Nadal

Mire la calle

¿Cómo puede usted ser

Indiferente a ese gran rio

de huesos, a ese gran rio

de sueños, a ese gran rio

de sangre, a ese gran rio?

Nicolás Guillen*.

i don't normally go in for poetry, but I just saw this online y me gusto bastante. Here is a quick translation.

LOOK AT THE STREET

How can you be

Indifferent to that great river

of bones, to that great river

of dreams, to that great river

of blood, to that great river?

I am really tired.

And in Warsaw, which is another beautiful city. This one is a real city with a Marriott and a big Samsung sign on the side of a building etc. It is, however 5.26 and I'm already awake. There is also a phone ringing somewhere in this hostel and has been for roughly the last ten minutes. This is both confusing and unfortunate. I was having those half awake hallucinations that occur when you know you have to do something. First I imagined turning on my cell phone and seeing that it was 9.50 (basically guaranteeing a missed flight) and then I heard someone across the dorm telling me, "Kira, I think some guy came in and was trying to tell you something. He was using a clicker." In retrospect this makes no sense, but since I requested a wakeup I interpreted it as relating. So I finally gave into my head's voices and got up to really check the time. Lol, дерьмо, the phone ringing mystery turns out to be my cell phone alarm in my pocket. This is how conscious I am.

Here are a few other examples of Warsaw ups and downs that have happened in the last 11 hours:
1. My debit card is frozen again (although to be fair this is like blaming Obama for the economic crisis. Really it is Ukraine's fault) BUT I found an extra five euro I had squirreled.
2. I was walking for forever trying to find this hostel and I was SO tired BUT I found a cool art exhibit along the way and the lady gave me new directions.
3. I had to ask a billion other people directions too BUT they all spoke very nice english and were really friendly.
4. The hostel girl looked up a great restaurant with cheap vegetarian peroghi that looked really nice BUT when I finally walked the mile there it was closed so I had to eat some crap falafel BUT I also saw the most beautiful street in Warsaw AND found a really cute cafe w/ some kind of hot pudding they passed off as hot chocolate and a marzipan croissant.

So all in all a place I would really love to come back to. Lots of setbacks but they always seem to lead to something good, which is what one would like to say about life, right? Rambling, rambling. Maybe I will try to go back to bed...

Two last things:
a. Maybe the coolest thing about Warsaw is that they have these stone benches with maps engraved on them and a little talky bit about "Here is where Chopin looked for the last time at his front door," etc but THEN in the corner there is a button you can press and the bench plays music! AND there are these strange bar code squares that you can apparently SCAN WITH YOUR PHONE to get the music as a ringtone or something.

b. So, taking stock of my financial sitch here is where we are. I have 20 euro that I found in my estuche that made 80 zloty or whatever they call it here. 32 was the night, (that sounds like a mystery novel title), 8 was the falafel, 17 was the hot chocolate and croissant, 5 was the juice. So I have enough to get to the airport and maybe even get some breakfast. I also found an extra 5 euro in a jacket which means that, and this is exciting, NOT ONLY did I use it as key deposit but I now have enough to take the train from Manresa to Barcelona, or vice versa I mean, when I arrive back in Spain, which is very exciting. Or I think I do. Wait. I have enough to take it from Arc de Triomf or Plaza Catalunya to Manresa, but how much was it to get from the airport? Maybe I can rechange a few of these zloty. CRAP.

