Acculturation is the act of exchange of cultural features between groups that come into continuous firsthand contact; such as a migrant culture and the alien culture they find themselves within. Original cultural patterns of either or both groups may be altered with continued contact, but one culture usually dominates the other with their norms and ideals.
This is the phenomenon that I want to study for my PhD. I want to study acculturation through foodways. Food is a dominant part of all cultures, and impacting forces such as religion, myth, folklore, taboo, ritual, festival, migration, and rules all have bearing on food choices we all make. Yes, we may not think these types of rules apply to us. But they do. We have been culturally conditioned to believe that some edible items are "food" and some aren't. Some foods are clean, some dirty, some hot, some cold, some healing, some impassioning, some poisoning.
Food inspires me. I love all types, from the raw to the cooked (there's a Levi-Strauss reference for you), from the hot to the cold, spicy and sweet. I love learning how to make new things: new regional and national delicacies, new methods of cooking, new spices, new ingredients. Because inside all the new, exotic, unheard of foods, there is always a connection. A connection to another place, another time, another people. This connection could stem from ritual significance over time, or from the use of a certain spice across the world, or from the creation of the exact same dish thousands of miles apart, known by a different name, but in essence it is the same food.
Adaption to a new culture is often done as a means to fit in, to fight persecution, and to end or diminish the status as "outsider". But this doesn't always happen. In large groups of migrants, holding on to one's home culture is a way of reinforcing ethnic identity and strengthening the group dynamic. while substitutions, alterations, and secession of certain ingredients or methods might change, the essence of the cuisine will remain the same.
To me as an American, this is an amazing concept. America has been a land of acceptance for centuries (at least of foodways, if not always the people who bring them). As such, there is NO real, indigenous American cuisine. It is an amalgamation of influences, ingredients, methods, rituals, and beliefs from all over the world. Yet we still distinguish between "Italian" "Mexican" and "Japanese" cuisines...even though the "Italian" pizza now has a Thai chicken topping, the "Mexican" taco is filled with california avocado and chinese cabbage, and the "Japanese" sushi roll comes with Mexican hot sauce on top. Fusion is everywhere in America. Especially in restaurants.
All of these ideas are the main motivation for my thesis. the blending of traditions across national and cultural boundaries through the neutral zone of a restaurant. We can be anything we want, from anywhere we please, when we eat. Food has the power to transform us through new smells, tastes, and sensations. for the traveller who can't afford to leave their home town, ethnic restaurants can be the window through which they vicariously traverse the map.
Food is inspiration. Acculturation is the means by which we become inspired.
Monday, 2 February 2009
Sunday, 1 February 2009
I Want...
...to change a lot about myself. Why is it that humans are always striving to change things about themselves that they dislike? When did we begin to recognize the difference between ourselves and others as a possible reason for self-change? Probably two seconds after we began to string sounds together into coherent longer groups of sounds that turned into words that we used to state our thoughts and make the categories and comparisons that have come to set us apart from other animals as the "intelligent" ones...
....stupid bloody early Homo sapiens...So this month is the blog-a-day thingy...I'm not officially doing it on the website...but I will try to post something everyday as a motivation for the new changes I am starting to bring into my life tomorrow.
1) I need to get out of this residence I live in. It is literally making me crazy. Crazy being a mix of angry, anxious, and depressed. Terrible mix. I don't want to be the chick that goes crazy and lights herself on fire, running down the street in flames, and ending in the Firth of Forth in the middle of winter. The only good that comes from things like that is a news story. Self-cremation isn't for me.
2) I need to detox. Not one of those silly only drink Tabasco, water, and syrup things...but a detox of sugar, wheat, dairy, and meat. I need better eating habits if I am serious about my plan to live to be 100 years old (another reason I need to escape the Res). I am also supposed to cut out caffeine and alcohol. Really, the caffeine is impossible. I have school work to do. The last thing I need is caffeine withdrawals for a week. I'll just wean myself down a bit...and the no alcohol will be easier. I don't drink that often anyways...
3) I need to find my focus. Focus for my thesis. I need to procrastinate less. Yes, I know a blog is just another possible distraction...but I am hoping the blog will hold me accountable. I may print this one to remind me who and what I am doing all of this for:
my health
my future
my family
my friends
my HAPPINESS
if that isn't worth it, then what is?!?!?
....stupid bloody early Homo sapiens...So this month is the blog-a-day thingy...I'm not officially doing it on the website...but I will try to post something everyday as a motivation for the new changes I am starting to bring into my life tomorrow.
1) I need to get out of this residence I live in. It is literally making me crazy. Crazy being a mix of angry, anxious, and depressed. Terrible mix. I don't want to be the chick that goes crazy and lights herself on fire, running down the street in flames, and ending in the Firth of Forth in the middle of winter. The only good that comes from things like that is a news story. Self-cremation isn't for me.
2) I need to detox. Not one of those silly only drink Tabasco, water, and syrup things...but a detox of sugar, wheat, dairy, and meat. I need better eating habits if I am serious about my plan to live to be 100 years old (another reason I need to escape the Res). I am also supposed to cut out caffeine and alcohol. Really, the caffeine is impossible. I have school work to do. The last thing I need is caffeine withdrawals for a week. I'll just wean myself down a bit...and the no alcohol will be easier. I don't drink that often anyways...
3) I need to find my focus. Focus for my thesis. I need to procrastinate less. Yes, I know a blog is just another possible distraction...but I am hoping the blog will hold me accountable. I may print this one to remind me who and what I am doing all of this for:
my health
my future
my family
my friends
my HAPPINESS
if that isn't worth it, then what is?!?!?
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
The Door to the Year...
