Leaving Ithaca

Leaving Ithaca is a contradiction, we don’t leave Ithaca, we come back to it. But the truth is that I’m leaving Ithaca to go back home! It will necessarily bring changes to this blog, since there will probably be few chances for culture shock. I will pay more attention to my surroundings, and write comedy of manners about University life, and about Seville. And there’s always the poetry, of course.

So. I came to an Ivy League school to do research on domestic violence, and these are some of the things I ended up doing:

- I’ve learnt to bellydance. I have danced in public for a couple hundred people (not including the massive crowd that watched the Ithaca Parade).
- I have learnt tai-chi (although I gave up)
- I have gone vegan for weeks and months, and stayed healthy.
- I’ve eaten blue potatoes.
- I can make my own sushi.
- I’ve used the word “queer” in class and in an exam.
- I’ve used my knowledge of (Catholic) Canon Law in a term paper seven years after dropping out of Law School.
- I’ve studied Socio-Psychology.
- I’ve seen a Bollywood film, a Norwegian one, and a handful of African ones.
- I have visited Niagara Falls, Washington DC and New York City.
- It must have been love, but it’s over now.
- I have seen performances by Michel Camilo, Paul Winter, Eugene Friesen, Jessica Lange, Christian Slater, Balinese dances, a Filipino vaudeville show, a madman that performed (not recited: performed) Finnegans Wake, and also more bellydancers that I can remember.
- I’ve had my head shaved.
- I’ve survived Ithacan weather, including walking from East Hill to Greenstar during a snowstorm (that would take 50 minutes in good weather).
- I’ve taken a massage class (Swedish, Shiatsu and Thai).
- I’ve been a extra (an actress with one line, heh!) in a student film.
- I’ve gone tubing (because waterski looked too difficult).

Isn’t it a miracle that I also had time to do the work I came here for!?