transition time

photos of late (you can click on them to enlarge)--
a lovely saturday morning breakfast courtesy of timmy:


my boys playing in the backyard:


and of course, more photoshop projects:




an update since last time: after the governor's internship program ended, the arts council asked that i come back and work for them until school started. what an honor! i was thrilled because it was really my placement there-- seeing what these passionate arts advocates do every day, how they serve as the link between the state and artists and how on earth they go about distributing all of maryland's funds for art-- that made the internship so awesome. so my last three weeks have been doing lots of work on their website redesign (mostly drafting mock pages to see what content would go/stay in the new design) and doing other random projects. it was challenging at times but honestly, such a cool opportunity and a good learning experience. everyone that works there is very devoted to their area of expertise-- whether folk, performing, literary or visual arts-- and made me feel very welcome. on my last day they were sweet enough to give me a bouquet of flowers (which i then carried around on the long-ish bus ride and walk home) and take me out to lunch AND surprise me with an ice cream cake!! what a fabulous day. i'm really going to look back fondly on my time there.

unfortunately, about 200 state employees lost their jobs last week-- one of them being my pseudo-supervisor. she is a whirlwind/ powerhouse/ superwoman/ folklorist extraordinare and it is such a devastating blow to the community that she will be leaving. of course it just means another organization will be lucky to have her, but all this shifting around that the state is doing can really be nerve-wracking and sometimes, i feel, misguided. i have been told that many people chose to work for the state in part because of the job security. now, however, that has been shattered. tough times all around, i suppose.

besides getting acquainted with the working world, drafting web page mock-ups, and the politics of state government, i have been doing more of the same relaxing and hanging out this summer: seeing friends, eating ice cream, avoiding and/or scratching my never-ending bug bites, photoshopping, going on an augusten borroughs spree (i read five of his memoirs in the past few weeks...charming writer, very disturbing life), trying to get involved in the community association, navigating and ultimately giving up on the search for a third roommate, staying hydrated in the notorious mid-atlantic humidity and trying to check every item off of my "fun" to do list before school starts.

i am feeling relatively good about transitioning back into school mode next week (!). i'm guessing i will face some of the same tentative feelings about school that i had last fall, but this semester will just be so different than all others it is hard to compare. i'm living off campus and i am very aware that i only have one semester left, so i think it will be a sort of mad dash to the end that won't include my usual cornucopia of extracurriculars but instead tasks like doing the dishes and going grocery shopping. in addition, the fact that i was abroad last semester (and many of my classmates were gone either in the spring, last fall, or the whole year) means that many classmates' faces will be only vaguely familiar. i feel guilty about this, but i am not really looking forward to the countless polite but rather forced "hi! how are you? where were you last year?" conversations that will inevitably take place next week. i genuinely care about a few of these, but it gets so old to have this conversation again and again. i should stop being a grump about it. on the positive side of things, goucher's brand-new library/student center ("the athenaeum") just opened and it is really something. (some photos below) sure, construction for the past two years has been a pain, but it definitely paid off. the building is HUGE and really cutting-edge. it is a far cry from our former, comfy-as-a-living room library and doesn't really feel familiar at goucher yet, but i think it will become well-loved by students.







one final note: it seems like all my summer blog posts have been in this order-- talk about work at length, then have a big run-on sentence describing free time and discuss the upcoming future a little bit. is that how life goes for most adults?

summer winding down

maryland's state flower-- the black-eyed susan-- in timmy's garden in our backyard:

delicious summer treats (i love cool whip more than anything!)

one of the many thunderstorms we've received recently. no photoshopping, just intense natural light!


so, things are winding down for the summer. the exciting news is that i wrapped up my internship last week + yesterday. the past few weeks i have felt pretty bogged down preparing for the policy presentation-- not my favorite part of the internship program, but a valuable learning experience-- on august 7. we decided to run our ideas about alternative structures for land preservation programs by the dept. of natural resources about a week before the presentation, for practice. we decided to present the final product to them instead of ask them for help along the way. well, we got into some trouble as they strongly disagreed with our proposal to shift funds from their programs to the dept. of agriculture's (for cost-effectiveness-- ag easements are 60% the cost of buying parkland). this led to a lot of tense discussion, one of my group members withdrawing from the internship program and the rest of us scrambling to revise our proposal in a more gentle way. to my surprise, when we got up to present it to the governor, he knew of us as the kids who "ruffled some feathers" at DNR. yikes! i'm not sure if that's good or bad that our reputation preceded us, but at least it got some attention for the issue. i am much better at behind the scenes work than presenting or answering questions on the spot, so i felt rather uneasy when in front of the governor. all in all i think it went pretty well, though. the internship was a really realistic, eye-opening introduction to state government, and i loved pretty much every moment at the arts council. this summer worked out just swimmingly!