"January is named for Janus, the god of the doorway; the name has its beginnings in Roman mythology, coming from the Latin word for door (ianua) - January is the door to the year" (wikipedia)
the past month has definitely been one that can be symbolized by doors. In many different cultures and religions, doors are seen as portals:
Door: Hope; opportunity; opening; passage from one state or world to another; entrance to new life; initiation;
the sheltering aspect of the Great Mother. The open door is both opportunity and liberation.
Christian:Christ— “I am the door.” The three doors of a cathedral or church signify faith, hope, and charity.
Hindu:Divinities are carved on door jambs, indicating the deity through which man enters the Supreme Presence.
Mithraic:The entrance to the seven zones of Paradise or the cave of initiation.
Roman:Janus is the god of the doorway and holds the keys of the power of opening and closing.
Zodiacal:The summer solstice in Cancer, is the “door of men” and symbolizes the dying power & descent of the sun, the Janua inferni.The winter solstice in Capricorn, the “door of the gods” is the ascent & rising power of the sun, the Janua coeli. These doors are also associated with the entrances and exits of initiation caves and with souls entering and leaving the world. In Hinduism they are the deva-yana (Janua coeli)& the pitri-yana (Janua inferni).
(Dar-Initiation caves are prevalent in "A War of Witches")
Looking back on the past month, I can see that January has definitely lived up to its name. Not only has it ushered in a new calendar year, but January has also led to new ideas, discoveries, resolutions, decisions, friendships, and pitfalls.
New Years itself was eventful...
Shawn and James arrived in London on December 28th...for Dar and I, it was a giddy, surreal moment-when two completely different planes of life come crashing together, like the layering of two semi-transparent photos together to create a new, slightly weird in its complete normality, picture of your life. this happened the to me the first time i visited Dar in London after moving here...but having Shawn and James here...two completely non-student, non-long term, non-UK kids...really brought the contrast into high relief. It was fabulous.
We all trekked up to Edinburgh that night on the bus ride from Hell...
and then the Hogmanay extravaganza began!
In Edinburgh, the celebration of New Years is still referred to as "Hogmanay" and this city does it right! Four days of events, including the kick-off of the torch ceremony, in which thousands of people with torches trek up Calton hill and light a Viking effigy, then watch fireworks to begin the official Hogmanay.
The next three days are filled with concerts, Ceilidhs (traditional dances), parties, and the big Princes Street Party to officially bring in the New Year. the entire street is closed off to allow thousands of people to wander, socialize, drink, and listen to various bands perform. Midnight brings amazing fireworks...and then the party keeps going!
I was lucky to spend this time with some wonderful people-Dar, Shawn and James of course; and also Chris Taylor, Ken, and many of my Edinburgh friends. It was definitely an experience I will never forget!
January 2nd brought the usual New Years reflections on life and all its subtle quirks and questions...what to do about my thesis, where to go for fieldwork, when can I return home to see my friends and family? will i get funding? where will I live when my lease is up? what was I doing a year ago? how can the Twilight books be THIS good? have I really lived here for four months already? ???????
all these questions and musings are doors, of course...doors into my conscious/subconscious mind...things I worry about and ponder both awake and while sleeping (I'm light sleeper, and as such I often remember my dreams). None of these things are any scarier or worse than other years, or other times, but when you find yourself facing an entirely NEW set of months over which to leave your mark and make a difference, some things just become more important and thrown into sharp relief. This IS the time to make changes, to become self-aware, and to allow the symbolic nature of this time of year to carry you to resolutions for your life. It should be called a New Life resolution....not New Year...a year, in all actuality, is far too transient.
I know I must sound strange and metaphysical...But I do believe that there is powerful potential in the New Year...we just need to find it, hold on, and be willing to go for a ride!
I have met some wonderful people these last few months, and seen some wonderful things...I can't wait to see what 2009 brings!
<3
the past month has definitely been one that can be symbolized by doors. In many different cultures and religions, doors are seen as portals:
Door: Hope; opportunity; opening; passage from one state or world to another; entrance to new life; initiation;
the sheltering aspect of the Great Mother. The open door is both opportunity and liberation.
Christian:Christ— “I am the door.” The three doors of a cathedral or church signify faith, hope, and charity.
Hindu:Divinities are carved on door jambs, indicating the deity through which man enters the Supreme Presence.
Mithraic:The entrance to the seven zones of Paradise or the cave of initiation.
Roman:Janus is the god of the doorway and holds the keys of the power of opening and closing.
Zodiacal:The summer solstice in Cancer, is the “door of men” and symbolizes the dying power & descent of the sun, the Janua inferni.The winter solstice in Capricorn, the “door of the gods” is the ascent & rising power of the sun, the Janua coeli. These doors are also associated with the entrances and exits of initiation caves and with souls entering and leaving the world. In Hinduism they are the deva-yana (Janua coeli)& the pitri-yana (Janua inferni).
(Dar-Initiation caves are prevalent in "A War of Witches")
Looking back on the past month, I can see that January has definitely lived up to its name. Not only has it ushered in a new calendar year, but January has also led to new ideas, discoveries, resolutions, decisions, friendships, and pitfalls.
New Years itself was eventful...
Shawn and James arrived in London on December 28th...for Dar and I, it was a giddy, surreal moment-when two completely different planes of life come crashing together, like the layering of two semi-transparent photos together to create a new, slightly weird in its complete normality, picture of your life. this happened the to me the first time i visited Dar in London after moving here...but having Shawn and James here...two completely non-student, non-long term, non-UK kids...really brought the contrast into high relief. It was fabulous.
We all trekked up to Edinburgh that night on the bus ride from Hell...
and then the Hogmanay extravaganza began!
In Edinburgh, the celebration of New Years is still referred to as "Hogmanay" and this city does it right! Four days of events, including the kick-off of the torch ceremony, in which thousands of people with torches trek up Calton hill and light a Viking effigy, then watch fireworks to begin the official Hogmanay.
