Summer reading

Just finished! From the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series. Gotta love fiction.

Here we go

Here we go. Twice for emphasis. Today I received the e-mail I had long been awaiting, and in it were two exciting things. 1. My acceptance letter to the program in Spain which I need to begin my visa process and 2. The details of the school I will be teaching at!

My school is in the district of Hortaleza in Madrid, which I know nothing about but will soon call home away from home (away from home, considering I still plan on living close to the city center). It is an elementary school- which was clearly my first choice- and has a bilingual program, which is obvious since I will be teaching there. Time to read up on my teaching-english-as-a-second-language skills, which as of right now are at a thrilling 0. Unless you count natural skill and ease, then we're good. I have a feeling me and my students will be doing a lot of singing activities.

Anyway, applying for a Visa seems to be a tricky business. So tricky, in fact, that the consulate in Miami sends me an e-mail once (or more) a day. I'm not complaining since it's been giving me a daily dose of humor and insight into the way things are going to be from now on. The Spanish way of doing things seems to be a little more jumbled than the American way, but hey... maybe that's why I like it so much.

This Visa Business, or VB, as it will hereafter be named, includes FBI background checks which is part of the reason for all of the confusion. Apparently these background checks were not required in previous years, and now that they are, everyone is confused about them. Even the people in charge of VB. I received an e-mail yesterday that we would need to apply to get new background checks, which apparently caused an uproar with all the applicants (not with me, since I think my Mom casually lost them in the mail anyway). The problem was having to go to a police station to get fingerprints taken, which could only be done after you purchased the right paper and paid the fee, only to pay another fee to the FBI for them to tell you that you've never been arrested before. It was an okay experience for me considering the officer taking my prints told me I should be a model. Oh... Miami. Anyway, the supposed VB uproar resulted in another email (surprise) instructing us to NOT re-do the FBI application process, just incase. Even after they had told us to start it the day before. I'm sure that went over well with some of the more anxious of the applicants. Not.

Either way, I am so happy and excited that nearly all I can do is daydream. I don't fully feel like it's happening yet, but I'm sure when I get my training date and buy my plane ticket it will all come speedily to fruition.

I'm trying to start the blog back up so that I will be motivated to use it in the fall months. For now, I am enjoying summer and trying to find a job to occupy my time and save that dinero for Go Time.

A

2011

Holiday break was longer than ever and enforced a strict 12 hours of sleep per night routine that I will be sad to relinquish starting tomorrow. Beach in December never fails to put a smile on my face, thanks Miami.

Coconut Grove's King Mango Strut Parade

Cut my hair a few (or four or five :x) inches before heading back to Gainesville for my birthday weekend. After venturing out Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights I will be more content than ever to spend a few weeknights inside. Getting old at the age of 22? In direct contradiction to that statement (I like to mix things up), my roommates and I decided to build a blanket fort taking up the entirety of our living room on the night before my birthday. Never had really built one of that magnitude, and I'm glad our excess of seating came in handy once again. You can never have too many couches or chairs.

In the new year, hope to scratch a few of these babies off my list. I mean... I've got to keep up my being 'interesting', and all. (InSite's 28 Most Interesting) Already got the last one on the list down, clearly. NYT's 41 Places for 2011. Happy daydreaming.

Brasil

So today I learned that the Tropicália movement in Brazil (which we've studied in Brazilian seminar) is related to Hélio Oiticica's piece "Tropicália" (whom we studied in Photography). Learning makes the world go round?

THE Week?

This week went beyond expectations in terms of stress, but that's behind the scenes. Highlights were the Falala Cappella Holiday Concert (complete with 'All I Want for Christmas is You') and the Hanukkah dinner at my house (complete with latkes and... matzoh ball soup). Finished up my last photography project and my last projects for every class but one.

The Staff

Makeup time before Laura's big break

ALSO, put up a Christmas wreath today, and had latkes (again?!) and Maneschewitz for dinner tonight. Festive.

                                                                             Ho ho ho


As the most stressful week of my semester came to a close, it hit me that 'it's' almost over- in a strange, I'm-not-sure-I-like-this-feeling kind of way. Although my mind is busting with questions like 'what's next?', for the moment I'm content... to write my last paper and take it eeeeeasy.

Operation Beautiful

After WLC's first big event of the semester, we filled out post-its for Operation Beautiful- an organization on a mission to "end negative self-talk" through anonymous acts. Those at the event wrote a little message on the post-it, like "You're beautiful (yes, you)" or "Love your body" (shown below). I made a Library West trip even more productive by placing them on doors or bathroom mirrors, and the occasional car. Here's Nicole doing her good deed for the day.

Afterward I submitted the pictures to be posted on their blog.

Happy post-it writing!

www.operationbeautiful.com

Walks of Shame

In my latest photography project, I wanted to bring an interesting take to a discussion on gender roles. The black and white series depicts women in the act of a "walk of shame" (often a gendered term), and the color set depicts men in the same act. The women's series includes the reflection as a symbol of judgement, whereas the men's series is more dead-on and lacks the same feeling. The women's walks are meant to be obvious, but the audience has to take a closer look at the men to deduce what is going on. Both sets are meant to encourage feelings of isolation, contemplation and regret through the use of characters' body language and/or facial expressions. Although the color set may be taken as humorous in comparison to the black and whites (especially with my Mike Grog joke), the self-satisfaction on the face of the woman in color [ignoring the call] attempts to bring it full circle. 

Thanks to Nicole, Michelle, Elise, Jasmine, Nate, Elliott, Danny, Jabari and Monica for being good sports! Happy looking.

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