photos from the presentation to governor o'malley:



other than that, i've just been doing more baltimore-exploring, going to baseball games, braving summer storms, baking, taking too many pictures, trying to think about the GREs, and getting annoyed with my hundreds of bug bites. i am looking forward to the next few weeks of volunteering, working, and getting everything in order for school to begin!

summerthings

sorry i haven't updated in a quite a while. i haven't been particularly busy-- in fact, i have been really enjoying every minute of free time in the "real world" after work rather than worrying about homework!!-- but summer still induces that sort of sleepy vibe that prevents me from sitting down and writing. plus, long days spent in front of my computer at work lessens my inclination to do more of that at home. my internship is going really really well, though. i did some real fieldwork this week! as an anthro/soc major i've taken a couple of classes on it, but actually going into the field, talking to someone and having it count for more than just a grade was really different. i spoke with a fifth-generation farmer in central maryland's rapidly developing frederick county about his organic dairy. we were interested in traditional arts and ways of life on the farm (which there were plenty of) and also the influence of development on his operation. he had some really interesting things to say about the connection between his method of rotational grazing (rather than "confinement," feeding cows grain and keeping them in the barn all day) and the bible-- he believes god is pro-organic farming and laid it all out for us in the bible. interesting stuff. i am going to make a slideshow of the visit (photos + audio) sometime soon, which should be fun. i have also been spending a lot of time researching and writing a policy paper for my internship. part of the program is that we form groups and do some research on a policy problem in maryland, then present alternatives to the governor at the end of the summer. i feel pretty green on the whole process compared to a lot of my group members who are public policy majors, but it's a great experience. we're researching open space preservation programs in maryland, so i have learned a whole ton about smart growth, sprawl, and the importance of agriculture. it's been eye-opening to realize the scope of the problem, especially in maryland. we are hoping to finish our paper this week and then start preparing our presentation...we only have five minutes in front of the governor so we need to be really polished before then!

[organic dairy farmer at holterholm farms]


in other news, a neighborhood cat adopted us and spends a significant portion of time on our back porch. we dubbed him sven and even though timmy is really allergic, we enjoy playing with him. he likes to do his own landscaping in the garden, which can be frustrating, but his attention-grabbing tactics are pretty darn cute.


when not reading about smart growth or spending time in the park or our back porch, i've been baking a variety of cupcakes, biking, going to festivals like baltimore's annual artscape (crowded, hot, and overwhelming...but amazing!), making a denmark scrapbook, researching grad schools, taking walks around the lovely and very close johns hopkins campus, goofing around with photoshop, and spending time at various friends' houses. this summer has been delightfully mild so far, which is great.

and now i'm going to bike to artscape for the third day in a row!

photoshop fun

here are some little photoshop projects i've been working on lately. [i think if you click on each it will appear larger in a separate window]

settling in

i am really happy with how things are shaping up here in baltimore this summer! the house is really awesome-- a perfect size, now complete with lots of free furniture from our friends that just moved, decor from IKEA, and my mom's spot-on decorative eye. the kitchen has all-new appliances and thus is gorgeous; in the past week we made buttermilk biscuits, pizza, and banana bread here. we have been taking advantage of the location to go bike riding at the nearby druid hill park and see friends in the vicinity. i am so pleased with this, i think it is going to be a good year on miles avenue!

i started my internship at the state arts council last week and it too seems like it's going to be really good. the program is very well-established and they have a lot of workshops and trainings for the 25 or so interns at various maryland state offices. next week, for example, i have a policy paper-writing workshop; at the end of the summer, we all have to give presentations to the governor! the arts council's most important function is as a funding source for many local arts organizations, giving out grants for various projects and people. i am working specifically for the maryland traditions program, which focuses on traditional and folk arts-- how cool! we have a big showcase event next week, so i have been very busy working on promoting that and making sure all the details come together. i am very interested in this line of work so i couldn't be happier with how this internship has worked out (so far, at least).

my parents were in town the week before last and i think i can say that we all had a good time. we did day trips to the picturesque city of annapolis and to lancaster county, PA-- which was a bit more touristy than i imagined it would be. they were also supremely helpful in getting us all set up here-- trips to IKEA, target, etc. were all key. they also got me a laptop to replace the stolen one, hopefully to be reimbursed by my study abroad program...i know the paperwork is a pain, but i am soooooo thankful to have a laptop again!! all in all it was great to see them, and i hope they got a little more insight into why i love baltimore so much!

best wishes for a great june!

