Just a quick update to share some great news I received earlier this week: I have been awarded a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad grant! This will cover my research expenses and allow me to begin my doctoral research over the next year.
Hurray!
domingo, julio 26, 2009
jueves, julio 16, 2009
viernes, julio 10, 2009
The whirlwind summer
So it's been a while since I posted anything to this blog. I started it my first summer in Guatemala, when I saw myself as primarily a language student / tourist preparing for graduate school. In my previous trips since then, I've either been too busy working on research-related stuff (making contacts, doing interviews, studying K'iche'...), or I felt funny about keeping a journalistic account of what I've been up to. However, I've been told in no uncertain terms by friends and family that I should post *something* online to keep them abreast of my summer activities; if nothing else, to ensure everyone that I'm still alive and well.
Fortunately, pictures speak thousands of words (and are without a doubt more interesting than my rusty English prose), so without further ado, here's a sample of what I've been up to:
Before I even left for Guatemala, I had a whirlwind couple of weeks between St Louis, Mississippi, St Louis again, Chicago, Ohio, and Ann Arbor. I brought Katherine (who grew up in Chicago and then moved even further north) down south to meet my friends and family, and fortunately the experience wasn't too horrifying for her. She had a nice time riding her bike on some of the county roads and state highways around Desoto County, and said the drivers were actually nicer than back home. (Score one for Mississippian hospitality -- on the road, at least) The roads were certainly better maintained than in Michigan. It's a sad irony that the state that brought us automobiles now has some of the worst roadways in the country, due to a combination of harsh winters and falling state revenues. It's no wonder that Katherine's poor car has lost two hubcaps!
After spending a nice, lazy week in Mississippi, we headed back to St Louis so I could pack my bags for the summer. Of course, not everyone was excited about my leaving for 2+ months:
Poor kitty. I'll bring you a present -- maybe one of those hacky sack balls, so you can litter the apartment with its contents.
From St Louis we headed to the suburb of Chicago where Katherine grew up, to visit her family and to ride bikes on Lakeshore Drive during the annual Bike the Ride event (in which I discovered that I *really* like cruiser-style seats). We also had lots of yummy food; I can see where Katherine gets her passion for trying new recipes. Here's a photo of a frittata that Katherine's mom cooked one night:
Cheese is good for you, right? :)
Katherine's cats were also in Chicago, where they stay while she's in the field:
^ Speckle (my favorite of the two) is the attention hog. ^ In fact, his demand for attention knows no bounds. Eating? No problem, he'll just hang out on the island until you acknowledge him. Sleeping? Heck, he'll keep you warm, as long as you pet him:
I also got to paint a mug at Katherine's mom's paint-your-own-pottery studio, which turned out to be something of a masterpiece:
See, Szasz, I haven't forgotten about you.
We also did a bit of sight-seeing in Chicago, and met up with friends who are living in the city (Yo Lester!)
After Chicago, we headed to the hilly Amish countryside of Ohio, where Katherine took part in a 100 kilometer (!!) mountain bike race. We stayed at a nice bed and breakfast in an old farmhouse outside "town":
While Katherine rode, her mom and I spent the day wandering around "town" (there wasn't much to see... for coffee our only option was the McCafe) and then heading to the aid stations along the trail, to wait for Katherine to pass. We caught a picture of her just after the starting line, where the riders get to climb a monstrous hill that even caused some strain for the car:
We found a shady spot under a tree and waited for Katherine to arrive. I prepped my camera for an action shot as she came down the hill.
After waiting... a while... we started to get antsy, and I climbed up the hill to the fields above to see if I could find the trail. As I neared the woods on the far side of the fields, I saw a flash of pink ahead of me in the trees. I snapped this photo in excitement and then sprinted back across the fields to reach the bottom of the hill before Katherine emerged, so I could get my "action shot." However, in retrospect, this is my favorite photo from the day:
Once I reached the bottom of the hill, I snapped photos as Katherine made her way down:
^My "action shot" of Katherine as she rode over a last bump before the aid station ^
Another action shot as Katherine descended a hill near the end of the race:
And some photos that Katherine's mom, Gretchen, took:
We brought Katherine a cupcake from a farmer's market / bake sale in town -- some simple sugars to help her keep going.
And finally, at the end of the day, we got to eat: Mongolian barbecue -- rice with meat and veggies. I loaded mine up w/ broccoli and onions.