АХ ОДЕСА

I am really really enamored of some things about this city. Like this song, that Oleg taught me a few phrases from and then I just found the actual song while searching something unrelated (trying to find out the roots of the phrase "odessa mama" which on our first night someone told us has folkloric roots) and i LOVE it. I love how they say "odessa". And I think Ukraine is one of the most beautiful words ever. The city doesn't quite live up to it, but people say I have to see it in the summer. I want to live here I think.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er6ELPeUPkU
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPKj8vAVTYs
I also got really sick last night and was busy puking out both ends, if you know what i mean. I thought it was some crepes or a bell pepper i bought but some people reassured me that it was probably the water, which I drank a few times when I first arrived w/o realizing the danger. Apparently depending on where you are in the country the water can be radioactive. Depending on where you are in this city the water can be traveling through lead pipes. So, we'll never know but it was awful, but was only for one night, strangely enough.
The best part of yesterday, though, was walking through a few blocks where I think they were having a power outage, because there were no lights at all which we all know is particularly magical. But since everyone here wears black it was also dangerous.

MOLDOVA?

Still?
Yes. Still. I got to take a russian sauna though with Sasha's neighbor. And eat really good food. I love the food here! It is all really good. Very cabbage and other vegetable based. And oiled. All my favorite things. Then I spent maybe the worst night I have spent in awhile because everything went terribly wrong.
Sasha's cousin's car broke down and so we had to stay an extra night, which would not have phased me at all if I were not supposed to meet with two different people in two different countries that day. Anyway I had a psychosomatic asthma attack and so couldn't sleep even when I was finally tired much later that night.
But now I'm with Laura so it's all good and we're catching the next bus to odessa to see masha and everybody is almost happy. As happy as we can be in life knowing that the next challenge is arriving, yes? Very good. Updates later, just wanted to let everyone know I'm alive and well.

Okay, quick update (or not so quick)

here I am in Moldova, Chisinau to be exact. And let's just recap the MOST exciting thing that happened to me...ever. I voted (in my head, because I wasn't watching it directly) for the winner in Eurovision!!! You should watch it on youtube. It was Norway. There were quite a few pretty good songs though. Ukraine is another one worth watching, if only because it is ridiculous. Wait, I forgot about Germany. That was the most ridiculous. Unless it was Bosnia, the guy's face is of Eldar quality in its torment.
So staying in Czech Republic was great. And Slovakia was just a bonus I hadn't even counted on, just check (yes, yes) that off the list of countries to visit, you know?
Okay, center. Let's see. Moldova I have seen very little of so far, except the world of booze! Which has been an exceptionally thorough tour considering how little time I've spent here. Let's see: descending from the bus and grabbing my backpack I turn around and there is Sasha towering over me. How exciting! Then we checked in to a typical rip-off (but european style so more expensive) hotel and went out. I had some most delicious white cheese (LAUREN! WHITE CHEESE! And it was delicious, should i bring some back for Markek?) patties, a sweet white cheese that you dip in sour cream and then elderberry jam. We also had a shot of honey vodka which was delicious and some pilsner Moldovan beer which was actually good, and then you know some wine and then we went to a grocery store where an old babushka talked to Sasha for possibly 20 minutes about her life. She was tiny. Later we found a nice bar and had a drink which was complicated. First the bartender put alcohol in a class- no, first he put coffee beans in a shot glass. Then he put alcohol in a snifter or whatever, a glass, and balanced them on top of the shot glasses. He proceeded> to light them on fire and spin them around to get hot. Then, one two three he dumped the licker in on the coffee beans and turned the empty glass upside down over a straw that had been stuck through a napkin (previously), trapping the bent up part of the straw under the glass. Follow me? Then you drink the hot drink and then you suck in through the straw. Nice.
So the hotel front was a rip off but we're not going to think about that because I got to have a nice bath and seeing Sasha/Alex/Constantine again is worth it, and meeting his family is maybe even MORE worth it. I am enamored. Let's see if i can get a picture up here.

