The Travels of Ms. Martinez

Bloggy bloggy bloggypants

2009-02-17T13:54:00.000-08:00

I'm blogtastic today.

I don't know about you guys, but I for one am planning to watch the Oscars with Reel Grrls this Sunday. It's going to be mad fun!

Scarecrow Video, a local Seattle gem of a video store, just name-checked the Reel Grrls Oscar Party Oscar Party (coming up this Sunday, Feb 22, 4:00 PM at Central Cinema - get your tickets now!) on their BLOG! Definitely check it out - madamecrow has some great suggestions for your Oscar viewing pleasure.

I don't know if I'm going to post my predictions here like I did last year - I don't know if I want it documented for posterity that I tend to go down in a blaze of glory when it comes to Oscar predictions. Plus I've hardly seen any of the films. Except The Wrestler, which you need to see immediately because I know you haven't yet. Yes, you, I mean you. OK I have also seen Slumdog Millionaire but I am not even going to put a link because obviously you have already seen it. And I am grinchy enough to be all "meh" about Slumdog! I know, someone should come after me with burning pitchforks or whatever. Clearly I have no soul.

Anyway, all this is to say that if you want to prep your ballet, you can start HERE.

And start picking out your outfit for the big night!

le louvre - janvier 2009

2009-02-09T23:10:00.000-08:00

It's been almost a year... and I'm just going to jump right into what I feel like saying.

I visited the Louvre for the first time ever about a week and a half ago. I've spent plenty of time in Paris, and the Louvre just always seemed like too big an undertaking. It was just so easy to fill my days sipping coffee or wine and meandering through boutiques and galleries - who needs an overwhelming museum packed to the rafters with tourists?

I wish now that I could regain the opportunity to while away my hours in this place. It seems cliche to be so captivated by such an obvious Parisian attraction, but what can I say - it's captivating.

I was struck with a certain sense of familiarity when I entered the great hall of the Louvre - unbelievably, a memory of having been here before, bubbling up through 24 years of mental mud and silt that had settled on top of it. I remember being afraid here - frightened by images of men agonizing in snake pits and lions dens, corpses laid out grey-faced and wept over, massacres of babies.
In truth, I've been here before. I was four.

As an adult, I am actually moved when I turn a corner and stumble upon De la Croix's le 28 juillet, La Liberte. I peek through a narrow, rectilinear doorway and see the Mona Lisa peering bemusedly back through a completely improbably parting in the crowd.

I've never been here, but I've been here. It's true for everyone I think.

I wander without a destination or objective - a horrible approach to this vast labyrinth of masterpieces. I stare at The Wedding Feast at Cana for a while and wonder that the artist chose to make Jesus look so sad and alone. Isolated in the middle of it all. Mary too. They stare off into the middle distance.

Oscar Predictions 2008

2008-02-22T22:18:00.000-08:00

Oh Lord, already I am completely sucking at my predictions. Oh well. Here's how it's shaking down. I'll put an O for Oscar on the ones that won. So far I am O for like 5,000.

I thought I had a fighting chance of actually beating the potentially-unbeatable-and-oh-so-smug-about it Diana in the annual Oscar ballot smack-down this year. But when I sat down to fill the ballot out, it was really hard to separate my thoughts of what *will* happen from my predictions of what *should* happen. And then there is always the fun of defying the pundits and going for the longshot (echoes of the current political situation, anyone?).

Anyway, lest I try to deny my predictions in the future, here they are for posterity (and if I'm right in the end, I will have a glorious record of it here!)

I can't wait for tomorrow night.

80th Annual Academy Awards

Sunday, February 24, 2007
Prediction Ballot

Name: Maile____________ Total Points: __52_____/100

OK, MY PERFORMANCE WAS PRETTY BAD OVERALL BUT I'M NOT ASHAMED TO PUT IT UP HERE. WORTHY WINNERS ALL.

10 Points: ___10_____

Best Motion Picture of the Year
“Atonement” (Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Paul Webster)
“Michael Clayton” (Sydney Pollack, Jennifer Fox and Kerry Orent)
X “No Country for Old Men” (Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen)
“There Will Be Blood” (JoAnne Sellar, Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Lupi)
“Juno” (Lianne Halfon, Mason Novick and Russell Smith)

8 Points: ____0____

Achievement in Directing
Julian Schnabel for “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”
Jason Reitman for “Juno”
Tony Gilroy for “Michael Clayton”
O Joel & Ethan Coen for “No Country for Old Men” DANG I THOUGHT I HAD THIS IN THE BAG. WELL THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST KICKASS FILMS OF ALL TIME SO WELL PLAYED, COHEN BOYS.
X Paul Thomas Anderson for “There Will Be Blood”

8 Points: ___8_____

Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
George Clooney for “Michael Clayton”
XO Daniel Day-Lewis for “There Will Be Blood”
Johnny Depp for “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”
Tommy Lee Jones for “In the Valley of Elah”
Viggo Mortensen for “Eastern Promises”

8 Points: ____0____

Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Cate Blanchett for “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”
X Julie Christie for “Away from Her”
O Marion Cotillard for “La Vie en Rose” THE MOST CHARMING ACCEPTANCE SPEECH EVER! FELICITATIONS MA BELLE!!
Ellen Page for “Juno”
Laura Linney for “The Savages”

8 Points: ___0_____

Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Casey Affleck for “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”
O Javier Bardem for “No Country for Old Men” VERY MUCH DESERVED. A SUPERLATIVE VILLAIN.
Philip Seymour Hoffman for “Charlie Wilson’s War”
Hal Holbrook for “Into the Wild”
X Tom Wilkinson for “Michael Clayton”

8 Points: ___0_____

Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
X Cate Blanchett for “I’m Not There”
Ruby Dee for “American Gangster”
Saoirse Ronan for “Atonement”
Amy Ryan for “Gone, Baby, Gone”
O Tilda Swinton for “Michael Clayton” ONE OF THE BEST ACCEPTANCE SPEECHES EVER. TOTALLY WORTH LOSING 8 POINTS OVER. I KNEW CATE WASN'T GOING TO WIN BUT I JUST WANTED TO ACKNOWLEDGE HER AWESOMENESS BY VOTING FOR HER.

7 Points: __7______

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
XO Director Stefan Ruzowitzky for “Counterfeiters” (Australia)OMG I ACTUALLY GOT SOMETHING RIGHT THAT WAS WORTH MORE THAN 2 POINTS.
Director Joseph Cedar for “Beaufort” (Israel)
Director Andrzej Wajda for “Katyn” (Poland)
Director Sergei Bodrov for “Mongol” (Kazakhstan)
Director Sergei Bodrov for “12” (Russia)

7 Points: ___7_____

Best Documentary Feature
“No End in Sight” (Charles Ferguson and Audrey Mars)
“Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience” (Richard E. Robbins)
“Sicko” (Michael Moore and Meghan O'Hara)
XO “Taxi to the Dark Side” (Alex Gibney and Eva Orner)ANNE'S COUSIN'S MOVIE! THANKS FOR GETTING ME 7 POINTS ANNE!
“War/Dance” (Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine)

5 Points: ___5_____

Best Original Screenplay
XO Diablo Cody for “Juno”
Nancy Oliver for “Lars and the Real Girl”
Tony Gilroy for “Michael Clayton”
Jan Pinkava, Jim Capobianco and Brad Bird for “Ratatouille”
Tamara Jenkins for “The Savages”

5 Points: __0______

Best Adapted Screenplay
Christopher Hampton for “Atonement”
Sarah Polley for “Away from Her”
X Ronald Harwood for “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”
O Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for “No Country for Old Men”
Paul Thomas Anderson for “There Will Be Blood”

5 Points: __5______

Achievement in Music Written for a Motion Picture (Original Score)
XO “Atonement” (Dario Marianelli)
“The Kite Runner” (Alberto Iglesias)
“Michael Clayton” (James Newton Howard)
“Ratatouille” (Michael Giacchino)
“3:10 to Yuma” (Marco Beltramil)

3 Points: ___0_____

Achievement in Cinematography
“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” (Roger Deakins)
X “Atonement” (Seamus McGarvey)
“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (Janusz Kaminski)
“No Country for Old Men” (Roger Deakins)
O “There Will Be Blood” (Robert Elswit)

3 Points: __3_____

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
“Persepolis” (Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud)
XO “Ratatouille” (Brad Bird)
“Surf’s Up” (Ash Brannon and Chris Buck)

3 Points: __3______

Achievement in Music Written for a Motion Picture (Original Song)
XO “Falling Slowly” - “Once” (Music and Lyric by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova)YESYESYESYESYES! MAKE ART.
“Happy Working Song” – “Enchanted” (Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz)
“Raise it Up” – “August Rush” (Music and Lyric by Jamal Joseph, Charles Mack and Tevin Thomas)
“So Close” – “Enchanted” (Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz)
“That’s How You Know” – “Enchanted” (Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz)

3 Points: ___0_____

Achievement in Art Direction
“American Gangster” [Arthur Max (Art Direction); Beth A. Rubino (Set Decoration)]
“Atonement” [Sarah Greenwood (Art Direction); Katie Spencer (Set Decoration)]
“The Golden Compass” [Dennis Gassner (Art Direction); Anna Pinnock (Set Decoration)]
O “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” [Dante Ferretti (Art Direction); Francesca Lo Schiavo (Set Decoration)]
X “There Will Be Blood” [Jack Fisk (Art Direction); Jim Erickson (Set Decoration)]

2 Points: ___0_____

Achievement in Visual Effects
O “The Golden Compass” (Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris and Trevor Wood)
“Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” (John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and John Frazier)
X “Transformers” (Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl and John Frazier)

2 Points: ___2_____

Achievement in Makeup
OX “La Vie en Rose” (Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald) FINALLY I PICK A WINNER! ONLY WORTH TWO POINTS, BUT I'LL TAKE THEM
“Norbit” (Rick Baker and Kazuhiro Tsuji)
“Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” (Ve Neill and Martin Samuel)

1 Point:¬¬¬¬___1______

Best Documentary Short Subject
XO “Freeheld” (Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth)WOMEN DIRECTORS OH SNAP!! PLUS I SAW FIONA OTWAY, SEATTLE FILMMAKER, FRIEND OF REEL GRRLS AND TOTAL BADASS IN THE BACKGROUND!!!
“La Corona (The Crown)” (Amanda Micheli and Isabel Vega)
“Salim Baba” (Tim Sternberg and Francisco Bello)
“Sari’s Mother” (James Longley)

1 Point:¬¬¬¬___0______

Best Live Action Short Film of the Year
“At Night” (Christian E. Christiansen and Louise Vesth)
“Il Supplente (The Substitute)” (Andrea Jublin)
O “Le Mozart des Pickpockets” (Philippe Pollet-Villard)
X “Tanghi Argentini” (Guido Thys and Anja Daelemans)
“The Tonto Woman” (Daniel Barber and Matthew Brown)

1 Point:¬¬¬¬__0_______

Best Animated Short Film of the Year
“I Met the Walrus” (Josh Raskin)
X “Madame Tutli-Putli” Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski: people you must see this film! It is completely amazing.
“Meme les Pigeons vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons go to Heaven)” Samuel Tourneux and Simon Vanesse
“My Love (Moya Lyubov)” Alexander Petrov
O “Peter & the Wolf” Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman

1 Point:¬¬¬¬___1______

Achievement in Film Editing
X0 “The Bourne Ultimatum” (Christopher Rouse)WOOT! ONE POINT FOR ME!!
“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (Juliette Welfling)
“Into the Wild” (Jay Cassidy)
“No Country for Old Men” (Roderick James)
“There Will Be Blood” (Dylan Tichenor)

1 Point:¬¬¬¬___0______

Achievement in Sound Editing
O “The Bourne Ultimatum” (Karen Baker Landers and Per Hallberg)
X “No Country for Old Men” (Skip Lievsay)
“Ratatouille” (Randy Thom and Michael Silver)
“There Will Be Blood” (Christopher Scarabosio and Matthew Wood)
“Transformers” (Ethan Van der Ryn and Mike Hopkins)

Bonus: 2007 Razzie Awards!!
Worst Motion Picture of the Year
Bratz
Daddy Day Camp
I Know Who Killed Me
I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry
X Norbit

Worst Actor in a Motion Picture
Nicolas Cage in “Ghost Rider”, “National Treasure: Book of Secrets” and “Next”
Jim Carrey in “The Number 23”
Cuba Gooding, Jr. in “Daddy Day Camp” and “Norbit”
Eddie Murphy in “Norbit”
X Adam Sandler in “I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry”

Worst Actress in a Motion Picture
Jessica Alba in “Awake”, “Fantastic Four” and “Good Luck Chuck”
X The entire cast of “Bratz”
Elisha Cuthbert in “Captivity”
Diane Keaton in “Because I Said So”
Lindsey Lohan in “I Know Who Killed Me”

Worst Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture
Orlando Bloom in “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”
Kevin James in “I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry”
Eddie Murphy in “Norbit”
X Rob Schneider in “I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry”
Jon Voight in “National Treasure”, “September Dawn” and “Transformers”

Worst Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture
X Jessica Biel in “I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry”
Carmen Elektra in “Epic Movie”
Eddie Murphy in “Norbit”
Julia Ormond in “I Know Who Killed Me”
Nicolette Sheridan in “Code Name: The Cleaner”

Worst Screen Couple
Jessica Alba & either Hayden Christensen in “Awake”, Dane Cook in “Good Luck Chuck” or Loan Gruffudd in “Fantastic Four”
Any Combination of Two Totally Air-Headed Characters in “Bratz”
Lindsey Lohan & Lindsay Lohan in “I Know Who Killed Me”
X Eddie Murphy (as Norbit) & either Eddie Murphy (as Mr. Wong) or Eddie Murphy (as Rasputia) in “Norbit”
Adam Sandler & either Kevin James or Jessica Biel in “I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry”

Worst Remake or Rip-off
“Are We Done Yet” (Remake of “Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House”
“Bratz” (A rip-off if there ever was one”
“Epic Movie” (Rip-off of every movie it rips off)
“I Know Who Killed Me” (Rip-off of “Hostel”, “Saw” and “The Patty Duke Show”
X “Who’s Your Caddy?” (Rip-off of “Caddy Shack”)

Worst Prequel or Sequel
“Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem”
“Daddy Day Camp”
X “Evan Almighty”
“Hannibal Rising”
“Hostel: Part II”

Worst Director
X Dennis Dugan for “I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry”
Roland Joffe for “Captivity”
Brian Robbins for “Norbit”
Fred Savage for “Daddy Day Camp”
Chris Siverston for “I Know Who Killed Me”

Worst Excuse for a Horror Movie
“Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem”
“Captivity”
“Hannibal Rising”
“Hostel: Part II”
X “I Know Who Killed Me”

Reel Grrls is Goin' to Sundance - With Your Help!

2007-12-20T12:22:00.000-08:00

Hey y'all,

It is with great pride, enthusiasm, and excitement that we announce that Reel Grrls is making a trip to the 2008 Sundance Film Festival!

The Sundance Institute awarded us with a ticket package that covers films and panels for grrls and chaperons, but we need to raise the money for travel, lodging and food.

If you are looking for a good cause to support this holiday season, visit the Reel Grrls website and click on the donate link under the Sundance announcement. We only need to raise about another $1000, so every little bit helps! You can make your secure, tax-deductible donations via PayPal and know that you did a good deed.

Thank you from the bottom of my cinephilic little heart,

Maile

PS: Santa is watching!

Thanks Lex

2007-12-01T13:57:00.000-08:00

My friend Lex, who is living everyone's dream of a "pretirement" involving a 2+ year trip around and around the world (OK, that's definitely my dream, anyway), just shared this poem:

"The Journey"

One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice-- though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles. "Mend my life!" each voice cried. But you didn't stop. You knew what you had to do, though the wind pried with its stiff fingers at the very foundations, though their melancholy was terrible. It was already late enough, and a wild night, and the road full of fallen branches and stones.

But little by little, as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds, and there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own, that kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the world, determined to do the only thing you could do-- determined to save the only life you could save.

by Mary Oliver

At the risk of being dorkier than ever...

2007-11-04T14:26:00.000-08:00

My daemon is a mouse?? Can this be?

Philip Pullman fans, please comment:

Ridiculosity

2007-10-25T13:05:00.000-07:00

Oh My...

First ridiculous thing: I haven't posted in MONTHS! Note that the last post I made was when I had just started my new job. Turns out that working kind of takes away from my blogging time. Not to mention my traveling time, which is what I mostly used to write about here. Plus lately I am blogging quite a bit at reelgrrls.blogspot.com, so chigggety-check that out.

Second ridiculous thing: It's my day off; the sun is shining; and I'm sitting inside in my PJs and fooling around on the computer. Clearly that ridiculosity will impact the length and quality of this post, 'cause I need to get outside!

Third ridiculous thing: And this is AMAZINGLY ridiculous! I had to document this for posterity. You know when something totally ridiculous happens to you, and there is no one there to witness it, and you are like, "did that really happen?" even though you are standing there, dripping wet in ridiculosity, a sodden testament to the fact that it did indeed occur? Anyway, picture this: I am walking from the ferry to where I had parked my car. It was about 7pm, pitch dark, pouring rain. The walk takes me about 7 minutes if I am walking really fast, which I was. I was listening to my iPod on shuffle, and Bob Marley's "Exodus" came up, which I thought was weird because a Bob Marley song had played like two songs prior and it's not like there is that much Bob Marley on my iPod. But anyway I was listening to "Exodus" and holding my iPod to my chest in one hand, because I didn't have pockets, and in my right hand I was holding my umbrella, which wasn't doing the most satisfying job of keeping me dry but let me tell you it was POURING. I stepped in a puddle and found to my extreme disappointment that my embarassingly expensive but totally killer boots were not, in fact, quite waterproof, and I was fretting about my sock feeling kind of wet and squishy on my right foot when suddenly a wave broke right over my head. Honestly, it was like someone took a gigantic bucket of icewater and dumped it all over my body. I was so focused on my own internal monologue that I hadn't noticed the immense black puddle of water I was walking by, nor the sedan speeding toward it. I was right in the path of the tidal wave of black rainwater and fallen leaves it triggered when it hydroplaned across the puddle.

My hair was soaked, my mascara streamed down my face, my umbrella drooped in acknowledgement of its uselessness, and my boots were filled to the brim with water. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I may have done a little of both.

NOW SEE HERE

2007-05-27T19:55:00.001-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls...

I urge you - no, I insist that you RUN, do not walk, to your nearest hip, progressive, ahead-of-the-times cinema (which is probably located in Los Angeles or New York) and purchase a ticket to the see Take.

It premiered to excellent reviews at the Tribeca film festival, and looks to be intense, challenging, and original. Critics are praising the performances of stars Minnie Driver and Jeremy Renner, and I hear that the supporting cast is absolutely superb - indeed, the film hinges on a tragic sequence in which a relative unknown heroically shoulders the dramatic weight. This is clear even from the trailer, which you simply must watch right this very moment:

I'm not sure when this movie will be released nation-wide, but I know I will be seeing it several times!

(please please please forgive me ryan)

Slight Change o' Plans

2007-05-27T19:26:00.000-07:00

Well, I figured that by announcing my imminent trip to Europe, and purchasing tickets for it, I was sure to jinx myself out of being able to go - and guess what? It worked! It is with a conflicted heart that I hereby cancel my European Summer Extravaganza. Conflicted because, I was so so so looking forward to mischief and mayhem with much-missed friends in Cambridge and London, and with not-seen-for-five-years friends in Montpellier, and with not-even-met-yet friends in Nice. Many of my Cantebridgian friends didn't even know that I thought I was coming, because I didn't want to jump the gun, but now I have to set myself to the strange task of saying, "Guess what? I was going to come to Cambridge this summer! But now I'm not. Sorry! Maybe next year!" Awkward.

