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.

Into the Bush

My last night here in Maryland, I came to understand what it is to pack up your life into two impossibly small, unbelievably heavy suitcases in order to take a chance on an unknown place where a new space awaits.

Come Monday, when most people are returning to their regularly scheduled schoolwork, jobs, or otherwise, I will be a shiny new teaching intern in the mountains of Malawi: Dedza, the site of the Malawian College of Forestry. My job in the Peace Corps will necessarily involve teaching, but I will be there to first help improve secondary schools at the grassroots, community level (read: they are not a government priority, yet). I will train in a village-based "cluster," so it will be less like sitting through classes and more like taking the jalopy out for a spin with my brand new PC buds. I can picture it now: "Does anyone know what that road sign back there meant?"

I will be living in a "homestay" for the three months of teacher training, so I'll get an intimate glimpse into - and a chance to be a part of - the Malawian family. Imagine intensive language classes until noon, working in the classroom until dinner, and then coming home to a "mom" or "sister" speaking to you rapidly in a language you're just beginning to grasp. Talk about a brain workout! Throw in pit latrines and bathing under the stars, and you might harken back to summer camp with the soundtrack on mute.

It won't be so bad. I'm actually very excited for the new language - but the intensive immersion training is a new thing for me, so all sorts of scenarios (like the previous one, for example) are playing out in my head. I am not sure what language I'll be learning, even though I have done some work with Chichewa; I could be in a Chitimbuka-dominant area too.

Most everyone wants to know how I'm going to eat vegan in Africa. Well, if I wanted to do that, I'm sure I'd use my resources to find a way. That's not part of the plan, however; I feel that the protest of the Ag industry's careless practices is going to be really irrelevant in a place where a chicken is slaughtered in honor of a guest by the host family, right before being cooked -- and in a place where food production for export is much more important than importing fun things like tangelos from new zealand and bananas from guatemala. I have seeds to plant a garden, but you better believe I'm going to eat what is available for my own health as well as to show respect for my new home culture. Integration is about changing your ways - not demanding others cater to peculiar American preferences.

But you'll hear about all that when it comes to pass! This week of preparations has been wonderful for absorbing so much love from many friends who have taken the time to "see me off." Most of my relatives have given me their blessing, which means a lot; I don't come from a very adventuresome, service-oriented family, so the idea of it still seems a bit left-field to them. But they have come to understand my passion and commitment, and are supporting me as best they can -- and that's all I could have wanted. I feel strongly now that the life I have had here has been very full of good people, and I am sad that I'm leaving it at such a time -- even though my departing caused so many great visits! I choose to interpret these events to mean that there is much to come back to, and that I have many examples of good people to enrich my life in the US.

It's time to switch over to the travel blog, and I'll write there as much as I can. I encourage any and all of you to drop me a letter in the mail, because it only costs 94 cents, and because I'd love to hear from you about the familiar and comforting details of home! Especially election drama.