Sunday, January 18, 2006, 3:18 p.m.
I updated my blog one month ago, and I leave for Argentina in a month. One month. Thirty days, 720 hours, 43,200 minutes, 2,592,000 seconds. In one month, I board another airplane, settle into another apartment, learn a new neighborhood, figure out new buses, meet new people, find new classes, discover new fruit stands. I move again. I will be in Argentina for 10 months; this will be the longest I'll be in one place since college. Ever since graduating, I have never lived in one place for more than four months, and usually close to two and a half. My life is suitcases, happy lavatories, foreign languages, fleeting dance friends, new studios, and difficult goodbyes.
But back up. Before we go to where I'm going, let's go to where I've been. So much has happened in the past thirty days, 720 hours, 43,200 minutes, 2,592,000 seconds, that I almost can't believe it. Here, I'll try:
Just when I said I was lonely in my last entry, I had the most amazing, fun weekend. Saturday, December 17th, I worked a great catering gig where I got to be the bartender and work with some fantastic, not to mention good-looking, staff. Then the next day, I went over to Cindy and Kenda's (actually they picked me up, which in itself was a treat), and had a great time helping them prep and have a holiday party. We stayed up very late, metabolizing peach margaritas, watching retarded music videos, and making fun of the deflated inflatable mattress.
Christmas was lovely. Christmas Eve we (Cindy, Kenda, Bethy, Carol and I) went to family friend's place for delicous seafood stew (chipolte? chilape? what was it called again?) and champagne. To be honest, some of the night was difficult just because I missed my parents and felt a little melancholy that we weren't together, but mostly it was fine, and the food really was delicious. Christmas day was spent opening presents, having a yummy breakfast of waffles and fruit, and lounging around watching movies like Harry Potter and The Interpreter. Mostly it was just nice being at Bethy's far removed from the city, being in a retreat-like state with family.
Meanwhile, I continued with student visa drama, which has been very stressful and dramatic. One of the worst days was when I spent 45 minutes at Kinko's, mailing off important documents like my original birth certificate, only to come outside and discover that someone had jacked my bike tire. No matter, I called up my trusty second mom and Cindy came and rescued me so I wouldn't have to figure out how to get back to my place with a dilapidated bike that couldn't even be taken on a bus. Then, Ryan was amazing and called a bike store, got all the parts, came over to my place and replaced it, so that my bike was completely fixed within 24 hours. I baked him salty banana bread in gratitude. :)
Then, on New Year's Eve, I got the tattoo I've been thinking about getting for two years. I can't really tell you "Why now?", it was just time. In terms of specific timing, I made sure to get it while Kenda was in town to hold my hand (sorry about that digging-my-nails-into-the-palm-of-your-hand thing, Kenny). It's a kanji (Japanese character), pronounced "wa", and it means harmony but is in a number of other words, including Peace. It's on my back, just above my right hip. By the way, for anyone that's wondering, getting a tattoo hurts like a mother. It hurts *so bad*, to the point where you're like, "Ok, that hurts, that hurts, ow, ow, ow, STOP." Luckily they do have to stop every few seconds to get more ink; if it weren't for these frequent breaks, I don't know whether I could have handled it. So, I did it. I like it. My mother is not thrilled.
Then, that night, I unveiled my tattoo at a little New Year's eve soirée with some close friends where we did about 40 jello shots (OK Ryan and Tim did like 25 between the two of them, and the rest of us did like 3) and had pomegranate martinis before heading to a bigger party down the streets that my flatmates threw. We played pool (which really means my partner played pool while I slowed him down) and tried to dance to bad 80's music, and mostly just enjoyed being together.
The next weekend I roadtripped down to Long Beach with Ryan and my sister. Favorite moments: riding TOP DOWN (yay for convertibles), rejecting a bizarre book on tape, playing 20 questions including "abacus" and "sparkplug", watching people in LA fall asleep at the wheel on the freeway, and the simple pleasure of turning around to see Kenda in the backseat, blinking in the California sun and knitting away on her orange scarf. Oh yeah, and "Geraldo!"
