Sister, Sister

I’ve been trying to make the best out of the time I’m spending in Houston by trying to find new, random things to do.  Cai Guo-Qiang, a Chinese contemporary artist was commissioned by the Houston Museum of Fine Arts to create a gunpowder drawing installation for the new Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Arts of China Gallery.  I signed up as a volunteer to help create this piece of art.  (I attached a description I received on the volunteer application for the gunpowder drawing process/how it involves volunteers at the bottom)*.  I wouldn’t be able to submit anything to an art museum so this is my only in to be part of a permanent art installation.  Thanks, Patrick for sending this opportunity my way .

Today I drove to Austin for a long weekend.  I drove past my old duplex and I felt a little sad as I passed by, knowing that I no longer lived there.

Katherine and her roommate Annabelle have been sweet enough to let me stay in their new apartment.  I got to Austin a bit before Katherine got out of rowing practice so I went for a run around Town Lake.  In Nica, “running” meant going barefoot back and forth across a small patch of beach, so it’s nice to run on a trail again.  It was hard to motivate myself to run in Houston, but went on a 5 mile run and it feels so good.

Now that Katherine and I are both “grown up” and have separate lives, it’s so nice to visit and see how she lives.  She and Annabelle did a fantastic job decorating their apartment – way better than I ever did in college (and arguably even now..).  Katherine’s a crafting queen and their space feels warm and inviting.  I definitely taking a few ideas from her and hopefully implementing them in my own apartment.  I don’t have a ton of faith in my new roommate’s interior decorating (I’m not good at it either) but I want to make somewhat more of an effort this time.  Ahhh I love Austin & it feels more like home; I might just stay for an entire week.

*Mr. Cai’s artwork, called a “gunpowder drawing”, will be comprised of a 51 meter (167 foot) series of panels, each
panel 3.05 meters by 1.21 meters (10 ft. x 4 ft.) in dimension. These panels will be covered by Chinese calligraphy
paper. Mr. Cai and his staff will then make a drawing on it. When the drawing is finished, the panels will be spread
out on butcher paper over a large floor section of an empty warehouse. Over the course of approximately 3 days,
Mr. Cai, his staff and selected volunteers will adjust the drawing, complete a cardboard stencil that mirrors the
drawing, cut it out, and lay it over the paper. On the “ignition day”, Mr. Cai will mix black powder with pigment
and other non-combustible materials, sprinkle it over the stencils, and then ignite the powder. The resulting blast
mark will create a series of images on the paper. After the detonation, the group of panels will be taken out of the
warehouse and hung in the museum’s gallery.

It’s In My Blood

I always love coming back to my parent’s house for a little bit.  I love my parents dearly, but part of the reason I still love coming back is that I usually don’t spend more than a week in Houston.  I have friends that really love Houston as an adult, but I just cannot find that same love for the city.  While it’s nice to have somebody cook for me and just lounge around watching 30 Rock and have shopping/yoga/running/going to lunch as activities, I only feel at home in my house but not in the city.  My mom also recently retired and is more antsy even I am.  She will wake me up in the mornings with her new travel proposals (I’m by no means complaining, but “ITALY?! CANADA?! VEGAS?! is a little intense to wake up to).  That must be where I get my wanderlust from .

I bought this 10 days of unlimited yoga for $20 (called Power of Ten!) in Houston at a studio called YogaOne and have been going with Hannah.  The first class we went to was not enjoyable to me at all.  It was supposed to be Vinyasa Flow.  I did not enjoy the flow of the yoga – I would find myself from standing to on my back to on my side without good transitions.  That, compounded with the fact that the yoga teacher’s voice was a quivery Fran Drescher.  In normal life, fine; in yoga, not very soothing.

I’m trying to make the most out of my time before November 15 (wooo, start date).  A lot of these are tentative, and will probably change.
September 22-27/28(?): Austin, Texas!
September 28-October 7: Houston/TBD?
October 7-12: New Orleans, Louisiana
October 12-18: Houston, TX
October 18-November 3: Sydney, Australia (my cousin’s getting married on the 23rd in Sydney but I was put in charge of planning the rest of the trip, yikes.)
November 7: roadtrip up to DC.

Back to the Land of Hot Water & AC

It was a lot of fun having Bari come visit in Nicaragua.  I was really glad that he got along very well with the other people at camp.  It was another pretty standard relaxing week.  We went snorkeling (Wiley caught more fish that I made into ceviche), surfing, walking around, etc.  We had an epic walk up to the top of a huge cliff that I wanted to wander up but was too nervous to go all the way up myself since it is pretty remote and nobody would know where to look if I had disappeared.  I finally felt comfortable walking around everywhere barefoot; we went across the barnacle/snail-encrusted rocks on the way to the beach break at Colorados!  It felt like a rite of passage – from tender-footed cubicle girl to outdoor explorer.  There were definitely some hammock naps and Scrabble-ing.