But all this disappointment is tempered by the fact that my grueling and character-building job search has ended and I now have THE MOST AMAZING JOB OF ALL TIME. I am so extremely elated to say that I am now the new Program Manager for Reel Grrls, here in Seattle!

For those of you who don't know (and believe me, anyone close to me will soon be able to recite this in their sleep), Reel Grrls is an after-school media and arts program that empowers teenage girls to critique media images and create their own media. In a word, it's amazing! I have already had a chance to meet some of the grrls and attend a recent screening, and suffice to say that I am proud and honored to be a part of this organization. You can check them out at www.reelgrrls.org.

I officially start on June 1st. Malory, my new boss, gave me some materials to review in the meantime and I am warning you, this is going to be my new soapbox. Did you know that a woman has never won an Academy Award for film directing? Did you know that (according to a 2006 study by Martha M. Lauzen, PhD: "The Celluloid Ceiling: Behind-the-Scenes Employment of Women in the Top 250 Films of 2005") 93%of the top-grossing films of 2005 had NO female directors? ZERO. That is shocking to me! Read Lauzen's study - it is outrageous.

Anyway, I am sure you will hear much more about this from me in the future. In the meantime, I am thrilled to join the team at Reel Grrls. Future dispatches from the RGPM soon to come!

In other news, I took a celebratory trip to SoCal, from which I just returned. I will be posting photos shortly.

And a very important post is soon to come...

I'm Going to Europe - For Reals!

2007-04-24T11:52:00.000-07:00

Wow, I just spent several hours on the computer booking flights. It's time for the resurrection of the Travels of Ms. Martinez! Finally I am on the move again. Nevermind that I have no money - work only keeps me from seeing the world.

I'm going to SoCal in May, to chill with my GPs, my dad, my sister, and hopefully my cousin, Skye.

I'm going to the UK, France, and possibly Croatia in June and July - more to come on that.

I'm going to have a little layover in NYC on my way back in Aug - heads up Court and Kara!

I'm going to New Mexico and Colorado with my family in Aug for a Martinez Family Summer Hiking Extravaganza.

I might be going to Orcas Island with some BI amigos in Aug, if I can afford it (HA!) and if I am home from all of the above in time.

YAY! Finally some good stuff to look forward to.

Happy Birthday, Kela and Evan

2007-04-18T17:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my sister Kela's 21st birthday. Today would have been my cousin Evan's 21st too. We are going to have a little birthday party for him here in Winthrop. My grandma and I just fixed cheese enchiladas - apparently enchiladas were one of his favorite foods. Mine too! So raise a glass for my sister and my cousin, wherever you are. !Salud!

Early Morning in Winthtop, Washington

2007-04-13T09:38:00.000-07:00

I slept in my cousin's bed the other night. I woke up very early in the morning - the sky was completely dark. My eyes opened to the brightest star piercing the black night, and I thought of how many times my cousin's eyes must have opened to the same sight - or to the sight of milky clouds blooming in the window - or to the sight of fingers of frost scratching across the pane - or to the hot white sun prying his eyes open.

I thought of my aunt's mantra, borrowed from William Stafford: "I have woven a parachute out of everything broken."

My Cousin

2007-03-24T11:11:00.000-07:00

Random Photo update

2007-03-20T21:19:00.000-07:00

Hi...

Haven't felt much like blogging these days, but I was going through the photos on my camera and I realized that some of these haven't seen the light of day, and that is just wrong. I think I'll work in reverse chronological order...

Most recent photos/experiences first: I had an amazing time in NYC, and the Winkfields were the excellent hosts they always are. It's hard to have anything bad to say about a place when your favorite people live there. I may have more to say about New York soon, but for now, get a load of this classic photo of me and Kara:

Kara looks stunning, I look like a complete goofball. Typical. These photos were taken at a little Latinoid joint in Brooklyn (the Winks were not happy that the dancefloor they had enjoyed in a previous visit was not happening on this night, but I thought the music was great. A real DJ [no iTunes!] - thank you!)

Moving on (or backward, as it were): I never really said much about NYE. Looking back on the first day of 2007 makes me feel ambivalent at best - 2007 has been a doozie so far. But here are the first few joyful moments of it, captured on a microchip (or whatever):

Martinez girls in the HOUSE! The non-Martinez in this pic (see if you can spot her) is JD, Kela's BFF and honorary Martinez girl. I've known her since she was in diapers! Anyone who has put up with us for that long deserves a medal. Or to have her head examined.

Park City Reunion! As we were ringing in the new year, we looked around and realized that we had recreated our neighborhood, Silver Springs, circa 1987. What were a bunch of Utards doing celebrating the new year together on the shores of the Puget Sound, literally 20 years after first meeting? There are some stories there. Anyway, the token male is Cody, an old friend from back in the 'hood in Park City. He could play a mean game of kickball in his day.

And speaking of the holidays... here's the team photo from our annual Christmas Eve Day soccer game. I don't know why I'm posing like the goalie because I did not play goalie, but whatevs. May this serve as an advertisement for our annual game - it is a blast people. If you ever find yourself on Bainbridge Island on Christmas Eve, throw on a raincoat and come to Sands Field - we'll send you running around in the mud. It's wet and miserable, but somehow so much fun.

Here's some very belated Martinez family holiday cheer:

These are the Martinez cousins. All the kids in the fam who bear the same mighty last name. My dad's brother has three boys, and we have three girls. Whee! Actually it was really cool to see the boys because they are all ruling in their various endeavors.

Here's the Christmas card photo, for those of you who haven't seen it yet. Actually, we all really appreciated our together time this holiday season - we hardly ever manage to get the five of us together at the same time. Some of us have the pesky habit of moving to far-flung locales and not having enough money to get back when the family's getting together.

I guess that's basically it. I'm on the verge of being able to share some exciting news, but I don't want to jinx it! Stay tuned...

Vancouver Recap

2007-03-07T06:26:00.000-08:00

Hey all,

So I mentioned here a coupla weeks ago that I was on my way to Vancouver and with some YES! folks - the trip was a resounding success. I'm going to post some pics here.

First Kevin, Kela and I drove up from Seattle. It seemed to take a long time, but it was a good drive, filled with lots of intense convo about sustainability, business, the man, etc.

We arrived in the 'Couv at our friend Zamir's house, which you can probably tell from the photo of Kevin, Catherine, Kela, and Shaq (Zamir's little brother) at the dinner table - is gorgeous. Zamir's family has lived all over the world, spending a lot of time in Hong Kong and Thailand, and they have all kinds of beautiful art and furniture. Zamir's mom is this amazing, hip, worldly lady and a wonderful hostess.
Zamir's friend Drew threw out this amazing meal for us! Tons of vegan and vegetarian Asian-inspried goodness.

That night we went out in Vancouver but we wound up hyperactively bar-hopping which means we didn't stay in one place much. Kind of spent a lot of time herding cats - trying to move nine people from bar to club to bar. But it was pretty fun. It was especially nice for me to hang with my sister because we don't get to do that enough.

The next day we went into downtown Vancouver (Zamir's family lives in the suburbs) and checked out the Chinese New Year parade and celebration. It was pretty chilly but all the dragons and dancers and elaborate costumes were worth watching.
Please enjoy the dragons and fan ladies.

Once again, a highlight for me was just hanging out with my sis:

We totally planned the matching hats. Just kidding! Anyway, after that we went out for some delicious dim sum. Then Kela and I bowed to the corporate consumerism gods and went shopping on Robson (there's no shame in my game!) while everyone else went for a nice stroll in the park. Actually, we didn't really buy anything, but I was excited to check out the Bang On! store, which has partnered to do the t-shirts on Beck's tour, in keeping with his DIY album art and general aesthetic for this tour. Lovin' it (in a totally non-McDonald's commercial kind of way).

Oh wait - I forgot to mention that before the shopping excursion, we all went for bubble tea!

Tropical fruit milkshake + freaky tapioca globules + gigantic straws = delicious. Don't ask me why. And there is something so satisfying about puncturing that air-tight seal they put over the top. We were some happy bubble-tea drinking campers.

Voila quoi! As I mentioned, I am going to New York this weekend, to do some TFA-related work and see a bunch of people. I hope to post some pics from that trip here soon!

A bientot!

no rest for the weary

2007-03-02T21:04:00.000-08:00

TGIF... except that I have to work another full day tomorrow! This week has been very packed. I've been dogsitting, housesitting two houses (ok one of them is my own but no one else is home so I have to check in there everyday and make sure it hasn't blown away in my absence or something), interning, tutoring until 8pm and/or phone interviewing for Teach For America until 9pm every day!! And tomorrow is the big Positive Futures Network (publisher of YES! Magazine) board meeting. I have really been looking forward to it, but I am so exhausted - I wish I could be fresh-faced and energized for it. I don't really get a day off on Sunday because I have some other job-related stuff to work on, then I get to do it all again next week, leading up to my big trip to NYC! I am really excited to go back to New York but I feel like the only time I will be resting will be when I'm sitting on the plane - some rest. I am so excited to reconnect with some of my dearest friends in the whole wide world who are there, and also to hook up with some do-gooding young people who are doing work I want to hear more about. It's just going to be action-packed. I think things might calm down a little bit when I get back. Catch me if you can...

Vancouver Bound

2007-02-17T13:05:00.000-08:00

I'm heading to Vancouver for the weekend! I'm really excited. It is an absolutely glorious day out today; it does not feel like February at all. We're going to celebrate Chinese new year in Vancouver with some Dim Sum and debauchery. Kela and I are going along with a bunch of YES! people. Should be good. More to come!

Inspired by YES!

2007-02-13T10:08:00.000-08:00

A quickie, as I am supposed to be "working":

One major perk of my internship at YES! may seem obvious: I am constantly exposed to messages of hope, optimism, and inspiration. I get to interact with activists all around the world who are actually DOING SOMETHING about the issues that concern them most, and they are motivating others to join them. It is really encouraging, and serves as a pretty good antidote to that morose NPR.

Today one of my coworkers sent out an e-newsletter from Co-op America, in which YES! is mentioned (it's at the end). Check out the e-newsletter here.

The lead article tells the story of a woman who wrote in to her favorite magazine, asking them to please consider printing their journal on recycled paper. And guess what? The magazine is going to do it! It just shows that one voice actually can make a difference. So here's what I think you and I and everyone we know should do. Check Co-op America's Magazine Heros List to find out if your favorite magazine is printed on recycled paper. If it isn't, write them a letter and ask them to shape up! You can quote some of the resources from the Co-op America page to help you compose a compelling letter (sent via email or printed on recycled paper, naturally). How's this little nugget: "Each year the worldwide loss of forests and their capacity to absorb carbon dioxide contributes almost as much to climate change as all US cars." Woah.

Anyway, that's my PSA for the day. Now run along and make the world a better place!

Sundance Ruined My Life

2007-02-10T11:01:00.000-08:00

My friend Becca says she saw a t-shirt in Park City last week that said "Sundance Ruined My Life" and she wanted to buy it for me. I could wear it with this air of "I'm being ironic ... or am I?" The truth is that Sundance definitely changed my life. I am choosing to believe and hope that it's for the better. How could something so fun, and inspiring, and life-altering be bad?

I still want to post all my thoughts on the films I saw, but I can't muster the motivation these days. Maybe I will just list the films and give you a number-of-stars rating system.

***** = see this film at all costs
**** = see this film if you can
*** = see this film, or not, whatever
** = don't see this film
* = avoid this film at all costs

Chasing Ghosts ****

Angel-A ***

The Savages ****

Grace is Gone ***** This is probably my only 5-star film of the Festival. It is amazing. It won the audience award if that means anything to you, but really, take my word for it. Beautiful and heartbreaking and masterfully performed. See it.

The Devil Came on Horseback ***

Broken English **** Parker Posey, New York, Paris. Somehow irresistible.

Longford **** I'm giving this film four stars even though I thought it was kind of boring. I've long since come to terms with my MTV-generation weak need for snappy editing and action-driven plotlines. This is a well-done film; I just thought it was a bit of a snoozer.

Dark Matter ** This film had so much potential, but the ending is so facile and ridiculous that it ruined itself.

Everything's Cool *** A less-than-amazing film about a really crucial topic.

Teeth **** Hilarious. See it with a rowdy group of friends.

Chicago 10 **** I was exhausted when I saw this film and kept falling asleep. From what I understand, it's amazing. I can definitely appreciate its innovative approach to documentary storytelling. I met the animators in the lobby, waiting for another film to begin, and they were really nice. However, the director, Brett Morgen, came across as a complete ass during the Q & A and that kind of ruined the whole thing for me.

Animation Spotlight **** My personal favorites from this collection of short animated films were Golden Age by Aaron Augenblick; Duct Tape and Cover by Yong-Jin (Gene) Park; and Everything Will Be OK by Don Hertzfeldt, which won the Jury Award for Best Short Film! If I am not mistaken, you can (and should) download all of these films on iTunes.

I know I saw some other films; I just didn't take notes on them. I will have to check my ticket stubs and see what else I have to say.

Even though I feel as though my life is in complete tumult post-Sundance, I can't wait for next year. Maybe I am in the ashes stage, and I am getting ready to rise up into this beautiful, powerful phoenix - only to burn up again next year.

One more thing I forgot to mention: one of the best parts about volunteering at Sundance was that I got to spend a lot of time with my crazy partner-in-crime, Becca. I am still hoping that a certain photo surfaces soon: Becca toting me on the back of her bike down an icy Park Avenue, both of us screaming and laughing our heads off and being yelled at by filmgoers, my booted feet in the air in the attempt to stay out of the way of the pedals. In the meantime, here's the only photo I do have of the two of us from last month:

Very Quick Sundance Update

2007-01-25T10:02:00.000-08:00

Sundance 2007 has definitely been all I could have hoped for. My job has been a lot of fun. The hours are long and it's not all that intellectually stimulating, but I work with cool people and I get to see and speak to some really amazing people - filmmakers, actors, etc. Just as a teaser: the other day I shook hands with Anthony Hopkins and I had a lengthy conversation with Aidan Quinn (whom I didn't even recognize). I have been taking copious notes on the films I have seen and I plan to post my thoughts here soon, but I have been so busy I haven't even had a minute to check email in several days. In fact, I have to run off to another screening - Dark Matter - right now. Will fill you all in soon.

My favorite film so far is definitely Grace is Gone, which I know will get distributed so keep your eyes peeled for it.

Hasta pronto amigos
tu sabes quien

May the Sundancing Begin

2007-01-18T15:29:00.000-08:00

Hello from Park City! I arrived yesterday and I am ready and psyched for the festival to get underway. I took a shuttle up to Park City from the SLC airport yesterday, and I got all registered and checked in at my volunteer condo - which is amazing! It is huge and perfectly located, right at the bottom of old Main Street. Of course, I have already locked myself out today - forgot to pack my keys in my rush to get out the door. I have no idea how I'm going to deal with that issue but I hope to run into one of my roommates somewhere this evening (there are 6 of them, so I have reasonable odds of seeing at least one of them around).

Last night I ate dinner with Becca (a childhood friend from back in the day in Park City) and then we hit the town and met up with a bunch of other old favorite locals. It was pretty fun. Folk musician John Craigie played at the Sidecar and I was really impressed - check him out at www.johncraigiemusic.com and support your local folk musician. The man can play practically any folk song on request, and well.

Today I got all trained on how to make the Holiday Village Theaters run. Should be pretty entertaining. Got a very short sneak peak of Zidane, a documentary about none other than the French footballer by that name, so I hope to see the full show soon. Tonight the volunteer screenings are Chasing Ghosts, a doc about the video-game capital of the world: Ottumwa, Iowa. Should be interesting. After that there will be a Luc Besson film, Angel-A; if the promotional still is any indication it looks like it will be in the Nikita vein - in other words, awesome.

I am tempted to try to get into a more star-studded premiere, but it seems like so much less of a hassle to just roll up to the volunteer screening and not have to fool with the wait list or trying to get a seat or standing outside in the cold or any of that. So I think it's volunteer screenings for me tonight.

I haven't spotted any celebrities yet, but I am way excited because Raoul Peck, the Haitian-born filmmaker who directed Lumumba, is sitting on the documentary competition jury, so I am likely to see him because most docs are screening at my theater. Mos Def is on the dramatic competition jury, but hardly any of those films are screening at Holiday Village so I will have to keep my eyes peeled for him elsewhere!

In other news, it is clear and cold and gorgeous here. As much as I have bemoaned my employment status of late (or lack thereof), I am really glad to have the opportunity to participate in this really amazing event.

More dispatches to come.

So this is the New Year...

2007-01-04T13:58:00.000-08:00

Here's a resolution for 2007: Resurrect this blog. I vow to make my life more interesting, and to write about it here.

I think I am getting on track.

After a few months of being back in the States, sleeping in, looking for jobs, catching up with friends, sleeping in, looking for jobs, catching up with friends (repeat ad infinitum) I have finally come to the realization that this is my life at the moment, and I had better start living it - rather than waiting for the next thing to happen to/for me.

So.

I am starting an internship at Yes! Magazine. Check them out here]. A few months ago, I randomly started chatting with this guy while we were both waiting for the ferry to Seattle. It turns out that he works at Yes!, and he invited me to come in and meet the staff over lunch. I did, and was immediately taken by the welcoming environment and really positive office culture. I stared volunteering here and there, and finally committed to starting an internship this month. As a volunteer, I have been working on their fledgling wiki, which you can check out here]. For those of you interested in finding out more about living a more sustainable lifestyle, supporting a local economy, and various aspects of social justice, knock yourselves out with this resource.

On January 17th I am going, going, back to, back to, uh - Park City - to volunteer at the Sundance Film Festival. I did this in 2003 and had an amazing experience and can't wait to replicate it. I think the fest will be a big part of this blog's resurrection - stay tuned for quickie film reviews, party re-caps, and a running list of celebrity spottings. I am really getting amped.

So, 2007 has not dawned exactly as I may have expected a few months ago, but I greet it with optimism and enthusiasm. I hope you feel the same.

Happy Mountain Day

2006-09-26T12:55:00.000-07:00

The trusty Mount Holyoke Alumnae Association sent me an e-mail today, wishing me a happy Mountain Day. Mountain Day is the oldest, and arguably dearest, tradition at Mount Holyoke (which is saying something, given the considerable list of traditions the place has racked up in its 169 years: Laurel Parade, Elfing, Deacon Porter's Hat -- I mean, come on). On a random fall day, usually a day on which a paper I have not yet started is due, and when the sun has decided to show its face for one last time before winter hibernation, the President of Mount Holyoke rings a magical bell and calls off classes and tells everyone to go outside and play. The whole world should have a Mountain Day.

Anyway, as usual I am pillaging my own e-mails in a lame attempt to address my ruthless neglect of this blog. Here's what I think:

Does it feel like Mountain Day where you are? It is a gorgeous early fall day in Seattle, so it does for me, although with the temps in the 70s it is hard to detect that twinge of impending winter, despite the few deciduous trees that have already started blushing (they are so easy to overlook though, outnumbered as they are in this, the Evergreen State). I remember Mountain Day at Mount Holyoke as this last gasp of unadulterated fall beauty before the november uglies set in -- wind, wet, no snow, no leaves. Don't worry, it's still a ways off. That's what I keep telling myself, anyway. When I was in England I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly the days between autumnal equinox and winter solstice actually passed -- I keep reminding myself of that, too. That said, I think I'm going to invest in one of those light-thingees that are supposed to help you get through that very time period at these latitudes.

Have a glorious Mountain Day.
Love
moi.

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/news/newsfull.shtml?nomy=1&node=4707989&full=1

a poem to give you pause

2006-09-15T09:04:00.000-07:00

Thanks, Aunt Linda...