back in baltimore

i have been back stateside for almost a week now, and it has been wonderful! i had such a terrific time in denmark-- i thoroughly enjoyed copenhagen and feel so fortunate to have had that opportunity. however, one of the most important parts of travel is how it makes you appreciate your home in a new light. especially after studying immigration issues in denmark, i have a serious, newfound respect for ethnic relations here. of course there are problems and we have a long ways to go before everyone is on an equal footing in american society, but compared to the pretty blatant disapproval and tension i witnessed in copenhagen i feel that american race relations are not too bad. it was so wonderful to come back to a place where, for the most part, diversity is both a certainty and something to be celebrated. seeing so many different types of people-- in terms of age, size, ethnicity, politics, religion, social interests, dress, etc.-- was a really welcome change from denmark, where i often felt that i was being stared at for wearing a bright red ski coat instead of a black jacket all winter. it seems that conformity is the ideal in denmark, so i was more than ready to come back to the land where we pride ourselves on standing out. i value uniqueness too much to fit into danish society!

another major difference (and something that i have experienced in a mild form of reverse culture shock) is how open and friendly americans are. on my second day back i took a city bus and saw a woman tap the old, slightly disheveled man in front of her, ask if she could fix his collar for him, and proceed to fiddle with his collar until it laid smooth. it was great. later that day a bus driver gave me a free ride to where i needed to be because i was exhausted from walking around in the heat lost for an hour. further examples came with the helpful customer service at the grocery store (i forgot american checkers stand up, make small talk, and even bag your groceries for you-- without charging for plastic bags!!! and they are open in the evenings and on sunday!! certainly not the case in denmark!) and a genuinely apologetic waitress who felt awful that they were out of what we ordered. i am still used to strangers saying hello on the street, which i forgot happened during my four months among mostly private, straight-faced danes.

of course i have taken pleasure in other joys of american life as well: namely, food. i was so happy to once again taste cheddar cheese, veggie burgers, bagels, mint chocolate chip ice cream...perhaps this reinvigorated interest in american food (amerikansk mad, in danish) will motivate me to do some more cooking. it hasn't so far but it has been hard without much kitchen stuff!

speaking of which, i love my lovely rowhouse! timmy did a fantastic job picking the place out, and then moving all of our stuff single-handedly! i came home to the new place with virtually all our stuff in boxes and suitcases, so i spent the first few days focusing my energy on moving in. i am so excited to decorate and settle in-- i love that stuff! the location feels quite urban, certainly more than i'm used to, but in a good way. in less than 20 minutes i can walk to johns hopkins (and the many bus routes located near it), the neighborhoods of charles village and hampden, the baltimore museum of art, two of my favorite restaurants of all time, a gorgeous park, a grocery store, pharmacy, etc...

my parents are visiting next week and i am really looking forward to seeing them and showing them around charm city. it will also be invaluable to receive interior design guidance from my mom!

last days in københavn

it is hard to believe but i am finished with all of my academic work here! i just took my very last final and am not sure what to do with myself now! i got excited and already started packing up my stuff, so that won't take much more time. i leave on sunday but have a good 48 hours left that i don't want to waste. not having a job this semester has been strange and then without classes to structure my day it has been even more odd. i am really looking forward to getting back to the states, moving in to my new home in baltimore!, and then eventually establishing a routine again. i will be interning at the maryland state arts council from june 1- august 15, which sounds like it will work out just swimmingly!

i have been doing some fun things of late. namely, sitting in various parks around town and just enjoying the glorious nordic springtime. last weekend i planned on going to see møns klint, white cliffs on an island south of copenhagen, with some friends-- but due to transportation and other difficulties, we made it about half-way there, to the medieval market town of køge, and ended up hanging out in their public park for most of the day instead. it has been a pleasure to study for my finals outside, although i'm sure it would have been more productive indoors.



another fun day outside was spent at the annual DIS picnic, where all 600 students plus their host families, danish roommates, etc. are invited to celebrate the semester. it took place last sunday in the utterly amazing charlottenlund strandpark in the affluent "whiskey belt" north of copenhagen (sort of like boston's north shore). i had a great time with my host family and friends there together-- and my little host brother johannes (who turns two this weekend!) really bonded with my friend alex!




i have also spent a lot of my last few weeks here looking at buildings. last week i had a great field study with my history of copenhagen class to some new development areas in the "brownfields" (former industrial sites) around the harbor. some of the projects are really interesting, such as cantilevering luxury condos around two old silos (see below-- the gemini residences) and hiring dutch architects to create a very upscale yuppie amsterdam-inspired district of houses on the harbor.



finally, i have been enjoying biking around my house lately. i am very grateful to my host mom for lending me her bike and to denmark for building bike lanes. i have discovered an amazing park just a few minutes away from me that is just perfect for an afternoon adventure. one of the coolest parts about the copenhagen area is that the municipalities have gone out of their way to balance developments with green space. in fact, as early as 1947 they adopted the "finger plan" to keep suburban development along the five railroad tracks extending from copenhagen-- and to ensure green lungs between each "finger" of suburbia. it really does improve your quality of life to know that no matter where you live, you aren't too far from a luscious, well-maintained park! good job, denmark...