My last full day in Gigante was spent running errands in town, lounging around, swimming in the ocean during sunset, cooking a little dinner and lounging out at the local bar down the street.  Bari and I had head over to Managua (2.5/3 hour drive) on Tuesday since our flight was at 6AM on Wednesday.  Goodbyes were a little sad since I don’t know when/if I will see any of them again, but I really enjoyed my time with them and they really made my experience in Nica one that I will always look fondly back on.

We had originally planned to all go to Managua and make it a night out on the town – going to watch a movie in 3D and maybe the casino.  However, the SUV was still at the mechanics and they only had the red pick-up truck which is a little sketchy and not road trip ready.  As in, the red pick-up dies fairly regularly and you can only hope that you are on a hill so it will roll start again (if not, you have to get out of the car and give it a good push).

Bari and I went to the Best Western located across the street from the airport but unfortunately it was totally booked so we had to try a different hotel and suck it up and catch a 430AM taxi.  Hot water!  Air conditioning!  We went to Tip Top (a Nica fried chicken chain similar to Pollo Campero).  There really wasn’t much to do in Managua (you could tell that even the tour book was having a difficult time making it sound fun and exciting).  We saw a group of guys walking around a plaza in mariachi outfits (studded pants and all) so decided to stick around and grab a drink.  Flor de Cana Rum is the national drink of Nicaragua so we got a few R&C’s – they turned out to be less than $1 each.  And I thought drinks were cheap on Austin’s East 6th street!  Bonus: the Mariachi band came over to our table for a serenade, ha.

The flight home was uneventful; direct flight MGA to Houston, whatup!!  My favorite part is when the immigration officer says, “Welcome home.”  My mom came to pick me up from the airport and we stopped for Mediterranean food – baba ganouj mmm!  We saw Erica, one of our a family friends there with her fiance but I was too zoned out to notice until I heard her call my name.  Welcome back to America.

The Barron

Bari got here safe and sound around midnight. Apparently when he got in, the Managua airport had no power. They were taxiing for about 20 minutes and said that if the power did not come back on, they would just fly over to San Salvador. So, the Managua International Airport loses power on the regular, too? This is Nicaragua I guess.

The boys got along very well – an instant love connection… let’s just say they were still up when Matt woke up for dawn patrol singing Tenacious D at the top of their lungs.

Here Fishy, Fishy

The bay is especially clear today (it has been murky lately from all the rain we’ve been getting every night), so the boys decided to take out their fins and spears to go spearfishing around the reef at the end of the bay. I could only find two left-footed flippers and decided to snorkel along. A small yellow and black fish about the size of my thumb followed me around for over an hour – even all the way back to the sand. There were so many different types of fish in the water – it was really cool too see zills of fish, even in as little as 6 inches of water. Wiley was gone for about 30 minutes; the boys were pretty worried that he had gone into a cave and gotten stuck. His friend Scott went in after him and lo and behold, Wiley comes out with a 14 inch parrot fish. DINNER!

T.I.N.

The neighbor, Rob, likes to always interject with “T.I.N. – this is Nicaragua” meaning different rules govern the happenings around here. Last week, Elise’s friend, Mike came to visit and decided to buy out the fireworks stand. He asked how much for all the fireworks, the guy said “80,” Mike said, “Well, perfect, that’s all the cash I have” and that was that. Gigante had a huge fireworks show that night – a huge Roman Candles fight, a 75 foot string of explosives, a few rockets (some which did not take of from the sand), a huge bonfire (into which we threw the remainders of the fireworks at the end … not sure if that’s protocol), the whole shebang. Mike and his wife Polly ( a captain for an explosives unit in the army) led the charge.

Barry gets here tomorrow, and we go back together to the states in a week! I can’t believe this is really coming to an end. I will say, sometimes I am more ready than others. Like the time two weeks ago that we didn’t have running water for 4 days and had to shower in the reserve rainwater tank (the Pila) using a cup. Every time you wanted to use the restroom was a hassle, not even talking about feeling clean. The electricity and/or water has been going off every night since the storms have been pretty consistent here. That can range from a few minutes and don’t usually last more than 24 hours (except for the aforementioned time with the water).

Cabin Girl Jr.

We haven’t had many guests (though we currently have two – both are guys on vacation solo) so I’ve been able to get away with reinventing breakfast/lunch into dinner (no leftovers!!) That means soups/fried rice/stir-fry galore. I did get to try out this bomb curry and some chocolate/peanut butter rice crispies (kindergarten, anyone?) that I was pretty excited about that. I can’t really post recipes since I pretty much eyeball things and use the taste -est method.