"Long Afternoon at the Edge of Little Sister Pond" by Mary Oliver, from Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays.

Long Afternoon at the Edge of Little Sister Pond

As for life
I'm humbled,
I'm without words
sufficient to say

how it has been hard as flint,
and soft as a spring pond
both of these
and over and over,

and long pale afternoons besides,
and so many mysteries
beautiful as eggs in a nest,
still unhatched

though warm and watched over
by something I have never seen—
a tree angel, perhaps,
or a ghost of holiness.

Every day I walk out into the world
to be dazzled, then to be reflective.
It suffices, it is all comfort—
along with human love,

dog love, water love, little-serpent love,
sunburst love, or love for that smallest of birds
flying among the scarlet flowers.
There is hardly time to think about

stopping, and lying down at last
to the long afterlife, to the tenderness
yet to come, when
time will brim over the singular pond, and become forever,

and we will pretend to melt away into the leaves.
As for death,
I can't wait to be the hummingbird,
can you?

We mustn't forget Cambridge!

2006-08-09T13:33:00.000-07:00

I almost forgot my favorite last pics from Cambridge, at the Jazz at John's Garden Party. This almost makes me feel homesick for that crazy place...

Cheers! I do enjoy a nice glass of sparkling cranberry juice from time to time...

I have a whole series of "Me, Erin, and Alana having too much fun at Jazz@John's" but I leave you with this highlight...

Photo Highlights

2006-08-09T12:42:00.000-07:00

OK, so I am going to post my two favorite pics from some of my most recent trips and times: Ireland, Italy, Iceland, and my last days in Cambridge. If you want to see more and I haven't already sent you the link to the kodakgallery, just e-mail me. Enjoy.

Ireland: My oh my how times get zany on the trail!

I like the second photo because I hadn't realized that my name has Gaelic as well as Hawaiian origins (weird, right?) and the name of that shop reminds me of the best-name fast-food joint I've yet to discover: The Delicious House of Taste, on the Island of Ios, Greece.

Ok the formatting on this is getting a little wonky so just bear with me, fearless readers...

Here goes Italy: OK that kinda worked. Here's a pic of me and my girl Pilar, reunited at last at Tyler and Ginevra's fabulous Capri wedding!

And this is pretty much the photo I am most proud of from our visit to Pompeii.

I call it "this dog is just sleeping" which is a title I ripped off from a painting Alana saw in Iceland.

And speaking of Iceland... Here's a shot of me and my sister checking out the basalt columns framing a waterfall just off the Ring of Fire. Cooling lava solidifyed into perfectly hexagonal columns to form this marvel. Sweet, huh?

Me and my little Icelandic Pony

So much for only two pix per trip... I couldn't resist including this cool shot. My photography skills are so rough that I just have to revel in my minor successes. Oh and this hostel was quite a trip. No hot water! No shower! The owner keeps a pot of hot water on the stove for you to clean yourself and dishes with as you see fit. Quite an experience.

2006-08-09T12:41:00.000-07:00

I am officially back in the USA. It's a somewhat surreal experience, so far, I must confess. Perhaps that's partly due to the fact that I am running on two hours of sleep, plus the 30 minutes here, 20 minutes there I was able to catch on my flight from Paris to NYC. But I just feel like I am walking around this terminal, eyes agog, like "Wow I totally forgot about Dunkin Donuts!", flipping out about how long and weird and skinny US dollars are, and just indulging in other forms of predictable, home-again culture shock. I think it's funny that my first meal back in the States was a steaming hot combo plate of greasy Chinese food-- identical to my final meal before leaving the States a year ago!

I thought I had all kinds of thought-provoking outsider/insider reflections on the USA, as seen from inside the JFK airport, but as I set myself to typing them, they appear to have vanished into thin air. I wasn't ready to leave Paris, I can say that. I keep thinking of all these things I should have done before I left, and that I think on some level I completely thought I would have time to do, because I was actually in total denial that I was leaving. I went to the grocery store and bought all this stuff a day and a half before I left! I got it home and was like, "Now how am I going to eat six yogurts in a day and a half?"; but I really think it just hadn't registered for me that I was really leaving.

I wish I had done a better job of updating this blog this month, because I really had a great time in Paris, and now it's hard to go back and try to re-cap it. And I know I have been threatening to post photos for months, and I never seem to follow through on that, so I don't even want to go there. However I can post photos from Ireland, Italy, Iceland, and Cambridge (because those are the albums I have uploaded so far) so I'll see what I can do to finally make good on that offer. Hopefully Paris shots will be soon to follow.

Ciao Europe.

ketchup

2006-07-14T15:57:00.000-07:00

bon,

it's nearly 1am; I just got back from celebrating bastille day; I have to work tomorrow. but I am kind of psyched that I finally uploaded some of the dang photos and videos I have been promising for a while. I'll send out the photos soon, but for now, please enjoy this very low-quality, grainy video, courtesy of my digital camera and youtube.com. this depicts the wind tunnel alana, dad, and I decided to hike though in ireland a few weeks back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-boVeucPpLA

voila.

bisous,
mlle martinez

Paris, je t'aime

2006-07-09T14:45:00.000-07:00

I am falling in love with this city. I have never really lived in a city before (Phoenix doesn't really count, for obvious reasons for those who know it), so I am totally enchanted with the fact that I can walk out my door (ok, the door of the school where I live) and grab a delicious cafe creme or crepe; or go right and walk a couple of blocks for a stroll through a spectacular park, where I have to choose (to choose!) whether to feast my eyes on a photo exhibition, a glorious palace, copious flowers, an art installation, or just the dizzying array of people around me; or I could window shop un peu; or I could get on the metro and go... anywhere. This is truly amazing to me. And for some reason, I have this amazing tolerance for all the little annoyances of city life, and city life in France in particular. I mentioned the inefficiencies that drove me crazy in England, and how they are even worse here -- but somehow it's funny. I called the A/V rental place I have been in negotiation with for equipment for my class, and let them know that I had been waiting for a quote for several days, and the man apologized for not getting back to me saying, 'Ouais, mais vous savez, c'etait le coupe du monde et...' (basically, 'Sorry I didn't get back to you, but you know, with the world cup and everything). Irritating, but hilarious! I mean I just have to laugh.

Today I went with some of my students and some other kids from the program where I'm teaching to see 'Paris je t'aime'. It's a collection of about 20 short films about different quartiers of Paris. Each film has a different director, including the Coen Brothers, Wes Craven, Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries), Gerard Depardieu... The cast is amazing, including Maggie Gyllenhaal (who speaks French in her role!), Natalie Portman, Elijah Wood, Bob Hoskins (whom I saw in the West End in As You Desire Me - he's incredible!), Juliette Binoche... I just loved this film so much. Several of the films are so poignant and very sad, but overall the oeuvre just captures the romance, optimism, and possibility of this city. Surprisingly, the short featuring Natalie Portman was one of my favorites. She was in the section about 'Faubourg Saint-Denis' alongside Melchior Beslon. In a matter of minutes that piece managed to break your heart and put it back together in a better configuration than before.

Paris, je t'aime, et j'aime 'Paris je t'aime'.

And Paris, I still love you, despite the follies of Zinedine Zidane and what happened tonight.

I can't wait for someone to invent a teleporter

2006-07-08T14:06:00.000-07:00

Ok, when our world finally catches up with Startrek technology, I am going to be so happy. The first thing I will do is buy a teleporter. Then I will move to Paris. Imagine the possibilities. I could spend my days going to this or that museum, chilling in this or that park or on this or that quai, and then in the evening I could teleport myself, along with some delicious bread, cheese, and wine, to wherever my friends and family are, and have a lovely evening with them and give them hugs and kisses and pet the cat and whatever, and then I could teleport back to Paris and do it all over again. When I need a break, I could just teleport to... anywhere! Turkey! Thailand! San Diego! Wow. And I would never be late for another yoga class again, because instead of fighting the crushing heat and crowds in the metro (so early 20th century, let's face it), I could just teleport there.

I need someone to start working on this. I love it here. I would like to stay. But I really really miss a lot of special people in North America. If I had a teleporter, all my problems would be solved!!

Off to bed soon. Maira, thanks so much for your post! E-mail me directly (mailemae@yahoo.com), so I have your e-mail address! That goes for any recent grads of UJHS!!

Bonne soiree,
mlle martinez.

Un petit coucou de Paris

2006-07-04T09:41:00.000-07:00

Salut! This is a modified version of a mass e-mail I sent to some friends and family, so if you have already read that one, sorry for the repetition. If you didn't get the e-mail, tant mieux! Now you get to be apraised of le monde selon Mlle. Martinez. Whee! (Or should I say 'Oui!'? Sorry, corny joke but I had to go there).

First of all, I wish I had arrived in Paris a lot earlier, because I had forgotten that all the inefficiencies I used to rail against in the UK are on STEROIDS in France. So far I have had two days of completely fruitless errand running. Yesterday I ran around to all the places that happen to be closed on Mondays, and today I ran around to all the places that happen to be closed on Tuesdays (museums closed on Tuesdays?! Who knew?!). BUT I did join a Bikram studio, and I have been twice already, AND I got my new friend Ellie to join! She is the fiancee of one of Brian's good friends, and they live and work in Paris. I was lucky enough to stay in their awesome appartment on Isle San Louis when I first arrived, and we watched the last France world cup game. Wow, if France wins again, ca va etre la folie. I'm not sure if I even want them to win (don't tell any French people I said that). I mean, people just go CRAZY around here when France wins! That said, I am really looking forward to France v Portugal tomorrow. Aller les bleus!

Anyway, the Oxbridge students arrive tomorrow! I still have a lot to do, and tomorrow is going to be a crazy day of shuttling people from Charles de Gaulle, but it will all come together I'm sure. I am really excited for my class; there is so much cool film stuff going on in Paris at all times. I can't walk a meter without seeing some affiche advertising a film-related event that would be totally cool to integrate into my class. It is a little overwhelming, actually, but ca va aller.

On that note, I am so happy to be in Paris!!!! It's such a gorgeous city! I have already had more delicious cheese, bread, icecream, and wine than one should be allowed in a lifetime. J'exagere... un peu. Well, hence the yoga.

It is really hot out but lovely in the evenings. The metro is a bit hellish due to the heat, but hopefully I will have less running around to do these next few days.

That's all pour l'instant. I will try to update a bit more frequently this month.

Gros bisous,
Mlle. Martinez

"The Travels of Ms. Martinez":
www.travelingmsmartinez.blogspot.com

Do you Yahoo!?
Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail Beta.

Back to Solitude

2006-06-28T04:00:00.000-07:00

I thought about several titles for this post: Back to Reality, Back to Real Life, Back to the Grind... needless to say, none of these quite apply to the strange set of circumstances I call my life at the moment.

My sister left today, so I guess that brings me back to solitude. I'm used to solitude; in fact I need it from time to time. I have been working this morning. My thesis is submitted and defended, so it's not Cambridge-related work-- I'm getting ready for the next paying gigs I have coming down the pipe: teaching in Paris this July, and writing a magazine article (which I'm sure I will shamelessly promote on this blog when the time comes). But I worked when Alana was here, so I don't neccessarily feel like I'm getting 'back' to work.

The weird thing about getting back to work by myself is that I have no one with whom to share my random musings. Should I buy the new Corinne Bailey Rae CD? Should I buy the Hot Chip CD? Maybe I should just wait until I get to Paris, when I'll have money and a currency that is wee bit closer to the dollar. Will Britney Spears ever make a comeback? Will Keira Knightley ever stop making that face? Where should I move next year? When will I get to go to the beach?

When Alana was here I could spout these ponderings at will; she would have some kind of a response, even if it were 'mmm hmmm'. Now I guess I have to keep them to myself... or post them here...

I'm a Survivor

2006-06-21T16:42:00.000-07:00

A very quick post for people who are dying to hear about Mayball...

Headlining act: HOT CHIP! It was awesome! Check them out people! They are on Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/hotchip. Please enjoy.

Other main act: Mystery Jets. Pretty rockin!

Weather: Terrible! Who is surprised? It was freezing and raining, and it particularly poured during the fireworks! They were supposed to give hot air balloon rides, but no dice. But ya know what, once you start cutting a rug you don't really notice the frigid English temperatures. Didn't put too much of a damper on our festivities.

Food: Muy delicioso. A particular favorite were the fresh donuts they were frying up all night and rolling in cinnamon sugar and drizzling with chocolate. Artery-clogging goodness!

Bevvies: Anything you could ever imagine. I have come to the realization that beverages that consist of fermented fruits, grains, or vegetables are evil, so I didn't get too crazy with that. However I did have my first 'Victoria's Secret Cocktail'. All part of the Victorian theme.

Entertainment: The music was the main entertainment for us, which was pretty good. There was a great dance/house/drumnbase/etc tent that played some fun dance stuff, plus a cheese tent that played basically pop and wedding music. I particularly enjoyed the early-morning singalong in that tent, around 5am. The only other entertainment I partook in (is that a word?) were the free massages. Pretty nice.

Ensemble: Description to come.

Hope that whetted your Mayball appetite for now! Basically, it was an extremely hyped event that pretty much lived up to expectations. The people watching was a blast. Oh, and I now have a nice, framed, black-and-white Survivor's photo for my wall, taken at 6am! You can barely make out my cheesey smile and Alana sticking out her tongue. We made it!

Now I'm packing up my room and trying to deal with my life, which has been in a weird state of suspension for the last 6 weeks... uh, two months... uh, year... uh...

Peace!

so long, soggy island (the remix)

2006-06-17T02:22:00.000-07:00

Greetings Earthlings,

Alana and I are back in Cambridge, after a trip 'round the southern coast of Iceland. We had a good trip and saw lots of amazing sights, but the weather, once again, did not cooperate. I need to work on my weather karma, apparently. It was pretty terrible for the first few days because we rented a car and drove along the 'ring of fire', which is supposed to be super scenic-- but you'd never know because it was completely socked in. We braved the rain and checked out some pretty cool geysers and an amazing waterfall which is really famous, called Gelfoss. The weather was really disgusting though. So the next day we did two short hikes in a national park, and luckily the clouds began to lift, so we saw that all along we had been driving along this absolutely ENORMOUS glacier-- but you would never know it because it was hidden by clouds. We walked up to the glacier, which was really impressive, and then we hiked up to another waterfall, which was equally impressive because it was framed by these cool basalt columns, which are created by volcanic activity, and when the basalt cools it forms perfect hexagons! Very bizarre. Pictures of all this soon to come. Two other quick highlights were a walk from another basalt wall and cave along the beach to a seabird nesting area, where we finally spotted puffins! Very funny little guys. Another favorite for me was a dip in a natural hotspring, in the middle of a caldera! Super dramatic. Unfortunately, my computer is on its last legs so I'm worried about how it will handle all the photos I need to process (Ireland, Italy, Iceland), but I'll try my best to get some shots up here soon.

I'm now dealing with a bit of a vacation hangover. I'm dead broke, which is not surprising, and I feel like I have so much to do. Plus yesterday was one of the top-ranking worst travel days ever. Check this out: my flight left Reykjavik at 10:30am. Nice and easy. BUT it is a holiday weekend in Iceland and the 'Flybus', which is the only reasonably-priced way to get to the airport, was running on a limited schedule, so the only bus I could catch that would get me there in time for my flight left my hostel at 5:00am. Not cool. So I got up at, ahem, 4:00, caught the bus, got to the airport (need I mention that it was raining and freezing?), only to find that they would not allow me to check in for my flight until two hours prior to departure. So that meant that I had to kill two and a half hours in the check-in area of the Keflavik airport, which believe me, is sparse. I listened to a lot of Sigur Ros on my iPod and played solitare with my God Bless America deck of cards (so embarassing) and wrote in my journal and read a bit and somehow the time passed. Checked in for my flight, got out of dodge. The flight was nice actually. British Airways seems like my own private jet after all this Ryan Air flying. Wow. Anyway, then I got to Gatwick and waited for an hour or so for my bus to Cambridge, all the while wondering, 'now why am I taking the bus again?' I should have followed my instincts, sacrificed my return bus ticket to the travel gods, and bought a train ticket because the bus ride, which is four hours long under the best of circumstances, lasted six hours. The traffic was absolutely horrid. The things I do for fun!

In other news, with all this downtime, I am getting pretty good at Sudoku.

Well, Alana and I are going to the Jazz at John's garden party tonight, which should be a lot of fun. We are glad to be back in Cambridge, where we can wear shorts and flip-flops with abandon! We have some random errands and chores planned for today, but we hope to spread a blanket out in the back yard and lay out for a while.

That's all the news for now! Photos of Ireland, Italy, and Iceland soon to come, along with commentary. Thanks to everyone who has been keeping up with me-- I know I'm not easy to keep in touch with these days. Oh and I'm moving to Paris in t-minus two weeks! Crazy!

Lots of love,
MAM

Ijustsubmittedmymastersthesispeople!!

2006-06-09T06:57:00.000-07:00

This is me:

Sorry, major throwback to my favorite website when I was at MHC, www.emotioneric.com. So dumb, and yet so amusing. Much like my new fave, www.pinkisthenewblog.com. As Matt Files calls it, 'Pink is the new four hours of my life that I'll never get back'.

Anyway, my thesis is DUNZO! It's a gorgeous day, and I just found out that you can get Flonase over the counter in Britain, so I'm going to go lay in the grass in my bikini and not sneeze my head off! Life is gooooooood!

Off to Iceland tomorrow! Meeting Alana there! So much to be psyched about! Now if someone will just give me a meaningful, well-compensated job preferably on the west coast of North America, I'd have it in the bag!

Laterz!

Me, soon to be MAM, M.Ed, MPhil SUCKAS!

so long, soggy island

2006-05-24T04:19:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting alone in a deserted youth hostel in Galway, Ireland. I just hugged my dad and sister goodbye, and I'm feeling a bit sad. Despite the fact that the Irish weather gods certainly conspired against us for these last two weeks, we had pretty much fun. I talked to Brian the other night, when we were in... uh, some town near Limerick, the name of which escapes me at the moment... and I told him about a 'nice hike' we had enjoyed that day:

Me: Well, there has been no improvement in the weather. It keeps raining and raining, and the wind has been really bad. Today we hiked up to this gap between two mountains, and the wind was literally blowing a gale up there. It honestly felt like it would just pick you up off your feet and blow you off the mountain.* Then we hiked up to the bottom of this peak, and we were trying to decide if we should summit it or not, but the weather looked really bad so we decided to turn around, and it's a good thing we did, because then it started snowing.

Brian: Did you guys have snow gear?

Me: Well, it wasn't really sticking. I'm not sure if you would really call it snow... hail, sleet, snow... let's put it this way -- frozen water was falling out of the sky and pelting us in the face.

Brian: And this was a nice hike?

Me: Well, the scenery was nice!

That's basically how it has been. I started feeling really bad for my dad yesterday, because we couldn't hike at all yesterday as the conditions were just so bad. The so-called trails in this country tend to be in really poor condition. They are often really game and livestock-trodden, and extremely muddy due to the weather. So it can be really dangerous to go hiking when the weather is bad because if it gets socked in you can't see anything and it would be really easy to lose the trail. Combine that with torrential rains and arctic winds -- literally, the weatherman said that the 'chilly winds' are coming from the artic -- and you could pretty easily find yourself with a fatal case of hypothermia. And you probably thought I was exaggerating about the Martinez Travel Weather!

OK, I have to go catch my bus back to Dublin, but one more thing about the MTW: remember how I said you know you're experiencing MTW if the weather report is full of superlatives? Try this one on for size -- and I'm not kidding; they literally had a climatologist on the radio reporting that this is the wettest May they've seen in Ireland in 30 years. That's what I mean.

Alright I'm off. More soon!

you know who.

