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‘Ohio’ Category

  1. Spring is here

    April 27, 2012 by elenamary

    My lovely sister Yuko planted an awesome garden last year.  Spring came early here in Ohio, and Yuko’s garden flourished.  It is late April and everything is ready for harvesting.  Here are pictures, taken by my brother, of the garden and Yuko’s suggestions on harvesting just by looking at the pictures:

     

    hi thanks for sending pictures of the garden and being willing to take
    care of it. nice to see ana in the garden.
    Ana in Yuko's Garden
    i see some mustard greens that are purple and green. i think they are
    still edible. they are spicy. i also see some kale and collard greens
    with yellow flowers. try eating them first.
    Yuko's Garden

    but then almost all of the plants in the garden are annual plants so
    you can take them out and plant something else in the space.
    there might be some herbs that are perennial. you can save those.
    perhaps some rosemary is alive.
    you can plant all kinds of stuff; peas, greens, beans, etc.

    i recommend using some compost from the pile right next to the current
    compost bin before planting new plants. i think there is a small mound
    of composted food scraps and leaves from the previous batch.

    Compost Pile

    also you can take out weed from around the two pawpaw trees and put
    about 2-3 inches of compost.
    diluted urine is a good fertilizer. i usually add 5 times as much
    water as urine. do not pour it over the things you eat raw. you can
    read about it more there is a book called liquid gold.

    i highly recommend mixing a bunch of strips of newspaper or shredded
    paper to your food scrap bucket before emptying it to the compost
    pile.
    it helps decomposition and keeps odor out.
    i use wood shavings from the school to mix with the food scraps here.
    they work great too.

    more pictures on flickr.

    Category Ohio, personal | Tags: | No Comments

  2. Cinco de Mayo in the Gateway

    April 26, 2012 by elenamary

    I live in a neighborhood commercially known as “The Gateway” (read government supported gentrification) although I prefer calling it by the more historical name Weinland Park.

    While walking home from the gym last night I saw this advertisement:

    Cinco de Mayo at Gateway

    I did check out the website and the “events and specials” seem to be discounts on alcohol at two bars, the “Irish” one and the “Mexican” one (Kildare’s and Made Mex).  Which to me is personally interesting because an Irish friend visiting the US called me a couple days ago and asked what this Cinco de Mayo thing was all about.  I told her it was an annoying holiday only celebrated in the US.  I compared it to St. Paddy’s but the difference being in Ireland people have actually heard of St Patrick’s day.

    My Mexican aunt who first witnessed cinco de mayo a few years ago, asked me why all the college students were sitting in their yards drinking beers while wearing sombreros.  How would you answer that one?   Anyway, back to the advertisement,  I am offended by it but am having difficulty articulating why, and was hoping my readers could help me out.  On a positive note, it is less offensive than the “spicy” one the North Market had a few years ago:
    Cinco D' Ohio

    Category language, Latinos, Ohio, personal, Politics, race | Tags: ,,,,,, | No Comments

  3. math boys

    February 19, 2012 by elenamary

    You know those friends you don’t get to hang out with enough, and every time you do, you wonder why you let so much time go by?  That is how I feel about what I like to call my “math boys”.  I met the math boys back when they were starting graduate school, now they are the math professors.  How did my friends become the teachers? When did this happen?

    A few nights ago, I went over to hang out with them.  My plan was to party with them but not drink as I had work in the morning.  I didn’t drink but man I can’t stay up until 4am anymore without it messing up the whole next day–I’m still recovering.    We played a couple nerd games including Liar’s Dice.   It was hilarious to me that we played this, as I’d only seen the game in bars in China, I never thought it was played here.

    Group work: How many mathematicians does it take?

    Do you know what happens when you play a game of probability with a bunch of math professors?  The game stops, and the group spends an hour trying to find an algorithm for the “perfect game” such as one were you would always win.  After an hour of trying to find all the possible moves the boys began to realize game theory comes into play and that this was not something we were going to be able to solve in one night.   This is to say I had an awesome time talking game theory and probability.   And to boot I won one of my dice back by correctly figuring that McPocho had lined up his dice using the Fibonacci sequence.  I miss nerding out like this.  Why don’t I hang out with them more often?

