Design Observation Blog - Bus Pushing

One private coach bus died and so to keep it moving another came and slowly pushed it down the street. When I knew I had to grab my camera is when I saw they were going to try a turn. The bus in the back gave a push and while it seemed a little iffy, the were successful. One thing we noticed is that in those buses the driver is usually at the very front of the coach, which makes the guy giving the push a great view of the impending back of the guy in the front. It would make me nervous. The main point I wondered about was, is there a better way? There has to be, since I believe most forms of transport contact is considered bad. Why didn't the guy wait for a tow? Or is it just as good of an option and the bus company or buses removed the unnecessary middle man of a tow? Do you have to design a tow truck differently for a bus than a car? Maybe my next interview should be bus drivers.

Design Observation Blog - Making Do.

Bonus: What do you do if you don't have cue chalk? Bust through the paint and use the gesso ceiling of course. Not obvious from the photo, but that ceiling has tons of little holes.

Design Observation Blog - BART Info

This a photo I took during my awesome intercept interviews I thought it was funny. Directly in front of a sign with all sorts of info written in small little type, there is a trashcan in the way. But since BART has the big signs to tell us when the next train is coming, maybe a trashcan is more important anyways.

Design Observation Blog - Marta!

Marta is one of the people I interviewed for our final projects and also one of my roommates. She comes from Santiago, Chile and during our interview, shared many stories about cultural differences between Chile and the United States. One of my favorites was about bread. In Chile, and other parts of Latin America from my experience, it's more common to buy fresh baked bread than bread from stores. Sliced bread would be sold in stores, but is more expensive so in Chile she thought of sliced bread as a rich people thing. Here it's the opposite, to buy fresh baked bread daily would be a "rich" thing and the cheapest bread varieties usually come sliced. I want fresh bread delivered daily. How can we make that happen?

Design Observation Blog - Electrical Inspiration

I don't know if this is an intentional design decision, but I thought it was pretty cool. At the PG&E in Emeryville, the lights are seemly inspired by the equipment they have within the fenced area. It's an interesting way to reflect what is the nature of the fenced area.

Design Observation Blog - Nature Remembered

On my walk to Home Depot I walked over a piece of public art that denotes where the Temescal Creek used to flow and now is below ground. A small reminder of what we build on top of to create streets and houses and stores, which in the case of Emeryville, is creeks and Indian graveyards. To what purpose though? It looks nice, but it's a reminder of what is gone and can't be reclaimed without the destruction of established city. But maybe a reminder is just what we need.

Design Observation Blog - Mobile Banking

The article on Jan Chipchase and his research for Nokia about the future of mobile technology discussed the potential for cell phones to help developing countries to solve problems with poverty. It discusses mobile banking solutions, both formal and makeshift, used around the globe which I thought was interesting. A few days after reading the article, I was checking my balance online and realized that Chase offers mobile banking, and has offered. I signed up and have more or less solved my overdraw issues that I used to have. Now when I want to know how much I can spend, I no longer guess. It's interesting to see how developing nations take advantage of their technology for development in what seems to be a more rapid fashion. I read an article that said that mobile phones have made serious headway in developing nations due to limited preexisting system of landline phones that had to be change. In the same way, nations with less resources seem to find the solutions that eventually are made common place in the US. People in Africa were mobile baking before I even knew it was an option. Weird, huh?

Design Observation Blog - Floating Islands

Our arrival to Reed Island (not the real name, I think it was Puma Island...) 

I don't know if it's cheating since I took this photo before the class, but it's kind of awesome, so this will be a bonus travel recall design blog. In Lake Titicaca there are the floating islands of Uros, man-made islands created out of reeds that float! This sounded bizarre to me so I went on a day boat tour of the islands with Taylor and Diana which was both interesting and rather uncomfortable. On the island they explained the construction of the islands which, to the best of my recollection, is as follows: They use totora reeds that grow in shallow water and have root systems which spread and hold the earth together. They cut the reeds off and then cut large chunks of the earth out which are non dense enough that they float. The floating pieces are tied together and reeds are piled on top and then reed houses are created. And until the introduction of motor boats they made reeds to travel from island to island, of course out of reeds too. Now the reed boats mostly carry tourists on short journeys to get to from one tourist trap island to the next. And the reeds are edible as well, but its not the most appealing flavor. But cool right? one plant that you can eat, make boats and houses and islands.

Positives of reed islands: they are so nice and soft that they don't wear shoes on them, you can float away from annoying neighbors, if you get hungry there is potentially food everywhere. negatives: the islands are small and have a lot of tourist traffic, but maybe you're into that. But in all seriousness, the islands may not be luxury, but use of material intrigued me. How many materials are in my house right now? I'm guessing probably none that I can eat.

oh yeah I mentioned something about awkward. well it seems like the tourist destination uros islands aren't exactly like the ones that people actually live on. From a distance we could see electric lights and solar panels and motor boats on other islands. The houses we could look into appeared completely empty in most cases which makes me skeptical that people live on these islands at all. The people there make a hard sell for their souvenirs, which fair enough, they need to make a living, but the amount of time dedicated to letting us "look around" a tiny island was clearly so that they adequate time to chase us down to try and sell mini boats. And I get it, people change society changes, not everyone is going to want to live on small reed islands, but there is something kinda sad about the recreation of traditional lifestyles for the benefit of tourists, it shouldn't be Disneyland. Overall, a place that was fun to visit, but I'll skip it next time.

