In Granada

Thought I´d let you all know that I´ve safely arrived in Granada, Nicaragua. I don´t have much time to type right now, nor will I ever during the next two weeks, but I hope to provide occasional updates nonetheless. 

First and foremost, I want to say that although I am taking pictures, I have no means by which I can post them online.  All of my images will be posted on my flickr account once I return to the United States.  In the mean time, I will just find images on google and use them to give you an idea of what I´m seeing. 

Before I head off, I´ll just give a few words:  after being in Argentina for so long, I have forgotten how poor much of Latin America is.  It´s dirtier, and often smellier here than Buenos Aires.  There are more beggers and more filthy children here than I remembered.  Still, I feel quite comfortable.  Last time I was here, I felt as if the city was much bigger and more daunting, but now I find it rather simple and relaxed.  I feel quite at home here, despite the fact that I stick out more (my skin color contrasts more with locals here than in B.A.).

Also a note on expenses, for the financially inclined: a week of housing, plus 3 meals per day (which means I have no other expenses) costs about 130 US dollars. This trip, aside from the plane ticket, costs less than any other place I´ve ever been.  This is the draw of travelling here. 

My opinion is that many college students see travelling as extemely expensive, primarily because they think of Europe when they imagine travelling around.  I urge those who hold such a view to branch out and explore the poorer parts of the world.  They are cheaper*.  Also, are more foreign, so you may well grow more from your experiences.  Save the expensive places for the days when you´re old and sluggish, with less of a taste for extremes, and cherish the adventurism of your youth.

More later!

*For example: Met a guy today who´s been travelling around Central America for a few months who pays about 5 dollars a night for a clean place to stay.  Lunch costs about 1.50 in this town, if you go to the right place.  You can´t get a better deal anywhere.

Off Again

After a brief stay at home in Menomonee Falls, I am about to embark on the next major trip of my summer: Nicaragua.

On Monday afternoon I returned home after a 24 hour travel day from Buenos Aires, Argentina.  I had not slept a wink on the overnight flight, and only managed to squeeze in a rest during my layover in the beloved Atlanta airport.  I walked through the door to my new home, and immediately I was swept off to go swimming at Lannon Quarry, a man made lake near Menomonee Falls.  Ever since then, it's been a life of action being back home.  From Harry Potter 7 part II at midnight to Fish Day in Port Washington, I have crammed quite a bit of summer into these past 6 days.

Thanks a lot to everyone who helped me have such a great week!  I'm so grateful to have such amiable, outgoing, active friends here. I'll update once I've arrived in Granada as soon as I find a computer.

La Boca--Caminito

I ventured out to the famous barrio "La Boca" today to see the Caminito buildings.  I had seen pictures of these buildings my whole life, and they formed the image of Buenos Aires that I had before coming here.  After 6 weeks of being in the city, I never saw anything like this.

 
The colorful buildings are quite far from the main part of the city, and a very poor area surrounds it.  We were told not to go there at night, since it could be dangerous. This is not what I expected of the picturesque vibrancy that most of us think of when we hear the name Buenos Aires.  Despite the poor neighborhood circling Caminito, the actual location itself was fairly touristy.  Lots of people with cameras, restaurants, vendors, and music.




At dusk, when we left, however, the place cleared out quite a bit.

"It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams." 
-Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The End of School

With a tremendous sigh, I left the IFSA office building on Monday afternoon knowing that I had officially finished classes for my Buenos Aires study abroad program.  It had been a mentally draining weekend.  I had just turned in 15 pages of final essays and walked out into the sunny streets, full of cars, people, scents and sounds.  I looked around, feeling a mixture of relief and confusion.  What now?

I enjoyed the mild daytime, walking around a part of town I rarely visit.  Low 50s, but pleasant.  I ordered a spot of tea, opened up A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin. I read for a while, taking periodic breaks to gaze out at "9 de Julio", the biggest road I have ever seen. I often forgot, on this trip, that I was in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  Once you get into a routine, no matter where you live, you start to become blind to your surroundings. Now that school is over, I'm realizing all over again how lucky I am to be here. 

There are still several things I'd like to see in the city before I head off on Sunday.  I would like to go to the famous neighborhood "La Boca", which you might recognize for it's colorfully painted buildings.  I'd like to see some museums, and find some more unique places to eat.  I'm also hoping to get some good running in before I return home, since the temperature and humidity in Wisconsin might be unbearable in contrast to the weather here.

I'm about to go out for some live music, but I wanted to post the books that I've read while here, since each of them influenced me in a unique way.  On this trip, my brain worked harder than it had in a long time, and these books helped contribute:

 

Finished with School!

Moving on.

Here's a keeper: The Comics preofficial name was
The Chuckleheads.  Very old picture.  Priceless.

For me, the last day that I lived on Woodview Drive was over a month ago, and I left it behind with as little ceremony as I could muster.  Now, far away from this home of mine, I'm confronted with the truth of things: Today is the last day the Crowley's will live in that house.

I was reading through my journal today, and I came across this thing I wrote after I returned from a trip to Mexico a while back.  It says:

When I walked through the front door of my house tonight--when I knew I was not going back out until morning--I felt something unique.  It is a feeling I've encountered before, but only here, only on Woodview Drive.  I felt home.  I smelled the scent of home; I witnessed the warm kitchen lights; heard the silence of my sleeping family.  A smile crept over my face.  For a few full seconds, my brain only produced a one word thought: home.  I love it here, in this house, in this town.