Oh, this is me after having bought my FIRST bus ticket to Moldova. In the communist bus ticket station. You can see what a relief it was to get out of there. Unfortunately that bus didn't end up existing, so when I got there I had to exchange the ticket at another office for two days later. Which turned out to be fortunate because I was able to laugh really hard and really obnoxiously with some other Americans who work for IBM. Okay but here above you can see Sasha's sister and dad. It's bad quality but they are really cool people. Natalie spent all day yesterday making me food and talking with me/translating words for me between Russian, Romanian and English. And then when the parents, Galina and Constantine, got home she had to translate between all of us. It also turns out we are very Russian. Not only does my name blend in well here but Mom, your name is Russian too. Did you know? Actually, my name is very easy to travel with. It has very easy consonants and vowels I guess. Well chosen. And since my haircut is very Czech (according to Kyle) and also very Spanish I just blend right in anywhere. Well, more or less.
It's still really weird to think that I'm in this part of the world.
It's also really weird, Kyle's face in this foto. This is when we climbed to the top of this hill, scaling dangerous cliffs and braving black rider territory to enjoy our bag full of pastries. That cream puff he is ardently devouring lasted him for about three days. I mean, in his stomache, because it disappeared from the light of day in approximately five minutes. I'm going to also upload perhaps my favorite picture of him ever, upon the night of this, our most important invention: the snoily. I'll let you guess as to its purpose.
Okay, let's do two more. Here is a picture for Lauren, because this is a Larsen Bay face if I ever saw one, and yet another indicator that there is no hope for me in this life. This is when we went to patinoar last night with some of Sasha's friends.

Lucky that we skated for so many hours last Christmas because I felt much more comfortable and was able to avoid all the hazards typical of a small sheet of ice covered in people with blades strapped to their feet and differing abilities in the use thereof. Let me tell you, there was blood on the ice within ten minutes of the herd being let loose. Drops all over the place. We cuidadosamente avoided them in case they contained H1hash1 (which is how they call the swine flu here) along with the myriad other typical blood born pathogens. So in short, it was good.
So here I will put up the view from Sasha's family's apartment, but let me say that the view inside is much nicer than the view outside. Today I think I will attempt the journey to the history museum.
Updates later, maybe not until I reach Spain, and wish Laura and I luck with Ukraine. O! I didn't talk about the much feared bus ride. Well it was great. Firstly, it had a lovely band trip atmosphere, everyone knew everyone else and had their blankets and donuts and oranges. This was probably because there were four different bus drivers and they each brought their wife/girlfriend with them. Also because I got to watch a movie that I rather liked, in Russian, and could recognize more words than I can count on my hands, which I think is hopeful. Let's see if I can remember them.
завтра
хорошо
And the bus was not packed, so I had two seats to myself, and then we watched Eurovision and guess what? This year it was held in Moscow, so between each performance they would show Russian vocab words. How perfect? Then the next day Romania was lovely to drive through. I very much liked looking at the houses with their piles of hay and cows rubbing their faces on trees. So the 28 hours really flew by. I like that state when you are traveling. The feeling of just sort of oozing in and out of consciuosness. When is it pleasant, like that bus ride. Not like the Ryanair plane ride which for some reason, even though it was only three hours, was almost untolerable. Maybe because I was sick but also because it was loud and no entertainment and small seats and inadequately shaped space for legs. Okay, enough for now.

eurovision 09

HAHAHAHAHAHA. I can't believe that I actually voted for the winner. How often does that happen?

brno

I really like Brno, Is a very beautiful city. It is full of churches, big ones, and castles and things of this nature. And white foods. I have only eaten white foods since arriving. 

1st dinner- gnocci with cheese sauce, macaroni and cheese basically

1st breakfast- boiled eggs and garlic toast and soft cheese and onions 

lunch- creamy mushroom and potato soup

dinner- toasted white bread

breakfast- yoghurt and toast

lunch- lentil soup

dinner- fried potato pancakes filled with brie

LENTIL SOUP! Porque tienes k estropearme todo? Se me acabo la suerte, se me rompio mi my stretch. But it was delicious. 

P.s. this breakfast will be toast with cream cheese. 

so anyway lots of wandering around and then accompanied Kyle to a polish lesson, which was hilarious. All the words I had learned over the summer started coming back to me, and how ridiculous they were. But it just goes to show that everything can come in useful sometime. 

