somewhere under the sky

johnny simpleton

every saturday morning on my weekly bike ride to the farmer's market i am inspired to blog. today on the bike path i saw the following:
(I) tailgaters, at 10 in the morning, hanging out outside their cars. at first i was thinking that this is a part of my culture that i don't understand however, now it occurs to me that this could actually be a positive aspect of my culture-i'm always thinking that in comparison, the US spends much less time together as a family. but tailgating, be it with friends or family, is simply people spending time together, and i like this.
(II) trash. recyclable trash in fact, that my guilty conscience before such beautiful nature obligated me to pick up.
(III) the winding Hocking river, and the reflection of the sun on the water. the hills behind the river covered in trees just starting to turn colors
(IV) couples walking
(V) tents set up for the annual Sustainability Festival
(VI) dozens of kids skating on the ramp at the Athens Community Center
(VII) rec league children playing soccer games and their parents watching in lawn chairs on the side.

what was most beautiful to me was Nature of course, and the feeling of community, of people engaged together in encouraging activities.
my destination was the farmers' market, another spot in athens where i feel joy at the simple fact of people coming together to buy local food. today i bought goat cheese from a farmer in Albany, a neighboring village to Athens. He has 12 goats, milks them and proceses the cheese himself. i couldn't afford it in the least (in fact, i owe him a dollar, he was kind enough to still let me buy it) but it was worth the splurge because it is delicious and because i know that i am supporting his farm so that he can continue milking goats and making cheese.

whenever i wander around the farmers' market or the local grocery store i always think about the sad fact that only the upper/middle class can afford to eat healthy. it's true though, that during some seasons produce at the farmer's market is actually cheaper than at the store, and buying day-old bread is incredibly cheap. but no one denies the high expense of organic food. in one sense, i feel like it should be this way: simply because quality is worth more, what is Good has a higher value. but that doesn't negate the fact that the Good should be available to all people. the good news is that the Athens farmers' market accepts food stamps. i just hope that as time goes by and people become more conscious of how their lives affect the place we live, the demand for organic will grow, reducing the price while maintaining the quality.
p.s. i know nothing about economics.

Athens, Ohio is one of the most beautiful places i have ever seen, and i say this after having the fortune to go to many beautiful places. these are 2 picture of Athens in the fall, what it will look like in a month.

posted by leah v @ 8:39 AM 3 comments

being special

the moment i came back to the states i made the depressing realization that i am not, in fact, exotic. at least every 3rd person here has blond hair, and even more if we include the fakies (no offense). here, i'm not a giant, i'm average height. the only thing i may still have going for me are my eyes, which are not a too common color.
this is a disappointing realization. when i was in Cusco, whenever i went alone to the plaza and sat down, waiting for a friend, inevitably a guy would meander over to me, sit down uninvited, and start talking to me. i never really minded, because i knew that sooner or later the person i was meeting would show up and save me from the horror of small talk. this happened because in Peru, every 200th person has blond hair, and that's probably because s/he is a tourist. in Peru, i am exotic.

i jest about it being so disappointing, but being the minority is an important aspect of traveling (to places other than canada and west europe) and it is an interesting feeling, to say the least. for someone who has lived her entire life in the majority in terms of appearance, social status, and education, looking different from the people around me makes me much more self-conscious, even if all reason tells me not to be. you begin to associate people with geography and this divides the world. because of this mental division between race, class, etc, the most important part about traveling is talking (actual dialogue) to the people who live where you are traveling to. it is by talking to people that you discover that despite our physical appearances, we all get hungry, laugh, cry, have hopes and desires and love.

posted by leah v @ 11:23 AM 8 comments