"big fun"

There are about fifteen of us sitting in the hostel kitchen eating, computering, chatting, me enjoying my museli, etc. It seems everyone had as long of a day as I did. Since the hostel is located downtown in the Gaslamp Quarter where all the restaurants, clubs, and bars are, there is plenty of activity. It's also plenty noisy all night, especially since we keep the windows open for the nice breeze.

Outside just now we heard some fast car with an incredibly loud muffler speed down the street and it scared all of us. Not two seconds later we then heard a police car start up its siren and then everyone in the street started cheering. All of us inside ran to the window to watch the police car work its magic. And that was our "big fun" for the night (according to the Italian girl).

I spent today exploring the city some more. I found Ikea (yay!) and some other stores, although it seems like I spent the majority of my time either sitting on the bus or trolley or walking. I did a lot of walking, which I do enjoy. I'd take that sort of activity over driving any day here.

These plants are everywhere, and I love them. Anyone know what kind they are?

sorry Zen Zero

I just had the best Thai food ever, and it didn't come from my beloved restaurant Zen Zero in my beloved city of Lawrence. But that's alright. I've come to the conclusion that San Diego has some of the best restaurants I've been to, and surprisingly there are places even college students can afford.

Today was a work day. I started it off with more free pancakes at the hostel, and I noticed the Kazakhs I taught how to make pancakes yesterday had not progressed much past another 3-lb pile of a mixture of burned crispies and sloppy batter. At the museum, I did more of the same at work in terms of collection cataloging. Not much to mention in that department.

The trolley adventure today was just that-- an adventure. At least I managed to get on trolleys all going in the desired directions, even though I missed one thinking it was going opposite where I wanted when in fact it was the exact one I wanted.

I can't believe I'm going to admit this, but I got lost this evening. If you know me, you know I never get lost. Even so, I wasn't really lost because I knew I was on the right street the entire time-- I just happened to walk right past my hostel and kept on going, thinking I would see it. All the people out enjoying their Friday nights were distracting, as was this fellow:

And he was good! Good enough I gave him $1. I've got a three day weekend, so that means I'll finally spend some time sightseeing. I've seen lots of sights from the boat I sit on every day, which mostly consists of this type:

On the inside of the boat, the upper deck of the museum is where the ferry seating is. The boat was built in 1898 and took 1700 people at a time from Oakland to San Francisco. It's got beautiful stained glass windows (except they aren't stained, they are some other thing that I can't remember that is better than stained, but still colored). Anyway, it's gorgeous. People use it for their wedding receptions. Not a bad idea...

Today was windy ("windy" at about 15 mph), and the water choppy. The museum (boat) was rocking, which I was unsure whether it could do or not until today. I'm amazed at how consistent the weather is here. It's cool in the evenings (60 F), and mostly sunny throughout the day (70 F). And that's the 10-day forecast from weather.com!

a few minutes and some decent internet

After an afternoon of stress, I'm finally in a place where I can relax for a bit and give an update on my little adventure so far. I've started my work at the San Diego Maritime Museum which consists mostly of cataloging objects. That means I go through and look at each item, noting damage or other issues, and take photos. I then put all the information, including an accession number, into the database on the computer. It's a little tiring for an all-day activity, but at least the objects are interesting. Today I worked on sailing sketches (some very good ones in ink), some Pacific Island boat models and art by Gauguin, which are part of a new exhibit on Captain Cook, Gauguin, and Herman Melville:

http://www.sdmaritime.org/three-voyages

After work today, I was frantically trying to find a Starbucks, as it is the only place pretty much guaranteed to have free internet (which I have decided I am too reliant on).  Anyway, I ended up at one of those Starbucks stands inside a grocery store, which as it turns out, did not have internet. I then made a fool out of myself trying to make my way through a rotating gates that would not rotate in the direction I intended to walk. Who puts up one of those in a grocery store anyway?? It looked like they had installed cattle panels in there...