Design Observation Blog - Stadium Opera

The draft feature on blogspot makes me lazy, this is one of a few I started and then left to age into irrelevance.

Some of my roommates and family friends attended the simulcast of Il Trovatore at ATT field September 19th. While being a bit cold, it was definitely my way to experience culture, in street clothes and eating garlic fries, and free to boot. The sheer number of people in attendance numbering, around 25,000 I believe, is a testament to the cultural involvement of San Francisco, that or there are lots of people with a love for overcrowded stadium events. or garlic fries. It was a lot of fun and made me think about multiple purpose spaces, how can spaces of gathering be used/ adjusted for events of very different intents. Food culture has changed even the offerings at baseball games, sushi is readily available along a with wine selection and "bistro" options. So isn't there already an intersection occurring? And as stadiums become more and more designed and lavish, where do we leave behind the gritty all american aspect of the game? but it makes me think if high culture is changing pop culture or the other way around.

Design Observation Blog - Roto

It's not completely clear in this picture, but on Saturday I was biking, my iPod touch fell out my pocket while I was biking, hit the street and cracked the glass all over the top left corner. I have two things to say about this.
1. I looked at some tutorials on how to fix this since the estimated cost of repair is the same as how much I paid for it in the first place. The front plate is glass so an obvious delicate part that can and does break. Knowing that, replacing the glass is really quite complicated task that involves taking the whole iPod apart and at one point meting adhesive with a hair dryer and oven mitts. It's rather obvious this part might break, maybe design it to be replaced...
2. Luckily it's the corner that cracked, it barely affects the touchscreen area and the whole thing is still completely functional. But the ipods are so shiny and smooth and clean, this crack is really bothering me. Far more than the damage to my backpack for example which I think just adds more character. I guess my ipod is just going to have some more character from now on.

Design Observation Blog - Bike Racks

 This is one of the things I never noticed until I depended on my bike to get to school and go to stores, but I now hate stores or blocks without bike racks. How difficult would it be to add a metal thing in the asphalt sea so that I didn't have to lock to handicap signs on the median. And while I can do that, I always feel awkward doing it and I don't know why. Just give me the bike rack.

Design Observation Blog - Art Lot

This used to be the parking lot for Expo, an overpriced home depot essentially, which went out of business years ago. While they were here, this section of the parking lot was given thought and attention and received public art, a lot of public art in comparison to the rest of the box store parking lots that surround it. Now that they are out of business though, it's used as a space for seasonal stores such as the Spirit Halloween store and selling Christmas trees which means that there are rarely people here to admire, or notice, or know of this installation. Lonely art in an empty parking lot. So what should happen to abandoned public art? What should happen to abandoned parking lots? There certainly are more of them this side of the recession. It public art worthwhile if no one sees it?

Thought. This should be a dirt parking lot, it would only add to to ambiance of selling trees and the creepiness of Halloween, they could have pumpkin vendors or other themed products.Vines could grow up the art and become a part of the environment.

Design Observation Blog - Wanting Things

This is a photo of all the thing I carried during my 3 month trip through Peru. It all fit into the backpack shown which is about 45L, not shown is my camera and pajamas which I was wearing while taking the shot. I didn't have much, didn't accumulate much, but in a culture that doesn't glamorize the collection of material possession nearly as much, I did just fine and strangely, didn't want much more. It was winter in the Andes so a major desire was a better jacket when I was cold. I also got rid of a lot of stuff along the way. To make room for the few souvenirs I got rid of jackets I thought I was emotionally attached to, electronics I decided I didn't really need. I think my major purchase was a thermos so I could have hot tea while I watched friends practice dancing outdoors. It was a simple life,  and it was sweet. Back in the states I almost immediately got rid of a third of my stuff, but now, I slowly feel commercialism wrapping it's tendrils around me. Yesterday I tried to justify buying a forty dollar cookie press. Design will be my downfall, I can't resist a clever object.

Design Observation Blog - Michaels is Watching

 

Michael's has spent cash to let you know they are watching you. No regular with closed circuit connection, but a flat screen suspended from the ceiling right in the entrance. In a store overrun by grandmothers buying knitting supplies and mothers with small children buying foam dinosaur kits, this seemed a little overkill to me, but then I thought, I only think that since they market and design the stores for those demographics. They are a real store with real profits and loss prevention and I wouldn't think twice about seeing the same set up at Best Buy. Still seems out of place, perhaps they could decoupage it.

Coral Copper Box (2008)

This box was created as a mini coffin 
for my mother's cow fish who passed away. 

Never used since he got a "burial at sea".
 

Artist Statement

My name is Mariko Hirasawa. I'm an industrial designer, artist, traveler, and student. In my art I use many different mediums including painting, metal arts, and needlework. My work is influenced by nature and my travels as well as an inclination to create useful objects. In my designs I strive to create useful, playful and efficient designs.

