that’s according to the carpenter guy who works in my house everyday. i wake up later than the other housemates, since i have no classes this week, and i stumble downstairs to the bathroom, and every day since the house is still being renovated, i see this carpenter guy, his daughter, and his daugher’s boyfriend, another work guy. this morning i came downstairs and the carpenter yelled, “Good afternoon! No lessons in the morning for you?” and then i had to act awake and sociable and not annoyed that they’d made 8 cups of coffee and used up all my imported dark roast.

but anyway, today he asked me about my roommates. i explained we had a new irish girl, and an irish guy. and i joked that Declan, our irish guy, is quite the subtle lady’s man, having gone on four dates with four different girls in the past week. “that’s typical,” the carpenter’s daughter said. “they’re all like that. it’s the accent, it makes them irresistible.”

even to british people, who also have an accent?

“yes,” they told me, “they’re even irresistible to british people.”

“i went to the dentist one time,” the carpenter started. “and the dentist was a woman, she was quite a big lady, you know, but she opened her mouth and the instant she started talking i knew i’d love her, cause she was irish…”

so i’ve gotten the wrong end of the stick, have i? i’m ethnically a full-blooded irish girl but because of my american accent, i’m doomed to the mediocre status of “that american girl” instead of “that irresistible irish person.” not that i care or anything. i just didn’t know my cultural heritage was so steeped in charm and prowess. i thought all irish people were like my father and grandfather and great-grandfathers and uncle and great-uncles: alcohol-loving catholics with overly-sensitive skin who bang pots and pans when angry, are fiercely competitive and have a penchant for golf and trade union membership. who knew?

i just need to announce this:

i’m in the main computer lab at uni and the mousepad i’m using has a chart of STDs printed on it! i wish i could take a picture of this. it’s called: Below The Belt: A Young Persons Guide and it lists, in alphabetical order: Chlamydia (which i always thought would be such a beautiful name for a girl if it weren’t already the name of a terrible STD); Crabs; Gonorrhea; Hepatitis; Herpes; HIV; Syphilis; Thrush; Trichomonas; Warts.

you can tell i’m not making this up because all the diseases are spelled correctly. next to each name is a box explaining how the STI/STD is passed, an appropriate mode of prevention (mostly condoms), and the long-term effects if untreated.

pretty horrendous, but actually, printing this on university mousepads might make a few 18 yr-olds think twice. let’s hope, anyway…

For those of you not in school, here’s a reminder of what it’s like. This is a list of practise essay questions for my class, Anthropology of Globalisation and Development.

(UUSC people, look how relevant my studies are to human rights — particularly the last two):

1. What is the relationship between the restructuring of global capitalism since the Oil Crisis and neoliberalism? What can anthropologists contribute to the study of these processes?
2. Does Asian Capitalism offer an alternative model of development to that of the West?
3. Globalization spells social regression for the majority of humanity. Discuss with reference to Africa AND/OR Latin America.
4. Assess the consequences of economic changes since the 1980s for US urban society in general and immigrant and transmigrant populations in particular.
5. The economic, social and political order in Latin America is maintained by an uneasy equilibrium between “acceptable” levels of social exclusion and “acceptable” levels of violence. Discuss.
6. The current global food regime is good for transnational corporations and pretty bad for farmers, workers, consumers and Nature. Discuss.
7. The classic critiques of “Development” by Escobar and Ferguson are increasingly irrelevant to a much changed global situation, though the need for critical anthropological perspectives is undiminished. Discuss.
8. Can the “thickening of social capital” provide a way forward for poor people?
9. NGOs are essentially agents of cooptation and only grassroots social movements can achieve significant leverage against capitalist globalization. Discuss.
10. With reference to specific ethnographic cases, discuss the implications of devising specific policies targeted at women and/or indigenous peoples.

i just wrote a really long post, then clicked some button and it all got erased. don’t you hate when that happens? man, i hate it.

in boring personal news, i’m skipping our informationless information session today, entitled “Plagiarism and Ethics”. i would go to the gym, but the school gym costs a whopping $60/mo so i’ve opted for walking as my only form of exercise, not to mention my only form of transportation. i walk about 10 miles a day, mostly out of necessity. the city center is a few miles down the road.

