ponder

Peaceful baby sloth

2009-01-27T22:08:00.000-08:00

I feel like I know exactly what emotion this baby sloth is feeling... like "aw i am with exactly the right person at this moment". :)

New Art

2009-01-14T10:04:00.000-08:00

Snow!!

2008-12-22T07:54:00.000-08:00

um...lots of snow...lots and lots of snow

(for all friends in Guatemala who asked about snow)

Art

2008-12-22T07:19:00.000-08:00

New work (mixed media)-acrylic, pencil, newspaper, photograph, cotton fiber, watercolor.

Spoken Word Poets from the Bronx NY.

Taking voices to Washington DC.

2008-11-30T21:29:00.000-08:00

Surround yourself with beauty

Feel the warm sun on your face

Be conscious today

Be peaceful today

2008-11-30T21:15:00.000-08:00

What makes me happy and calm?

Being prepared for my classes ahead of time

People who hold doors open for other people

Taking walks

Meditating and doing yoga

New paper/notebook

Good music

Painting to music

Camping

Walking in the city

Waking up to bright sunlight

Sending cards (mail…that you can touch)

Having my room clean

Good poetry

New socks

Soft snowfall

Clean paintbrushes

Morning coffee

Reading for an entire day

Looking at graduate programs (makes me feel like I could be anything)

Hearing my mother talk about her pottery

… to be continued

2008-11-30T20:36:00.000-08:00

YAY!!!

I am almost done with my undergraduate degree!! Woot Woot

Lately I've been hearing a lot of... "what's Emma studying...women and something?"

"oh ya Emma is studying women, yup she wants to work for planned parenthood"

and "what is she going to do with that?".

To be honest the confusion is understandable mostly due to that fact that I have never really been able to give anybody I definable career title that i've been working towards. Actually only recently did I realize that what I wanted to do was a volunteer job and due to the fact that I am not independently wealthy I cannot be a volunteer for the rest of my life...it was a sad realization.

So what am i really studying and what career goals am i working towards? well, i'm glad you asked:) I am studying gender and culturally studies with an emphasis in social justice. I am also studying Studio art. Currently I am thinking about going to graduate school to study art therapy. I'm hoping that this career field will allow me to combined the things I love; social justice, direct work with at risk youth and adolescents, and expressive art.

...as you can see from the picture i am really excited about the recent clarity i've experienced surrounding my career future. Though it was painful it was best that a realized I can't be a volunteer as a career sooner better than later, especially as my bank account dwindles:)!!!!

panajachel y Atitlan

2008-06-04T08:53:00.000-07:00

The market

2008-06-04T08:41:00.000-07:00

Mi Familia

2008-06-04T08:32:00.000-07:00

I´ve found a computer that I can load pictures on!! yay! This is the mother and daughter of my Guatemalan family.

Water

2008-06-03T08:56:00.000-07:00

Water water everywhere but not a drop to drink
Last night I took a glass of water to bed with me so I could leave it next to my bed in case I got thirsty at night. I can only drink the water from a purified water bubbler that they have because the tap water in not clean. The family drinks the purified water as well.
In the morning i took the glass of water from the night before and poured it down the sink because I didnt drink it during the night and I felt that it was old because it had been siting out all night.
The mother of my Guatemalan family looked at me and said ¨why didnt you drink that, why are you pouring that out¨. All the sudden is occured to me that this water was not something to be wasted. Thet you never just poor out this clean water that they must have to pay for. I felt terrible. It is something that I would not have thought of unless she had said something to me. The look on her face was of confusion because she could not understand why I would be so wasteful with clean water. I apologized and went to my room to ponder what else in my life I waste... it is a long list.

2008-06-03T08:30:00.000-07:00

The famous Guatemalan chicken bus!!
These buses are the best way to get around here in my opinion because they are fast and cheap. I´m not really sure if there are other buses other than these and expensive private shuttles. They pack people in so tightly that you cant move and the general rule seems to be three people per seat or more, eekk very cramped but it gets you where you need to be. If people in the US had to take packed buses like this I think that violence would break out lol, people here dont seem to mind small inconveniences like people in the US. They seem to have an abundent amount of patience. While I was riding on one of these this weekend i spent a great deal of time trying to translate a sign in the front of the bus. I finally came to the understand that it said ¨Dont tell your God how big your problems are, Tell your problems how big your God is¨. I wonder how it is that this optimistic attitude seems to prevail here in a country where so many people struggle for the essentials yet in the US where many people experience abundence the attitude is not so often contentment with what one has but rather the want for more.

weekend adventure

2008-06-02T11:01:00.000-07:00

Ive been away for the past couple of days so i havent been able to write. Also sorry for the typos in this because im writting on a keyboard without lettes on it lol.