Design Observation Blog - Street Homes

Decorating can make a place feel more like your own, but that can be difficult if you don't have the space to personalize in the first place. Here the simple installation of a sign influences how we view the space of an over pass. And how we view the person who lives there.

Design Observation Blog #1

Last night I was trying to make Annie's Mac and Cheese. White Cheddar. Yum.
Step 1. Push the bunnies tail to open the pack and pour the pasta into your bowl. But wait, there is something in the way... the pack of cheese sauce, too big too ever fit through that bunny tail hole. How sad.

its been awhile

i´m alive, basically still in Ollanta.
highlights,
solstice camping
seeing a gajillion ruins
many good parties
invitations to join dance groups
watching antonio dance in cusco
uh, lots of other things that aren´t coming to mind right now.
just send my stiçuff i dont want to leave.

sticking around

I have been debating a great issue in my mind, which is should I stay or should I go. I feel a little stuck and probably have asked a lot of you what you would do so heres my decision: Im going to stay around a little while. The thing that tipped the scale was the seemly escalating violence in Peru and while everything really has been fine, I think it might be a good time to lay low. So this morning I got back from my 9 journey in south peru. we started off going down to Puno to see laketiticaca and the islands of uros. this was quite cool and quite touristy, i did a lot of thinking about how i would not be able to live on a tiny floating island with 6 other families. Then we went to Arequipa, the white city. Saw a little mummy girl and visited a monastary and thought about how being a nun is also not on the list. Went to colca canyon and hotsprings, saw all the condors. Big birds. Saw small children dancing for tourists at 630 in the morning, you guess it, its too cold for e to do that too. 12 hour bus back to cusco which was relatively painless but because of the strikes and closed roads I definately woke up in the middle of the night and we were on a very curvy one lane dirt road in the middle of nowhere. also

peru travel tip 2

if you decide to save yourself a couple of soles by taking a suckier bus at night it wont be heated, brings blankets and lots of them, you might feel like a fool at first pulling out your sleeping bag, but almost all the peruvians are in the know and will pull out theirs in a moment. it is freezing cold. do not forget this, you will cry. i had a sleeping bag multiple layers of clothes a scarf hood up etc and i was still sticking my extra clothes in the bag to try and fight the cold. yes, do that.

im going to summarize and move on, sunday, i was carrying coats when i ran into maryjane and she convinced me to disappear for ahile and watch the corrida de toros with her. they ride wild horses and fight bulls, but dont kill them, and there was a cock figt which i just couldnt watch, but over all extremely entertaining. I still had the coats for some of the panaderas and so after a couple of hours and when it started to get cold, I escaped the stadium and wandered the 20 feet to the cargo where to my complete surprise everything was in complete party mode. I got my obligatory 40oz as I walked in then was dragged around by Nilda and Ronaldo who were passing beer and making nicities as part of their mayadoro duties. This night until about 1 I stayed in the cargo dancing drinking more dancing more meeting people, definately more drinking etc. too much fun. then a lot of people started to leave and some drunk guy was giving me hassle so I made a slick exot to avoid another beer and headed off to the main plaza. Here I ran into Mary Jane and we headed to Cactus for a bit, it´s a bar, and another beer or two. Left there ran into some friends, danced in the plaza for awhile and I got walked home at around 430 and passed out.
Note: A lot of the festival I was substantially drunk, it´s not because now I enjoy heavy drinking or wanted it this way, it´s just that the culture of the festival is that some people are obliged to give drinks and I as a guest soon realized that refusing is considered a bit rude. As a special guest I think I recieved more attention as well as to whether I was being served which at points made it impossible to be without a drink for more than five minutes. The last point which made this difficult is that in Ollanta, I think they find it amusing to have drunk foreigners. With this in mind, I tried hard at first to avoid it, but decided later with all their hospitality, if this is how they want me, so be it. All of this is to say, I drank a lot but try not to judge that at face value, I was trying to do what was culturally right.
Monday I woke up at around 7, little tipsy still, but I think thats how most Ollantanios manage to do 4 days anyways, went found Nilda hung out and helped for a bit, they danced to the plaza and moday traditionally is the day when the danec troops try to visit all the other troops cargos, we hit up two but the panaderas werent very ambitious. I was dragged/danced back to the cargo for lunch and then we went to the cemetary to dance and sing for those that couldn´t leave the cemetary to join the party, dead people. This was the first of several sweet and ridiculously awkward moments. At the end the mayadoro was thanking everybody and passing out beer and he says señorita pase pase por favor, I decline by pretending I don´t understand and am dragged into the center of the qapac qolla, he talks about how I´m very kind and special that I would come and help prepare food for their cargo and how it was delicious and the entire group owes me a mil thanks for my help. yes. then says this songs is for you and the group does a short song in quechua for me. oh yeah. i tried to say how i owe them definately not the other way around thanks for the hospitality, that was so great and sooo awkward, but only for me. then i dont know, things get messy, i believe we did another 3 hour shift in the plaza, more and more and tio freddy has a convo with me on the mike in the middle of the square i decide to pass out early at 1, or rather escaped anothe party at the cargo. monday is the big procession and I walked very near the front down to a small church below and across the river of ollantaytambo, the highlight of this is later in the day they have an event where they string up corn like a pinata ad people ride horses and try and catch the corn and if you do you win a chicken, but the next year have to bring 7 chickens, it all confusing. then lunch, or should i say lunches. we were at the cargo and some men from a different cargo come in, nilda waved to me to come over and before I understand we are dancing out of the cargo and leaving. best part, they had super cool hats that I got to wear. Then we went and were given lunch at their cargo cuy fritter things, etc. and my very own 40 or should i say my very own 2nd 40 for the day, plus some mini beers along the way. I guess what happened is that nilda and ronaldo were called and they brought me as their daughter to this special lunch which is too sweet for words. later we took off, me not walking so good due to super HAVING to finish my 40 in 30 min and are walking and one qapac qolla calls me over, i walk over he places me somewhere and out of nowhere CRACK, i got whipped kids and damn that hurt for what should have been a quite dulled feeling. we party hard in the plaza and i am constantly handed special beer gifts and i dance and drink moving between the qapac qolla, my home crew and the sillka which has friends and previous bridges students in it. They all thought it was a good sign I was whipped, it means Im part of the group, not just a gringa watching in. i think i crashed about 5 or 6 in the morning. so thats the festival, i survived and honestly, though I thought at points I would die of exhaustion or alcohol poisioning, it was completely worth it. It probably is one of the coolest things I´ve done in my entire life.