in political news, i read an article yesterday written by an american but published in a manchester newspaper that announced what all the dems are afraid to admit: kerry is going to lose. he’s going to LOSE! oh my good god, somebody do something! joe?

in documentary news, mohan gave me an interesting suggestion for my final film project:

you should do one on radical young conservatives. challenge the meaning of the word “radical”–does it really belong to the left? many people believe that the 1960′s was a time of radical leftism, but actually the opposite is true–many of the key players during the Reagan years were trained intellectually and developed during the 60′s. maybe you could find a small group, maybe even the young republicans club (I’ll let you borrow my “California is for Commies” and “I love Capitalism” t-shirts) and then do some background info.

my friends are so smart.
i’m still collecting ideas, though, so don’t be shy!

so, georg and george and beth will be happy to know, i’ve been successful at teaching myself Adobe Premiere Pro. before my camcorder got jacked, i digitized a tape’s worth of footage and have been editing as much as possible. now i’ve just gotta learn EncoreDVD and AfterEffects and InDesign and Illustrator and the entire Macromedia MX Suite, and i’ll have accomplished all my computer goals for the year. one step at a time…

as soon as i get internet at home (cough cough), i’ll upload an attractive little photo tour of my house. i knew that webcam would come in handy. and, once i join the amateur photographers group next tuesday, i’ll upload some actual photos of manchester in all its grey glory.

meanwhile, eat a burrito for me, ok people? i want everyone who reads this to eat a burrito today. thankyouverymuch.

here i am looking deceptively happy in the old house….

so, because my program is cool but extremely administratively disorganized, i’m required to pitch ideas for my final thesis paper + short documentary film, both of which will be created in the US this summer, at the first meeting with my director in about a month from now.

HELP! I NEED IDEAS!

dewayne said to make a documentary on civil liberties/protesters’ rights in the US. mohan said that’s a cool theme but it’s being “done to death right now”, and i agree it would be hard think of some innovative angle to let it stand out from the others. any other ideas? i’m allowed to do, for example, a piece on an organization, a person, an institution, an event, a movement, really anything at all. ideas? ideas?? my themes are politics and urbanism and social welfare and art. how bourgeois, non?

anyway, what is cool is that i’m allowed to collaborate with friends in the research and/or production of my documentary, so long as i credit them in the final project, and so long as most of the research and all the video editing is my own. my goal is to shoot substantial footage, edit that down into a 15-minute documentary to supplement my written thesis, and then after that’s all turned in and i get my masters, go back and expand the film into a longer, maybe 30 minute documentary.

who’s with me? randazzo is with me. dewayne. mohan. george, i assume. where my AV/politico people at? East coast reprezent, yo!

HOLLA AT ME! Holla back!

so manchester is one of the most diverse areas i’ve ever seen. you’ve got people from all over the world living in one [crappy] place, and it’s been a cool anthropological process of observation. what i’ve found is that there’s actually stronger prejudices between all the groups, it’s just quiet. there’s a huge muslim/hindu population in genereal around the city, and a large east- and southeast asian population among university students.

but everybody hates eachother!

“the chinese cook too much pork and don’t clean up”
“the arabs steal”
“the indians smell”
“the americans are loud”
“the brits are stupid”
“the germans/french are snobby”

and on and on. i’ve heard it all since coming here. what’s interesting is that everyone sticks to their own groups. i’ve always thought that’s dumb, but so far the pals i’ve made are american, german, scottish, irish and canadian. they’re white people. there’s many non-white people around, but the percentage is small among my classmates or my roommates. there are a lot of trust issues here. hmm.

more updates later. i sent in my absentee ballot voter application today. go dems!!!

i will miss chorlton. not the theives who smash my windows and steal stuff, but the big brick houses…the swaying green trees…the organic supermarkets…and, especially, Barbakan Bakery. they have the best bagels, loaves of bread, imported cheese and chicken coronation sandwiches on the island. and quiche, apparently.

i moved into 8 Ruskin Ave, Rusholme, Manchester, M14 4DQ yesterday. just, you know, kind of packed and left. it was a warmer day for this freezing city — probably lower 60s — and after calling 20 cab places, someone finally agreed to move my stuff.

the driver, though perfectly harmless, immediately started hitting on me:

“so, you have boyfriend?”

i should have quickly switched my grandmother’s wedding ring from my right hand to my left and held up my finger, but i thought just telling him i had a boyfriend would be enough. it wasn’t.