The next three days are filled with concerts, Ceilidhs (traditional dances), parties, and the big Princes Street Party to officially bring in the New Year. the entire street is closed off to allow thousands of people to wander, socialize, drink, and listen to various bands perform. Midnight brings amazing fireworks...and then the party keeps going!
I was lucky to spend this time with some wonderful people-Dar, Shawn and James of course; and also Chris Taylor, Ken, and many of my Edinburgh friends. It was definitely an experience I will never forget!
January 2nd brought the usual New Years reflections on life and all its subtle quirks and questions...what to do about my thesis, where to go for fieldwork, when can I return home to see my friends and family? will i get funding? where will I live when my lease is up? what was I doing a year ago? how can the Twilight books be THIS good? have I really lived here for four months already? ???????
all these questions and musings are doors, of course...doors into my conscious/subconscious mind...things I worry about and ponder both awake and while sleeping (I'm light sleeper, and as such I often remember my dreams). None of these things are any scarier or worse than other years, or other times, but when you find yourself facing an entirely NEW set of months over which to leave your mark and make a difference, some things just become more important and thrown into sharp relief. This IS the time to make changes, to become self-aware, and to allow the symbolic nature of this time of year to carry you to resolutions for your life. It should be called a New Life resolution....not New Year...a year, in all actuality, is far too transient.
I know I must sound strange and metaphysical...But I do believe that there is powerful potential in the New Year...we just need to find it, hold on, and be willing to go for a ride!
I have met some wonderful people these last few months, and seen some wonderful things...I can't wait to see what 2009 brings!
<3
Thursday, 25 December 2008
JOYEUX NOELLE!
Holidays are a funny thing...we become so used to spending certain holidays with certain people doing certain things...then, when all of these comfortable normalcy's are either taken away or left behind, we finally begin to understand how important and cherished they have always been...
2008 is the second Christmas in a row I have spent apart from my nuclear family...and the first Christmas I have spent apart from ALL family, and America...
Christmas in London has been an experience. Both in the resilience of those who have been separated from their loved ones and the effects that family and ritual have on the power that holidays hold over us.
I spent Christmas in London, UK with my friend Darleen. We are both students, living in the UK for a Master's degree, and neither of us were able to go home for the holidays. Seeing as we are close friends, both in sentiment and in proximity, we were both glad to spend time together for Christmas. Although, seeing as we did not have other friends or family to meet up with, and 90 percent of London closes down from 8 pm on December 24 until the morning of the 27th, Christmas was not exactly the foreign holiday one might expect from seeing the movies.
We spent most of the week cooking amazing food,
watching bad Brit TV and movies, lounging around talking about our friends and family, and the Holiday traditions we were missing the most...and making a special Christmas video...
Yes, this is what happens when two twenty-something females are left alone on Christmas...HAHA!
Overall, Christmas was nice, Dar and I bought each other the Twilight book...proving once again just how similar our nerdy-ness is and how well we know each other...
Hehee...yes, I have officially fallen into the Twilight mania...
Now that I'm back in Edinburgh, And the New Year is upon me, I look on this Christmas both happily and thankfully...Dar and I never seem to bore each other, and we were so lucky to have each other this year! If she or I had gone home for Christmas, or if one of us had never come here for University, it could have been a very lonely holiday! Thank goodness for our mutual love of Brit Uni!
I loved being able to talk to my extended family on my Mom's side on the 21st on Skype...
It was a lot of fun, although bittersweet because I missed seeing so many people I never get to spend time with...But that comes with the territory of growing up, I guess. We have to make the choices that in the past were either made for us or else not even choices to consider...
Sometimes growing up is hard to do...but at least it makes you appreciate what you have in your life...the people and places and traditions that were taken for granted suddenly get thrown into stark relief against the background of their absence...you realize just how special they are, and just what they actually mean to you in excruciating detail...(or maybe that's just the anthropologist over-analyzing again...)
Holidays are a funny thing...
I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
<3
2008 is the second Christmas in a row I have spent apart from my nuclear family...and the first Christmas I have spent apart from ALL family, and America...
Christmas in London has been an experience. Both in the resilience of those who have been separated from their loved ones and the effects that family and ritual have on the power that holidays hold over us.
I spent Christmas in London, UK with my friend Darleen. We are both students, living in the UK for a Master's degree, and neither of us were able to go home for the holidays. Seeing as we are close friends, both in sentiment and in proximity, we were both glad to spend time together for Christmas. Although, seeing as we did not have other friends or family to meet up with, and 90 percent of London closes down from 8 pm on December 24 until the morning of the 27th, Christmas was not exactly the foreign holiday one might expect from seeing the movies.
We spent most of the week cooking amazing food,
watching bad Brit TV and movies, lounging around talking about our friends and family, and the Holiday traditions we were missing the most...and making a special Christmas video...
Yes, this is what happens when two twenty-something females are left alone on Christmas...HAHA!
Overall, Christmas was nice, Dar and I bought each other the Twilight book...proving once again just how similar our nerdy-ness is and how well we know each other...
Hehee...yes, I have officially fallen into the Twilight mania...
Now that I'm back in Edinburgh, And the New Year is upon me, I look on this Christmas both happily and thankfully...Dar and I never seem to bore each other, and we were so lucky to have each other this year! If she or I had gone home for Christmas, or if one of us had never come here for University, it could have been a very lonely holiday! Thank goodness for our mutual love of Brit Uni!
I loved being able to talk to my extended family on my Mom's side on the 21st on Skype...
It was a lot of fun, although bittersweet because I missed seeing so many people I never get to spend time with...But that comes with the territory of growing up, I guess. We have to make the choices that in the past were either made for us or else not even choices to consider...