*I made a video of the windy conditions, which I hope to post here soon. It's pretty unreal.

Martinez Travel Weather at its Finest

2006-05-17T12:31:00.000-07:00

You know you are experiencing Martinez Travel Weather if...

- You are on vacation with Tommy, Emily, yours truly, Alana, and/or Kela Martinez. You have likely saved up a lot of money and vacation time in order to travel to some exotic locale and enjoy the out-of-doors.

- When you overhear their converations about the weather, you keep hearing locals comment that they've "never seen anything like it"

- The weather station labels the conditions with such superlatives as "the worst storm since...", "record-breaking rainfall", or "the biggest flood in xx years"

- You are experiencing any of the following:

hypothermia
frost bite
trench foot

OK, so our trip to Ireland has not been plagued by the worst Martinez Travel Weather of all time -- after all, it is Ireland, so we expected rain -- but it has been pretty bad. Alana and I had two glorious days in Dublin when the sun was out in spades, and I think we had one or two partly-cloudy hiking days once Dad arrived, but since then it's been pretty wet. We were priding ourselves on our rain-or-shine hiking attitude, but it whithered today. Actually, I had decided to stay in for the day, since our hostel in Kilkenny was cozy and quiet and near several internet cafes -- a perfect place to get caught up on some work. I was hammering away at my thesis when I looked out the window and the driving rain and thanked myself for deciding not to go on today's hike, when my sister walked back in the door, about an hour after she and Dad had left. "Did you forget something?" I asked. "No," she replied, "It's absolutely pouring." And it was. I knew it had to be pretty bad for my dad to throw in the towel on an Irish trail.

We decided to revise the itinerary, and we packed up and left Kilkenny (my favorite Irish town so far, for the record. I don't have many photos due to the inclement weather we experienced while there, but it is a medieval city with a young and hip feel, if you can imagine such a thing. It seems to have quite a happening music and pub culture, and yummy, inexpensive food. What more could you want in a city? Oh wait, a glimpse of the sun every once in a while would be ideal). Anyway from Kilkenny we headed over the Cashel (I think -- I may need to revise this blog once I have another look at the map). We checked out the ruins of a pretty amazing cathedral/fortress complex up on a hill there, but damn near got BLOWN off the mountainside! It was so windy and the rain was absolutely horizontal. Naturally, the roof of the cathedral crumbled sometime in the 16th century or so, so the site was totally exposed the elements. So much for sightseeing.

We drove by another castle on our way to our next stop, but didn't even bother to get out of the car. The weather forcast predicts floods. See criteria for Martinez Travel Weather above.

We're in Cork now, safely ensconced in a nice hostel. Our accomodation has been fine so far, and we have only camped one night (at Camp Exposed to the Brutal Elements of the Northern Irish Sea -- a charming spot). We have stayed in three hostels, all of which have been fine. We are having fun and getting along great, and Alana has only yelled at Dad about his snoring once. I, of course, have been the perfect travel companion for everyone. My navigation skills, my language skills, and my cat-like reflexes have gotten us out of many a bind. To say nothing of my BMX skills and my numchuck skills! My family is lucky to have me.

Anyway I will try to be in touch again soon. Also, pictures soon to come!

Cheers!

me, alana, and dad.

My Spring Itinerary

2006-04-20T11:10:00.000-07:00

The 'productive' procrastination continues...

but I am so excited about my plans for the spring, I just have to post about them! I just bought a ticket to meet my sister in Reykjavik, Iceland in June! Here's my full schedule, starting with the next big event:

26 April: Brian arrives!
2 May: Brian departs :(
9 May: Alana arrives!
11 May: Alana and I meet Dad in Dublin! Martinez family Irish hiking extravaganza!!
25 May: I return to Cambridge; Pilar arrives in London!
29 May: Dad departs Dublin; Ryan Wilson arrives in London; Alana flies to Copenhagen
30 May (I think): Pilar, Ryan, and I fly to Naples? I just realized I don't have the details on our Italy trip yet. Pilar is graciously planning it for me, since I am 'writing my thesis'.
2 June: Tyler and Ginevra get married on Capri!
5 June: Pilar, Ryan, and I fly back to London
6 June: Pilar and Ryan head back to the States; Alana flies from Copenhagen to Reykjavik
9 June: I submit my thesis! !Caramba!
10 June: I meet Alana in Reykjavik!
16 June: Alana and I return to Cambridge; end of full term; May bumps going on (Cambridge boat races-- Nicholas told me they are a great time)
20 June: St John's Mayball!!
26 or 27 June: I defend my thesis. Yikes.
28 June: Alana heads back to the States; I go to Paris (?)

I want to wait until July firms up a bit before I write more. Looks like a good time though! Wow.

Productive Procrastination (?)

2006-04-15T09:45:00.000-07:00

When I was in college, I invented the term 'productive procrastination'. This is meant to describe the things I do instead of my work, but which are still useful, 'productive' uses of my time. For instance, when I was an undergrad, I would be seized by this irrepressible urge to sweep and mop my floor whenever I had a major paper due. Or I would tell myself that I simply had to iron all of my button-down shirts before I could possibly think of going to the language lab. Get the idea? It's procrastination, but it's slightly better than, say, messing around on myspace. If you haven't noticed, this blog is rather fertile ground for productive procrastination. I mean, my readers need to know what I've been doing, right?

Seriously, I have been working on my thesis pretty hard. But my mind does wander. And this time it wandered to the last two papers I wrote, which I haven't posted yet. Now no one has mentioned whether they have been able to access the previous paper I posted, the one I wrote in Michaelmas term, but perhaps that's because those who have accessed it and attempted to read it have gone catatonic from boredom and are yet to be revived.

At the risk of subjecting more readers to the Medusa's glare of my academic writing, I'm going to go ahead and post my most recent two papers. Maybe someone out there is a bit curious about what I do all day. I'm happy with how these came out, for the most part, too.

The first is on Mathieu Kassovitz's La Haine, which if you haven't seen, you need to go out and rent, ASAP. Amazing, amazing, amazing. I just watched it for about the tenth time a few nights ago and it is still riveting.

The title of the second is kind of lame-- I forgot to send my official title to the secretary of my department in time. Whoops. Basically it is about two recent adaptations of various volumes of Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu: Chantal Akerman's La Captive and Raoul Ruiz's Le temps retrouve. To be honest, I wouldn't really recommend either of these films for their entertainment value. But there is a lot of interesting stuff going on in both for those of you out there who are interested in Proust, or cinematic representations of memory.

Donc, voila, quoi. Here are the links:

[IMG]http://www.filelodge.com/files/room13/330670/Memory%20Paper%20for%20Posting.doc[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.filelodge.com/files/room13/330670/La%20Haine%20Paper%20for%20Posting.doc[/IMG]

A Quick Update

2006-04-01T02:22:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

I have some new photos to post from my mom's visit. I'm supposed to be doing any number of things right now, so I think I'll keep my commentary to a minimum. These are just some highlights from Mom's visit to London, Cambridge, and northern Portugal, so if you want to see more photos, let me know and I'll send you the link.

First of all, my mom came in the last week of term, so it was very busy around here! I performed in 'Sprung!', the Queens' College Contemporary Dance Group Spring Concert (that's a serious mouthful!), and it turned out to be a much stronger performance than I expected. My mom was pleasantly surprised. Here are some shots from the dress rehearsal.

Oh, and here's a shot of me and mom chillin' in the Queens' College bar after the show.

After the second night of the performance, my mom and I caught a cab to the bus stop at like 3 in the morning, so we could make our early flight to Porto, Portugal! It had been freezing in Cambridge/London while Mom was here, so we were relieved to go south and have some warmer weather-- but as I've mentioned elsewhere, it rained pretty much the whole time. We had pretty decent weather for our day of touring around Porto, so I was grateful for that. Did you know there is a port wine company called Martinez? Unfortunately, we never got to taste any of their product. One of these days!

We did get to go on several tasting and tours, both in Porto, which is the distribution center for port wine, and in towns up the Douro, where the wine is grown, harvested, and processed. If anyone ever has any questions about port wine, I'm your girl! I learned a lot about how it is grown and made, and the differences between white, tawny, and ruby; which wines are used as apperitifs and which are digestifs, etc, etc. I always like learning about this kind of thing though, and I never knew that port is such a distinctly Portuguese phenomenon, so that was interesting, too.

More than anything, it was so nice to have my mom here, and to be able to share my experience here with her. Whenever I have a visitor, it really makes me appreciate how lucky I am to be here.

I feel like this post is kind of dry, but I hope you like the photos, at least. I am itching to go on another trip-- I keep thinking about how I haven't been to Edinburgh yet, and lately I have really been feeling like I should go to Rome (I can't believe I've never been there)-- but I have to get to WORK! Brian is going to be here soon (YAY!), followed by Alana, Dad, and Pilar and Ryan. Before I know it, my masters thesis is going to be due! Yikes! So I'm off to the UL. Not nearly as exciting as Porto or Edinburgh or even London, but it's part of the deal I guess.

Hasta la proxima...

Martinez Travel Weather Strikes Again!

2006-03-18T12:46:00.000-08:00

Ola! I have two minutes to write a quick update from Porto, Portugal, before my time runs out on my internet connection. In a word, itºs been raining. A lot. However, it is still 10-15 degrees (C) warmer than the UK, so thatºs an improvement! Driving has been a challenge, but weºre back safely in Porto after a trip around Port wine country, which was pretty cool. Tasted some very yummy port.

Iºm sold on Portugal. The weather is mild, the people are nice, the food is plentiful and cheap and tasty, and pretty much everyone speaks English, or at least Spanish or French. Plus I can understand Portuguese pretty well, I just canºt speak it for beans.

One minute left.
Ciao!

Me and Mom.

Words I Now Use, Write, & Think Regularly, but Would Never or at Least Very Rarely Employ in My Normal Life (A Running List, to be Updated as Needed)

2006-03-12T08:28:00.000-08:00

Discourse
Theory, theories, theorize, theoretical, theoretics...
Scopophilia
Voyeurism, voyeuristic, voyeur, voyeuse
Metempsychosis
Postmodern, postmodernism, po-mo
Vertiginous
The Gaze

a quick summary of corinne's visit

2006-03-08T01:36:00.000-08:00

Hello! I have two 4500-page papers with deadlines looming; in a few hour's time my mom is getting on a plane to London for a two-week visit; and we are going to Portugal for the last five days before my papers are due; so what better time to update my blog?!

Actually I am in pretty good shape with my work at this point. My first paper, 'The Stranger as Spectre in Mathieu Kassovitz's La Haine' is about 80% done, and I had a very productive meeting with my supervisor on Monday, so I know what I need to do to finish it -- it's just a matter of doing it. My other paper, 'The Unreliable Recorded Image in Proustian Cinematic Adaptations: Raoul Ruiz's Le temps perdu and Chantal Akerman's La Captive' is about 90% done, and I'm meeting with my supervisor to discuss it in a few hours. If I had any sense I would be working on one or the other... I'll start in a few minutes.

I wanted to post some reflections on my visit with Corinne! As I suspected, it was so wonderful to have such an enthusiastic visitor. Having guests really renews my enthusiasm for being here -- which has a tendency to wane from time to time, as you who read my blog probably know. We had great weather for the most part, and were able to really get out and enjoy London, Cambridge, and other parts of England, as I will describe!

I met Corinne at our hotel in Lancaster Gate, just north of Hyde Park, which turned out to be a wonderful place to stay. Another great thing about having Corinne visit was that she had done some research and had a good idea of what she wanted to do while she was here. That way I didn't feel like I was a tourguide -- I was just along for the ride, and helped navigate a bit! When she first arrived she suggested tea at the Orangery -- a lovely tea room adjacent to Kensington Palace, i.e. the actual former Orangery of the Palace. The Orangery was so quaint and British, with delicious food and beautiful gleaming white walls and statutes -- very posh, yet very charming. I highly recommend it. We then visited Kensington Palace, a highlight of which was their exhibit of Princess Diana's dresses. I always laugh because later that evening I called Brian (my boyfriend and Corinne's son, for those who don't know) and told him what we had been doing:

me: We went to Kensington Palace. We saw this amazing exhibit of Princess Diana's dresses! It was great; you would have really...

brian: ... killed myself? Yeah, thanks...

Pretty classic. Yes, Corinne and I wound up doing a lot of girly stuff, so it's just as well that Brian wasn't there, because he wouldn't have had fun! I had a great time though!

Anyway, I don't want to give you the whole moment-by-moment account, but basically: we went to the British Museum (as you can see); we saw Mamma Mia, which was a lot of fun; we went to Veerswarmy, supposedly the oldest Indian restaurant in London -- very posh and delicious; we visited Liberty, the famous department store (I got to check out the crepe de chine, which made me happy because Odette Swann in Un amour de Swann is always wearing crepe de chine dressing gowns); and we shopped a bit!

I had to leave Corinne in London on our last day, because I had a meeting with my supervisor in Cambridge; Corinne went to the Victoria and Albert museum, got around London, and got herself back to Cambridge by herself! I was very impressed. The next day, I sent Corinne on a walking tour of Cambridge while I prepared a presentation -- as she was touring through a central court of St. John's College, who should walk through a doorway but her brother, Dolph! He had been traveling around continental Europe, and when he heard that we were in the UK, he decided to come and surprise us! It was really great because he had a rental car and was game to drive us wherever we wanted to go!

Corinne had done some research on a particular hobby of hers: English china; she found out that the majority of famous brands of English china (Wedgewood, Burleigh, Emma Bridgewater...) are manufactured in Stoke-on-Trent, England. Dolph was nice enough to drive us up there and around to all the different factories. As you can see, we took in more pottery than I ever thought I would see in my life. The photo is of the Burleigh factory outlet, a company that is famous for their blue-and-white transfer patterns. Very cute stuff. Here's a picture of Corinne, actually taken in Woodstock, a darling town near Blenheim Palace; we discovered a charming shop featuring blue-and-white china galore. As you can see, Corinne was very stoked.

Another highlight was visiting Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Winston Churchill. The grounds were really gorgeous. The weather was pretty poor that day, but we enjoyed touring the interior of the palace. I would love to go back on a nice day to check out the maze, the butterfly gardens, and all the beautiful flowers.

So all in all we had a really wonderful time together. I saw a lot of sights I never would have seen otherwise. I'm always grateful for an opportunity to see more of the UK, as I've not been able to get around much.

Now I'm preparing for another great visit, with my mom! I imagine we are going to do some of the typical London stuff, but again, it's cool to have had so many visitors because each guest comes with his or her own priorities and interests as far as their visit goes. So I'm sure you'll be seeing more London photos, but hopefully with yet another spin. We'll be going to Portugal too, so look forward to some photos of us tasting Port near Porto!

Unfortunately, the weather is really crumby at the moment, so I hope it takes a turn for the better soon! We had some great spring days earlier this week.

As for right now, I've got to get back to this:

An Experiment

2006-02-28T03:09:00.000-08:00

A while ago, I thought I might like to post some of my work here, just in case anyone is curious about what I do all day, academically. And then I mentioned to a friend that I wrote my last term paper on Night Watch, and he asked if that paper was on the web. So I thought, 'good idea, I should post it.' So here goes, I'm going to try putting it online, just in the sake of popular demand: try going here:

http://www.filelodge.com/files/room13/330670/Vampires%20Paper%20for%20Posting.doc

Right now I'm working on a paper on La Haine, so I'll try to post it as soon as it's presentable. Enjoy.

One of these days I will learn how to write that as a link.

PS: Just because you can read this, doesn't mean you have to. There will not be a quiz on this later. And in fact, I can't even bring myself to reread it now, so I don't know why I thought it would interest anyone. Figuring out how to post it was just a useful exercise in procrastination from aforementioned La Haine paper.

over and out.

A Long-Overdue Update, and a Useful Way to Procrastinate

2006-02-26T07:30:00.000-08:00

My fair readers,

I can't believe it's been a month since my last post. And I also can't believe I never really described my adventures in Morocco! Well the album I created on www.kodakgallery.com pretty much says it all, so if I didn't send you the link, and you'd like to see it, let me know and I'd be happy to send it to you. I'll include a few highlights and some comments here now.

First of all, I should say that the trip was quite a success, due in large part to my two traveling companions, Jerrell and Ali (whose permission I have not asked before posting their photos, but here goes...). Anyway, we all got along really well and had a great time together. They put up with my neurotic ways fabulously. Ali speaks fluent French, so that was nice, too. We spent our first few days in Marrakech, which I quite enjoyed. The center of Marrakech is the 'Place Djama El-Fna'-- which is a busy market place where there are all kinds of vendors and entertainers, ranging from acrobats to snake charmers...

We were in Marrakech over a Muslim holiday, 'La fete des moutons'-- which translates as 'the holiday of the sheep'. I asked my English Muslim friend what you call the holiday in English, and she didn't know! Anyway, it's not much of a holiday for the sheep! When we first arrived, we saw people running all over town with live sheep in wheelbarrows, in their arms, even slung across a motorcycle! On the actual holiday, the blood was literally flowing in the streets, as everyone slaughters and eats their sheep. Nothing was open that day, so we just went for a long meandering walk through Marrakech, and everywhere we went we saw all these boys and young men out roasting sheep heads in the street! We had to bribe these dudes into letting us take their picture: please notice the severed, charred sheep head held aloft by the guy in the back. The sights were not for the faint of heart. I think I've mentioned some of them elsewhere in this blog, actually.

Anyway, after an unbelievably long bargaining session, we finally rented a car, which was totally worth it, because it allowed us to see a lot more of the country than we would have otherwise. We went to Ifrane, Fes, and Meknes in our little Fiat: Although Ali had been saying from the get-go that he wanted to check out the mountains, I never thought we we see so much snow! It was really beautiful though. I would definitely like to go back and spend more time in the mountains of Morocco. We also never made it to the Sahara, which is also meant to be absolutely amazing. This calls for another trip!

One final highlight was Volubilis, a site of ancient Roman ruins. It was so amazing! Absolutely huge and very well-preserved. The site is particularly well-known for its mosaics, which have survived the centuries. You can kind of see one in the background of this photo: I also really enjoyed the landscape around Volubilis. It was easy to imagine how a Roman settlement would have thrived there.

Anyway, this entry doesn't really do justice to the trip at all, but I hope you at least enjoy the photos if you hadn't already seen them.

I'm really busy this term, which is great for me, but kind of crazy. I have to run now because I'm supposed to meet with some people to edit a short film we've been working on! I'll try to post about that soon. I also need to post about Corinne's visit, and my mom's upcoming visit! We're going to Portugal! It's going to be quick, but should be fun. I can't go longer, because I'm performing in a dance concert in a few weeks! Whew, so it's been busy. I hope to keep as involved next term.

For those who don't know, I have no idea what I'm doing next year, so if you feel like giving me a job, by all means, contact me! More on that later.

Cheers!
me.

The Amoeba has Sailed

2006-01-25T14:53:00.000-08:00

For all of you who were deeply concerned about the state of my digestive system, rest assured that the crisis has passed. It was a rough week, but I seem to be better now, which frees me up to write about other things:

First of all, I want to mention my post, "A Tough Day." I hope everyone out there (excuse me while I address my certainly vast audience) knows that in that post I was throwing myself quite a pity-party. It was not as bad as all that. Yes, I did have a cry, but come on, when I was a little girl I would cry when they started to sing "Happy Birthday" at my birthday parties-- in other words, a few tears is no real indication of my personal degree of suffering (unless Brian happens to be reading this, in which case, if I'm crying, it's a sure sign that I'm suffering greatly and you should do whatever I want in order to make me feel better).

