Wow. So, I don't even know where to begin. There is so much going on in my head. I haven't even gone anywhere yet and I'm already feeling the intensity of the whole thing. All good things though, I have no complaints - the good and the bad is all good. I feel like I'm actually living. So yea, the program is amazing, the people are great, the classes are great, the professors are great. I have this one teacher, Gustavo Esteva - beautiful, beautiful man. It just blows my mind that I get to talk to him. I think it shows too. I do that whole wide-eyed smiley thing and probably look like a dumb ass. whatever. So yea, this guy was born into an indigenous Mexican family, kicked ass in school, was the first manager of the IBM of Mexico, realized that our education system was fucked and so completely turned his life around and then was a major player in the Zapatista revolution of Mexico in 1994. Like I said, this man deserves a proper wide-eyed awe. It's not even just that he's written half the articles for his class or that he's a revolutionary person in general ..but I get to eat dinner and have a conversation with him?! My brain is literally melting out of my ears. So yea, this is like the 6th time I've talked about this, I just can't get over how incredibly lucky and amazed I'm feeling. What else? I don't know. I've been on retreat in West Virginia for the past week. We stayed in cabins and had class outside - it was beautiful. Made friends with some ducks, a frog or five. Also, we've been doing yoga/ pilates every other day, which has been amazing. I love a good stretch. AND I'm starting to get over my fear of singing slash playing in front of people. I sang my version of America (Simon & Garfunkel) for our group community time - big deal for me, hah. Also makes me want to buy a travel guitar.
Moving on, one of the things I'm most excited for right now is my autonomous study. As a part of the year's curriculum we have to create a topic to study for the duration of the trip. Soo...I'm studying...marketplaces. I'm going to observe and research various cultural "marketplaces", observe the dialogue and influences of the space and try to learn how the marketplace serves as a societal internet. When I say internet, I mean like how people exchange ideas and create..organically. Just raw human interaction. AHH! I'm literallly peeing my pants...well not literally but I'm really fucking excited. I don't know if I'm exactly explaining exactly how I'm going to approach the topic but I haven't exactly defined any limits yet. Generally, I'm trying to make a comparison as to how the marketplace is the town hall of the "community" and how we can use this notion to ground the abstractions of our modern supermarket and just to simply study how people interact and exchange ideas and how various social mediums influence this exchange. I'm having a hard time making this idea concise, but also this is making me realize that I need to start journal-ing more so that I can organize my thoughts before I write here. But yea, so I'm studying marketplaces.
Also, everyone on this trip is so amazing. I feel fully submersed into a beautiful and infinite intellectual bubble, hah. Not that living in a bubble is good - but I can already see how this year is going to help me grow so much. Not in a bad way though! I'm worried about losing the people that I care about but I also know that recognizing this means I have a choice in the matter. I feel accomplished in the notion that I'm staying grounded. Yea..so that's it for now. My brain is fully stimulated ha ha I just mean that like that I get to debate with people all the time (my anti-drug) and there is so much information going on that I don't think I'll be able to process everything until about 3 months after I get back. But seriously, I couldn't be happier. I think doing this program is one of the best decisions I've ever made...ever...ever. Did I say ever?
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