In typical LA fashion, most of our time there was spent shopping, drinking, or in the car. We went to the mall and ate at the food court, went to Express where I got new tight jeans (yesssss), and had a sangria party at Kenda's apartment. I also got to go jogging in the sun, which was a beautiful thing. Long Beach really is quite pretty. I think the best part, though, was meeting all of Kenda's NY friends. Kenda and I have such separate lives in terms of geography that it's almost surreal -- we each have these totally different lives from college and high school, people the other person isn't familiar with. It's always gratifying to meet the friends, people you've heard so much about, people you know support and care about someone you love. So yeah, shout-out to Amari and 'Bina, and Kimmy and Melinda - ESP to Kimmy and Melinda for going clubbing with me. Oh yeah, we also went to a cool poetry slam where we heard real artists, good people doing interesting work, and I was reminded that there are strong male role models who prove that being strong and supporting women is the same thing, not contradictory.
Then, I took Ryan to Hawai'i. We found cheap flights a week before and spontaneously went on a mini Hawaiian vacation. I got to show him most of my favorite hikes, kayaking to the mokes, Maunawili, Diamond Head (thanks for the directions, Dana ;), and we made sure to eat EVERYTHING I crave and miss from home, including shave ice, manapua, kinako mochi, hurricane popcorn, SUSHI, udon, azuki, bubble tea, tapioca from ba le, and lots of papayas.
That's all for now. More coming soon.
Here's a little culture for ya:
SADDEST POEM
Pablo Neruda
I can write the saddest poem of all tonight.
Write, for instance: "The night is full of stars,
and the stars, blue, shiver in the distance."
The night wind whirls in the sky and sings.
I can write the saddest poem of all tonight.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.
On nights like this, I held her in my arms.
I kissed her so many times under the infinite sky.
She loved me, sometimes I loved her.
How could I not have loved her large, still eyes?
I can write the saddest poem of all tonight.
To think I don't have her. To feel that I've lost her.
To hear the immense night, more immense without her.
And the poem falls to the soul as dew to grass.
What does it matter that my love couldn't keep her.
The night is full of stars and she is not with me.
That's all. Far away, someone sings. Far away.
My soul is lost without her.
As if to bring her near, my eyes search for her.
My heart searches for her and she is not with me.
The same night that whitens the same trees.
We, we who were, we are the same no longer.
I no longer love her, true, but how much I loved her.
My voice searched the wind to touch her ear.
Someone else's. She will be someone else's. As she once
belonged to my kisses.
Her voice, her light body. Her infinite eyes.
I no longer love her, true, but perhaps I love her.
Love is so short and oblivion so long.
Because on nights like this I held her in my arms,
my soul is lost without her.
Although this may be the last pain she causes me,
and this may be the last poem I write for her.
____________________________
And some humor:
Care of old e-mails, one of which some of you may recognize:
To: kairos-chat-2003@lists.Stanford.EDU
From: Tony Tulathimutte
Subject: a short play
THE TERROR IN ROOM 209
a true story
DRAMATIS PERSONAE:
Me
Christian - feckless neighbor.
Jin - his sweetheart
[Tony, returning from the SHOWER, wears new BOXER SHORTS and a button-down SHIRT, opened]
Tony: Hey guys. [Enters TONY'S ROOM]
Christian: Whoooa, Tony's naked!
Tony: No, I'm not!
[As he jumps out of his chair to prove his point, Tony's GENITALS fly out]
Tony: Whoa, yes I am. [Tucks hurriedly]
Jin: I saw something!
FIN.
-Tony
ps and boy was she impressed!
"From: "Emily Slota"
To:
Subject: A little math humor during finals
Thought you might find this article intriguing... Take care and wish me luck tomorrow morning on my Econ final!
Emily
At New York's Kennedy airport today, an individual later discovered to
be a public school teacher was arrested trying to board a flight while
in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a setsquare, a slide rule, and a
calculator.
At a morning press conference, Attorney general John Ashcroft said he
believes the man is a member of the notorious al-gebra movement. He is being charged by the FBI with carrying weapons of math instruction.
