Why I Don't Like Record Stores

I never have. I know that I should have a particular reason, but until recently I didn't. All I knew was that I have never felt quite comfortable perusing around the stacks. I never felt like the staff made me uncomfortable (usually it's quite the opposite). It was never the other consumers, although some of them -whom I presume are "regulars" - have quite a habit of throwing sneering glances across the room.



It came to me today. The reason that I don't like record stores is because they all organize their music in the same way - by genre. This is a very intuitive way to organize such a vast collection, and I don't have any suggestions for alternative methods, but it's always bothered me because I don't know exactly how to classify the kind of music I like. Probably because there are many influences from different genres in the music that I tend to find appealing (and most current music). In any case, I usually leave a record store completely unsatisfied, and even more befuddled about genres than I had been before I went in the place.



So let me save you a trip to the record store if you share my qualms. These are some of my favorite songs from a bunch of artists (most of which I recently discovered). No genres. No classifications. No explanations. Just songs =)

The only thing I'll say about this list is that none of the songs are particularly happy. In fact, most of them are languid and some of them are sad.

1. Mynabirds - What we Lose in the Fire


2. Horse Feathers - Belly of June


3. Mumford & Sons - White Blank Page (among so many others)


4. Villagers - Becoming a Jackal


5. Villagers - Twenty Seven Strangers


6. Sarah Jaffe - Before You Go


7. Dave Matthews Band - Funny the Way it Is


8. Griffin House -


9. Mayer Hawthorne - Maybe So, Maybe No


10. The Unthanks - Here's the Tender Coming

Autumn Changes

School is back in session! I can't wait to get back into a real routine! School always brings out the hyper-organized, almost anal part of my personality. And right now, I'm having a ton of fun organizing things and getting my life and surroundings into something that resembles a structure. Look at all these lists I started keeping! (I LOVE lists.) These don't even include my to do list in my planner (which is by far the lengthiest).

I don't know if you can tell, but I'm wearing my hair parted in the middle today. This is a huge change for me. I don't think I've done that since I was 8. I probably won't be doing it often, but it's funny how something so small can make a person feel so different!

I knew it wouldn't take long, but I am forced to change my 4 Simple Goals for autumn. My camera was stolen from me by my mother, and by stolen I do mean I willingly let her borrow it for a while. And my Holga, which I just bought, already seems to be in disrepair. (Matt has vowed to help me fix it.) Also, when I said that I would stretch every morning, I didn't fully take into account that I have work at 8 in the morning twice per week. So I think that stretching any time throughout the day will suffice.

In place of taking a picture everyday (at least until I get my camera back) I hereby vow to do something crafty every weekend. I have a whole list of crafts that I've been dying to try out & I haven't and I won't unless I make time for it! So that's that.

I've been doing really well with my Sunday to-do list (except for this past sunday because I had a very impromptu, very long trip to see my dad and my list usually takes the whole day to complete), and I've also listened to a ton of new music that I plan to share in a separate post someday soon.

Also, I'm thinking about getting myself a time-slot on the student radio station here at school. I wouldn't be on the FM channel, but on the online streaming channel - a little less pressure. I need a good overall concept for my show, and perhaps a co-host. But I think that I'll do a different musical concept every week. This plan is contingent upon a lot of things, especially my clearing time in the good old schedule. But I think it will be a worthwhile thing to do, and it will make me happy.

There are so many things I am looking forward to this autumn. Pumpkin spice lattes and leaves changing colors, a challenging (but hopefully rewarding) semester, turning 21, the delivery of a very special little blessing, figuring out life plans and taking the first real steps to making my dreams come true. It is going to be such a magical time, and I couldn't be more thrilled that it's all happening so soon!

Another check off the ol' to-do list

4 Simple Goals - Week 1

't was a failure I'm afraid.

I took a picture almost every day. Although, I wasn't on campus, so I couldn't take the daily picture of my favorite spot. So that's okay.

I stretched no days and pressed snooze every day. That's not good. But I was on vacation, which counts for something... right?

