…book review time.  I have now sat down four times to try to write this post.  So hopefully this time I will actually follow through and finish it.  This is what happens when you wait too long and have 6 books to write about…but oh well!  Onward and upward.

1. A Lesson Before Dying – Ernest J. Gaines: This book is set in Louisana in the late 1930s, and tells the story of a young African American man wrongly convicted of murder and facing execution.  It does this through the eyes of the country teacher, who learns as much from the young man and the community as he teaches them.  As usual, great Southern literature did not let me down – this book was wonderful.  It was also a pretty quick read.  Five stars on my arbitrary five-star scale.

2. The infamous Twilight series – Stephanie Meyers: So, just to be clear, this includes Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn.  And this is most likely a re-review, because it was definitely a reread.  However, I feel like it’s necessary to review again because my opinion of the books has completely changed.  And I am forced to admit that…I like the series.  It goes against so much I believe for me to say that, but ultimately, the intriguing plot and seamless happy ending and vampire obsession is too much for me to resist.  I still take issue with the gender roles (and especially with Bella & Edward’s relationship) but in terms of sheer entertainment value…not a bad read.

3.  The Voice That Is Great Within Us:  American Poetry of the Twentieth Century – ed. Hayden Carruth:  So, I have not finished this book yet.  It is kinda a giant-ass book of poetry.  Like well over 700pgs and tiny tiny type.  I got it my freshman year of college (ages ago – Spring 2005) for a workshop class, but neglected it for a long time.  The first time I cracked open this book was at the end of my Spain voyage, back in 2007.  And in this second venture (2009) I made it through the following poets – T.S. Eliot, John Crowe Ransom, Conrad Aiken, John Peale Bishop, Archibald MacLeish, Edna St. Vincent Millay, e.e. cummings, Charles Reznikoff, Genevieve Taggard, Mark van Doren, Thomas Hornsby Ferril, Louise Bogan, John Wheelwright,  Horace Gregory, Hart Crane, Alan Tate, Yvor Winters, Robert Francis, Kenneth Fearing, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Lorine Niedecker, Richard Eberhart,  and Louis Zukofsky.  Phew.  It was incredibly refreshing to step back into poetry.  I’m not entirely happy with this editor – there are some poets whose work I would like to see more of in this anthology (how do you only put in 3 Langston Hughes poems when he completely defined the movement in Harlem?) but I guess that just dates the editor and the perspective literature sometimes takes on more contemporary, groundbreaking, and marginalized writers (some of the selections from female poets were lacking, too).  But, I am glad they were included at all, and this anthology certainly offers a wide variety of American poetry.

4.  The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck:  It’s a little embarrassing (especially for someone with a B.A. in English – because what else is a B.A. in English good for?) but I was a Steinbeck virgin before this book.  And somehow I made it all through school without reading this one.  This is one of those books that gets a lot of hype before you read it – in good and bad ways.  I had heard so many different things about this book…that it was wonderful, terrible, boring, brilliant, engaging, and impossible to get through.  Honestly, I had heard so many negative things about the book that I was a little afraid to read it.  I mean, it’s lengthy, and who wants to willingly jump into the prospect of being bored for what could be weeks at a time (especially when I have so many other tantalizing books to read on my shelves)?  So, I was blissfully happy for years without knowing anymore about this book than a vague Veggietale reference involving some very country, (but actual) grapes on a wagon who were kinda grumpy.  And I was ok with that.

However, I actually, despite all the warnings before I read it (and groans while I was reading it) thoroughly enjoyed this book.  I won’t pretend it was easy to get into – why on earth he wrote an entire chapter about a turtle at the beginning of the book is still a little beyond me (I mean, I get the metaphor, but it didn’t seem to be entirely necessary) – but once I was on my way with them, I was right there with them.  It was extremely well-written.  And, especially in this economy, it was fun to get so righteously angry at the oppression of the workers.  It wasn’t the most enjoyable read, and didn’t have *exactly* a happy ending, but it is unquestionably a great book, and a great piece of American literature.  I need to learn to just start trusting Kevin’s book advice against what everyone else might say, because he was completely right about this one (he’s also the only reason I even endeavored to read this – even if like 5 years later – but that is because I take his book recommendations so highly).

