200 Soccer Balls
Video

200 Soccer Balls

by karen on Feb 7, 2013 • No Comments
We take a break from our reg­u­lar­ly sched­uled TB updates to dis­cuss some actu­al work. This video is a thank you to a group of donors from the States and all the Peace Corps Vol­un­teers that helped in a sim­ple, fun project that I orga­nized in Mex­i­co over the course of 2012 basi­cal­ly. We received...
Camp Mariposas - the weekend finale
Peace Corps / Photo Gallery / Post

Camp Mariposas — the weekend finale

by karen on Jan 27, 2013 • No Comments
It’s time to wrap up the camp posts. I have to keep check­ing the cal­en­dar to con­vince myself that it has only been one week (tomor­row) since the end of the camp. What a week it has been. I’m so con­fused by what day it is and what is going on. So, the...
Camp Mariposas - Day 5
Peace Corps / Photo Gallery / Post

Camp Mariposas — Day 5

by karen on Jan 25, 2013 • No Comments
I real­ly need to fin­ish post­ing about the camp, because it gets hard­er and hard­er to recall the details as the days go by. I guess that is because so much as been hap­pen­ing over the last week. Like fin­ish­ing ser­vice and mov­ing back to the US yes­ter­day. Oh, but enough...
Camp Mariposas - Day 4
Peace Corps / Photo Gallery / Post

Camp Mariposas — Day 4

by karen on Jan 23, 2013 • No Comments
Health Day was a lot of fun, exclud­ing the impor­tant the pre­sen­ta­tion about sex­u­al health and con­tra­cep­tion. It was inter­est­ing, and I was very hap­py that the girls were ask­ing a lot of ques­tions, but I’m not sure that fun is the right word. Taek­won­do class was a blast though. A teacher from a local school...
Camp Mariposas - Day 3
Peace Corps / Photo Gallery / Post

Camp Mariposas — Day 3

by karen on Jan 20, 2013 • No Comments
Well, as expect­ed, I’m falling far­ther and far­ther behind in my efforts to edit and upload pho­tos each day. The days are get­ting longer as we slow­ly pull out of win­ter and as each day’s activ­i­ties and the evening dra­ma of the camp extends into my sleep time. I’m actu­al­ly...
Camp Mariposas - Day 1
Peace Corps / Photo Gallery / Post

Camp Mariposas — Day 1

by karen on Jan 14, 2013 • No Comments
I’m going to repeat some Face­book infor­ma­tion here because not every­one uses, or needs to use, that par­tic­u­lar site (or be con­nect­ed to me on that site). How­ev­er, I can give more back­ground and infor­ma­tion here. For this whole week, I’m help­ing at a friend’s lead­er­ship and empow­er­ment camp for young women...
Take the good with the smoky
Peace Corps / Post

Take the good with the smoky

by karen on Dec 1, 2012 • 3 Comments
And oth­er lessons being learned in the stove project. We are in the mon­i­tor­ing and eval­u­a­tion phase doing a final round of sur­veys to try to quan­ti­fy fuel sav­ings after a few months with the effi­cient wood-burn­ing stoves. Since the fam­i­lies typ­i­cal­ly only buy wood once or twice a year, we switched to...
Marvelous Mexican Mountains - Malinche
Photo Gallery / Post

Marvelous Mexican Mountains — Malinche

by karen on Nov 29, 2012 • No Comments
If only that title was also a palin­drome, that would be like infin­i­ty in word-nerd points. How­ev­er, even with­out a per­fect nerd score, it was won­der­ful to get back to the moun­tains with a lit­tle light moun­taineer­ing and an intense hik­ing day. We start­ed a lit­tle after 9am and made it to the top...
Pinal de Amoles and one Puente de Dios
Photo Gallery / Post

Pinal de Amoles and one Puente de Dios

by karen on Nov 14, 2012 • 2 Comments
It was real­ly hard to nar­row down the 200-odd pic­tures I took last week­end down to the just-under 40 that I am show­ing below. The Río Escanela near Pinal de Amoles in the Sier­ra Gor­da de Queré­taro turns out to be just as beau­ti­ful as the soon-to-be off-lim­its Huaste­ca region in San...
Day of the Dead 2012 - Marigolds and Altars
Photo Gallery / Post

