Jewel in the Rough

The eagle has landed! Actually it was a smallish airplane, but what matters is I survived.

 Actually, I almost missed the flight altogether, because even leaving my house at 5:30 in the am, I didn´t arrive until 7am, and apparently the airlines are VERY SERIOUS about arriving two hours in advance. Luckily, I was very courteous and distraught and they decided to let me on the plane, although it was touch and go when they learned that my small amount of luggage would have to be checked due to the shampoo and other liquids.

But I arrived unscathed and found the shuttle to Antigua with no problemas. The scene of Guatemala City through the window was just as promised, ugly and fume-filled. I made small talk with the other girl in the shuttle, an Israeli, and it turned out that we were both headed to the same hostel. Unfortunately when we arrived the hostel was full, but I found another solo Israeli traveller to share a room with. We ended up with a very cheap private (double) room in a hotel close to the market. It smells a little mildewy, but otherwise is a great deal. After the hotel was settled, we wandered the town, checking out the parque central, and the mercado (sp?). We ended up meeting a whole group of Israelis (they are about 50 percent of all backpackers as far as I can tell) and had a nice little dinner. I was exhausted, so I declined to go out with them in the evening, especially because we had to wake up at 5:30 to climb…a volcano! Payaca, an active volcano close to Guatemala City. We hiked up a couple thousand meters (I think, it was all in español), and got to walk on the still warm-even hot-lava field. We actually saw some of the molten, red hot lava oozing through the rock. I will try to get a chance to upload the pictures soon.

Gotta run.

Brooklyn

Originally uploaded by jkf424.

After a crazy, face-stuffing couple of days in MSP (that’s Minneapolis for all you non-midwesterns), I finally got back into my car, stopped briefly in Milwaukee, and drove straight home. Yes, I mean 18 hours of driving straight back to Brooklyn. I am finally recovering from the coffee intake and sleep deprivation.

I don’t know how long I will be back, but I think that I will probably book my flight for September 12th (Yes, Virginia, Tuesdays are the cheapest day), and then it is wildly uncharted from there.

In the meantime I am trying hard to sit still and not incur any more charges than absolutely necessary. I did get scouted for a possible magazine article (which I followed up on, ’cause it pays). And I have been wracking my brain for other ways to make some money before I go. Unlike some of my friends.

I will keep y’all updated on my flight/travel plans.

Originally uploaded by jkf424.

Did you know that you can order Miller High Life with champagne service in fine dining restaurants (okay, nice hipster hangouts) in Minneapolis? And gourmet fried cheese curds? This is my kind of city!

Archway Bison

Originally uploaded by jkf424.

Since my arrival in Kearney, Nebraska, where my parents now reside, I have been reminded several times of a discussion I had with a friend and co-worker shortly before I left New York. My friend was asking how New York is different from living in the Midwest. “It’s just harder,” I replied. And I couldn’t explain it any further, but being back in the Midwest has reminded me of the truthfulness of the complications and stress of the New York life. Here, the food is lackluster, the farmer’s market has actual farmers, and the entire town smells like a feedlot when the air is humid. It is also 100 degrees every afternoon. But the difference is that if you want something, it is possible to get it with a minimum of struggle. You want to go out to eat? Jump in the car and drive to the half empty restaurant. Want to get your car washed, no line at all on a Saturday afternoon. The lanes are wide and the roads are empty. Striking up conversation at the coffeeshop is easy. Don’t get me wrong, I love living in a city, and (for me) the drawbacks of living in a smaller place far out measure the ease, but there is a certain culture of the Midwest that will always be home to me.

During the same conversation with my friend, he asked me if I always dressed as well as I do in New York. Looking through old photographs at my parent’s house, I can say maybe. I always put together my own look, rather than relying on a blueprint from the mall. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. Today I was gratified to receive two separate compliments on my outfit by perfect strangers, and the thing of it is, I am wearing all mall clothing, certainly not unavailable to the people of Nebraska.

There should be some tidy little summation here, but the heat is frying my brain.

Disclaimer: This post deserves a lot more effort and consideration that I am actually going to put into it, ’cause I am just bored with talking about it. If you have questions, concerns, or advice, feel free to shoot me an email, or post a comment and I will attempt to revisit the matter more throughly.

Those of you who are tracking me via this poorly updated blog are a little out of the loop. There has been a somewhat severe change in my plans for next year, namely, I am not going to be teaching in Honduras. Now don’t fret, and don’t frown, I am still going to Central America but instead of an imminent departure I am traveling back to NYC and flying to Guatemala in September. In Guatemala I will be taking an intensive language course in Spanish, and then going door to door to offer my English teaching skills to various institutions. I hear that it usually works out, if you are outgoing enough.

I made this decision because I felt like it would offer me more in terms of what I was hoping to get out of the trip down south. and the August departure was not feasible for various reasons.

So, that’s the update, but otherwise the Central American Adventure remains the same (that is, it still exists).

I have discovered that when you are traveling around, visiting friends and family who either don’t have jobs, or are grad students and therefore have very flexible schedules, it is hard to actually get time alone.

I am finishing up my visit to Madison right now, after a whirlwind of jam making, domino playing, farmer’s market wandering, union sitting, friend visiting, and of course, lots of drinking. I am looking forward to the drying out period that will be following (also known as Nebraska).