5.  Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen:   Ok, it’s getting really annoying…every time I reference this book I want to include Like at the beginning of the title, which makes a weird morph of the movie Like Water for Chocolate and Water for Elephants.  But I digress (it should be noted that that’s a great movie, however).  Anyway.  Rachel recommended this book to me…and by recommended I mean she essentially insisted I drop whatever I was reading/doing and read this.  And then even brought me her copy so I had no excuse not to read it And it, again, was a wonderful recommendation to take.  This book is very fast-paced and intriguing (which was a nice change following Grapes) and has all the key ingredients of a good story – romance, murder, villains, circus clowns, a train, a former rich-boy-turned-poor-vagabond, and an elephant.  The style in which the book was written actually reminded me a little of the movie The Notebook, just because it was framed in the context of a 90(or 93) year-old man in a nursing home, telling his memories of his life in the circus.  What was truly great about this book, tho, and what I think makes it as great as it is, is all of the research Gruen put into her writing, and the way she wove actual, true anecdotes of American circus life into the story.  It completely opens up another culture within the American culture.  Love it.  Good read.

6.  A Child Called “It” – David Pelzer:    Yet again another recommendation, this time from my co-worker, Keegan.  She told me I should read it ASAP and that I would probably be able to finish it before the end of our shift…and she was correct, lol.  It’s a short work, and it reads quickly.  This book is the first in a trilogy detailing the life of the author, David Pelzer, who was the victim of the 3rd-worst case of child abuse in the State of California.  This installment focuses on the very first part of his life, which details the treatment he received from his alcoholic mother.  Now…it’s hard to shock me with stuff like this at this point in my life, but that does not detract from the shocking awfulness of what this man endured as a child.  I am amazed at how he is able to look back on his life and write the way he does and speak with the forgivness and objectivity that he does in the book.  It’s a really fascinating read, even if pretty depressing and out-of-this-world crazy.  It does speak to his own resilience though, and the importance that we all play in providing resources and assistance for those living in abusive situations (as his teachers were key in helping remove him from his abusive home).  Definitely a must-read for anyone who works with children or in human services.

Well hello friends.  While it hasn’t been that long since I’ve posted (certainly not that as long as I usually go between posts) quite a bit has happened in my life.  Last Wednesday, the 12th, I left the creature comforts of the United States and headed down to Guatemala.

The group:
Cat Wilson, traveler and adventure-girl extraordinaire.  Hetero-lifemate.  Previous countries of travel – Spain, France, Portugal, Canada, and Belize.  Artist and personality-type expert.  Currently working at Canvas on Demand.
Kasee Metcalf, super-traveler and keeper of time.  Future pilot and excellent knower of youtube videos.  Previous countries of travel – Spain, Turkey, Morocco, Israel, and we’re not even sure where else… Knows all the same people from Wake I do.  Currently at dental school at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Kelly Chauvin, badass and ever-the-optimist-even-when-you’re-pretty-sure-there’s-nothing-to-be-optimistic-about.  Can turn anything into a come-on or turn-on.  Previous countries of travel (as far as I know) – Spain, Morocco, Portugal, United Kingdom, Australia.  Epic poet of the Motivation & Koala era in my life.  Currently serving in the Peace Corps in Guatemala.  Main reason we headed down that way.
Me.  Well, hopefully you know a little bit about me if you’re reading this.  But just because it’s fun, and my blog should be the place where I get to show off, my previous countries of travel – Mexico, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, England, Scotland, Norway, South Africa.  Currently a Residential Counselor working with entertaining if occasionally dangerous teenagers.