and what a festival it was...

I think that festival was one of the coolest, strangest, most beautiful and interesting and confusing things I have even done, I´m hoping to have pictures up tomorrow to share just how, wow everything was. And even better somehow I was dragged along with the panaderas and qapac qollas all weekend so I got an insiders view into all of this, but I´ll start from the beginning.
This was the festival of señor de choquekillka, spelled many different ways that I´ve seen. The story is that he was riding a horse through the valley near here and fell either into a whirlpool or into a river near a whirlpool, there he saw a cross in the pool that must have been there for sometime so he pulls it out and brought it around as a miracle. The cross evidently brings people dreams and you have to do what the dreams say or terrible things seem to happen, now people bring sick children and ask the cross and the señor for help or miracles. I´ve seen and heard various stories about this, some people believe, some don´t and just enjoy the festival, but in general people dance in honor of him because it´s better safe than sorry. Nilda says that she prayed to the señor for a girl child and the next year she was pregnant with Itamar, her daughter who was born completely healthy and one year she prayed for a house and they were able to buy their house that year as well.
So during the festival it is basically a 4 day vigil with the cross, it is never without a group dancing or in a procession or at the church during mass. There are supposedly 18 groups here, although some don´t join the processions and I don´t understand why and there are also groups I watched practicing that I never saw during the festival, but would dance in different parts around the city I think. Each dance group has what is called a cargo, it´s basically home base for that group, they eat their meals there, hang out there while waiting to dance, it´s where they party etc. The cargo is held by a different person in the group each year and usually you don´t repeat or host again for awhile since it costs a ridiculous amount to host, about 10,000 to 13,000 dollars for each cargo. Part of this is because during the festival each group tries to go to all the cargos of the other groups, I believe monday is the usual day, but we visited other days as well, I think the panaderas are a bit lazy since we only visited 3 places as a groups, but other friends in other groups visited almost all of them. This by the way is ridiculous since everytime you go to visit, first they dance their dance then eat something and usually are given a beer or chicha, by the end of the day everyone is exhausted and it´s not just suppose to be fun, really you are suppose to visit to show your appreciation for the other groups and the work of their cargos. All the cargos usually have live music almost always as well, especially on visiting day. When you visit after eating and resting a moment, then usually you dance to the band, salsa or whatever, eat and chat some more, then head out. The other dance troop usually isn´t there, it´s more for the people holding the cargos, it´s a bit confusing.
I´m losing track so I´ll start day by day.
Saturday we woke up, Nilda was panicking a little so I sewed and braided hair and added buttons and carried stuff for her in the morning, we rushed down to our cargo which was relatively far away. Then as a group we went to the center, listened to some kind of a speech and then went on our first visit. A lot of the time it felt rather strange to be with them, in many times I was the only gringa in the place and the other groups didn´t know who I was or whether I should be there. Nilda was insistant the whole festival that I could come to whatever I want, made sure they offered me food and beer and that I was dancing and having fun, way over her call of duty and for that I´m eternally grateful. Oh right, so our cargo was great, they were super generous and it was really fun to have the panaderas and the qapac qolla together, it´s not usually like that, each would be seperate, but the family who hosted was in both, huband with the qapac qolla and wife with the panaderas and I think they wanted to get both responsibilities out of the way for awhile. They were fine, but other cargos were really tight. It was difficut since they agreed to host last year when it was going to be fine, but the economic crisis made things much harder quite unexpectedly. At a cargo you are expected to offer at least beverage constantly and as a guest are expected to take it. One cargo has to buy around 2000 boxes of beer for the festival. I actually recently heard this, Ollantaytambo has about 2000 people living here, this includes children etc. People from other places come as well but there aren´t that many so take approximately a quarter of those out for children who arent drinking. Evidently 40000 boxes of beer are brought each year for the festival, that is how much everyone drinks during this thing. Back to saturday, we then had a procession to bring the cross from the new church in the plaza to the old church and then there was mass. I didn´t understand much except god is good and loves all of us, but seeing the entire church packed with people in their dance outfits was rather incredible. we headed back in procession to bring the cross back up to plaza so that the night shifts of dancing could begin, then had dinner in the cargo and I decided to crash since i was exhausted and everyone was telling me that this was going to be an easy day. and i still might be recovering so I´ll regal you with days 2 3 and 4 later.