Day of the Dead 2012 — Marigolds and Altars

by karen on Nov 2, 2012 • 2 Comments
Walk­ing around town this year, I think that the Day of the Dead altars are still beau­ti­ful and well-craft­ed, but they seem small­er or less elab­o­rate. To sep­a­rate this year’s pho­tos from last year’s, I’m more focused on the marigolds. These are the tra­di­tion­al flow­ers use to hon­or the dead and...
85,000 birds in the sky - the River of Raptors
Photo Gallery / Post

85,000 birds in the sky — the River of Raptors

by karen on Oct 15, 2012 • 1 Comment
Or, more specif­i­cal­ly, 85,591 includ­ing: 33,376 Turkey vul­tures 7 Swal­low-tailed kites 1 Mis­sis­sip­pi Kite 8 Norther Har­ri­ers 29 Sharp-shinned hawks 39 Cooper’s hawks 2 Gray hawks 5109 Broad-winged hawks 41,864 Swainson’s hawks 16 Amer­i­can kestrels 5 Pere­grine fal­cons 5135 Unknown rap­tors Details here. See: All of this was in just...
How to build a combustion chamber
Video

How to build a combustion chamber

by karen on Sep 25, 2012 • No Comments
The trick­i­est por­tion of the effi­cient cook­stove con­struc­tion process is assem­bling the inter­nal com­bus­tion cham­ber. It isn’t dif­fi­cult, but requires a few sets of hands and under­stand­ing how the inte­ri­or pieces fit togeth­er. Two women hold the pieces in place while a third filled in around them with the sand/gravel mix­ture. This...
Before and After
Daily Photo

Before and After

by karen on Sep 14, 2012 • No Comments
The stove instal­la­tions are actu­al­ly almost all done. I saw 4 yes­ter­day and 1 today, and I look for­ward to going back and tak­ing all the “before” and “after” pic­tures. The instal­la­tion is a quick process, except for con­fig­ur­ing the chim­ney. The women typ­i­cal­ly have to drill holes in the walls of their kitchens or...
Yucatan Peninsula - Day 7 - Cenotes
Photo Gallery / Post

Yucatan Peninsula — Day 7 — Cenotes

by karen on Sep 4, 2012 • No Comments
Woul­da, shoul­da, coul­da. Along with every­thing else, the Yucatan penin­su­la is also known for its cenotes, or sort of sink­hole caves, result­ing from the lime­stone geol­o­gy. There are too many to vis­it, but we had a hard time pick­ing even one to vis­it. We were dri­ving by them in the mid­dle...
Yucatan Peninsula - Day 5 - Rio Lagartos
Photo Gallery / Post

Yucatan Peninsula — Day 5 — Rio Lagartos

by karen on Sep 3, 2012 • 2 Comments
Birds, birds, birds. Rio Lagar­tos is anoth­er town at the end of the road, but this time on a lagoon. The area is known for bird­watch­ing, and it is anoth­er pro­tect­ed Mex­i­can bios­phere reserve. Along with Celestun, this is one of the places to find large flamin­go colonies. We didn’t see...
Yucatan Peninsula - Day 2 - Punta Allen
Photo Gallery / Post

Yucatan Peninsula — Day 2 — Punta Allen

by karen on Aug 28, 2012 • 2 Comments
Step 1. Leave Tulum head­ing south. Stay on the coastal road. Step 2. Dri­ve to end of road. Step 3. Once in town, dri­ve to end of road. Step 4. Stay in beach cabana on prac­ti­cal­ly pri­vate beach. Require­ments: faith that the town real­ly exists at the end of the...
More Acrobatics!
Daily Photo

More Acrobatics!

by karen on Aug 16, 2012 • No Comments
Both a demand of life in gen­er­al and an excla­ma­tion about the show Pun­tos Sus­pen­sivos by the Mer­me­ji­ta Cir­cus last night. Won­der­ful, sim­ply won­der­ful. Also, how I feel late­ly about the twists and turns in all my projects, and then the title is read as an exas­per­at­ed sigh.
A large automobile and water flowing underground
Photo Gallery

