A Different Kind of Wonderful

California Adventures

2011-01-10T19:47:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite photos from Aldo and my's adventures:

Poem for Today, the most beautiful of Fall

2010-10-08T10:51:00.000-07:00

i thank You God

e.e. cummings

i thank You God for most this amazing

day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees

and a blue true dream of sky;

and for everything

which is natural which is infinite

which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,

and this is the sun's birthday;

this is the birth

day of life and of love and wings:

and of the gay

great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing

breathing any-lifted from the no

of all nothing-human merely being

doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and

now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

may my heart always be open to little

birds who are the secrets of living

what ever they sing is better than to know

and if men should not hear them

men are old

may my mind stroll about hungry

and fearless and thirsty and supple

and even if it's sunday may i be wrong

for whenever men are right

they are not young

and may my self do nothing usefully

and love yourself so more than truly

there's never been

quite such a fool who could fail

pulling all the sky over him with one smile

love is more thicker than forget

more thinner than recall

more seldom than a wave is wet

more frequent than to fail

it is most mad and moonly

and less it shall unbe

than all the sea which only

is deeper than the sea

love is less always than to win

less never than alive

less bigger than the least begin

less littler than forgive

it is most sane and sunly

and more it connot die

than all the sky which only

is higher than the sky

Woods

2009-12-08T08:31:00.000-08:00

The unknown brings more good things than bad...

Seeking

2009-03-26T07:30:00.000-07:00

Looking for guidance. Praying for peace. Let this be a day of beauty....please.

DC Trip!!

2009-03-21T06:44:00.000-07:00

Jonathan and I arrived last night in DC! Wahoo! We went to a contra dance where we happened to meet my good friend Alex! We're going to have dinner with him tonight. DC is so huge! And lit up! And the buildings are crazy! All the windows in Abby's house have bars on them like in Latin America. We drove down Mass Ave last night to get to her house and got to see all the embassys with carved elephants in front and huge ornate entry ways. There are even trees blooming! We're going to see all sort of wonderful sights today. Oh! And I got a view of the Capital building from Mass Ave too. It's huge! And all lit up as well. I am super excited to take the metro today. We're going to the Presidential Mall and are going to visit some museums. For free! Whee! And we get to be here until Tuesday which means we get to travel all around. I think I could live in DC quite happily for about 6 months or so and get to know all the nifty nooks and spiffy places and then I could happily go home to somewhere where there are wild trees and nights where you can see more than the major constellations. I'm super happy to be visiting and it's really nice to take a few days off of work.

Pictures to come!

Of dragons & princesses

2008-08-06T09:52:00.000-07:00

Working alone through an afternoon of loud thunder and dealing with my own dragons, these two quotes found their way to me:

"Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are only princesses waiting for us to act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love..."
-Ranier Maria Rilke, Letter to a young poet

"Tradition says, 'Find out what you did wrong and never do it again.' New wisdon says, 'Find out what you did right, so you can be sure to do it again.'''
-Rashmi Koushik

Thanks world, for thunder and dragons and beauty; for words and love.

Aloft

2008-07-12T07:05:00.000-07:00

I love it when I do something I've always wanted to do.

Letter to Me!

2008-05-07T09:36:00.000-07:00

Faintly amused by myself at this email I wrote to myself to insure that my other email program was working properly. Hey, sometimes you just got to write a letter to yourself and stating positive intentions never makes things worse *grin*

Dear Quena,

I just got this super secret information that has told me that you are going to find the most wonderfully and fantastic and perfect for you right now job in Brattleboro. Not to mention you're going to find a spectacular house to live in (month by month) and have wicked keen housemates and the perfect Quena-Lucia room.

This new and fantastic job you're going to have is going to
a) be within biking distance of your house
b) use your creative skills
c) fulfill your people wishes
d) have great co-workers
e) challenge you in that good, creative way
f) be something you really love that will lead you to bigger and better things

You rock! Thanks for putting yourself out there and making all this possible.

love,
You

Inspirations from a rainy spring day...

2008-04-29T12:30:00.000-07:00

The Best Love Letters
4/29/08

The best love letters are not those that dribble and drip with sentimentality,
But rather those that sing and swing of the bright
Green adventures of everyday life.
Those that say, in short,
“The world was beautiful today! And I thought of you…”

A truly beautiful Equinox

2008-03-20T16:00:00.000-07:00

It's been one of those days, especially this evening, where the world just seems like one huge marvelous gift, made just for me or at least, with my enjoyment in mind ;-)

I had a good day at the bakery today, impressive in light of the fact that it will be closing soon and the owner is a bit on the freaked out and stressed side. A nice, efficient day there which is always a nice start to the rest of my day.

I got to talk to one of my favorite persons on my lovely walk home from the bakery (it is really wonderful to be able to walk to work) just as he was waking up, which is funny because I was on my way home to take a nap. Silly thing, baker's hours, really, but being able to be on both ends of the sleepy scale while you're talking to someone is really a lot of fun and a perfectly lovely way to snuggle down into a nap.

I had wonderful dreams during my nap, a series of dreams really, all having to do with family members and flowing water. I wonder what those themes mean, together and apart.

My day was also productive, which is always nice. Made three important phone calls and got (re)fingerprinted for my credential program. Then I went for the MOST lovely of walks down to the library, with a stop at the post office and then a bit out of town to a house where I picked up a free futon cover, courtesy of FreeCycle. Whee!
I've decided I really do like, even love, living here: being able to walk to just about anything I need or want, poking about the various neighborhoods, standing in the park and watching the train go by, walking to a fantastic contra dance(!)...it's really good. Spring also helps with that and so many of my neighbors have little green bulb shoots coming up in their front yards, and the library even has a few crocuses!

Then I came home and made a truly handsome pizza; which I ate, with much enjoyment, out on front porch while I watched darker storm clouds chase lighter peachy pink sunset dyed clouds across the sky. The sky turned to my favorite color of blue and looking up at it through the sweet little twig fingers of the highest branches of the maple tree, I thought my heart might burst for the all the things and sights and smells and people I love so much in this world. A truly beautiful equinox indeed.

Go North young caller!

2008-01-31T05:28:00.001-08:00

Going back up to Maine tonight to call a contra dance!! Wahoo!!

But first!, back to packing!!

Fiddles

2008-01-29T15:13:00.000-08:00

Fiddles do happy things to my soul...

...joy...

2008-01-29T06:55:00.001-08:00

Lucia, looking smug and knowing about the bush all along.

Talking (not flaming) bush

2008-01-29T06:30:00.000-08:00

I was doing dishes in my Williamsburg kitchen this morning when my housemate Carol came running back in from where she had been starting her car outside and said, "Quena! The bush outside the house next to the steps it talking! You have to hear it!"

So I threw on shoes and went running out, and sure enough, as I approached the bush the heard this faint sound, very much like the sound of a rainstick when you're pouring it very slowly, a kind of a water rattle (if that makes any sense). At first I thought maybe it was just snow melting off the house, but there weren't any drips and the sound was much more intense if I stuck my head right into the middle of the bush (I wonder what the neighbors were thinking when they saw Carol and I most intently listening to this bush ;-) I think the sound might be caused by the leaves of the bush, which have a sort of curled up shape at this time of the year, ratting in the wind. Or maybe, since its a beautiful, sunny, warm (45!) day, the bush was just waking up to say hello.

Another interesting thing is that even before Carol and I discovered the bush, my cat Lucia had been sitting next to the same window all morning, gazing out of it rather transfixed and that same window is the one that is right next to the talking bush! I think Lucia heard it before any of us. Having watched me investigate it, she has now retired to a patch of sunlight on my comforter, but she has a certain look about her as if to say, "I told you there was something out there."

Being brave is doing something even when you're scared...

2008-01-23T10:06:00.000-08:00

The lovely Lacey posted this on her blog first, and that's where I got it from, but it really applies to how my life is spinning these days and why I am choosing to live it so.

I will not die an unlived life
I will not live in fear
Of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
To allow my living to open me
To make me less afraid,
More accessible
To loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance;
To live
So that which came to me as seed
Goes to the next as blossom
And that which came
to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit.
-Dawna Markova

Thanks Lacey, you're the best star sister a Quena could ever wish for.

Snow day, it's a snow day...

2008-01-14T11:25:00.000-08:00

Snow!! Wonderful flakes of it, sidewalks full of it, a whole woods covered in it. A very happy Quena dancing in it.

2007-12-10T07:47:00.000-08:00

So I'm writing to you all from my brand new MacBook(!) and wowza! is it keen. Really, it's so much faster and much less quirky than Kip, my old laptop. No more days of the track pad randomly not working, programs suddenly closing or the computer waking itself up in the middle of the night, opening iTunes by itself and playing Avril Lavigne at full volume (it was always Avril Lavigne, not always the same song and it only happened about four times but still. Enough to make you wonder.) But anyhow, my MacBook (still unnamed) is very fun. I stayed up quite late into the night last night playing with all it's features but admit that the most exciting parts about it for me is that it connects to the internet (even wireless, oooo!) and it plays DVDs. Rather simple things I know but if you're not used to them they can be wicked wicked keen features! Look! I'm updating my blog...from my own computer! Very fun.

Today has dawned sunny but chilly, chilly for Southern California, that is; I had a call into Maine and it's snowing and sixteen degrees there! We had rain all weekend long, unusual for here, even at this time of year, and much as I love the rain, the sun is a welcome sight. Think I'll go for a hike today. Our sagebrush hills are always so fresh and fragrant after rain. There are these two hummingbirds nuzzling the flowers on the mint outside the kitchen window; I think they agree. It's so fun to see so many birds right outside the door, I suppose we do have little winter foraging birds in Maine at this time of year only I don't remember them so well. Perhaps in Maine I'm so busy I don't often have time to sit and look out the window at birds either! Too busy reading stories to a certain three-year-old delight. I miss her terribly... My mom says three-year-olds can really fill up the spaces in your life and she is right. I've gone over a week without carrying anyone to bed or reading anyone a story!

Well I'm off to play my fiddle before my hike (my life is so rough here ;-) I'm working on "The Black Isle" off Becky Tracy's CD Evergreen. It's so beautiful but challenging for me since a lot of it is played on the G string with fingering I'm not very practiced in. But it's a good sort of challenge! And I love it enough that I'll keep at it. I love songs like that, they're so effective at getting me to work things out.

A beautiful day to everyone!

2007-12-03T11:17:00.000-08:00

Back on the West Coast

Well, here I am in California! Suddenly too, I'm still not sure it's all sunk in. My mom called me on Saturday and told me my grandpa was in a bad state (poor Grandpa Bug-bug!) so I flew home yesterday and poof! here I am back at the ranch. Grandpa is doing so much better than he was; all the visits from everyone (my uncle John and aunt Chris and cousin Brad flew in on Sunday) seem to have really revived him. He woke up hungry today after three days of refusing food! I had a really lovely visit with him this morning. He's really quite alert and cognisant, he carries on conversations and jokes just fine, he's just quite weak. So it's good to see him improved and it's great to be able to spend time with him.

It will be interesting to see how my moving plans for January will progress what with me being on the West Coast until into the new year! Right now I don't have a house or a job but have high hopes about the prospects. May it all work out perfectly.

It feels quite vacationish to be here so early in December! It seems like the holidays are RIGHT around the corner since I usually don't travel home until the solstice. Even though I am going to be missing some visits with some wonderful people and some fantastic dancing, it's kind of nice to be home with my family, some of whom I haven't seen since last December. And I'll have plenty of time to work on gifts.

Alright! I'm off for a walk in the sagebrush! Thanks to everyone who has been so sweet and supportive.

2007-11-28T13:56:00.000-08:00

Good heavens!! It's almost 2008 and all I have posted this year is a tale from LAST winter!! Eeep! Now it is nearly THIS winter! Wowza...

The year in short, hmm, let's see...

Spring:
Incredible, BLOOMING, there was utter joy and life in the air. Spring smells FANTASTIC. I turned 24 (whee!) and had a beautiful surprise birthday party. I realized I had quite a few friends and good ones at that. I went to the Down East County Dance festival which changed by life so much for the better. I became a contra dance caller again and true dance enthusiast. I don't think I've ever going back. A particularly special baby was born into our household. WOW.

Summer:
A blaze, a wonderment. Suddenly I was busy, busy busy with so many glorious friends and so many wonderful things to do. I deepened friendships and made new connections. Got eaten by Black Flies, lots of swimming. Danced, danced, danced. I danced with delightful dance partners and started writing to and receiving letters from a sweet sailor. There were potlucks before dances, and fields full of fire flies. I ate local Popsicles and walked hand in hand with friends in cemeteries. Everywhere it was green and lush. Katie came to visit and there was joy.

Fall:
A slowing, nesting season. Trees turned crimson and gold. I suddenly felt the great urge to knit. Blueberries were abundant and then gone, suddenly. The fields began to turn red. Lacey came to visit and there was wonder. The wanderlust of fall stirred and spun dancing dreams and I decided to move come winter. This gave me new fire and accomplishments were high for a while; Monday's were for garden work with Andrew, Tuesdays belonged to Bella, Wednesdays brought walks with Amy, Saturdays were for dancing, Sundays walks and smiles and dreams. I had a picnic in a green canoe with a Jonathan. In seeking new places I fall in love with where I am all the more, but know I must grow on.

Now:
It's knitting night and soup is waiting at home. It's a doing and growing sort of time. It's nearly the end of November, an introspective, inward sort of month. Where will I end up given honey, a wee bit of money and a beautiful pea green boat?

2007-01-19T11:52:00.000-08:00

Some Winter Tales

Merry 2007 all you wonderful folks!! I think this year is going to be a wonderful one. My angel card for the year is Joy! How happy.

I spent a most magnificent time in California for the Christmas and New Years holiday. In the first four days I got to go to the Pryankster Christmas party and to Dickens for one glorious weekend, to Plough for a beautiful night and two my beloved J Street for dinner, a nap and breakfast with Amy Z. I got to see and hug and snuggle with Kevin and Sarah. It was glorious and I burned, burned, burned the candle and both ends what with sleep deprivation and jet lag and at the end of those four days I walked into Kevin's apartment hacking and looking so beat that I was promptly send to bed where I proceeded to have the worst cold of my life. But it was worth it ;-)

Christmas with the family was wonderful. Two of my favorite cousins came down and JJ and I picked up the close friendship of our childhood. I have a twin again. It's keen. :-) We bought Apples to Apples for the family, taught everyone to play and laughed and laughed.