Ah ha! I´m tired.

So, If being Peruvian was a job, I´m on intership right now. Yesterday Nilda, yeah I messed that up for almost a week, Nilda asked me if I would like to help since their family is so busy right now preparing for all the festivities. Actually I should start a little earlier, so yesterday I was walking around, trying to find a place to nap in the sun and passed by San Isidro where they were butchering bulls for the festivities, about 10 middle age men, drinking chicha and killing cows. Anyways, they were yelling that I should come down and watch since they were getting another bull in position to kill, I said no thanks and they tried to tempt me with chicha. ¨we have chicha, there is chicha¨etc... which

Peru Travel Tip #1
Chicha is NOT a selling point.
If you are not in the know, chicha is a alcoholic beverage made from fermented corn. Sometimes they add strawberries to it, which is definately the better kind, but often times there are chunks and stringy bits, I don´t really like to think about it, just drink quickly and it will all be over soon. Also it´s often times quite strong, two cups and you are going to start to get tired and drunk. Another thought, I think chicha is what I imagine drinking when I´m backstrap weaving in hell.

anyways, I blew them off since this didn´t seem like my kind of party. I return to the hostel where Nilda tells me almost immediately that we are going to go help clean cow parts, so I had to come back 10 minutes after I rejected their offer, AWKWARD. Okay so all the cows were all dead when we got there and we basically chilled and drank chicha while watching them cut and clean the bulls and occasionally pretend the esophagus and spinal cord was a microphone. I was put on baby watching duty for awhile which made me extremely nervous, but they clearly thought was amusing. When we walked over to the house to cook, I was still carrying the baby and when who I believe was the mother saw me, she rushed over to take the kid. I think I would usually would be offended at how fast she took her, but I was relieved to not have to worry about dropping the baby anymore, it was very much a ¨who gave the gringa the baby situation¨.
So then I spent about and hour and a half cutting fresh fresh bull liver. While I will never be a carnicera I did start to get the hang of it. I wish I had a picture because when I was done I had so much congealed blood on my hands and wrists, and in spots it was almost a quarter of an inch thick. It became rather scaly as it dried and I had to pick pieces off in order to continue cutting, and you´re welcome for the imagery.
Then we cut about a gajillion onions. That was terrible and it took several washes and hours to remove the smell of onions from my skin, or maybe I still smell like onions and just have become accustomed to the smell, that seems more likely. It had become freezing by then so I moved into the smokey den of the kitchen and hung out with all the women cooking, there were cuys all over the floor and dirt walls and so much smoke but at least cooking with an fire meant that it was warm. They feed me boiled cow brains and told me what it was after I had eaten it, it was kind of how I imagined cow brains... squishy. I spent a couple hours there cutting tomatos and occasionally explaining who I am and why I´m sitting in the kitchen and then was served a huge bowl of dinner which was rice, a salad made with the onions I had cut, a potato and a huge piece of liver that I had probably just cut as well since the cut looked a little... special, but whatever it all tastes the same.
Later I went back to the casa where Nilda was adorning parts of the traje, she asked me to paint some of the hats for panaderias and I was doing well until the paint dripped onto part of the trim, I tried to save it but fail! I felt soooo bad, like sooooo bad, but Nilda insisted it was okay and that they would just put something over the paint splotch (this morning I sewed a bead flower thing on, it´s okay I guess, but still feeling guilty). This wore me down, I´m back on coffee as I help out, walking here, there doing this and that, not sleeping well, but it´s been really fun.
Today I´m expecting more of the same, at noon I think we are going to cook again, so yes I am an intern of Peru, give me your children, dead animals and hats, I will try my best. Sorry for any paint drips.