A large automobile and water flowing underground

by karen on Jul 24, 2012 • 3 Comments
How did I get here? How do I work this? Where does this high­way lead to? In my case, I was not behind the wheel of the large auto­mo­bile, per Peace Corps reg­u­la­tions, but the ques­tions still apply to a bit of a bizarre week­end. I can’t real­ly say that much, except inter­est­ing times as usu­al....
Cañón del Sabino
Birds / Photo Gallery

Cañón del Sabino

by karen on Jun 20, 2012 • 4 Comments
No wit­ty title, just pic­tures and more pic­tures from the canyon with the mil­i­tary macaw colony. I want to go back with a tri­pod and real­ly get start­ed at 5am to see the big move­ment of the birds first thing as they exit the canyon. And, yes, I know that a tri­pod won’t real­ly...
After the Big Check... the Weighty Certificate
Peace Corps / Photo Gallery / Post

After the Big Check… the Weighty Certificate

by karen on May 6, 2012 • 2 Comments
I like com­ing up with wit­ty titles too much to not in this case, but actu­al­ly it was quite an hon­or to attend and receive a plaque in recog­ni­tion of the work we hav­ing been doing with the solar ovens dur­ing the solar oven fes­ti­val today. The real shame was that...
Niños y Niñas BIG CHECK day
Post

Niños y Niñas BIG CHECK day

by karen on Apr 26, 2012 • 1 Comment
Micha and I write emails back and forth in Span­ish most often, but we kept refer­ring to the BIG CHECK as just that. It doesn’t trans­late well into Span­ish, and is more amus­ing this way. While nei­ther of us are much for cer­e­mo­ny, it felt like the right thing to do...
Planta Madre
Photo Gallery / Post

Planta Madre

by karen on Apr 23, 2012 • No Comments
Plan­ta Madre is a group com­mit­ted the con­ser­va­tion, cul­ti­va­tion, replant­i­ng of cac­tus and med­i­c­i­nal plants in the Bernal area of the state of Queré­taro. The work in the pro­tect­ed area of the Peña de Bernal and have a large pro­duc­tion green­house in San Anto­nio de la Cal. The group has been in...
Semana Santa 2012 - talk about a good Friday.
Photo Gallery / Post

Semana Santa 2012 — talk about a good Friday.

by karen on Apr 10, 2012 • 2 Comments
Last year’s East­er week was in town dur­ing train­ing and I kept myself occu­pied explor­ing the cul­tur­al side of the fes­tiv­i­ties in a very Catholic coun­try. So, I didn’t feel the need to do that again, and I was hop­ing for a climb­ing trip. I was feel­ing frus­trat­ed that every­one seemed to have excit­ing plans and...
The steaming river, epiphytes, orchids, and bromeliads
Photo Gallery / Post

The steaming river, epiphytes, orchids, and bromeliads

by karen on Mar 25, 2012 • No Comments
After my week­end in San Blas and Isla Isabel, I went to Guadala­jara for “a series of work meet­ings.” Haha, a bit of a pri­vate joke there, but I did work some. I also had a real­ly nice week relax­ing and explor­ing a bit. The high­light of the week was the vis­it to the Bosque la Pri­mav­era....
San Blas and Isla Isabel
Photo Gallery / Post

San Blas and Isla Isabel

by karen on Mar 22, 2012 • 5 Comments
I final­ly made it to the beach — the charm­ing beach town of San Blas where two vol­un­teers are sta­tioned and the amaz­ing migra­to­ry marine bird reserve at Isla Isabel, about 3 hours off the coast. I will write more lat­er, but I’ve been work­ing on the pho­tos for days and want...
Sun Stripes = More Cake
Peace Corps / Photo Gallery / Post

Sun Stripes = More Cake

by karen on Mar 2, 2012 • No Comments
I gen­er­al­ly find it bet­ter when peo­ple cor­rect my Span­ish mis­takes, but I under­stand why some­one would choose to let a repeat­ed mis­take pass. I have done the same in Eng­lish many, many times because I under­stood what the per­son was say­ing and for a host of oth­er rea­sons. So these days, I try to just...
Not a bad way to start
Daily Photo