We rounded out the end of our time in the States by overhauling part of Katherine's yard: installing a pebble path around her garage, building potato boxes, and digging up a new garden in her side yard, where she planted corn, beans, and squash -- the tres hermanas. This meant lots of physical labor and a bit of sunburn, but it looks like it may have paid off: the folks renting Katherine's house for the summer (and maintaining the garden) have sent her some promising photos of the emerging plants. The potatoes are especially impressive (see below).
First, a before shot of the back of the garage, leading toward the garden. This is where the footpath will begin:
Katherine had called earlier in the week and had a dump truck bring huge piles of composted dirt, mulch, and pea gravel, which took up the entire driveway. These tiny mountains taunted me the entire time we were working in the yard.
Load by load (Katherine's brand new wheel barrow got broken in pretty quickly), we [ok, mostly I] dispersed the dirt, mulch, and pea gravel to wherever in the yard it had to go.
And so, ultimately, our labor gave birth to this:
Nice and orderly, eh? Here's another view from the front:
In the garden, you can see the little greenhouse frames that Katherine built last year. Very high-tech little garden!
But wait, there's more!
After spending more than one full day trying to till up the side yard with a plain old shovel and pitch fork, we eventually decided to be sensible and rented a roto-tiller. It took me a while to figure out how to control the beast (I still remember the sensation of trying to hold it back like a charging bull), but in the end it made the job much easier. Hurray for petro-powered agriculture! Sort of. Now that the sod is up, I think Katherine will be able to maintain the garden without having to roto-till again. The maple roots may find yet another way to be a nuisance, however.
In addition to tilling and graveling and mulching... we also built several potato boxes (which involved several hours at home depot, cutting the wood). The idea is to plant potatoes in the bottom layer, and then stack new frames on top as the plants grow -- so you end up with potato skyscrapers, as it were. (This is similar to the stacked tractor tires approach)
Are we done yet??
And now, the finished products. The side garden, with some squash, beans, and corn just starting to sprout up:
And the potato boxes (on another strip of newly-tilled ground), which are overflowing!
Looks like someone's going to be eating a lot of potatoes this fall... :)
And now, just to whet your appetites, here are some photos from Guatemala. I promise to put together another post very soon, with pictures from here as well as London.
^Yes, that's a Subway -- and a Starbucks knock-off chain called the Gypsy Cafe. We spent a few days in the capital, touring museums, and one of the best was the Museo Ixchel del Traje Indígena -- the museum of indigenous clothing -- which is located on the campus of the Universidad Francisco Marroquín. Having visited other private universities in Guatemala, I knew there must be a decent food court nearby.
And finally, I'll leave you with one of my favorite ancient Maya artifacts, a stamp housed at the national museum of anthropology:
Chab'ej chik iwonojel!
Fortunately, pictures speak thousands of words (and are without a doubt more interesting than my rusty English prose), so without further ado, here's a sample of what I've been up to:
Before I even left for Guatemala, I had a whirlwind couple of weeks between St Louis, Mississippi, St Louis again, Chicago, Ohio, and Ann Arbor. I brought Katherine (who grew up in Chicago and then moved even further north) down south to meet my friends and family, and fortunately the experience wasn't too horrifying for her. She had a nice time riding her bike on some of the county roads and state highways around Desoto County, and said the drivers were actually nicer than back home. (Score one for Mississippian hospitality -- on the road, at least) The roads were certainly better maintained than in Michigan. It's a sad irony that the state that brought us automobiles now has some of the worst roadways in the country, due to a combination of harsh winters and falling state revenues. It's no wonder that Katherine's poor car has lost two hubcaps!
After spending a nice, lazy week in Mississippi, we headed back to St Louis so I could pack my bags for the summer. Of course, not everyone was excited about my leaving for 2+ months:
Poor kitty. I'll bring you a present -- maybe one of those hacky sack balls, so you can litter the apartment with its contents.From St Louis we headed to the suburb of Chicago where Katherine grew up, to visit her family and to ride bikes on Lakeshore Drive during the annual Bike the Ride event (in which I discovered that I *really* like cruiser-style seats). We also had lots of yummy food; I can see where Katherine gets her passion for trying new recipes. Here's a photo of a frittata that Katherine's mom cooked one night:
Cheese is good for you, right? :)
Katherine's cats were also in Chicago, where they stay while she's in the field:
^ Speckle (my favorite of the two) is the attention hog. ^ In fact, his demand for attention knows no bounds. Eating? No problem, he'll just hang out on the island until you acknowledge him. Sleeping? Heck, he'll keep you warm, as long as you pet him:I also got to paint a mug at Katherine's mom's paint-your-own-pottery studio, which turned out to be something of a masterpiece:See, Szasz, I haven't forgotten about you.We also did a bit of sight-seeing in Chicago, and met up with friends who are living in the city (Yo Lester!)