HAIRCUT!

I am excited.

Also, leaving tomorrow for Czech Republic. Kyle has arrange a bunch of activities for us and I think it's going to be a great time.

Also, I am now the proud lendee of a cell phone here. But I have my own SIM card and phone number and everything. It was fun to go around yesterday and talk to all the phone providers. Good practice. Americans (North)! You do not know how good you have it! The majority of the cell phone consuming world have horrible rates. My rate I got, and granted it's a prepay thing but still it's very normal, and even plans are not much better, is 32 euro-cents a minute (about $10) with a connection fee of 30 euro-cents per call. This is whether I call a fijo (home) or movil (cell) phone. Texts are 15 euro-cents ($3) each. My plan counts by the second at least though, instead of rounding up to 30 second or something. There are no evening or weekend times, no free calls to associated phones.

An outrage!

This is why no europeans talk on the phone. Whenever they call they say an average of 7 words. No hour long cell phone calls here. Freedom of communication, that's what we have in the US when our parents pay our cell phone bill. I think we should bomb Spain until they import some freedoms in the form of better rates.

Speaking of averages I am averaging a big (not costco huge but big) jar of Sosa green olives a week. This is, reflecting, a very accurate average, since it has only been a week since I found them, and I finished one jar. But let's just say I am not going to be in danger of getting scurvy.

Ah! Also because I have been stuffing my face with Mandarins. DOOOODS! Food in Spain is hella reasonable! Did I mention I can get an 8 pack of yoghurt for 89 cents? Did I mention further that a RED BELL PEPPER (large sized, not the smallest one you can pick out of the bin, but a large heavy generous one) costs like 34 cents? And a bag of muesli the size of a breadbox (if that breadbox is the size of a bag of flour) that is only half oats and half banana chips and raisins etc is only like 1.80? This makes me happy, even after I have looked at my bank account.

p.s. Beck, please dig through some piles and look for my paychecks, would you?

Anyway, Mandarins. You can get a whole bag full of them, that are all good, no moldy ones, for under 3 euro. I forget how much it was because I have been eating them for two weeks now.

castells

So this is from not last weekend but the one before. First we went to the Ensayo dels Castellers. The practice a group who makes castles. It was so impressive, and we got to participate too. So the way it works is you have different configurations. 5 columns of 5 levels, 4 columns of 7 levels, 1 column 3 levels. And they all have their difficulty, of course. We went with Santi, a guy who taught mathematics at the intitute last year. He came to invite Laura, an american who is teaching conversational english at the institute. We met at the bar one day when Ana introduced us and she's so easy to get along with we've been spending tons of time together. Anyway, I was hanging out in her class helping her do pumpkin carving with her students and Santi came in and invited us to come to the practice. Unfortunately it was the last of the season, because if not I would certainly have joined a group. It's such an amazing sport. All you have to do is be strong and flexible and have good balance. Also, everybody can do it. The oldest person at the practice was in their 60s, and the youngest I think was 4 or so.

So a castle has a few parts, and a few customs. They say that it was started a long time ago in order to see enemies from far away, you know, probably if there wasn't a hill around or something. The only thing you really need, besides clothes that you don't mind ripping, is the facha (I'm guessing on spelling). That's the long piece of cloth you tie around your waist. This is tied really tight and not only supports your back but gives the people climbing up you a place to put their foot. In pictures number 1 and 2 you can see the process of putting it on. I love the dangling cigarette. I think it makes the whole process look much more professional. I used my huge scarf. It helped me blend in. Pictures 3 and 4 show practice equipment. The pole is for you to practice climbing up people and balancing, as San Miguel was kind enough to let Laura and I do. The two fake people are for the kid who finishes the castle but climbing over the top of the uppermost level.

i have to go now because my internet is running out, so i'll finish writing this post later.