“but why not have another boyfriend here?”
oh god. i don’t do that, i said.
“why not?” he persisted. “i bet your boyfriend already has another girlfriend.”
he can see whoever he wants, i said. as long as i don’t know about it. if i knew about it, i’d have to kill her.
“oh, i’m sure he has many girlfriends. that’s the way of guys. you know, they go to club, they drink, they meet women…”
stop! stop it! can we please stop talking about this?

we drove on for a little while, silent except for his stiffled chuckling. soon we hit rusholme, on the border of moss side, my new neighborhood.

“oh my god,” he said. “you’re moving HERE? are you crazy? this is the worst area of manchester.”
thanks, i said. i was already robbed in the posh part of town. i think i’ll be fine here.
“no,” he continued. “this is where all the drug dealers live!”
whatever.
[i did come to find out, however, that our neighbors directly across the narrow street are in fact some big players in the drug underworld, as evidenced by the yelling and screaming mob of questionable persons who form a queue outside the house every morning.]
“my friend got robbed here the other night!” he said. ” i got robbed here a month ago! you’re crazy. don’t ever walk alone.”

you know what? if i can survive manchester, i can survive anything. despite the misery my congenial taxi driver tried to inspire in me, i kept my chin up and moved right in. peter from germany, who’s in his mid-thirties and has spent the past 3 years integrating technology in tiny villages in peru, let me in, helped carry my stuff, and set up my bed with me. he and i share the third floor, which i think was an attic at one point. i just wanted to be high up. he’s going to be a great neighbor, since he’s quiet but not shy, owns the entire Macromedia MX Suite for PCs and is not afraid to share all his applications. he’s unfortunately a chain-smoker, and the smoke seeps through my walls all day, but c’est la vie. a little tobacco never killed anyone, right?

so that’s my move-in story and i’m sticking to it. my 12×10 room is just lovely. i went to the pub last night with peter and ben and michel’s girlfriend, who’s visiting from canada, and a friend of hers from liverpool. do you know, the pubs here all shut down at 11p? if you want to drink or hang out after that, you have to go to a CLUB! a club, where you pay to get in, and where skanky girls/guys come up to you, smashed, and try to dance with you. um…no thank you. and all the pool tables here are tiny, i mean tiny, and the balls are also tiny and they’re only red and yellow.

peter and i have bonded over lack: the lack of decent bread and pastries from good bakeries (the new ghetto neighborhood hasn’t a bakery in miles), the lack of late-night pubs, curry with vegetables, affordable sports facilities, and sun.

i miss you all, but please don’t come to visit me because it would never be worth the investment, and i couldn’t bare to see any of you subjected to the horrors, anticlimactic though they may be, of this sad wet city.

happy sunday!

…it just drizzles. consistently. like that in-between stage where it’s not actually a hard rain but it’s a little bit more than drizzle, so half the people have their umbrellas up (the wimpy ones), and half haven’t put their umbrellas up (the rugged and/or stupid ones).

except today. today it’s weirdly sunny. we still have to wear jackets and scarves because it’s cold, but it’s sunny. it’s sunny! my italian pals, the two valentinas who miss the sun more than the rest of us, they want to be outside all day. i hope it lasts more than 6 hours…

i have nothing interesting to write about, so i’ll wait until after i’ve moved in the new place and i have more to talk about. meanwhile, i feel so disconnected to the world, not reading much news or hearing anything about the US. what’s going on at home? kidnappings and executions in iraq? that much i’ve heard about. what else? should i be grateful i’m far away right now? i hope everyone votes. please, everyone, oh please vote!!

despite what you might think, it’s not too late to reroute all those packages of extra peppermint stick gum you’ve sent me! here’s my new and hopefully year-long address:

8 Ruskin Ave.
Rusholme
Manchester, M14 4DQ
United Kingdom

[phone number forthcoming as of next week]