Not a bad way to start

by karen on Feb 16, 2012 • No Comments
My vis­it to Cal­i­for­nia is off to a beau­ti­ful start. Now, onwards to Bish­op! Good thing  I brought the zoom lens back for a vis­it too.  
It's not ever really 3-dog night cold here...
Photo Gallery / Post

It’s not ever really 3-dog night cold here…

by karen on Feb 1, 2012 • 2 Comments
…in Mex­i­co, but it cer­tain­ly has been 1-cat cold. So, I had to get a cat. Of course. Since meet­ing the effer­ves­cent Dulce, I had been con­sid­er­ing get­ting a cat, but I was firm on want­i­ng to res­cue one. What was sav­ing me was that I didn’t know the words in Span­ish for “ani­mal shel­ter”.  Then, a few...
Fundraising for Child and Youth Scholarships at Niños y Niñas de México, A.C.
Peace Corps / Post

Fundraising for Child and Youth Scholarships at Niños y Niñas de México, A.C.

by karen on Jan 26, 2012 • No Comments
UPDATE: As of March 28, 2012, the grant is ful­ly fund­ed! Thank you to every­one who donat­ed. If you still want to help in some way or learn more about this infor­ma­tion, please con­tact me. Michae­lene and I final­ly have our Peace Corps Part­ner­ship grant approved and ready for dona­tions at:...
Surprised, Scraped, Smacked around, but still Smiling
Photo Gallery / Post

Surprised, Scraped, Smacked around, but still Smiling

by karen on Jan 24, 2012 • 1 Comment
I was total­ly unpre­pared to be climb­ing well on the tufa-filled caves of Guadal­cázar. I had either been avoid­ing or unable to join the group on the pre­vi­ous trips for the 3-hour dri­ve up north into San Luis Poto­sí, but I’m very glad that I did join them this time. It is...
Late night banana-cart chronicles
Daily Photo / Post

Late night banana-cart chronicles

by karen on Jan 20, 2012 • No Comments
It was late. Not so late that the streets were emp­ty, but emp­ty enough for a lone roast­ed banana-cart sales­man. From out­side my front win­dow, I heard a scream­ing whis­tle that impelled me to the front win­dow to inves­ti­gate. Look­ing down to the street I imme­di­ate­ly rec­og­nized the source, but it was still a strange...
Local Crag Sunday (Issue #4)
Photo Gallery

Local Crag Sunday (Issue #4)

by karen on Jan 16, 2012 • No Comments
In which Sarah and I get up ear­ly to meet our ride to the not-so-local, but very nice-for-a-change crag, Bil­lie romps and holds her own with a host of oth­er dogs and dis­cov­ers the joy of tuna-water*, and Sarah and I redis­cov­er our love for the pure and sim­ple joy of top-rop­ing ....
Return to the Winter Bouldering Grounds
Photo Gallery / Post

Return to the Winter Bouldering Grounds

by karen on Jan 2, 2012 • No Comments
Just like the mon­archs return­ing to Mex­i­co in Win­ter, some things are sea­son­al­ly deter­mined, like a Tici­no boul­der­ing ses­sion if the weath­er allows in Decem­ber. Until the clouds dis­si­pat­ed and the full sun came out there was less activ­i­ty to be seen, but also like with the mon­archs, the activ­i­ty lev­el real­ly picked up once things...
Monarchs: the rest of the story
Photo Gallery / Post

Monarchs: the rest of the story

by karen on Dec 27, 2011 • 3 Comments
Although it is very nice to be back in Switzer­land for the hol­i­days, and the moun­tains are beau­ti­ful, I am still amazed as I edit the monarch pic­tures. Three of us went to one of the monarch win­ter nest­ing grounds near Valle de Bra­vo in cen­tral Mex­i­co. We aren’t allowed into the...
Monarchs, the teaser
Daily Photo

