rockasummer's Xanga

the streets are paved with brick

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 06:48:11 GMT

So, things have been going really well. My birthday party was fun but suprisingly mellow. I have been going to see my friends play music a lot (jazz covers) it is actually good music even though i prefer simpler sad stories of country music. I feel so much affinity for my friend here it kind of breaks my heart that I will be leaving so soon.

Yesterday was a major day for my project: I interviewed the former head architect of the city who instigate most of the new monuments on the street. I prepared a list of questions but I didn't need to ask them because he talked for an hour and a half straight it was amazing because there was another important architect waiting for him that whole time and he was very generous with his time. And I understood 90 percent of what he was saying (I had my friend come too who speaks English so later I could clarify anything I might not have fully understood) I was impressed with myself, since one of my main goal in life was to be fluent in another language I think I will be able to achieve this.

I also met yesterday with a landscape designer who designed the main boulevard on my site. She talked straight for two hours, and next week she agreed to do a walk through of the site and critique it.

I have often felt stressed out about my thesis , as I'm sure everyone feels, but yesterday I felt like some angel was giving me the information I needed (although I know my thesis is not that important for angels to think about that is how I felt). I know this sounds strange but here I feel like there are more spirits (maybe because 10,000 people died here in WWII, and maybe because of the Cossack war).

will put more pictures soon....

32

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:47:11 GMT

new news, I have been here 3 weeks and tomorrow I will be 32, on friday we will have a party which will be fun because parties in russia are fun -involve sitting around a table eating, toasting, for many many hours. A very nice woman that I interviewed for my project is trying to set up interviews for me with people she knows all over the city (including the head architect of the city) she also invited me to another town which she will give me a tour of with her family and gave me a gaint book about Kuban. Although I miss home, I also feel at home here (maybe not so much of an enigma after all) and enjoy the time to focus on one project. Although I am teaching English maybe about 8 hours a week.

Kids and woman are indicators of quality public space:

the morning show is better at night

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:36:13 GMT

1 week- and i ain't makin any promises

Research begins:

I'll be in Krasndar for a couple months teaching English and doin research for my thesis.

Like in Seattle I have a nice place to live with two young woman (I feel like I am living my alternate life).

my house :

I am an enigma to many Russians and maybe (unfortuately I realized) I have maybe been treating Russia like an enigma all this time. Doing research here feels wierd because I want to stop analysin this from the outside.

This is the brilliant e-mail my friend sent me:"Grad school is equivalent to an Eastern European husband? Hmm....
Both have an exotic appeal, but require a lot of hard work and
sleepless nights. There are times that you question the decision, but
fortunately, at the end, it is all worth it."

we'll see. ;)

week 1

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 19:49:38 GMT

i've been here for about a week. my house is pretty cool, i live with an 84 year old woman, her nurse, 4 other students and a woman from Japan. it is really relaxing and comfortable and we get 3 meals a day cooked. we went to visit the dump- huge with buzzards flying around and 2000 people working inside. i am so lucky that i feel i will never have to live in that kind of poverty.
we met with the mothers and they were really excited about talking to us about their ideas for the garden, etc.
so far i feel kind of dizzy with everything going on
the buses here are old suped up former american school buses..

SNOW

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 04:17:42 GMT

Merry Christmas and

Happy New Year!

I haven't written in a year. Since then I have made lots of $ in my ponzi skeem selling virtual hide-a-beds to apartment dwellers. I have also completed 4 of 9 quarters of graduate school (who's counting?). During this extensive study of the pedestrian landscape I have developed elaborate ways to form sentences and plan-view trees. In the summer I floated through a cattle range in a sinking canoe and avoided drowning Spanish exchange students as an English teacher.

Most recently I moved out of my little cottage. ( developers evicted me by doubling my rent) I read the book Confederacy of Dunces which I highly recommend. And slid down the icy streets of Seattle in my two wheel drive truck.

I am now headed to the mountains of Guatemala to celebrate New Year's. I am going to be in Guatemala for winter quarter designing and building a part of a playground with a group from the UW. I began writing on here so I can keep people updated while I'm gone.

stay tuned for future posts.

p.s. this message only contains one lie.

back in the sadle

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 19:41:33 GMT

first day of winter quarter.
my recent health problems: the doctor tested me for vitamin D and there was almost none in my system- where is the sun?
hot tub faniculitus- it is actually a disease with hot tub in the name- an infection all over my back- like tons of misquito bites

besides that montana was very snowy and beautiful and we stayed in a couple of cabins in the woods and cross country skied a lot.

i want to escape from cloudy weather and recreate a place as my own world, i could be your favorite girl....

merry,merry,m

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 21:33:45 GMT

erry
sorry that last posting seemed depressing- I think I had been watching too much Sex in the City and doing too much reading about the Theories of Landscape Architecture. What can I say? If I was in a punk band I would sing a song called Fuck Academia.
That sounds really angry but I mean it in more of a iconoclastic way as opposed to an angry way. (okay maybe I am not convincing anyone)
I love Christmas!!!!
I cut a tree out behind my mom's property and we put it up at my mom's house. I made pumpkin bars and stayed up late watching the movie Junebug which I recommend.

I had a pretty blessed year with an awesome sponsor, friends from around the world, an opportunity to get an education to eventually have a creative and environmentally helpful career. I wish everyone lots of peace and happiness over the holidays.

sama

Sun, 02 Dec 2007 04:41:01 GMT

what is my dream life? selling paintings in front of a Beyonce poster on the streets of Moscow?

working in the wheat field of Georgia?

now why I am not an alcoholic because drinking does not make me feel good it makes me feel paranoid and depressed.

I am getting free wifi tonight-perhaps the snow has blown in some signal or the new townhomes down the street are sending it to me.

roaarrr

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 22:35:29 GMT

28 minutes until class starts. this is my life now.
pretty interesting but full.
I am 30 as of monday. wonwo
I do feel thirty except when I have PMS at which point I feel 20 because I am freaked out about life.
All I can think to write about is my site planning project or the plant collector David Douglas which goes to show that how dramatic my personal life is

235 days

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 00:35:08 GMT

It is has been 235 days since I opened my site with xanga. I don't really feel compelled to write anymore now that I am back home- but I had 9 footprints this week- okay since I haven't posted anything for a couple months. Maybe I should invent some stories:

I am moving into a bungalow two doors down and across from my old bungalow because the former resident has been in jail for the last three months and as part of the deal I am cleaning out his crap to put in the basement until he can get it. Looking at all his stuff I feel much closer to the story of poverty then all those NPR specials on poverty that act like it is impossible anyone listening to NPR is living in poverty--. looking at poverty like a semi-sad specimen. the former tenant is a middle aged black man alcoholic/ drug addict but from the lack of paraphenelia I am guessing not too extreme of a drug addict. There were many more half drunk 40s of Ice house that were filled with spawning fruitflies that let off a smeell of shitty vinegar. There were childsupport notices, pictures of his children, and empty envelopes with the landlords address on it. There were also tons of spices- I'm assuming he was a good cook, dominoes and chess sets, and movies like A River Runs Through It. The remnants of a jail bound man were a lot cleaner and wholesome than I would have expected and it made me feel really sad-

Selfishly now I am happy that I will have cheap rent again and I won't have to deal with my illogical roommate's rage.

I hope this man has some hope and possibilities. and he gets a break