A Dog, a Girl, and her Mom Go For a Walk

A Story for Level 1 Readers Ages 4-7

This is Laura. She has a dog. Laura and the dog sit by a bog. The dog likes to walk. The dog likes to talk. "Woof! Woof!" says the dog. The dog is white. The dog is nice. She does not bite. The dog is furry. She has lots of hair, almost as much hair as a bear. My oh my, that dog has a lot of hair, I do declare.

This is Laura's mom. She is wearing a white hat. Is that a cat? Is that a rat?No! With the dog, that's where she's at! Danna and the dog go for a walk. They see a hawk. It is spring. The birds all sing. Everything is green. Everything is clean.

What a nice day to play. What do you say?

THE END

Gum Wall and Pike Place Market

Did you know there is an entire wall in downtown Seattle where everyone sticks their used gum? I didn't! I don't know how I lived 20 years here, and never discovered such a unique and fascinating, (if slightly unsanitary) place. It is located to the left of the entrance to Pike Place Market, but instead of entering the market you walk down a hill toward the water. After your eyes adjust to the light, you will see gum EVERYWHERE! There is even a gum ball machine, so my freshman year roommate Ivet and I put in 25 cents for a gum-ball and left our DNA on the wall.

All together, I think I haven't spent enough time at Pike Place. It is so much more than just flying fish and trinkets. From dreadlocks and tie-dyed mohawks to local artists and musicians, it really symbolizes the unique flavor of funky Seattle, and it made me realize again what a cool city Seattle is.

A post for Hilary

This post is for you Hilary, and it is going to be sentimental (possibly overly so at times) and a tad silly, but with good intentions, so hold onto your socks and take a nostalgic journey with me.

I never have to tell you how much you mean to me, because it is an unspoken communication, an unsaid understanding in the silences and in the laughter throughout the years, but I was feeling all mushy and tenderhearted looking at our picture, so I decided to write this blog for you.

It takes a long time to grow an old friend. ~John Leonard

I have known you for 5/6 of my life now, and that's a pretty long time. From macaroni lunches, playing bump on the swings, adventures getting stuck in mud, sliding down the stairs "whoosh" in plastic bag covered cushions, to middle school and broken bones and braces, to lemonade stands to different high schools and now thousands of miles apart, we have gone through a lot together.

I remember we used to dress up in the same colored clothes and ask my mom if we looked like twins and she would always replay "Yes! You look exactly alike!" and we would smile huge smiles. It didn't matter that I was always a head taller and my long red blond hair contrasted strikingly against your black.

There is nothing I can write here that you don't already know, but that's what makes it meaningful, so I want to say it anyway. I sometimes don't even realize how much I have changed until I am with you and I look at you and see we have both grown older.

You are the funniest person I know. You are the only person who has ever made me laugh so hard and uncontrollably that I couldn't stop until you made me play 52 card pick up until I could control myself. You have been there for everything, and I'm excited to watch us change together, follow our dream careers, get married, have kids (?), grow grey hair and still take pictures with those same identical smirks on our faces from when we were 5.

I am so proud of you and all you have accomplished. You are an amazing piano player, talented musician, and a beautiful friend! Thanks Hilary :)

Chilling in Seattle

2 weeks 1 day until I leave for Tanzania and I'm so excited to be home!

2 weeks until I leave for Tanzania, unpacking, lots of time with my mom :) So happy to be home.

13 days until I leave, and I'm getting a little bored... Walked 8 miles with Misha because I didn't know what else to do. I tied her up in front of Barnes and Noble for 10-15 minutes and apparently my Mom got a call from a concerned citizen saying they were going to call the police for animal abuse for leaving my dog tied up in the hot sun. Oops...

12 days until I leave, and seriously... that's a long time... What am I going to do?

Hanging out with my dog and my mom, enjoying the beautiful greenness of Seattle, (IT IS SO GREEN!) but miss all my Harvard friends! Thinking of you all!

Also, if you live anywhere near Seattle and you are reading this, let's hang out!

-Laura

Nicaragua Part II

Back at the internet cafe with more exciting giant bug stories. So, last night I saw the biggest spider I have ever seen! Its body was like 6 inches long and it was IN MY BED. They laugh at my dislike of bugs, and they told me the spider wasn´t dangerous... but still! Millipedes in the latrine, toads hopping all over the place, and ants that always crawl in my pants and bite. Really. I don't understand the evolutionary advantage, but as soon as anyone'd foot gets within crawling distance of ants, they come a bite-in and burying into shoes, and ouch! They really bite hard!

