holidays

the fall semester wrapped up nicely with a holiday sweater, crackers and cheese, and crafts party thrown by my apartment-mates (see above). the party turned out very well with a good, calm crowd, cute decorations, an abundance of snacks and all kinds of farewell wishes as we all packed up to go abroad. my roommates were a steady, comforting presence this semester and i'll miss them as they depart to turkey, costa rica and italy respectively. i am very glad to be done with my classes this term. they were all good but just a lot of work. i am most proud of the website i created for my performance studies project, which can be found here. i'm also proud of the goucher post secret project, which was a surprisingly huge success this fall. students sent in their anonymous secrets, whether silly or serious, to the suicide awareness and prevention group (which i started and serve as pres.). we had an exhibit of them in a community room on campus, and also started to post them on our blog. it was really cool to see the great variety of responses that came from students.

at this point, i have been in shoreline for 9 of my 12 days here and the seemingly never-ending snow has prevented all seattlites from doing much of anything this holiday season. i've ran a few errands with my dad as he tried to drive through the slushy mess of snow, but in general i have stayed in the house for over a week. even with all this free time, though, i haven't accomplished as much as i would have liked. i'm not sure what it is about coming home, but i always just end up watching movies and sitting around instead of being productive and busy like i am at school. hmm. other than the weather and its implications, it's been a lovely break and i'm very thankful to be able to come home and celebrate the holidays with my family. i have really enjoyed spending time with my extended family, especially my adorable little second cousins, and feel lucky to do this.

i've been doing lots of reading and research-- both online and in the little guidebooks i've accumulated from family, friends and the program-- about copenhagen and it's made me antsy to leave. i know what to pack, a few basic phrases (pronounced poorly, however), etc.-- now i want to just go! i leave january 16 and until then, will be working, packing, running errands, etc. in baltimore. of course communication may be difficult and i'll miss everybody here in the states, but i know this is going to be one of the most memorable and eye-opening experiences of my life. i am so excited!

crunch time

i hope everyone had a very nice thanksgiving. i had a relaxing time, pretty much doing homework by a woodstove the whole time. central massachusetts is more beautiful than people give it credit for...or at least the old houses are.

as always happens this time of year, i feel like i'm just swimming in final projects. social science students get slammed not with final exams but huge papers every semester. i gave two twenty-minute presentations today (one of which you can see online at http://students.goucher.edu/auhus001) and have to write a paper on a 1000-page novel. i also have a major qualitative analysis paper lurking over my head. what i dislike more than the work itself, however, is how everyone gets so wrapped up in our own little world of homework and finals. our perception of what is important in life gets totally out of whack as everyone obsesses about the number of hours they'll be stuck in the library. i find myself doing this too.

an alarming reminder of this phenomena: the recent attacks in mumbai. what an atrocity. the situation was terrifying, deadly, symbolic. i really cannot fathom how haunting the scene would be for the people of mumbai. this could have serious global consquences. yet as i returned to school on sunday, awareness of this event seemed to have vanished from everyone's mind. we were all running around stressed out about getting the newspaper published and finishing up assignments. i'm not quite sure how to break out of this pattern, how to be reminded of the real world around us, but i look forward to the end of the semester so that i can more actively participate in life outside of school.

and speaking of life after this semester, i am thrilled and a bit worried that my excursion to denmark is coming right up. by and large i really can not wait, because i know it will be one of the most eye-opening, fun and unique experiences of my life. the program i'm going on seems very well-coordinated to maximize students' time in copenhagen. this week they sent me a map of the city, a luggage tag, cell phone info, and arranged bus transportation from the airport. i'm impressed! i have concerns about traveling so far from my comfort zone for so long, but i know this will just end up boosting my independence and familiarity with the world. i'm also worried about running out of money-- i've heard copenhagen is wildly expensive-- but i hope to avoid that problem.

i'm really looking forward to being in seattle and seeing my family at christmas. i'm also excited to have some free time-- any at all!-- to catch up on reading, seeing friends, doing some art projects, watching movies, etc. i'll be in seattle december 18-30, baltimore december 30-jan 16 and copenhagen jan 17-may 17....

change

wow-- how our country has changed in the past few days.