Monarchs, the teaser

by karen on Dec 22, 2011 • 2 Comments
Three of us spent a bit longer than a day in Valle de Bra­vo in the Esta­do de Mex­i­co to go see the monarch but­ter­flies in one of their win­ter homes in Piedra Her­ra­da. Soooo many more pic­tures to come, but this is one of my favorites. Real­ly no words to describe...
Coming Soon...
Peace Corps / Post

Coming Soon…

by karen on Dec 18, 2011 • No Comments
…irre­sistibly cute chil­dren for whom I have a grant appli­ca­tion pend­ing. My friend Micha and I are going to be rais­ing mon­ey for school schol­ar­ships through a Peace Corps Part­ner­ship grant. These kids from mar­gin­al­ized, indige­nous fam­i­lies receive schol­ar­ships to attend school through the civ­il asso­ci­a­tion Niños y Niñas de Méx­i­co, A.C. These kids would...
What's mine is yours
Photo Gallery / Post

What’s mine is yours

by karen on Dec 2, 2011 • 1 Comment
Of course, I’m refer­ring to the upcom­ing pic­tures in this post from the just-end­ed, and thanks to Aeromex­i­co, extend­ed vis­it by my guy. He arrived on Thanks­giv­ing, and we had 5+ days togeth­er for his first vis­it to Mex­i­co and our sec­ond vis­it since I arrived here in March. I am so...
Ingenuity inspiration
Essay / Peace Corps

Ingenuity inspiration

by karen on Nov 18, 2011 • 1 Comment
I looked up the def­i­n­i­tion of inge­nu­ity to make sure I was think­ing about it prop­er­ly. in·ge·nu·i·ty (n): the qual­i­ty of being clever, orig­i­nal, and inven­tive. (from googling “def­i­n­i­tion inge­nu­ity”) Turns out I knew the def­i­n­i­tion. Know­ing the def­i­n­i­tion doesn’t change why I was think­ing about it. I can believe that some­times I am each...
They really are more cosmopolitan in the big city.
Photo Gallery / Post

They really are more cosmopolitan in the big city.

by karen on Nov 14, 2011 • 2 Comments
Alter­nate titles con­sid­ered: “Tongue-tied with awe­some­ness” (yel­low one with 3 tongues) “Pure awe­some­ness” “Ever had one of those days” (for the green, goo­gly-eyed one) Some­thing to do with the injus­tice of Marie Curie’s head end­ing up on a float Although they are all true in their own way, I couldn’t find the per­fect...
Day of the Dead - Ofrendas
Photo Gallery

Day of the Dead — Ofrendas

by karen on Nov 8, 2011 • 2 Comments
It bog­gles the mind how much bet­ter sug­ar and choco­late can get, but make them into amaz­ing skulls and oth­er dec­o­ra­tions and there you have it. The ofren­das, or offer­ings for the day of the dead altars can be pic­tures, food, flow­ers, and many sym­bol­ic items. The pic­tures that I took,...
Day of the Dead - El Panteón Municipal
Photo Gallery

Day of the Dead — El Panteón Municipal

by karen on Nov 7, 2011 • 3 Comments
On the morn­ing of Dia de los Muer­tos, my moth­er (vis­it arranged to cor­re­spond with this fas­ci­nat­ing hol­i­day) and I went down the main ceme­tery in town. We had been told that it would be buzzing with activ­i­ty, but I don’t think we were pre­pared for how active it was. It seemed...
Day of the Dead - Altars
Photo Gallery

Day of the Dead — Altars

by karen on Nov 6, 2011 • 2 Comments
The Day of the Dead altars around town were beau­ti­ful and impres­sive in the amount of work that went into them. Each was ded­i­cat­ed to sev­er­al peo­ple with vary­ing lev­els of his­tor­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance. Pho­tograph­ing the altars pre­sent­ed some chal­lenges to my panora­ma-edit­ing abil­i­ties, but I’m def­i­nite­ly learn­ing a lot about the...
Day of the Dead — La Catrina(s)
Photo Gallery

