Why the lack of blogging?

The answer is simple. Time and energy. My co-worker has been on sick leave for the past month, so I've been doing my job plus some of hers. I'm hoping things will start to go back to normal soon, so that I can blog again. I've got tons of great pictures to share!

Mi Julia

In just 12 days I get see the coolest person I know. Julia Tayloe Sessoms. It's been almost a year since we've seen each other, and 5 years since she's come to visit. So needless to say, I'm a little bit excited. Jules is the type of friend that even though you don't them often you just pick right up where you left off the last time you saw them, like nothing's changed. There's no time gap. My life has changed quite a bit over the years, but Jules has remained a constant. She's family.

I can't wait to see you "Mutt"!!
Yours truly, "Jeff"

Door in the Floor (Part 2)

We decided we needed storage space, so we made an attic :)

Door in the Floor

If you've ever seen this film you know that it is the epitome of dramas. An exentric children's book author, a wife who's gone off the deep end after the death of her two teenage boys, an under-age affair, and a 4-year old daughter who's probably been scarred for life.

My life is by no means dramatic, however I do have a door in the floor. Actually, it's more like a hole in the ceiling. It all depends on your perspective. Pictures to come...

He's just plain GREAT

Ever since I started my new job a month ago I've been jittery, nervous, on edge, stressed out, too exhausted to cook or clean and too busy to spend quality time with my husband. But he hasn't complained once. He's taken everything in stride, puts up with me with a smile, and constantly tells me I'm doing a great job. Even after he's had a long day at work too, he makes me lunch and dinner and washes the dishes. Today he even had breakfast waiting for me with the newspaper when I woke up. He's an amazing guy.

Ada Pearl

My grandma. I didn't see her much, but I have vivid memories of her. All are good. I've already talked about her once in an earlier post with her dog "Hey you" and all her other animals. I also mentioned her in this post, with the old tin lunch boxes in her basement. But that's just the tip of the iceberg.

She lived in an old, small, white house on top of a mountian in Cumberland, MD. There was a big grannysmith apple tree out back. The front porch had that old, green, fake turf stuff on the floor, and there was always a fly swatter nearby. In front of her house there was a plot of land for grazing and the highlight of my day was to see the cows come up close to the barbed wire fence to where I could pet them.

My grandma used to save pennies in a huge jar for me. So whenever we'd go visit her in Cumberland, she'd give my brother and sister 50 dollars each...in cash. She'd give me 50 dollars...in pennies. It was annoying, but special. I can still remember sitting in her living room rolling old, dirty pennies, and the smell of my hands afterwards.

She had an old organ in her house, and loved to write songs and sing them. I would call her on the phone, and after she'd told me 50 million times how proud she was of me, she'd say "Do you have a minute? I want you to hear this." Then she'd preceed to put the phone down, run over to her organ, and bust out playing and singing at the top of her lungs. She was a hoot.

One of my favorite pastime activities at her house was shooting old coke cans and fallen grannysmith apples with the bb gun. I would spend hours outdoors with her animals and the neighboring cows.

Even though I didn't see my grandma much (I think the last time I saw her I was probably 13 years old), and I'd roll my eyes everytime my mom passed the phone over to me to talk to her, I loved her and will always remember her. She was one of a kind.

I Must be a BAD Wife

Jose and I have gotten a kick out of this article that my mom sent for the past few days now. He's still waiting for the day I put a ribbon in my hair. My...how times do change.

Overwhelmed

As many of you already know, I got a promotion at work to be the new Director of Studies, which I'm very thankful for. It's a really big improvement, but as with any promotion, I have triple the responsibility as before. It happened right at the time when the academy is starting the Fall campaign. New students, new courses, new schedules. I've had to absorb so much new information this past week and I'm feeling really overwhelmed. We've got some major deadlines coming up and I'm beginning to freak out. Plus, I'm still teaching my summer courses that last until October. It's just plain crazy in my head right now.

