It's midterms week. I have a 5-6 page paper (written in Spanish) due tomorrow and just started writing it today. I feel a sense of kindship with my classmates because most of them haven't even started. That's what happens when your Politics and Culture in Chile class sucks and your professor sucks even worse. Professor Subercaseaux is annoying for a number of reasons, the number one reason being that he repeats "No es cierto?" literally every 10 seconds. He also talks like he's got a mouth full of mashed potatoes, has all white hair except for his eyebrows and moustache, and assigns us presentations only to interrupt us every sentence to go off on a 10-minute-long boring-ass tangent. But like one of my classmates told me yesterday, bitching about it doesn't help. I disagree with that, since bitching significantly lifts my spirits, but I guess listening to someone bitch isn't quite as entertaining as being the one doing the bitching.
Facundo went back to Argentina last night, so now that he is gone I have much more free time to dedicate to my latest project: watching movies. My goal is to watch all the "greats", or at least the movies that people talk about a lot. Not quite as ambitious a project as working on a llama farm or landing an internship, but rejection certainly lower's one's standards. So far I have watched Traffic, Volver, Constantine, Mona Lisa Smile, Babel, Amelie, Kill Bill, Donnie Darko, and V for Vendetta. Not a very impressive list, but I'm working on it. Tonight I am going to rent the Matrix, even though Keanu Reeves is an annoying and sucky actor. My goal is to become more "well-read" with regards to movies. I have never been much of a movie person because they usually bore the hell out of me, but I am trying to turn a new leaf.
As you might be able to tell from my latest blog posts, I am becoming complacent. It could be because I have been in Chile long enough so that I am now in a place to take it for granted. I think I have stopped paying attention to my surroundings and am living in the future, waiting for summer to come around so I can go home. Earlier this year, especially around the time Tahir Shah came around, I was chomping at the bit to get started on projects and planning my near future. But that inspiration has worn off due to rejections and the numbing power of time. To be honest, I am quite disappointed in myself at this point. I am not developing any new projects, going on any interesting trips, doing anything at all. I spent awhile looking at grad schools the other day, but that's about it. I think maybe I have been here too long and there is nothing here left for me to discover. Maybe I just need to move on with my life as soon as possible. Whatever it is, I do not like the feeling of complacency, and I hate taking things for granted when I know I am going to miss them when they are gone. Oh, the human condition. I wish there were something I could do to avoid it.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Gastronomical Meanderings
Today my host family invited Facundo over to cook dinner. He arrived at 7:30 and dinner wasn't ready until midnight, I kid you not. I hesitate to generalize, but I feel that Argentinians (or maybe it's just Facundo) do everything more slowly than molasses in January. Facundo started cooking, with me as his pathetically useless assistant, around 8:30 or 9:00. Soon after helping him make the apple cake dessert, I got tired and went to take a nap. I was awakened from my slumber at midnight and told that dinner was ready, which surprised me since Facundo had started cooking over three hours ago. I guess that's what happens when you make the lasagna noodles from scratch. But damn was it delicious.
Anyway, the evening of cooking got me to thinking about my eating habits and the way they evolve depending on where I am. When I was in Russia, my everyday food staples were hot chocolate and oatmeal in the morning, several Cokes and/or Fantas throughout the day, half a liter of grapefruit juice a day, chocolate tea cookies, and blinchiki (a lot like a crepe filled with cheese and mushrooms, or caviar, or honey). It's funny how the small snacks I bought shaped so much of my experience, and yet I had almost forgotten about them until today. My memories of Russia are laced with the taste of grapefruit juice and borscht and my favorite cookies. I think the foods I ate in Russia, and the foods I eat in any other part of the world I may be in, contribute a lot to my nostalgia. Sometimes I wish I could just buy one more carton of греипфруктовы сок to help me remember. Simple things like tasting a certain food can bring back floods of memories. Isn't that strange?
Here in Chile my staple foods have been blueberry muffins from Castaño, Pura Fruta mango-flavored ice cream, water with added flavor packets (I gave up on soda, remember?), and empanadas. And whenever I am in Argentina, it's something different, like Paso de los Toros soda (I made an exception in my soda diet for Paso de los Toros because it's my absolute favorite) and flan. Traveling the world has forced me to develop nuanced eating habits wherever I go, and it's really been interesting. It's impossible to maintain a stable diet when I am traveling, because whenever I go to another country the food supply changes. For instance, whenever I go back to the US, my diet changes dramatically. I start eating food that is much higher in fat, like hot wings, chocolate, Ramen noodles, pizza, fruit roll-ups (yeah I know, that is really pathetic, but I can't help it). I almost wish all of that food wasn't available to me, because it's so much unhealthier than the things I eat when I am living abroad. But if disgustingly fattening things like that are in front of my face, they will be eaten.
It's sad how quickly I have converted Facundo into a ravenous consumer of unhealthy US food products. His partiality to fried chicken has turned into an obsession; we have eaten KFC three times this week. I introduced him to Ramen noodles in a cup earlier in the week, and he was in love. I introduced him to Nutella (okay, not American, but still fattening) also, and we have gone through two jars in one week. He tried American-style marshmallows also and has gone through two packages of those this week. To my shock and awe he hasn't gained a single pound, whereas of course I eat the same amount of food, if not less, and end up gaining weight. Maybe when Facundo comes to the US and has a steady diet of pure shit for food, I will see some progress.