New Years was spent at Camp Harmony, of course, and it was as beautiful as ever. More so, for some reason. I was so happy to be there, among friends, dancing, spinning, skipping, tunesing about on my fiddle. I hugged and laughed with the beautiful and unmachable Lacey and Graham, and became even closer with lovely Katie, Michael and Jessica. I danced with Dancing Joshua, always a joy, who came for the first time and was loved by all.

Then, on New Year's Day, after a brief tussle with a sewing machine, Trish and Graham and Lacey drove me to the airport and I was Northeast bound again. But very happy.I arrived back in Maine to find it very un-cold, with no snow, which was rather dissapointing. However, someone got the message somewhere and all was put right last week when it snowed for 24 hours and I got to go sledding at midnight with an assortment of beautiful people. Then winter REALLY kicked in this week. Tuesday night it was 8 below with a breathtaking wind chill. No, really! It WAS breathtaking. I walked outside of the warm hall where I had been singing with some beautiful women with my coat unbuttoned and gasped from the cold. It was like jumping into a 45 degree swimming pool after bieng in the hot tub! Really really really cold. I friend and I dumped a pot of boiling water out of a second story window that night and all the water turned to steam before it hit the ground....wow....

But despite all this freezingness, I am actually quite quite happy and *gasp* warm (at least most of the time). I have discoved that it really doesn't seem to matter how cold it is, if you are wearing the right type and the right amount of clothing. So what with a good winter wardrobe (quite a bit of it silk or wool), these kick-ass insulated issue boots a certain beautiful lady in TX send me, wool sweaters, a wool town coat, a down farm coat, felted mittens, a fantastic scarf and a good hat, I get hot most of the time when I go out for winter play. And thanks to wood burning stoves, space heaters and the double down comforter Sarah gave me as a going away present (Sarah gives the most useful, thoughtful gifts!) I'm the happiest and warmest little California bird around.

Work at the Co-op is going well. My Maine family is wonderful. I'm making friends. The contra dances here are fantastic. I miss you all but it sure it beautiful here.

2006-12-06T09:00:00.000-08:00

SNOW!!!Snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow SNOW!!!! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

Good heavens winter is beautiful when it includes the world being dusted in white! Last night the moon was full and shining on the snow and I went for a midnight wonderland walk and froze my toes but no matter because it was most certainly one of the more magical outdoor experiences I've been lucky to come upon. Diamonds in the sky and diamonds crunching under my boots. Diamond dust falling from the sky.

I had my first snow in Vermont where I was visiting Josh which was wonderful because we got to be crazy Californians romping about it wonder at a New England winter. It was excellent to have someone to be kiddishly blissful and joyful with. Vermont is Calvin and Hobbes country and I felt like a C&H character roaming and exploring woods and streams with a good friend. Snow is so beautiful when it falls. It's quiet like cats.

Then I came home to more snow and deeper drifts! All crunchy and wonderful magical. New England winters make me feel alive. Perhaps this is just the first snow euphoria but I think it's going to be a wonderful time. Snow snow snow snow snow snow snow. And icicles. It's a magical world.

PS. Clothing I wore for my early morning wonder walk in which I was not cold, not a bit. underware
sports bra
thermal shirt
thermal pants
one pair smart wool socks
one pair hand knit socks
flannal lined carharts
polar fleece zip top
wool sweater
down jacket
wool mittens
wool hat
hiking boots

Happy Quena :-)
I must post some snow pictures

2006-10-18T06:37:00.000-07:00

I'll have been in Maine for a week tomorrow. Wowza. It's beautiful here, all glowing orange, yellow and red. Fall is reflected in the colors I painted my new room, Firefly yellow and Foxfire red, brilliant. I almost wonder if it's too much. I want a green door. I think my father is slightly horrified by my bold colors but he is letting me be. I love him for that.

First real day of work tomorrow at the Blue Hill Food Co-op (Monday was just training), black bean soup to make today, more paint to buy to make my one wall even more Firefox red, the almost exact shade of my faire skirt. I need to write a letter to Kevin and Sarah. I miss them very much.

Maine is a happy place for me, and having a life, a real life with a job and my own room and choices and a car and bike, make it even more happy for me because I feel like I belong and that I can build here, not just visit. Sometimes I miss my J Street co-op very much. My lovely loft and dresser, the tree outside the window and the blue upstairs bathroom. But it is great here, and it will be even better as I settle in, make more friends, find more dancing, fix my bike tire and establish a routine. A little firefox in the woods with wings :-)

*love*
me

2006-10-08T17:30:00.000-07:00

Woods thirsty soul...

Hello folks,

Been on the road and not near a place of internet for a week now, back in the mid-west form of civilization at my aunt and uncle's house in A-something-town Indiana. What to tell...

Yellowstone was amazing and amazingly beautiful. Heck, Wyoming in general was amazingly beautiful. I woke up in a small town just within the boarders of Wyoming Monday morning and it was beautiful (the sunrise especially), it was beautiful all through some other sleepy little towns, the Tetons and Yellowstone were just breathtakingly gorgeous, the sunset as we left Yellowstone via the East Exit from Yellowstone which was reflected in the lake and made the final burnt hills all pink was amazing, and the whole road to Anna's house was beautiful as well. Wyoming is a beautiful state. I think I could stay there and just live off beauty. There were happy horses grazing in lush large, GREEN pastures everywhere. That sort of just fit perfectly with my idea of happiness in that sort of landscape. Made me want a pony (is anyone surprised ;-). My favorite bits of Yellowstone were the Firehole Creek loop and falls, and the Gibbin Falls. Oh, and the bison that were very cute despite their hugeness because they just ambled right along, munching grass and being content.

Seeing Anna was fantastic. She is more beautiful and amzaing each time I see her. To ya'll at the J and the Domes, she says Howdy!.

The badlands were also beautiful in a less sharply hilled sort of way. I went to the WallDrug and was rightly impressed, got hot chocolate from a small dinner from a woman missing a finger. Good chocolate though.

Convinced my dad to stop at a state park right on the Mississippi river side of Minnesota. My grandma grew up in Minnesota so I felt it would be wrong not to travel through without enjoying a bit of the beauty there. My, my, was it beautiful, too. There's woods there! And a lovely vista where you can see over the Mississippi. I took a bike ride through the woods and thickets. The trees are turning there and they GLOW yellow and orange and red. My dad says one of the only things he missed about Indiana is the woods. I told him I miss the woods and I've never even lived near them. I think I have a woods thirsty soul.

We're more south here in Indiana, so the woods are just turning, meaning there are rich and light greens in with the reds and oranges. My uncle Gary can tell you any tree in the woods, and now I can tell you a few. Some of them you can tell by what colors they are turning, when. I saw a Cardinal today (the bird sort). He was bright bright bright red, like the color of my faire skirts. I miss faire and dancing and all mis amigos, but it's splendid to be here and now and me.

beijos,
Q

2006-10-01T20:27:00.000-07:00

Hangin with my cousin, Andy, in Tahoe. Spent the entire day listening to Garrison Keiler, playing Corn Hole (if you don't know about this game it's wicked keen and addicting), burning CDs and swingging in a hammock. Andy and I also went on a really fun mountain bike ride and then took off to a sloped parking lot and downhill longboarded for a long while. Keen. Right now I've got a glass of wine, salmon cooking for dinner and family chatting in the kitchen. I like Tahoe. I could see myself spending some time here. I almost feel like I should have spent the summer here, living with Andy, working a little sweet job, and exploring. But then I loved this past summer, so mayhaps this is an idea for another time.

I wonder if this is what it is going to be like for a while, taking the country in bites, finding I could belong in so many places. This makes me glad that I am wandering along, seeing and experiencing things so that I can figure out what it is I like and want out of a place and space. For now, Eastward! Next stop Anna in Wyoming, Yellowstone along the way.

Lucia is doing really well. She was a bit freaked in the car but is currently crashed out on Andy's couch like she owns the place. She's a good cat. It was hard to take her away from the co-op (it was hard to take ME away from the co-op!), where she was so well loved, but I think she'll do right well.

Dinner.

love,
A spinning lass with dusty feet

PS. I love my chacos :-)

2006-09-23T10:43:00.000-07:00

Been back in the US for five days now. My new bike (thanks Nat!) kicks ass. I've been trying to ride it into town (4 miles uphill, no, no REALLY uphill) every day. Going well so far, I got a flat once and am going to put a new chain on it (just cuz I'm fussy) but other than that I am very very pleased. Davis has turned me into a bike fiend. That sort of makes me happy.

Only two more days of packing to go. Eeep! When I was leaving the co-op I tried to sort things into boxes that were going and boxes that were storage material. Right now my boxes of things that are going vastly surpass the amount of space I'm going to have in the Jeep, especially once we throw in a Lucia and all of her things. It will be most do-able, I just have to take a hard look at everything I'm going to be taking and ask myself if I REALLY need it. I will also allow a box or two to be shipped to me, but, realistically, don't want to take too much stuff. If anything, this has been a great way for me to take stock and minimalize my belongings to only the things that I really need and are really special to me. (Don't mean it's not difficult though!)

I've planned the whole trip out on a huge map of the US and am becoming quite excited about starting off. Not only do a get to see some amazing parts of the country but I also get to visit some friends I haven't seen in ages! Quite thrilling. Fall is a beautiful time to travel. For years now I've gotten this wanderlust feeling around fall, and had to resist the urge to jump the tracks and go whirling away. Now I don't have to resist, I get to ride the wave of the feeling and let it take me away.

2006-09-08T14:42:00.000-07:00

So it looks like I'm staying in Costa Rica for another week!! Huzzah! My friend Cristian and his folks offered to take me to their finca next week (which was my favorite trip last time I was here) and since it doesn't cost my anything to change my ticket, my hostfamily is happy to have me another week and my dad says he'd be glad for the extra time to work on the car I'll be driving cross country, it all just works out perfectly :-)

Whee!! Now I'll have time for volcanos, museums and more visits!!

2006-09-08T14:36:00.000-07:00

More Pictures :-)

2006-09-08T14:30:00.000-07:00

Some pictures from my fantastical going away party!

2006-08-31T14:39:00.000-07:00

After several days of visiting folks and then comming home, having it rain, playing cards, writing in my journal and generally turning in circles wondering what feels slightly off, I realized that the since everything feels so much the same, I´ve been acting sort of like I still LIVE here, rather than I am VISITING here. Thus, today, I woke up early and took my self town town to do some good thorough wandering. It was quite lovely. I finally found myself at the Museo de Oro which just recently opened a new exhibit about the history of Costarican money. It was REALLY good. Very professionally done and it included lots of interesting details about a country´s money I had never considered before. There were also lots of old bits of Costa Rican money, some of it during the colonial period so it´s actually gold and silver pieces from Spain. Why are reals in eights anyhow? Tens makes so much more sense. Apparently during a the 1700`s silver was short in Costa Rica so what they would do it take currency from other countries and stamp it with a seal and its value, then put it into circulation. I thought that was keen.

Peregrino Gris was awesome, much as expected. I really do love their tunes. They should come play at the Plough and shake things up a bit. There wasn`t any room to really dance but I jumped up and down and around with the rest of the "fanaticos" and did a few rise and grinds when I could. A very good time, indeed. My amigo Juan Pablo just kicks ass. He´s asked me to write a few poems and lyrics for the new CD he and his band are putting out. I was quite flattered. (Now of course I have to write them and they have to be good ;-)

Today I also stopped by the office of the University of California-Costa Rica EAP program and say my old director, Doña Jeanina and Laura who works in the office. It was really great to see them again. Doña Jeanina and I talked about everything under the sun. She was our confidant when we were here, she told us at the start of the program "And by the way, I am too old and have seen to much to ever judge you." And I belive her.

Good times. Tomorrow I`m going to Guanacaste to visit the ranch my host father grew up on, and to go to Portreo, which is a beautiful little beach right near the ranch. Ponies and the ocean, lucky lass I am, indeed.
¡Besos!

2006-08-28T17:06:00.000-07:00

Safely arrived and having spent a few days in Costa Rica, I am flooded with how much I really love it here. (Actually I was flooded with how much I love it here only a few hours after arriving but I keep comming across more things!) I love being back in my Costarican house (which I realize has very sparse but tasteful decor), love being back in my room with wood paneled everything and in my little bed with the flower comfortor. In some ways it´s slightly surreal, being back and seeing all the little things I saw each day for a year. I particular tiling in the bathroom, the feel of the cool tile floors on my bare feet, the SMELL of everything. Wow, Costa Rica has smells! (good ones, well, some bad ones too) Smells I had forgotten about. My room smells a particular way, it hit me quite powerfully when I walked into it for the first time. It made me remember so many things.

This trip I am realizing that while I loved Costa Rica for being so beautiful and for housing so many lovely and amazing sights (volcanos, forests, beaches) the things I really came to treasure here are little things: my walk to the Universidad, flopping on my bed and smelling the pouring rain, taking the bus and not having to have exact change, fried plantanos, the oddities of the supermarket. I spent a half hour in the little supermarket of my barrio (neighborhood) yesterday just wandering up and down the isles seeing how things have changes, and seeing how the haven´t. Remembering much out of the products on the shelves: `Checky`cookies that became the common addiction of all the UC abroad students, Tropical, the local brand of fruit drink, how spagetti sauce comes in tubes, milk in boxes, all the brands of shampoo and conditioner they don´t have in the US. It was fun.

It´s been wonderful seeing folks and catching up with them too. I nearly have the boys at the barrio ice cream parlor a heart attack when I came swishing in on Saturday. They gave me a proper party right there in the little store: cake, fruit salad, white wine (Costarican white wine, by the way, is pretty horrid. I do not recomend it, but I choked it down with a smile, because they had bought it for me and it was my party) and of course there was ice cream. It was a splendid time.

I met up with Alexis yesterday and we went wandering through the University of CR campus. They were having a exhibition faire and I bought a lovely piece of art from a fine arts student. I love the trees on campus. They´re huge with looping rooms and gigantic yellow leaves.

Today I´m off to see Perigrino Gris with Juan Pablo and his brothers. Perigrino Gris is a Irish Costarican band. They´re great. Juan Pablo insists that I have to teach him a dance or two. It is good to be back.

2006-08-21T12:17:00.000-07:00

So I'm leaving Davis in two days. Wowza. I don't know if it's entirely all sunk in yet. The hardest part is the realization that I can't do normal things, like plan to go dancing with Kevin and Sarah this weekend because, well, I'll be in another country this weekend. It's a very transitive space. My room is also in a very transitive space (read chaos) which makes me a bit sad. I loved my room and now its walls are bare, and it's floor messy with boxes and random things I don't know where to put. My dad is comming up today to help me finish packing which I am very greatful for because it would be an effort to go on with it alone. My dad just makes things, like packing, happen. I love him for that and many other reasons. On the other hand, I do keep doing normal things, having breakfast with Amy, lunch with K&S, dancing with Joshua; and these things make me very happy. They are more precious to me too, I sit back and realize how fond I am of all the little things in my life. It has been a good life here in Davis, I have been very lucky. I have been very blessed. And now it's off to adventuring, to open seas and roads. It is time for me to go but I do love what I have had and still have here, open arms and hearts.

