Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Travels in Honduras

I recently returned from my latest trip down to the university where I work. Usually, I will go down on a Monday, and return on a Friday, but this trip was different because there were some additional meetings, so I went down in the middle of the week. That meant that I had the weekend, then another full week of work. Then at the end of my trip, I could not get a flight out from Miami on Saturday because it was the end of Spring Break, so I had to stay down until Sunday.

So, I had two weekends in Honduras, and I got to see some more of the country. The first weekend, I explored some of the far-out fields that we have on the campus. As an agriculture school, we have hectares of farmland producing different crops. Usually when I go for a run down there, I only see the close-in fields (corn, onions, lettuce), but getting out for a long walk, I found our papayas and mango groves, as well as the aquaculture ponds up close and personal. The day was vibrant, and getting very hot. Fortunately, a group came by and asked me if I wanted to hop in the car with them and go up to the mountain.

We own a lot of land that is attached to the central campus, and some of it goes up to a mountain where an old nun used to grow flowers and sell them to raise funds for an orphanage. We saw her old dilapidated house, and the other house that has been rebuilt as a get-away for student clubs to use as a retreat. There were still lots of flowers being grown, which are used for decorations around campus for events. Since we were up higher, the temperature was just perfect.

My second weekend, I went with a colleague to her family's weekend house, which is about 1.5 hours away. We chatted the entire way up there, stopped by a couple of small towns to see the local churches and some art galleries, picked up some amazing pupusas, and spent the afternoon talking, walking around the grounds, and just enjoying being outside and relaxed. It is always so different to see the local sights with locals, who can introduce you, tell you the history, and give you a real sense of place. And, staying off the crazy buses in Honduras is always a good thing!

Honduras has a lot of unique wildlife still, but as the city of Tegucigalpa continues to grow, the city is pushing its way closer to campus, and further along toward the smaller cities in the hills. I am glad that I am seeing these cities now, because in 15 years, they will be suburbs!

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Status Update...

Wow. A long time has gone by since my last post. Sorry to keep you waiting.

I am just amazed at the number of bloggers who post daily, or even several times a week. It is a commitment that should not be undertaken lightly. However, just because it has been nigh on six months since my last post does not mean that I should just abandon this blog. I will resurrect it, and hopefully give you some meaningful insight into what has been happening in my world.

Onward!

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Traveling Is Not Romantic

I have seen old movies, and know that overseas travel used to be a special, once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Those days are long gone. This is not news, I know, but lately I am struck by how far we have fallen.

The following is a list of things that I personally experienced on my last trip:

1. A woman putting a suitcase inside of an empty suitcase. Honestly, if you are going to buy that much stuff, just ship it home.

2. Several people losing hundreds of dollars in cologne because they didn't have them in plastic bags. Dear God, the terrorists have officially won. There is a whole Saturday Night Live sketch based on defining liquids and gels. Seriously, you didn't know?

3. Two acquaintances who randomly ran into each other, and it turns out they are on the same flight. So, the one in line lets the other cut in with her. I told them that if they wanted to be together in line, it was only respectful to everyone else that they both go to the end of the line. They stayed apart in the line, then fussed to the customer service agent, and the one further back was allowed to cut.

4. A newlywed couple flying to their honeymoon - in their pajamas. These were not Juicy sweats, they were straight up p.j.s. Fraying t-shirts, schlumpy sweatpants, and sneakers. I am surprised they didn't wear slippers.

It's a jungle out their, travelers. Brace yourselves.

Friday, July 27, 2007

The County Fair

Last weekend, Michael took me to the Rockbridge County Fair. It reminded me a lot of the Rosholt Fair that I used to go to every year in Wisconsin growing up.

My whole family would work together as part of the Village Church, along with many friends, to man the cheese curd booth, where we served deep fried cheese curds from 11 AM through 1 AM. For four solid days, I survived on curds, hamburgers, and all the fountain soda I could drink. I remember what a treat it was to drink a carton of milk after a couple of days! My hair would smell like fryer grease for several days, and my curd cravings would be satiated for twelve entire months.

There were no cheese curds in Virginia, but we still had a great time. I went on a new ride that was a real gut buster. It was a large pendulum - like the pirate ship rides - except that the carriage also turned in circles as it swung higher and higher from side to side. I have not felt that queasy from a ride in years...they are really upping the ante on these portable carnival rides!

Then, we spent 20 minutes watching a carney take a group of teenagers for $180. It was the smoothest, best played con I have probably ever seen in person.

The game was deceptively simple. Use 5 small discs to completely cover a larger circle. Of course, the dimensions were very precise - you had to drop each disc exactly. And the barker did it over and over to show just how easy it was! The prizes were amazing - an Xbox 360 + $100 was one of them. And plays were a steep $10 a pop. But the carney kept telling the guy that if he would double up, he would get the prize plus all the cash he had put in...There was much hemming and hawing, and peer pressure, and talk of how much he had already "invested" in the game, and it would be a shame to have it go to waste.