Empezamos...

Let's start with some things I don't like.

Maybe just one thing.

Maybe...this thing.

This is on the sign of an art supply store. If you had an ART supply store, is this what you would want to advertise? Two feet tall? Is this really the quality you want people to think of when they think of your store? This is quite possibly THE WORST drawing I have ever seen. There are no redeeming qualitites to thi

s drawing. And the fact that it was incorporated into plastic that is going to last for decades strikes me as almost unbearably tragic. I also hate this store.

Look at this, I was going to move on, but I can't. Bad technique aside, what the hell is this drawing of? A dismembered torso, still bleeding from one arm, chained up in an intertube? All I can say is, and pardon my french, WTF???

But moving right along. This is what I am doing most of these days. Sitting in my awesome Ikea-furnished room doing work in English. But not today! Today I went out and looked at stores! And talked with old people! One very nice man on the bus who was practicing english, and one semi creepy old man who gave me his number and said I should come see him play the blues next sunday. He plays harmonica.

Oh! Yeah! I forgot that yesterday I got to talk with a bunch of cops! It was cool. I was jogging and saw these two ladies running after a dude on a bike yelling "Ladron!" in an accent, maybe french, maybe german, hard to tell in spanish. Anyway, I followed a little ways, I talked with them a little bit, then I continued jogging and some guy sitting there was like "What happened?" and I told him. He becomes important in this story, because he follows the guy down onto the beach and sees where he goes and then we decide to go back to the restaurant and find the ladies and tell them where he is, and maybe call the police. Because they were trying (to call the police) but nobody knew the number. On the way back to the restaurant I found out his name was Ali, he works in a cement factory and that he is looking for a girlfriend and has a big house all to himself. I thought about it for a few seconds but then I thought maybe not. I haven't even met his family from Pakistan yet.

Anyway then we get to the restaurant and I basically just ask where the ladies are but end up waiting around while they call the police and I'm supposed to give evidence. I was like, "Doooods, I'm just jogging, you know? I didn't really plan on sending anybody to prison or getting married, if it comes to that. And they didn't even steal my bag, you know? In fact I don't even know what happened." But they didn't listen to me. And then an old car pulls up and like seven plain clothes mossos d'escuadra (catalan police) get out, clown car style, and they are all very good looking people. And I get to talk to them.

And they say they can't do anything without the affected ladies and I say I totally understand and flirt gently with un tipo guapo and we all go our separate ways. But then there arrive two policias more (national police) and we go through the whole ringmarole again. But they were also very nice and the whole thing was very exciting, getting to talk with two kinds of police! Then esquive Ali, told him I really didn't need a cell phone, and returned home to go to bed at 2 again. I forgot how late everybody goes to bed normally here!

Anyway, then today I went windowshopping and found a chinese grocery store and I felt like the only non-chinese person who had ever entered there. But I got bamboo shoot crackers! So exciting! I am slightly obssessed with bamboo shoot imagery.

No tengo ni idea d k me hablas.

1st word (bad post order)

So here was the first installment of my project, which is, if I hadn't told y'all, is to try and learn languages/words while also making stuff. This one you don't see as well, but it says -----> женщина (except I forgot the the H, because Musu was staring at me and making me nervous). I means woman in Russian. The last one was ето ужасно, which means, according to Beck, that's terrible.

Excerpt

"...I haven't been doing too badly either, except i cannot, for the life of me, seem to get out of bed before 11 o'clock, a trend that has turned disturbing. But at least i went and bought some food today. Food here is cheapish, even if everything else is expensive. I got an 8 pack of sugar yogurt for 97 cents! which in dollars is like eight dollars."

Continuing that excerpt I also got integral bread (wheat/seed bread), jam, gross pina juice, goji berries, dates, cranberries (expensive) pressecs (peaches in catalan), goat cheese, tomaquets, oh I don't know. All number of things I guess. But the yogurt and muesfly are the most exciting. Two big bags of groceries: 17 euro. Five tubes of paint: 20 euro. We are hoping both come in handy.