I’ve been continuing with the epic swims and runs. Yesterday, I swam from the boat onto the beach, went on a long run and swam back out to the boat. I was feeling so triumphant with the mini biathlon until I was caught in the white water twice and they had to wait an extra 20 minutes for me to swim out. Seriously, I lose all the grace I could have in the water – it’s like watching a wet cat swim. Note to self : I need to learn how to utilize rip currents in my favor when swimming back in. I try to put on so much sunscreen (SPF 50!) but I didn’t realize how dark I have been getting until somebody showed me photos of myself. Yikes, I hope my own mother recognizes me when I get home. They joke that my “boat rank” is Cabin Girl Junior, ha. After my being 20 minutes late, I was demoted to poop deck, but I redeemed myself by using Spanish to talk to another fisherman and my original status has been redeemed.

Standard Hooligans

The days all run together – I don’t have to work until 4PM (other than Sundays) so I go out on the boat and swim for as long as they surf.  By swim, I actually mean float around.  The other surfers in the line up always give me a confused look.  So maybe after almost two months I still can’t surf.  At least I have some of the rad surfing lingo down.  For example: I’m so amped to _____.  Or maybe, “Whoa, I totes saw you get a sick barrel.”

So a little more about the people that I’ve been living with for the past month.

The two owners: Bryce and Elisa.  Bryce is extremely eccentric – he passes his time by selecting a new hobby each week.  Last week, it was learning “Mother” on the ukelele.  This week it’s his new El Salvadorian parachute pants.  They’re rainbow colored and made of hemp?  When he has extra time, dungeon master has been his contant occupation.  Elisa goes on runs in the morning and comes out to the kitchen to eat lots of veggies and I think she lounges around the rest of the day.  Busy bees around here.

The surf guides: Matt, Jacob, Nate (left a week ago), and Wiley (came a week ago).  When I first met Matt, I thought he was very one-dimensional – surfing was the only thing in his life.  All he did was surf, watch surf videos, take naps, eat and go to bed.  He was the one who teased(?) that I would rope whomever had the day off to amuse me all day.  At first he didn’t do much other than nap on those days but now I can coerce him to play a game of scrabble/checkers/ping-pong, watch episodes of 30 Rock or even a go on a mini-hike.  Jacob, more affectionately known as “Jake Jake” is your quintessential kiwi.  He talks about New Zealand all the time (did you know EVERYTHING KNOWN TO MAN is somehow connected to/originated from NZ? )  Conversations with him aren’t banter, but instead he launches into these epic tales.  He even talks in a foreign NZ language – New Zealish.  Since I am still learning this foreign language + being hard of hearing makes me ask to repeat himself about 3x for each sentence.  Basically, we tease him all day about being from the NZ.  I knew that I could always count on Nate to go on some crazy adventures.  He would basically rather do anything than sit around so it was easy to coerce him into some epic one-mile swims/8 hour walks/18 mile bike rides (some of these ideas were his as well, I’m not the only crazy one).  He came on a 2-days notice – he responded to Matt’s message about needing a last-minute surf guide.  Nate was also oddly obsessed with purchasing a machete/using it to clear brush/buying personalized leather accessories for it.  Wiley is the new surf guide.  The best word I can use to describe him is “amped.”  He’s super amped about the waves and excited to try new things.  I’m no longer the youngest – he’s the new baby among the staff – 20!  He and I will do some afternoon yoga on the beach and standard exploring.

Shane!

My friend Shane and his buddy John are staying at the hostel right next to GFS. I walked with them to Colorados and walked back. The swell has been really picking up so my “surfing” has become just swims. The rip currents are pretty big so sometimes I wear fins just in case.

Party of 16

It was a full house here – we had 7 guests, one of Bryce’s friends was in town, Bryce/Elisa, three surf guides, Marilou who helps in the kitchen, so all in all, there were about sixteen people eating. They have been going out for four-hour surf sessions so they come back ravenous. I have fun trying out new recipes – rosemary bread, thumb-print jelly cookies, parsley/cheese biscuits, etc. Thanks for some of your suggestions.

Lucre came back this morning so I get to play in the sun for a little bit – I was getting a tad stir-crazy. Since I worked a few extra days, I get to take more time off when Bari comes to visit in September. Shane is also in Nicaragua but wandering around the north and says he will try his best to make it down to Gigante.

Tuesday/Wednesday off so I’ll go on the boat. I am still a horrible surfer and get absolutely rocked by the waves but if nothing else, it’s nice to be on the boat / go fishing / jump off for a swim.