More Festival Information

I have been trying to get some more information on this here festival so that I understand why everyone I seem to know is dancing and in sucha frenzy. My spanish really hasn´t been sufficient to understand well, most of what I´ve been told but here is what I learned. The festival is the Festividad del Señor de Choquekillka, the patron saint of Ollantaytambo, evidently his miracle was somewhere close to Ollanta in the valley. It´s the biggest festival in Ollanta that happens at the end of May or the beginning of June every year. There are about 18 or 19 dance groups from Ollantaytambo and I believe 4 more coming in from Lima to participate, other activities include a bullfight and processions. A lot of the people I know here are dancing in the festival, and I hear it´s a pretty sweet deal to be a dancer since the heads of each group opens up their home to the other dance groups to offer beer and food and etc. Thusly each group tries to visit each other location but evidently only get around to 3 or 4 before they are too drunk to continue. What else? Um, seeing as I get invited almost everywhere, I´ll report more if I get to attend one of these dance group parties. Other than that, I´ve been told to expect not much sleep and a lot of fun. It all starts tomorrow, so we´ll see or as I´ve now learned in Quechua but is absolutely not spelled correctly, ya cha ku qui cha.

festival

Today in ollanta, there is a weaving and spinning and doll making competition, pictures will follow, but watching reminded me of my weaving class I took in guatemala. Heres what i say, there are a lot of boring and repetitive and in many cases, non productive things I could force myself to do for the rest of my life. move dirt, check bottle caps, i dont know, but back strap weaving is not one of them and if someone told me i had to backstrap loom weave forever I would take the loom and use the various pieces to impale myself. That being said, it´s so much fun to watch this women and i have the utmost respect and admiration for their incredible skills.

and so...

it´s been a moment since we last spoke. right now I´m in ollantaytambo, a rather empty ollantaytambo since there is another strike today. its funny, since there still is some traffic and cars since ollanta and urubamba arent actually participating, but they might as well be since pretty much all their traffic comes from cusco or machu picchu which both are striking. all the tourists are stuck since there is no train or way to go farther than an hours drive. I´m just chilling here until the fiesta this weekend. heres what I can tell you about it. its going to be big. its going to be better than urubamba´s same festival, and evidently i have to stay. yeah, thats what pretty much everyone has told me. also there will be a lot of dancing and i´ve been out most of the nights since i arrived watching various groups practice and watching milda adornar her clothes for the dance. milda is the cousin of emerson who i have known since I first came to Ollanta, shes super nice as well and has a hospedaje where ive been getting a good friends and family rate i believe, combined with the blue restaurant with the 3.50 sole dinner, living here has been cheap. and cold, like unbelievably cold. i stole all the blankets off the extra bed the first night i was here. and now i want to nap so, chau.

strike strike strike

Strikes in Peru are not an uncommon phenomenon, I think there has been a strike everytime I´ve been here, but this was the first time it really affected my plans. The transit workers, ie combis and taxis striked for two days to show their solidarity with the people who live in the country who are having troubles getting enough water. So thusly there was no transit since people don´t always have cars and there were a lot of roadblocks making it nearly impossible for those that do, for two days there was no school since nobody could get there, no trips into town, and a lot of free time. Since the last week was vacation it´s been pretty free for the majority of the last 2 weeks. I went down to the streets both days to see what was going on, a first there was some chanting, but after establishing all the road blocks, of which there were many, it seemed to settle down to lots of pickup soccer and volleyball games in the streets and people picnicing while watching the roadblocks. People were hanging around to make sure nobody tried to move their blocades, including some school kids playing volleyball. I think the most violent thing I saw was a taxi trying to enter Av. de la Cultura and some people broke glass bottle to try and deter it. That was the main hinderace, people were making road blocks out of everything, construction materials, the gutter covers, even parts of the barbed wired fences were tore down to cross the road. And there were lots, about every 100 meters, and one they lit on fire near the police station. This is a road block about an mile from the house, its actually a rather lame road block compared to some of the others, but they dragged a trashed car out into the streets, so I took a foto.I walked to enaco, where pukllasunchis is, about an hour, then went back to get a bike and go a bit further, but fairly soon after enaco there was a lot of traffic, i guess that section takes their strikes less seriously. This is at enaco, this was one of the bigger groups I saw minding the road blocks, there must have been about 50 people all sitting on the rocks they had brought into the streets. Mily says that they are more politically active in that area which is why they are more dedicated to the strike and not letting motorbikes pass like most of the other roadblocks. Most of the motorbikes can make it through the blocks and some make money by carrying people which the strikers dont appreciate and I hear can thusly be a little dangerous. I was worried they wouldnt let me pass on my bike since at time people throw rocks at bikes during strikes, but I had no problems, people seemed amused at the gringa crusing around. Yeah, thats the police in the background, it was the only real showing of police I saw during the strike as well.
So while it was quite interesting and I got to ride a bike for the first time in a while, I´m a little bummed, I stayed in Cusco for another week to teach another group, but now that I would only have one day, it´s impossible and I´m just going to help with a mini film showing. I leave cusco on saturday, sad...