Comercio Justo and "A Deeper Shade of Green"

FAIR TRADE

For those of you interested in buying Fair Trade products or just want to find out more about it, I found some good webpages online for Spain, the US, and the UK. The concept originated in Europe in the 1960s, and it is a movement to help:

·promote sustainable development

·alleviate poverty

·create transparency and accountability

·develop the producers' independence, eliminating the "middle-man"

·payment of a fair price, enabling a production that is socially just and environmentally sound

·gender equity

·safe and healthy working conditions

·children's rights

·encourage better environmental practices

WEBSITES:

Equi Mercado

Global Exchange: Fair Trade

Traidcraft Shop


"A DEEPER SHADE OF GREEN"

In my family I've always been picked on as being a "tree hugger". Now, I'm no Julia "Butterfly" Hill who spends two years of her life living in a California Redwood, and I am strongly against radical or violent activism, but I would consider myself an environmentalist in the sense that I think conservation and sustainability are extremely important. I'll also be the first to admit that I don't do all I should. I hate taking the bus and it's so much easier to go to the grocery store below my house rather than walk to the local Farmer's Market in the old city. But we are slowly destroying our natural environment and we,the world, need to change our practices and our way of life.

If you are suscribers to the National Geographic, there's a great article in the August issue by Bill McKibben (author of the best seller, The End of Nature) called, "A Deeper Shade of Green". He talks about the need for a new cultural environmentalism. The need for a new frame of mind and way of living and thinking. He deals with fossil fuel, energy costs, urban sprawl, farmer's markets, etc. Here are few exerpts:

"The old paradigm works like this: We judge just about every issue by asking the question, Will this make the economy larger? But endless economic growth is built on the use of cheap fossil fuel...We need to stop asking, Will this make the economy larger? Instead, we need to start asking, Will this pour more carbon into the atmosphere?"

"We've gotten used to eating across great distances. Because it's always summer somewhere, we've accustomed ourselves to a food system that delivers us fresh produce 365 days a year. The energy cost is incredible--growing and transporting a single calorie of iceberg lettuce from California to the eastern U.S. takes 36 calories of energy. What would it take to get us back to eating more locally, to accepting what the seasons and smaller scale local farmers provide?"

"What would it take to make us consider smaller homes, closer to the center of town, where we could use the bus or a bike for daily transportation?"

"Standard economic theory has long assured us that we're insatiable bundles of desires. That may be true, but more and more it feels like our greatest wish is for more contact with other people...We don't need to erase individualism; it is one of the glories of the American character. But environmentalists desperately need to celebrate community, too."

The Rain in Spain...

...is FINALLY falling softly in Galicia. I don't think anyone here has ever been so happy to see rain as we are now. It's direly needed.

Galicia is STILL Burning

The number of wildfires just keeps going up. There are now 135 dispersed all over Galicia, but mostly on the coast. Here are the two local newspapers if you want to take a look at what's going on:

El Correo Gallego

La Voz de Galicia

Galicia Burning

As you can see in the sidebar, the weather for today in Santiago de Compostela is...smoke. Over the past few days more than 90 different forest fires have been blazing throughout Galicia. We had to wait for hours last night before we could come back home from the beach because all of the roads leading back to Santiago were cut off by fires. We've been breathing smoke for 3 days straight.

These devastating fires are deliberately set by individuals who are either pyromaniacs or have been bribed by companies who might benefit. Who knows. The beautiful forests of autochthonous oaks, chestnuts, and pines are being destroyed, and then later replaced by the invasive Eucalyptus tree (because it grows quicker)that push out the native species of trees. The once lush and green hills and mountains are now dead, barren, and black from years of deliberate illegal burning.

Here are some articles in English:
Army sent in as fires ravage Galicia

Raging fires in Spain kill 3

Forest fires wreak havoc in northwestern Spain

Tunisia: Sights, Sounds, Smells, Tastes (Part 4)

TASTES:

· sweet, sticky dates
· spicy cus cus and lamb
· mild palm tree juice
· salt from the Great Salt Lake
· "Boga" lemon/lime drink

Tunisia: Sights, Sounds, Smells, Tastes (Part 3)

SMELLS:

· the strong, earthly scent of freshly tatooed henna on my hand

· incence in the air
· sweet, fruity smoke floating out of the cachimbas/shishas/hookahs

· curry, saffron, cumin, ginseng, and cinnamon in the spice market
· vendors crushing mint and jasmine tea leaves in their hands for me to smell

· sweaty street vendors

(best when read with a "Scratch N' Sniff" screen)

Tunisia: Sights, Sounds, Smells, Tastes (Part 2)

SOUNDS:


In the desert there was only silence but walking through the medinas and zocos in Tunisia was like something out of movie. There were so many sounds and languages so unfamiliar to me.

