Valya’s Blog

It’s a muggy Portland evening. I love it! It reminds me of my home city, Varna, where the summertime is so hot and humid that you can sit outside at a cafe downtown at midnight in nothing but jeans and a T-shirt and be sweating.

There are Capoeira dancers on the lawn in the middle of the PCC campus and I am thoroughly enjoying the beat of their tambourine. I can’t help but think that one day, when I don’t live here anymore, I will miss Portland. I will cherish the memories and probably over-talk-it-up to anyone and everyone who wants to (and doesn’t want to) listen. I can’t help it. It is one of those places in the world (similar to some parts of Australia, in particular Brisbane), that I feel are an incredibly successful mix of U.S. and European lifestyle. It has been a good year and a half.

A story on NPR today talk about how disconnect people are nowadays, how we have fewer confidants and friends, and the author of the book (the interviewee) attributed it to the fact that today we (U.S. folks) move so often throughout our lives that we do not develop a deeply rooted community network. How true. Even just traveling to different places around the world or living somewhere for a few months or a couple of years, I have noticed how attached I can become to a place while remaining miserably lonely from a people perspective. Always wishing for the friends “back home” even though there is no “back home” the way that friends and family are scattered nowadays. Even purchasing a home doesn’t seem to be a lock-in for settling down. It’s all rather unsettling.

But I suppose I take away the charm of all of these different places (and the memories, though that sounds cliche) and that enriches my life as a whole.

I doubt I’ll get to these myself, but I heard interviews about them on NPR at lunchtime today and picked up a couple of interesting morsels, so I’d recommend at least exploring them:

The 4-Hour Workweek

Money Without Matrimony

I also heard an interesting story on the housing market in Bulgaria on NPR’s Day to Day show. Listen here.

I appreciate what this judge is trying to do with his creative sentencing. He is giving people a second chance and in fact, compels them to make simple changes to change the course of their lives to the better. Some even seem to be grateful for the eye-opener. Four Spanish-speaking men facing up to a year of jail time for conspiracy to commit robbery and the judge gave them an ultimatum - learn English, complete their GEDs and get full-time jobs. They have a year to complete these tasks.

At first I thought - you can’t make people learn English. It’s not the official language of the United States. In fact, we don’t have an official language. And there are plenty of full-functioning, tax-paying, contributing members to society who do not speak English and reside in the United States. I am worried what this minor ruling in a county court could do as a precedent.

But the more I think about it, the more I think that the point in this situation is to give these people a set of tools for success. And sure, they might not need English, but then again, they might not need a GED to get a legitimate full-time job. That doesn’t mean that it’s a bad idea for them to learn English or get a GED. Both can only help. It seems reasonable within the discretion of this judge to require them to learn a commonly used language, go to school for the equivalent of a high school diploma, and keep full-time employment.

I guess the only thing that does remain worrisome is the motivation for the judge himself. I hope he chose the sentence purely as a means of opening a wide range of opportunities for the guys, but I don’t know…  From the article “‘Do you think we are going to supply you with a translator all of your life?’ the judge asked them.”

Why not? We do that - supply translators - for plenty of first-generation U.S. citizens from Spanish speaking countries as well as many other languages… If you are older than 50 (and fit within a few other criteria) you can take the citizenship test in this country in whatever language you choose. (though, if you are younger, you need to take it in English - odd, once again, because we do not have an official language; but even then, you don’t have to be in-depth/proficient in English bur rather just demonstrate some very basic skills in reading and writing)

I supposed it is hard to denounce this one judge’s sentence, but it does still bother me a bit… I can see a slippery slope in the fog.

Both in high school and college I had teachers and professors (one at each level of education) who were obsessed with current events. We had to follow the news and take pop quizzes every class period on what’s in the news at that time. It was great. I actually acquired my news skimming, CNN watching, NYTimes reading, Economist subscribing and NPR listening habits just from exercises like that. And somewhat from my journalism professors whose habits rubbed off on me (the NPR bit from a prof who listened to it in her car on our way to an FCC hearing as extra credit; The Economist from actually some Political Science junkies at the international studies program office in Germany where I was studying abroad and taking POLS classes).