2006-07-26T16:00:00.000-07:00

I have broken into Kevin's apartment and am using his high speed internet...muwa-ha-ha (evil Quena laugh). It's still hot here (99 today) but it sure beats the past few days (ranging between 111 109), in fact, today was quite pleasent, especially in the early morning when I was feeding the chickens. I've really been enjoying the past few weeks, especially the mornings. I especially love my house, the garden, the chickens, my cat in the morning.
I leave this little town in three weeks. Crazy. It's all looming so near and real now. I am begining to make lists of all the things that need to be done. Kristin just called and make me promise to take pictures of my room before I take everything down. I most certainly shall take photos of that glorious yellow lofty Quena room. It has been a sanctuary. I wonder if Lucia will be staying in it while I am gone to Costa Rica. I don't think any of my furtiature will be there though. There is still much to figure out. Should I leave things that go to Maine here while in CR? Or should I just take it all with me to sort through and reassess at the ranch? Where will we feed Lucia?

I want to sit down with a map and plan out everywhere I want to pass through on my way accross. I can't wait to leave on this fantastic adventure, to dive head first into a new chapter of my life, but am also feeling some pangs, no more like aches, at leaving. This has been home for a long time. It has been a good home. Especially my co-op. Now THAT has been a fantastic home. I love it there. Again, part of me feels silly for leaivng such an ideal place, a place that has been such a support for me, but then I am so glad to have this opportunity to go explore and be outside-of-here Quena. I can't wait to be somewhere where I can play my fiddle every day.

Well, speaking of fiddle, I need to go to lesson.
More packing adventures to come...soon...

2006-06-21T20:15:00.000-07:00

Valhalla was very fun. And I got flowers (!) Wheeee!

2006-05-14T22:00:00.000-07:00

Today was a sleepy sort of overly warm day in which I was glad to be myself and glad to not be wearing too much clothing. It felt and smelled of summer. Alyssa and I made a delicious meal which was simple, but beautiful in its simpleness. Soup, salad, bread and cake. Water to drink. All the makings of wonder.

2006-05-12T14:34:00.000-07:00

Me at the life-day party just before the pinata.

2006-05-12T14:11:00.000-07:00

I am in LOVE...with music. ;-)

I had the most splendiferious day yesterday which included getting a good amount of sleep, napping with my kitty, acing a midterm, inviting a friend over for lunch and co-op wonderfulness, making cookies, hanging out laundry AND going to Central Park to see Jason Webley...gushhhhh.... It was fantastic amazing wonderful. I am right in love with his music and lyrics. I love the crazy silly ones and how dramatic they can be and then I love how beautiful and soul shaking other songs can be. Hilltop also played, which was wonderful because I got to dance with some very special people. I missed all my polka friends though!

Today it the first day of the Whole Earth Festival which is also wonderful. I'm taking a break right now and holding down the fort at the EC but I worked parkin' all morning long which meant I got to meet all the venders. Fun fun fun. It's going to be a beautiful time. WEF is a special time and place for me. My first year here it was a marking point in which I found some very beautiful people who continue to brighten my life. Happy days are these, and I am a happy girl.

2006-05-04T18:19:00.000-07:00

Words I've recently fallen in love with:

greyhound starts crawling at quarter past nine.
leaving this county now, so say the signs.
I look out my window but nothing I find
can change my direction or settle my mind.

I've been wild and reckless and often been tame.
I've been proud and honest and sometimes ashamed.
been clever and certain, free from all pain
sometimes so lost all I knew was my name.

the man sitting next to me chuckles and sighs,
leans back his head and he fixes his eyes.
"never trust comfort, it's weak and it lies,
have faith in the struggle, don't rest till you die."

the cross that he wears through a hole in his ear
he says killed a prophet who then reappeared.
though I ain't religious his message seems clear:
each eye that we meet, son, is only a mirror.

through arizona the desert's in bloom
at night all these cities seem haunted as tombs
freight trains in denver move down the line
while ghosts of the hobos drink red boxcar wine.

depot to depot drifting along,
looking for somewhere to be and belong;
graced now and then with a phrase from a song,
st. louis this morning by midday we're gone.

the lands that I've travelled, the places I've been
know all my secrets, my pleasures, my sins;
weathervane forecast lost in a spin
when life's accidental and random as wind
-Misner & Smith "Greyhound Days"

2006-04-15T10:42:00.000-07:00

Fun Fun, Dancing Fun:

I will be performing in the Main Stage Dance/ Theatre Festival modern dance performance next week and weekend.
It runs April 19-23

Preview: Wednesday, April 19
Runs: Thu-Sun April 20-23
8:00 p.m. except Sunday at 2:00 p.m.
Main Theatre (next to art & music building). $ 14 A; $9 S&C (Preview tickets $ 13 Adults; $7 Students &Children)

http://theatredance.ucdavis.edu/mainstage.html

I will be participating in a Pre-Show performance that begins a half an hour before the start of the shows (7:30 4/19-4/20; 1:30 4/23) at the Davis Commons (First and E Street on the lawn in front of Borders and Pultos) that will lead to the Main Theatre. This part is really fun so I encourage you to come early and watch it.

I believe there will be eight different dance pieces performed, almost all of them directed by undergraduate student choreographers and they are GOOD. I'll be in the pre-show and the first act.

2006-03-25T20:10:00.000-08:00

Translation, for those who asked:-)

"I, like you, am in love with love, with life, with the sweet joy of things, the blue passing of January mornings. My blood also ebs and flows for eyes who have known the overflow of tears. I believe that the world is beautiful, that poetry is like bread, and should belong to everyone. And my veins do not finish in me but instead unite me to the blood of those who fight for life, for love, for beautiful things, blue passings and bread, for the poetry of everyone." -Roque Dalton

2006-02-02T10:02:00.000-08:00

Gracias a los poetas Nicaraguences:

Yo, como tu, amo el amor, la vida, el dulce encanto de las cosas, el paisaje celeste de los dias de enero. Tambien mi sangre bulle y rio por los ojos que han conocido el brote de las lagrimas. Creo que el mundo es bello, que la poesia es como el pan, de todos. Y que mis venas no terminan en mi sino en la sangre unanime de las que luchan por la vida, el amor, las cosas, el paisaje y el pan, la poesia de todos. -Roque Dalton

This quote is like looking into a clear pond, diving into your reflection, and finding it and you and the water clensing, refreshing, good and true.

2006-01-17T23:24:00.000-08:00

My blog has a new look and I LIKE it :-) It makes me happy.

Today it could be said that I had a hard day, although nothing happened within it to make it particularly rough except that I am still growing and changing and learning and stretching and reaching and sometimes falling. But there will be days, there will be times like this in life and when they come I will know what to do because of these days in which I am learning. Sometimes patience with myself is the very hardest thing.
But the day ended up being a good one. I had myself some lunch, a hug and a nap and things became brighter. I came home to cook for my beautiful, wonderful housemates, and cleaned the kitchen which can be more theroputic than you think. And how I made my blog nifty and the title of it is true. My life is a different kind of wonderful than it was before, but it is still wonderful.

Today I am thankful for:
-bikes
-tea
-drop spindles
-wool
-Alisa
-talks
-the Experimental College
-blue inky pens
-the happy girl with the bright smile in my English class
-lunch
-Eric
-naps
-hugs
-my house
-my cat
-my housemates
-love, in all its various forms

2005-12-04T09:13:00.000-08:00

Hmmm?

2005-12-04T09:05:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went to the Dicken's Faire Christmas celebration at the Cow
Palace in San Francisco.It was FANTASTIC. I had such a wonderful wonderful glorious time. Everyone walking around in 19th century garb, tea at the Tea Shoppe, waltzing
and polkas and Mr. Fezziwigs, amorous telegrams, parlor games, more dancing; they
transformed the Cow Palace to look like the streets of London and scattered
sawdust on the floor for snow. My good friends Kevin and Sarah made me
Dickens garb as their CHristmas present to me. My dress is red and lovely and had the most amazing sleeves. I almost cried when they gave it to me.
Well, after a day of so much fun I have much school work and house work to
do here at my lovely little co-op.

But life is wonderful, and wickedly good.

2005-10-06T23:34:00.000-07:00

Something to remember:

If we couldn't laugh, we would all go insane.
Jimmy Buffett

;-)

2005-09-20T12:56:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the quotes of the day seem to be designed for me:

The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.
-- Chinese Proverb

I just realized that there's going to be a lot of painful times in life, so I better learn to deal with it the right way.
-- Trey Parker and Matt Stone, South Park, Raisins, 2003

As for happy things, my housemates are beautiful, I have the perfect cat, and my pierced ear is healing nicely.

May your walls know joy; May every room hold laughter and every window open to great
possibility.
-- Maryanne Radmacher-Hershey, 1995

2005-09-20T08:04:00.000-07:00

Going to visit Lacey and Antonia today! Happy!!

2005-09-10T22:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday and today have been filled with people reminding me that they love me. I am so thankful for that abundence in my life. Lacey left after a whole week of giggles and happy shared times. My house, my co-op, my house and co-op mates have astounded me with their love, support, kindness. They are my family. Today Sarah and Kevin picked me up and we went to the zoo. So happy. Then we went to Kevin's new place, watched a movie, and then feasted on the perfect Japanese, backyard feast that Kevin prepared for us, complete with a sheet for a table cloth and all of us sitting on pillows. I felt so content, so at peace. Thank you, loves and lovelies, for being so beautiful, grand and wonderful. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Blessings and love on this life :-)

2005-09-10T10:40:00.000-07:00

Today the quotes of the day are speaking to me:

Nothing ever goes away.
-- Barry Commoner

Since you are like no other being ever created since the beginning of time, you are
incomparable.
-- Brenda Ueland

Make voyages! - Attempt them! - there's nothing else...
-- Tennessee Williams

Now is a time for healing, and growing, and loving myself.

2005-06-27T22:08:00.000-07:00

Today was most lovey and also lovely. :-)
Faire past weekend was wonderful wonderful, dinner tonight was a culinary success as well as fun to make. Annie is the best cook partner. I made pulm apple cobbler. Yummy!

I found a second job for the summer! Huzzah! And it's a good fun garden one too.

Live is wonderous well and I have a soft kitten to cuddel. Happy. So happy.

This week is Registration Week at the Experimental College!!! Lots of fun and wonderful classes!

2005-06-03T10:48:00.000-07:00

It is surprisingly easy to bike and eat a bagel at the same time.

*back to my paper*

love ya'll!

2005-05-02T15:27:00.000-07:00

I like the quotes of the day today:

Forget injuries, never forget kindnesses.
-- Confucius

I have come to believe that giving and receiving are really the same. Giving and receiving
- not giving and taking.
-- Joyce Grenfell

I love you the more that I believe you have liked me for my own sake and for nothing
else.
-- John Keats

2005-04-25T16:06:00.000-07:00

It's a beautiful springish day and I my hair is long enough to french braid. I had a lovely fun and wonderful dance class this morning. I am all done with my poetry essay. Anselm got back from faire and brought me hair clips of birds with wings that really flap and chime, Katzi sent me a package that had HOMEMADE socks in it (which I am wearing), and I'm eating gingerbread.

Wow! How do I rate? :-D

Life is happy and splendid and I am soooooo lucky :-)

Love you world! And all you lovelies that make it so.

beijos,

Quenix

2005-03-30T19:43:00.000-08:00

So I'm being sneaky and extending my Spring Break for four extra days by skipping out on the first two days of class to stay here at the Ranch and visit with my wonderful cousin WendiLou and her adorable 14 month old daughter, Bella. And WOWZA is she pretty much worth it. You never saw a kid so cute!! (I swear and I’m not being prejudiced or anything even though she is related to me and all ;-) She’s just soooo good and Wend is such a good mami too, even though I was so very sure she would be. Originally I wasn’t going to stay so long but then when I was telling Wend about my possible dates for coming down she said, “Oh! And then it will be so perfect you can be here with us for your birthday (Sunday, April 3rd)” And well, they say that what WendiLou wants, WendiLou gets, which is funny because all she is is wonderful not demanding or anything, but heavens if they aren’t right.

It is, of course, just lovely to be at the Ranch again. It just smells so delicious; like grass and trees and wild flowers and fresh wind and the very quietest of stars. My dad put up a new swing in the pepper tree and it’s just awesome. The creek is running from all the rain they’ve had and the hills are green green green since it’s been a year and a half since the fire. I can hear the frogs and life is beautiful. A delicious dinner is a waitin’.

Besos,
Me

2005-03-10T14:06:00.000-08:00

Another lovely quote:

From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life.
-- Arthur Ashe

This is rathery timely because I got a job!!
Wheee!!

Huzzah for the Experimental College where I am now the Publicity Manager :-)

But I still intend to make my life as well as a living.

*Umarmungen*

lovely Me

2005-03-07T08:49:00.000-08:00

Quotes from my morning reading and listening:

"I own my life. And only mine. And so i shall appreciate my person. And so I shall make proper use of myself." -Ruth Beebe Hill

;-)

"Women speak because they wish to speak, whereas a man speaks only when driven to speech by something outside himself- like, for instance, he can't find any clean socks." ~ Jean Kerr

"I don't like the terms, 'housewife' and 'homemaker'. I prefer to be called 'Domestic Goddes'...it's more descriptive." ~ Roseanne Barr

"You can bomb the world to pieces but you can’t bomb it into peace." -Michael Franti

Love you guys

2005-02-23T07:54:00.000-08:00

I feel like since being back I've jumped into this old/new life of mine with both feet and continue to do so each day. And this has been good, but sometimes I wonder about it. Sometimes it makes me tired. Sometimes I wonder if it's really the right thing to do or if I've done things too fast, made too many assumptions. Sometimes, on beautiful breezy days, biking to school or days like yesterday, the sky full of tremendous thick purple clouds and creamy gold sunset, or riding the train to Santa Barbara the hills green, rolling gorgeous, at times like that I just feel this tug to keep riding, keep going. Ride away to no set fate, no certain destiny, just me, my green shirt and jeans, and Converse with holes. Travel travel travel to some place where no one knows my name and there is no set life. Where I can build me beautiful, wandering and strong.
*besos*

2005-02-14T10:21:00.000-08:00

I like these quotes:

Maybe the greatest challenge now is to find a way to keep independence while also
committing ourselves to the ties that bind people, families, and ultimately societies
together.
           -- Jane O'Reilly

The grass is not, in fact, always greener on the other side of the fence. Fences have
nothing to do with it. The grass is greenest where it is watered. When crossing over
fences, carry water with you and tend the grass wherever you may be.
           -- Robert Fulghum, It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It


Happy Valentine's Day!

les quiero,
Me

2005-02-07T18:10:00.000-08:00

Today has turned out to be a lovely day. Managed to sleep in for a whole hour extra and STILL get in enough studying in to feel ratherly good about my Medieval Lit midterm this afternoon at two. The midterm actually felt good; like it was just this chance to pour out everything I knew and had absorbed during all of the classes.