    You've got to work the math out.

    Category Ohio, personal | Tags: | No Comments

  4. Humor

    December 11, 2011 by elenamary

    I try to tell people interested in interpreting, that knowing a language isn’t achieved by knowing a vocabulary.  Knowing a language is cultural, it is becoming the language, being part of the ethos, it  is a change in personality and perspective.
    Humor is a great identifier of ones culture.  I always realize how I am not so american when I watch American comedies and how I am even less Mexican than I like to think I am when I watch Mexican comedies.

    I suck at pop culture. Both Mexican and American. I’ve never seen Star Wars, Pulp Fiction, American Idol and rarely get the references made in American comedies like The Simpsons.  When I watch or listen to Mexican comedies it is even worse.  El Chavo del Ocho doesn’t make me laugh.  I can’t stand La Familia Peluche and have never once laughed during it.  At least with American comedies I sometimes laugh.  However, in both situations I feel a disconnect especially with people around me who look like the are about to lose bladder control from the laughter.  I’ve been watching a lot of Mexican stand-up comedy and joke telling as of late. I feel overwhelmed by a sense of disconnect and sadness.  I am not really Mexican. I don’t laugh at all and it makes me feel like a failure as a Mexican.  I understand what is supposed to be funny but I don’t find it funny.  I attempt to analyze what it is I am missing.

    On the rare occasions I do find a Mexican comedy funny, moments after my laughing as ceased, I realize that my laughter happened naturally and I feel a sense of belonging.   Below is a clip from a vulgar, Mexican comedy show.  I laughed and enjoyed it and was pleased with my enjoyment.  Additionally, here is a link to a blog post by a British friend of mine.  She writes about Americans (and my) inability to comprehend dry wit or sarcasm…although I like to think I prefer dry humor to slapstick.

    A funny political aside: my mother who has lived in the the United State for 30+ years now, was flipping through the channels and stopped at a speech being given by Rick Perry.  She listened attentively and then looked at me for a cue and asked “Is he real? Or is this The SNL?”   She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to be laughing.

    Category language, Latinos, Ohio, personal | Tags: , | 1 Comment

  5. work and play

    February 5, 2011 by elenamary

    El Oso referred to me as being lazy.  I am not lazy but rather I take great pleasure in enjoying every minute of life to its fullest.  I guess when I refuse to ever work a 30+ hour work week it may seem kind of lazy.  Only once in my life have I ever had a 40 hour work week.  It was an office desk job dispatching interpreters.  I liked that I got to talk to different people from different countries, different life experiences, different languages, then my own.  What I didn’t like was working 5 days a week 8 hours a day.  When do people who do this live?  Especially, those with commutes.  Let’s say it takes you an hour each way and you take an hour lunch (not included in your 8 hour work day) this means your work day just went from 8 hours to 11 hours. For those of you who live in places like Ohio, during these 11  hour work days, when do you actually get to see the sunlight let alone enjoy it?

    The one time I had that 40 hour a week job, I found myself  telling my employer I couldn’t do it.  They dropped me down to 32 hours a week.  I tried it and had to again explain  I couldn’t do this.  They dropped my hours to 27 hours a week, the minimum allowed that still permitted me to receive benefits.  I tried it and found myself turning in my two week notice.

    I have three main objectives in the work I do.  Firstly, I must not be negatively impacting the world and must be hopefully positively impacting the world.  For example a job at walmart or the border patrol would be a job that negatively contributed to society. Secondly, work cannot take up my life.  I did take a job recently that I love(d) where I worked 40hours a week in 3 days but only worked every two weeks.  I got all my work done at once, had enough money to pay my bills and travel…but the time I worked did not greatly effect my free time. The opportunity cost of my free time is rather high.  Thirdly, I must enjoy my work.  Enjoyment for me varies. Challenges can be enjoyable, positively impacting the world I live in is also very enjoyable and highly fulfilling. Back in the states what did I do with all that free time?  I went to the gym, library, hung out with friends, traveled and enjoyed life.