I had a really crazy weekend. I took three buses on friday to get to a little town called Panache. It was so amazingly beautiful. Then we paid to take a boat across lake Atitlan to a smaller town. The lake was set into high mountains that ended in the clouds. It was the most beautiful place ive ever seen but also hard for me because there were so many children living in poverty.
We stayed overnight in a hostel which was fairly nice and cost like 7 dollars :). We went out dancing with some other women from Guetmala and they showed us the best club there, it was a lot of fun and i learned how to salsa ( or rather i learned how to let someone led me in salsa, basically the guys spinned me around the whole night but i had a good time.)
We took a bunch of buses up and down the mountains to get there. At one point it felt like we were in the clouds because we were so high up that the fog rolled over everthing. The chicken buses always have like 3 times as many people as should be on them and i felt really sick because i was smushed in one for like 3 hours, but i made it and it was certainly an experience.

I´m starting my volunteering this week ( hopefully), but im not sure if I will be put in the boys orphanage or the women´s shelter so we shell see.

Guatemala!!

2008-05-28T17:20:00.000-07:00

I´m in a little internet cafe right now( a little room with computers from like 1990 in it lol),. everything is going well. my family is really different, total culture shock for me becauuse they are native and live in a very traditional way. The women dress in traditional woven clothing that is so beautiful, with thier hair breaded with ribbons. I made tomales over a fire oven this morning for breakfast with the mother. i asked her if i could help and she siad yes and handed me a giant leaf and some mashed corn, lol , i had no idea what to do with it but she showed me how to roll the mashed corn up in the leaf and then cook it over the fire. My teacher is great. She is really young and finds me as interesting as i find her. i havent started my volunteer work yet. i think i will be going to the orphanage tomorrow. last night we went to a free movie in the old theatre. what we didnt know was that the movie was in german with spanish subtitles so non of understood much. This weekend i am going to the lake, i think the name is atikan. we are staying there for two nights and i´m very excited because its supose to be really beautiful, its close to the volcano. The city is totlay alive during the day with tons of shops and people on the street. at night nobody is out and everything closes by 8pm. this is why it is dangerous to be outside at night, but we are inside at night with our families.
Its probably the most beautiful place i´ve ever been and the people are so nice. nobody passes without saying hello and everybody seems to be enjoying life instead of rushing through it.
All and all the beginning of my time in Xela has been eye opening and exciting.

I am not using capital letters because they keyboard is different here and i am having trouble typing.
Also i wont be able to post pictures because the computers here dont have that capability

Guatemala

2008-05-19T16:52:00.001-07:00

I'm leaving for Guatemala in 7 days!! I am flying into Guatemala city and I will be living with a Guatemalan family in Xelaju. Xelaju is about 4 hours by bus away from Guatemala City. Xelaju is the Mayan name for the town, in spanish it is called Quetzaltenango.

I will be going to spanish language class in the mornings and in the afternoons I will be volunteering at a rural orphanage just outside of the town. woot woot yo estoy muy feliz!!

I will post photos of my travels as well as updates for professors on here as soon as I have access to the internet:)

2008-05-16T19:14:00.000-07:00

I've posted a lot of my most recent photography on here. Some of the posts are a bit mixed up and the quality is poor because the prints were scanned. The first grouping of photos is a collection entitled " Portraits of young artists". The collection documents four young artists who are pursuing careers in the arts.

The second grouping is the self portraits I recently did. This collection explores the way society defines "woman" verse a self-identified "woman"

There is also a portrait of Ramon somewhere within the mix.

All of these were developed in the Simmons darkroom:)

2008-05-16T19:11:00.000-07:00

portraits of young artists 2

2008-05-16T19:08:00.001-07:00

Portraits of young artists 1

2008-05-16T19:03:00.000-07:00

New Photography- self portraits

2008-05-16T19:01:00.001-07:00

New photogrpghy

2008-05-16T18:54:00.001-07:00

Hello!!!!

2008-05-15T14:36:00.000-07:00

Hello,

So I decided to start this blog so I can keep my friends and family updated about whats going on in my life. I'm hoping also to put up some of my photography/art work and just in general share my thoughts.

I am still at the Ballet in Boston right now working. I finished finals and I am officially three semesters away from graduating college, woot woot.

My first year at Simmons was amazing. I loved all of my courses and I spent what felt like hundreds of hours in the darkroom working of my photography:)

yay!