My point is, that while I was a little bored and lonely for a few days, and while I was disappointed that Brian wasn't here when I expected, I recognize that I really don't have it too bad. Brian arrived in the end, we spent a fantastic almost-two weeks together, including several days in London and Paris, two of the world's most incredible cities, after which I went to Morocco and experienced an entirely new country, culture, and continent, and when it was all said and done I came back to Cambridge, which, after all, is not such a shoddy place to call home, where I get to spend my days reading, writing, watching movies, and talking about all the above, for which I will eventually be awarded an advanced degree, all on Bill Gates' nickel. I clearly lead a charmed life. So I'm sorry if my "A Tough Day" post made me sound ungrateful, or like I had lost perspective. Well, the latter may be true. But ultimately I posted that piece because in the end, I thought the whole thing was funny, and I wanted to share it with everyone. I hope that clears things up!

Anyway, now that that's sorted, I want to do a very quick re-cap of my recent travels and what's new with me these days:

1. Linda's Visit: I don't think I ever wrote about Linda's visit. Well, we had an amazing time. I am becoming fonder and fonder of London. When she was here I really got to take advantage of all the amazing cultural opportunities there are in that city. We went to the British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery, the Tower of London, and we visited many many monuments and significant buildings. I really enjoyed the audio guide I got at the National Gallery. A definite highlight was seeing As You Desire Me, starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Bob Hoskins. What a fascinating play, and what a powerful experience to see an absolutely exquisite staging and performance of it. We also saw a matinee of Stomp, which was a lot of fun. Another major highlight was eating at Tas, a delicious Turkish restaurant that happened to be right next to our hotel in Bloomsbury! We loved it so much, we went there twice! Alright, I just tried to add a photo of us at the Playhouse, where we saw AYDM-- we'll see if it worked!

2. Brian's Visit: Again, an amazing time. We started off with a few days in Cambridge, during which time we didn't do much but enjoy each other's company and walk around a bit. It was so wonderful to just be together, it didn't really matter that there wasn't much to do in Cambridge, it being a ghost town over the holidays. We did visit a few pubs I had never been to before, including the Eagle, which is supposed to be historically significant for some reason. We saw King Kong with Andrew and Dawn, and had kebabs, which was pretty exciting for Brian, since they're hard to come by in Arizona. Oh man, I was just looking for this picture we took at the kebab place, but then I realized that it was on my camera, which got stolen when we were in London. RIP. Well, you'll just have to imagine how happy we were, eating kebabs/falafel together in Cambridge.

After our few days in Cambridge, we went to London to ring in the new year with Virginie. We had a great time, the only downer being that some bad person stole my camera out of Brian's pocket. We are now taking contributions for a new camera fund. Please send pocket change to my mom, and beg her to buy me a new one. Anyway, so no photos of me and Brian in London, sorry.

After London, we went to Paris (OK there is an interesting side-story about how I realized that I didn't have my passport about 12 hours before we were supposed to leave for Paris and Brian and I had to frantically beat feet back to Cambridge, but it's too involved for me to tell here and it's better to hear in person, so next time you see either of us you should ask to hear it, because it's pretty amusing). Paris was so incredible. I'm hoping to get a job there this summer, but that's another story. Hello, how could you not want to live in a place that prides itself on cheese? I was just so captivated by Paris this time around. I was really struck by the beauty of the city, the buildings, the art, the fashion, the language, the food. It helped that we got to stay in Brent and Ellie's amazing apartment on Isle Saint-Louis! We were living large.

Needless to say, it was really hard to say goodbye to Brian, but I feel really blessed that he was able to come visit. We had an amazing time together, so I can't ask for much more. Luckily I didn't have much time to feel sorry for myself after he left, because about 24 hours later I was on my way to...

3. Morocco! This entry is getting really long, so I think I am going to keep my comments on Morocco short for the time being. I just bought the CDs I needed in order to get the photos from my friend Ali, so I'll be sending those out soon, I promise! Again, I feel really blessed that I had the opportunity to go to Morocco. I had been wanting to go for a long time, and never could find the right travel companion who could go when I could go, so I'm grateful that the stars aligned in such a way so as to allow me to go with Ali and Jerrell. There's nothing like seeing Morocco with a Nietzsche and Lacan-quoting Iranian-Canadian and a body builder from Seattle! It was quite an adventure. Most of all, I'm really glad we rented a car (even though the bartering process to get the darn thing took the better half of a day!), because a definite highlight was seeing the countryside. We loved Ifrane, a mountain town known as "The Geneva of Morocco," which was very quaint and alpine feeling, and we never would have seen it had we not rented the car. Another highlight was the hammam, a kind of bathhouse, we visited. I wish hammams would catch on in the West!

Whew, OK that's it for now! I should be working on my resume or the mountains of reading and writing I have waiting for me! More on the job hunt and my studies soon.

Je vous embrasse,
mlle m.

The Iron Stomach I Do Not Have

2006-01-22T16:53:00.000-08:00

Recently, my cousin Phillip, who is currently volunteering at an orphanage in Guatemala and just generally being awesome, wrote that he had avoided the dreadful bouts of Montezuma's revenge that had afflicted his norteamericano coworkers of late because he inherited his grandpa's iron stomach. Now I don't know which grandpa he was referring to, but the grandpa we share seems the iron stomach type to me. And I inherited many things from that man: crowsfeet, a giggly laugh, a certain degree of stubbornness... But why did you hold back on the iron stomach, grandpa? Why? Had my grandfather bestowed upon me that key element of his genetic legacy (and kept the crowsfeet, I mean come on, I'm only 25), I would be a lot better off right now.

Basically, something has been amiss in my lower intestine since I returned from Morocco. And this really stinks, for a variety of reasons:

1. Literally.
2. It makes me feel a bit less enthused about my trip. Several of my friends and housemates have looked upon me with glowing faces and gushed, "So tell me about your trip to Morocco! What it amazing?" To which I want to respond, "Well, it was great, but was it worth having to stay within sprinting distance of my toilet for a week after my return? Not so much."
3. I can't really eat what I want to eat. That said, I've dabbled in the B.R.A.T. diet my mom suggested (Bananas, Rice, Applesauce and Toast-- recommended for people with severe food allergies or with an amoeba or some other nastiness in their gut), and that doesn't seem to make too much of a difference. So my thinking is, if I'm going to be, um, how should I put this... well all the ways I want to say it are just too crass for the current context, so I'll go with the medical description... experiencing chronic diarrhea and stomach cramps no matter what I eat, I may as well eat whatever I want, right? That was my thinking last night at the St. John's graduate dinner (7 courses-- amazing!), and this morning at my house's pancake breakfast... But I'm paying for it now. Note to self: stick to BRAT diet until further notice.
4. I am basically the world's worst invalid. Well I'm only a tiny bit better than most men I know, let's put it that way. I can't talk about anything else! For the first couple of days I tried to ignore the fact that something obviously was not right, but now that I've accepted the fact that I'm sick, I'm kind of obsessed with it. If I'm sick for much longer, I'm obviously not going to have any more friends, because let's face it, who wants to be friends with someone who (a) has the chronic runs, and (b) can't stop talking about it.

Anyway that's all I have to say about that for the moment. Tomorrow I'm going to go to the pharmacy and see if they can't fix me up. If I don't feel better by Wednesday or so, I'll make an appointment to see a doctor. I'm kind of nervous about that though, because last night I met this girl at Hall, and we were talking about my digestive issues (see, I even talk about it with perfect strangers-- not cool), and she told me that in the UK they are really strict about quarantining people who might have tropical diseases. She said her supervisor has been quarantined twice after holidaying in southeast Asia. The last thing I need is to have the condition I have and be quarantined. Serious damper on the social life.

Anyway, hopefully this will be my last post about my intestinal activity. I promise to write more about Morocco soon. I hope to get the photos this week, so when I post those I'll write more about it.

I hope you are all enjoying comfortable regularity,

Me.

Back in My Little Hobbit Hole

2006-01-18T07:43:00.000-08:00

Hello out there,

After a winter break that ranged from rather too uneventful to hypereventful and everything in between, I am back in Cambridge, and gearing up for a new term which promises to be toward the "hyper" end of the eventfulness spectrum.

OK I started this post a while ago and I'm just getting back to it now, but I've thought of a more appropriate title for the post I want to write now, so really I should just delete this post and start over, but I like this title and the sentence above (not the one I'm currently writing-- it's much too long and unrefined); so I'm just going to leave you with this short and rather pointless post for now. Enjoy.

je suis au maroc

2006-01-11T15:44:00.000-08:00

salut tout le monde! Im in Morocco, which Im hoping will excuse the spelling and punctuation errors I will commit in this entry. This keyboard is wacky. I cant find the apostrophe. Anyway, matters of punctuation aside, all is going quite well. Ali, Jerrell and I arrived in Marrakech two nights ago. We somehow managed to find our hotel, hidden deep in the Medina, and it is quite nice, built around a charming courtyard with a fountain, with a terrace on the top floor, affording views of the mountains and the minarets of several mosques. We have seen some impressive sights, mostly involving sheep, both alive and deceased. Today was a Muslim holiday on which everyone buys, kills, and eats a sheep, so yesterday we saw all kinds of people running around with full grown sheep in their arms, in carts, or even slung across the back of a motorcycle! Today the blood was literally flowing in the streets and everywhere you went kids were roasting severed sheeps heads over fires. We saw these dudes loading giant tubs of sheep intestines into a van-- they told us they were going to make drums out of them! intense! Weve also seen snake charmers and lots of beautiful rugs, pottery, jewelry, etc. Tonight we had a massive dinner of couscous, tanjine, beans, lentils, the a la menthe, etc, etc, while being entertained by musicians and a belly dancer!

Tomorrow were going to Fes. Ill try to write more soon. I also realize that I left everyone hanging after my last entry. Brian and I were finally reunited and had a wonderful visit together. Ill post photos soon.

A bientot!
Moi.

A Tough Day

2005-12-26T16:58:00.000-08:00

It is now officially December 27th. The day Brian is supposed to arrive in Cambridge. His flight is scheduled to arrive at Heathrow at 6:55am, to be exact. I have a bus ticket leaving Cambridge at 3:45am, so that I can be there when he arrives. Except I won't be on that bus, nor will he be on that plane, because due to the modern urban monster that is the Mass Pike, and the unfathomable amount of traffic it has vomited forth on this, the day after Christmas (it's still the 26th in Massachusetts), Brian has missed his flight.

About an hour ago, I was sitting in the tub, enjoying a nice soak as a way to pass the time until I was to catch the aforementioned bus. I heard my phone ring across the hall, something I would not normally have been able to hear, but since all 11 of my housemates have gone off to ring in the new year in Australia, Azerbaijan, Germany, Italy, and New Zealand, among other places, the place is totally silent. You can hear a pin drop. Or my phone ringing across the hall, as it were. When I realized that I know no one in Cambridge who would be calling me at 12:30am, I realized it must be Brian, hopefully calling to say that he got checked in for his flight and is eagerly awaiting its departure. I hopped out of the tub and went across the hall to get the phone, which I brought back into the tub with me. Alas, the message was not a cheery one from Brian, but a troubled one from his sister in law, telling me to call him A.S.A.P. I hopped out of the tub once more, and sat dripping in my bathrobe in front of the computer, while Brian told me via Skype that he had missed his flight and his arrival will be delayed by 24 hours.

Now 24 hours probably doesn't seem like much, and I am quite grateful that he was able to get on another flight at all. But I haven't seen him, the one and only object of my affection, in three months, and I have somehow whiled away the last 48 hours completely alone in Cambridge, which was depressing, especially considering that those 48 hours were evenly split between Christmas Day and Boxing Day, when I should have been making merry with family, friends, neighbors, anyone! However, the depression brought on by my solitude and distance from home was tempered by the fact that the countdown to seeing Brian was on. Now that countdown's been extended by 24 hours, and I'm upset, to use a euphemism that seems to come in handy so often whenever a little or big bump appears in the road that is my relationship (and a long, beautiful, and joyful road it is).

I hung up with Brian (well, more accurately, I clicked the big red button that ends Skype calls), and feeling very glum, I did the thing I always do when I feel glum-- I called my mom. Usually just the sound of her voice brings the cathartic tears I need, but to my suprise I didn't cry. I hung up with her and went back to the bathroom to drain the bath and collect my various bathing accoutrements.

Wrapped in my bathtowel, carrying the two books I had been reading in the tub (Zadie Smith's On Beauty and Marcel Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu) and an armful of bath soaps, scrubs, lotions, etc., I pushed on my bedroom door. It didn't budge. I did a quick mental replay of the last 60 seconds. No, I did not check to make sure the door was propped before I left the room. No, I did not make certain I had my keys before I left the room. Damn. (Actually, I probably used a stronger word at the time, but I would like to take this opportunity to remind my readers that this blog is for the kids).

Now, knowing myself, I have envisioned this scenario before. I figured I would certainly lock myself out of my room at a time when I was only wearing my bathrobe. But when I envisioned this scenario, I always pictured myself knocking sheepishly on my housemate's door, apologizing profusely for disturbing her, then offering all kinds of recompense if she would only be so kind as to run to the porter's lodge and fetch the key for me, and help me out of this embarassing situation. I never in my wildest day-mares imagined that I would lock myself out of my room at a time when I am wearing only my bathrobe and there is absolutely no one in the house to help me.

I used the campus phone in the hall to call the Porter. The conversation went something like this,

Me: Hello, I'm calling from the Gables... I've locked myself out and I'm barefoot.

Porter: Well you'll have to come down and get the key. We don't do house calls for lockouts, you know.

Me: Well, you see, I can't come down because I'm barefoot, and I'm the only one here...

(At this point my deepest self-pity has set in, and the final clause of the above sentenced is garbled by my crying voice, which sounds a little like me, if I had Downs Syndrome, and were trying to speak underwater).

Porter: Well you'll just have to come down. I'm the only one here, I can't leave the porter's lodge.

Me: I can't come down! (more sniffling and crying)

Porter: Well you'll have to call a friend to come get the key for you.

Me: Can you call someone for me? I left my phone in my room... (sniff)

Porter: No I can't call someone for you! You'll just have to come down!

Me: That's impossible sir, because I'm barefoot and I'm in my towel and I'm naked! (my voice has reached that hysterical crying pitch at this point)

Porter: Oh, ok, I'll bring you the key. I'll have to lock up here you know.

Me: Thank you sir! Thank you!!

Less than ten minutes later a nice, whistling, Scottish porter came in, keys jingling, laughing and wishing me Merry Christmas. The grumpy English porter must have pawned the job off on him. And as you can guess, I am now back in my room, typing happily away on my computer; my tears have dried and I have had a good chuckle about how ridiculous I am.

However, there are a few lessons to be learned here:

1. There is one word I can use to describe the English, and that is UNSYMPATHETIC. This is just one in a fairly lengthy list of experiences that have brought me to that conclusion. Honestly, what did he think I was going to do? If I had come down to the lodge, I would have either been arrested for indecent exposure, died of regular exposure, or worse. All because he was too grumpy to give me some sympathy.

2. I'm sure there were other lessons, but I don't remember them at the moment.

In the end, I got to have my cathartic cry (I sobbed for about three minutes after I hung up the phone with that mean old porter, until I realized that really, it's not that bad. I'm just sitting here all alone in my bath robe in a foreign country on the day after Christmas. It could be a lot worse. At least I have some books to read while I wait). Then I laughed at myself, called Brian to laugh at myself with him, called my mom to laugh at myself with her (and she has the best reaction to my funny/stupid stories), and now I'm writing it down so that others can have a laugh at me too. Enjoy.

2005-12-06T05:39:00.000-08:00

The Gables family, minus Gordon.

2005-12-06T05:37:00.000-08:00

Almaz dancing a caeli (I think that's how it's spelled)-- Scottish folk dancing. So much fun!

2005-12-06T05:36:00.000-08:00

Me and Sarah at the final Formal Hall of the term.

Something's Wrong

2005-12-03T07:46:00.000-08:00

Something's wrong with my blog! I can't figure out why all the links have disappeared from the side of the screen, but it's making me mad. I have tried republishing, changing the template, updating my profile, etc, etc, but nothing is working! I know absolutely nothing about HTML so if fixing it involves writing some kind of code business, I'm at a loss. Blogger help is... no help. The great thing about this server is that it's very simple, user-friendly, and accessible for people with no understanding of what makes this crazy internet thing work (like myself). But now that I've got a problem, Blogger help is not useful because it is so jargony. Help!! Does anyone know how to fix this??

Incidentally, all my blog archives are still there-- they haven't been deleted-- there's just no way to link to them from my blog homepage. Argggggg.

Ms. M

another poem

2005-11-26T08:27:00.000-08:00

my aunt shared this one with me. I'm infringing on copyright laws... but all in the interest of sharing amazing poetry-- what's the harm in that? this is the perfect poem for now.

Poem: "Monet Refuses The Operation" by Lisa Mueller from Alive Together

Monet Refuses The Operation

Doctor, you say there are no haloes
around the streetlights in Paris
and what I see is an aberration
caused by old age, an affliction
I tell you it has taken me all my life
to arrive at the vision of gas lamps as angels,
to soften and blur and finally banish
the edges you regret I don't see,
to learn that the line I called the horizon
does not exist and sky and water,
so long apart, are the same state of being.
Fifty-four years before I could see
Rouen cathedral is built
of parallel shafts of sun,
and now you want to restore
my youthful errors: fixed
notions of top and bottom,
the illusion of three-dimensional space,
wisteria separate
from the bridge it covers.
What can I say to convince you
the Houses of Parliament dissolves
night after night to become
the fluid dream of the Thames?
I will not return to a universe
of objects that don't know each other,
as if islands were not the lost children
of one great continent. The world
is flux, and light becomes what it touches,
becomes water, lilies on water,
above and below water,
becomes lilac and mauve and yellow
and white and cerulean lamps,
small fists passing sunlight
so quickly to one another
that it would take long, streaming hair
inside my brush to catch it.
To paint the speed of light!
Our weighted shapes, these verticals,
burn to mix with air
and change our bones, skin, clothes
to gases. Doctor,
if only you could see
how heaven pulls earth into its arms
and how infinitely the heart expands
to claim this world, blue vapor without end.

My internet radio station thinks I'm 50-something

2005-11-23T14:57:00.000-08:00

OK, so I recently discovered this great thing, in my opinion. It's called Yahoo! Music LaunchCast, and it's basically free internet radio that you can customize to play what you want. It does have commercials, but they're reasonably infrequent and short. I think it's great because I've customized it to play my ultimate study music: a mixture of down-tempo techno, jazz, and other mostly non-vocal stuff. I really really like it. Plus, through this station I've discovered some musicians that I wouldn't otherwise have known about because you can rate each song, artist, and album that it plays, and the station will choose other songs for you based on your preferences. Which leads me to the only problem. Every so often, the player puts on some really heinous smooth jazz kind of stuff. It pains me to admit it, but one time it actually put on Kenny G. I almost screamed aloud. Now, one of the ratings on the player is "never play this again," so of course I quickly nixxed Mr. G. But the fact remains that my player actually thought I might like it! I can't imagine why this might be. It seems that my high rating of Dave Brubeck has given the player some funny ideas about what else I might like. But Dave Brubeck is a far cry from smooth jazz, in my opinion! Ultimately, no one ever really hears this music but me, but I am anticipating the day that I have a visitor who walks into my room when some really cheesy smooth jazz is streaming from my computer. I'm going to have a heck of a time convincing them that no, I don't really like easy listening, but my computer thinks I do!

Found Poems

2005-11-11T07:00:00.000-08:00

I came across these two poems in a collection of Sylvia Plath's poetry. The first is one I have long loved, and finding it was like finding a note from an old friend. The second is new to me, but it made me think of some people I know. I am probably violating some kind of copyright laws by posting these, but as I don't plan to make any money from them I don't think it matters. I wish I had written these poems, but the time's not right yet anyway.