    Now in China I am continuing the enjoyment of the short stay I have on this planet.   On my run today I enjoyed the weather and sunshine to its fullest. It is winter here and the temperature today was 74F (during February the average high in Haikou is 72.1F ).  After my run  I stopped my brother’s apartment who noted the temperature as well and said “This is why I moved to Hainan”   I haven’t been able to stop thinking about that sentiment.

    It is also why I moved here.  For those back home who discouraged my move to China, your high today is 33F and you probably won’t see the sun.  I am happy here and loving it.

    Category China, Ohio, personal | Tags: ,,,, | 3 Comments

  6. dots, feathers, and oh my

    December 1, 2010 by elenamary

    I received an invite to a  “Whiskey Drinking” party. Who doesn’t love whiskey? I said yes, to the invite, as I do to just about every Facebook invite I get, and didn’t pay to much attention to the rest of the invitation.

    My friend later told me that she too had been invited but that she didn’t want to attend the party because “They are inviting people to dress up as Pilgrims and Indians. I don’t want to go to a party where people are dressed-up as Indians and putting their hands to their mouths and making ‘woo’ ‘woo’ sounds.  It is racist.    I told my friend hosting it that I was uncomfortable with it and she told me that I could dress as a turkey.  I tried explaining this didn’t address the issue of racism.”

    I could see how my friend thought the party was racist but it didn’t quite hit me until I saw the pictures.

    It was when I saw the pictures that I realized “Holy shit! My friends threw a whiskey drinking party, during thanksgiving weekend, handed out face paint as well as construction paper for paper feather headbands. When did it ever become okay to put paint on your face for enjoyment at the expense of an oppressed group?“   When I expressed my concern to some of those in attendance I got different responses; “Well, some people were making fun of thanksgiving so they also added small pox face paint” or that face painting to be like another ethnicity was about as similar to my rainbow party costume, “It’s about as cool as dressing as a rainbow“, or that “Nobody actually *dressed* as indians, they put on construction-paper headbands and facepaint, kindergarten-style.”

    Adding small pox does not take away the pain of painting yourself to represent an ethnicity or race. Comparing a rainbow during a political demonstration bringing awareness to bikes,  to a hipster in a gentrified neighborhood dressed as a “Indian” during Thanksgiving lacks understanding  of  the oppression, genocide and overt and covert racism.   One of the party hosts tried to explain to me why she party’s this way: “I celebrate Thanksgiving because it reminds me to be thankful for my wonderful friends, and whiskey, and a sense of humor, and facepaint, danceparties, music, old warehouses, and good times. Enough said.”

    I am not chastising my friends for having fun, or dancing, or drinking, I love all these things (who doesn’t?!) I want people to have a good time, to acknowledge our childhood memories.  However, some of the things we did as children were hurtful, we weren’t wrong as children, we were children, we didn’t know better.  We know better now.
    I guess my friends just don’t get it. I don’t know how to help my friends understand that their partying, like this, hurts me and offends me.  Not only are they not trying to understand the pain caused, they are looking forward to the next event:

    “Private party hosted by my girlfriend and some other friends. The original wild turkey pilgrims and Indians party was 3 years ago in Italian Village. It took place in Franklinton this weekend but not associated with any group or organization. I had a blast and look forward to 2011′s.”

    Don’t get me wrong, I love my friends, if you asked them if racism was something we should tolerate they would all disagree.   I just don’t know how to get them to see how their own actions are hurtful and racist.  Maybe in June, we can hold a Juneteenth party, and put on black face, and drink forties, or if people are uncomfortable with that we can offer that  they dress as watermelons?

    Category Latinos, Ohio, personal, Politics, race | Tags: | 1 Comment

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