A very American night & those that preceded it

Here's the latest culture-shock timeline:

Week 1. I go to a farm to collect dry-ish pumpkin leaves because I want to cook with them. I feel pity for the little place, so I buy a pumpkin too. Pumpkin rots before I can cook it OR carve it. Fed it to the compost pit. wtf, food doesn't last forever in America?

Week 3. I finally get added back to the cellphone plan, plus a new phone that has a little keyboard on it. Yay internets/data plan! No celebration for Halloween. I have to think of a costume? Too much work.

Week 7. Bought a computer - yeah! First laptop in 3 years. It's pretty fast, enjoying my i5 processor and free OpenOffice applications. It is a hp, so its name is harry potter.

Week 12. Dashing through the snow... A. and I meet and eat tons of yummy Indian food, then go shopping and I snag $70 jeans for $20 (they look fabulous). Then I lose my wallet. business (almost) as usual! Christmas approaching and I have many plans brewing. Preparing myself to move in with the boyfriend. He is preparing to deal with crazy heating bills because I get cold too easily. But says he is ready, because it is a small price for love.

LAX Flyaway

Taking the bus from LA's Union Station and we instantly jam up in the freeway traffic. Why, at 7:30pm on a Wednesday, is there traffic? There just is. So our driver takes us on a detour - through the city, rolling down mainstreet, and I'm shocked to find that the place is empty - EMPTY! We saw a handful of cars parked, dudes walking down the sidewalk, but literally all the traffic, every single LA denizen or passerby, was trying to avert the city. What a sprawling, backwards place. America, this is what your city of cars has become.



















I look out when we we reach a bit of a vantage height and see thousands of sparkling lights - the city sprawl. Imagining myself living here, I quickly become discouraged. How is anyone supposed to walk anywhere here? So impersonal, to drive everywhere. Angry at you for cutting me off, pleased with myself for making that light. Talk about 2-dimensional.

This is what I like better about Southern California: Elfin Forest, near Morro Bay

West Coasting

Three weeks is an impossible period of time to summarize - maybe moreso when I don't have any real distance from it. But since coming to California three weeks ago, there are many memorable sights, smells, and sounds that I want to remember. I'm happy I came to stay with Devin's family-- giving him the chance to prove that California is the best place on earth.


Starfish on pilings beneath the pier at Avila beach

Seals barking and playing and splashing at the harbor

Sea water, coastal sage, and anise smells

Tasting tours of the family garden, laden with trees and beds full of yummy food waiting to ripen

First time trying new fruits: persimmon, pineapple guava, buddha's hand, freshly cooked artichoke,

Hippie-friendly items like lavender oil, laughter yoga, 3 farmers markets per week, hot springs for hot tubbing sessions

A family outing to see 'Fair Game' at the local indie theatre, which chronicled Valerie Plame's family turmoil over her husband's outing the Bush administration and their lying ways in the run up to the Iraq war

Weekly Farmer's Market night where the main drag downtown gets blocked off for foot traffic only. The eats: fresh kettle corn, korean bbq, pad thai, falafel, locally made goat cheese, etc.

University of California - arboretums, lots of green space, bike tech shacks, nice temperatures

Jamba Juice

Rallying at the family Tennis club with on-court water fountains, ad-hoc volleying lessons, and tons of racquets for me to borrow

Thanksgiving in Chico: Driving through the fertile San Joaquin valley seeing almonds, walnuts, oranges, apricots, cherries, blackberries, avocado, cauliflower, lettuce, onions, garlic... the salad bowl indeed!

Chopping oodles of organic veggies at Shawn and Rob's house to be used in pies, salad, etc.

The sound of the river running over stones in the canyon behind the house and stories of bears crossing nearby

Watching Avatar in HD on their 7-foot TV

Devin's Grandma R. who was full of compliments and good hospitality (and who still hits a mean tennis ball at 72)

Kelp biology lesson on Carmel beach

Seafood pasta, sand dabs, chocolate cake, and a playful night at Carmel

Naphenthe and Essalen, hippie hideouts on the Big Sur Coast

Driving up the long ramble to the San Simeon house where Devin spent four formative, nature-loving years

Amazing Route 1 views without the worry of veering off a cliff

Strengthening my thumbs on Devin's constantly sore shoulder with daily massages

Drying clothes in the sun


I sure learned a lot about Devin's upbringing, background, and the setting for his many stories. And it was warm, pretty, and delicious too!

