February 2012
11 posts
3 tags
1 tag
1 tag
January 2012
7 posts
October 2011
6 posts
Brazilian Family Lunch
I have always wanted to be invited to a Brazilian family lunch for a multitude of reasons. I miss my family and it would be nice to be in a family setting. I like to eat and am usually hungry, and I just want to be there for the spectacle.
I see it as a spectacle because that is the way it has been presented to me. Through reading various other blogs and hearing some Brazilian friends talk about...
Duh. I could just post the files. One per day,...
Things I Can't Stop Listening To:
Tono: “Não Consigo,” “Me Sara,” and “Sem Falsas Esperanças” are my favorites.
Novos Baianos: “Mistério do Planeta” is especially good.
Portugal. The Man: “Salt”
Tim Maia: “Não Quero Dinheiro” This guy is like the Barry White of Brazil. If I grew up in Brazil, I imagine that I would have heard this song at many family...
Something Gave
Let’s see…I have been in Rio for about a month and a half and I would say that I finally feel like I am getting a break. I don’t know how many times I have wanted to throw my hands up to the sky and yell “Really?” Things just have not been going how I would have liked them to. I failed at finding an apartment and now live in a box in my host mom’s apartment. It...
August 2011
2 posts
Rio de Janeiro is now ranked amongst the most expensive cities in the world. Over the past 2 years that I have been coming here, I have watched it change. The bus used to be 2.20 and you could get a van for 2 (I am speaking in Reais). Now the bus is up to 2.50 and the metro 3.10. This is almost as much as NYC transit, which, because I have been paying a lot for transportation for my whole life, is...
I have been away for a long time mostly for lack of having anything to write about. And by that I mean anything that doesn’t have to do with my normal life. The U.S. is my normal life. Vassar is (was) my normal life. My comfortable bed and late-night “Criminal Minds” is my normal life. Rio, as much as I would like it to be, is not my normal life. Having no hot water is certainly...
February 2011
3 posts
Updates on My Life (in case you care)
I missed the Ira Glass lecture. I was disappointed, but I have the first draft of my thesis due on Friday. I feel like I need to make it up to him. Weird right? Like he gives a fuck what I do. Although, he seems so nice that I feel like he would care. So to make it up to him I listened to half an episode last night, finished it today, and started another one. I only got through half of that one...
January 2011
1 post
So the roads flooded in like 4 hours. And I came home and just had to listen to Mike Posner’s Please Don’t Go. No Idea why.
December 2010
2 posts
Olivia,
You’re almost there, You’re almost there, You’re almost in that sun.
November 2010
6 posts
“Those of us who are ‘world’-travelers have the distinct experience of being...”
– María Lugones [on identity in international terms of U.S.-foreign relations]
you don’t have to leave this country to be a world traveller. This quote reminds me a lot of what I wrote about in my college essay. (via 8daysawk)
i love my thesis.
Widening Circles by Rainer Maria Rilke translated...
I live my life in widening circles
that reach out across the world.
I may not complete this last one
but I give myself to it.
I circle around God, around the primordial tower
I’ve been circling for thousands of years
and I still don’t know: am I a falcon,
a storm, or a great song?
Sometimes I think I have an overwhelming amount of power. When I was little I used to be convinced that when I watched ZOOM, the producers would somehow know that I was watching it and play it more. Then when I would stop watching it, they didn’t play it as much anymore. Stupid, I know. I didn’t vote yesterday. Maybe if I had I could have turned all of NY blue.
“What you’ve done becomes the judge of what you’re going to do - especially in...”
– William Least Heat Moon (via thoughtsdetained) (via quote-book) (via starspicy)
NERD ALERT
I am SO excited about my thesis. I read some real good shit yesterday and the ideas were flowing. It really is amazing to find something you are actually interested in.
October 2010
6 posts
“Political Science needs to emphasize that democracy is a journey rather than a...”
– John A. Guidry and Mark Q. Sawyer in Contentious Pluralism: The Public Sphere and Democracy
La la la la la la la
As if we didn’t already know….
but I am finally SAYING IT
breaks are the absolute worst times to get a lot of work done. So let’s enjoy ALL the time we have off and shit our pants tomorrow as we wonder why we spent all that time daydreaming.
Don't you think it's true
that the best people are met in bars?
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be;
In the soothing thoughts that spring
Out of human suffering;
In the faith that looks through death,
In years that bring the philosophic mind.
—William Wordsworth, “Ode:...
I wake up every morning at 9:30, let my music alarm continue playing until about 10, brave the cold and walk across the room to shut it off, leave my room only to meander to the couch and lay there for another half hour.
September 2010
3 posts
On Hair
This post comes to you during the time when I should be finishing my reading for class. Don’t worry, though, I am going to finish it during my next class, which is….er, kind of a joke. I’m not laughing, though.
My hair. OVER IT. The undercut was fun while it lasted. I learned just a few days ago that that is what it is called when you shave the side of your head. It was really...
1 tag
I firmly stand by my belief that college is the only utopia to be found. And senior year is the best part of this utopia. I suppose, or hope, that by this point we have matured and can recognize the ways in which we have changed. I hope that each of us is standing, in awe, at the situation we are in. A comfortable transition that is both terrifying and exciting. And if, when the transition ends,...
July 2010
5 posts
Last night Sam and I went to a chocolate party in Leblon. He said a lot of funny things, including:
While we are waiting outside for some friends of mine, “wow. I have never seen so much flannel in a Latin American country.” It was true, though. There was an insane amount of flannel. Everyone’s got the “glorification of the middle class” bug!
Like I said, this thing...
Crazy Shit/Haven't You Heard of Professionalism
I have been having severe phone problems over the last three days, resulting in my complete isolation and depression (JK JK). I just haven’t been able to obsessively text (well as much as a pre-paid phone allows one to) like I usually do. Some crazy weird stuff involving the death of my dinosaur phone, Brazilian sim card, and my blackberry. All that matters is that today I got a new phone. I...
I went to Lojas Americanas today….the only time I left the apartment. I am getting really good at being completely happy with doing nothing. I have been awake for 8 hours, but all I have to show for it are some pages read and a barely started fulbright application. I am not complaining, though. I seem to be fine with staying inside and not feeling guilty for not taking every moment that I...