"Al-gebra is a fearsome cult," Ashcroft said. "They desire average
solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on tangents in a search of absolute value. They use secret code names like "x" and "y" and refer to themselves as "unknowns", but we have determined they belong to a common denominator of the axis of medieval with coordinates in every country. As the Greek philanderer, Isosceles, used to say, there are 3 sides to every triangle."
When asked to comment on the arrest, President Bush said, "If God had wanted us to have better weapons of math instruction, He would have given us more fingers and toes."
"I am gratified that our government has given us a sine that it is
intent on protracting us from these math-dogs who are willing to
disintegrate us with calculus disregard. Murky statisticians love to
inflict plane on every sphere of influence," the President said, adding:
"Under the circumferences, we must differentiate their root, make our
point, and draw the line."
President Bush warned, "These weapons of math instruction have the
potential to decimal everything in their math on a scalene never before seen unless we become exponents of a Higher Power and begin to factor-in random facts of vertex."
Attorney General Ashcroft said, "As our Great Leader would say, read my ellipse. While I am uncertain of the following, it is clear that, as
they continue to multiply, their days are numbered as the hypotenuse
tightens around their necks.
_______________________
And something political:
From a MoveOn email. I thought the part about Dick Cheney was particularly amusing:
"This week Republicans desperately wanted to pass a budget that would slash billions of dollars in health care, education and family services for the poor while handing out tax breaks to the rich.
Monday morning, we narrowly lost a 5:00 AM vote in the House, and the bill went to the Senate where special budget rules prevented a filibuster. Yesterday morning, every single Democrat and five Republicans voted against the proposal—bringing the vote count to 50-50. To break the tie, Dick Cheney flew all the way from Afghanistan, like an anti-Santa Claus on an all night journey to take health care from poor children just in time for Christmas.
Despite this heartbreaking loss, Democrats were able to block the cuts from taking effect and sent the whole package back to the House of Representatives for a final vote early next year. As public outrage grows and more moderate Republicans abandon their party's extremist leadership, the door to victory remains open."
__________________
Language spot: (as always, from work)
My new favorite word (obviously from an essay): neutrino. Try using that in a sentence today.
"In this way, I hope, I can contribute something to everlasting value."
"According to your suggetion, how about this following statement wrote by me? If it becomes satiable, I will fill in the customer satisfaction survey."
"If I dare to mention his weakness, he is sometimes too prudent."
"At first, I had reinterpreted architectural elements and materials logically and sentimentally, which we have glanced over habitually."
"The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has cheerful opportunities in this area, with a close collaboration between theory, simulation and experiments."
"What did mathematics present to me? It was just like a mysterious celestial attic far from my daily life."
"I have a very dry sense which will be unique contribution."
And this one, just because it's pretty:
"Certain lives are governed by the juxtaposition of celestial spheres."
And finally, an excerpt from Christina's journal. For those of you who don't know, Christina is a close friend from college who is currently traveling in Africa, after having worked for Village Enterprise Fund in Tanzania:
"4:30pm
Climbing Kilimanjaro is like college. Camp is campus, your tent your dorm room, the space in between the hallways. I wander from "room" to "room," seeing who's still awake and feels like chatting. Or go by to find out who has a calculator for a problem set or random hat for a themed party, or, in this case, spare warm clothing, that I can borrow. I shot the breeze with Verena as she smoked a cigarette; hung out with some Tanzanian staff talking about America as I did my best to dispel myths that make them unsatisfied with their country; I spent over an hour discussing history, perceptions of American in South-East Asia and the Middle East, how the American West was settled, and the social history of cities with Razak. This man is fascinating—he was born in India but after the 1948 partition of India and Pakistan he and his family moved to Pakistan. His eyes sparkle as he talks of hunting down his grandfather's old corner shop in Mumbai, of the "lovely people" of America, of his experience studying at Colombia. Make a bunch of diverse people live together, and this time with the common solidarity of a particular goal and common pains, be it academics and finals or hiking and camping, and the easy hanging-out, academic discussions, and camaraderie of college dorms return!
I guess I've known this for a long time, and it's clear when I think about the different friend groups and social patterns I've had since elementary school, but these last few days really seals it: I'm a nomadic socialite."