Then I came home and made a delicious lunch of angel hair pasta and homemade tomato sauce. YUM! And then I thoroughly cleaned the kitchen, which felt good. Oh, and played my Indigo Girls 12 o'clock curfew CD and sang loudly during the whole bit. *grin* Happy Me.

Not going to make it to the Plough tonight but that's okay. I'm going to vacuum my room, get all caught up (and maybe even ahead!?!) on my reading, write a few letters, light a few candles, have some good ME time and get a good night's sleep. Rah for this Monday. It rocks.

Quizas el amor es algo que asusta, pero yo no tengo miedo.
¡Les quiero!
Me

2005-02-06T22:01:00.000-08:00

MIDTERM tomorrow!

Happy Medieval Lit thoughts everyone!!

2005-02-06T22:00:00.000-08:00

Mis padres son unas personas incredibles y lindisimas. Soy muy afortunada :-)

*My parents are incredible and beautiful people. I'm so lucky :-)

2005-01-28T13:08:00.000-08:00

A quote for those, like me, who search every day to make their lives even more beautiful:

It's important to begin a search on a full stomach.

           -- Henry Bromel, Northern Exposure, The Big Kiss, 1991



Beijos,



Me

2005-01-12T15:54:00.000-08:00

Today, today...
Today it is a beautiful sunny winter day in Davis and I am transitioning but I got wear my stripéd tights, purple skirt, maroon cord jaket and crocheted hat, and a Costa Rican scarf. And I spent time with Anna, who is just splendiferous, and it was sunny and I ate a grilled eggplant and red pepper sandwitch for lunch and I ran into Cobly who is just wonderful and it was a nice bike ride home. And now I am drinking Quena tea and will take a nap and talk to my mom this evening and turn in my application to J St. Co-op and make Thai food and talk about what it all really could mean and what I might like and hopefully, wishfully, blissfully, it will all work out perfectly in the end.

2004-12-22T13:33:00.000-08:00

Well, I made it.
I am here.
San Diego is cold
well,
cold enough for there to be
no banana trees.
My family is beautiful
and so are the hills
But I miss cielos incredibles
natilla fresa
and certain smiles.

2004-12-16T09:56:00.000-08:00

Yipes! I'm going "home" in four days.... yowza... I've had my Costa Rica year and jeeze, did it pass by quick. Crazy to think about that me that was Quena when I left because I am still that Quena but yet I'm not in the way that I can't imagine me or my life without this experience, without this year away from all that was farmiliar and now is dear. It's sort of like rebuilding your life using Tinker -Toys instead of Legos or vice versa. I wonder what my "pre" life of Legos will look like now.
What I really can't wait to do is hug and laugh and re-unite with so many people who I've only had in my life through letters and emails (and short but marvelous visits Lacey, Graham, Mami and Jac!). I can't wait to share. I have a feeling things may be "Costa Rica this" and "Costa Rica that" for a while but hey, it was my life for a year and will continue to be a part of who I am for a long long time. And you DO want to hear all about it, don't you? ;-)

love and I'll hug you all for real soon,
Me

2004-12-07T14:35:00.000-08:00

Five out of six essays done, only my escuela Monterrey one left and it would have to be the one I actually care about that is left for the end when I'm all tuckerd out. Ah well, ALMOST DONE!!!

I my essays all keep turning out being between 12 and 17 pages of pure espanol and I don't really even try to make them that long. There is something very cool and very frightening and disgusting about that. Shashying to turn in my last lit paper I kept slapping it against my arm and thinking how thick it was. Crazy things can happen to you when you eat gallo pinto ;-)

I'll be home for an entire day this time in two weeks. Eeep. That's kind of frightening too.

2004-11-26T13:33:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had a beautiful Thanksgiving with my EAP family.
Three cheers for cider, camote-yam pie, and the very best of friends.

I am thankful for so much. Thank you for you.

*love*
Me

2004-11-23T09:12:00.000-08:00

PS. I got a letter from my mommy today and it made me happy, warm and fuzzy feeling. Gracias!!

2004-11-23T09:05:00.000-08:00

Every day brings a chance for you to draw in a breath, kick off your shoes, and dance.

Now you see, I like that quote. An awful, awful, lot.

Here's to breathing, running about descalzo (barefoot) and dancing, dancing, dancing dreams.

2004-11-18T13:10:00.000-08:00

One more week of real school (classes that is) two weeks of turning in final projects, goodbye to the Escuela Monterrey kids December tenth and than this little girl is DONE with writing any sort of essays or projects in these Costa Rican lands. I'll still have until the 20th to play and get any last minute travel destinations all photoed up. Vanessa's birthday is on the 17th, party, party, party. It's starting to feel like I'm really leaving soon (maybe beacause I am :-P) I want to spend as much time with the people I love here as I can, but have to keep up with my school work too. I'm already taking a lit class pass/no pass because it needed me to read too many novels and I need to love and be with lots of people. I'm not quite sure when I stopped saying "I'm staying here for a year" when people ask me and started saying "I have to go December 20th" but I have. I'm just starting to meet or at least get to know some really awesome people and part of me wants to be sad because I'm only just now knowing and spending time with them but I concentrate on just being so happy to get to know them after all. The ice cream boys have taken to giving me free cones whenever I go in, "for their special California Chocomenta chica" they say.

Yesterday many things happened. I turned in two projects for my Educating for Peace class, which felt good. I read a 134 page novel in three hours, took a essay make-up test on the novel, drank a cup of coffee with too much cocoa and sugar in it, and dreamed my way through three hours of in-class presentations. Than I met with Stacey, Holly, Carolina, Alexis, Robert and Danny and we went to see the opening act of the Festival of the Arts here in San Jose. The act was this great play/dance/acorbatics show on five stories of scaffolding done by "Deus o Bestias" (Gods or Beasts) from Spain. It was really awesome. Lots of fireworks too and fire-play. I pretty much loved it :-) Than I went home and crashed out until 11 am this morning. Hey, it was a busy day.
Yesterday was also the year anniversery of the cutting off of my hair. I remember how scary it was before I did it and how wonderfully elated it made me after it was done. And how Jan and Christy screamed when I took off my hat a year from today actually.
What has cutting my hair taught me this year?
Let's see: Washing ones hair in the sinks of random places is fun. Shaking your head when your hair is wet and spraying everyone in sight is fun too. Long hair is better for cold, damp nights in class when you just want something to wrap around yourself and hide in. I miss my long hair when I have too much homework. My hair grows fast (really, it's hard to keep up with it). It is easier to take care of ear piercings with short hair. Short hair is often quite excited to be alive when one wakes up in the morning and shows it's glee by sticking up in all sorts of exciting directions. Ah! You should not get your hair cut in the cheapest place in the San Pedro mall in Costa Rica, disaster often occures. Short hair goes well with fairy wings.
What will happen to my hair next? Don't know. It will probably start getting in my eyes soon and I'll cut it again before I go back to the states. After that? dunno.
I am very much looking forward to Camp Harmony this year, but today I have to read a novel...

2004-11-10T17:29:00.000-08:00

Yesterday my classmates and I went to our Costa Rican Literature class to find a note from the prof saying that she wasn´t going to be able to make it that day but for us to do our presentations (we´re in the midst of final project presentations) and to grade eachother and stick all the little pieces of paper where we wrote the grades in an envelope. So we did. We held class anyway and listened to eachother and carried on. It was a rather strange feeling, very "grown up" like, carrying on that way without any hiarchy. What was also interesting was that I found I paid attention to the presentations much more than I usually do when the prof is in the class (usually I write poems or letters or something of the sort), which is starnge, I spose, because when she is there I can get docked points for not paying attention but when she´s not there I sat up and took notice and even jotted some stuff down. It just seemed more courteous or somethingThey were rather interesting presentations.

Today I wore my striped tights, striped rainbow scarf and maroon cord jacket because it was just chilly enough. (That jacket just has the best pockets). It made me happy. AND I got a letter from Lacey which made me VERY happy :-)

JOY

love,
me

2004-11-08T18:41:00.000-08:00

Today it is raining in San Pedro, Costa Rica, like it never has before. It´s cold drizzly rain. Not so happy if you are sick and have no umbrella. Currently I am sick and have no umbrella.... phooey...

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On the other side of the coin (or pumkin patch or what have you) my readers theatre kids performed last Thursday and they were AWESOME and INCREDIBLE and loads of other wonderful stuff. I was so proud :-D

Now we get to do it again. Whee. And now we´re all practiced up too.

2004-11-02T14:51:00.000-08:00

Costa Rican rain is very wet. Now I know you are all sitting there thinking that I'm looney and that ALL rain is wet, and that is true. But!, I, sitting here in the EAP office looking like I jumped in a lake while a large puddle forms at the base of my chair from mearly crossing a 50 meter courtyard, am of the opinion that just as the skies of Costa Rica are just more beautiful than anywhere else, the rain in Costa Rica (or maybe just today) really is especially wet.
I also am sporting a bloody elbow from where I slipped on the entry way tile on my way to the EAP office and my education essay is in inky tatters.

Ah well. It's actually been sort of fun. There is a certain appeal to soakingness. It can be good, and as soon as this wet stuff stops I'll go home and get dry and wram and fuzzaly.

2004-10-28T14:45:00.000-07:00

The vegetarian restaurant right close to la U (Universidad de Costa Rica) really is the best place to eat lunch round these parts. It's just so wonderful in there. The walls are painted all sorts of exciting bright colors, there are hanging mobiles made from just about everything under the sun (and the moon too), nifty art-work, wooden tables, and of course the FOOD is incredible. It just tastes and smells soooo delicious. And for me, who have been having to sneak around Doña Rosy for nine plus months now to prepare my own food at my tico house because I quickly tired of eating white bread, eggs and tuna, eating good veggie food is just heavenly. Mmmmmmm....lunch.... I love lunch.

School is trying to drown me but I finished an essay today (HUZZAH Quena!!!) and maybe even might finish the other one too (oooo!) Only leaving 500 more projects to do! Ah well, school is why I get to be here and being here is good. Oh, and I'm thinking of starting a blog en español so my kids here can keep track of me when I go back so if anyone wants to know when that one gets up and running, lemme know.

My hair is longish, debating about if I am going to cut it before I get back to the states...hmmm... Anna emailed me today and it was happy.

;-)

2004-10-13T14:45:00.000-07:00

Disobedience

by Julia Mueller

You analyze my beautiful mistakes, and they are

heartbroken.

So of course, they stammer and melt all over the place.

They aren't supposed to behave that way.

They are only awkward if you interrogate them.

They are my msitakes. I love them the way I love to

Forget the umbrella so I don't have to be buisinesslike

with rain.

It is untamed. It doesn't deserve that kind of coldness.

Let me say the wrong line. Let me sing a half note below.

That is how the blues were born.

Let that twisted, defiant tendril of hair slip from its captivity.

And see how beauty is borne of indecency.

Do not be embarrassed.

Human is a gloriously crooked creature.

Our mistake is perfect.

It is how we survive.

That wonderful poem came from "Cicada" which I recieved today in a glorious package from my Papi. Whee. Today I flew home from Brazil and got two window seats and slept through the night. I had a fantastical and amazing time in Brazil with wonderful Colby and beautiful Kai and Victoria. It is good to be in Costa Rica again. My life is beautiful here. It was joyful to see Rosaura and Laura and Stacey and tell them bits of my adventures. The rain is stopping now so I shall go to my house.

*smooches*

PS I am listening to an AWESOME mix CD Colby made for me! :-D Yeah!

2004-10-07T09:46:00.001-07:00

Ah ha!! How the title of this blog should really be UNDER A BRAZILIAN SKY since (wahooo!) I am in BRAZIl right now ;-) Wheee. It´s fun here. I like it. Different from Costa Rica and very different than the states. I´m visiting Colby and staying in the most wonderful apartment with his (and now MY) friends Kai and Victoria. They are so amazing and wonderful and beautiful and super keen. I feel like I have known them for always and want to know them forever. It is two blocks to the beautiful Copacabana beach and accross the street from a fruit place that has the best guavas I´ve ever tasted. The building has an elevator that makes a wonderful ´zoom-swish´ noise. Colby lives at the top of a 12 story building that has a patio and a view that I thought only existed in books, fantasy tales and songs. From there you can see the beach and this wonderful pinnicale like rock. Río is a big city with lots of buses and shops. It sort of reminds me of the Bay Area (more than it reminds me of Costa Rican cities). Managing my way in a place where I don´t speak the language is an adventure, I feel daring every time I go to the store. Portugese is beautiful, I love the sound of it, it´s like the music of the very pure things in life. Part of me want to stay forever and part of me misses Costa Rica like crazy. I do miss speaking Spanish an awful lot. (WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WHEN I GO BACK TO THE STATES!) I might stay longer than planned if I can move the kids´Readers Theatre performace back another day. Mmmmm... I love traveling...
Well I´m off to go take a sky tram to a huge rock with a view!! (I have to take the bus too... hmmm...well, I´ll make it!)
beijos,
Quena

2004-09-28T19:38:00.000-07:00

Happiness depends upon ourselves.
-- Aristotle

Now more folks than Aristotle have told me that and I believe it, but tonight I am tired tired tired and drained. And I woke up at 6 am to read a novel and finished it, pero me costo... And the fourth graders still can´t do a clean stage entrence and I haven´t done my homework tonight or studied for my test tomorrow... (and I should be doing those things instead of here typing) and I spose you could say I feel like screwed up and I hate screwing up...
Yesterday the Dalai Lama said that viewed in perspective our problems are much lessened. I spect he is right.
I will go home and get everything done. I have wonderful friends and family. On Thursday I am going to Brazil to see Colby. It will all be okay... I promise... love, me.