I am in Barcelona now after a week of hanging out in Suria, mostly working, doing a little bit of wandering around. Yesterday I got here and met Carlos, one of the flatmates, and we talked about his views on anarchism (which he doesn't even like to call himself because so many people, those who identify as anarchists and those who don't, misunderstand it. He doesn't think the world as it is is ready for it, but it's something you have to have inside you, more of a spiritual thing. It's a utopia that you can work towards even if it will never be reality. It was a very balanced and logical look at anarchism I think.) and then saw Esther again. Que alegria! She told me about the "tupersex" party they had recently (as she explained to me the name comes from tuper (toop-air), like "tuperware", and sex, like "sex".) Her mom heard that she went to one and wanted Esther to throw one for her, which consists of some guy who comes to your house and spreads out a selection of sex toys. So it was Esther, my aunt, my mom, my sister, my little cousin- Hilarious! I wish I could have seen it! But, unfortunately, the credit card machine didn't work, so nobody could buy all that they wanted. Esther's mom, for example, will have to keep going without a dildo. But they all pooled their money so Esther could buy a fancy german vibrator.

Also exciting! Cristina, my older Spanish sister, and her boyfriend of since 11 years old, just bought an apartment/piso/flat, whatever you want to call it. It's really nice: 3 balconies, two floors, huge closets, a guest room and big kitchen and little office. We went to a huge home store the other day to pick out rugs and sinks and temperature control whatsits and all that other stuff that ceases to be interesting to anybody except those who are actually spending the money after about an hour, but always lasts for at least three (up to six, thanks very much Jade, I may never enjoy Ikea again).

The real hangup was paint, of course. What do you think? For the light wall we were trying to decide between light beige, natural beige, light ochre or romantic beige. But don't forget! It has to go well with the couch, which nobody can remember exactly which shade of beige it is, and the dark wall which...well what do you think? I think between the profound brown and the "astracan" brown, which is more grey and less chocolate. Now let's make a final decision and find out they are out of one of the colors for another week. That's integral.

ANYway. I should get back to work. I recommend reading Joel's blog, anybody who maybe reading this, because, although limited in content, it's hilarious and gives a counterpoint view of another spanish speaking nation.

POMEGRANITE

porque la abuela fuma

This was baking night at Jade´s. The beauty in front is Beatrice, friend of Jade and awesome extraordinaire and the one on the left is Mari who should move to wherever I´m living. I met her in Alaska. We made: baked tofu, baked autumn vegetables, carrot bread, berry muffins and breakfast bread. It was intense.
This trip was so different. I didn´t got take advantage of any of the tourist stuff. No museums, no shows, no nothing but just hung around with awesome people. And saw Where the Wild Things Are.

New York Update (as I leave) or Consciousness: It's Totally Rad

It being 2 am and me still needing to transcribe I'm going to make this quick. 

Romanian:

1. Ja fatch? (what are you doing?)

2. Labaжu (the biggest of losers)

Things I trust:

1. My knees (kira) 

2. Joel (kira)

3. Nature (James)

4. PhDs (Jade)

5. The Ocean (to kill me) (Patrick)

6. My Doctor (Patrick)

Things I don't trust:

1. The Ocean (kira)

2. My Car (kira)

3. Cellular Biology (Mari)

4. My Period (Mari)

5. Student Goverment (Patrick)

Podoshdi!

But it wasn't quite over, even when we left. Because thankfully I still didn't have to face real life or my Alaska withdrawals yet! When I got to the airport Cашка and Maшa were there waiting for me, with my name written in Russian (кира)! It was seriously the most adorable thing ever. I love when people you don't expect come to meet you at the airport. 

After arriving I seriously didn't want to do anything but hang out with Beck and Phi in Seattle, where I was completely disconnected from any kind of responsibility, or talk with other people who had been in AK. 