You're

Clownlike, happiest on your hands,
Feet to the stars, and moon-skulled,
Gilled like a fish. A common-sense
Thumbs-down on the dodo's mode.
Wrapped up in yourself like a spool,
Trawling your dark as owls do.
Mute as a turnip on the Fourth
of July to All Fool's Day,
O high-riser, my little loaf.

Vague as fog and looked for like mail.
Farther off than Australia.
Bent-backed Atlas, our traveled prawn.
Snug as a bud and at home
like a sprat in a pickle jug.
A crawl of eels, all ripples.
Jumpy as a Mexican bean.
Right, like a well-done sum.
A clean slate, with your own face on.

Morning Song

Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry
Took its place among the elements.

Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue.
In a drafty museum, your nakedness
Shadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls.

I'm no more your mother
Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow
Effacement at the wind's hand.

All night your moth-breath
Flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen:
A far sea moves in my ear.

One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral
In my Victorian nightgown.
Your mouth opens clean as a cat's. The window square

Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try
your handful of notes;
The clear vowels rise like balloons.

Hiding Inside

2005-11-11T06:49:00.000-08:00

Hello...

Well, I have a very mild cold and the weather is crumby, so I'm still in my PJs and I haven't gone outside today, despite the fact that it's almost 3:00 in the afternoon! I must motivate soon. I am also steeling myself against something I don't really want to do, but feel I must do, this evening: attend an amateur film screening.

You see: there is this organization here at Cambridge called cinecam-- the Cambridge filmmaking society. If you are a member you get to use their equipment (which includes cameras, mics, and editing software), plus you can participate in their many functions, including film screenings, filmmaking workshops, contests, etc. So I joined, thinking it sounded fun and would be a good way for me to learn a little more about the technical aspect of filmmaking, since I've been reading and writing a lot of film theory. I signed up for their 48-hour filmmaking contest, in which participants are put into groups, given a title, a camera, and 48 hours to make a 5 minute film. The title was "Brilliant Lies." Well let's just say my experience was not so brilliant. I don't want to go into detail, but I think it's fair to say that I had "creative differences" with my teammates, and essentially dropped out at the end.

I would like to wash my hands of the whole affair, but my friend graciously played the female part in the film, and I feel that I should go with her to see it. Plus, I am curious. I am also horribly embarassed because I could see the film going in directions I didn't really endorse, and ultimately my teammates really didn't listen to any of my input anyway, yet I think they probably put my name on the piece. I really don't want to be associated with it in any way. Now I know how an actor feels when a film she has agreed to do turns out to be really bad.

Anyway, so I am thinking about donning a baseball cap and huge sunglasses and hoping my teammates don't recognize me at the screening. I hope I don't sound horrible-- it's just that being a member of this team really did not work for me, let's put it that way.

In other news, I just booked a flight to Morocco for the end of winter break. I'll be going for a week with some other Gates people. Should be good!

I guess that's all for now. I must prepare myself to go out and face the world.

Adieu,
moi.

New Photos, Finally!

2005-11-08T17:11:00.000-08:00

Hello! Just a quick word before I head to bed. The term is flying by at an absolutely scary pace! As you might be able to tell from previous postings, I am keeping very busy with my reading and seeing tons of films. I guess movies are satisfying my fiction cravings for the time being, since I am reading nothing but nonfiction all the time!

Anyway, I posted a few recent photos-- if you would like to see more and I haven't already sent you a recent message from ofoto, send me an e-mail. A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to have a visit from an old friend Virginie, whom I met in Montpellier, France, FOUR years ago! We hadn't seen each other since the spring of 2002, so it was really great to catch up. I hope to see her in London (where she's living now) sometime soon.

After that I had a chance to go punting, which is a big deal here in Cambridge. To tell the truth, I am not too interested in being the one who actually punts-- I'm terrible. I would rather someone else chauffeur me around, thank you. They are still hiring out punts, even this late in the year-- there have been enough sunny days that it's still a nice thing to do! I think we've had a very fair fall, for which I'm grateful. It won't be long before I really start to miss the Arizona weather (not that I don't already!).

Oh the other photo is from the cruise of the Thames I got to go on, courtesy of my scholarship. It was great-- all the scholars were invited to mingle, eat, and dance on board the boat, as it cruised by the Tower of London, the London Eye, and Big Ben! Very enjoyable.

Anyway, I'll post more again soon. I'm still kind of homesick, but feeling more and more settled here all the time.

Cheers,
The artist formerly known as Ms. Martinez

2005-11-08T17:10:00.000-08:00

Punting on the Cam, very near to my College

2005-11-08T17:08:00.000-08:00

Gates-sponsored cruise of the Thames

2005-11-08T17:07:00.000-08:00

Virginie et moi

What I'm Seeing

2005-10-30T17:38:00.000-08:00

Here's a list of the movies I've seen since I've been here, as far as I can remember:

Man on Fire
Det Sjunde inseglet [The Seventh Seal] (Ingmar Berman, Sweden, 1957)
The Name of the Rose (Jean-Jacques Annaud, 1986)
Cleo de Cinq a Sept (Agnes Varda, France, 1962)
Un Condamne a Mort s'est Echappe (Robert Bresson, France, 1956)
Trouble Every Day (Claire Denis, France): *Note: This film is NOT for the faint of heart, like myself. Would that I could take back the 110 minutes of my life I spent watching it.
Nikita
L'Eternel retour (Jean Cocteau, 1943)
La Femme d'a cote (Francois Truffaut, 1981)
Central Station (Walter Salles, Brasil, 1998)
Ceux qui m'aiment prendront le train (Patrice Chereau, 1998)
La hora de los hornos
?Quien diablos es Juliette?
Los inundados
Rio escondido
Maria Candelaria
El lado oscuro del corazon
Broken Flowers (Jim Jarmusch, 2005)
Corpse Bride (Tim Burton, 2005)
Night Watch (Timur Bekmambetov, Russia, 2005)
Innocence (Lucile Hadzihalilovic, France, 2005)

My favorites so far?
1. Central Station. Everyone should see this movie.
2. Night Watch. I'm obsessed with the subtitles.
3. ?Quien diablos es Juliette?

What I'm Reading

2005-10-30T17:16:00.000-08:00

I want to keep track of the books I've read this year, as well as the films I've seen. This seems like an appropriate place to do so. When I learn how, I'll keep the list somewhere else on the site, because I'm going to be updating it frequently, but for now I'll just start here.

What I'm Currently Reading (These are books that I have read at least part of in the last week):

To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
How to Read a Film, James Monaco
Subtitles: On the Foreignness of Film, Egoyan and Balfour, eds.
Postcolonial Theory, Bart Moore-Gilbert
Postcolonial Translation: Theory and Practice, Bassnett and Trivedi, eds.
Constructing Cultures: Essays on Literary Translation, Bassnett and Lefevere, eds.

Books I Should be Reading: (These are books I need to at least take a look at in the next week or so):

Translation, History, and Culture, Bassnett and Lefevere, eds.
Introducing Translation Studies, Jeremy Munday
Cinematic Vampires, Flynn
Count Dracula Goes to the Movies, Joslin
Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media, Shohat/Stam
My guidebook to the Canary Islands :)

Books I'd Like to be Reading (These are books I have checked out from various libraries because they pertain to my studies or my personal interest but it's becoming increasingly evident that I probably won't be able to read them anytime soon because I'm too busy working on the books higher up the list):

Film and Theory, Stam and Miller, eds.
New Vocabularies in Film Semiotics: Structuralism, Post-structuralism, and Beyond, Stam, Burgoyne, and Flitterman-Lewis
Literature and Film, Stam and Raengo, eds.
Film Art: An Introduction, Bordwell and Thompson
The Cambridge Companion to Postcolonial Literary Studies
The Cambridge Companion to Lacan

Of course, this says nothing of the various articles, excerpts, and chapters I have read as assignments for my lectures/seminars. This is just to give you an idea! Any guesses as to the topic of my term paper...?

A Short List of Things I Love

2005-10-18T09:18:00.000-07:00
I am currently mentally composing an acerbic piece of writing: "I Loathe the Cambridge University Library," a critical essay by M.A. Martinez, forthcoming on www.travelingmsmartinez.blogspot.com. This topic has led me to musings on other things I detest, such as the process of locking and unlocking my bike, the process of finding a place to lock my bike somewhere within a five mile radius of central Cambridge, many Americans I meet abroad (harsh, but alas, true), and the fact that I dropped my bike lamp last night and it broke and now I can't ride my bike at night and I have no one to blame but myself... ah yes, I also hate having no one to blame but myself.

However! This fruitless way of thinking also led me to realize that my list of things I love is much much longer than the one above. In the interest of having a positive mental attitude, I present this list now:

A Short List of Things I Love, by M.A. Martinez:
- The group of about ten schoolboys in bright purple blazers I saw walking two-by-two on the sidewalk outside my faculty today. They were accompanied by a man with a large umbrella.
- Libraries, excluding one which I shall not name here. Specifically: The Mount Holyoke College Library, the Phoenix Public Library, especially the Burton Barr Branch, and the Seattle Public Library, even though I've only seen it from the outside.
- Reading, especially fiction, but if not fiction than nonfiction that teaches me something, like "How to Read a Film" by James Monaco.
- The fact that all I have to do here is read all the time.
- Riding my bike, especially at night when my lights are working, preferably if it has recently rained but is not currently raining, and I'm wearing a long winter coat, the tails of which are flying behind me, causing me to feel like the most wonderfully British bikerider of all time.
- Care packages.
- People who visit.
- People who read this blog.

2005-10-13T12:33:00.000-07:00

Alana showing her original Nintendo playing card, Kyoto, Japan. Did you know Nintendo was originally a card game?

2005-10-13T12:31:00.000-07:00

Tokyo

2005-10-13T12:29:00.000-07:00

Tokyo, Japan

I Lied

2005-10-08T18:19:00.000-07:00
OK, I'm not going to post the photos just now, because it is taking me forever to get them all organized and annotated and everything, and it's getting late. Soon, though!

Photos, Finally

2005-10-08T17:37:00.000-07:00
Hello! Well, now that I have the wonderful world of the internet available from right in the comforts of my room, I've finally been able to upload the hundreds of photos from my camera onto my computer! That means I can finally send them out and post them, as I've been promising for weeks now! I'll go in reverse-chronological order, posting some highlights from Japan, Korea, and China, then a few pictures of things here in Cambridge. Let me know if you would like me to send you the motherlode (that is, if you haven't already received it)-- I've created about five albums on kodakgallery.com that document the WHOLE trip in great detail.

In other news, the semester is off to a great start. I have a LOT of reading to do, but so far I'm enjoying it. This term is basically all about critical theory, so I'm reading pretty much nothing but nonfictional, theoretical texts, which is not usually my cup of tea, but I'm doing OK with it so far.

The various societies are getting started up, and I'm pretty sure I'll be joining a couple of dance societies, which means I'll get to take ballet and modern classes a couple of times a week, so I'm looking forward to that! My room is big enough for me to do pilates in here, so that's how I've been getting exercise in, along with one visit to the St. John's exercise room, which is OK.

My friend Virginie, whom I met in Montpellier four years ago (!!), and who lives in London, is coming to visit tomorrow! I'm so excited! I can't believe we've managed to stay in touch all these years without ever seeing each other! Then next weekend I have a Gates event in London, including a cruise on the River Thames! Very exciting. Even better, I'm hoping to meet up with my friend Colin, whom I also met four years ago, in Barcelona, and who now lives in Edinburgh! He has reason to be in London next weekend, too. I'm really grateful to have these connections in the UK, and so amazed that our friendships have stood the test of time and distance! It makes me think of a lot of other wonderful people in my life who have remained my friends despite the fact that we haven't actually lived in the same place for years. Wow.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the photos. Don't hesitate to e-mail if you'd like to see more!

Love,
yours truly

My Schedule

2005-10-05T05:07:00.000-07:00
OK, I'm not sure of the best way to do this, but since I'm choosing to believe that there are heaps of you out there who are planning to come and visit me, and are only waiting to know my exact schedule before you book your plane tickets, I'm going to try to post my schedule such as I know it, for your viewing and planning pleasure.

The Basics: I am in class for four hours a week, for sure. This term I have class from 2-4 on Tuesdays and 3-5 on Thursdays. I may choose to attend lectures at other times, but those are my only commitments at this point. Actually, I will most likely attend lectures on Mondays from 10:00-2:15 as well, but those are flexible (i.e., I don't actually have to go, I just think I should because they'll be interesting and help me in my other studies). That's basically all you need to know until...

December 2nd (Friday): End of Full Term (no more classes for that term for me)

December 7 (Wednesday): My first essay is due. If I have any sense, I'll have turned it in well before then, hopefully around the end of term, but I might need those interim days to work on it.

December 7- January 16: Winter vacation! Again, if I have any sense I will do some reading during that time, but I should be available to travel, have visitors, meet people elsewhere in Europe... (Court, Dave, Bri, I'm looking at you...).

January 17: Start of Full Term. I haven't chosen my classes for second term yet, so I don't know my full schedule. I do know that I'll have four hours of class time for sure, like during first term. I may choose to attend other lectures, but I'll be needing to spend more time researching, reading and writing because I'll have two term papers to worry about, plus my thesis looming. Visitors will be welcome though! I'm sure I'll need a diversion.

March 17: End of Full Term. St. Patty's Day, to boot-- I bet this place will be a bit nuts. Unfortunately, I have two term papers due on...

March 22: Both term papers due. Again, if I have any sense I will have turned at least one of them in well ahead of the deadline. Now, do I have any sense? That's the real question, isn't it?

March 23- April 24: Spring Break!? I have to wonder what the catch is with this. I'm sure I'll need to be back a little before the Start of Full term...

April 25: Start of Full Term. I won't have any classes this term-- at all. I will be feverishly trying to put my thesis together. Hopefully I will have done some work toward it in the previous two terms, so it won't be so hectic trying to get it done. Visitors are welcome during this term, and I'll have flexibility to travel, as long as I get my work done, too.

June 9: Last Date for Thesis Submission. Probably don't come visit the week prior to this date! Haha... he... cough... ughhh.

June 16: End of Full Term.

June 26-27: Thesis Vivas (defenses). Probably don't come visit until after the 27th, either. Yikes.

I'm trying to figure out when exactly I graduate, but I think it might be some time in July. I've heard the graduation ceremony is quite an experience, so think about coming for it-- that is, as soon as I tell you when it is.

Anyway, let me know if you need more info. Run along now and buy your tickets to London!

Cambridge Check-In

2005-10-02T08:49:00.000-07:00
Hello! I know it's been quite a while since I've posted, and as you can imagine, quite a lot has been going on since you last heard from me. For instance, in the last four weeks, I've spent time on three continents. Whew! I'm now in the settling in process in Cambridge, which is proving to be lengthy. It will probably take me several weeks to get a bank account, for instance. I haven't managed to get internet in my room, which is why I haven't sent out any photos yet. However, what I have accomplished:

- I got a cell phone! E-mail me and I'll send you my number if you feel the urge to call England.
- I bought sheets, a duvet cover, colored lights, baskets, and other things to make my room more homey. It still smacks of my sophomore year dorm room, but there's not much to be done about that.
- I bought a bike! Everything is so expensive here, that was a major accomplishment for me. Plus it makes it a lot easier to get my groceries home.
- I've been grocery shopping! Now I have the basics to be able to cook at home. I share a kitchen with my 10 housemates, but it is pretty well stocked with pots and pans and dishes, so I just had to get the food.
- I've been socializing! I've even made a few friends. Go me.

Well, that's about it. Still waiting on getting a landline and internet. Classes start tomorrow! I'm really looking forward to it.

Cheers!

Great Day on the Great Wall

2005-09-14T09:22:00.000-07:00
Greetings Earthlings:

Today we visited the Great Wall of China! I feel the elation that comes along with finally accomplishing a major goal. I can't even begin to describe how incredible it was to actually stand on the wall, watch it winding away for miles and miles in every direction, imagine the people who slaved away and died to build it, and just think... My God, I am standing on the Great Wall. I am so grateful to have had this opportunity.

First of all, we are checked in to yet another dodgy accomodation, now in Beijing, China. Mr. Dow: we have documented each of the sketchy places we've stayed, thanks to my digital camera, don't worry. Last night Alana met this nice Indian man whom we call Jose, who was planning an excursion to a more remote part of the wall, along with this couple, Marta from Spain and Brian from Ireland. They invited us along. We woke up early this morning, hired a crazy mini-bus driver to take us the four hours up to the wall, where he dropped us off. We then hiked for four more hours, and the driver picked us up at another spot on the wall. We were really lucky for a number of reasons:

1. IT WAS SUNNY! We have not had any decent weather for the whole trip, so we were thrilled to see blue sky! It was not terribly hot, either.
2. It was not too crowded. In fact, it would have been almost entirely deserted, had it not been for one tour bus full of pretty nice tourists, and the entourage of Chinese vendors who literally follow you the whole length of the hike, trying to sell you stuff. Amazing. However...
3. The Chinese vendors were not too agressive. I have gotten so sick of hearing, 'Hello!! Hello! Hello lady! You buy dragon t-shirt!?' shouted at me! These vendors were pretty tame. They just followed us the whole way. All to sell a bottle of water for less than 50 cents.
4. Jose, Marta and Brian were awesome company. It was really great to hike along with them and get to know them better. Plus, Marta and Brian speak Spanish and French, so I was happy to have some people to practice with.
5. We topped off our hike with a ride down a zipline, across a river! It was a blast. I even talked Alana into doing it, though she doesn't like heights.
6.We survived the harrowing ride to and from the wall, despite our driver's clear efforts to kill himself, his wife, us, and any bikers, pedestrians, or drivers in his way.
7. We had enough food, enough water, no one got sick, or hurt, or had any problems at all, really!

Just as we were reliving the amazing day though, our luck ran a little thin. First, the driver wouldn't take us back to the hostel, just back to the place where he had picked us up. Ok, no problem, we'll take the bus back. Well, Alana and Jose got a little ahead of Marta, Brian, and me as we were walking to the bus stop, and somehow we got separated. Marta, Brian and I looked everywhere for Alana and Jose, and couldn't figure out where the could be! We didn't know the way to the bus stop. I got really worried. I hadn't been separated from Alana for a MOMENT since we left! We walked back and forth along the same street looking for them for over an hour until Marta and Brian finally reasoned with me that Alana and Jose must have gone back to the hostel. I just couldn't shake the worry that she was lost somewhere-- it was really scary. Of course, neither Marta, Brian, nor I had directions back to the hostel either, but after several attempts and a very roundabout cab ride, we finally made it back. Alana was asleep on her bed. WHEW! She and Jose had done the sensible thing and gone back to the hostel. I, of course, worried myself sick pacing around on the street for an hour before I wised up and went back. Well, small price to pay for an amazing day.

A brief recap since the last e-mail:

The ferry ride from Incheon to Qingdao was a blast! It was a smooth crossing and we had a very comfortable cabin all to ourselves.

We arrived in Qingdao, however, to our first severe case of culture shock: the touts, vendors, and cab drivers in China can be, as I mentioned, quite agressive and absolutely relentless (and not in the good, TFA way), so we were a bit taken aback. Plus we didn't have any Chinese Yuan, or a map, or a guidebook, and gone were those handy tourist information offices, staffed by anglophones, that occur so frequently in Korea. After a bit of a fiasco, finally the most wonderful English-speaking young man helped us, and we got settled in.