2004-09-26T15:49:00.000-07:00

Today I snuck into the back room to wash a load of laundry on my own to a) give Marlin a break when she gets back and b) because sometimes it´s just good to do your own laundry. Washing, hanging up and folding clothes are perhaps my favorite household chore (yes I know, I am a strange one ;-) Anyhow I wash handing it all up to dry and was just finishing up when I looked down the clothes line at my clothes: red, green, burgundy, blue t-shirts, black tank-tops, blue jeans and brown corduroy pants, butterfly print skirt, socks of all sorts: rainbow stripes, bright green, jungle green, black striped, blue knee high argyle socks, socks with clouds, socks with giraffes, and underware of all colors. And I felt happy. I like my clothes. They are bright and alive :-)

I´m being a good kid and reading "Puerto Limon" for my Costa Rican Lit class two days before my class and not the morning of ;-) I am going to take a break today to make empanadas with the girls. Eli has already assinged us all tasks. I am the cheese master (!)

Tommorow I get to see the Dali Lama speak (and for FREE too, having connections within the University system rocks) I think it will be really awesome. I don´t think it´s all really kicked in yet though. I mean, I am going to SEE the Dali Lama, ratherly close too from what my ticket says. I´m reading "The art of living in the new milienium" for my Educating for Peace class too. It´s funny how things in my life sometimes tie together that way.

Ah, Eli is anxious to go buy cheese now. Byes!

PS. While reasearching how to spell "argyle" I came across this website... http://fetishize-me.com/socks.html
I think I am in heaven ;-)

2004-09-22T14:29:00.000-07:00

Happy Equinox lovely folks!!
Wowza, seems like the summer solistice was just last week or something. How the time does whir past.
I feel it being fall here, even though Costa Rica doesn´t really have a fall like they do in the states. But it is, somehow, at least for me. I feel it in sky at dusk, deep in my bones, I feel it being crisper even if that crispness comes from far far away. I wear my tall striped socks with skirts, or jeans and my red fleece pullover, fall Quena clothes. The leaves are changing in Maine, another of my homes so far away, the night skies are clearer at Hollygate. Perhaps the air is cooling in the evenings in Davis. I always loved Davis falls, and I love this one too, even though I´m not there to ride my bike through the leaf piles on B St.
I fly away from Costa Rican skies and mountains and my favorite tree on the UCR campus the day before the winter solstice... a quarter of a year away... my my...

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I love my Readers Theatre kids :-) They are mischiveous and smiliey and giggly and poke-one-another-in-the-sidey. Yes, I love them, although working with the fourth grade class for 40 min is more exhausting than six hours of college class and Jessy in the fifth grade always thumps Cat 1 on the head when they sit down in the beginning, and none of my narrators can prounce ¨said¨correctly and Carlos, after much work convincing me HE would be the best choice for the dog in the production, doesn´t know any of his lines. And I worry or at least think about them and their performance all the time. I have a whole new respect for elementary school teachers and for mothers and fathers and older cousins and brothers and sisters etc. They are so squirrly, those kids, but have such happy faces when they laugh, and they laugh a lot. They make me laugh. I do love them.

2004-09-17T13:38:00.000-07:00

Hullo world... :-)
The current Costa Rican skies seem to call for rain rain and more rain. Woke up at nine and took my morning shower, I really like morning showers I have decided, they are a good clean, fresh way to start a day. Dressed in maroon skirt and Malpais shirt, burgendy Doc Martins (good Quena shoes), short hair; wandered out into the day to go and get my VISA for Brazil (I'm going to go see Colby!!!! Wahooooo!!!!). The rain began just as I got out of the Cajero Automatico, making it ratherly difficult to catch a taxi. I walked about five blocks before I finally just walked into stopped traffic, tapped on the window of one and secured a ride. He was a sweet man, my driver, gave me an excellent rate and talked about his kindergarden age daughter. I am begining to have memories in Spanish of things that I know happened in English... It used to be the other way around... intresting...
The security for the Tore Mercedes (where the Brazilian Embassy is localed) was crazy. I had to go through security and than recieved a badge that had the floor I was going to marked on it. Than I got into an elevator without any buttons and it just started moving up to my floor without me doing anything. Wowza. I thought they only had systems like that in Mission Impossible and things like that. The VISA man at the Embassy was quite the character. The spoke to me in a wonderful mix of English, Spanish and Portuguese. I understood him most of the time ;-) We got it all done, and I shall have my VISA on Monday. Wheee!
It was pouring again (or still) when I got out and got quite drenched crossing the street to attempt yet another taxi hailing. It was nice to get on the bus and head homeward. I am still quite damp from the mornings adventures. Tonight Holly and I are going to the theatre to see a play. Huzzah for threatre folk.
Today I miss Anna and the red double-decker busses at the MU in Davis.
Goodnight.

2004-09-06T10:47:00.000-07:00

Today is a busy day, but full of esperanza....

Quote for the day:
Ideals are like stars: you will not succeed in touching them with your hands, but like theseafaring man on the ocean desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, andfollowing them, you reach your destiny. -- Carl Schurz

Lacey is wonderful... but than most of you already knew that ;-)

2004-08-31T14:15:00.001-07:00

Lacey and Graham are here and the world is wonderful. And in some ways I spect that sounds silly and clique, that two people can just show up and suddenly your life is so much brighter blue with golden edges, but it´s really true. Their hugs are the best soul nourishing thing there is: warm, loving, so excepting and full of joy. We all cram into my room on the nights we´re at my host families house. I had a time explaining to my tico mom how it was really not necessary nor desired to have us sleep each in a sperate room. We three curl on my bed to read and write letters and the warmth and smell of best-of-friends swirls around us and is delicious. They took off yesterday to go explore the beaches of Montezuma but they´re still here, in the same country, and that feels good. Friends are glorious. I am realizing that more and more. And I know some very beautiful people.

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It´s pouring outside again and I´m not really wearing the right shoes and (eeek!) just realized I left my umbrella at home. Hmmm..... Guess I´ll take the bus to my 3 o´clock class. I´m going there having not eaten any lunch I realize, but I have finsihed the reading. Maybe I´ll get hot chocolate at "El Candil" afterwards. Flopped in my favorite armchair at the café "El Cine Semáforo" I realized how much I´m going to miss all of my Costa Rican haunts. I can´t read for school at my tico house (I end up falling asleep or getting distracted my one of Vanessa´s schemes) so I´ve taken to frequenting a variety of little cafes and dinners. They´re all so unique, with different dicore and menus. I got to the Candil if it´s cold and I want hot chocolate or if it´s hot and I want iced tea, the Cine if I want orange juice, La Tortugita if I want frutas mixtas, Buffalos if I want yucca, Hammakas if I want coffee, the soda in the education buiding if I want a sandwitch, the vegetarian resterant with the orange sign if I want a healthy lunch... They are good haunts. May I find good ones where ever I roam.

I´m going to be teaching readers theatre to four different elementary school classes for my independent study. Interesting way to earn 4 university credits. I have to write a 15 page paper about it all (and how it relates to my major(s) ) at the end of it but it shouldn´t be that bad.

The bus calls... love you kids.

*besos*

Quenita

2004-08-31T14:15:00.000-07:00

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The bus calls... love you kids.

*besos*

Quenita

2004-08-25T11:45:00.000-07:00

Lacey and Graham are comming today!!!!!!!! Wheeee Happy Happy Happy :-) Life is grand and wonderous. It's funny and wonderful how just the thought of seeing people you love makes everything spendidful :-D And there is this huge bus and taxi strike and the streets are blocked and clogged and it took my friend Cindi 3 hours to get to school yesterday when it should have taken her one and I'm going to set off for the airport to get the Lacey and Graham kids three hours before I usually would but I really don't mind ;-) I will get there, they will get there, we will get home in some way or another and we will be together and so marvelously happy :-)

2004-08-14T16:54:00.000-07:00

Holly is being sweet and letting me use her laptop at baglemen´s. It is funny to be typing on a laptop with a wireless connection while looking out the window into Los Yoces de San Pedro at a beautiful Costa Rican sky sunset, it´s like too many worlds all meshing together, but I recon´ I´m dealing with it well ;-) Tonights sunset is very lavender, lavender and golden pink with lots of clouds. I DO love the skies here. They are different from any other skies I have ever been under. The colors are more vibrent, more clean somehow... I love these skies. I shall miss them. It´s odd to think I only have four months left, it´s all so feels-like-I-belong here now. I sit here with Holly and Sarah and feel as though we have always been friends and we´ll go on living our lives like this for a long time, meeting every Saturday to read for class, study, eat bagles and laugh. But at the same time I know we won´t, that this time and place has a terminating point and it´s strange. How does one make the best of a life that you enjoy the most because you just go out and live it every day? Like I feel this urgency to get everything done that I want to do but I feel like I can´t rush out and get or do the things I love the most about this place because they are things that just happen day by day, like walking home at dusk, watching the people pass from my window seat on the bus, making Alexis laugh... I´ve been dreaming vivid dreams about people back in the states for the past two weeks. Bright, vivid dreams of peoples expressions, faces, hands, clothes and smiles, in my dreams we talk and laugh. I wonder what that means...

2004-08-09T16:16:00.000-07:00

Classes started again today. It felt good. I was walking up the hill to Letras to go to my first class and I realized that I felt much different on this first day than I felt my last first day of a semester at UCR. If anything today I felt the way I do on a first class of the quarter day in Davis. It was farmiliar like. A belonging competent feeling. A good feeling. And it was nice to stride confidently through campus, knowing exactly where the buildings were, greeting several conocidos on my way and thinking about how I have to call Fico for a ride to Ultimate Frisbee tonight. I felt like a regular college student, not necesarily a foreign one, where school is a part of life but it is not life. Life is all the fun things that you fill yourself up with and school is something you do and hopefully enjoy, work of a certain sort, the thing you do that inables you to enjoy the lifestyle you enjoy when you´re not at school. I am a University of Costa Rica student and while I will always be not-from-here and stick out a bit, it´s not near so much as it once was. I have a good feeling about this time I have left here, this semester. It´s already so much easier to met and talk to people than the last time ´round.

Alexis and I went to a Malpaís concert on Sat. It was AMAZING. I´m sure a fan now. May there be many more experiences such as that one.

Today I recieved a package from my mami that contained two books that look like they will be excellent, a shirt that Nancy sent me from London, a woven bag, and a lovely letter. My family rocks! Thanks guys :-)

Lacey and Graham are comming to visit soooo soon!! I am MOST excited :-D

2004-08-06T13:36:00.000-07:00

I love my yoga classes and my yoga instuctor and Roxanna who always comes. Today's class was kick ass, challanging, but tremendous feeling. I walked to the Auto-Mercado all happy, content, purry half-mast eyed where I bought yogurt and shampoo, than caught the bus home and stopped by the nifty little fruit and granola store that opened next to the ice cream store 100 meters from my house and bought a peach, a banana and a tangerine. Than I went home and breakfasted on peaches, banana and yogurt with honey whirled in for deliciousness. And than I ate the tangerine for dessert. A most excellent morning...mmm...if I do say so myself.
We have two new students in our house: Eli, who is from Texas and is staying until December like me, and Wielke who is from Germany and is staying for three months. They are both very keen. Eli and Vanessa laugh about everything and we all can't help but join in. Wielke is just wonderful and very funny. She likes to listen to my stories ;-) We all made cookies and than watched Moulin Rouge last night. It was good.
A new semester starts on Monday. I have five classes plus an idependent study... someone please tell me I must be loca because I seem to not be getting the message. Have been thoroughlly enjoying my little inbetween semester vacation. I've traveled a lot and taken lots of naps :-)
Today I'm off with the girls to buy notebooks and to show Wielke San Jose. It should be a beautiful day :-)

2004-07-11T11:19:00.000-07:00

My MAMI and JAC are here!!!! Wheeee and Huzzah!!!!! Quena soooooo happy :-)!!!!!!

2004-07-09T16:22:00.000-07:00

P.S. I like this quote:

All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous unpremeditated act without the benefit of experience.
-- Henry Miller

2004-07-09T15:59:00.000-07:00

Got home from going to Nicaragua with Leah today to find much of my plans for people visiting, visiting people running a bit amuck. Apparently I wrote Colby and told him I was going to visit the first week in July instead of August which is when I can go.... phooey on me and my inability to get months straight. But I have a nifty ticket which might let me get away with it all and it will all still work out.
Need to call my folks tonight to cement plane picking up plans because my MOM AND JAC ARE COMMING TO VISIT in TWO DAYS!!!! Wheeee!!!! Very fun. Quena very happy.
Leah and I's trip has been named, "Around the Muddy World with Useless Maps and Rude Guys" It is fitting. Lonely Planet needs to update their guide to Estali and Matagalpa, they keep mentioning resterants that don't exist anymore or are two blocks East of where they were supposed to be.
It seems that even the postal service here is not impermiable to the rainy season here seeing as how I got a letter back to today that I had written to Katzi that looks like it spent several weeks soaking in ink remover. Nothing is readable... It was a good letter too. I'm a bit sad. It seems I need to write in only ballpoint pen.
Anyhooo, I have much planning to do.
love you kids,
Quena

2004-07-03T18:29:00.000-07:00

For all you Spanishly inclined here is my graffiti investigation. Maybe someday I´ll get a translated copy out:

Galloway Quena Crain
Seminario sobre identidades
nacionales e inmigración en Costa Rica
Prof. Dr. Carlos Sandoval García
29 de junio 2004

La escritura en las paredes: Un estudio sobre el graffiti de San José y San Pedro