The Plan:
Well, as Beth and Shaloot aptly noted before dropping me off at Cat’s, we didn’t have much of a plan.  Or knowledge of anything that was going to be happening.  Which while I don’t recommend before traveling to another country, especially a third-world country, certainly has its perks.  #1 being absolving of responsibility.  #2 being epic adventure.  The rough plan was to fly to Guatemala City and then get the heck out of there to Antigua and follow Kelly around the country.  Massages, rafting, Peace Corps parties, and volcanos were all mentioned as well.

What was not mentioned was that Guatemala has a lot of freaking mountains and is lacking in efficient transportation.  Now I know this is the obvious to y’all, but please keep in mind that I literally knew nothing before this trip.  Hell, I kept thinking Guatemala was in South America (which is embarrassing to admit, but there it is).  So anyway, this meant that of our 6 days in the country, we spent a good amount of time on a bus of some kind.  Here is a brief run-down of what happened…

Day 1: Arrival
Got had on a taxi ride to Antigua paid an absurd amount of money.  Delightedly realized we could still speak Spanish.  Found sweet hostel – The Black Cat.  Took first chicken bus to Santa Lucia.  Had a mostly painful but surely helpful massage and spent too long in temascal (Mayan tradition that is very similar to a sauna).  Got lost on the way back to Antigua.  Found way to Antigua.  Ate delicious food, loved on Kelly when she finally arrived.

Day 2: Antigua & Cabon
Wandered around Antigua and learned some history.  Went to a Music Museum and a Coffee Museum.  Had lunch with one of Kelly’s fabulous host moms.  Received a lot of delicious fruit.  Took a 5hr bus ride to Cabon.  Played dirty versions of M*A*S*H.  Met some other Peace Corps folk.  Dinner, drinks, and dancing in Cabon.  Slight mishap with returning to hostel.  Potentially unsafe trip back to hostel.

Day 3: Lanquin, tiny village, & Cabon
Took a micro bus (i.e. everyone sitting on top of everyone) to Lanquin with smaller group of Peace Corps folk.  From there took a lorry (rode standing up) to tiny indigenous village that is a Peace Corps site.  Geared up for white water rafting.  Learned about malaria, amoebas, & dysentary.  Crash course in white-water rafting; learned that river has class 2, 3, 4, & 5 rapids.  Panicked.  Rafted for about 2 hrs.  Had immense fun.  Then…Kelly fell out of the boat.  It was decidedly not good.  Cat, Kasee, Kelly, Oliver (Peace Corps member) & I hauled tail back to Cabon to the private hospital.  Which was closed because by then it was after 6pm on a Friday.  Proceeded to public hospital.  Eventually wound up back at the hostel.  Spent about 12 hours in wet river clothes.  Thanked God for our hostel manager.

Day 4:  Cabon, Guatemala City, Antigua.
Took bus back from Cabon to Guatemala City (5hrs) to the good hospital.  Got a better idea of the damage to Kelly.  Watched part of an oral surgery until I almost passed out.  Located hostel that had available 1st floor bed.  Went medicine shopping for pain meds, mouth meds, and cold meds.  Headed back to Antigua.  Got food and slept.

Day 5:  Antigua & Pacaya
Breakfast with delicious crepes.  Played in Antigua’s market.  The 3 of us who could walk headed out to Pacaya to climb an active volcano.  Climbed active volcano.  Bonded with ex-pats.  Roasted marshmallows in lava.  Surfed down side of volcano on rocks & ash.  (I only fell on my ass TWICE!)  Climbed down active volcano.

Day 6: Antigua, Guatemala City, Houston.
Organized and spent last morning in Antigua.  Little bit more of mercado shopping.  Got to Guatemala City via chicken bus.  Caught flight.  Got stuck in Customs.  Spent night in Houston.  Watched George Lopez.

Day 7: Houston & Raleigh
Finally, finally back in North Carolina.