I listened to almost no music at all, but when I did, they were new songs. So that's good.

I'm still in the middle of my sunday ritual, which includes blogging, & it promises to be a huge success. The only thing I won't be able to do is call my Nan & Pop because it's already 9pm. When did that happen?

But I will be calling them tomorrow because I plan to visit them on Tuesday.

Sorry that this post is so memo-like. I'm in a very "matter-of-fact" mood, as it were. I've been highly productive and responsible today, mostly in preparation for my senior year. It starts in one week and two days. And I take the GRE in one week and one day. Which is frightening, but also relieving. But mostly terrifying. eep!

off to switch over my laundry and make dinner!

4 Simple Goals

We interrupt this blog's regular programming (if I can even call it that) to bring you a challenge for the ages... or at least the season.

One of my favorite bloggers, Elsie Flannigan (abeautifulmess.typepad.com), and some of her loyal readers are doing a 4 Simple Goals Challenge this autumn, and I think I'm going to join them!

Actually, This post is my promising to myself that I will, and you all are my witnesses.

The plan is to complete each of 4 Simple goals every day before the new year with the overall goal to enrich your life little by little. More details here if you're interested: http://abeautifulmess.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/08/4-simple-goals-before-2011.html

Instead of choosing to reward myself for completing the goals, I think I'll accept the life-enrichment as my reward.

Here they are:

1. stretch first thing every morning! This one will be the hardest for me to complete I think. First, because it means no snooze button & second because my head is so cloudy in the morning that I expect to find it hard to remember until I make it a habit. BUT if I can manage it, I think it will be a nice & organic way to start the day off and regain my fleeting limberness.
2. listen to a new song every day. I recently noticed how many songs in my iTunes library have gone unlistened, and that upsets me. So one song at a time, I'll be attempting to correct this!
3. take at least one picture every day. I want to remember my senior year of college for all of the splendor I know it will include. Also, I've been meaning to document my campus when the seasons change for three years now, it's about damn time I actually do it. I think I will take a picture of my favorite spot on campus every day and then also take a picture of something that speaks to me or inspires me each day too. This is a pretty lofty goal but it's a fun one so I hope I can manage it.
4. stick to my sunday ritual list. I recently made a list of things I want to do each week instead of whenever I think of it or when I really can't avoid it ( menial things like laundry, syncing my iPod, managing finances, etc.). I decided that Sunday would be the best day of the week for this for a couple of reasons. First, I'm busy every day during the school/work week & Saturday is Gill-time. Second, making Sunday "dreaded menial task day" will make Mondays much more enjoyable, at least in theory...

Expect updates each week about how I'm doing with my goals!

Let me know if you decide to join our Simple crusade.

Alright, back to my real regular programming, which as of late has consisted of studying non-stop for the GRE. Even at the beach. Which is where I am now. Except that I'm actually at my favorite coffee shop in Dewey (BookSandcoffee) and not on the beach. grumble.

I know it will all pay off though!

JORDAN!!!

Well, I have a meeting at 7:30 in Wilmington and it is now 5:01am. I didn't plan on staying up all night but since I am, and since I haven't done anything productive in hours, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to update this thing..

Soooo here's JORDAN. This is the first thing I saw that let me know I was definitely, definitely in a (almost completely) Muslim, extremely conservative country.
There are lots of norms for gender roles in Jordan, as with many Arab countries. This one still really effects me though, because I thought the two genders would at least be able to pray together? That seems like the most wholesome thing a person can do, but maybe it also makes you the most vulnerable?

This was the first course of our first meal in Jordan. We thought it was the whole thing. There certainly was enough of it! There was some hummus, babaganouche (i'm spelling that sooo wrong) and so many things! It was much more delicious than this picture makes it look.