Sometimes growing up is hard to do...but at least it makes you appreciate what you have in your life...the people and places and traditions that were taken for granted suddenly get thrown into stark relief against the background of their absence...you realize just how special they are, and just what they actually mean to you in excruciating detail...(or maybe that's just the anthropologist over-analyzing again...)
Holidays are a funny thing...
I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
<3
Monday, 15 December 2008
Well Its Christmas Time Again...
"Well its Christmas time again….decorations are all hung by the fire…everybody’s singing, all the bells are ringing out…and its Christmas all over again…” (i don't know who sings it, but it's a song!)
I can’t believe that 2008 is already coming to a close. This has been a very eventful year! And yes, you might be thinking
“EVERY year is an eventful year…seeing as everyday life is full of random events and happenings”
and while this is definitely true, 2008 has seemed much more eventful for me because of the TYPES of events I have had/experienced/seen, etc. whether this is because as I get older I place more importance on the mindful appreciation of different types of events, encounters, and happenings, or because I now have the time to reflect upon the differences between 2007 and 2008, I feel justified in saying that this year has been a wild ride!
But lets get to that later…I know that I haven’t written in almost three weeks…and there is good reason for that! I have jam-packed quite a lot into those three weeks, and unfortunately it was the updates that got shunted to the bottom of the list of things to do.
Thanksgiving was an interesting event…in that there were two Americans, two Canadians, and a Belgian celebrating it together…I made a great sweet potato-pecan pie…yum!
That weekend was also the National Holiday of Scotland: St. Andrew’s Day. He is the patron Saint of Scotland, and the Scottish flag (the saltiere) is supposed to represent St. Andrew’s Cross in the sky (there is a story about this, something about seeing the cross in the clouds…I don’t remember it though) Anywho, St. Andrew’s Day is the one day each year that Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace, and the Edinburgh Zoo are open to the public for free! So Katrien, Tina, and I went to the zoo to see the penguins (Katrien had never seen penguins before…the Belgian zoos are apparently deficient in the penguin department)
It was nice to go for free, but it was also BLOODY FREEZING! Before we left for the zoo at 11:30 the thermometer was holding steady at 27 degrees…Fahrenheit
…that’s right folks, I walked around a zoo all day in BELOW freezing temperatures. It was intensely cold. No bueno. But the zoo was nice, although I think I would like it better in a more hospitable weather situation. Ah well, at least it wasn’t raining!
(view from the zoo...it looks COLD!)
The next week saw the beginning of the end-of term-stress-madness. Lectures over, research and papers and projects abound! I also had things like meetings for the committee representatives, Katrien’s birthday celebration, the last Mediterranean Gastronomic Society event of the term, the arrival of Darleen for a visit, and a Holiday party thrown by one of my lecturers for the Anthropology department. Whew. All in one week! And last but not least:
I cut off my hair! That’s right, I decided to just go for it and cut it all off. I was going to just get a trim, but in a moment of sleep-deprived insanity I got it all cut off instead. They were nice enough to gice me my hair in a clear bag to carry around Edinburgh as well...looked classy, I'm sure! I wan to donate it, so if anyone knows of a company that will take bleached (i.e. highlighted hair) let me know! (Locks of Love won’t, unfortunately)
So Dar was here for a fab reason: Coldplay concert in Glasgow! It was so fun! We went with my other friends Tina, Yara, and Wissam. We took the train into Glasgow, and after the concert we had to BOOK IT through the streets of Glasgow to catch the last train. It was literally one of those movie moments where you jump on the train 0.5 seconds before it starts moving away from the station. Oh, the drama! It was definitely an interesting way to end the night!
We also went to the Edinburgh Christmas fair, which is a combination German Christmas market/Scottish Christmas market/Carnival. Good food, ice skating, crafty type stuff, rides, etc.
After Dar left the next day, I was on lockdown to finish my two papers due the 11th and 12th. The internet in my building decided to go out, (perfect timing, right?) and I spent literally 2 straight days inside the Chrystal Macmillan Building at school where the research students have our own room with computers, internet, etc. This was only tolerable because my two Anthro partners in crime, Lucy and Siobhan, were there as well, we all had lack of sleep induced mini-breakdown/fall into insanity/too much caffeine/ridiculous “how is this my life?” moments together…its always nice to know that you aren’t going insane alone, haha!
After Friday, things got better, seeing as I was all done with papers and projects! I got to enjoy the whole weekend, with gossip sessions, wine, museum trips, and (still) sleep deprived giddiness. Not to worry, I plan to sleep next weekend when I get to London!
Tomorrow I leave for a three-day trip to Dublin with my friends Katrien, Tina, and Emilie. This should be an interesting trip, and a nice way to end the term!
Hope everyone is well, and tucking in for a fabulous holiday season!
Love, Kim
I can’t believe that 2008 is already coming to a close. This has been a very eventful year! And yes, you might be thinking
“EVERY year is an eventful year…seeing as everyday life is full of random events and happenings”
and while this is definitely true, 2008 has seemed much more eventful for me because of the TYPES of events I have had/experienced/seen, etc. whether this is because as I get older I place more importance on the mindful appreciation of different types of events, encounters, and happenings, or because I now have the time to reflect upon the differences between 2007 and 2008, I feel justified in saying that this year has been a wild ride!
But lets get to that later…I know that I haven’t written in almost three weeks…and there is good reason for that! I have jam-packed quite a lot into those three weeks, and unfortunately it was the updates that got shunted to the bottom of the list of things to do.
Thanksgiving was an interesting event…in that there were two Americans, two Canadians, and a Belgian celebrating it together…I made a great sweet potato-pecan pie…yum!