That, however, is a feeling that dwindles with each day that passes.  As college shadows home, and new friends wrestle with the old for a place in my heart, my sense of home is becoming foggy.  My hopes and dreams of childhood grow weak and will eventually collapse under the weight of reality.  My body grows, and my mind is burdened by complexities and memory.  Everything changes.  Everything.

This was me in...5th grade I believe.  

One day, this home will no longer be home.  The place where I laughed the hardest I will ever laugh, in the backyard with Michael, the place where we played backyard football, where we built our skatepark.  It will all be lost to memory.  Loss is both a sharp sting and a chronic illness.  It is the bane of life.  


I cannot help but feel sad tonight, because of this truth.  It is a nostalgic, understanding, "crying-while-smiling" kind of sad.  Goodnight. -Nick




Moving away from the place where four brothers grew up is such an emotional challenge for me, as it is for my family.  I remember the moment when we stuck the "For Sale" sign in the snowy ground this past winter, and the surreal feeling which accompanied this action.  Even then, I struggled to grasp the reality that, very soon, I would no longer be welcome here.

I cannot express enough the pride I have for the strength of my family which prospered during the years we resided in this old wooden box, nor can I articulate the appreciation I have for all the support I received there, through thick and thin.  For all the good qualities I might possess within me, I can only thank the friends I made, the lessons I learned, and the good times I experienced on Woodview Drive.  I bid you a fond fairwell, W151 N7514.

Found this one and I nearly lost it. The gang's all there.  Represents everything perfectly.  We had a good run, didn't we?

The Past Week

I decided to stay in tonight, even though it's Saturday.  This past week was pretty exhausting, and I am happy to have the opportunity to relax a bit, finally.  The final homework assignments for this program are starting to weigh heavy on me, and I need to rest up for the big academic week ahead.  Also, I had quite a late night last night from which I need to recover.

I went to two museums this week: 1.) Eva Peron 2.) MALBA (Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires).  The Peron museum was interesting, but a bit strange.  The Argentine population has a sort of obsession with this woman which I find  extreme.  Among those who view her fondly, she seems to enjoy godly adoration, a fact which is highlighted by the size of this museum devoted to her. Some of my classmates found it odd that the working class loved her so much despite the fact that she seemed fairly ostentatious about her wealth.  She dressed in fine European clothing and traveled luxuriously.  I suppose her political work with women's suffrage and charity, not her own financial decisions, caused the masses to support her so vehemently.

The Latin American art museum had a lot of good work in it (as well as those frustratingly simple modern art pieces that I still can't figure out).  Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros, and Frida Kahlo were the biggest names I recognized, and there were many paintings by artists I did not know which I appreciated nonetheless.

The most striking work, however, that I found in the museum, was by an experimental artist named Luis Benedit.  In the 1970s, he used his knowledge of botany and architecture to design an artificial world for plants with hydroponics.  Through his work he commented on the tie between nature and man's ability to cope with an increasingly artificial environment in the 20th century. Although I found his message intriguing, I was struck more by the practicality and relevance of his project in today's society. In Milwaukee, for instance, Will Allen is leading the way in urban agriculture using extremely similar strategies to revolutionize the way we grow food in the city.  (see more about that here)  Every time I think about this sort of thing I get excited about learning more biology and botany.

 Despite my best efforts, I also learned quite a bit in school this week.  We discussed Argentina's "Dirty War" which took place in the late 1970s.  Now, I'm not planning on giving a history lesson, but I just want to mention something.  About 30 years ago the military dictatorship that governed Argentina began abducting people who they suspected to be opposed to their regime.  Over a 5 year period, approximately 30,000 left wing citizens of Argentina disappeared at the hands of this government.  In other words, they were killed.  These were people who never committed any crime, other than holding beliefs contrary to the government's, and who did not receive any kind of trial.  Thus, their name, "desaparecios", or 'the disappeared'.

This government-led terrorism shocked me, mostly because it was so recent.  How could such widespread violent repression occur in such a modern age?  It reminded me of the atrocities that take place in other parts of the world even more recently.  I guess I found myself unprepared to confront this reality face to face.  It's so easy to read about it in the paper and be appalled from the kitchen table with a cup of coffee.  It's another story when you see your history teacher tear up about the issue because she knew people who were killed, and children who now have no biological parents. (These posters of the faces of the "desaparecidos" (disappeared) still decorate certain public areas in Buenos Aires.)

I'm glad I have been granted the chance to see a truer view of Argentina.  I would never have genuinely known this emotion without being here and witnessing it first hand.  I was also disappointed, although not exactly surprised, that the US government supported this military junta with lots of money.  Nice life, US.  Not that I'm eager to go out seeking trouble, but I think it's important for people to step outside the US bubble, to see the brutal reality of the world, and to live among the results of our own foreign policy.  When I go to Nicaragua next month, I'll be sure to return to this issue.

I'm extremely attracted to women with mustaches
and unibrows.

All right.  It's time for bed, methinks.  I hope you are all doing well!


 "We can be fairly confident that either there will be a world without war or there won't be a world - at least, a world inhabited by creatures other than bacteria and beetles, with some scattering of others."
                                    -Noam Chomsky