We were lucky enough to be accompanied by a native Jordanian... actually she's Saudi but she's a resident of Jordan because her family is originally from Palestine (this is all a product of the convoluted Middle Eastern conflict that we think we all know about). Anyway, she took us to her grandparent's house. They were the most beautiful, welcoming, hospitable people I have ever met. Her grandfather is truly a visionary. He said some things that really stuck with me and made me understand that there can and will eventually be peace between the countries of the Middle East and even America... When we left, he gave us all beautiful flowers from his garden :)

We also went to PETRA, which is one of the manmade wonders of the world. It's like Jordan's pyramids.

We also went for a crazy drive through the desert.. I forget what it was called but if I remember I'll edit this post.. We met authentic Bedouin people, who are famous for their hospitality, and they made us lunch in the ground. And it was delicious!

THEN - maybe one of my favorite parts of the entire trip! THE DEAD SEA one of the natural wonders of the world.

We happened upon the Dead Sea at the perfect time. We were going to go to a sandy beach with showers at the edges and pay about 20 dollars to take a shower after but we were afraid that the sun would go down before we got there. So we pulled over on the side of the road, hopped the fence, RAN down to the rocky shore stripping off all of our clothes as we went and slowly waded into the water just in time to witness the most beautiful sunset in the most sublime, serene place I probably ever will go.

While we were in Amaan, the capitol city, we saw lots of monuments:

including a colosseum built during the Roman occupation thousands of years ago:

we ate at a fair trade, organic restaurant that was AWESOME

and when we went grocery shopping we found 25cent newspapers, milk in boxes (not refrigerated) and entire baguettes for about 7 cents American.

And yes, I would definitely go back. Yes, it is safe for Americans in this Muslim, Arab country. No, Jordanians do not blindly hate Americans.

Who's To Say?

I'm feeling so inspired lately.

So much so, in fact, that I can't seem to harness my inspiration at all. I feel like I'm just letting it fly out of me, little bits at a time, into any and every direction that appeals to me for just a second.

I have to say. I don't mind it one little bit. My world is becoming much more colorful!

All this inspiration is making me feel quite limitless, for better or worse.

This is leading me to consider all kinds of career paths and also to overindulge in some bad habits. But for better or worse, I've been enjoying these last couple of months. And who's to say that I shouldn't?

Jack Johnson - Upside Down. This song has been making me feel very happy, almost childlike, as of late. I suppose that's appropriate as it is from the Curious George Soundtrack.

In any case, here are some of the best lines:

Who's to say
What's impossible
Well they forgot
This world keeps spinning
And with each new day
I can feel a change in everything.....

And as my mind begins to spread its wings
There's no stoppin' curiosity

Who's to say
I can't do everything
Well I can try
And as I roll along I begin to find
Things aren't always just what they seem

Ethiopia!

Where should I even begin? I apologize in advance for a really long and rambling post.

First, Ethiopia is the only country in Africa that was never colonized. This is a good thing because they have some of the most genuine culture in Africa - they have their own calendar, their own method of telling time, their own alphabet etc. In Ethiopia, it's the year 2002. So when you travel in Ethiopia you're seven (well now it's eight) or so years younger.

It's also a bad thing that they were never colonized because their development has been extremely slow & incremental. However, the genuine culture of this beautiful country is slowly falling by the wayside & tourism is creeping in...

When we were in the capitol city, Addis Ababa, we went to the African Union (pictured above), and the American embassy. The African Union is an amazing place that is working toward incredible changes. Because of the efforts of the African Union, the 52 member countries of Africa took a single position on an issue (climate change) two years ago and sent one representative to the climate change summit in Copenhagen this past fall.

No one place has ever made me feel so inspired & motivated ever. I felt like the walls were whispering to me: Gill, come work here. You need to be here, and we need you.

Here is some art in the African Union:

All of the billboards in Ethiopia have some sort of social message. Most were for contraceptives, but this one was my favorite:

The same day we visited a school for Autistic children - the ONLY one in the entire country & the first of its kind in Eastern Africa. This was an especially emotional experience for me because I have an Autistic cousin & I know how much my aunt relies on & appreciates special education & Autism centers like this one. The Joy Center uses holistic treatment - this is standard in the US and most western countries, but it is amazing in its own right. The owner & founder of the Joy Center had a son with Autism. JoJo was never diagnosed, but his mother researched tirelessly until she found a condition that matched his symptoms. Autism awareness was nonexistent when JoJo was born & now it's still struggling but it's becoming more known thanks to the Joy Center.