After Chicago, we headed to the hilly Amish countryside of Ohio, where Katherine took part in a 100 kilometer (!!) mountain bike race. We stayed at a nice bed and breakfast in an old farmhouse outside "town":
While Katherine rode, her mom and I spent the day wandering around "town" (there wasn't much to see... for coffee our only option was the McCafe) and then heading to the aid stations along the trail, to wait for Katherine to pass. We caught a picture of her just after the starting line, where the riders get to climb a monstrous hill that even caused some strain for the car:We found a shady spot under a tree and waited for Katherine to arrive. I prepped my camera for an action shot as she came down the hill.
After waiting... a while... we started to get antsy, and I climbed up the hill to the fields above to see if I could find the trail. As I neared the woods on the far side of the fields, I saw a flash of pink ahead of me in the trees. I snapped this photo in excitement and then sprinted back across the fields to reach the bottom of the hill before Katherine emerged, so I could get my "action shot." However, in retrospect, this is my favorite photo from the day:Once I reached the bottom of the hill, I snapped photos as Katherine made her way down:
^My "action shot" of Katherine as she rode over a last bump before the aid station ^Another action shot as Katherine descended a hill near the end of the race:
And some photos that Katherine's mom, Gretchen, took:
We brought Katherine a cupcake from a farmer's market / bake sale in town -- some simple sugars to help her keep going.
And finally, at the end of the day, we got to eat: Mongolian barbecue -- rice with meat and veggies. I loaded mine up w/ broccoli and onions.
We rounded out the end of our time in the States by overhauling part of Katherine's yard: installing a pebble path around her garage, building potato boxes, and digging up a new garden in her side yard, where she planted corn, beans, and squash -- the tres hermanas. This meant lots of physical labor and a bit of sunburn, but it looks like it may have paid off: the folks renting Katherine's house for the summer (and maintaining the garden) have sent her some promising photos of the emerging plants. The potatoes are especially impressive (see below).
First, a before shot of the back of the garage, leading toward the garden. This is where the footpath will begin:
Katherine had called earlier in the week and had a dump truck bring huge piles of composted dirt, mulch, and pea gravel, which took up the entire driveway. These tiny mountains taunted me the entire time we were working in the yard.
Load by load (Katherine's brand new wheel barrow got broken in pretty quickly), we [ok, mostly I] dispersed the dirt, mulch, and pea gravel to wherever in the yard it had to go.
And so, ultimately, our labor gave birth to this:
Nice and orderly, eh? Here's another view from the front:
In the garden, you can see the little greenhouse frames that Katherine built last year. Very high-tech little garden!But wait, there's more!
After spending more than one full day trying to till up the side yard with a plain old shovel and pitch fork, we eventually decided to be sensible and rented a roto-tiller. It took me a while to figure out how to control the beast (I still remember the sensation of trying to hold it back like a charging bull), but in the end it made the job much easier. Hurray for petro-powered agriculture! Sort of. Now that the sod is up, I think Katherine will be able to maintain the garden without having to roto-till again. The maple roots may find yet another way to be a nuisance, however.In addition to tilling and graveling and mulching... we also built several potato boxes (which involved several hours at home depot, cutting the wood). The idea is to plant potatoes in the bottom layer, and then stack new frames on top as the plants grow -- so you end up with potato skyscrapers, as it were. (This is similar to the stacked tractor tires approach)
Are we done yet??
And now, the finished products. The side garden, with some squash, beans, and corn just starting to sprout up:
And the potato boxes (on another strip of newly-tilled ground), which are overflowing!
Looks like someone's going to be eating a lot of potatoes this fall... :)And now, just to whet your appetites, here are some photos from Guatemala. I promise to put together another post very soon, with pictures from here as well as London.
^Yes, that's a Subway -- and a Starbucks knock-off chain called the Gypsy Cafe. We spent a few days in the capital, touring museums, and one of the best was the Museo Ixchel del Traje Indígena -- the museum of indigenous clothing -- which is located on the campus of the Universidad Francisco Marroquín. Having visited other private universities in Guatemala, I knew there must be a decent food court nearby.
And finally, I'll leave you with one of my favorite ancient Maya artifacts, a stamp housed at the national museum of anthropology:
Chab'ej chik iwonojel!
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