Today we woke up and met at 9:30 am to watch a very large parade. By “very large,” I mean: this parade started at 10 am and didn’t reach our location until 1:30 pm. The parade didn’t end where we were until at least 5:00 pm, or even later. It was a very, very large … Continue reading The Big Parade
Today I went bungee jumping. They had told me before I came that this would be an optional activity, and I’d thought about it ever since. I’m terrified of heights and jumping, as anyone who knows me can attest- I can’t do the Intimidator at Carowinds, and it took me 30 minutes to jump off … Continue reading Watch the Gringos Fly!
I believe strongly in observing other people by observing their libraries. When I meet a new person, at some point in our first or second meeting, I smoothly slip in the question, “What is your favorite book?” The results are filed into my first impressions of that person, and the answer to this question is often much more useful to me than any other potential question I might have asked.
It’s been exactly a year since I received my Kindle, and I couldn’t be happier. I was always entirely against the e-reader trend, because I love the smell, the feel, the texture… everything about having a physical book. But with traveling a lot, having an e-reader is invaluable because you can cart an entire library around with you- without the impending baggage fee. It’s useful for school, because you can download PDFs and textbooks and easily access them in class without carting around the papers and books, especially on days that you have four or five classes. It’s great for Model UN because I can highlight quotes and make notes, and I’m never far away from an inspired speech.
Not to mention that Kristina’s Kindle is alliterative, and I rather love alliteration.
So, one year later, here’s what I have on my Kindle! (This doesn’t include various pdf documents). This collection represents a smaller fraction of my entire library, and I haven’t read every book here in its entirety, but my Kindle is never far from my hands and it allows me always, without fail, the ability to read.
The Politics of Education: Paulo Freire
First Spanish Reader: A Beginner’s Dual-Language Book: Angel Flores
Complete Works of Fyodor Dostoevsky: Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Archaeology of Knowledge: Michel Foucault
The Goldfinch: Donna Tartt
Field Notes on Democracy: Arundhati Roy
An Atlas of Impossible Longing: Anuradhi Roy
The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; Counsels and Maxims: Arthur Schopenhauer
The Moral Imagination: John Paul Lederach
Leaves of Grass: Walt Whitman
The Folded Earth: Anuradhi Roy
The Clash of Civilizations: Samuel Huntington
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev: Jahar’s World: Rolling Stone Magazine
President Barack Obama: Kindle Interviews: David Blum
First Russian Reader: Bilingual for Speakers of English
Notes from Underground: Fyodor Dostoevsky
Looking for Alaska: John Green
The Fault in Our Stars: John Green
Howl’s Moving Castle: Diana Wynne Jones
Long Walk to Freedom: Nelson Mandela
The Cost of Living: Arundhati Roy
Self Reliance: Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath: Sylvia Plath
The Bell Jar: Sylvia Plath
Interventions: Kofi Annan
The Prince: Niccolo Machiavelli
Up From Slavery: An Autobiography: Booker T. Washington
Utopia: Sir St. Thomas More
The Souls of Black Folk: W.E.B. DuBois
The Language of Flowers: Vanessa Diffenbaugh
Flowers for Algernon: Daniel Keyes
The Bluest Eye: Toni Morrison
And The Mountains Echoed: Khaled Hosseini
A Thousand Splendid Suns: Khaled Hosseini
Pigs in Heaven: Barbara Kingsolver
Last Train to Istanbul: Ayse Kulin
Brave New World: Aldous Huxley
Why The French Don’t Like Headscarves: Islam, The State, and Public Space: John Bowen
On Suicide Bombings: Talal Asad
Politics of the Veil: John Wallach Scott
Leadership: Peter G. Northouse
The Leadership Challenge: James Kouzes and Barry Posner
Wine to Water: Doc Hendley
Social Media Marketing for Dummies
We have three or four Germans in the AIESEC program here in Ibague, and we have seven or eight Americans. Today, America faced Germany in the World Cup, so we all gathered to watch it and root for our respective teams! I didn’t leave without my trusty American flag bandanna and silver/blue eyeshadow: And we … Continue reading Vamos America!
Today it rained, quite a lot. This called for my trusty Sebagos and super-duper thrift-shop raincoat. Anyway, this morning I worked on things for the Urban Education Collaborative, read Freire’s The Politics of Education, and ate lunch. Part of it was a soup with what I initially thought of as furry squid, but I was later informed … Continue reading A Deluge of Differences
Today was simultaneously: The Festival of Cowboys, Dia del Tamal, and the Colombian futbol game. Apparently, here in Ibague (capital of Tolima, a department in Colombia), they have festivals every other day, or some other inordinate frequency. Today, it was the Festival of the Cowboy. That meant that children walked through the streets with toy … Continue reading Dia del Tamal
Hey guys! Sorry for the lack of posts, but I’ve been with my host family in Cali, Colombia since Saturday because their relative had her first communion ceremony. Pictures later in the post 🙂 First, on Friday, we didn’t have to work because the entire team had what they called “The Amazing Race.” I thought … Continue reading The Weekend
Today’s actual post will be dedicated to Colombia and its successful advancement to the next round of the World Cup. Other than the fact that the University of Tolima is much, much smaller than any other university I’ve visited, it’s no different than any other university that I’ve been to. Students sit around the campus at … Continue reading #TurnedDownForWhat
*This is what happened yesterday, but posted and written today. I’m still going to write it as if it happened today, though, because that’s just easier and more interesting.* Remember how I said I was going to the gym? Yeah, I did that. I’m lucky that my host has a membership to a gym, and … Continue reading Miercoles… en Nueves!
Today I woke up and ate breakfast – today without the cheese but with these crispy bread-ball things that I didn’t like all that much but I ate anyway because Chapter 13 of The Etiquette Book said I had to. Griffin especially will understand this, but something I do miss is hot tea. Normally, I … Continue reading Martes
Traveler at the Edge 