September 2011
1 post
New blog... or old blog again.
SOOOO in all my indecision, I’ve decided to use a different blog from now on. I’ll have all my updates from London there. From now on, this blog is dead to me.
My thoughts are here now: http://andothersandelsewhere.blogspot.com/
August 2011
2 posts
Be Here Now
Don’t let your mind get weary and confused; Your will be still, don’t try. Don’t let your heart get heavy child; Inside you there’s a strength that lies. Don’t let your soul get lonely child; It’s only time, it will go by. Don’t look for love in faces, places; It’s in you, that’s where you’ll find kindness.
-Ray LaMontagne
July 2011
5 posts
Family
My uncle: All I want is to pack up my truck and drive the trailer into the middle of the Yukon and watch TV.
My grandad: You'll need satellite.
My grandma: I'm coming with you and I'm packin' a pistol.
"You should date an illiterate girl" by Charles...
You should date an illiterate girl.
Date a girl who doesn’t read. Find her in the weary squalor of a Midwestern bar. Find her in the smoke, drunken sweat, and varicolored light of an upscale nightclub. Wherever you find her, find her smiling. Make sure that it lingers when the people that are talking to her look away. Engage her with unsentimental trivialities. Use pick-up lines and laugh...
“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and...”
– Alan Watts
“Sometimes I wear feathers to feel close to the sky.”
– Ben Sollee, Close to You
June 2011
5 posts
4 tags
To be read aloud in good company
RHAPSODY ON A WINDY NIGHT
by: T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)
WELVE o’clock. Along the reaches of the street Held in a lunar synthesis, Whispering lunar incantations Dissolve the floors of memory And all its clear relations, Its divisions and precisions, Every street lamp that I pass Beats like a fatalistic drum, And through the spaces of the dark Midnight shakes the memory As a madman shakes a...
1 tag
“The purpose in life is not to find yourself. It’s to lose yourself.”
– David Brooks
May 2011
4 posts
“Indeed the mantra of romantically pursuing passion is hammered into us by...”
– A speech to graduating Harvard Architects
“Why do they always teach us that it’s easy and evil to do what we want and...”
– Ayn Rand
“And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the...”
– John Steinbeck (East of Eden)
April 2009
2 posts
March 2009
3 posts
Jungle Book
As the sun rises over the white stones along the river, children in brightly tattered t-shirts scamper into the water, laughing as their shadows land on paw prints in the sand. From underneath the thick layer of green scrub, lazy eyes watch the village. A flash of reddish orange and the eyes are gone, deep into the jungle to wait for dusk when sambar deer venture towards the water. I watched the...
Three person, one person, why?
After three consecutive weeks in Delhi, it was about time for a weekend adventure. Seven PM Friday night, Shanta, Sarah, and I boarded our first overnight train from Delhi to Udaipur. We had reserved seats in general admission 3-tier sleeper and like the AC-chair car, the name was a perfect description. Wall-like barriers created sections along the car, all open to a long corridor down the middle....
Old and New
This past weekend five new volunteers came to Delhi (two others passed through on their way to Dharamasala, another CCS site). It’s been interesting watching the group dynamics change. I realized just how much of a family we had all become: Tom, Laiah, Lindsay, Shanta, Sarah, Cindy, the staff and I. Friday night, Cindy (who lived in the bedroom next to mine) said goodbye and set off for the...
February 2009
12 posts
The Hunt is On
April showers will bring May flowers but February is wedding season in Delhi. I have to confess that since I’ve been here, a not-so-secret desire has arisen to crash an Indian wedding. Like hunting season, every pink, purple, or blue tent signals the beginning of the game. As foreigners, we lurk ready to pounce on any opportunity dance and eat with complete strangers on their special day.
Strike...
Pictures from India with love →
So far I have pictures from the airport, Haridwar, Rishikesh, a craft fair, and Mobile Creche up. More will come soon!
Be Veg, Be Strong
This morning, Shanta and I visited Mother Theresa’s Home for the Destitute and Dying, instead of our usual placements. In the car, we passed through Delhi to the outskirts of town where boys scavenged through trash with sticks. Marble and stone shops recruited day laborers who stood waiting beside the road, hoping for employment. Diseased looking cows chewed their cud and stared blankly into the...
A Never-quite-typical Day
I wrote this yesterday but didn’t have time to post it so just pretend it’s Tuesday.
I don’t think I’ve had a single day yet that has had the same schedule. So far, each day has been a new adventure coupled with sleep deprivation. Today has been about as routine as any of them. This morning, I woke up only after hitting the snooze about twenty times (I know my roomie Shanta loves that...
Snapshots
It’s hard to believe I’ve been here for almost two weeks now; time has flown by. I’m just beginning to remember which of the six switches in my bedroom turn on the light. I still catch my salwaar in the car door every day. At lunch today, Lindsay had finished eating and the other volunteers weren’t back yet so the staff took advantage of the empty chairs and ate with me. For the first five minutes...
Haridwar and Rishikesh
This weekend, some of the other volunteers (Laiah, Lindsay, and Shanta) and I decided to take a road trip to a holy city in Northern India call Haridwar and a nearby town Rishikesh. Early Saturday morning, Jasi (our favorite taxi driver) took us to the train station and wished us a “berry goot” trip. We settled into our seat in our section of “AC Chair Car” (exactly what it sounds like: a train...
A moment at last
So this is a bit overdue but the past few days have been busy to say the least. The sounds of the Muslim call to prayer, constant construction, honking, and vendors shouting in Hindi are carried by the warm air into our flat. It’s day 4 for me and I’m beginning to settle into a routine. The flight was long but I had plenty on my mind to occupy me (one of which was the passenger next to...
January 2009
1 post
Packing.... or not.
Three days from now I’ll be well on my way to New Delhi, India. In case anyone doesn’t know, I’ll fill in some details. I’m going to Delhi with a program called Cross Cultural Solutions or CCS (crossculturalsolutions.org). I’ll be living with people from all over the western hemishpere and volunteering in non-profit organizations. The place I’ll be working is...