End!  Overall, it was a really interesting and good trip.  It was fascinating to learn and see so much.  Understandably, the whole injury thing sucked and was pretty serious.  Kelly is an incredible person tho and handled it amazingly well.  And we made it.  It was great to be speaking Spanish again…that was easily one of the best parts of the trip.  That and the amazing feelings of competency.  Nothing for your self-esteem like climbing a volcano.  But it’s good to be home

I know, I know, I know: I’ve been performing completely sub-par at updating my blog.  But if it makes you feel any better, it’s actually been even LONGER since I’ve written in my real journal, which is starting to freak me out a bit.  I can’t remember the last time I went this long without writing in it.  I need to get on that.

But, as you can probably guess, things have been really busy.  Not at all in a bad way, just constant.  Some of it’s been completely social, so I can’t really complain about being behind in my school work because it’s my own fault.  Did I mention how behind I am on my school work?  It’s utterly shameful.

So, what have I been up to…seeing people for the first time in a long time, trying (hopelessly it seems) to get in the habit of going to the gym a lot, shopping (ugh ironic considering my lack of money), visiting family, hanging out/going out (aka drinking?), Living Parables business all over the place, PREPARE, pretending to sleep, work at the library, cleaning, watching Arrested Development, going to class, psych grad school stuff, and trying to at least 1/4 of at least one subject’s homework a night.  Jealous much?

Things at Wake or really good; it’s pretty awesome being back, and being a senior.  Lots of fun things have been going on…we have our new Parables babies, who I am extremely excited about   It’s also been great hanging out with the old Parables – as in the alums and the current members.  LP really is like a family.  Kind of like the Spain people too, altho I guess with completely different aims lol.  It’s also been cool to catch up with the theater kids.  I made the monumental decision to NOT stage manage anything this semester, but am already having trouble sticking to it apparently…I hear these announcements about needing stage managers and this little voice in my head says “But you like theater”.  Still, it’s the best decision.

Speaking of decisions, the Mission of Good Hope trip made the difficult but hopefully for the best (I’m still pretty excited about it) decision to switch our trip from December to May.  Right after graduation.  This decision was difficult since something like 6 out of the 10 people on the trip are seniors – in fact, one girl did drop out because of the whole finding a job after graduation thing.  But, we would have much cooler opportunities and much more rewarding volunteer work in May.  Instead of working with computer literacy (which was definitely an interesting and unique opportunity) we will be working with rape/HIV victims.  Passion much?  Also, there would actually be people at the campus, so that would be cool, and we wouldn’t make the staff shorten their summer break.  AND we now have more time to fundraise!  And the trip is cheaper over all cause it’s not tourist season!  God really does provide a way.  Did I mention that I’m going to get to learn some Afrikaans????

Speaking of God, prayer is appreciated for 2 of my friends in particular.  Make that 4.

We re-read Heart of Darkness in my English class.  I liked it again, but I don’t necessarily get what all the fuss is about?  Yes, Conrad is pretty cool, and it’s wicked impressive that he English was at least his 3rd if not his 4th language.  And it is a great book.  Maybe I was just more impacted the first time I read it, I don’t know.  Now we’re reading Howard’s End, which I actually really like a lot.

Alright, well I need to get going.  I have that lovely Student Leaders thing that really isn’t useful but I feel obligated to go to.  Then our first rehearsal!  I should prob print some scripts out…but they’re not edited yet, and my computer is malfunctioning anyway, and I have to print out soooo many documents for 3 of my classes…sigh.  Whine whine whine.

Hope all is well!  I’ll try to update more frequently and with more entertaining stories

So, this past weekend I took a beautiful drive down from PA to VA through the Shenandoah Valley to attend Daddy’s installation ceremony in the Hebron Valley Presbyterian Church in Stanton, VA.  It was so gorgeous!  Really easy drive too.

