i am so pleasantly surprised/relieved/hopeful about obama's election. way to go, america! my thoughts on the matter aren't terribly original compared to what any other blogger has to say, so i think i'll refrain from any political banter-- but it was pretty awesome being on a college campus when this historic event occurred. i was in the library working on a project and really enjoying the peace and quiet. i thought the results wouldn't be announced until much later, so when i left the library at 11:30 pm and heard screaming, i was alarmed. i followed the source of the jubilation to the residential quad, where i'd estimate a good 150 students were running, jumping, hugging, drinking, sliding down the hill without their shirts on...it felt like our annual tradition of GIG but at night and in november. i wasn't sure what exactly what they were celebrating but proceeded to take some photos. when i made it back to my room, my roommates were calmly watching the events unfold and told me that he had indeed won. i'm so disappointed that i missed the actual announcement! we watched his graceful speech together and gushed at the fact that he was going to buy his girls a new puppy for the white house.
while the atmosphere at goucher was definitely a bit boisterous, things didn't get out of hand. down the road at johns hopkins, 16 (!) arrests were made at the ensuing street celebration. three goucher students were among the crop who were put in a paddy wagon and taken to central booking for the night. their story was featured in the baltimore sun and on wjz news last night. what insanity the election haze has brought us.
on a less dramatic note, i am feeling really good about my performance studies project this semester. i'm analyzing the great halloween lantern parade, an awesome tradition of southeast baltimore neighborhood residents making and carrying 1000 paper lanterns carried through the once-abandoned patterson park. (i took some photos, including two below, but they really didn't do justice to the whimsical, playful atmosphere of the event. i have some on flickr too but they aren't as cool as i hoped they might be!) i met with one of the community artists who has played a role in organizing it and wow, their work is amazing. i'm a huge fan of their organizations, the creative alliance and the nana projects. i also got immersed in the bibliographic research and for the first time, i can actually picture myself writing scholarly papers for more than just a class assignment. it's amazing how picking a personally interesting topic changes your view on the workload. that project led me to a performance of the famed bread & puppet theatre last night. while i'm not extremely keen on puppets, these artists work with the props and even themselves in a really thought-provoking and skillful way. the 2640 space, a partially renovated church affiliated with baltimore's communist bookstore, was a great venue for it.
i also received my danish residency permit this week. now that i've bought plane tickets, have legal permission to study there, and have signed up for classes, it's kind of hard to focus on the finishing the rest of this semester. we'll see how this next month goes!