soy un guia tambien

yesterday I was rousted at the ungodly hour of 745 to serve my first day as a guia to the sacred valley for diana and taylor. they really wanted to see the ruins and when i first volunteered to show them how to get there i was not curled up in bed listening to music and so thusly agreed to show them the ropes at so early oclock. we took a combination of combis and buses and walking to arrive in urubamba where another girl traveling stuck to us since she didnt know her way either. its sad, before i started traveling with other tourists/volunteers i rarely got ripped off but since, man, the combi ride for me solo was s/.40 and with the other girls was 2 soles a 5times fare hike, and this was after bargaining him down a bit. anyways i was much happier after we stopped off at hearts cafe in ollanta and had a coffee and scone and soon became a much more patient and knowledge filled guide. i showed the girls where to enter the ruins then went off to enjoy some sunshine in the plaza de armas. this is where i learned the pains of being a guide, recently i had been fantasicing about running of to peru and being a guide, you get to travel, i speak english i like the area etc, but now... i ran into the woman who owns the hospedaje where i stayed last time, who is also the cousin of one of my friends from ollanta, and she invited me to a wedding that was happening at the curch, i joined her and it was interesting. we watched them exchange vows and sign the papers and then small cups of champagne were passed around and more confetti (which is called pica pica) was poured on peoples heads, including mine, i woke up with confetti all over my pillow even after combing my hair last night. she also told me about some of the different wedding traditions. one that i was able to understand is that in the small towns they pass around a plate with the rings and people put money on it and there is a sort of rivarly between the brides and grooms side for who give more, in the city they give presents instead. i was invited to the party in a small town about 20 minutes away where there was no cell reception and said of course but i just needed to tell the other girls what was happening. i hate peruvian cell phones i tried to call them both for about 15 minutes and the phones kept telling me i had an incorrect number and so i watched the truck of wedding guests pull away. sad.
so i wandered around, chatted with some people i knew and waited for diana and taylor to return from the ruins. we found 20 soles on the ground and got a concillatory lunch and then later climbed up to the granary which is pretty cool and ill post pictures of later. all in all a good day.

happy dance

tee hee hee i have comments which means people read this, other than me. thanks!

updates

so its been awhile since ive posted anything. this last week has been vacation at pukllasunchis and so its been a delightful week of sleeping in late and watching a lot of movie. Mily has two new students living at her house now, im moving into daniellas room today for the next week as well. this is getting twisted so i´ll start at the beginning.
friday i worked with the students for the last day with the groups. it was rather complicated as a lot of the students wanted to go to a craft sale the school was holding, so i did a lot of shuffle students and very exciting, on the last day we were finally able to download sound from the recorder. fyi panasonic has a software which is the only way to remove audio from their devices and if you lose it its not available like a driver for free or anything, no they charge to replace it and thusly can go suck it...
so now we finished two movies, well finished one about arts at pukllasunchis and there is one on sports, but i would call it 80 percent finished.
saturday i went to ollantaytambo, i intended to stay only for the afternoon, but ran into some friends who convinced me to stay the night because there was music and dancing in celebration of reopening the church which had repairs done and mothers day and some important soccer game the next day, which evidently my friend is the president of the ollanta club or something (spanish confusion, iono) . i was in the streets dancing and drinking cerveza until 1130 when i wimped out of dancing at the discoteca and caught some zs.
sunday - no game since the other team didnt come, so i hightailed it back to cusco for a mothers day lunch with the family where we went for chifa, they dont use chopsticks often so they we amazed by my ninja chopstick skills. i then slept.
now monday and tuesday i think i just slept and watched movies and listened to music and played lots of rummikub as per usual.
wednesday and thursday- new students arrived, diana and taylor who go to duke i guess. ive been showing them around town since its their first time here and mily is working, they are going to volunteer at pukllasunchis teaching english and other stuff. i get to share my combi skills. we have walked soooo much and i get to try and remember all the stuff ive forgoten about cusco. i bought a scarf too. and they agreed to try cuy with me one day while im here.
the end
oh and i was already going to leave a week late in order to teach another group, but everyone in ollanta is gearing up for a giant festival thing and convinced me to stay. i dont want to leave yet anyways so its a good thing im here for another 2 weeks.

photos lost

this is going to be whiny so... so yesterday i watch el dentisto y su amigos fantasmos which i believe is ghost world in the us. anyways i was feeling energetic for some reason, not something that has been common in the afternoons after teaching or as it often is wrangling, so i decided to go into town. its about a 30 minute combi trip (by the way so far combi riding is neck and neck with improving my spanish as the thing im most proud of on this trip so far) and for some very odd reason i wanted to climb to the top of town. so i climbed and gasped for breath and climbed and gasped some more and cursed the lack of air here and finally i got high enough and took some awesome pictures and found some very cool street art and felt content. i bought tres leches cake to celebrate. today i worked with bridges students and we had some down time so i gave two of the students my camera to take photos they could print. yay stickers. and fun and whatever. they deleted all my photos, i managed to rescue everything i had taken monday and before but all the photos since, gone. whaaaaaa? and tears. i didnt have anything too unreplaceble, but all i can think of is that i have to climb that stupid hill again. so, anyone have any suggestions on how to avoid this in the future, ie good internet storage places? and i found ghost town fun is it only me?

ah ha photos

so i have started working with kids on bridges stuff, its fun although i was suppose to have some of the old students to help, but evidently they decided new student.s would be better and denied my request. and to be honest 12 students is too much for one mariko

this is the rooster that lives on the roof across the street. i will kill it. it is a broken rooster. there is nothing to crow at at 2 in the morning.


and the view from my room the other way. nice, eh?