So we enjoyed the beautiful weather, went to the science center, tried to meet up with people who have no cell phone which I have decided is a horrible thing to do to people who you are visiting. But then they left.

Okay, so just so everybody can feel okay

Alaska was actually great. Well, no, okay it was actually horrible. But as a defense mechanism the brain apparently only remembers the great parts. And there were for sure some great parts. I'll put on some pictures as proof. Like the one above, one of the many charts Lauren and Felicia and I made. Or to the right here you can see the time Felicia freaked out because Juan and Lenin trashed her room. That was fun. 

And anyway overall it was, and this is honest, pretty lifechanging. It's not often you get to go places that take you completely out of your normal life, that give you a conveinient break where you can say, "Okay, everthing before this can stop, everything that comes after this could be totally different." Also, it was great not to have to drive or commute for longer than a three minute walk to anywhere or cook for myself or do laundry. So it was a positive experience overall. And see here's the TV we threw in the ocean one night. Several times. 

although this is how we felt for the last few weeks.

I’m ready to go home. There is nothing exciting here anymore. We have had slow days, which have been nice, and Desi and I met all the Taiwanese girls yesterday, who are hilarious and really friendly. They told us about the trip they are going to take after this, going to LA and Las Vegas and New York. We climbed through their window. I also watched Surfer, Dude which was actually very good and laid around with Jade. I love seeing Jade and Lauren everyday. It is surprising how incredibly happy it makes me. But overall I’m feeling done. Starting tomorrow things are going to start getting shitty with lots of fish and long hours and people being mad and no fun and I haven’t made any money at all so it just doesn’t seem worth it. Everybody is unhappy already about a myriad of things and everybody cool is getting fired. Four people in the last week or so have been fired for either drinking or failing drug tests.

Although I did get paid yesterday to paint some signs about how to properly take off gloves.

Now I am listening to Deathcab which is a sure sign of nostalgia/despondency/melancholy. I think August is just hanging over everybody’s head. And seriously, another month and a half? Almost two? Yuck. I know if I was working toward something it would help, but I don't think I'm going to make enough to do anything. And the only other place I want to be, like when I'm trying to imagine a happy place, is Palm Springs. That's funny to me. That's the nicest place I can imagine. 

Also did I mention that I finally had to take out my lip ring? It’s very weird to not having it in after four and a half years. 

HAPPY WEDDING ALEX AND CEZANNE!

I am so sad that I missed it, especially for the bad crappy surprise of a day I had. I’m sure it was beautiful and best wishes for the rest of the summer. Also I hope you bought that house.

Good lord.

I take that back. If you want to send me anything please send dried fruits and dry socks and nuts. And a bra that is designed to fit well for 18 hours.

Yesterday was a horrible horrible horrible day. Because everyone promised, again, that it would be a short day and then they crushed my hopes. I mean, it had some upsides, like when I won yet another bet about time predictions, but it finally sank in that this just doesn’t stop. I’ve stopped putting in extra effort because there is just no opportunity to recover, and it doesn’t change when we get to stop anyway. No wonder somebody invented the labor movement. Otherwise how would anyone pay bills or get unsick? We only had like 200.000 pounds of fish (instead of 400.000) but we were all still there until midnight.

Actually what upsets me most was that I like my job and I want to do it well but I’m not being provided with the proper tools. That is, sleep. So even though I feel like I’m getting better my performance is worse or steady.

Anyway, enough complaing. Because before these last few days I was actually having a really good time. I am particularly pleased that I have been able to do some accurate estimations because as we all well know I am not a good judge of anything. However I have consistently been telling people how long I think a hopper of fish will take to process, and they will bet another time against mine and I will win. My job is important enough that I get to feel good, I get to move and think. I’m really really very lucky to have it.