It’s funny because now I actually listen to NPR’s “Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me” show during my workouts and laugh at all the gags on the week’s news they come up with. It’s especially entertaining because there’s rarely a newsworthy nugget that I’ve missed and learn from the show itself. I love it! I’m really glad that these habits were instilled in me and I must say I am a tad surprised at how familiar I am with the news when I really do wish I read more of The Economist, and read more news in general, diversifying my sources. Must be doing a-OK. Although, I also feel like a lot of people, especially young people, get so much more news (and different stuff, not just what’s in the mainstream (even if they’re the good ones, my sources are still “mainstream”) and different interpretations of it from the Internet that I inevitably feel left out, breathing in the dust as everyone else speeds off on RSS feeds, news forums, blogs (aka the new-age pundits galore), podcasts (OK, I do listen to a couple - literally - of these), video logs, You Tube commentary, specialized news aggregation web sites, e-ncyclopedias, etc. etc. etc.

Barack Obama was at the Portland waterfront this weekend and we weren’t able to see him because we had a class at that time. He won Oregon tonight and gave a very inspirational speech. It was not only well written and delivered, but it was full of so much positive energy, I couldn’t help but picking up some of his excitement and smiles.

I can’t pretend to go into some in-depth, pundit-worthy analysis, but I am frustrated that Hillary Clinton’s campaign has been so negative and the candidate herself continues to bring up some outlandish claims about how if you add these and such states and you subtract those other ones, she’s really in the lead! Ha! Seriously! There are democratic party rules in place that she agreed to. Everyone just play by the rules, please!!! What is this spin and cherry-picking when one finds oneself cornered? It’s really not flattering to her and it certainly helps to exacerbate the negative tension between Obama and Clinton supporters.

We went to a concert last night, mostly teens and twenty-somethings. When it finished at 11 p.m. on a Monday night, there were young Obama supporters handing out buttons, selling T-shirts and waving banners right at the club’s exit. That’s how you do 11th hour campaigning! That and with a 75,000-strong laudatory throng, the biggest rally of the election season thus far, in an outdoor venue on a sunny Sunday.

Not to say Hillary supporters are stying out of the limelight in Portland - there are the diligent ones on the bridges waving huge signs every morning, there were the last minute small-scale rallies and this morning an older gentleman on the bus with a home-made, laminated poster (which is good, protected it from the drizzling rain) of Hillary on the backdrop of some newspaper cutout and a watch/clock graphic on the other side. Didn’t look at it too closely, but I was glad to see that Hillary supporters were still taking the race seriously last minute. I also, with some sadness, noticed how most people on the bus looked at his poster but remained completely unperturbed. I wondered if it was because they were Obama supporters smirking at his fruitless effort in an Obama stronghold area, or if they were just apathetic. Either way it was a bit disappointing to observe.

I find this idea, engendered by a pundit on CNN today, rather intriguing - that Obama should ask Chelsea Clinton to head his outreach to young voters. That would help bridge the gap that her mom’s been digging between Obama supporters and Clinton ones.

But enough politics. I thrive on it every evening and morning with CNN, the NYTimes, NPR, and The Economist coverage. It’s hard for me to spew back my opinion in just a single blog entry.

Wanted to plug this great web site ranking the Portland street food carts: http://foodcartsportland.com/ - yummo!

I guess I am very prolific on evenings when I am in a beautiful city, in a lovely room, but all by myself. I did my GRE vocabulary homework for the evening and I kept htinkging - all this construction activity that I’m noticing in Seattle because I haven’t been here in a long while (meaning I haven’t really been in the city, I do come up to the greater Puget Sound area frequently)… all this mushroom-springing like condo-boom in not just Seattle but Portland as well and really in every major city… all hte improvements in all these other places (my alma mater, for instance)… who’s buying the new luxury homes? Who’s living in the overpriced apartments that are twice and three times as much as what we pay now only because they are in the city itself and brand new?

