This Summer
Hil stopped by for dinner last night so she and Matthew could talk to us about possible summer plans. Bouncing around the table: A return to Nicaragua, but pick a different city and a different activity. Matt wonÃt again sit for four hours a day of Spanish lessons. Guatemala, but it is safe? Colombia, but would they return home alive?
Knocked from the list: Costa Rica and Mexico – too ordinary, too safe. South America? Who knows anything about those countries? If they go somewhere, everyone, even Matthew agrees that they should have structure, as in community service, etc. . Preferred by the ërents and maybe even the deal breaker, known contacts in the area.
Anyone out there with ideas?
From the book The Unsubscriber by Bill Knott:
Untitled
Fingerprints look like ripples
because time keeps dropping
another stone into our palm.
From the review of The Unsubscriber in Poetry, the magazine Adam and Tricia gave me for my last birthday.
The Unsubscriber is KnottÃs first new collection in a decade, and it is something of an event, in part because Farrar, Straus and Giroux – home to Noble Prize-winning Derek Walcott and Pulitzer-winning, John Ashbery, as well as many distinguished others – is publishing it. And a good thing, too, because, as it turns out, Knott is an underrated, or at least an under-read, poet. To be sure, he is also plenty capable of bad – not to mention offensively grotesque – poetry, of a sort that is more unsettling than the average tediously bad poem. But his talent is a kind of live wire: no one, least of all the poet himself, seems to be able to get a consistently steadying hand on it, and if the result is sometimes appalling, it can also make for a kind of terrifying beauty.
Cuba. Seriously.
Cool poemlet. Got one of the appalling, or the terrifyingly beautiful?
Comment by upstart — March 15, 2005 @ 7:50 am
Hay una profesora en Deerfield que es uruguayana. Su familia hace todo en un suburbio de Montevideo — creo que un miembro de la familia es el jefe de la policia, otro es doctor en el hospital, otro es director en la escuela. Uruguay no es peligrosa; hay un grupo de Deerfield que va cada dos anos y ellos hace clases y servicio con ninos que no tienen padres. Puedo darles la direccion de correo electronico de la profesora si Matt y Hil seran interesados. Pero, con tantas connecciones, no sera un gran sentido de aventura.
Comment by carlos — March 15, 2005 @ 9:50 am
well, Uruguay sounds fine to me. the padre freaked out (a lot) when i mentioned guatamala or honduras. “WHAT???? NO. YOU KNOW PEOPLE IN NICARAGUA.” apparently its ok for me to go to NICARAGUA and no where else? we’ll work on that one. i’m still voting for Cuba myself. we could bring back some pretty sweet cigars for los padres!
I’d love to hear more about the Uruguay trip that happens (although matt and i wouldnt go WITH the trip because we are far too sophisticated and adventurous for that! i’m serious actually) so la dirrecion de correo electronico would be very nice.
love and Light, Her Chica-ness
Comment by LaChica — March 15, 2005 @ 5:31 pm
Well, now la chica is considering bees. That is, interning with a beekeeper. We’ll keep you posted, I’m sure.
Comment by la madre — March 15, 2005 @ 10:37 pm
how come i wasnt invited to dinner
Comment by joe — March 15, 2005 @ 11:24 pm
Joe, your always invited for dinner, its just wether or not your parents will let you come. As for the trip, not only is hil thinking about bees, but i believe that we have conflicting time issues…. which leaves me with the question of what to do. Since i really would rather not do anything in a “group” or “program” it narrows down the options, or widens them infinetly, depending on how you look at the situation.. Joe,what you doing this summer?
Comment by matt — March 16, 2005 @ 10:35 am
Good luck getting to Cuba, Americanos.
There’s always time for Bees, but how often can you get the family to send you to another country for the summer?
Latin America is so passe. How about Africa. I hear wonderful things about Ghana and Mali. There are tons of volunteer opportunities in Africa, especially in public health type work.
Comment by voyeur — March 16, 2005 @ 3:02 pm
im gunna brush up on my tan and try to keep u from going anywhere that is full of diseases that u could bring back to america
Comment by joe — March 16, 2005 @ 5:05 pm
Geez, La Chica, if you two donÃt go somewhere this summer that will put and early end to my fantasy of the two of you continuing this traveling tradition long into old age. Long after youÃve married others and otherwise settled down.
And, voyeur, are we ever going to get some kind of up date on your life? IÃve heard you spend your days romancing, skiing, bar hopping, and very little time in class.
Comment by michael — March 16, 2005 @ 7:07 pm
I think they should come to France!! Just kidding, there is no huge communnity service need here. But I have some friends from South Africa now… but it’s a little dangerous. Hope all is well in Acton…et salut ‡ Millers, Hil et Joe! ‡ bientot.
Comment by la fille franÃaise — March 23, 2005 @ 12:37 pm