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!

autumn

i must say, autumn on the east coast is quite nice. instead of signaling the impending nine months of drizzle and grey skies, "fall" translates to crisp but sunny weather, gorgeous foliage, funny little halloween decorations, and drinking warm apple cider. the photos above are from the 41st autumn glory festival in the very western bit of maryland last weekend.
my boyfriend timmy and i went to celebrate his 23rd birthday and to explore that part of the state. we went camping at rocky gap state park, visited the once-booming and now eerily-empty town of cumberland, and could have made it to west virginia and pennsylvania easily but instead chose to stop at antietam battlefield on the way back. i saw more mccain signs out there than i ever have before. i definitely felt out of place among the largely older, rural, conservative, religious crowd, but found oakland really interesting. the festival took over all of garrett county, ranging from the main parade-- lots of cheerleaders, high school marching bands, shriners and beauty queens-- to glass blowing, clog dancing, choral performances, free admission to the historical museum, a tour of the court house, and many food vendors. we saw a puppet show entitled "autumn declares god's glory," which featured gospel singing puppets proclaiming "jesus saves." with the exception of the election signs, i felt like it could have been pretty much any year in the past 20. the cheerleaders' high-top shoes, weirdly long skirts and abundance of sequins really made it feel like 1992. it was kind of like the movie napoleon dynamite, in which the characters' lifestyles and clothes really fit the mid-90s aesthetic more than today's.

other than that, i've been extremely busy fitting in my homework, classes, work, preparations for study abroad (i didn't realize getting all that paperwork taken care of would take so much time!) and fun time too. i'm doing my big anthro project this semester on the baltimore tradition of the great halloween lantern parade, an awesome community festival sponsored by a few cdcs and an organization called the creative alliance. my fieldwork so far has consisted of a few festivals, making my own lantern at a workshop on saturday, and volunteering at a workshop on sunday. the parade, next weekend, should be amazing. this is one of the coolest projects ever.

it is fall break today and tomorrow, and i'm taking my time doing homework, drinking tea, and running errands. i'm welcoming this little break!!

school again

eek! i can't believe it has been a month since i wrote last. it has been a crazy couple of weeks, as usual.

i went home labor day weekend to attend my grandmother's memorial service. that really felt like it brought some closure to her unique and accomplished life. it was also an impromptu reunion as a huge number of relatives and community members gathered for the event. longview is such a small town and she was such a mighty woman-- her passing really affected people.

school began right after labor day and i have pretty much been in overdrive since then. big shock, right? i am taking my first 300 -level class, qualitative inquiry, in which i am conducting some research on restricted diets in college; i am really enjoying but am constantly challenged by my performance studies class; intro to social work isn't getting me a really clear picture of the profession but is certainly an interesting topic; i love almost everything about my culture of india class-- except for that it is highly unstructured and chaotic, in "indian style," as my professor says; digital imaging is going to prove very useful.

newspaper staff has been going pretty well, although we have been taking this issue very slowly. we'll see how we fare when the real test of too much schoolwork AND newspaper stuff comes up. i have been swamped in other extracurricular administrative duties in heading up a new anthropology & sociology club at goucher, joining our student health advisory committee, serving on the alcohol policy review committee, managing money for the community service club and running the suicide awareness and prevention group.

i am happy to report that work has been going swimmingly. i am creating animated online tutorials for using our education platform, blackboard, through the graduate studies program. i'm also having fun being the t.a. (or, at goucher, a "supplemental instructor") for the methods of sociology course. working in the career development office has been great too. i honestly really enjoy going to work in the administration building at 9 a.m. three days a week because it is in those morning hours that i feel like i get the most tangible work accomplished. producing pamphlets, updating the website, making copies, getting small tasks done...i suppose it's not too intellectually challenging, but the staff is awesome and i feel like part of the legitimate workforce in this job.

of course there have been a smattering of campus events that i have and have not attended. tonight i went to the president's house for a (very fancy) dinner in honor of the awesome baltimore journalist/author/tv producer (of homicide & the wire) david simon, then went to hear him speak. his thoughts on our country's current situation were both alarming and bleak, but raw and honest as well. he's a straightforward guy. he claims to be terrified about the future of our country, our economy, our city and the field of journalism-- and i trust him.

my living situation has been working out very well. my roommates and i all tend to be pretty old-fashioned and tame, in a good way. this evening we were talking about how we don't understand how people take notes in class on laptops (paper works better!). we're usually all in bed by 12 and up by 8. i love it. we try to have roommate night once a week, which so far has consisted of baking a funfetti cake and going to play racquetball. it's only for a semester, but i think this is going to work out nicely.

this year has been really odd in that i feel like so many people are missing. a lot of my close school friends are abroad right now-- in india, south africa, mali, england, etc! three of my best friends from home are in europe for the year as well. it's also been tough with my boyfriend and his crowd of wonderful friends graduated and moved on from goucher. while they are just down in baltimore city, it's a bummer knowing i'll probably never run into them around campus ever again. i think my housing situation also factors into the weird impersonality of this fall so far. now that i live in an apartment, i rarely go to the library or dining halls to hang out, so i typically only see people i have classes or live with. i'm not sure how i feel about it. i just need to work on being assertive and making an effort to maintain ties with people i don't see on a regular basis.

some recent photos: of my grandmother's house in willow grove; my room, our lovely cake, and my and apartment-mates. also, i started a flickr but haven't had a chance to do much on it yet: http://flickr.com/photos/aunihusted.