This is our Addis tour guide & friend Aklilu in front of the Joy Center:

Aklilu also took us to an HIV & AIDS clinic called WiseUp. HIV/AIDS is a huge issue in Ethiopia but it's also completely stigmatized. Generally, people only go to get tested after their partner becomes ill or dies. This clinic teaches single mothers a trade like sewing, ceramics etc. so they can earn a living for themselves.

Later, we all went to Aklilu's home, no castle, for a traditional Ethiopian dinner & a traditional coffee ceremony (Ethiopia is one of the origins of coffee). Here are the freshly roasted beans:

And here is my first sip of the stuff:

It was STRONG and strangely fruity.

One of the most notable Ethiopian foods is called Injara - a spongey bread made from Teff. Above is a picture of cows "threshing the teff" or walking on it to get the grain out of the stalk. I wasn't a huge fan of Injara, and I probably won't try it again because when we watched the threshing, we saw one of the workers catch the cows' excrement in his bare hands....

All of these pictures of Addis probably don't do it justice. It was definitely the most modernized part of Ethiopia that we saw (whatever modernization means) but we still saw a scene similar to this one in the middle of the city:

We only stayed in Addis for a few days... then it was off to the Omo River Valley to see some indigenous tribes and go camping!

On our way, we stopped because one of the cars in our caravan got lost & we had to wait for it.. we were messing around, playing games like leap frog & quickly attracted a crowd. We started taking pictures with them & they had never seen a digital picture before, but they were absolutely amazed & soon after we showed them, all they wanted to do was take pictures with us!

We stayed for a few days at the Paradise Lodge in Abra Minch & this is where we ate breakfast:

Needless to say, it was absolutely breath taking.

The first tribe we visited was my favorite - The Dorze. They are completely self sustaining & live off of one tree, the false banana tree. They make their homes from it, bread from it, baskets... everything! I learned later that they were much different from the other tribes we would visit.

They also weave products from cotton, so of course we all bought scarves:

All of the kids were fascinated with us - all they wanted were for us to pick them up & hold them. Technically they were working & it probably wasn't the best of us to be holding them all day but how can you resist?!

But the more tribes we visited the more disheartened I got.

The more kids I saw working instead of learning.

The more malnourished bellies I saw.

It only got harder. We saw people deliberately exploiting their culture to make money & this made me madder than hell. It's pure human greed at its worst. Most of these tribes are completely self sustaining - they make & grow their own food, they make & use their own medicines, they make crafts to sell & trade for whatever money they need. But yet, they dress up in clothing that is traditionally reserved for sacred holidays, they elaborately paint their faces w

ith mud every single day even though that tradition is normally only practiced on special occasions. And why do they do it? Because they charge you to take pictures with them & they know the more painted they are, the more outlandish their outfits are, the more they know you will want to take their picture. [I refused to take any pictures of the tribes, but I stole the three above from friends that went with me... is that still immoral? probably]

And it's only going to get worse. They are currently building a highway that goes directly into the Omo Valley & passes (almost intrudes upon) all of the villages we visited.

This is the highway under construction (it is still pretty charming how the road block is scattered rocks):

On a lighter note:

January 7th - Christmas in Ethiopia! We went on a boat ride & saw incredible sized crocodiles, pelicans AND I saw a hippopotamus on Christmas!!!!

On the way to, from & around the Omo Valley, I spent probably 40 hours in that vehicle with those people. In the middle, Seyoum, our amazing tour guide who is also a BAMF & my best friend. In the green is Steph, my other best friend, my roommate from last year. Next to her is Hailey & next to me is Brittney - I didn't know these girls before the trip but I am so lucky that we all ended up in the same vehicle! These two were the most sane, grounded, wonderful people on our trip & I am really missing them as I'm typing this!