How are we in an economic downturn (all this bickering about the “r” word!) and yet have so much sprucing up of the cities… even Bremerton has been livening up of late - “new” corridor of tress at the entry to the city by the shipyard, the old unsightly houses torn down, greenery everywhere; a new convention center, hotel, bank building, spiffied up downtown and new ferry dock; parks everywhere and even new condos by the ferry… granted the condos were up for grabs at an online auction starting at around (or less than) $100K… but still… so much activity. It gives me a sense of hope that not everything is going downhill and not everything is getting dragged to the economic negative… I know the world is growing, Asia and really everywhere else (the EU, etc.) are growing and putting more demand on the economy, but also contributing more… and I know that some say the lifestyles here and in the “developing world” will have to equalize gradually (meaning we’ll never go back to the comfort, safe, naturally isolationist haven)… but it still may be that we retain our quality of life. Or perhaps I am blinded by aspirations and perhaps the condo boom and outdoor shopping centers (vs. malls) are just the mild symptoms of a growing class gap. I love learning more about this sort of stuff, but I’ll admit I don’t pretend to understand even a grain of it all! So, take all this philosophizing as just mundane musings, I suppose.

Seattle is copying Portland! The one thing I know Portland has going for it is an incredible mass transit system. And now, apparently, after all the craziness surrounding the monorail fiasco and the back-and-forth “dialogue” about demolishing it or building out further into the city, Seattle has somehow - overnight, almost - arrived at a much more logical solution. It copied an already proven system from its neighbor down the coast - Portland. Voila: the Seattle Streetcar (not kidding - check out the Portland Streetcar - that’s right, they even copied the name! Shameless).

I don’t know if it’s the invigorating charm of Seattle or the coffee I had with dinner but I am not at all sleepy. Just a bit tired.

So, goodnight once more.

I am really enjoying a pseudo business trip to Seattle. It’s strange, it’s almost as though I haven’t been to the city in a year… and actually it has been that long and longer. I live in Portland! Such an odd concept, still getting used to it and definitely yearning for Seattle.

There are so many new buildings - condos, apartments, hotels - in the Denny area! It’s incredible. I’m thoroughly enjoying typing from the comfortable… hmmm… not sure what this particular piece of furniture is called, but is a couch-type with a back on it’s narrow side a longish, half-way down the length, side-rest. It’s intended for reading, I know that much. It’s right by the huge window and I’m looking out on Lake Union, bar a few not-too-ugly factory-style buildings converted to modern office spaces/loft-like and hip.

The bathroom has a bathtub and separate shower, all-Plexiglas cube. To enhance the see-through openness of the place, there are sliding doors on two sides - one’s the door, the other is a window-like area along the bathtub that opens into the main room, and across the bed you actually gaze out the window. I might try sitting there a little later in the bathtub, watching the city lights, or the news on TV, and the only thing that would have been event nicer is a glass of wine. I could go down to the Whole Foods and grab a bottle, I suppose, or some tea… and I might actually do that last thing, because my room has only coffee in it and I’d like to relax.

I feel calm. I’m still a bit stressed for tomorrow, the all-agency meeting, the drive back in the humongous Suburban, but that’s come when it comes. For now I am enjoying being back in the city I am so drawn to. I still feel a sense of nostalgia but it’s sweeter up here. I miss the friends that used to live in the city itself - they are all scattered now in the suburbs, engaged, and/or married with children. How did we all grow up so fast?

I’m still not sure if I will be satisfied and happy living back in Seattle, but I really do love the feeling the city gives me this evening. It’s vibrant, it’s lively, it’s alive.

I miss my love. I also miss my friends stronger when I’m here than when I’m in Seattle. Strange as it is… I guess the proximity feeds the earning.

I enjoyed the cooking school experience as well. Fun, low key, yet feeling like we accomplished something. (under the experienced eyes of two chefs, of course) Eating by the waterfront is always a pleasure as well - and Lake Union is probably one of the nicest backdrops in Seattle.

Feeling way too lovely tonight. I will do my best to enjoy it while it is untarnished.

Goodnight.

Been meaning to translate the few notes I had jotted down about Obama’s speech on race in the United States into typed words… and the notepad sheets have been sitting on my desk for weeks now. First of all - note that video on the Barack Obama web site is a YouTube video of the CNN footage - just pointing that out as a new media enthusiast and Wikinomics reader. Now to my thoughts, randomly jotting down about the time of the speech - mid-March:

I would love to have analyzed the speech from pure rhetoric theory because his speeches are usually written as textbook examples of following basics that enhance the message and complement an otherwise inspirational delivery (starting with a hook, weaving through reoccurring themes, starting and beginning with the same topic to frame the speech in a whole and bring it to a natural conclusion -  and a slew of other techniques (like anecdotes, jokes, etc.) that make the speech so much easier to follow and engaged with). But I won’t go down that path because I am rusty and to begin with I only had the 101 speech class knowledge to rely on.

