types of things I wish to say. Therefore, to avoid being a hypocrite I will do what my conscience bids me and set this blog aside for a while. I need some time to read, research and process. When I put my fingers back on this keyboard to write about Cuba, I mean to do so seriously. As I am no longer traveling, this is no longer a "travel blog".
Back in early August as I fiddled with headings and HTML I titled this blog "Naúfraga", the Spanish word for "castaway". I had picked it out of a Neruda poem I liked and I slapped a picture of the beautiful Malecón behind it, not yet knowing how intimately I would come to love it. When I stepped off the plane in the Jose Marti International Airport I felt like an adventurous traveler on a foreign island. A star on Survivor, scared but excited, enchanted and enthralled. I hadn't the slightest idea that I would feel ever so much more the castaway upon arriving home. And now that I am back in the world that is supposed to be familiar, I feel a lot more like I am drowning. I feel a lot more alone.
I don't intend to pass judgment. I am simply still "overwhelmed by the opulence of our own society" (as Gran put it). I really do enjoy the comforts of my life here. I like living about 0.05 miles away from Starbucks, Market of Choice and my trusted hair stylist. I'm glad it doesn't take me all day to shop for vegetables. I always fit on the bus, and it comes more or less every fifteen minutes. I haven't even gotten robbed or sexually harassed yet. Life is great. I shouldn't take it for granted or pretend that I don't thank my lucky stars every single day that I live in the upper middle class in the richest first world country of them all. If anything, Cuba has made me so much more grateful for the things I have (and so much more patient for those yet to come). Before Cuba happened, I would have been pretty mad that I never got to see the end of Juno because of some unexplained "emergency alarm". I've gotten a lot better at just saying "these things happen" and "I'll try again tomorrow, there's still time". I suppose what I am trying to say is that Cuba has slowed me down enough to look at my surroundings. It has taken the urgency out of those unimportant things and put more urgency into my desire to help people to find what I have found.
With that, I am going to slow down for a while. I need a week or two to read and breathe and think. If you can be patient with me, I will be back. Thank you everyone for reading and commenting over the last five months. It is your feedback and emails that have kept me going. I wish everyone success in the New Year.
Nos vemos. ¡Chau!
[EDIT: In the meantime, keep yourselves busy with the new albums posted in the sidebar. There are photos from my trip to the Havana Zoo, the first baseball game of the season, my visit to the Morro Castle and two albums of shared photos taken by friends on the trip. Enjoy!]
"Ideas are capable of more than arms." Photo courtesy of Issac Holeman(for more political art, check out his flikr)
It is a brand new year, and as with every flip of life's old odometer I like to take a step back from things and see how far I've come. The year 2007 stands out in my two-decade lifespan as one of many changes, and thus this year the processing of life's events is taking more time and more toll. I must admit that my blog, though always lingering at the back of my mind as a little voice saying "Please feed me!”, has not been a priority this Holiday season. That is not to say that I do not have many things to write- many more adventures to tell and many more ideas to propose. Readers, do not fear- if you've stuck with me this far, I won't let you down. There is so much more to come. I just need to find the time and the words.
This chilly January finds me one again in a new home, once again living with strangers, and once again hunting for new employment in a competitive job market. If it weren't for my Phoebe-Kitty keeping me company in my nearly empty house I would be going crazy in this college-town still waiting for her students to come home. Portland seems lonelier and colder than I remember, a stark field of grays in contrast to the warmth and vibrancy of Havana. My priorities now lie in getting settled into my new-old life. I need an income to pay my bills and a little preemptive preparation for the heavy load of classes in my penultimate college semester. As soon as some of the anxiety of errand running and my own pending poverty wanes, I will find myself entering the New Year with an important resolution.
I suppose it is because I have never had anything "important" to say before, but I have never found myself much inspired by the prospect of resolutions. I usually just hang up a new calendar with the same vague promise that this year I will figure myself out. I neglect to make any concrete goals with the knowledge that after three weeks I will stop going running, start wasting time watching YouTube videos again, and still not have gotten any closer to finishing that beaded silk scarf I started knitting three years ago. Resolutions have never really worked for me. I never had much motivation to make changes. This year, things are going to be a little different.
For those of you who are asking through emails and comments: Yes, I plan on continuing to blog here (and most likely will not be re-opening my previous blog, as I have enough hungry mouths to feed with this one and my cat). I have seen too many things and done too much thinking about it to waste the experience and not share it. I was given a gift by being one of twenty-seven privileged Lewis and Clark students permitted to study in Cuba with a legal visa. The other bloggers on the trip have moved on to other things (one is in the Dominican Republic and another has taken a blogging hiatus, the others seem to have faded away), so I feel more obligated than ever to speak about what I have learned. Very few people I have encountered know anything at all about Cuba, and with CNN being one of few sources of Cuba information American citizens have access to I feel a significant duty to tell "the other side of the story".
That being said, I am still processing my experience. As is my nature, I will probably never stop processing it. And because I feel such an obligation to share my thoughts about Cuba, I intend to do so with as much eloquence and responsibility as I can. I refuse to continue to conduct a blog about Cuba with the limited scope of my experience there as my only resource. I am not an expert. Honestly, I know very little about Cuba to be able say the types of things I wish to say. Therefore, to avoid being a hypocrite I will do what my conscience bids me and set this blog aside for a while. I need some time to read, research and process. When I put my fingers back on this keyboard to write about Cuba, I mean to do so seriously. As I am no longer traveling, this is no longer a "travel blog".
Back in early August as I fiddled with headings and HTML I titled this blog "Naúfraga", the Spanish word for "castaway". I had picked it out of a Neruda poem I liked and I slapped a picture of the beautiful Malecón behind it, not yet knowing how intimately I would come to love it. When I stepped off the plane in the Jose Marti International Airport I felt like an adventurous traveler on a foreign island. A star on Survivor, scared but excited, enchanted and enthralled. I hadn't the slightest idea that I would feel ever so much more the castaway upon arriving home. And now that I am back in the world that is supposed to be familiar, I feel a lot more like I am drowning. I feel a lot more alone.
I don't intend to pass judgment. I am simply still "overwhelmed by the opulence of our own society" (as Gran put it). I really do enjoy the comforts of my life here. I like living about 0.05 miles away from Starbucks, Market of Choice and my trusted hair stylist. I'm glad it doesn't take me all day to shop for vegetables. I always fit on the bus, and it comes more or less every fifteen minutes. I haven't even gotten robbed or sexually harassed yet. Life is great. I shouldn't take it for granted or pretend that I don't thank my lucky stars every single day that I live in the upper middle class in the richest first world country of them all. If anything, Cuba has made me so much more grateful for the things I have (and so much more patient for those yet to come). Before Cuba happened, I would have been pretty mad that I never got to see the end of Juno because of some unexplained "emergency alarm". I've gotten a lot better at just saying "these things happen" and "I'll try again tomorrow, there's still time". I suppose what I am trying to say is that Cuba has slowed me down enough to look at my surroundings. It has taken the urgency out of those unimportant things and put more urgency into my desire to help people to find what I have found.
With that, I am going to slow down for a while. I need a week or two to read and breathe and think. If you can be patient with me, I will be back. Thank you everyone for reading and commenting over the last five months. It is your feedback and emails that have kept me going. I wish everyone success in the New Year.
Nos vemos. ¡Chau!
[EDIT: In the meantime, keep yourselves busy with the new albums posted in the sidebar. There are photos from my trip to the Havana Zoo, the first baseball game of the season, my visit to the Morro Castle and two albums of shared photos taken by friends on the trip. Enjoy!]
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