I'm now biding my time in a hostel in downtown San Diego until I can move into the apartment I am renting next week. The friendly girl in the bunk below me is from Denmark, but she lived in San Diego for 4 years while in school and is back for a visit, so she's been very helpful with information about this place. Thank goodness.

And because no blog post is complete without a picture...

This is right outside of San Diego. If it wasn't all Indian Reservation, I'd love to live here, away from the city.

we're on our way!

My dad and I have passed through Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and
most of New Mexico so far on our drive to San Diego. It was a long drive today, and we have the same thing on the agenda for tomorrow.

The only thing I have to say is that eastern Kansas looks like a rainforest compared to Oklahoma and Texas and a lot of New Mexico. There's not much green around here! Only brown grass and dust, and no trees-- only super-sized shrubs. In some areas, it looks like it never recovered from the Dust Bowl.
Either that, or it's starting all over again.

 

Needless to say, a lot of our drive was quite boring.  That is until we got to Albuquerque and saw some hill-mountains.

Now we are at a hotel in Grants, New Mexico. It's a small place, where the Subway closes at 8:30 (literally as we were walking to the door), and the only other two choices for dinner are Asian Super Buffet and Taco Bell. Well, I just finished my chalupa, and I've decided I'd like to go swimming, so that's all for now!

farm party!

Ah, the end of the semester. Only a week left of classes, but I'm already finished with work-- at least work in the classroom. The students take their proficiency test tomorrow, so I'll spend my Saturday morning as a proctor in the silent monotony that is that final test. Today, however, was our Level 1 party, and what a wonderful day it was! We went to the family farm of one of our teacher's and spent the afternoon outside enjoying the perfect weather. We also do "awards" at the end of the semester for students, teachers, and student assistants (like me). Mine was "Best at Paying Attention to Students". Earlier this morning, we taught a few students the song "Down By The Bay" and so did a performance for everyone, which included our own lyrics. It was quite fun!

We played frisbee!

We roasted marshmallows! (And you should have seen the look on one student's face after I scooped up my half-burned marshmallow after it had fallen off into the fire and ate it)

Some people played soccer. (And you can see what one teacher described: "the monk has monk shorts")

What a fantastic group!

We seem to love our tractors...

Grandma

Mom

Me

Teletubbies in Tibet: the importance of preserving audio & video archives

Yes, there really are Teletubbies videos in Tibet. Who knew! (But no, those are not the kind of resources I am advocating for preservation.) This past week, I saw the film "Tibet in Song", directed by Ngawang Choephel (who was actually at the screening for a discussion afterward), a documentary concerning the effects of Chinese occupation on traditional Tibetan music. While it is the cause for much of the disintegration of Tibetan culture, I do not want to get too much into the political aspect of the situation. Instead, I feel it is important to consider the benefits of documentation and access to resources on audio or video.

There are no laws in place prohibiting traditional Tibetan music as there once were, but it is still highly discouraged and Chinese music is instead blasted over loudspeakers around some Tibetan towns. As a result, many younger people no longer know real Tibetan music. However, there exists an archive library and museum in Dharamsala, India founded by the Dalai Lama that houses much of this forgotten music, the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives.

I highly recommend seeing the film, or at least the trailer: http://www.tibetinsong.com/

Director of the film, Ngawang Choephel, on right

Digitization of collections like are quickly becoming high-priority projects for many archival and cultural institutions. They are expensive, very time consuming, and tedious work because of the fragile condition of many of the films, photos, and objects. Yesterday, I visited the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City with a few other grad students. The museum has recently opened a new area, the John Baker Film Collection, where at this point only about ten percent of the old "soundies" and other clips, mostly from the 1920's to the 1940's, are available for viewing. It's a large undertaking to inspect each film, slide by slide by slide, often stopping to repair a crack in the film, and then allowing the film to play one last time, hoping it stays together well enough to gather what is left.

Anna Mae Windburn, singer, with director William Alexander