language school

i have been taking spanish lessons at acupari again, which made me realize I dont like learning spanish in peru. in guatemala, whenever I got twitchy, the classes were cheap enough and the teachers laid back enough that i never felt bad about saying, hey lets just go to the market/bakery/anywhere but here, which was really fun. in acupari, which i guess mainly teaches german, its a lot less hangy outy and more studying and doing worksheets which begins to feel a lot like learning. so while i may be beginning to understand subjunctive, i still dont know the best place to get coffee in cusco.

swine flu

the swine flu - a popular topic these days, has now hit peru. and by hit i mean one quarantined woman in lima, but that hasnt stop the ministry of health from offering advice for not contracted swine flu. cover your mouth, stay out of crowded places and dont kiss a lot of people. mily points out we are all screwed since the standard greeting here is a kiss on the cheek. me with my cold american ways which often forget to go and kiss strangers on the cheek may have the best shot here. but that advantage may be nullifyed by my many combi rides per day, 20 people in a van, yeah like its not going to spread super quick if it makes it to cusco. maybe we should purchase travel insurance now dad?

burnt

i have suceeded to get burnt two days in a row. the first time I looked like a lobster in my face and so they next day when we went to sacsayhuaman for pukllasunchis family day, i wore sunblock and a hat and still evidently missed a spot on my neck. ow. yeah family day was fun, it involved silly activities like making a chant about family, a dance and a symbol choreography. we had good food although they forgot the water and sodas so it was warm chicha morada with lunch. ah so, i was going to explain the family and living situatio here. Im living with a administrator from pukllasunchis who i met last time, mily. she is a lot of fun and really helpful with my spanish. she has two children antonio who is 9 ithink and daniella who is 13 and both also attend pukllasunchis. her husband cochepi moved to lima 2 or 3 months ago for a good job and was here for the first weekend i was here, but returned tuesday. it´s hard for them to be apart so they might move in the next year. there are also 2 dogs that i cant remember the names of and 2 birds lumi and cielo, who i thought were cute and well still are but never are quiet, ever. they are very much in love and never shut up about it, ill post a video later. Also, mily´s parents live next door, manuel and bety. they are both quite nice and manuel as mily says ¨thinks he´s funny¨ and is always making jokes. he really is quite amusing. yesterday he told us how spiders and scorpions destroyed his honeymoon and how he ¨kicked luck out of his house¨because he kicked a little mouse that looked like it was praying. its a longer story. now ive got to do some translating and I start the real work tomorrow as well as spanish classes. chau.

arrival

Initially I thought I would be able to post from home because they have wifi there, but it seems my ipod doesnt want to cooperate, so here are delayed postings.
April 18
So I arrived in Cusco safe and tired. I knew as I set out, that I was trying to be flexible and go where the travel spirits took me, but I didn´t expect that my plans would change before I left Seattle. My first flight was overbooked so I volunteered to take a later itinerary that would get me into Lima at about the same time, but went through Houston instead. I stayed at the Coast Gateway Hotel and took the voucher. All the flights seem overbooked right now. My flight was, the next to Newark, the flight I got to Houston as well as to Lima. The night in the Lima airport was tough since I was alone,but I was kept awake and alert by the cleaning crew, who had to move the bench I was sitting on four times and frequently went wizzing behind me on the floor cleaner truck thing. Here´s my suggestion if you fly from Lima to Cusco, use Taca not Lan. They have less attitude and while they still drop food in your lap if you are sleeping, it´s a muffin rather than a box so it won´t wake you up. And so ended 32 hours of transit and I was greeted at the airport with the familiar panpipe music and the smiley and fantastic Mily of whom you will here more of en el futuro.

no hay aire

Today I start my whatever you want to call it at pukllasunchis. Its fun to be back, the school is exactly how I remember it except it feels like they have more stairs. Actually I think that´s the altitude talking, while I don´t feel sick or tired normally, climbing all these stairs 11000 feet makes me feel the air or lack there of. When I have trouble breathing people ask me what is the altitude of where I live, which is a low, what 5 ft_ and I have written some email and used several computers and I still can´t find the question mark. I took a collectivo(I can´t find the slash key either)combi for the first time in Peru, they make me nervous. I think I will probably chicken out today and take a taxi. Tomorrow seems like a better day to be lost in San Geronimo.

Departure Imminent

I have a ticket!!! Which you might know, but...

I also have a PASSPORT!

which I believe means that I can leave the country at least, on time.

My flight out if Seattle is 10 PM April 15th. 1 week from today I will be in a layover at the Newark Airport. If you want to hang out before I leave, call me. Otherwise, I'll see you in a few months.

Old Peru Art

 

an unfinished painting I did from a photo i took on my first trip to Peru in 2006. We were taking a lot of photos (it being a photo workshop and all) so my dad brought a polaroid camera and we took pictures of kids in Ollantaytambo so that mothers could have a keepsake that most of us would take for granted, childhood photos. The painting in clearly unfinished, being a second semester senior year attempt. Memories from where I will soon return.

Old Art

 

Dock from an old family photo.

Old Art

mess

I'm scared that I'll die and people will look at my stuff and think "how sad". So I'm cleaning and getting rid of some of my earthly possessions.
Before:

Old Art

1 minutes birds sketches...