The white grandmother anecdote make some cringe. They wouldn’t do that to their grandmothers - embarrass them like that in front of the whole nation, critics said. The story was genuine, it was about “covert” racism, the kind that is not on the surface or even recognized by the person wielding it. I wondered about that too. There is a person in my immediate family who I could say a lot of the same about, on a very similar, close-to-heart story. But would I? Actually, I would. I don’t see why not. I don’t see how making the anecdote public is condemning them as a bad person. Everyone has some bias or another. But all has to be put in context of each person’s unique world view. Otherwise, we would all be hypocrites.

Obama did put the story of his white grandmother in context. And I am glad he did so. It is a much more common story nowadays with so many mixed couples of so many different backgrounds, and certainly not just in the United States.

Obama put the story of his grandmother in context like he put the story of his pastor in context - he grew up in an era of suppression of black people’s potential and opportunities. There are certain attitudes in my family I dislike as well, but I am not about to disown them. I know the context in which they were raised and their world views formed (in Bulgaria), my world view is a product of theirs and my own experiences - it’s a new prism (Bulgaria, the United States and brief trips to many other countries only since 2004 - until then I only knew these aforementioned two countries… odd isn’t it?).

I took issue not with his mention of his grandmother’s bias, but with his comment about jobs abroad. The thought of a protectionist president in today’s global and vibrant economy just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Listening to his speech gave me a new wave of ideas for a book or thesis - perhaps something I can work on after grad school acceptance when I’m more relaxed about my future but still with some buffer time before I tackle it head-on.

racism/Obama’s experience & world viewe/speech/immigration/my experience & world view/global economy

I look back at my own past attitudes and the growth and learning I’ve experienced consciously and subconsciously and it scares me somewhat. I tell the anecdote of the African exchange students (college level) at the public transportation bus stop outside the English language high school and my classmates’ hurtful comments; I also frequently share the story about a journalism teacher who really pushed me to look inside myself and recognize those learning moments in my first weeks in the United States when I met people of different ethnicities and cultures for the first time. Those memories are insightful but also bitter and painful because they prove I wasn’t perfect and by extrapolation it means that I may not be at the end of that journey yet - and that’s what truly scares me.

Took my lunch at a nearby mall, as I often do, a few days ago. I like to go there because there’s a Starbucks on the top floor that I like and if I’ve brought food from home I can either get a coffee and sit there to read my book or go to the food court, not buy anything and sit, read, and eat my packed lunch. Of course, if spring would come around, I would start eating my lunch in the park outside the office.

I digress.

What’s also nice about going to that mall is that frequently there is something going on outside in the town square (a festival or protest with a whole bunch of horse-mounted policemen patrolling) or in the mall itself. So this particular afternoon there were several perishable food sculptures in the small fountain and plant area in the mall. I saw them from the second floor and was on my way out by then, but I wanted to take a picture of them and talk to the slew of junior-high-aged students standing around them… and I wanted to write a blog about it and partner it with some photos. The next day I went back, this time with a camera, and while I didn’t take pictures (I had lunch and then went shopping with a coupon that was expiring, leaving me next to no time to get back to the office after my long break), I did look at one of signs and it turns out they are world hunger awareness projects, like a competition for sculptors who arranged canned food, spaghetti and boxes of Crisco into: two giant robots boxing inside a rink, an oversized monopoly board with dice, etc., a humongous red apple with a curled worm coming out of it, and a crusie ship.

I guess my pangs of nostalgia for journalism surface when I see something cool like that, especially given the world food crisis that’s all over the news lately. This would be a story of how some local companies (well “local” being relative) like Whole Foods partnered to do this competition and raise awareness.

It’s strange because I don’t have a strong desire to go back to journalism. It is a dying art and the pay is pretty deadly too. But at the same time I am worried I don’t have a niche yet. The comfortable feeling of writing features is starting to stir up again and I’m not sure that’s a good thing.

At least there are steps being taken toward the grad school path, which is helping me breathe easier - GRE class starts this weekend! Yay!