Overall, Ethiopia was fascinating & wonderful & I know I'll go back someday. One of my favorite countries.

Cairo, Egypt

So I lied. I slept most of the day yesterday, unintentionally. So I'll have to start reliving my adventure today. I'll start in Egypt - because that was the first country we visited. It was also the last country we visited, but I'll get to that later. This was one of my first glimpses of Cairo - after I woke up from a short nap on the bus. I quickly realized that I was not in America, or English speaking Europe. All of the shop signs were in Arabic & there were palm trees! We had an awesome tour guide named Hany, who also guided President Obama when he gave his speech to the Middle East last year. More on that later.

Our hotel was down this street. But we couldn't turn onto that street because that car you see in the picture that looks like it's driving down that street, was parked. In the middle of the road. And while it seems quite clear that only one car would fit down that road, it was not a one way. Traffic was one of the most memorable things about Cairo. It was shocking. At night, if the road is lit, drivers don't see a need to turn on their headlights. And on our way to dinner, one of our hosts Omar got into a car accident in his brand new vehicle. He didn't call the police, or get the driver's insurance info or anything & seemed surprised when we asked these questions.

Speaking of dinner... We went to a really nice restaurant called Cedars with a bunch of students from the Middle East Partnership Initiative that my professor taught. It was so amazing to sit down with these people, who are so different than us, and so similar at the same time, and talk about so many different things. Things that people would normally never discuss at dinner: religion, politics, the whole nine yards. Not only is it taboo for us to talk about these things at dinner, but for them, it's taboo to talk about these things at all. Especially politics. I felt so lucky to gain these insights that I would never have an opportunity to gain otherwise.

As far as the food went, it was as amazing as the conversation. I had Fatta Shawerma (meat, veggies & rice with Egyptian tomato sauce) and Mombar (sheep intestine stuffed with rice). It was absolutely delicious but I couldn't even eat half of it. I normally don't get appetizers because I hate wasting food, but we all had to order 40 Egyptian pounds (about $8) worth of food because it was after 10pm...

The next day we went sight seeing. We saw the tomb of President Sadat, and the place he was assassinated:
The Pyramids (yes, this was the 2nd day of our trip):
Rode camels from one side of the pyramids to the other and down to the Sphynx:
Matt's camel would not stay with the caravan & insisted on sniffing the back sides of the other camels, especially the ones who weren't in our caravan (and thus were being ridden by people we didn't know, and who did not speak English)
Our tour guide Hany told us that when President Obama visited the Sphynx, he went down and stood between its paws (not open to the public) and had a long conversation with it. I thought that was pretty interesting. He also told us that Obama walked from the Pyramids to the Sphynx, which I thought was a rough ride on a camel. Definitely some treacherous terrain. I'm impressed.
At the end of our trip, we spent a few more days in Egypt. Our first night back, Egypt won the Africa Cup of Nations (soccer tournament) in a tough game against Ghana. Cairo was insane! There were young children hanging out of cars, waving flags everywhere, pick up trucks with 30 people in the back (we even saw/heard one pick up truck that had a very loud drum set in the back along with its crowd), people with blow torches, banging pots & pans, climbing on top of statues - it was AWESOME. Here's one picture of a guy with a flag, whose friend was amazed by Americans.
All we wanted to do was get out & join the crowd but our security guard forbid us. We were on our way to the Pyramids sound & light show:

And this is the view of Cairo at night from our last hotel:
On our last day in Cairo, we went to the Egyptian museum & saw some of King Tut's caskets, a bunch of his jewelry, his famous golden face mask thing (I forget what it's called) & mummiesssssssssssss. We saw mummies of some of the most famous rulers of ancient Egypt, like Queen Hatshepsut (the only notable female pharaoh) and Ramses II. All in all, Cairo was unforgettable. But it was only one part of our journey.