I just found out they were finally going to assign me roommates so I am moving in with the girl who does the bins in the cannery instead. I am sad, because I really love my room and I REALLY love not having a roommate and ESPECIALLY love having smooth white walls, and the place I’m moving into will have wood cabinlike walls, like home.

LIST OF THINGS I AM GLAD I HAVE:

1.    Two pairs of boots because at least one pair is always wet.

2. All the clothes I have found in the huge boxes of leftover clothes here.

Oh, also my lip skin is all raw and being pulled off from having to wear and remove 4 to 5 bandaids a day to cover my lip ring. But I can’t figure out yet how to take it out. 

bringing sexy back

So, re: the issue of one side of my head I have solved the problem by taking it from subpar to freaking awesome. I didn’t do it alone; in fact I only had the vision. Dane was the actual agent of manifestation and kudos, I say, to him.  Though we later found out he was even more trashed than any of us expected while he did it I think that probably only helped. P.S. Emily, I dedicate this haircut to you. I knew you would be as excited as I am. Here is also a picture of what I wear to work every day minus hairnet and band-aid. I should have put that on for the picture because it’s pretty essential to my look. I have to wear it to ensure that this lip ring that I’ve had for over four years and don’t even know how to take out, and would probably take two pairs of pliers and three people, doesn’t fall off my face into the product. Because that’s much more likely than a big blue band-aid falling off my sweaty lip. But I digress. 

So for those who are interested I’ll give a brief rundown of a typical day, today in fact.

6 am I get up at and get dressed and stretch a little

6:30 eat a small bowl of eggs and hashbrowns

6:40 I go and put on my raingear and band-aid and hairnet and hearing protection

6:45 clock in and go check how many fish we have, start up the incline belt and crossover belt etc. and let some fish out of a bin to fill up the fresh frozen hopper where the fish wait to go to the slime line

8 or so we usually finish processing the fish and start cleanup

9 or so we start cleanup. I always clean the sorting belt, where people sort the different types of salmon that get pumped in into different bins. That takes about an hour when I can either think about how the other person I’m cleaning with is doing it all wrong or about how many other activities I would rather be doing with my wrists’ limited lifespan.

[Is that how a possessive comma-in-the-air works? I am losing the ability to write. Yesterday I was trying to spell “friend” and just sat there looking at it, trying to figure it out. It looked too weird. And then on my wall I wrote “hungery”. It’s a little distressing.]

Then sometimes we get another boat in the afternoon and so I sleep until lunch and then do the routine over again. Up until now we’ve been getting 4 to 10 thousand lbs at a time, but today we are waiting for the boat from Bristol Bay which is bringing about 250,000 lbs. So instead of working for 3 hrs I think tomorrow will be more like 16. We have an exciting evening and 4^th of July ahead of us.

In other news Lauren has carpal tunnel and has to get surgery/sergury when she gets home and Jade threw out her back again and so is hobbling around bent halfway over. I have been working on some tennis elbow but so far it’s mild.

 So it’s now 12:44 am and we just got off work. It was action packed. I thought I would add that if anybody wants to send me anything, like dried fruit, nuts, episodes of This American Life or large earrings feel more than free.

Send them to:

Kira (Jade’s Friend)

Bottom of Fish Bin

Fish Camp, AK

No, the real address is:

Kira Nelson

c/o Icicle Seafoods 

PO box 30

Larsen Bay, AK 99624

Punch this face in the face.

That's what Jade and I are calling the foto stills movie that we made yesterday. It is, my friends, amazing. You have to hear it played to Girl Talk. We also managed to memorize the Eminem part of the song which was very satisfying. Or almost memorize it. We're working on it. It's still hot, there is more work now. I have been burning oil and working on the fillet line. In an hour I get to go do that again, labeling. They are classy labels let me tell you. 

Here is what I painted in Jade's room. Okay, I have to go to lunch now but kisses to everybody and wish me luck labeling with Polish people. Here is how you say small fish: Mowa riba.