Hi – I’m back again! It’s been really busy here! I would have written if I hadn’t been so swamped with work. I felt relieved after the presentation, but I should have realised that the hard part was just coming up! Frank is getting really “wired” as the budget keeps getting tighter for us. We just hired a new technician. He seems like a really nice guy – from Mississippi. It’s really cool to listen to this guy talk. He’s got what is called here a “southern drawl” – where lots of the vowels are drawn out when he speaks. Instead of saying things like vehicle – he says ve-hìcle, and warshin’ machine instead of washing machine. He sounds like he’s from a movie. I mean this in a good way. Has anybody seen “Brother Where Art Thou?” by Joel and Ethan Coen? It’s a bit like that. Frank gave him a really hard time for the first couple of days, because the accent in the south of the US is very different than the one here. Actually, the Wisconsin accent isn’t too different from my mum’s – she’s Canadian. It was really easy to get used too. I’d love to go down south sometime – shoot right down the Mississippi river to New Orleans. I saw a documentary about the aftermath of Katrina (the hurricane) – it must have been horrible. I guess the city has changed alot. Still, it must be totally different from here.
I was reading a business report on this area and discovered that Madison is really active in high tech industry. I’ve been so busy here that I never really paid attention to the bigger picture. It might be nice to get a job here after the work-study is over. It’s really nice here, cold, but so far not much colder than the mountains at home. My parents are talking about coming over for Christmas, as I don’t get much time off work. I think I get the week between actual Christmas and January 1st. Anyway – it could be a good excuse for me to show them and my sister around a bit. That’d be cool. Going back for such a short period of time would almost be a waste – it takes so long just to get there from here. Are you going back Marco?
Anyway – we’ll see.
I went to the Chazen Gallery yesterday. It was really cool. They have an exhibit of Utagawa prints. Those are the Japanese wood-block prints done at the end of the eighteenth century and beginning of the nineteenth. Lots of samurais etc. It was a nice afternoon. Actually, I went by myself – but things have been so busy it was great not to have to interact with anyone. I spent all afternoon looking at the Utagawa exhibit. The print style was called Ukiyo-e, which means “pictures of the floating world”. (I got that from the brochure.) Forget Manga! This has erotic pictures, pictures of kabuki actors, samurai – and all from 200 years ago. Anyway – again, I’m rambling.
Today’s expression is “to sound like a broken record” – to be needlessly repetitive
Out of curiosity…is Madison Wisconsin the place were they did “The bridges of Madison County”??? Clint Eastwood and someone else…I remember it was a big movie, maybe won an oscar or some kind of award…allthought it’s not really my type of movie!
Huh, that’s a good question. I don’t know. My guess is no, because Madison is in Dane county, but there must be a Madison county somewhere. I’ll ask around. I never saw the movie. I remember the previews about Clint Eastwood in the bathtub, and to be honest – I don’t wanna see that! How are things in Ecuador?