It was just incredible. The barker ended up giving the girlfriend a huge, nasty, sheriff-garb Spongebob Squarepants worth about $10 - maybe. He gave it to her out of pity, and I thought it added insult to injury. But she was too dense to realize it. It was truly fascinating!

Oh, and finally, the tractor-pushes-the-quarters game was definitely a money maker. They gave you 5 quarters for a dollar! I asked the guy if I could just cash in $5 and walk away, and he said "well, I try to keep an eye out for that kind of thing"...um, how much money are you making off this game that you can just give it away for free?!

Maybe I am in the wrong business. I want to be a carney.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

I Will Definitely Graduate

Well, the final grades of my final semester are in, and I have definitely passed all of my classes.

Yay!

I will be a Master. Not a Master of the Universe, but a Master of Arts. At least I won't have to battle Skeletor.

Somehow, I just don't think I will have the same sunny feelings for George Mason that I did for UWSP. While I wasn't happy to start off at Point, the old lady grew on me, and allowed me to do a lot of things that I would not have done if I were at a bigger school.

But, Mason was more...compulsory. There was less of a sense of community, I think because everyone already had a life before they enrolled in the program. In the classroom, it was great to have people coming in with all these different perspectives. But it did make it hard to build a community.

By the power of Greyskull, I think I am waxing poetic about something that just ended last week.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Senioritis

I did not think that my last semester of graduate school would be such a drag.

It's not that the classes are bad - in fact, they are quite interesting.

It's not that the work load is crushing - it is nothing out of the ordinary.

It could only be senioritis.

In high school and college, I thought that senioritis was collective in nature...everyone around you is antsy, anxious, and feels like they can goof off, so it becomes infectious. But now I am not surrounded by people who are finishing school with me. Most of my friends are not in school at all! And, I am working during the day anyway. So, clearly, I am manifesting this sudden frustration with school all on my own.

Now, I think that it has more to do with excitement about starting the next big thing in your life. Emotionally, I have been waiting for school to be finished so I could begin to think about other projects. Michael and I have been talking about all of the things we would do when we both finished school for more than four years. So, there has been a lot of anticipation building for my graduation for a long time. I have been waiting for it to come, and now, it is finally really approaching. I just want the day to arrive.

I am reminded of waiting for Christmas when I was a child. The days used to crawl so slowly because I was excited to get to the end and get the rewards! But, now Christmas comes so quickly I barely have time to get my head around the holidays before they are all over. So, maybe this is like the adult version of Christmas...

Also, I have changed a lot in the past three years since I started this degree program. My interests have broadened, and refocused, several times. I have more desire to build stronger communities on a small scale, instead of influencing world events on a large scale. So, while finishing this coursework is important, I think that some of the answers that I was looking for in the program are less interesting to me now.

So, I have grown and changed, and am ready for all of the things that are coming in the next few months and years. Finishing school is, at this point, something to check off my to-do list.

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Election Day Woes...

First, the good news.

Up until 2006, my vote has been the kiss of death for any candidate. If I voted for you, you were going to lose. I had not voted for one single winning candidate, including for such posts as town clerk. Not once. And I have voted in every single election since 1996. Even absentee when I was out of the country!

Boy did I ever break that curse...Jim Webb won the senate race against George Allen in Virginia with just over 7,000 votes. To add to the sweetness, that race gave control of the Senate to the Democrats. Finally, not only did I feel like the world saw things my way, but I felt like my vote actually mattered.

This is no easy feat. One of the largest fallacies in politics is that 'your vote matters'. The number of elections where the vote is within even 1% of all ballots is teensy. To think that a single vote mattered is really to have delusions of grandeur.

Voting is actually an awful lot about social pressure. In fact, when people are allowed to vote online, smaller communities - where social pressure is higher - have seen a decrease in voter turnout!

So, I was really happy about that particular vote. Too bad that was overshadowed by the depressingly large margin that Virginia voters approved the anti-gay amendment on the ballot.

The fact that this law passed - when it was so obviously unnecesary, not to mention overreaching (look at how a similar law in Ohio has weakened domestic violence laws) is really the final straw for Michael and me. We have talked about how we would feel if this amendment passed, and now that it has, the choice is clear: we have to move.

At this point, it is simply a matter of conscience. I cannot live in a state that is so openly hostile, so mean-spirited, and so anti-family. Apart from this amendment not changing any definition of marriage, since gay marraige was already illegal in Virginia, it opens murky legal territory for our contracts, wills, powers of attorney, property rights, and all manner of other legal arrangements.

We could stay and fight...or hope that we are lucky enough never to get into a fight...maybe that would be the noble thing to do.

But, the truth is that when it comes to someone messing with the safety and security of my family, I really don't care what is noble. I care about protecting the people that I love. That means that if I have to sell my house, or get a new job, or even relocate, that's what I will do.

And right there is the most extreme example of the problems with our red state/blue state divide. Because Americans are so mobile, there is just no good reason to stay somewhere that you feel unwelcome.

So, Michael and I aren't exactly sure how we are going to get out of Virginia, but we will start by selling our house, and take it as it comes from there. Congratulations, Virginia. You win this battle. We will leave your state.

But remember, demographics are on our side.