We also went and taught at the local high school. They are doing a project with recycling, and I have never seen so many signs about not littering and reusing everything, but somehow I have also never seen a school with so much trash all over the place! The culture of trash cans just hasn´t caught on, and it is super confusing. It makes me wonder who thought of putting snacks in plastic that doesn´t decompose for 100,000 years. Seriously? What a bad idea in a place where the wrappers are spread all over the place.

We taught a lesson on making bracelets from recyling old magazines, but they were teen girl magazines and one of the last things we saw was the boys laughing and running away with pictures of girls in bikinis. Plus, teaching in a foreign language seems a bit weird. Imagine foreigners coming into your class, not speaking your language, and trying to teach you. Anyway, it was a bit disasterous but came with good stories. My teaching of water testing was interupted by the boys telling me how pretty my eyes were and gestures behind backs that, althjough flattering, didn´t help with my trying to talk about lead and pesticide levels, and water testing kits, none of which are super familiar words in spanish.

Oh, and also, they had human fetuses in bottles in their science class! Really! Like fetuses from like 2 months to the biggest at maybe 6 months, but they were old and not well maintained and so they were growing green stuff and it was just really strange to see.

Also, this is the cheapest place I have ever been. Unlike in Kenya, where they charge outsiders a higher price, bargaining is not really part of the culture here. I got a big scoop of icecream in a cone, which would cost $4-$5 in the USA and it cost me $.25. It is amazing. We buy bags of mango, pineapples, potatoes, melons, and bananas, and it is still less than $5, even though our hands are so full of produce we can hardly carry any more.

The first picture is of me doing my laundry on a wash board. It actually got my clothes really clean.

The second picture is of me and some of the group walking a little ways from the community. Green green green!

The last picture is of us dressed up to go to a Quinceañera in the community. I want to learn how to salsa! Perhaps I will take classes next year at Harvard. Dancing here is so fun!

Nicaragua

Giant insects, huge frogs, and lots and lots of mud. That was my first impression of Nicaragua. We have had many adventures in finding insects in our beds, shoes, clothes, etc, but the wildlife really represents how alive everything is here. It is so green, with mango trees, papayas, and guayábana, (guayábana is a really cool prickly-pokey cactus-like delicious fruit), as well as all sorts of tropical fruits I have never even seen. We spent the last few days installing solar panels, getting to ride down tiny mud and rock roads in the back bed of a pickup truck. We waded through pig pens and across rivers to little houses almost all of which the people built themselves, and the families were really excited to have a light in their house. We spent half an hour yesterday getting the truck unstuck from the mud.

My host family is amazing. They have a 19 year old girl and a son who is in his early 20s. I am growing to love beans, rice, and maize tortillas, our food at each meal.

It was my host mom´s birthday yesterday, so we bought a cake for her and had a party with all the neighbors and she was really touched. There were definitely a few tears and lots of hugs. The community here really understands what is means to have a community. Everyone knows each other, often are related to each other, and always visit and call and really care about each other. It is really beautiful to see.

Also I LOVE the people on my trip, especially the girls I am living with. We spend a lot of time thinking about development and power issues and sustainability, so it is really my type of group. I am so happy I came, but I'm excited to see you guys soon.

Love,

Laura

Grapefruit Montage

Do you ever have one of those crazy weird ideas of something outrageous to do? It happens to me all the time. I suddenly have the urge to build a giant fort out of cardboard boxes or a boat from milk cartons or make a telephone from tin cans and string or just go running around campus being silly, but until now I've never found anyone to do this with. Then I met Andrew Murray (He is the one making aggressive faces at the grapefruit).

So, here's what happened. We were sitting eating breakfast and Andrew was eating a grapefruit with a spoon, but the juice was dripping down his chin and down his arm, and I made fun of him. Little did we know that under the craziness of finals period we would soon be making a grapefruit montage.

Based on a true story I would like to present:

In the greatest underdog story of our time, a seasoned grapefruit eater assists a young man in conquering a grapefruit.

This movie is rated NC17 for graphic grapefruit violence

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBy2pwcxY3U