Anyway, the moral of the story is that I have found it fascinating to introduce a foreigner to a whole new world of food that he never new existed. It has made me aware of the things I eat and the way they shape my life.
In other news, I caught a pigeon yesterday on Cerro San Cristobal. I will most certainly be posting photos as soon as possible.
Anyway, the evening of cooking got me to thinking about my eating habits and the way they evolve depending on where I am. When I was in Russia, my everyday food staples were hot chocolate and oatmeal in the morning, several Cokes and/or Fantas throughout the day, half a liter of grapefruit juice a day, chocolate tea cookies, and blinchiki (a lot like a crepe filled with cheese and mushrooms, or caviar, or honey). It's funny how the small snacks I bought shaped so much of my experience, and yet I had almost forgotten about them until today. My memories of Russia are laced with the taste of grapefruit juice and borscht and my favorite cookies. I think the foods I ate in Russia, and the foods I eat in any other part of the world I may be in, contribute a lot to my nostalgia. Sometimes I wish I could just buy one more carton of греипфруктовы сок to help me remember. Simple things like tasting a certain food can bring back floods of memories. Isn't that strange?
Here in Chile my staple foods have been blueberry muffins from Castaño, Pura Fruta mango-flavored ice cream, water with added flavor packets (I gave up on soda, remember?), and empanadas. And whenever I am in Argentina, it's something different, like Paso de los Toros soda (I made an exception in my soda diet for Paso de los Toros because it's my absolute favorite) and flan. Traveling the world has forced me to develop nuanced eating habits wherever I go, and it's really been interesting. It's impossible to maintain a stable diet when I am traveling, because whenever I go to another country the food supply changes. For instance, whenever I go back to the US, my diet changes dramatically. I start eating food that is much higher in fat, like hot wings, chocolate, Ramen noodles, pizza, fruit roll-ups (yeah I know, that is really pathetic, but I can't help it). I almost wish all of that food wasn't available to me, because it's so much unhealthier than the things I eat when I am living abroad. But if disgustingly fattening things like that are in front of my face, they will be eaten.
It's sad how quickly I have converted Facundo into a ravenous consumer of unhealthy US food products. His partiality to fried chicken has turned into an obsession; we have eaten KFC three times this week. I introduced him to Ramen noodles in a cup earlier in the week, and he was in love. I introduced him to Nutella (okay, not American, but still fattening) also, and we have gone through two jars in one week. He tried American-style marshmallows also and has gone through two packages of those this week. To my shock and awe he hasn't gained a single pound, whereas of course I eat the same amount of food, if not less, and end up gaining weight. Maybe when Facundo comes to the US and has a steady diet of pure shit for food, I will see some progress.
Anyway, the moral of the story is that I have found it fascinating to introduce a foreigner to a whole new world of food that he never new existed. It has made me aware of the things I eat and the way they shape my life.
In other news, I caught a pigeon yesterday on Cerro San Cristobal. I will most certainly be posting photos as soon as possible.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Condoleezza Rice is a Bitch
Why does Stanford host all the best speakers when I am away? Earlier this week Condoleezza Rice had a Q&A in one of the dorms at Stanford, which I watched on YouTube. I was hoping some of the students would put her in her place, but instead she put them in their place. Damn bitch. During the Bush administration she authorized the use of waterboarding (definition according to Wikipedia: a form of torture consisting of immobilizing the victim on his/her back with the head inclined downwards, and then pouring water over the face and into the breathing passages. By forced suffocation and inhalation of water, the subject experiences drowning and is caused to believe they are about to die.) Sounds like torture to me. But according to Condi during the Q&A session, no, it's not torture, she would never authorize torture. Then she accused the students of not having done their homework and that they should keep their comments to themselves until they knew what they were talking about. And of course she referred to 9/11 as many times as is humanly possible. Whatever, Condi. You's a bitch.
Anyway, Stanford also hosted Colin Powell and one of the actors from The Office this year, among some other speakers I can't remember. Kinda sucks. At least during my first two years I took full advantage of all the celebrity speakers Stanford hosted. So far my list includes Bill Gates, Ted Koppel, Ralph Nader, Natalie Portman, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
I hope we have a good commencement speaker my senior year. Last year it was Oprah Winfrey, but the year before that it was some poet laureate no one had ever heard of. My ideal commencement speaker would be Jon Stewart, but that'll never happen, since he charges $300,000 per speech. What a sell-out.
Anyway, Stanford also hosted Colin Powell and one of the actors from The Office this year, among some other speakers I can't remember. Kinda sucks. At least during my first two years I took full advantage of all the celebrity speakers Stanford hosted. So far my list includes Bill Gates, Ted Koppel, Ralph Nader, Natalie Portman, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
I hope we have a good commencement speaker my senior year. Last year it was Oprah Winfrey, but the year before that it was some poet laureate no one had ever heard of. My ideal commencement speaker would be Jon Stewart, but that'll never happen, since he charges $300,000 per speech. What a sell-out.
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