Day of the Dead — La Catrina(s)

by karen on Nov 4, 2011 • 2 Comments
Many of these pho­tos are among my favorites that I shot over the hol­i­day. I thought about keep­ing these for the last Dia de los Muer­tos post, but then I was moti­vat­ed to edit them first. So, here they are, from two events. The first was a La Cat­ri­na con­test with large paper mache...
The last was the best
Daily Photo

The last was the best

by karen on Nov 3, 2011 • 1 Comment
I have sought out and pho­tographed so many La Catri­nas dur­ing this Day of the Dead, but the last was the best. Bet­ter yet, I’m still edit­ing the 200 or so pho­tos I took dur­ing the show of the 4 Catri­nas. I’m down to about 95 pho­tos, and edit­ing fur­ther. Many, many...
The beginnings of a proper Mexico City visit
Daily Photo

The beginnings of a proper Mexico City visit

by karen on Oct 31, 2011 • No Comments
To Remember: next year buy tickets.
Photo Gallery / Post

To Remember: next year buy tickets.

by karen on Oct 25, 2011 • No Comments
Just like every­one warned me, it is best to have tick­ets to some actu­al shows dur­ing the Fes­ti­val Cer­van­ti­no in Gua­na­ju­a­to. How­ev­er, I still want­ed to check out the scene. The arts fes­ti­vals here in my town have been so amaz­ing, and this Cer­vantes fes­ti­val is much more famous. So, while...
Just hanging around...
Daily Photo

Just hanging around…

by karen on Oct 23, 2011 • No Comments
…get­ting ready for Day of the Dead, and I am excit­ed. I reread­ing that and I don’t know if it sounds wrong or insen­si­tive, but I real­ly enjoy the art and learn­ing about this aspect of the Mex­i­can cul­ture. It is going to be a cou­ple of crazy weeks, and actu­al­ly I had a great, but busy...
(tee hee) I found some sustainable development at the office.
Peace Corps / Post

(tee hee) I found some sustainable development at the office.

by karen on Oct 22, 2011 • 1 Comment
I’ve been mean­ing to take my new, big zoom lens to work for a while to cap­ture the amaz­ing insect world out there. Final­ly I remem­bered this week, and then the prob­lem was that I had a lot of work to do. I kept try­ing to leave the office a bit ear­ly in the evening to...
My resolve is wavering.
Post

My resolve is wavering.

by karen on Oct 20, 2011 • 3 Comments
And there is only a cat named Dulce to blame. She’s not mine, but I’m not sure that I can resist. I was going to hold fast to being a vol­un­teer with­out a pet, but what am I sup­posed to do? I’ve got all this space and it would be pret­ty great to have a cat to...
First marathon, check. Next day hobbled, check. Worth it, check.
Post

First marathon, check. Next day hobbled, check. Worth it, check.

by karen on Oct 10, 2011 • 3 Comments
I was too tired yes­ter­day after­noon to post about my first marathon suc­cess. I should start with the good news that I fin­ished, with­out stop­ping or walk­ing at all, with a time of 4h27m  for 42.195km/26.2miles. I’m real­ly proud of the fact that I fin­ished with­out walk­ing at all, even though I was slow­er than...
So, it's kiss a pig for luck right?
Daily Photo

So, it’s kiss a pig for luck right?

by karen on Oct 8, 2011 • 1 Comment
So I’ve got this right? The night before a big race it’s: drink plen­ty of water, eat pas­ta, and kiss a pig for luck?
Visit to Oaxaca - Puppies and Tlayudas, but separate.
Photo Gallery / Post

Visit to Oaxaca — Puppies and Tlayudas, but separate.

by karen on Sep 19, 2011 • 1 Comment
When I received a last-minute invi­ta­tion to Oax­a­ca last week, it took me a few hours to accept, because I was sup­posed to go work with the bees on Sat­ur­day. How­ev­er, it was a long week­end because of the inde­pen­dence day hol­i­day on Fri­day, and this was too good of an oppor­tu­ni­ty to pass up....
Vacation: up the coast to the boulders and forest we go
Post