That weekend was also the National Holiday of Scotland: St. Andrew’s Day. He is the patron Saint of Scotland, and the Scottish flag (the saltiere) is supposed to represent St. Andrew’s Cross in the sky (there is a story about this, something about seeing the cross in the clouds…I don’t remember it though) Anywho, St. Andrew’s Day is the one day each year that Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace, and the Edinburgh Zoo are open to the public for free! So Katrien, Tina, and I went to the zoo to see the penguins (Katrien had never seen penguins before…the Belgian zoos are apparently deficient in the penguin department)
It was nice to go for free, but it was also BLOODY FREEZING! Before we left for the zoo at 11:30 the thermometer was holding steady at 27 degrees…Fahrenheit
…that’s right folks, I walked around a zoo all day in BELOW freezing temperatures. It was intensely cold. No bueno. But the zoo was nice, although I think I would like it better in a more hospitable weather situation. Ah well, at least it wasn’t raining!
(view from the zoo...it looks COLD!) The next week saw the beginning of the end-of term-stress-madness. Lectures over, research and papers and projects abound! I also had things like meetings for the committee representatives, Katrien’s birthday celebration, the last Mediterranean Gastronomic Society event of the term, the arrival of Darleen for a visit, and a Holiday party thrown by one of my lecturers for the Anthropology department. Whew. All in one week! And last but not least:
I cut off my hair! That’s right, I decided to just go for it and cut it all off. I was going to just get a trim, but in a moment of sleep-deprived insanity I got it all cut off instead. They were nice enough to gice me my hair in a clear bag to carry around Edinburgh as well...looked classy, I'm sure! I wan to donate it, so if anyone knows of a company that will take bleached (i.e. highlighted hair) let me know! (Locks of Love won’t, unfortunately) So Dar was here for a fab reason: Coldplay concert in Glasgow! It was so fun! We went with my other friends Tina, Yara, and Wissam. We took the train into Glasgow, and after the concert we had to BOOK IT through the streets of Glasgow to catch the last train. It was literally one of those movie moments where you jump on the train 0.5 seconds before it starts moving away from the station. Oh, the drama! It was definitely an interesting way to end the night!
We also went to the Edinburgh Christmas fair, which is a combination German Christmas market/Scottish Christmas market/Carnival. Good food, ice skating, crafty type stuff, rides, etc.
After Dar left the next day, I was on lockdown to finish my two papers due the 11th and 12th. The internet in my building decided to go out, (perfect timing, right?) and I spent literally 2 straight days inside the Chrystal Macmillan Building at school where the research students have our own room with computers, internet, etc. This was only tolerable because my two Anthro partners in crime, Lucy and Siobhan, were there as well, we all had lack of sleep induced mini-breakdown/fall into insanity/too much caffeine/ridiculous “how is this my life?” moments together…its always nice to know that you aren’t going insane alone, haha!
After Friday, things got better, seeing as I was all done with papers and projects! I got to enjoy the whole weekend, with gossip sessions, wine, museum trips, and (still) sleep deprived giddiness. Not to worry, I plan to sleep next weekend when I get to London!
Tomorrow I leave for a three-day trip to Dublin with my friends Katrien, Tina, and Emilie. This should be an interesting trip, and a nice way to end the term!
Hope everyone is well, and tucking in for a fabulous holiday season!
Love, Kim
Sunday, 23 November 2008
Rollercoaster of...?
Love? Emotions? Ideas? Events? Weather?
Any of these could describe the past two weeks of my life.
Lets go in order, shall we?
Love:
No, I'm not IN love with some new, dashing Highlander who has come and swept me off my feet. Sorry guys. HAHA, by "love", I mean that I have come to appreciate certain people a lot more, both in the US and here in Edinburgh. My parents, super supportive as always; my Brother, steady and helpful as always; my extended family, sending the occasional e-mail, letter, and phone call my way to make my day special; my friends, keeping me up to date on the happenings in their respective lives, scheming trips to the UK, and still showing interest in MY life; and my friends and colleagues here, who have been the biggest system of support through the past few weeks, keeping me sane, and reinforcing my backbone when stuff gets too hard to sift through on my own...
These people remind me why humans are such an amazing species. I found a quote a few weeks ago that really sums up humanity to the core:
"The remarkable thing about man is not that he is an 'upright' ape, but that he 'stands' for some things and not for others" -Anonymous
If you think about this, it is incredibly true in all aspects of what we as humans call life. We stand for some ideals of what "life" is and not others, some preferences over others, some tastes, some passions, some religious views, some political views, some roads through life and not others.
It is our cognate ability to differentiate and choose which makes us unique, and it is that ability and the action taken from it that allows ME to have a future career as someone studying HUMANS and their similarities and differences on varied levels.
Sometimes, being surrounded by PEOPLE all the time is wearing. Especially when you are an observer to the bone, like I am. I see things and interpret things and contextualize things without consciously trying, and having your brain "on" like that continuously can lead to serious meltdown. If I didn't have the people I LOVE in my life to keep me from falling, or failing, or running away, I think life would be a lot harder to wade through.
Segueing into Emotions:
As you may have noticed, it has been an EMOTIONAL last few weeks. After being sick, returning from London, watching the world's reaction to the next US president, and realizing that my first term at the University of Edinburgh was quickly coming to an end, I had a serious crisis of representation in relation to my research and my future...
LONG story short, I am changing my research project. If I am going to spend the next four years of my life on one project, it needs to be something that I really, really enjoy and can realistically accomplish. I am thinking of something along the lines of Food and Identity, especially from an international, immigrant perspective.