First, the haggling. Everytime we walked by a vendor we were bombarded with a constant "Españolo? Españolo? Entra, Entra!! Solo mirar, solo mirar. Mira, mira!!! Un Dinar, un Dinar!!" Jose and I talked about how easy it is in our culture to find something you like, look at the price, decide if you want to pay that for it, and if so, buy it, and if not, walk away. Not so in Tunisia. Everything is priced triple what's it's really worth. Here's a typical conversation I had everyday with the vendors (translated into English, of course):

Me: (looking at silver bracelet) How much?
Vendor: 35 Dinars each.
Me: Ooo, no. That's too much.
Vendor: Ok, you tell me a price.
Me: I'll give you 30 Dinars for THREE of them.
Vendor: You're crazy! You want me to go bankrupt??
Me: I'm not paying 105 Dinars.
Vendor: Ok, ok. 105 not fair price, but 30 not fair either. Give me good price.
Me: No, you give me one.
Vendor: Take all three for 90.
Me: No, no, no.
(I start to walk out of the store, leaving the bracelets behind. Vendor grabs my arm to pull me back into the store)
Vendor: Ok lady, give me 80.
Me: No, I'll give you 35.
Vendor: Ok, ok. Just give me 70. I'll go bankrupt for this.
(I start to walk out again. He grabs me once again, patting my shoulder)
Vendor: Ok, ok. Give me 60.
Me: No, 40.
(Still holding my arm and pulling me in, and me struggling to walk away)
Vendor: No, no, no. Just give me 55.
Me: 40 is my final offer.
Vendor: Come on, just give me 55.
(This time I really leave the store and start walking away...knowing all the while that he'd come running after me with the bracelets)
Vendor: Lady, lady!! Ok, ok, ok. 40.

So I give him the 40 Dinars (about 25 Euros)for 3 beautifully detailed, silver bracelets knowing that I'd gotten ripped off, because he wouldn't have sold them to me if he wasn't going to make a profit.

We get back to the bus and one of the other tourists showed me the 6 silver bracelets that she had gotten for 30 Dinars!! And the guy made a profit off of it!! Everytime you buy something you feel like you've been ripped off...and you have. You even have to bargain to buy a bottle of water! The first 3 or 4 times was fun, but it gets old quick.

After my purchase, we continue to walk through the streets wiping the sweat off our foreheads. All of a sudden we hear something...something enchanting. Chants, and singing and prayers began echoing throughout the town from the high towers. The sound is beautiful and captivating.

The singing from the towers is only vocal, no instruments, but the music on the streets and on the radio is full of drums, flutes and ethnic rhythms.

Arabic or French is being spoken around every corner. Whether it be bickering or friendly conversation. Cars and motorcycles constantly honking as they weave in and out. The clip clop of horse hooves. An occasion bray from a donkey or grunt from a camel.

It's a different world.

Tunisia: Sights, Sounds, Smells, Tastes (Part 1)

SIGHTS:

· white-washed/tan adobe houses with blue doors and windows

· burnt reds, oranges and yellows of hanging cashmere carpets

· deep blues and greens of the Mediterranean Sea

· silver, gold and bronze jewellry
· veiled women, cloaked men, Tuareg turbans, and topless tourists lying by the pool
· baby blue eyes and dark, wrinkled skin

· exotic, colorful, detailed tiles

· plump dates hanging heavy from palm trees

· chaffon, silk and sequence flying with every jiggle of the belly dancers



· the contrast of dry desert sand and mountainous rough terrain with green and blue oasis

· arabic



· houses dug into mountains

· Roman ruins

· Carthaginian ruins

· miles and miles of nothingness

· and of course...camels