The next evening we took an overnight train to Shanghai. We checked in to a pretty decent hostel, for a change, and met up with Alana's Shanghainese friend from summer school, Jenny. She and her cousin, Anita, showed us a great time in Shanghai. We loved it. We did a lot of shopping, hit up some interesting expat parties/bars, and generally lived it up. I really
liked it in Shanghai, despite the grime and constant harried pace of the city. it has this really cool mixture of really old and brand-spankin new. we went to this bar on the top of a building
looking out onto this futurisitic skyline... I kept waiting for george jetson to go flying by in his
space car!

after a few days in Shanghai, we took another overnight train up to Beijing. We were thwarted in our plans to visit Xian, which we hear is great. gives us reason to come back, though. anyway, yesterday we visited tianamen square, which was really amazing and surreal. I was telling alana my memories of the massacre, which occurred when I was in third grade. I can remember being in ms. allen's class at parley's park elementary in Park City, and kids doing their current events reports on it. it's such a trip to think that at that time I thought you could dig a hole and make it to china one day, and now here I am. we didn't get to see chairman mao's remains, but we will soon, tomorrow I hope, after a visit to the forbidden city.

alana and I are making great travel partners. I think it's awesome that she and I have had this experience together. we've done so many cool things that I would not have done if I had
been by myself, namely: we've gotten our nails and toes done, shopped our faces off, and gotten massages! three cheers for traveling with a sister.

anyway, it's hard to believe that our trip is almost over. for all those in the northwest: Alana and I are already plotting an 'Asia Night' at our house (hope that's cool, mom and dad), during which we will roll sushi, chow some Asian snacks, and we will entertain you with our hundreds of photos. We get home September 19th, and I leave again on the 24th, so hopefully it will happen sometime in there.

Thanks again for all your support, everyone. I've thought of all of you during our various escapades.

Lots of love...

Yahoo! for Good
Click here to donate to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.

Martinez Girls in Asia: Part Deux

2005-09-05T06:32:00.000-07:00

Hello from Seoul! This is our last night in South
Korea. We've been here for about a week. The first few
days we puttered around Seoul, did some shopping (why
are Asian department stores eternally fascinating?),
saw some temples, ate some kimchee, etc. Several days
ago, we ventured to Jeju-do Island, off the
southernmost tip of South Korea. It went a little
something like this:
Day One: Traveled from Seoul to Mokpo, a southern port
city, by train. We caught a ferry from Mokpo to
Jeju-si, a port city on the northern side of Jeju-do.
The ferry ride was long but uneventful, once we got
over our surprise that the economy class passengers
sit on the floor for the full four-hour crossing! Upon
arrival in Jeju-si, we got settled at the crumbiest
hotel of our trip yet, but they had TV with BBC, so we
couldn't complain too much! We are a bit behind on the
news and are completely shocked over the devastation
of Hurricane Katrina.
Day Two: Took the "Limousine Bus" (sounds a lot more
glamorous than it is) to Seogwipo, the southern port
city on the island. Got situated at the Napoli Hotel,
our cheapest accom yet, and it even had a view of the
harbor. It appears we barely skirted the tourist
season. We had heard that prices on Jeju-do can be
highly inflated during the summer, and crowds
terrible, but we didn't find that to be the case.
After we got settled, we took the limousine bus over
the the Hyatt Regency, where there was access to a
nice, sandy beach (much of the Jeju coastline is
rocky). It was pretty hazy/overcast though, as it has
been for much of the trip.
Day Three: Our attempts to rent a car didn't work out,
and we had a serious laundry situation on our hands,
so Alana and I went on a wild goose chase to find the
apparently non-existant laundromat in Seogwipo. We
ended up in the minivan of a very nice dry cleaning
shop proprietor, who drove us all over town looking
for a place to do our laundry! We finally found a
place, much to our relief. After we got that taken
care of, we visited the Jeju Art Park, this outdoor
sculpture garden that was interesting, though a tad on
the bizarre, run-down side, and it was VERY hot and
humid out-- not the best day for a stroll in the
garden. When we were heading back to the beach we
missed the bus, then missed our bus stop, consequently
missing our beach time. No biggie though, because we
cut through this amazing canyon filled with several
dramatic waterfalls. Took lots of pictures, soon to
come.
Day Four: Checked out of the Napoli Hotel and hit the
beach. Of course the weather was uncooperative. We did
manage to get some sun, despite the haze. I really
wanted to swim, but the waves seemed really dangerous,
so I resigned myself to wading. We regretfully left
Seogwipo in the afternoon, on the good old limo bus.
We headed back up to Jeju-si, where it was stormy. We
found an underground mall where we ate dinner for all
of 3,500 Won (total-- less than $3.50), then shopped a
little. Most stores only have small and medium sizes--
very depressing. I got a t-shirt that has a picture of
some grazing animals and says, "Goats really like to
nibble." That they do. Our hotel was pretty seedy, but
again had English TV! We watched some terrible
Harrison Ford movie, then two episodes of Lost. We're
hooked!
Today: We got up at around 6am to catch the 7:40 ferry
back to Mokpo. We arrived at the ferry terminal to
find that the boat would depart at 9:40, not 7:40.
Great. When we finally got on the boat, the crossing
was ROUGH. It was all I could do to just lay down,
close my eyes, practice my yoga breathing and just
wait for it to be over. I engaged in a battle of wills
with my stomach and I emerged triumphant-- I'm happy
to report that I did not have to see my breakfast
twice today! It finally calmed down about two hours
into the crossing-- Gracias a Dios. The remaining two
hours were pretty uneventful. We arrived in Mokpo only
slightly worse for the wear, caught a cab to the train
station, caught a train to Seoul, caught a subway to
Insadong, and here we are at Seoul Backpackers Hostel!
Whew!
The BBC news report we caught this morning seemed
rather blase about the typhoon currently headed for
Japan-- we're not sure whether we should be concerned
or not. We're scheduled to catch a ferry from Incheon
to Qingdao, China, tomorrow afternoon. It's going to
take almost 24 hours, and I don't know if I can take
it if it's going to be as rough as our crossing today.
Alana and I did spring for business class-- a major
splurge on this shoestring trip-- hopefully that
helps.
Alana is a little nervous about traveling in China;
I'm anxious but optimistic. I suspect it will be a
little more challenging to get around and communicate.
We got spoiled, going to Japan first. It's so easy to
travel there. I think China will be a challenge, but
well worth it!
Well, I sent out some photos, but not to all of you,
so drop me an e-mail if you'd like to see them and
I'll send them along. As of now I can't put them on
the blog because I need some special software. It'll
have to wait until I get home.
Thanks to those of you who wrote back last time.
In conclusion, 1/2 of the Martinez girls are happy and
healthy in Seoul. I hope to send another update from
China.
Cheers!

Curiouser and Curiouser

2005-08-29T06:57:00.000-07:00
A quick hello from Seoul! Alana and I safely transferred ourselves from Japan to Korea via Japan Airlines earlier today. We found our hostel without mishap, later found a Korean bath with only a few minor mishaps, and are about ready to head to bed. We'll spend a couple more days here, then head down to Jeju-do, "Korea's Hawaii." It should be wonderful. We enjoyed our first Korean dining experience tonight: bibimbap-- rice topped with various veggies, egg, chili sauce, all mixed together. It was delicious! A bit spicy. We even ventured to try the notorious kimchee-- pickled, fermented, very spicy cabbage-- and we liked it, too! So so far the Martinez girls and Korea are getting along very nicely.

It's very different here, though: things are absolutely NOT as orderly as in Japan. It's harder to find your way around and navigate the metro. The language is more challenging than Japanese (not that I really learned any Japanese, but it just seemed easier to follow, somehow). In Japan if you ask a stranger if they speak English, 9 times out of 10 they'll tell you they don't, but if you proceed to ask more questions in English, 9 times out of 10 their English is actually pretty good. In Korea if you ask someone if they speak English and they tell you they don't-- they don't.

There is a lot to see in Seoul, though, and we are looking forward to checking it all out tomorrow.

Things we wish we had packed:
- some paper clips (they just would have come in handy)
- a foot file (your feet get pretty nasty after walking around in sandals for miles and miles)
- an umbrella (it only takes one walk through the rain carrying all your worldly possessions to sorely regret that omission)

Advice to those who might want to travel to Asia one day:
- BUY A JAPAN RAIL PASS. It seems steep at first-- ours cost over $250. However, it was good for travel on any Japan Rail line throughout Japan for a week, including the JR lines that run all around Tokyo, the line to/from the airport, and those awesome Shinkansen. They more than pay for themselves.
- Go to Hiroshima. We only had a brief time there, but it was well worth it. We didn't even get to go to the museum, and we really wished we could. But the Peace Park and A-Bomb Dome are amazing (photos coming soon, I promise).
- If at all possible, fly Japan Airlines. They're awesome!!
- I highly recommend www.airbrokers.com for booking multi-stop plane tickets. Tell them I sent you-- maybe I'll get a deal later, hehe.

Random other snippet of info from the other side of the world: I just finished reading _The Time Traveler's Wife_, and Alana is reading it now, and we are completely obsessed with it. Everyone should read it. Comments?

Ta-Ta For Now,

The Traveling Martinezes

Hideos Message

2005-08-27T07:18:00.000-07:00
Hi again! In my last message I mentioned our new friend Hideo, who showed us all around Asakusa. He then sent us a message describing everything we saw and did that day. The message is below (Hideo said I could post it). He also said that he would show any of our friends our family around Asakusa, so let me know if you are planning a trip to Japan, and I will put you in touch with Hideo! I have not succeeded in posting photos yet, but I hope to soon. We'll be in touch!

---

Dear Meile and Alana

How are you?
I am Hideo Noguchi, did you remember me? I met you in the front of Sensoji-temple, so please call me Hideo. I was very glad to talk with you. I seldom speak English except tell the way to foreign people. So I had never talked in English so long in my life. Thank you for talking with me and reading my message.

About me a little.
I was born in Asakusa, and was living there till 10 years old. And I moved house in Chiba-prefecture, now I am living at Funabashi city in Chiba-prefecture. It takes about a hour from my house to Asakusa by train. I work for electric parts company, I belong the sales department. Yes, electrical parts. But they are for heavy electrical equipments. Major customers are nuclear power stations. My office is near Tokyo station, it takes about one hour from my house by train. Sometimes I visit Asakusa, because Asakusa remainds me of childhood. I like to watching sports, and playing sports, for example, tennis, baseball, swimming, jogging, Judo, and so on. And I Iike walking the old downtown, of course, Asakusa, and Fukagawa, Ueno, and so on.

My company usually has day-off on Saturday and Sunday, but I needed to come to office the last weekend because of my client's demand. Despite this, I could have only one makeup holiday on the day we met. So I was seeing at Asakusa, and then met you luckily. My elementary classmates, Seven of friends of mine have lived in Asakusa area. On that day, I was planning to drink with seven of them, but one of them could not come due to urgent business. After that I went to his home and shared the lunch with him. Of course, I drank with other friends at night and went to sing Karaoke. But I had Japanese Sake too much. I had a hangover next morning.

First I showed you Sensoji-temple and tried Mikuji there and then showed you Asakusa shrine.
Omikuji (Mikuji)
Omikuji are written oracles, obtained by drawing lots in which the ggod or bad luck od events is indicated through praying at Shinto shrine or Buddhist temples. One's overrall fortune can range from outstanding to average to bad, covering various aspects of life such as academics, business, marriage, proposals, and victory or defeat.
At New Year most people visit shrines, and enjoy drawing omikuji. However, rather than drawing Omikuji to actually learn about their fortunes, most people seem to do it with a sense of playfulness. Omikuji are written on long narrow paper and usually tied to trees after being read in hopes that their pryers will be answered. You
got a Bad fortune paper at Sensoji temple. Don't worry about it. We do it just for fun. The number of "BAD" is very small in this box. So paradoxically, you had the luck to get the "BAD."
About the though of Japanese religion.
It is generally true that most japanese do not have a strong faith in any religion. In fact, many profess to have no interest in religion. Accoding to statistics, most Japanese have at least one religion, but when you ask them which religion they believe in, most Japanese will answer that they do not have one. that is because Shintoism and Buddism are particed in their daily coutoms instead of as their religion. The japanese people have raditionaly been tolerant of all religions sects. For example,
1, Many Japanese youngsters wish to get marrid in Chritian rites.
Many of them travel abroad to observe their wedding ceremonies in Chirstian churches,
for them, it`s quite fashinable.
2, Some temples run the Kindergarten, and them held a Christmas party for children,
so buddhist priests wear Santa Claus' costume on that party.
3, Buddhism is the most common in Japan.
You may think odd but Japanese people enjoy Christmas while we don't celebrate Buddha's birthday.
In fact, most people don't know when his birthday is.
There're ceremonial events at temples throughout Japan on his birthday.
On that day, they decorate lots of floweres and pour sweet tea over Buddha statue.

About Shinbutsu-shugo.
It is Shinto-Buddhist synthesis. In Japan long ago, Buddhism, which came from abroad, and Shinto, which is a folk religion, occasinally came together in a synthesis. Because Buddhism is not a theistic doctrine and Shinto
principally worships nature, there were no contradictions in synthesizing them.
About "A-UN".
You saw and Komainu (the lion-shaped gardiun dogs) at Asakusa shrine. One animal open the mouse, and another animal cloth the mouth. A-UN expresses the sound "A" of the beginning of Sanskrit, and the last sound "UN" from the first, applies it to the start of things, and the end, and is based on the grand idea of expressing all the universes with it. All the universes! It calls mental and physical harmonization? It became A-UN to have symbolized it in the form of a mouth. It can see by "the Two Deva Kings" in the both sides of a Buddhist temples gate, and "the image of guardian dogs" set in front of the place of prayer. The right image is opening the mouth and the left has closed. ｣ﾉt expresses these 2 characters, protects a sanctuary, and turns us down from a vicious thing.
Juni-shi
The twelve signs of the Oriental zodiac cycle.
This cycle, introduced from China, includes nine mammals, one bird and two reptiles.
In their proper order they are NE(mouse), USHI(ox), TORA(tiger), U(hare), TATSU(dragon),
MI(serpent), UMA(horse), HITSUJI(sheep), SARU(monky), TORI(cock), INU(dog), and I.(wild boar)
these signs of the zodiac are used for denoting compass direction as well as the hour of the day.
About time : NE (23:00 ｡ﾁ 00:59) USHI(01:00 ｡ﾁ 02:59) TORA(03:00 ｡ﾁ 04:59)
About ｣is year : The symbol of this year is a cock. You saw Ema printing cock on the board.

Next I showed you a statue of Kabuki actor, which talked about Geisha-san there and then Yogo-do hall.
Ichikawa Danjuro
Kabuki actor of the early Edo period. He swayed the minds of Kabuki funs by originated unique facial makeup with red and black paints and exaggerated movements called Ara-Goto. The Ichikawa house, of which he was a member, is a leading family of the Kabuki circle, and has produced many superb Kabuki actors. Ichikawa Danjuro devoted hid life the Kabuki drama. When he was 45 years of age, however, he was stabbed to death in his dressing room by a Kabuki actor who had envy of his fame. The name "Ichikawa Danjuro " is a hereditary name for the family's head and star actor of Kabuki. The name introduced here was the first Ichikawa Danjuro｡ﾊ1660-1704｡ﾋ. The statue you saw was Ichikawa Danjurou 9th's one. He has been called 'Saint Kabuki', who established the foundation of following Kabuki. Nowadays, Ichikawa Danjurou 12th has been acting as his heir.
Geisha-san
"Geish" or professional entertaining ladies live in a quarter of which I suggested to you before. I sometimes see them by twos or threes. Mostly they are about to go to their "Okiya" or their booking office or to a training school. As they are in plain and western clothes, we can not distiguish them from usual ladies.
you tried Mikuji in the front of Sensoji-temple and I showed you Sensoji temple and then Asakusa shrine.
Butsu-zou
It`s a Buddhist image, an image or likeness of the Buddha, sculpted or painted as an object of worship in Buddhism. Each Butsuzo is a guardian sprit. You saw them at Yogo-do Hall at the side of Sensoji-temple.
Each animal (Eto) has each Butsuzo, for example, mouse has Senju-kanon, cow & tiger has Koku-bosatsu,
hare has Monju-bosatsu, sheep has Dainichi-nyorai, _ _ _ _.
Dainichi-Nyorai
Your guardian sprit is Dainichi-nyorai zou. It is Vairocana Buddha. The principal image of Buddha in the pantheistic esoteric Buddhism which identifies the entire universe as his body. He is called Dainichi because his light extends ecerywhere. He is represented by two kinds of Buddha image, constituting the world of wisdom and that of readon. He is the principal image of Buddha in the Shingon sect of Buddhism.
Amida-Nyorai
Alana's guardian sprit is Amida-nyorai zou. This Butsuzou has two symbol of guardian, INU(dog), I(wild boar).
It is Amitabha Tathagata. The Supreme Buddha presiding over the Paradise of the West, in which believers gain rebirth after death. His statue always has a special position for the hands, most often one in which his hands rest in his lap, the forefinger being raised to meet the thumb, forming a circle. He is worshipped as the central deity in the Amida Buddhist sect, specially honored by the Jodo-shu sect.

After that you saw Huji Waraji and Nade-botoke and then I showed you Benten-do hall, kuremutsu so on. Asakusa area where Edo culture originated also prospered as a town of the commons and it still has Edo period's temples and shrines, people's smart temperaments, workmen's proud traditinal industries and it is the only area in Tokyo with historical remains and culture of Edo.
Huji Waraji
The waraji(Japanese trditional sandals) was made for and dedicated to the Sensoji Temple by people in Yamagata prefecture. This huge pair of waraji are like a talisman. This waraji is displayed at the temple under the superstition that people who attempt something bad would run away because they suppose there is a security guard who is as big as wearing the huge waraji. And also, the waraji is like a lucky charm of anything related with legs. For example, people wish for their legs keeping strong or athletes come to make a wish to stay out of troble dealing with legs.

Nade-Botoke
It is said that something wrong with a part of your body, if any, will be cured if you touch the same part of this statue. That's a sort of making a wish.
Benten-do hall
One of the three famous Benten (goddes of happiness and prosperity) in Kanto area is here. It is said that the bell in the bell tower was made in 1692. It told the time to the people in the castle town Edo in the Edo era.
The priests of full-time staff called "the priests for striking the bell" got the income by collecting the tner's fees from the neighboring residents in those days. Even now The Sensoji Temple is ranked highly in gathering the visiters for paying the first visits of the year. The sound of the tolling of the bells on New Year's Eve striked by the believers means a signal for starting paying the first visits to the shrines.It is suitable for Asakusa that the sound of the bell striked by fascinating elegant geisha girls resound.
108
People are believed to contain 108 earthly desires. All of these are based on the three poisons of greed, anger and ignorance in Buddism. ( Greedy love is love that tries to fulfill one's physical and emotional desires, possessive love is attachment to material things, thoughts and life, and nihilism is attachment to the idea of the rejection of life.)
Kuremutsu
High grade Japanese restaurant. That shop purposely has old-fasioned decors. You can enter without reservation. You could see a weeping willow by the gate. This restaurant is full of Japanese elegance. We recommend you to have a drink under the light of lantern around thw nostalgic Japanese hearth in this restaurant. But it's a expensive. Finally I showed you Asakusa public hall and the rokku broadway street.