I love food, I love looking at how identity is reinforced or altered through the symbolic act of cooking, eating, and food rituals. So there you go, new topic! (Plus I really have NO desire to do the traditional anthropological rite of passage in which I live in a mud hut in some jungle, learning the language of some unknown [albeit fascinating] indigenous group for two years)
Deciding to do a complete 180 turn from my old topic was HARD, and emotional, and scary! This was literally me saying:
"I am not that person, I am this person, and this is what I may well be known for for the rest of my life" Bit intimidating, yes?
If not for the support from my family and some key people in my program (Kudos to Lucy L., Siobhan, and Richard B.) I may have just ran off into the wilds of Europe to be a beatnik writer for the rest of my life! (which, really, is still possible, but that reality can wait until I have a PhD HAHA)
Ideas:
This was really summed up in the "emotions" section, with my new research proposal. Although with that shift, I begin to look at the things in my everyday life more closely in relation to food. Living in an international residence is really a much richer, complex, dramatic, inspiring situation that I would have ever thought. The people I live with give me ideas, thoughts, and random anecdotal happenstances everyday.
If you want to know what life is like in a university residence hall, just imagine a season of "The Real World" on MTV. My life would be "The Real World: Richmond Place". It would get top ratings, no question about it!
Events and Weather:
Its been a busy few weeks, probably only get worse now that finals and the holidays are here. Last weekend was the second event for the Mediterranean Gastronomic Society. I was leader of team France, we made a veggie cassoulet, Goat cheese and tomato tart, and cinnamon palmiers. good stuff.
Then there was the Death Cab for Cutie concert, which was awesome! I saw them in Cali over the summer, but in a smaller venue, they were even better! And I loved seeing how Scots reacted differently to songs than we would have in the US. Shows how deeply ingrained the importance we place on specific things really is. We may be very similar, but we still are from cultures with very different pasts and different moral and idealistic groundings.
Ben Gibbard...amazing lyricist!
Last weekend was also the Scotland vs. South Africa National Rugby game. we walked 2.5 miles to the stadium for the game, along with thousands of other fans. the game was great (S.A. won) then we all walked home, and proceeded to party well into the next morning. fun!
Jessie and I
The girls going to the game sporting our colors!
walking to the game
RUGBY!
! I love Rugby!
Then there was the Mediterranean Night we had as a society fundraiser. hours of Mediterranean music, dancing, and revelry. I got some dance lessons and met a lot of fun people. Some of them invited me to a birthday this last Friday at the VooDoo Rooms, a great restaurant/bar/club here. the Ambiance is very Moulin Rouge-meets 19th century New Orleans with some Caribbean style thrown in. The aesthetics alone made the place worth it, and I (again) got to meet some fab new people from all over.
And it snowed. on Friday. Twice. yes, it has already begun. the past week has been wicked cold and the high next week is a balmy 44 degrees. HAHA. Its funny having a real fall season... at least i'm getting use out of my sweaters!
Tonight my house had an American Thanksgiving potluck. I made a pecan pie and a sweet potato pie from scratch (crust and all...a first for me)! It was fun, and everything was good. Turns out you can't buy canned pumpkin in the UK. They just don't carry it. Who would have thought?!?!
I also got to attend to opera today! La Traviata...it was AMAZING! There is a theatre literally 2 minutes (walking) from my building, and students get great deals! Needless to say, I plan on taking advantage of teh arts as much as I can while I'm here!
Sunset out my window
(Disclaimer: for some reason Blogger won't resize half of my pics, just open them in a new window to view the entire pic)
<3
Any of these could describe the past two weeks of my life.
Lets go in order, shall we?
Love:
No, I'm not IN love with some new, dashing Highlander who has come and swept me off my feet. Sorry guys. HAHA, by "love", I mean that I have come to appreciate certain people a lot more, both in the US and here in Edinburgh. My parents, super supportive as always; my Brother, steady and helpful as always; my extended family, sending the occasional e-mail, letter, and phone call my way to make my day special; my friends, keeping me up to date on the happenings in their respective lives, scheming trips to the UK, and still showing interest in MY life; and my friends and colleagues here, who have been the biggest system of support through the past few weeks, keeping me sane, and reinforcing my backbone when stuff gets too hard to sift through on my own...
These people remind me why humans are such an amazing species. I found a quote a few weeks ago that really sums up humanity to the core:
"The remarkable thing about man is not that he is an 'upright' ape, but that he 'stands' for some things and not for others" -Anonymous
If you think about this, it is incredibly true in all aspects of what we as humans call life. We stand for some ideals of what "life" is and not others, some preferences over others, some tastes, some passions, some religious views, some political views, some roads through life and not others.
It is our cognate ability to differentiate and choose which makes us unique, and it is that ability and the action taken from it that allows ME to have a future career as someone studying HUMANS and their similarities and differences on varied levels.
Sometimes, being surrounded by PEOPLE all the time is wearing. Especially when you are an observer to the bone, like I am. I see things and interpret things and contextualize things without consciously trying, and having your brain "on" like that continuously can lead to serious meltdown. If I didn't have the people I LOVE in my life to keep me from falling, or failing, or running away, I think life would be a lot harder to wade through.
Segueing into Emotions:
As you may have noticed, it has been an EMOTIONAL last few weeks. After being sick, returning from London, watching the world's reaction to the next US president, and realizing that my first term at the University of Edinburgh was quickly coming to an end, I had a serious crisis of representation in relation to my research and my future...
LONG story short, I am changing my research project. If I am going to spend the next four years of my life on one project, it needs to be something that I really, really enjoy and can realistically accomplish. I am thinking of something along the lines of Food and Identity, especially from an international, immigrant perspective.
I love food, I love looking at how identity is reinforced or altered through the symbolic act of cooking, eating, and food rituals. So there you go, new topic! (Plus I really have NO desire to do the traditional anthropological rite of passage in which I live in a mud hut in some jungle, learning the language of some unknown [albeit fascinating] indigenous group for two years)
Deciding to do a complete 180 turn from my old topic was HARD, and emotional, and scary! This was literally me saying:
"I am not that person, I am this person, and this is what I may well be known for for the rest of my life" Bit intimidating, yes?
