Salt of the Sea

I seriously think the long hours of work staring and focusing deeply into the minutiae of getting the job done has made me forget a lot. I don't think I can even speak intelligently any more about things I learned in high school, college, or that graduate degree I barely finished. Being in Amman has taken me back to the things I did before working full time and studying part time. Movies and martial arts.

Tonight I went to the Palestinian Film Festival in Jordan's pre-eminent arts center. It was the closing night and they showcased "Salt of the Sea." The auditorium was crammed with people sitting on the stairs of the main exits rows and a photographer occasionally blinding theater-goers with the flash of his camera. A few times, a theater patron would take pictures of the screen, I wondered if that even works given one would think the flash would white out the projection.

Anyhow it was a really good film that brought up a lot of questions. Soraya (played by Suheir Hammad-of def jam fame) born in the United States goes back to Palestine to reclaim her "right" of return. Territory, righteousness, dreams, and humiliation are specters in this film. Believing to do what is right she ultimately defeats her own goals. Probably one of the things, maybe because I'm old and narrow minded, struck out in my mind was how she meets a man she cares for who wants nothing more than to leave the occupied territories. He wants to go to Canada but his exit visa keeps getting rejected. She holds a U.S. passport and wishes most of all to get a Palestinian passport. Can they co-exist? She can enable his dreams or make them worse for the sake of her own, which are grounded in the two generations of her past. Does reclaiming land, really heal someone? And what is exactly a home? Is it a house one's grandparents built, or is it the people one finds along the way that make the passing of time a joy? Salt is a foreign film submission for this year's Academy Awards.

welcome the United States of America

So I can't help but do a pseudo political post. When I saw, read, digested that Barak Obama was the President-elect, I was really relieved. Not because I'm a Democrat, but it finally proved that the leader of the free world had progressed to stand among its peers to choose intellect, courage, and youth. That finally American progress was evident in the highest post of leadership and that the frightening unspoken undercurrents of bigotry in American society were not the force they once were. That the jaded cynic in me and others were proved utterly and completely wrong, very gladly.

the battle was lost ... but what of the war?

Afghanistan? Iraq? The presidential debates? No. My commitment to have a life outside international affairs. Even my last two blog posts were about international affairs or its pursuit. I think I have become what I dreaded ... A person without a life outside her career. But is there still hope? Let's hope and stay tuned. Hopefully dispatches outside the international affairs realm but with a decidedly foreign flavor will be coming ...

حقيقة

I'm realizing I'm a city girl. I'm in Vermont for the summer, suffering, but really I'm not. I get three square meals provided each day (and then some--possibly some of the best dairy products in the country), am fortunate enough to have an A/C unit on the rare hot days, and am in a beautiful valley surrounded by misty green mountains as far as the eye can see in every direction.



I'm learning Arabic, in fact I'm sort of breaking the language pledge by writing in this blog. I'm bad, but I'm half way through almost no? Hopefully they won't kick me out for this infraction. Although I think I'm just becoming more dangerous with Arabic, my English is probably getting worse, so excuse the typing lapses.



I'm realizing I'm a country girl too, I can be in the country in a class for six hours look at said beautiful mountain ranges while knowing I have a rope and a full rack in my dorm and a car that loves to be driven. I've only been climbing once outside since I've been here, even though one of my favorite places in the world, the Adirondacks, is in my view to the west. Truly torture, truly the hardest thing I've done in my life. Truly دراسة اللغة العربية اصعب شي في هياتي.

bhutto

Nobody ever wants to criticze the dead, but the title links to a good op-ed. Westerners on a cursory study of South Asian politics grasp what they percieve as the oxymoron of a forward leading culture that puts women at the forefront of leadership, despite strong veins of traditional Islam. However, whether it was Indira Ghandi, Sheikh Hasina, or Khaleda Zia, and now Bhutto, it is not about progressive female leadership, but continuing and preserving dynasties.

23 year old playwriters

What would they write about, especially if they were a contemporary of Shakespeare? A few weeks ago, I found out exactly what they would write about. Marlowe's Tamburlaine showcased as the first play performed in the Washington's Shakespeare Theater Company's brand new space, the Harman theater.

The production was wonderful, and quite a feat, because the story follows a shepherd become Emperor and most of the scenes are his acts of conquering and plundering. The story though, mostly about a brutish warrior, who's company men do terrible things to those who plead not be annhilated (not surrender, they figure he'll overrun them-but just wanted to be spared the burning, pillaging, raping and killing), is something that one might imagine may come from the imagination of a hot-headed twenty-young year old playwright. Interesting to watch anyway, but not as engaging as Shakespeare's classic and complex works. Which makes me the think the bard was never one person anyway.

photographs

Make me indescribably happy. I can't explain the immense the feeling of satisfaction and well-being I get after looking at photographs, particularly of recent ones of my friends. Its like being there after the fact, at least for the highlights.

what did i do that was new in '07?

1. Shot a pistol ... very successfully (targets not people)

2. Learned to drive from the passenger side while supressing a 300 lb cop

3. Flew in a Blackhawk

4. Lived in a warzone, came back with PTSD from said warzone

5. Got back on a horse after my Bermuda accident, around the pyramids, of all places, yes Giza

6. Mumbled my way through an Arabic-speaking country

7. Learned to ice climb, then spent thousands of dollars on said equipment

8. Pulled a roof on trad lead!

9. Caught four trad leader falls, of guys much bigger than me (I wish it came with lifetime beer subscription)

10. Got my haircut in Paris ;)

11. Thinking my outdoor footwear had to be the most expensive, outdid it by buying a pair of beautiful Dior pumps in Paris

12. Went flying off into the white abyss on Mt. Whistler, British Columbia while skiing

13. For three months, had beautifully pedicured feet and manicured hands (couldn't climb in B-dad!)

14. went to London AGAIN without visiting Ireland or Scotland

retrospect 2007

I sometimes go back and read what I wrote in prior times, so here was a list I made about a year and a half ago. I took out the stuff I already did (hence missing number) and things I don't really care about or were associated with things I did in a previous like (like taekwondo).

things i've never done (and may never do)

2. Cheated on someone
3. Scuba dived
4. Smoked marijuana
3. Killed someone
4. Went Caving
5. Taken any illegal drug that had no age restrictions
6. Driven a motorcycle
7. Swam a lap

9. Played drums
10. Left the DC metro area for another place to live (3 months in Baghdad!)
11. Travelled 4 times to the UK and went to Scotland or Ireland
12. Skied a Black Diamond


15. Owned a dog
16. not talked to my mom for a week
17. talked to my dad continuously for a week
18. gotten married
19. had kids
20. owned a sports car
21. Been to Amsterdam, Luxembourg, or Monaco
22. acted in a widely distributed film
23. hang-glided
24. landed a single propeller engine airplane

26. gotten into a street fight has dramatically changed
27. stood up a date
28. faked liking a boy

30. saw the 'drag races' in Dupont
31. driven a car on a race track
32. Sailed a boat on my own
33. ice skated without falling
34. gone to the Phillips collection
35. Been to Washington state
36. painted a room all by myself
37. held a spider
38. been to Eastern Europe
39. defended a dissertation

41. Had surgery

44. fallen for a South Asian man
45. not had a boyfriend who wasn't some part Anglo-Saxon
46. voted Republican
47. Voted before 2004
48. gone to Fur
49. tolerated cigarette smoking very well