I definitely picked the right week to visit, as lots of old friends were in town for the weekend due to a wedding reception for another high school friend. It was really great to catch up with everyone, especially those I don’t otherwise keep in touch with.

A Bench in Rogers Park

Originally uploaded by jkf424.

The road trip is underway, but internet connections have been scarce. I won’t bore you with the daily minutia of my travels thus far, but in summary: I watched poker in Boston, hiked in nature and made banana splits in Syracuse, drove 11 hours in one day, dipped my toes in Lake Michigan and explored Wicker and Rogers Parks in Chicago, and made a quiche. Oh yeah, I was also apparently the only person in the city of Chicago rooting for Italy in the World Cup. Pretty good for 5 days.

I have to admit that I have not kept up my Midwestern drinking habits, and I have to remember that I can’t keep pace with this crowd. Last night we went out to celebrate a friend’s birthday at the Pontiac Cafe, which apparently specializes in 22 oz bottles of Fat Tire so that you can pretend that you are drinking 3 beers, when in actually you have just ingested 66 oz of brew.

Tomorrow I head to Madison where I am hoping to catch up with a lot of various old friends, drink beer on the Terrace, and generally live the good life associated with Wisconsin in the summer.

Fireworks in Greenpoint

Originally uploaded by jkf424.

The weather held just long enough for everyone to have a gorgeous Fourth of July holiday. The Art Dude and I went a grabbed a beer at the Pencil Factory and watched the people scurrying towards the water with their coolers and folding chairs. Then the clouds rolled in, the wind picked up, and it started to rain. The people scurried around, looking up at the sky, trying to determine if it was going to last. A guy came out of the Pencil Factory to perform some intricate waterproofing manuevers on his SUV of a baby stroller. 15 minutes later-as soon as the guy was done with the complicated stroller exercise, the rain stopped, the sky lightened, and the sun came back out. Fireworks on!

We went out on our roof to watch, despite the numerous paper warnings in the mailroom that this was not allowed. I am not one to really get awed by fireworks, I mean, I think they’re great and all, but they don’t cause my heart to race and my throat to catch. Still, watching them in New York, with the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building in the background, the Humanity all around…it’s great. Just the feeling of shared festivity. Even the NYFD got into it, ending the show with a weird song played on their firetruck horns.

Today and tomorrow are errand days, and then…into the great wide open (Well, really it’s into the gridlock of I95 to Boston for a brief overnight, and I probably won’t hit the wide open until I clear New York State on Saturday, but you get the idea).

IMGP0709

Originally uploaded by jkf424.

This is all natural, including the straight sides of the canal. Amazing.

It’s been awhile since my last post, and vacation has officially started! I warmed up for my big cross-country tour with a road trip to Ithaca this weekend with Art Dude and Slick. We left the city early to avoid traffic, but still got caught up in the inevitable Jersey rubbernecking slowdown. The only time I am ever caught in traffic in Jersey is when the is an accident that is completely contained on the shoulder, yet all 3 or 4 lanes crawl to a stop to look at the misery.

Luckily the slowdown didn’t last long, and we were on our way again, with fresh gas in the tank and gum to freshen our coffee breath. The next stop was brunch, for which we decided Perkins was exactly the right kind of place for this road trip warm up. Unfortunately everybody else in the Pocono’s had the same idea. It took us over an hour to eat, and the food was as bad as we thought it would be. But Slick took the opportunity to peruse the notecards covered in unicorns and fairies that were displayed at the cash register, and Art Dude was enchanted with the nearby waterpark. The trip was otherwise uneventful, and we arrived just as JP was leaving to get supplies for the evening’s party. We declined the trip to the grocery store on a holiday weekend, and instead bravely got back into the car for some wine tasting.

Two hours, three wineries, and seven (undrunk) bottles of wine later, we rolled back into town to prepare ourselves for the party. The apartment was gleaming, JP was putting out the fresh flowers, and we tested out the play list. Our attempt to stay at a hotel was squashed by the $190 a night fee for the last available room, so we decided to brave staying up for the end of the party so we could stay with JP. The party was swinging, I got to see some old acquaintances, and the play list rocked. Slick and I managed to stay awake until all but two of the guests had left, so we weren’t too rude.

We were awakened early by the aches and pains cause by three people trying to sleep on two couches, and we dragged JP out to the BEST BRUNCH ever, strangely located in Ithaca. This made up for Perkins. Slick and I got the Pain de Mais: grilled cornbread topped with salsa, avocado, sour cream, cheese, and eggs. Art Dude went with the Aculpaco omelet, but missed the cornbread, and JP was as healthy as he could bring himself to be, ordering an egg white omelet with goat cheese and greens.

After a brief rain the sun came out, and we headed out to play tourist. We hiked along a few of the area gorges, and kept imploring JP to find a word other than “gorgeous” to describe them. They certainly are breathtaking. I especially liked the right angles that the rock forms into at Lucifer Falls.

We went home, rested, gave JP food poisoning at the appallingly popular mexican restaurant on the Commons, and then, deciding our work was done, headed home again. We barreled through the night, stopping only for gas and nerd ropes (weirdly addictive, let me tell you), and dropped Slick at her door at 1:30 in the morning.

Road trip experience complete.