If not for the support from my family and some key people in my program (Kudos to Lucy L., Siobhan, and Richard B.) I may have just ran off into the wilds of Europe to be a beatnik writer for the rest of my life! (which, really, is still possible, but that reality can wait until I have a PhD HAHA)
Ideas:
This was really summed up in the "emotions" section, with my new research proposal. Although with that shift, I begin to look at the things in my everyday life more closely in relation to food. Living in an international residence is really a much richer, complex, dramatic, inspiring situation that I would have ever thought. The people I live with give me ideas, thoughts, and random anecdotal happenstances everyday.
If you want to know what life is like in a university residence hall, just imagine a season of "The Real World" on MTV. My life would be "The Real World: Richmond Place". It would get top ratings, no question about it!
Events and Weather:
Its been a busy few weeks, probably only get worse now that finals and the holidays are here. Last weekend was the second event for the Mediterranean Gastronomic Society. I was leader of team France, we made a veggie cassoulet, Goat cheese and tomato tart, and cinnamon palmiers. good stuff.
Then there was the Death Cab for Cutie concert, which was awesome! I saw them in Cali over the summer, but in a smaller venue, they were even better! And I loved seeing how Scots reacted differently to songs than we would have in the US. Shows how deeply ingrained the importance we place on specific things really is. We may be very similar, but we still are from cultures with very different pasts and different moral and idealistic groundings.
Ben Gibbard...amazing lyricist!Last weekend was also the Scotland vs. South Africa National Rugby game. we walked 2.5 miles to the stadium for the game, along with thousands of other fans. the game was great (S.A. won) then we all walked home, and proceeded to party well into the next morning. fun!
Jessie and I
The girls going to the game sporting our colors!
walking to the game
RUGBY! 
! I love Rugby!Then there was the Mediterranean Night we had as a society fundraiser. hours of Mediterranean music, dancing, and revelry. I got some dance lessons and met a lot of fun people. Some of them invited me to a birthday this last Friday at the VooDoo Rooms, a great restaurant/bar/club here. the Ambiance is very Moulin Rouge-meets 19th century New Orleans with some Caribbean style thrown in. The aesthetics alone made the place worth it, and I (again) got to meet some fab new people from all over.
And it snowed. on Friday. Twice. yes, it has already begun. the past week has been wicked cold and the high next week is a balmy 44 degrees. HAHA. Its funny having a real fall season... at least i'm getting use out of my sweaters!
Tonight my house had an American Thanksgiving potluck. I made a pecan pie and a sweet potato pie from scratch (crust and all...a first for me)! It was fun, and everything was good. Turns out you can't buy canned pumpkin in the UK. They just don't carry it. Who would have thought?!?!
I also got to attend to opera today! La Traviata...it was AMAZING! There is a theatre literally 2 minutes (walking) from my building, and students get great deals! Needless to say, I plan on taking advantage of teh arts as much as I can while I'm here!
Sunset out my window(Disclaimer: for some reason Blogger won't resize half of my pics, just open them in a new window to view the entire pic)
<3
Saturday, 8 November 2008
The Wackness of Britain and Wisdom Partners
The past two weeks have been really interesting, for various reasons. A lot has happened, and it feels like I haven't written in forever...
After being sick almost continually for two weeks, I headed down south for a 4 day London ROFL-fest with Darleen. I took the bus, which was an overnighter (i don't recommend this form of travel unless you want to inflict some self-punishment). On the way to the bus station I saw this sign:
So who do you follow? the man or the arrow? Without going to philosophically extremist, (which I could do...some sort of nature vs. culture symbolic interpretation a la Victor Turner and the French theories of agency, power, and Marxian praxis?) I just say "Oh, someone is confused in Scotland" and keep walking. HAHA, I mean, really, who approves these sort of signs for public use? There are many less intelligent people running around Edinburgh who probably won't understand that they should follow the arrow (which was the intended message of the sign).
Anyways, this sign made me start thinking of some of the other things here that seem to make no sense, but which amuse me in their quirkyness...such as:
Soooo...if you have reduced the sodium in my salt...my salt, which is a chemical compound of SODIUM and CHLORIDE then what exactly makes it salt? Am I now ingesting an overabundance of chloride ions when I season my food?
And on the website for my local Tesco (grocery store) I was filling out my profile to set up my account and I see this:
so funny...I can't wait until questionnaires in the US start asking people if they are teetotallers!
Those are just a few examples of the funny random things I see here on a regular basis...on to London
I had a lot of fun with Dar...We got to experience the Brit version of Halloween, (much less trick or treating, much more costume-themed party events) the British Museum including the Rosetta Stone (so freakin cool) and an amazing South Asia art collection, which included the Dakinis, which we couldn't get enough of:
Dakinis: fierce minor goddesses, more revered than their male counterparts, the Dakas. Their Tibetan name translates to "walking in the sky" which indicates their sphere of activity. Their fearsome weapons are the skull-cup filled with blood, and the skull necklace. Her hair is usually wild and hanging down her back, and her face often wrathful in expression, as she dances on top of a corpse, which represents her complete mastery over ego and ignorance.
Needless to say, these are the coolest female deities that I have ever seen...and the fact that they are stomping all over male corpses, which as stated above shows mastery over ego and ignorance is a great example of how feminism was alive and well long before it became active in the west. So if anyone is in Tibet anytime soon, feel free to pick up a few Dakinis and send them to Dar and myself, we would greatly appreciate it!