end of summer

summer is certainly winding down and i am headed to the northwest for a few days before beginning my classes. a memorial service for grandmother will be held on saturday, august 30 at the lower columbia community college in longview, washington — it will be a relief to get some closure and to celebrate her extraordinary life.

since i really haven’t updated in a long while, here’s a recap of what i've been up to lately. this past saturday i took a little jaunt to new york city. that's one thing i love about the east coast— you can go through four states and spend a reasonable amount of time in another city all in literally one day. we left baltimore around 6 am and returned at 10 pm…it was a long day, but a worthwhile one. i really do enjoy visiting the city, even on a tight budget, because there is just so much for the senses to absorb. i always stumble upon some cool art, design, architecture and graffiti— among my favorite things in life— while just wandering around town. and the people-watching is amazing, whether it is a fabulously coordinated man carrying a little dog under his arm, a teenybopper wearing a low-slung miniskirt and cowboy boots (see above), or elegant french travelers. however, this trip reinforced my understanding of new york as a great place to visit but not a place i’d ever want to live. we saw several people moving (and didn’t get a chance to visit two friends in the city due to the same reason) and it just seemed like a logistical nightmare. while i have been more and more enamored with the concept of urban living lately, new york just seems completely over-the-top. i much prefer a city like baltimore, where it is still possible to get around easily without a car but there is also space to breathe and move freely.

on the topic of cities and city life, i've been thinking a lot about the whole urban versus suburban living thing. it has been really refreshing this summer to be able to get out and about relying on public transportation and my own two feet (although, ironically, this was the first time since moving east that i've had regular access to a car, thanks to the generosity of my second-cousin randall). while this can be difficult during the school year because of goucher’s location in the suburbs (baltimore county is NOT baltimore city) and my usually limited time frame, i have really enjoyed these modes of transportation this summer. considering the cost, responsibilities and environmental repercussions of having and maintaining a car, it makes a lot more sense to live in a city and have access to all one’s resources without one. so, at this point in my life, that is what i'd really like to do.

yesterday i went to the maryland state fair, which was quite an experience. i went two years ago as part of freshman orientation and was not impressed by the amount of fried foods, the size of the rides, or the stench of the farm animals. this time, however, was quite different. i'm not sure if it had really improved or if i was just more open-minded, but i had a great time seeing the animals (see above), eating a fresh peach sundae, watching a chain saw-carving contest, and really embracing all the crafts and handiwork of maryland residents. it was also awesome to see the range of people there. in addition to seeing more orthodox jewish families than i have ever seen in one place, there were a ton of teenage 4-H participants, twentysomething hipsters, a group of disabled adults, and many families feasting on corndogs and french fries while speaking with a thick mid-atlantic accent.

i am back at work on september 2 and begin classes on september 3. i am taking some interesting courses— performance studies, intro to social work, history & culture of india, qualitative methods of sociology, and digital imaging— and will be working about 20 hours a week in a variety of offices. another huge challenge for me will be serving as managing editor of the newspaper, considering i’m not the enthusiastic news reporter the former editor was, but i hope to do the best i can for the fall semester. i am really, really looking forward to going to copenhagen in the spring; i've heard only wonderful things about the program and i am going to be able to travel around both eastern and western europe using copenhagen as my home base. i also recently decided to graduate early, in december 2009, and (hopefully) get a jump-start on joining the working world. i have really enjoyed the routine of going to work, coming home, making dinner, and having the evening to explore/hang out/work on my own projects/etc. this summer and, for the first time, am not whole-heartedly looking forward to returning to school. (i suppose technically, i never left campus, but i’m referring more to writing papers and doing hundreds of pages of assigned reading each week.) working this summer has been surprisingly rewarding and enjoyable considering i held three part-time, clerical positions, so i am really looking forward to having a career in a field of my choosing.

donna dejarnatt, 1924-2008

my grandmother was a pioneer, an activist, a free spirit, a fireball, a burst of creativity with hobbit hair. she was steadfast and unconditional in her love. she radiated wisdom and insisted on prudence. she had tact and patience. she taught everyone something.

i remember really, really looking forward to spending a week at her house in willow grove in the summers. i knew we'd do art projects all day and then walk to the beach and get prickly plants in our socks. we would make s'mores in the firepit by grandpa's tree and bats might fly around the house. we'd watch boats go by and wear old ratty clothes. i'd type on her typewriter and pretend to learn to sew. i opened random cabinets in her studio, upstairs, by picking through layers of cobwebs. she was confused why kraft macaroni and cheese contained no actual cheese. the only thing i didn't like was going to the grocery store in town with her, because everyone would know mrs. dejarnatt and stop to chat-- i wanted her all to myself.

she will be so sincerely, sorely missed by us all.