As for Stanton, I think the fam will be really happy there.  Daddy’s already practically giddy, which is absolutely wonderful.  I can’t believe what a huge blessing this is.  The chickens, you will all be happy to know, are also doing fine.  The service itself was quite nice and the church was kind enough to have a 100% delicious covered-lunch after the fact that rendered us all immobile for a couple of hours.  I didn’t eat dinner until 9:30pm.  It was almost like Spain…almost lol.  A bit more Southern USA tho, which is also always good.

Speaking of Spain tho, I’ve had the opportunity recently to show off my pictures on more than one occasion.  But after looking over them yesterday with Kevin (Charlottesville is only 40minutes away from the new homestead) I got intensely…Salamanca-sick.  And group-sick.  God I love those people.  Hello, senior year, when are you going to start?  Oh that’s right, I have to take the GRE before hand.  Which I’m dreading.  Maybe cause I’m doing things like updating this instead of studying.  Ugh.

Anyway, returned to PA last night (got in around 1am) and it’s good to be back.  Can you believe I missed the little boys in the day & a half I was gone?  Silly ridiculousness I tell you.  But they are pretty cute.

…since I’m mercilessly awake at 6am.  I guess the definitive schedule of Salamanca life made it easier to adjust to the jet lag, whereas now it’s all sort of open-ended.

So.  The final, post-Europe update.  Here it goes:

Norway:  Ok, did everyone else know how absolutely drop-dead gorgeous this country is?  How have I heard absolutely so little of it?  It was gorgeous.  After our first day of recovering a bit and relaxing in Norway, we all piled into an SUV and embarked on the first road trip: 8.5hrs.  We drove through the mountains, which was beyond beautiful.  It’s funny tho, how much weather variety there is in Norway.  One minute it’s all lush and green and spring-like, and then suddenly you’re on top of a mountain where the cleared snow is higher than your car.  At our second stop, for lunch, we visited a stave church, which is from the very very early period of Christianity in Norway, so that the churches still have a lot of pagan symbols (pagan Viking symbols, at that!).  They’re called “stave” churches because of the woodworking technique used to make the roof.  Absolutely beautiful wordwork.  However, there aren’t that many left, as, being 100% of wood, many have burned down over the years.

Finally we arrived at our destination: a cabin next to a fjord somewhere in central Norway (I really have no idea where we were as the Scandanavian names are all long and difficult to pronounce).  We barbecued and hung out for the night, and then crashed.  The next morning, we took a 2hr ferry ride through the fjords…you have no idea how insanely gorgeous this was.  Beyond words, actually.  I love fjords.  Afterwards, we drove for another 6.5hrs to reach Oslo, Norway, where we again hung out & crashed (after another AWESOME dinner).  Saturday, we slept in till our heart’s contentish before waking up and seeing the sites.  These included the Viking Museum (with the 3 best preserved Viking ships), the “open-air” Norwegian Folk Museum, and the Sculpture park.  All excellent fun & very interesting.

Then Sunday, I came home!  It was a long day (over 24 hours) but it was great to be back.  Mama & Andrew & Jessica picked me up from the airport and greeted me with yellow roses & a balloon   All in all, being home is very odd.  I don’t quite know what to do with myself, especially after being busy or planning things for the past 5 months.  Well, really, forever, given my over-committedness at Wake.  First things first tho: today, I’m renewing my driver’s license   I cannot WAIT to drive again.

So with all the airport hopping, I actually read a few books.  The first one, The Time Traveler’s Wife, was alright.  I’d heard really good things about it, and while it was entertaining, I didn’t really like the author’s style of writing.  Still, you have to give her props for complete creativity and telling a typical love story in a thoroughly original way.  The other book I just finished was The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, and this is a novel that I truly enjoyed.  While not completely thought-provoking, it was quite good and definitely a gripping story.  Now, onto the much-anticipated and highly recommended, The Glass Castle.  Meanwhile, I’m still trying to work my way through the gigantic poetry anthology from my freshmen year poetry seminar, The Voice That Is Great Within Us.  It’s good, just very large.

Check pictures here, and if you’re in Cincinnati, do give the house a call