growing up

the boat outside which had basically blown into our front lawn and frozen there is now back off the rocks and upright. poor little boat.
also poor little ducks. the ducks in the st johns pond stayed there through the snow, the freezing rain, the hail, the entire freezing of the surface of the pond. in fact.. im pretty sure the ducks actually froze into the pond wherever they happened to be floating. just kidding. but they did stay there through the terrible storms. i love those ducks.

im sorry i dont post pictures anymore... my macbook is sick. but don't worry, im working on it.
my blog is probably incredibly boring with out pictures. i appoligize.
speaking of pictures... i am writing my own photojournalism course for next year in Alba.
I am also writing my own course concerning food in literature in Italy.
sigh. that actually sounds amazing.
i will probably gain 80 lbs while staying in italy. whatever. haha.
craig will probably gain 0 lbs. but thats okay.

second semester has been a bit of a culture shock for me.
i have, always, of course, lived in the same WASP neighborhood my entire life. until college.
and it is just a very different perspective living and being friends with Asia, and as a result, meeting all her black friends.
I have always kind of just had these unspoken pre concieved notions of what black people were like. not that i like to admit that to my semi-liberal self. but they have, in fact, always held a place in my subconscious i suppose. shaped by whatever, my white parents, my white friends, my white teachers. things like that.
And even more so, i think i had this mental division between suburban black people, and urban black people.
which is to say, black people who act like white people, and black people who act like black people.
and there definitely is a difference.
one of my first conversations with asia's friend brit went something like this:
brittany: who your home girls laura?
laura: idk, i mean i mostly just hang out with craig
brit: yeah, but who you bang with? you know what im sayin? who yo homegirls?
laura: i guess i dont have any...
brit: none?
laura: uh...
brit: you know what? you can bang wid us laura.
laura: thanks?
embarassingly enough i was amazed to find out that brit switches between what she calls her urban talk, and what i refer to as her 'normal' speaking voice in and out of class. i thought she just spoke urban all the time, but its weird, its like this whole other language that she talks with her family and friends. brits from baltimore. Her mom take boarders at their house. recently the police knocked down their door and busted one of the renter for hard drug dealing.
she rooms with katina, who is also from baltimore. katinas older sister had twins at age 15. both her brothers are drug dealers. They have been shot, stabbed, and in jail. in fact, one of them is in jail right now. She doesn't talk about her dad. neither does brit. and neither does asia. katina is majoring in political science and has a gpa thats notably higher than mine. she doesnt drink. she doesnt smoke. craig says she should write a book. she probably should. shes one of the happiest people i know. her and brit have a "leave it at the door rule" to quote them, i think it goes something along the lines of 'whatever happens in baltimore stays in baltimore because there sure ain't shit we can do about it while we're here and they're there.'
Asia comes from a really close family situation. like really close. like grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, everybody is very interdependant. its cool. i like it. im excited to go to family/friends day at her black baptist church with her in a few weeks. haha. it should be a good time.
Asia has a boyfriend of two years. Him and his little sisters lived with their abusive mother until she kicked them out of the house last year. then they had to go find somewhere else to live. he indipendantly supported his sisters by himself while still in high school. how crazy is that? asia says "he had to grow up real fast." i mean you hear like stuff about this but i guess you dont take it seriously until its someone you actually know.
its weird.
Their favorite thing to do when we have free time at school, is to "have church." I've learned that this when you go into someones dorm room, put on gospel music on i-tunes, and have someone say a prayer, and then have someone else read a passage from the bible. its weird. its nothing like a bible study that i grew up knowing. but its interesting to say the least.
they all take christianity very seriously.
brit used to go to the bible study here until she got tired of feeling awkward for being black. apparently we are not quite as diverse here as we advertise. people are actually extremely racist, which really sucks. I was completely in denial of this until i started seriously spending time with my black friends and you really do notice, people outright make racist coments. not even like subltle. like completely blatent racial slurs.
its really sad.

anyways.
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!
almost!
im syked even though im not doing anything particularly special for it.
I actually have an R.A. interview process thing all day on valentines day. so does craig. go us!
haha

dear mom and dad: do not freak out. i got my nose pierced. haha. i can always take it out if i feel like it. or if you feel like it. if you want to pretend i dont have it, thats cool. i can take it out before i come home for the summer if you would prefer. i just thought i would let you know.


oh also, more snow is predicted. although here we really just get rain. hmm.
people were out windsurfing the other day but i dont think my wetsuit is warm enough for this frigid weather yet. ill have to wait a few months yet.

there are literally huge ice chunks floating in the st marys river. its crazy. it looks like, idk, antartica or something.
i have to go do work. actually im going to go run. and then eat dinner, and then work at saferide, and then sleep. and then do work tomorrow? haha
we shall see.

cheers!