Oh My Ears!

Whirr... external hard drive = on.
Flooding my ears is everything I missed and forgot and love - Bjork's black hole emotional spacescapes, reverbed Azure Ray musing on her favorite cities, Beirut and their quirky accordion/warbling trumpet combo, all the histrionic Blonde Redhead i could ever want. It's heaven: free choice & possessing so many beautiful mp3 and mp4s. To know that I finally have the power to avoid the Decemberists' pathetic whining (that was a training time favorite of some of the boys in my Education group in Malawi - feel free to listen if you want to!) and drown my thoughts in dreamy trip-hop! or I can check out some freestyles by rappers who I actually know now that I didn't before like Lil Wayne (thanks Devin (: ).



.. digging up some punk roots I find Fugazi's The Waiting Room, Ev's bassy/dreamy cover of the Dismemberment Plan's The City, chill again with Buddha Bar and Cafe Des Pres, get my twitchy rhythm section instincts going with Brubeck, Arturo Sandoval, Fapy Lafertin, then feel just groovy with some Eagles, Cat Stevens, CCR (video below), even Woodie Guthrie.



And who could forget about Spanish language smoothness? Put on the Juanes and crank it up! Ojos de brujo! And Indie.. there will be indie.

So what is this, some kind of nostalgic ramble? A little, yeah! I just plugged in my dinosaur-age external HD for the first time since being home in October. I don't know why I waited; music makes the world a brilliant place. In a way, I feel so out of touch since I was away 2 years with mostly pop drivel stuck in my brain, kind of a pathetic excuse for art but at least it fuels that after-dark, candlelit dance party that you need sometimes in a lonely teacher's house in a Malawian village - but now that I have some stuff that was appropriate for 2008, it can't be hard to catch up to 2010.

Shopping in my own stuff has been super fun - this maybe coolest of all! Because sweaters can only get you so excited. Having a supply of thongs again is cool, but it won't entertain for hours. But music! Now I have a solution to these long, job-less days. And a possible way to make workouts more fun. How do you like that? I might be transitioning into the 21st century in my habits! (FYI - old as hell ipod shuffle STILL works! That is, if I can get the old version of iTunes software for it)

Shaking and grooving.

Have It Your Way: Wifi Is Everywhere.

Can't believe it! Free WiFi at the most ubiquitous place in America, even more populous than starbucks. I had *heard* that the internet is everywhere but I didn't really believe it. Now I'm watching football in front of a weird flashing fake fireplace on a squishy couch at Mickie D's.

Here are some of my early observations / culture shockin thoughts after being back in America for a few weeks, since October 3, when I came back from Africa where I lived for 2 years:

• 495 Capital Beltway driving is scary
• Blowdryers & Makeup are fun!
• Why does my family need 5 cars?? That's ridiculous.
• Salads are delicious
• Refrigeration is revolutionary, if it comes from the right need (ie. food not booze)
• TV is a dangerous time suck
• It's hard to walk from one destination to another. That makes it hard to get exercise!
• Why are so many people treating me like 1 of a number of cattle? Doesn't seem right.
• Americans aren't used to touching, but they seem to like it / be OK with it sometimes.
• Men (&women too!) spend all day looking at idealized images of the human body so anyone who looks any different is hated on/hates on themselves.
• Water tastes icky, and there's really no variety in flavor. Mmmm, chemicals.
• Bar bitches are mean
• Pavement/tarmac is pretty ugly and has an effect on me that is the opposite of relaxing. It's everywhere in 'Merica. I guess because walking on the tarmac used to be the most crowded, dangerous place in Malawi, I'm still not comfortable. Where the mountains? Trees? Maize fields??

I published this first in my Malawi blog because I'm finished my service in Malawi! Time to blog about America some more.