“Envíen a Batman a Vietnam,” “Soy ateo. Te lo juro por Dios,” “¡No al TLC!”, “No a la guerra,” “Bush asesino”…y muchos muchos más. Todos estos son ejemplos del graffiti, esa decoración de cada día que dice tantas cosas, que nos hace reír, llorar o pensar. Desde tiempos ancianos el graffiti ha servido como un tipo de foro público donde las voces de la callé, las voces de la gente, se escuchen. En esta manera el graffiti también sirve como una reflexión de la identidad de la gente que frecuenta los sitios del graffiti, en este caso los estudiantes y ciudadanos de la área de San Pedro, Costa Rica y el público de San José central, Costa Rica.
En este estudio, el mensaje del graffiti fue examinado con el intento de lograr un conocimiento más amplio de los métodos de comunicación entre el público y lograr un mejor entendimiento de como la identidad del público esta reflexionado en estas declaraciones de aresol. Interés en este tema empezó con la realización de que el graffiti en y alrededor de la UCR es mucho más políticamente orientado y lleno de sentido que el graffiti encontrado en muchas partes de los Estados Unidos. Quise determinar la razón por tanta opinión que adorna las calles y ver si la razón será que la gente representada por el graffiti tiene más conciencia de eventos corrientes adentro y fuera de su país. También había interés en como los temas tratados por el graffiti podían ser una forma de representación de identidad para el público.
Los objetivos de este estudio son acumular ejemplos de los tipos de graffiti más comunes de los terrenos de la UCR (Universidad de Costa Rica), de la área de San José central y de los baños en los edificios de la UCR, con propósito de comparar el graffiti de la cuidad y de la universidad y también ver cómo el graffiti de alta visibilidad compara con el graffiti más privado de los baños. El estudio se delimita a los terrenos de la UCR, la área alrededor de la UCR; la área central de la cuidad de San José; y los baños de mujeres en los edificios de la UCR.
Literatura
Realmente se puede encontrar mucha literatura sobre el graffiti en las bibliotecas y en el Internet, pero la gran mayoridad de esta literatura es sobre el graffiti localizado en Europa, los Estados Unidos o México. Literatura sobre el graffiti localizado en países latinoamericanos, con la excepción de México, no se encuentra mucho. De todos modos, la literatura sobre graffiti centroamericano fue muy amplia e interesante, especialmente dos artículos escritos por Guillermo Barzuna.
Descubrimos que, en verdad, el graffiti es un aspecto anciano de la sociedad. Arqueólogos encontraron, en las ruines de Pompeya, las opiniones de diversos latinos en los inicios del primer milenio, anotados en cimiento. Casos simulares se encuentran en la cultura china y en ciertos espacios precolumbianos (Barzuna 22). Y, como Robert Reisner menciona en uno de sus libros sobre el graffiti, el graffiti aparece en la Biblia cuando el profeta Daniel pudo leer las palabras: “Mene, Tekel, Peres” para el rey Baltazar, escritos misteriosamente sobre la pared por la mano del hombre. Este inscripción antecede el muralismo gráfico de hoy en día.
Recientemente, en un artículos titulado: “Graffiti: La pared como testimonio”, Guillermo Barzuna defina el graffiti como “una escritura, alguna veces doctorinaria, que se escribe o dibuja sobre los muros externos e internos” que en términos generales son “inscripciones que se caracterizan por su pronta desaparición, por el anonimato y por la fuerte carga expresiva por parte del emisor del texto” (22). Un escritor/artista de graffiti, Bliz, entrevistado por el periódico, El País, dice que el graffiti “es más un estilo de vida que otra cosa”, y Erandi Villavicencio, artista de graffiti de 19 años, lo defina como “expresión de colorida rebeldía, forma pública de comunicación juvenil [y] constructor de identidad colectiva” (Hidalgo 1). Pero con cualquier definición es obvio que el graffiti significa y implica “muchas otras cosas que pintar una pared” (Posk, El País).
La alta visibilidad del graffiti; letras de tres pies pintados en anaranjado en una pared de la estación de bus o oraciones garabateados con lapicero negro en una puerta del servicio público; significa que ese mensaje alcanza a mucha gente, casi comparable (en una escala mucho menor) a los medios de comunicación públicos como de la televisión o radio. El graffiti es un medio de comunicar un mensaje a la gente alrededor, como dice Barzuna, “el graffiti siempre fue una forma de comunicación oculta, subterránea, basada en códigos de identificación que busca transgredir o evadir lo establecido” (Barzuna 2). El graffiti sirve como editorial y foro para el público de las calles, se trata de “textos verbales e icónicos que expresan el malestar de una generación usualmente marginada o no reconocida y stanizada por los estatutos sociales, bajo epítetos que van de lo vulgar a lo grotesco” (Barzuna 2). Es un método para esa gente marginada de tener sus opiniones escuchadas sobre “todo de índole político”: alto costa de vida, propuestas de los grupos opositores, caída de la popularidad de los gobernantes, hambre, desempleo, represión policial, corrupción (Barzuna 4). Los temas de los mensajes son amplios y variados, de declaraciones de amor/odio “[al] deseo constante por árrimar soluciones positivas al acontecer nacional”, pero el graffiti siempre es, literalmente, la palabra de la calle (Barzuna 24).
Las escrituras ilegales que adornan las calles son representaciones de la voz marginada por la razón simple que para tener el derecho o la opción de adornar las paredes legalmente, uno tiene que tener dinero. Como dice Jeremiah Luna en un articulo sobre graffiti en espacios urbanos: acceso a paredes públicos esta obstruido para gente sin mucho dinero y, por si acaso una persona logra tener acceso a esas paredes, usualmente esa persona tiene la obligación de adornarlo con algún anuncio que hace el capitalismo más fuerte y el silencio de los marganalizados. La voz y las opiniones de la gente de la calle usualmente no están escuchadas en la televisión, ni en los periódicos, o en cualquier otro medio de editorial común. Por eso, la comunidad silenciada forma su propia manera de compartir sus opiniones, que es llamada ilegal por las leyes del gobierno local, que Luna dice es parte del deseo de hacer la opinión de “los Otros” ilegal. El mensaje del graffiti “está basado en la creación de una escritura de ruptura de trasgresión ante el creciente silencio de los muros y de sus habitantes” hasta el punto que la ilegalidad del graffiti se ha convertido en un orgullo y un requisito (Barzuna 4). “El graffiti siempre ha sido vandálico, ilegal, como será siempre, dice Zek, escritor/artista de graffiti (El País).
A demás de la ilegalidad del graffiti, el lenguaje y tipo de oraciones usados en el graffiti usualmente son reaccionarios, gráficos y muchas veces vulgares. Barzuna dice que la razón por esto es:
En las culturas marginales se desarticula lo establecido, se violenta el grado cero de la escritura. No existe una mirada, sino una pluralidad de múltiples voces y visiones. Hay en la estrategia de creación un rechazo deliberado a la adopción de convenciones verbales: etiqueta, cortesía, piedad, consideración, respecto del rango…La recurrencia a temas sexuales, racismo, machismo, droga, feminismo, concepciones políticas de agresiones son propios del graffiti interno escudados por el anonimato, lo que posibilita la expresión de los ángulos más reprimidos por la moral dominante (Barzuna 2-4).

El lenguaje y temas del graffiti son parte de la visión de graffiti como cultura contra las reglas establecidos de la sociedad, cultura contra la patria. Además que eso, las temas y el lenguaje impactantes causan reacción en los lectores.
Otro aspecto del graffiti es que “se trata de mensajes que se realizan en el ámbito del anonimato, de ahí la sinceridad sin límites y la incitación al destinatario a que asuma algún tipo de reacción” (Barzuna 4). Sabemos que el graffiti es la verdadera opinión de la gente porque, a lo menos que la policía te agarra mientras que estas pintando, no hay penalidad por escribir su verdadera opinión. Muchos grafiteros sienten orgullo por informar a la comunidad; “Nosotros hacemos un favor a la gente [con hacer graffiti en las paredes de su alrededor” dice Bliz (El País).
Muchas veces el graffiti se convierte en parte de la sociedad urbana, del arte y de la opinión de la comunidad. Un pedazo de graffiti se puede añadir por un gran parte de la gente que frecuenta la área. “Se le agrega, tacha, corrige, añaden dibujos; lo que da cómo resultante un interesante termómetro de necesidades importantes de la sociedad y de sus represiones inmediatas” (Barzuna 4). El graffiti también pide acción del público, de la comunidad, llamando atención a problemas de la sociedad y escribiendo oraciones que provocan reacciones. “La gente esta incitado a pensar, a reír, a rechazar o identificarse con los pormenores de lo escrito por ese anónimo colectivo” (Barzuna 5). Con este requisito de reacción, el graffiti también se convierte en un diálogo entre miembros de la comunidad, como Barzuna dice; “las carencias, las necesidades de ruptura, de diálogo con el otro colectivo reafirman la presencia de estos rasguños significantes” (25). El graffiti es una manera de comunicar, de verbalizar entre gente, algo que es importante en los espacios urbanos. “En la calle se piropea; en las fiestas se cuentas chistes, en el bar se habla de los otros y del fútbol” y en las paredes, autobuses, parques y puertas de baños se escribe graffiti. “El diálogo, esta vez nocturno, continúa…es la pared confidente…es la presencia de esas manos anónimas que en palabras de Eduardo Galeano, "construyen la imprenta de los pobres, al no tener acceso a la condición editorial” (Barzuna 1). El graffiti crea un espacio para opiniones compartidos.
Y, por todo, lo maravilloso del graffiti es que siempre es un expresión, un diálogo, una representación reciente y moderno porque las fuerzas de la cuidad siempre están “limpiando” las paredes, dando la cuidad una pared limpia por un día y al graffiti un espacio nuevo. “El graffiti…resulta momentáneo, por la interferencia de la brocha gruesa de pintura que lo elimina paulatinamente. Por eso su vigencia es en el ‘estar aquí-ahora’” (Barzuna 24). El graffiti es el periódico de las opiniones y eventos actuales importantes para la calle.

Metodología
La metodología utilizada en este estudio fue observación de graffiti sobre las paredes y los edificios en el terreno de la UCR (Universidad de Costa Rica), los parques y edificios en San José central y el graffiti encontrado en los baños de mujeres de los edificios de la UCR. Logré la colección de este graffiti sobre el tiempo de unos días por medio de fotografía y anotación escrito. En total tomé 29 fotos, 11 fotos del área de San José, 9 fotos del área de la UCR y 9 fotos de los baños.
Resultados
San José Central
Parque opuesto al Mercado Artesano:
Foto A: -Cuatro ocurrencias de -No al TLC
-Gringos violan mujeres, hombres y niños en Irak y ahora quieren violar nuestra soberanía. Anabel Perra Gringa!
-Dos ocurrencias de -No a la guerra
-Bush satan, muerte ya
-Bush torturador fuera Irak
-Bush violador
Foto B: Bush Asecino
-Abel: los ticos no la apoyamos
-Bush opresador
Foto C:-El ICE (no) es del Pueblo
Foto D: -No X(mas) imperio Yanqui
-Bush Asesino
-El Lobo (al lado de un dibujo de una oveja)
Foto E: Dale a tus hijos una verdadera Educación y no la repetición de tu pasado
-Peace
-Matrimonio=¿sexo legal?
Foto F: -Bush asesino
-No al TLC
-Bush asecino
Parque cerca al INS:
Foto G: Estatua de algún conquistador con Asesino escrito sobre su pecho
En camino a la sala de emergencia:
Foto H: -No a la guerra
-No en nuestro nombre
-29 de marzo 2pm Parque Central
Enfrente de la sala de emergencia: -“Siempre hemos dependido en la bondidad de extranjeros” –T. Williams
Camino después de la sala de emergencias:
Foto I: [ ] tienen cancer virus, Calcio tienen Cancer
Foto J: -letal Pollos/Cerdos/Vacas Canibales/Animales/Letal
-Todo todo Pollo Calcio infectado, depopulacion
Foto K: -Pollos/Cerdos/Vacas Letal/Cancer/VIRUS

Universidad de Costa Rica
Área alrededor de la UCR:
En frente de la Radio U: -No queremos el TLC
En frente de la Calle Amargura-No al TLC, informace!
Foto 5 & 6: Cruzando la calle del Cine Semáforo: -No TLC
-Soy culpable de sufrirX (por) hacer sufrir
Foto 7: Al lado de la vía férrea: -TLC=pobreza
Foto 8: La pared al lado de la librería Nueva Década:-Paz
Foto 9: Calle antes del Cine Semáforo –Lybertad, anarkya y una oztya pa’ la policia
Ocho más causas de –No al TLC

Los terrenos de la UCR:
Afuera:
En frente del Carlos Monge: -Bush torturador, Fuera de Irak
Edificio de Educación: -Lupe y Allan
-Yenorí y Julita
Detrás de Educación en un basurero: -Y hoy solo te vuelvo a ver -EP
En la acera debajo de Educación escrito en tiza blanca: -Paz en Iraq, Peace in Iraq, (Paz en Iraq pero escrito en árabe)
-Cuando alguien no te deja vivir matarlo es un acto de densa propia- L.M. Paneno
En frente del fuente de Carlos Monge: -No X(mas) guerra
Edificio de Generales: -No TLC informate ya!
Foto 1: Frente de ciencias sociales: -Bush torturador fuera de Irak
Frente sala de ciencias sociales: -Fuera Yankis
Al lado del edificio de arquitectura: -La U se pinta de Pueblo
Cinco más ocurrencias de –No al TLC

Adentro:
Aula 202 de ciencias sociales:-Fuera Yankis
Foto 2: Aula 212 de ciencias sociales -Si la mierda valiera, los pobres nacerían sin culo No al TLC
Foto 3: Puerta de aula 215 ciencias sociales –Diga NO al TLC
Foto 4: Sala de segundo piso ciencias sociales –Viva la autonomía indígena

Baños
Segundo Piso, ciencias sociales:
Foto A: Cerca del espejo: -Mujeres dicen NO TLC
-Bambuzal es C.R.
Foto B: Stall 1: -Dios no existe es una fantasía muy comoda para evadir la soledad y responsibilidad de la vida.
Respuestas: -¡Dios si existe y te ama!
-Dios asi se dice en el Genesis, hizo al nombre a su imagen y semejanza. Sera que Dios no se repeta a sí mismo? En realidad Dios tuvo una horrible pesadilla y de los [ramelazos] que [pode] necesitan coneserlo.
-Imagen y semejanza significa solamente: que podemos amar y dar amor come él.
Al lado de este diálogo en la madera de la puerta: -¡Dios te Ama! ¿Lo quierres crear o NO? Así es.
-Dios NO existe
-Dios es X (más) el todo lo qué existe fue creado por el. El es creador. Dios existe, punto!
-Existe, lo que pasa es que no le da la gana ocuparse de lo que echó a perder.
Foto C: Stall 2: -Bioicot a Nueva Acropolis! Son Facistas!
Respuestas: -¿Qué es eso?
-Símbolo de anarquía.
Foto D: Stall 2: Mural de opiniones y apoyo: Columna de Problemas Columna de Consejos.
-Quiero regarme a pura lenguita
Foto E: Stall 3: -Silvio Rodríguez era el único que tenía un unicornio azul, y el idiota lo perdió…
-Y Oscar Delgado lo
-Mis mejores amigos son los orines.
-¡Estúpido!
Tercer Piso, ciencias sociales:
Foto F: Stall 1: -No hay nostalgia peor, que añorar lo que nunca jamás sucedió.
Foto G: Stall 1: -La vida es del color que quieras intarla!
Foto H: Stall 2: -Todos los humanos no merecen otra cosa que la destrucción. Todos son seres despreciabies que solo merecen la muerte. ¿Qué bueno han hecho los humanos? NADA ¿Qué beneficios le han traido al planeta? NINGUNO. Solo saben destruir todo lo que está a su alrededor y ellos mismos. NO MERECEMOS OTRA COSA MAS QUE LA MUERTE. En el momento que los humanos desaparescan, en tonces existirá la verdadera paz.
Respuesta: -Somos depredarores, el animal más inteligente, el más desarrollado del planeta. Hemos hecho daño y hemos hecho bien, al humano y al animal por igual: Ud es humana, por lo tanto despredadora y tanto o más inteligente que los otros humanos. Despreciarse y querer mori no va a cambiar la naturaleza de las cosas. ACEPTESE a Ud y a su papel en el mundo.
Al lado: -Todos somos un poco lesbianas, aunque en los hechos sea más heterosexuales. Piensan no más en los hermosos pechos de las mujeres o en las piernas fuertes.
Respuesta-¡Ud sí! que rico chuper clítoris!
Foto I: Stall 2 otra pared: -Jesús no es el oxigeno q’ búscas cuando no puedes respirar, Es el aire q’ necesitas para vivir.