On your way you saw some interesting goods, for example, Maneki-neko, Tanuki.......
Tanuki
You could see that doll in the front of sake restaurant. Living only in East Asia(Japan, korea and Cnina), they are nocturnal animals resembling badgers. When they are very surprised they fall into a state of apparent death; from this deception comes the phrase "the racoon dog's sleep" indicating a pretense of sleping. In Japanese folktales, racoon dogs are depicted as humorous animals, appearing in disguise and deceiving people, but always failing. Racoon dogs are believed to beat a drum on their bellies.
Sometimes you see Tanuki dolls with a bottle of Sake, Japanese rice wine. That Tanuki wares cloth, but usually that kind of statue is naked. Its pot belly, the Tanuki is associated with two other figures with large stomachs, the Fugu (blow) fish and Hotei, the fat, hilarious God of Luck. The famous Shogun, Ieyasu Tokugawa, was irreverently referred to as Furu Tanuki, old Badger. In present day Japan, a statue of a Tanuki is often stationed outside of a shop or restaurant, beckoning to customers to visit the establishment.
Bunbuku Chagama is a famous folklore featuring Tanuki. A Tanuki disguised as a Chagama, tea kettle for tea ceremonies to help his friend, a poor farmer. He sells "Chagama" to a monk. But when the monk put Chagama on fire, Tanuki ran away... Tanuki, cannot regain the original shape anymore,
begins working at circus and becomes a star! His favorite performance is dancing on a rope!
Maneki-Neko.
The word"Maneki Neko" comes from invite"Maneki" and cat"Neko". An ornamental cat usually made of porcelain, clay or woof. It is in a beckoning pose with its left from paw raised to its left ear. Placed on a shelf facing the entrance to a restaurant or shop, it is used as a charm to draw visitors and customers.
Fugu
Fugu is a kind of fish. It is globefish, or growfish. You saw fugu swimming at window of the restaurant. Grobefish is usually served as sashimi(raw fish) very sliced, or used as an ingredient in soup or stew. It has a superb delicate taste. Its preparation requires spcial skill, because globefish glands contain a deadly poison. Thus, Fugu restaurants are required to be licensed by the goverment.
Senbei ｡ﾊOsenbei｡ﾋ
It is rice crackers. These are the most popular Japanese confectionery. They are made from glutinous rice and wheat flour. The dough is stretched thinly into circles or squares of about seven to eight centimeters, or put into molds, then baked ; taste is supplied by baking it with soy sauce applied or by mixing it with sesame and salt.
Senbei were perfected in the Edo period (1603-1867) and there are various kinds throughout Japan. Thinly-cut, dried rice cakes called Kakimochi are considered one kind of Senbei. It tastes delicious with Japanese tea.
How did you like Senbei?

How did you like in Kyoto?

Martinez girls in Asia: Mass e-mail 1 (test)

2005-08-25T05:18:00.000-07:00

Hello from Kyoto! This is a quick test of the mass e-mail list I have generated of people I think might be interested in the misadventures of the Martinez girls in Asia. If you dont want to hear from us over the next four weeks, please respond to this email with something to the effect of "you and your stinking misadventures make me sick" as the subject, and I will cease to tire you with my messages. Also, I have several e-mail addresses for some of you, so you might receive numerous copies of this message. If thats the case, let me know which address you prefer.

Now that we have that business out of the way, allow me to catch you up on our first few days in Japan. For those of you who dont know, my sister Alana and I are traveling through Japan, Korea, and China for four and a half weeks. Weve been in Japan for five days already and we wish we had planned to stay longer! Were only here for about a week total. We planned such a short stay because everyone warned us about how expensive it is here, but so far we have found prices to be comparable to those in the US. We spend the first few days in Tokyo, which we loved. Everything about that city is just COOL. Everything is just so orderly. The trains arrive precisely on time and with the doors opening at the same exact spot without fail. Although we are two lurpy American girls who speak no Japanese, everyone has been SO nice to us. Two highlights were at the Senso-ji temple: 1. This adorable little girl comes up to us and says, "Hello! Where are you from?" and proceeds to have her mom take her picture with us. They both wanted to practice their English. Well send out those photos soon. Alana and I want to make off with every Japanese child because they are so stinkin cute. 2. Alana and I were staring, befuddled, at this fountain thingee outside of the temple. This man asks us, "Do you know what that is?" When we responded in the negative, we said, "Ill show you," and went on to explain the purification procedures for entering a temple. He turned out to be our new best Japanese friend, Hideo. He showed us all around the Senso-ji area and we learned SO MUCH from him. I later felt guilty because Im so used to traveling in countries where a lot of people try to rip you off that I was very suspicious of him at first. I kept thinking, OK when is he going to lead us to the really expensive kimono shop and insist that we buy something? But that wasnt it at all, he just wanted to practice his English. He grew up in Asakusa (the area around the temple), so he was very knowledgeable about it. He sent us an e-mail today that I will post to my blog if he tells me its OK. It describes everything we did in detail.

Speaking of the blog, I will try to update it via e-mail, which means that this e-mail should go to it. in the meantime you can get caught up: www.travelingmsmartinez.blogspot.com I havent had a chance to send photos to it since we arrived in Asia, but dont worry I have taken hundreds already. Im getting worried that when I get home Ill be like, "heres a temple we visited. and heres a picture of a shrine we visited. oh and heres another picture of another temple..." and Ill bore all my friends and family to tears. get ready!

Anyway, we did a million amazing things in Tokyo, too many to list.@I highly recommend the fish market to anyone who ever comes to Japan-- and everyone who hasnt been here already had better start planning a trip soon because this place is incredible!@Lindsey: we took your advice and ate at a conveyer-belt sushi place. quite an adventure!@

Now we are in Kyoto. We took the Shinkansen (bullet train) down here, which I had quite looked forward to because they are some of the fastest trains in the world, but... I didnt expect them to do such a number on my stomach. And I never get motion sickness! I am just not used to moving so fast. In any case, we arrived safe and sound in Kyoto, if a little worse for the wear. Were staying in a ryokan, which is a traditional Japanese inn. Unfortunately I picked out the el cheapo of ryokan in Kyoto, so the experience has not been quite as special as I anticipated. We do have our own room and private bathroom, which might be the only time that happens on this trip!

I guess thats all for now. One half of the Martinez girls report that alls well in Kyoto. Next update sometime soon.

ciao!

PS: a tous mes amis en europe: je sais bien que vous parlez anglais miex que jecris francais, mais quand meme une petite explanation: ma soeur et moi sommes en Asie. nous allons voyager en japon, koree, et chine pendant 4 semaines, avant que jailles en europe. jarrive en angleterre vers le fin septembre, et je tiens vous voir! bisous!!

Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page

NYC

2005-08-09T05:57:00.000-07:00
Just a quick hello from Manhattan! I arrived late last night after a LONG day of flying. I flew in to Long Island (Islip), so I had made arrangements to take a cab to the Jitney (Long Island bus), and the Jitney to its last stop on Manhattan. My flight got in at 9:50pm, so all that would have put me at my friend Courtney's door on the Upper West Side at about 1:30am. When I got to Chicago on my way yesterday, I was waiting in line for some greasy Chinese food when I heard my name over the loudspeaker in the airport. At first I thought it wasn't me. The woman was pronouncing my first name correctly, but not my last. That never happens. Finally I realized it probably was me-- then my stomach dropped. I imagined any number of horrible things that could have happened to my loved ones in the few hours that I was in the sky between Seattle and Chicago. I went to some desk somewhere and told the woman I thought I was being paged. I was. I had a message: Call Courtney on her cell phone. This proved more of a challenge than one might expect, as my cell phone is now defunct. I found a pay phone, charged my calling card, and called her. She answered: "I'm sorry to freak you out, but I just wanted to tell you that Dave [her husband] has a car for work today, and he can pick you up at the airport!" WHEW!! I was, needless to say, very relieved for a number of reasons. Not the least of which is that when it was all said and done, we were back at Court's appartment at about 11 last night, which beats the heck out of 1:30-- and that includes a scenic tour of the neighborhoods around the Triboro bridge, where we had some difficulty finding out way.

Court made me an appointment to get my hair cut today, so I'm off to do that in a little bit. Then I'll meet up with her in SoHo, and we'll probably get dinner with her husband tonight. The weather is muggy and warm, but cloudy, so I'd say it's in the low 80s-- tolerable.

All Stars and Titans: How was your first day back at UJHS? Which teachers do you have? Fill me in!!

Love,
ms. martinez

Another Trip in the Bag

2005-08-05T22:04:00.000-07:00
Bainbridge Island, Washington.

I'm back on the rock after a short week in Idaho. My dad and I took a commuter ferry from Bainbridge to Seattle on Monday morning (we shared a latte in the ferry parking lot with Alana's boyfriend, Jacob-- quelle chance), then embarked upon a nine hour drive to the delightful town of McCall, Idaho. My grandparents have been spending a month or so there just about every summer for the last 25 years (as long as I've been around); I've been there many times, but only really begun to appreciate it recently. After all, it is Idaho-- it's a bit of an acquired taste.

No, actually, I love Idaho. It's like a couple of other states I've called home (Utah and Arizona, specifically)--underappreciated, undervisited-- and I like it that way. McCall is a beautiful town on the shores of Payette lake, lounging drowsily at the foot of some mountain range or another-- an appendage of the Rockies whose name escapes me, or maybe I never knew it in the first place.

In any case, between walks around Ponderosa State Park, dips in the pool, a dramatic hike up to Lava Lakes (panoramic views, photos soon to come), and always-appreciated quality time with my father and grandparents, three days whizzed by like so many hours, and now we're already back on the Island. Hard to believe that I've already worked my way through several of the adventures I had planned for this summer (a summer that, for my friends and former students back in AZ, is basically over-- sorry to remind you, guys!). Well, lucky for me, the trips keep getting bigger and better from here on out, as I have an overnighter at my friend Windy's place (the epic and infamous Wilkins summer bash), NYC/Block Island/Massachusetts, Asia, and the big move to England still to come. Stay tuned!

xoxo
the artist formerly known as ms. martinez

New Pictures!

2005-07-28T10:57:00.000-07:00
Hey everyone! I finally put up some pictures from the big road trip. I've been enjoying a very leisurely time at my parents' house on Bainbridge Island for the past couple of weeks, but I'm looking forward to my upcoming trips to Idaho, the Northeast, and of course, Asia! Stay tuned for updates.

I have heard from a few students lately, and it's been great to get updated on what's been going on all summer. I know some of you are dreading the return to school, but just think-- you'll be eighth graders! The top of the heap! There is some excitement in that, at least. I hope I get to hear from more of you when you return to UJHS. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the latest photos, and I'll try to put more up soon (I am currently researching digital cameras, so I can bring one of my own to the east coast and to Asia!).

Lots of love,

Ms. Martinez

2005-07-28T10:55:00.000-07:00

Ideal day for hiking Olympics, Washington.

2005-07-28T10:53:00.000-07:00

Jellies! Monterey Bay Aquarium.

2005-07-28T10:51:00.000-07:00

Somewhere near Big Sur, CA

2005-07-28T10:50:00.000-07:00

Santa Barbara

2005-07-28T10:49:00.000-07:00

Santa Barbara, CA

News from the Road: Santa Barbara

2005-07-11T10:05:00.000-07:00
A quick hello from Santa Barbara! So far, the trip has been everything I had hoped. We stayed with wonderful hosts, Catie (an MHC alumna) and Adam (a South Hadley local), right by the beach right in SB. Ideal. Brian and I spent most of yesterday in Los Olivos, sampling delicious local wines (we discovered a new love for Viognier), snacking, and taking in the beautiful views of rows and rows of grapes, rolling hills, even a lone coyote. We hit Solvang on our way back, but were turned off by the touristy-ness and didn't stay long. It's overcast today, but we're heading up the coast toward Monterey. I hope to hit the aquarium this afternoon or tomorrow. There is so much to see in this part of the country! Do we go to Salinas and visit Steinbeck's house and grave (literary tourism-- so me), head to San Luis Obispo, which I've heard so much about, dawdle in Big Sur (another literary spot), or beat feet up to Monterey? I sigh to think of all the missions we'll miss along the way. It's clear I'll have to be back someday-- maybe even to stay for a while. Brian, who is not overly fond of southern California (despite my roots there, alas, alas), turned to me about 30 minutes into our stay in Santa Barbara and said, "I could live here." Good to know.

More news soon!
Love,
Ms. Martinez

Stop One: San Diego

2005-07-07T16:07:00.000-07:00
Hello! Well, I have left Phoenix for the foreseeable future. I had my moments of feeling really sad about it, one moment in particular when I burst into tears in the Safeway parking lot-- it was about 112 degrees out, 6 or so in the evening, the sky was fuscia, split by lightening and punctuated by palm trees shaking about like pom-poms. The combination of the bizarre beauty of the desert and my sentimental sense of home-- I don't get too attached to place these days-- had me weeping like a weirdo in my sweltering car. I didn't want to say goodbye to the Safeway security guy who always gives me a hard time about walking out with nothing but a bottle of wine, or the guy with the frosted hair who rings me up, and whom I used to see on First Fridays sometimes. Phoenix isn't the kind of city with neighborhoods and local spots like New York or even Seattle, and when you find your niche, you attach to it fiercely, because you had to earn it, like a saguaro achieving unlikely purchase in rocky, sun-bleached soil. So yes, I was sad to go.

But San Diego's another of my many homes, and just as I'm willing to overlook the triple-digit temperatures and ubiquitous strip malls that number among Phoenix's shortcomings, I don't always mind the traffic and the homogenous populace here. A morning stroll on the beach, followed by an iced coffee afternoon with a book in hand and toes in the sand, clad in a bikini I am probably too old to be wearing, then a mini-hike with my grandparents among Torrey Pines, a grilled fish dinner and a drink at a dive bar in O.B. sounds like the life to me.

Not for long, because Brian flies in tomorrow, and we head up the coast. So begins my nomadic summer. Here's the itinerary:

Friday night: LA
Saturday and Sunday: Santa Barbara
Monday: Monterey
Tuesday: Palo Alto
Wednesday: Napa
Thursday: Portland
Sometime that weekend: Seattle

Brian leaves Seattle Monday. I'll stay there until the end of July. At the beginning of August my dad and I will go to visit my grandparents in McCall, Idaho for a week or so. Mid-August I'll head to NYC to catch up with Courtney, David, hopefully Kara, and anyone else around. Then it's Block Island/South Hadley with the Chartrand clan. Then Alana and I head to Asia! We've settled on the itinerary: 6 days in Japan, 1.5-2 weeks in Korea, 1-1.5 weeks in China. I'll be back in Seattle for a week before it's off to Cambridge. Whew! So if you happen to be in any of those places at the same time as me, catch me if you can.

2005-06-08T12:38:00.000-07:00

Hanging out near some "tuff"-- weird volcanic rock formations, outside of Santa Fe, NM.

May the Travels Begin...

2005-06-03T17:33:00.000-07:00
Hey everyone! Well, school has been out for a week, and I've already completed my first trip. Last Friday, Brian and I headed out of town to visit my sister Kela in Santa Fe, New Mexico. We drove through Flagstaff and arrived on Saturday afternoon. My parents were in Santa Fe for the visit; alas, my middle sister, Alana, couldn't make it. We did a bunch of hiking, and checked out some Anasazi ruins and all. Photos to come soon.

Brian flew home from Albuquerque (I never know how to spell that!) on Monday night, since he had to work on Tuesday. I stayed, and hung out with the fam for most of Tuesday. Mom and Dad went back to Seattle on Tuesday evening. Kela and I watched Donnie Darko (I don't know how I had never seen that movie before... I invite anyone who has seen it to share opinions... I am still recovering from scary-bunny-nightmares, but all in all, I thought it was a pretty smart flick with good performances all around). On Wednesday, I went to work on the Habitat for Humanity house with Kela. I basically just moved some wood, hammered in a few sliding door pulls, stuck some door stoppers on the wall, and inadvertently cracked a lightswitch plate-- then I called it a day. I left Kela driving the Kabota (sp? it's some tracker-like thingee-- I can't believe my sister knows how to operate one!), and I left Santa Fe for Gallup, NM, on Wednesday early afternoon.

Why Gallup? Well, I got in touch with my long-lost collaborative member (Teach For America-speak for team teacher) whom I met in Houston two years ago, and who has been teaching on the Navajo Nation for these past two years, outside of that fair city. I ventured out to Crownpoint, New Mexico, to reunite with Ms. Flores, which was a delight. I got a tour of the Rez, at least around where she lives (it's absolutely vast-- and gorgeous), including a visit to her school, in Standing Rock, NM (you'll know you're there when you see the standing rock). All in all, the visit was quite an experience-- it was just amazing to see where some of my TFA colleagues have been teaching, and imagine how different their experiences have been from mine.

When I met up with Maria on Wednesday night, we decided to drive the hour into Gallup so we could catch the Suns game at Applebees, the outcome of which, as many of you know, was very disappointing. Well, it was a great season gentlemen! It was fun while it lasted.

I spent the night at Maria's place on Wednesday, and drove out to see her school on my way back on the road to Phoenix. The drive back to Phoenix was painless, and beautiful, if a little tedious since I was by myself. Minor excitement arose when I realized I was about to run out of gas on a very isloated road between Holbrook and Heber, I think. I would have been up a creek, as they say, but luckily I coasted into the gas station just in time.

And now I'm back in Phoenix! I'm challenging myself to go to Bikram yoga every day for the next two weeks, so that began today. I feel OK, but I am sure I'll be barely able to move tomorrow. I'll be around for the next month, trying to get my life in order before I move out, and frantically completing classes for my certification. So that's my plan!

All Stars and Titans, how is summer going so far? I'd love to hear from you guys! I hope all is well. I heard the car wash for Braden was a big success, so way to go to those of you who participated.

I miss you all,

love,

Ms. Martinez

ASU article

2005-05-11T11:38:00.000-07:00
Here's a link to the recent ASU article about the Gates. My picture was actually on the ASU homepage for a few days, which elevated my status to very minor celebrity for about 30 seconds. I'm hoping to get a picture of it, from Lewis' powerpoint presentation, to post soon.

Hey All Stars and Titans: Thanks for your enthusiasm and support when I showed you the blog and told you about my plans. I hope you all keep in touch, and post often!

Here's a link to the article

Later!
Ms. Martinez

Learning...

2005-04-30T15:06:00.000-07:00
As I mentioned, this is an experiment. I just figured out how to post a picture-- kind of. Still trying this out...

2005-04-30T15:04:00.000-07:00

Bumbershoot 2004

Cambridge Links and Pics

2005-04-27T10:07:00.000-07:00
Here are some links and images, to give you an idea of what life will be like at Cambridge:

University of Cambridge Homepage: http://www.cam.ac.uk

St. John's College Homepage: http://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/

Awesome Panoramas of St. John's!: http://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/about/tour/panoramas/

College Street Journal Article

2005-04-27T10:06:00.000-07:00
Here is an article about the Scholarship that was recently published in the Mount Holyoke College Street Journal.

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/csj/032505/gates_scholar.shtml

Maiden Voyage

2005-04-27T08:36:00.000-07:00
This is my first official post on my new blog! I want to welcome friends, family, and especially students to The Travels of Ms. Martinez. I have never blogged before, so this will be an experiment for me, as I imagine it will be for others. I plan to update this blog frequently with reflections on my travels over the next year, as well as photos and maybe even audio files.

As some of you know, I will be moving to Cambridge, England this fall, to begin my studies at the University of Cambridge. I will work toward an "MPhil" (Masters degree) in European Literature and Culture.

Classes at Cambridge begin October 2, 2005, and the last day of school at Underdown is May 26, so I have some free time this summer. I plan to do some extensive traveling: I have tentative plans to take a long road trip from Phoenix to Seattle in July, with some dilly-dallying along the way; I hope to visit my grandparents in McCall, Idaho, this summer; I hope also to go to Block Island, Rhode Island, with Brian's family, and spend several days in Boston, Western Mass, and New York City while I'm on the east coast; I'm most excited about tentative plans to spend about 4 weeks in Asia, including a visit to my friend Diana in Seoul, Korea, and hopefully jaunt to Thailand and Vietnam.

I'll be updating this blog all along, and I invite you to participate too. Just remember that I have created this blog as a forum for communicating with my students as I travel, so please, keep posts appropriate.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Ms. Martinez