Also at the museum, we came across the term "Wisdom Partner" as a synonym for a sexual partner within Hindu religion...I think that this is a much better term to embody the person one chooses to share their life and body with. In my mind, this connotes an acceptance and celebration of the mind, body, and spirit of a chosen partner, and how this acceptance and celebration can bring wisdom, pleasure, and completion to both halves of the pair. Much more sophisticated than just sleeping with someone for the raw physicality of the act, isn't it?
Seeing as this was the weekend before the US election, everyone in Britain was talking about the upcoming event (which is interesting in itself...when was the last time there was large coverage of an election from Britain in the US?) Some Londoners showed the tone of the election in a demonstration at Trafalgar Square:
I love seeing outsider views on events that I as an American view in a specific culturally constructed way...it gives you perspective that you may not have considered before.
Overall, London was great...and I'm SO glad that Dar is here so close (in relation to everyone else from home) and I have her to understand the crazy, silly, weird, amusing, and annoying aspects of life in Britain with me!
THis last week saw me having my first exam here. Statistics. ew. I got a 76...which apparently here is really good, like an "A"...to me, 76 is average, and I feel like a high school math student again...but all of my Scottish friends assured me that anything above 72 is "first class" so who am I to argue with that? I have also been thinking a lot about the direction I want my thesis to go in, and right now things are very up in the air...the double edged sword of research degrees is that you GET to discover things for yourself and motivate yourself to work towards a goal...but you also HAVE to motivate yourself, and work through discoveries on your own...which can be REALLY annoying when you have no direction and have a very wide interest base...Oh, Anthropology!
Went on a long walk yesterday and happened upon this street:
Fall here is so pretty, and I love finding random streets like this on the edge of random parks!
So life keeps on going, through politics, holidays, trips, and tests...
La vie c'est belle...
After being sick almost continually for two weeks, I headed down south for a 4 day London ROFL-fest with Darleen. I took the bus, which was an overnighter (i don't recommend this form of travel unless you want to inflict some self-punishment). On the way to the bus station I saw this sign:
So who do you follow? the man or the arrow? Without going to philosophically extremist, (which I could do...some sort of nature vs. culture symbolic interpretation a la Victor Turner and the French theories of agency, power, and Marxian praxis?) I just say "Oh, someone is confused in Scotland" and keep walking. HAHA, I mean, really, who approves these sort of signs for public use? There are many less intelligent people running around Edinburgh who probably won't understand that they should follow the arrow (which was the intended message of the sign).
Anyways, this sign made me start thinking of some of the other things here that seem to make no sense, but which amuse me in their quirkyness...such as:
Soooo...if you have reduced the sodium in my salt...my salt, which is a chemical compound of SODIUM and CHLORIDE then what exactly makes it salt? Am I now ingesting an overabundance of chloride ions when I season my food?
And on the website for my local Tesco (grocery store) I was filling out my profile to set up my account and I see this:
so funny...I can't wait until questionnaires in the US start asking people if they are teetotallers!
Those are just a few examples of the funny random things I see here on a regular basis...on to London
I had a lot of fun with Dar...We got to experience the Brit version of Halloween, (much less trick or treating, much more costume-themed party events) the British Museum including the Rosetta Stone (so freakin cool) and an amazing South Asia art collection, which included the Dakinis, which we couldn't get enough of:
Dakinis: fierce minor goddesses, more revered than their male counterparts, the Dakas. Their Tibetan name translates to "walking in the sky" which indicates their sphere of activity. Their fearsome weapons are the skull-cup filled with blood, and the skull necklace. Her hair is usually wild and hanging down her back, and her face often wrathful in expression, as she dances on top of a corpse, which represents her complete mastery over ego and ignorance.
Needless to say, these are the coolest female deities that I have ever seen...and the fact that they are stomping all over male corpses, which as stated above shows mastery over ego and ignorance is a great example of how feminism was alive and well long before it became active in the west. So if anyone is in Tibet anytime soon, feel free to pick up a few Dakinis and send them to Dar and myself, we would greatly appreciate it!
Also at the museum, we came across the term "Wisdom Partner" as a synonym for a sexual partner within Hindu religion...I think that this is a much better term to embody the person one chooses to share their life and body with. In my mind, this connotes an acceptance and celebration of the mind, body, and spirit of a chosen partner, and how this acceptance and celebration can bring wisdom, pleasure, and completion to both halves of the pair. Much more sophisticated than just sleeping with someone for the raw physicality of the act, isn't it?
Seeing as this was the weekend before the US election, everyone in Britain was talking about the upcoming event (which is interesting in itself...when was the last time there was large coverage of an election from Britain in the US?) Some Londoners showed the tone of the election in a demonstration at Trafalgar Square:
I love seeing outsider views on events that I as an American view in a specific culturally constructed way...it gives you perspective that you may not have considered before.
Overall, London was great...and I'm SO glad that Dar is here so close (in relation to everyone else from home) and I have her to understand the crazy, silly, weird, amusing, and annoying aspects of life in Britain with me!
THis last week saw me having my first exam here. Statistics. ew. I got a 76...which apparently here is really good, like an "A"...to me, 76 is average, and I feel like a high school math student again...but all of my Scottish friends assured me that anything above 72 is "first class" so who am I to argue with that? I have also been thinking a lot about the direction I want my thesis to go in, and right now things are very up in the air...the double edged sword of research degrees is that you GET to discover things for yourself and motivate yourself to work towards a goal...but you also HAVE to motivate yourself, and work through discoveries on your own...which can be REALLY annoying when you have no direction and have a very wide interest base...Oh, Anthropology!
Went on a long walk yesterday and happened upon this street:
Fall here is so pretty, and I love finding random streets like this on the edge of random parks!
So life keeps on going, through politics, holidays, trips, and tests...
La vie c'est belle...
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