Generales, primer piso:
-El exnovio de mi mejor amiga quiere que lo hagamos y no sé que hacer porque sí me gustaría pero ella todavía lo quiere. ¿Qué puedo hacer?
Respuestas: -No lo hagas, es alta tracción
-Sexo es libertad
Respuestas: -¡No! Sexo es solamente una clase de placer. No es liberarse.
-El sexo no es libertad, te puede atrapar en su rutina.
-Hacer el amor, libera tu alma!
Debajo: -Me siento muy sola no se como volver a ser feliz. Ayudame alguien X favor.
Respuestas:-Deja pasar el tiempo y aprovechelo para conocerte, busca tus fuertes y expresalos.
- No estas sola, Díos está contigo, él te ama y desea que seas feliz.
-Compra un mascota!
-Iscías 41,10 y Juán 3,16
-Establece prioridades ¿qué es lo que más te importa?

En total 110 ejemplos de graffiti fueron colectados. De los 36 ejemplos de graffiti colectados por el área de San José central, ocho fueron contra Bush, seis fueron contra la guerra, cinco fueron contra el TLC, cuatro se trataron del cáncer en el calcio y tres fueron ante-gringo. Otros temas incluyeron el ICE, la educación, Anabel Gonzáles, el matrimonio/sexo, el gobierno, la conquista y extranjeros. La mayoría del graffiti en San José se encontró en parques o en paredes cerca de carreteras con muchos carros.
De los 36 ejemplos de graffiti colectado por el terreno de la UCR y el área alrededor 22 fueron contra el TLC, cuatro fueron contra Bush y los gringos, tres se trataron de la guerra y la paz y dos fueron citas poéticas. Otros temas incluyen declaraciónes amorosas, el pueblo, la pobreza, la autonomía indígena, el sufrimiento, la libertad, la anarquía y la policia. La mayoría del graffiti sobre edificios en los terrenos de la UCR se encontró en el edificio de ciencias sociales, o cerca del edificio de ciencias sociales. Ningún pedazo de graffiti político se encontró adentro de un edificio con la excepción de ciencias sociales.
De los 38 ejemplos de graffiti colectados para representar el graffiti de los baños de la UCR dieciocho fueron respuestas a algún otro mensaje de graffiti, once mencionaron Dios, ocho se trataron de Dios específicamente, nueve fueron oraciones lograron una(s) respuesta(s), nueve se trataron del sexo, cuatro fueron vulgares, tres fueron dichos poéticos, tres fueron sobre el cuestión del ser humano, dos salieron de canciones y tres fueron de tema político. Otros temas incluyeron Oscar Delgado y una declaración de desdén. Es interesante notar que en el edificio de ciencias sociales todos los baños son llenos de graffiti mientras que los baños en los edificios de Letras, Educación, Bellas Artes, Preescolar, arquitectura y las Bibliotecas Carlos Monge y Tinoco no tienen ningún “rasguño” de graffiti en las paredes o puertas de sus baños. El edificio de Estudios Generales solamente tenía graffiti uno de sus baños y un pedazo de graffiti en sus paredes.
Discusión
Los resultados de la investigación con respecto al área de San José central revelo que es un área muy informado y preocupado por eventos actuales adentro y fuera de su país. Pienso que parte de esto tiene que ver con la influencia de los estudiantes y gente universitaria sobre el graffiti de San José. San José central es muy accesible de la UCR, podemos ver la similitud de mensajes entre el graffiti encontrado en el área de la UCR y el graffiti de San José y hay evidencia de una organización estudiantil en Foto F. En Foto F vemos una pared en cual esta escrito Bush asesino pero también podemos ver la signatura P.R.T•J. S. que significa el “Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores, sección de Juventud Socialista. La mayoría del graffiti se trata del TLC, la guerra y opiniones/relaciones con los Estados Unidos porque esos son temas importantes en este momento, el graffiti es “momentáneo” y corriente. El TLC y los acciones de Bush o el gobierno estadounidense afecta a Costa Rica directamente y son tratados mucho en el graffiti; el público está preocupado por las cosas que afectan a ellos. En Foto H podemos ver como el graffiti sirve como medio de unificar e informar a la gente con el mensaje que en el “29 de marzo 2pm Parque Central” alguna junta de la comunidad va a ocurrir, probablemente refriendo a una protesta en contra de la guerra teniendo en cuenta el graffiti alrededor. En verdad no sé de que se trata todo el graffiti de “Calcio tiene cancer” pero la escritura significa que el autor del graffiti esta usando el graffiti para tratar de informar a la gente y hacerlos reaccionar. Se menciona también la educación, el ICE y un conquistador rotulado como asesino porque estas cosas son importantes en la identidad costarricense, y, en el caso del ICE, eso es un tema recordado por la gente como algo muy importante hace solamente cuatro años.
En el caso del área de la UCR encontramos casi los mismos temas “grandes” que en San José con variación de temas segundarias. Pienso que las frases favoritas, los contra el TLC, se vieron tan frequentamente por las siguientes razones. Primero, “No al TLC” en una frase concreta, corta y con un mensaje muy claro, así que no cuesta mucho añadir una pared con eso. Y, el TLC es importante en Costa Rica porque va cambiar muchas cosas, gubernamentales, los cuales van a impactar a la generación actual de estudiantes de la UCR. Debido a que les va a afectar definitivamente, tienen que invocarse. Bush no es favorecido y los gringos, por estar en conjunta con Bush y el gobierno estadounidense, tampoco son celebrados. Es interesante notar que aunque la mayoría del graffiti del área UCR y de San José se trata del TLC, Bush y la guerra, solamente el graffiti de la UCR lo hace por medio de hablar sobre la paz, que posiblemente puede significar la esperanza común de los jóvenes y los estudiantes. Los temas segundarias que se tratan en el graffiti de la UCR que son diferentes de la área de San José son la pobreza, los indígenas y la anarquía. No se menciona el ICE, es posible que es una tema de la generación anterior de la UCR.
En las áreas alrededor de la UCR, pero fuera del sede, casi todo el graffiti esta encontrado en la calle frente a la biblioteca Carlos Monge hacia la calle principal de San Pedro con la librería Nueva Década y todas las tiendas de copias, o en el camino que pasa por lado de la carretera de ferrocarril. Estos dos caminos tienen la mayoría del graffiti probablemente porque son caminos con mucho tráfico de gente, y en el caso de la calle por la UCR, tráfico de carros también. Los que quieren que su mensaje sea leído, quieren comunicarse con la gente, y por eso lo pongan en áreas frecuentados por una gran populación. Me sorprenda que la Calle Amargura solamente tiene algunos tachos de “No al TLC” para su galería de graffiti.
En los terrenos de la UCR casi todo el graffiti se encontró en el edificio de ciencias sociales. Pienso que esto sucedió porque 1) El edificio de ciencias sociales es en un lugar muy central en la UCR, y tiene un patio con árboles y bancas donde muchos estudiantes se juntan para hablar, comer, jugar “hacky-sack” o hacer nada. Y 2) la identidad representado por la gente que toma clases en la carrera de ciencias sociales es una identidad que tiene reputación de ser poco un rebelde, que está en contra de papeles tradicionales de la sociedad, como no escribir en las paredes. Es una identidad que relaciona con el mundo de aprender, pensar, cuestionar y protestar contra las cosas que no son correctas en el mundo. Es una identidad que quiere que su opinión sea escuchada y sea compartida con otras opiniones. También debemos tener en cuenta que es más fácil escribir algo en una pared si alguien ya ha escrito algo, y hay mucha graffiti existente en el edificio de ciencias sociales.
Al opuesto, los otros edificios de la UCR realmente no tienen graffiti. En Generales se encontró un “No TLC informate ya!” en la misma letra de muchos de los ejemplos de graffiti en ciencias sociales, y en Educación se encontró un rincón de una pared afuera cubierta en declaraciones amorosas y por detrás se encontró frases escritas en tiza blanca. Pienso que esta falta de graffiti significa que es posible que las identidades de las carradas del resto de los edificios no son unos que se ponen a pintar las paredes. La gente de carrera de Bellas Artes ya tiene bastante expresión por parte de su arte, los estudiantes de la facultad de Letras se expresan por medio de libros, poesía y lectura y los de educación crean en cambiar el futuro por medio de educar a los niños en aulas, no por pintar las aulas mismas. Estas son GRANES generalizaciones, pero en parte pueden ser la verdad. Es cierto que graffiti sí se encontró por la facultad de Educación, pero en un caso era de declaración amorosa, la cual parece ser hecha por muchachos del colegio y especialmente recordando que la facultad de Educación es la facultad más cerca del colegio que se queda al lado de la UCR. Graffiti en tiza también se encontró por detrás de la facultad de Educación y es interesante ver que este graffiti muy fácil para borar fue trilingüe y fue el único pedazo de graffiti que escribió “Iraq” con una “q” y no una “k” o una “c” como los demás. Esto indica que el escritor probablemente es una persona dedicado al estudio o dedicado a aprender, por ser trilingüe y saber la manera correcta de escribir “Iraq”. Pero aunque su mensaje trilingüe era muy pertinente e interesante en estos momentos de guerra y paz, el escritor escogió escribirlo en tiza que no es permanente, tal vez por tener mucho respecto para la UCR o por lo menos, tiene respecto para los conserjes de la UCR. Por otro lado, quizás escribir en tiza es una manera menos peligrosa de expresar una opinión, aunque se lo va a borrar en el próximo aguacero. Los baños de las bibliotecas son muy limpios en todo respecto. Es posible que los muchachos y muchachas tengan bastante respecto para las bibliotecas que no quieren marcarlas.
Este estudio de los baños era muy interesante en su diferencia del graffiti de alta visibilidad afuera. El graffiti encontrado en los baños es mucho más personal con temas más cotidianas e íntimos que el graffiti de las calles o de las aulas lo cual es razonable porque el baño es un lugar mucho más personal que las áreas de afuera. En los baños por ser mucho más privados, el escritor no tiene tanta preocupación por ser agarrado, y tiene más tiempo para escribir sus pensamientos. En muchas casas el graffiti de los baños parece casi un pasa-tiempo; algo que hacer cuando estás sentado ahí. Sin embargo, la cosa que más destaca el graffiti bañero es el increíble diálogo que se produce. Casi la mitad (18 de 38) de los ejemplos de graffiti colectados fueron respuestas a algún otro mensaje y algunos diálogos consistieron de las opiniones de hasta cuatro personas. La gente sí está comunicando por medio del graffiti. Otro fenómeno encontrado en los baños es la frecuencia de que una mujer escribe algún problema suyo en la pared y les pide consejo a las otras mujeres que usan el baño, usando la pared como lugar de respuesta. Esto fue más evidente en el Foto D de ciencias sociales segundo piso donde un pedazo de la pared fue reservado para problemas y consejos. Esto se vio también en el baño de Generales donde una muchacha diga directamente “Ayudame alguien porfavor”. De lo encontrado, los problemas y consejos no tienen base político, si no son muy personales; de novios, amigos, qué debe hacer si está embarazada; el baño de mujeres se convierte en su propio forma de un centro de salud y de consejo, el foro de las mujeres. Entre el graffiti colectado hay muchas referencias a Dios, enseñando que la religión es de gran importancia personal en la identidad de esta cultura. El sexo, incluyendo un mensaje homosexual, también es un tema muy tratado que ilustra que la sexualidad es algo que se está explorando en este época de sus vidas. Cuatro de los mensajes fueron vulgares, que es normal, para tratar de provocar respuesta y reacción. Dos de los mensajes tienen referencia a canciones enseñando que parte de la identidad de esta gente se basa en los artes populares, Foto E: “Silvio Rodríguez era el único que tenía un unicornio azul y el idiota lo perdió…” y “No hay nostalgia peor, que añorar lo que nunca jamás sucedió” que viene de la canción por Joaquín Sabina “Con la frente marchita”. Solamente tres ejemplos de graffiti políticos fueron encontrados: un “No al TLC”, un símbolo de anarquista y algo mencionando el grupo Nueva Acropolis. Esto ilustra que el graffiti de los baños, que es más un espacio privado, se trata más de temas personales y domesticas que cosas del gobierno y naciones.

Conclusión
Este proyecto me abrió los ojos con respecto a muchas cosas. En realidad no hice mucho caso al graffiti que adornaba las paredes en mi alrededor antes de hacer este proyecto. Caminaba en mi propio mundito, viendo el graffiti, a veces pensando en una frase que me pegó en la cabeza, pero nunca analizando la cantidad de graffiti que vi, ni la repetición de temas, ni la posibilidad que los mensajes no fueron solamente la opinión de la persona quien lo escribió pero que también podían ser un diálogo para la comunidad, un método para unirse y informarse. Era interesante ver como las mujeres escriben consejos una a la otra en los baños y ver como Bush esta tan odiado por el público y como aspectos de la identidad costarricense: contra la guerra, apoyado por Dios, preocupados por la educación, definitivamente contra el TLC se podían ver en las paredes rayados. Si tuviera que hacer este estudio otra vez viajaría a barrios más lejos de la UCR para ver las diferencias entre, por ejemplo, Ezcazú y Curridabat; analizaría más graffiti, tomaría más Fotos. Pero, con el tiempo que podía dedicar a este proyecto he aprendido y disfrutado mucho. Si yo podiera escribir mi propio pedazo de graffiti sobre una pared blanca escribiría: “Escucha a su alrededor. Todos tienen su propia historia. Escucha. Comparte. Aprende. Paz.”

Much love,
Quenita

2004-07-02T17:15:00.000-07:00

Today I went to TACA airlines to change my flight home to December 20th (before it was November 17th because when I first go the ticket they couldn´t book so far in advance :-P) and when I dumped my ticket out of theenvelopee they had sent to me oh so long ago in November on the counter my ticket to come here slid out along with a ticket stub to "Return of the King" which I had gone to see with my parents the night I left the states. And it was a funny feeling, seeing those things from the night I left, remembering how I felt, standing in line at LAX, hugging my parents goodbye and turning and walking away with a bag of homemade cookies and a feeling of the unknowingness. Thinking about how I just feel, well, different now. And also thinking that this trip too will end, and I´ll hug my tico family goodbye and get on a plane and go back to the states.And that´s a funny feeling too. A picture flashed into my mind of the ranch, the central courtyard with it´s cobblestones and oak trees, yellow leaves falling with the breeze, the white roof and red sides of my grandparents house. And even though Colby says it´s impossible to remember smells, I could smell it, that home smell, for just a second. I remembered what it was like coming home after being at Davis, and I longed for that scene for a second, but al the same time, I wasn´t ready to go back, still not ready. Glad I´m staying, but do I miss it? Of course. I´m begining to think that is part of the nature of being fortunate enough to explore the world and the wonderful people who are in it: you can´t be everywhere and with everyone at once so wherever you are and whoever you are with, you still bitter-sweet sad miss other places and other wonderful people. But that can be good and beautiful, because it means you have been to amazing places and know beautiful people...

2004-06-27T15:55:00.000-07:00

Lacey and Graham are comming to visit in August!!!! And my mami and JAC are comming in only TWO weeks!!!!! Huzzah!!! MOST exciting!
Quena soooooooo very happy!!!!!!

2004-06-25T13:32:00.000-07:00

While reaserching for my essay on how marginalized Costa Rican identity is given a voice through graffiti I stumbled upon this statement by Jeremiah Luna. I thought it brought up some good points:

"What is hindering us from participating in public games of meaning? Our public spaces are tightly controlled by the interests of capital and the capitalist state. The stifling of our ability to adorn our surroundings is a prime example of the depravity of our common condition under late capitalism. Unless a person has a lot of money, access to public walls is blocked. And if by some chance someone does have the money required, she or he is usually obligated to produce more capital with the images that adorn those public walls by selling something. In other words, by advertising. Those that rebel against the demands of a capitalism bent on selfreproduction face punishment at the hands of the capitalist state, whether in the form of fines or imprisonment. No matter how vociferously the mainstream media trumpets its 'objectivity', it works in unison with this captialist state, serving to disseminate capitalist ideology. It wins public consent and compliance with the repressive laws that prohibit grafitti and other acts of meaning-creation that fail to conform with the overarching commercial logic that dominates our public space.
Evidence of this complicity on the part of the media is not hard to find. A series of articles on the problem of grafitti that have appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle with in the last two years are typical. The underlying assumptions which motivate these articles betray what I will call an exterminationist logic, very much like the one described by philsopher Philipe Lacoue-Labarthe in his recent book Heidegger, Art and Politics. Labarthe claims that Auschwitz and the unspeakable exterminations that took place there revealed the deepest contradictions of the 'civilized' West, manifesting the most brutal functionalism latent in the desire to achieve perfection by eliminating all traces of the undesirable Other. He writes that 'nowhere else in history has the will to clean, to totally eradicate a 'stain' been so compulsively enacted without the least ritual.' The rhetoric of the articles in the San Francisco Chronicle reveals this same 'will-to-clean', though for ends that are admittedly not quite so extreme! Still, the compulsion to eradicate undesirable traces of the Other's presence is clearly related to the compulsion to eradicate the Others themselves." (LUNA: 1995)

This whole project has made me think about those ramdom things sprayed on the walls and written in the bathroom stalls a lot differently. That there is a whole message there, sometimes, a dialouge. This project also means that I get to roam San Jose and San Pedro taking pictures of graffiti which is fun and good even when the sky all of a sudden just lets you have it and the streets of San Pedro get flooded in a foot of water within 15 min of it starting to rain :-P

2004-06-19T16:18:00.000-07:00

Well it appears that along with smiles, procrastination is the same in any language and in any culture, at least for me. This means that while only two of the five final essay project like school things in my life have gotten worked on in the last three days, my Ultimate Frisbee cleats have been cleaned and brushed, several letters have been written, four birthday packages have been worked on, I washed the mountain of dishes in our sink last night AND this morning, my room is clean,I´m almost finished with a fuzzy scarf I´m knitting, accompanieded Darlene to get her hair cut this morning, went out to a scrumptious vegetarian lunch this afternoon, my Birkenstocks no longer have mold on them, and I´m updating my blog. So it´s not that I haven´t been productive, just not so much in a scholastic way :-P It will all get done... somehow... only two more weeks to go. Wowza.
Wednesday was Francis´ going away party. It was a truly lovely party, potluck style (YUM) with lots to eat and drink, and lots of beautiful folks. But it was a little sad at the same time. Francis is the first of the EAP crew to pack up and go back to the states, the goodbyes have started and one by one the six monthers will fly away home or to other sites. The beginning of the end, if I want to be really dramatical about it. I shall miss them much. I miss Francis already, miss her smile. It is so interesting to become so close to a group of people as we of Costa Rica EAP have. We´ve been through a lot together. Joy, Alison and Dominique came up with "EAP Standouts" with Leah getting "Most likely to start and anarchist revolution", Rachel getting "Most likely to be featured in National Geographic", Fabiola getting "The Crusader Award", Rob getting "Most likely to Damn the Man", Liz and Steven getting the "Most likely to live happily ever after" and me getting "Most likely to hear a tree fall in the forest (even if no one is there)". ;-) When I asked Idin what it meant he said, "Look at the shirt youÂ´re wearing." It was my green shirt that says "It´s easy being green". Oh, I spose I get it now... A good party with good people, as it should be.
I love Ultimate Frisbee and the crew here who play it. Many ticos, a very bilingual group. I also love comming home dirty and muddly and sweaty and tired(of all things to love :-P) It makes me feel like I´ve really gone out and done something. I think my host mom was a bit horrified the first time I came home with a muddy streak up my side and a bit of a scraped up knee, but I´ve taken to washing out my Ultimate clothes as soon as I get home, after I take a shower so she´s alright with it now (and I DID wash all the dishes last night so she should be pleased).I really love my yoga classes at CasaAMES too. The women there are just awesome.
Mmmm...it´s evening time here, which I think may be my favorite time of day. The sun hits the moss grown pavements and trees and plants just right, the light is all goldenish. I like to go walking, watch the sunset, wave hello to the people at the ice cream place, the video store, the farmacy. I like my barrio, it´s friendly. Everything seems to sort of take a deep breath and exhale long and soft during evening time. It makes me happy to be here.

2004-06-12T16:52:00.000-07:00

A week ago I was at Playa Flaminco in Guanacaste with Vanessa and Luis and Darlene and Katia and their friends Chris, Adolfo and Alberto from Friday to Monday. Truly amazing trip. My first trip with a group of ticos all my own age. Their banter is just amazing. I can usually follow it all but at times "me cuesta" (it´s challenging) to be a part of it. They´re all making plays on words, teasing teasing teasing eachother and me and Darlene. Playa Flaminco and Playa Conchal were all full of marea roja (Red Tide)so they smelled pretty bad and all the waves were full of thick yellow foam that made me think of those fuzzy yellow blankets that were so common in slumber parties. When we went to Conchal the tide was out and there was a huge strech of beach full of all sorts of crazy colored dead fish. There was a puffer fish washed up completely intact and little purple and maroon colored fish, and a bigger one that was all rainbows. They were really rather beautiful and interesting even though they were dead. The tropics sure lend themselves to some colorful wildlife. The evenings and sunsets were my favorite part of the trip I think. The sunset on Saturday night was just incredible, I climbed up the hill to the peak of Flaminco and wandered down a narrow path until I found the perfect place to sit and watch and take pictures. It was just splendid, full of peach and purple and deep deep blues reflected on the water with a sailboat gliding along as the perfect finishing touch. Sunday evening we all stuffed ourselves into Adolfo´s car for a 15 min ride to La Penca, a beautiful beach that Vanessa and Luis went to when they were kids were the mariea roja hadn´t come yet. We all splashed about and rode the tide, which was comming in, and laughed and joked and took turns launching eachother into the waves. I kept up with the lively banter that evening and added to it too, enough so that Katia laughed and said that now I could really say that I knew Español, now that I could tease people and come up with good comebacks when being teased. It felt really good, that camaraderie and only speaking Español all weekend long. On the bus the next morning headed back to reality. Only three more weeks of classes left! (or is it two?) Quite a few final projects to finish. It rains on and off most every day. The dampness of it all is still incredible to me. Found mold growing on my Birkenstocks... still unsure what to do abou that. Off to another international party at Idin´s house tonight, should be good fun. Take care and love you all,
Me

2004-06-09T13:12:00.000-07:00

This for all the letting gos in life, for all the "goodbye"s, "we shall see"s, the hugs and tears and for my friend Steven who is leaving tommorow:

Saying goodbye doesn't mean anything. It's the time we spent together that matters, not
how we left it.
-- Trey Parker and Matt Stone, South Park, Tweek Vs. Craig, 1999

2004-06-03T11:47:00.000-07:00

I really love Costa Rica because some random yet wonderful could-be-seen-as-run-of-the-mill thing seems to happen to me everyday.
Today I saw a horse being hauled in a pick-up truck with high wooden sides. Even with the sides though I thought that ANY of the California horses I know would have been FREAKING out. But this lovely little white horse with a long mane and tail just looked interesting and rather amused by its ride. It pricked it ears at me when I saw me watching :-)
Yesterday I discovered the wonders of "Las Picinas de la UCR" which is basically this huge park with rec equiptment, a pool, rubberized track, and lots and lots of soccer fields. Steven and I actually stumbled upon it last Saturday when we were in search of an ideal Ultimate Frisbee spot (our discovery was a pretty good one), but only yesterday did I discover the pools.
"Las Picinas" are open to the public from 11-12:50 am so I meandered up the hill to the main road from Sabania, entered the park and after only asking three people where the pools where(they all pointed me in different directions)found the pools and had a lovely swim (although I realized I am very out of swimming shape). Only inhaled a bit of water and only did a flip turn into the lane next to me once :-P I had a good time. I met this lovely group of women all over the age of 63 in the locker rooms who said they had been getting together to go swimming on Wednesdays for three years now. They were sweet. One of them insisted upon tucking the tags of my shirt in and another gave me a chocholate heart just as I was putting on my socks. They said they were glad I came to swim on Wednesdays too and would I teach them the breast-stroke? I said yes ;-)
Today I also got my hair cut. It's pretty short!! Maybe a little shorter than I had originally wanted but I like it none the less. Maybe if I can figure out how to post pictures and can perswade a friend with a digital camera to take a picture of me I'll post my Quena-cut :-)
Off to the beach for the weekend! Whee!!

2004-06-01T11:42:00.000-07:00

Heavens! It's June!! Wowza... The first month I was here seemed like an eternity, the next two were full but still pretty slow on the time scale and NOW the time just whoooshes by... June... yikes. The solstice is almost here. I only have three more weeks of classes and than finals and since I have no finals I really only have three more weeks of school. Wowza... half way done almost, and soon the keen 6 month kids will blow away and scatter to different places, lives, swing-sets. It's been really nice, getting to know all these lovely folks from different California campuses that I probably would have never met, the UC system is so big, had I not come here. I think I have some lasting friendships here and that's really nice. Hehe, they've all made me promise I will write them regularly to keep up on the CostaRicaness of the world. I think I shall.
Anyhoo, this is a bit rambling but Happy June(!!) everyone and a very very very happy birthday to: Cheri (June 5th), Anselm, Josh, and Romell (June 6th), WendiLou (June 7th), Graham and Erica (June 8th), Pamela (June 9th), and Allison (June 10th) [wowza, lots of birthdays!]

Here's the poem in my datebook for all you Gemini:
THERE IS A DAY
There is a day, morning sunshine or driving rain,
when you realize that spells won't keep you safe,
after all, that your heart
will still break, let in both dark and light,
when you discover which rules to break
and which to keep, not beacause they are rules
but because they are yours-
your way of life, your way
toward life.
There is a day when writing a poem
is working in the garden,
watching sparrows dart above the trees,
or holding someone you love,
when words (despite the irony
of making these lines)
take a rest for a while
in the hollow of the soul
nesting cupped around the body
of the world.
~Ellen S. Jaffe 2002

2004-05-31T10:23:00.000-07:00

An interesting sort of thing is happening here. I was walking to the study center the other day when I looked up at the sky and missed home (Alpine Ranch), missed Davis and was really glad to be here in Costa Rica and really glad to be staying here for the year all at the same time.
It was rather odd and good feeling at the same time, being pulled in many directions and yet feeling that you´re alright just where you are. It is good to be here, with the rain and the sun and the amazing trees, with good friends to laugh with and spend time with, a good family to come home to and eat with, classes that interest me and make me think. And all of you, whom I can´t see or hear at this point in time but who make me smile even from far far away.
Leaving quote:
For all that has been, thanks. For all that will be, yes.
-- Dag Hammarskjold
love you,
the Queener Kid

2004-05-29T13:22:00.000-07:00

Wheeee! Today is a good day, or at least, it seems to be panning out that way. Went out and had a lovely night last night with Darlene, Vanessa, Adri, Luis, Diego, Sophia and Minor. We went to dance party that Sophia´s work was putting on. It was held in the basement of a shut down hotel and their was water over half of the dance floor but everyone was having a grand time anyhow (what is a trip to Costa Rica without slight adventures such as that anyhow? ;-) I love to salsa, it´s such a great hip-moving dance. I do miss cha-cha´s and waltzs though... After the party ended we went to Kareoky (sp?) 88 where Darlene and I sang "Everything I do, I do it for you" to Vanessa and Adri. ;-) We got quite an applause.
So I woke up this morning quite content with a lovely night had previously and than went to go play Ultimate Frisbee with Steven. Although we invited quite the socre of people, again, no one showed up but us. Phooey. Don´t know what they´re missing those folks. Had a most wonderful time anyhow. I think I am developing a frisbee addiction. It´s just such fun and sometimes I look at that disk sailing quite beautifully thorough the air and think,"Wow... I threw that..." It´s rather nice :-) Oooo! And we found a lovely spot to play too. The University of Costa Rica has this sports part of sorts where they have a pool, a track and several nice flat fields to play soccer or whatever else you want to on them (including frisbee!!) It was actually pretty clear today and we would see Volcan Irazu on one side of the field and another lovely mountain range (not sure which one) at the other side of the field. Pretty dern awesome. I cought a BRIGHT green lizard with a blue underbelly on our way out. I think his name was Oscar.
Now I go home, a bit more muddy than when I started out, but very contented. Vanessa is giving Darlene and I dance lessons at three, whee!
Love you all,
Me