Vacation: up the coast to the boulders and forest we go

by karen on Sep 14, 2011 • No Comments
I’m just back from an amaz­ing, and as-warned much to short vis­it to Cal­i­for­nia to see my novio. Sigh. And the Mex­i­can cus­toms con­fis­cat­ed the deli­cious sala­mi that I was bring­ing back. I’m grumpy to be back. I’m sure my mood will improve once I go for a run. Except for the fact...
Take 2: Camping and Climbing
Photo Gallery / Post

Take 2: Camping and Climbing

by karen on Aug 29, 2011 • No Comments
This time the plan was camp, climb, fies­ta, maybe more climb­ing. How­ev­er, look­ing back to Fri­day, my stom­ach was already a bit off. The (near­ly) 3-hour run on Fri­day prob­a­bly didn’t help. In fact, it kind of destroyed me. Maybe an omi­nous por­tent for Sat­ur­day, I had no ener­gy to post about...
Are there circus groupies?
Photo Gallery / Post

Are there circus groupies?

by karen on Aug 23, 2011 • No Comments
The 4th annu­al fes­ti­val of alter­na­tive arts (Fes­ti­val Sigu­ien­tesce­na 2011) in town did not dis­ap­point last week. Con­sist­ing of “uncon­ven­tion­al the­ater, dance, and cir­cus” per­for­mances, the gen­er­al qual­i­ty of the tal­ent was extreme­ly high. Full of great music, dance, and peo­ple doing gen­er­al­ly crazy things with their bod­ies, these types of...
The bee's knees
Peace Corps / Photo Gallery / Post

The bee’s knees

by karen on Aug 13, 2011 • 2 Comments
Api­cul­ture has been a dream hob­by of mine now for many years. I’m just fas­ci­nat­ed by it. As far as dream hob­bies go, I always felt that this one was rather real­is­tic. How­ev­er, still a lit­tle tricky to get into — not the type of thing I want­ed to just read about and then buy...
The idea was climb, camp, climb...
Photo Gallery / Post

The idea was climb, camp, climb…

by karen on Aug 8, 2011 • 2 Comments
It start­ed with a after­noon of climb­ing on Sat­ur­day. I lead three real­ly nice routes and had no falls. The camp­ing fol­lowed on Sat­ur­day evening, and was going very well with one of my favorite com­bos: red wine, cheese, and bread. There was no rain, no mos­qui­tos, a nice fire, and then whiskey....
Cultural Event - Ya ximhai xa nsu (Territorios de lo Sagrado)
Post

Cultural Event — Ya ximhai xa nsu (Territorios de lo Sagrado)

by karen on Aug 3, 2011 • 1 Comment
On Sun­day, I went to the clos­ing day of a cul­tur­al exhi­bi­tion on the indige­nous peo­ple Oto­mi-Chichime­cas or Hñahñu. The exhi­bi­tion was high­light­ing the year­ly pil­grim­age of the Oto­mi-Chichime­cas, Ya ximhai xa nsu, which trans­lates to “Ter­ri­to­ries of the sacred or pre­cious land”. I did not actu­al­ly get a chance to see most of the exhib­it,...
mmm...cerebros...
Photo Gallery / Post

mmm…cerebros…

by karen on Aug 1, 2011 • No Comments
It was quite a week­end, which start­ed on Thurs­day. By Sat­ur­day after­noon I felt like a zom­bie, which coin­cid­ed per­fect­ly with the Zom­bie Walk 2011 through the cen­ter of town. I was miss­ing the obvi­ous blood, but my hands were fair­ly scraped up on close inspec­tion after hav­ing spend the morn­ing (appar­ent­ly some­what des­per­ate­ly)...
(More than a few) Thoughts on teaching my first English Conversation Class
Peace Corps / Post

(More than a few) Thoughts on teaching my first English Conversation Class

by karen on Jul 29, 2011 • No Comments
One of the most obvi­ous ben­e­fits that we can pro­vide as Peace Corps vol­un­teers is Eng­lish teach­ing. This is also clear­ly an empha­sis for the orga­ni­za­tion, and that is no excep­tion here in Mex­i­co, even though in Tech Trans­fer, we are almost exclu­sive­ly “spe­cial­ists” with a vari­ety of tech­ni­cal assign­ments. A few...
Bienvenidos a mi casa - Welcoming my first guests
Daily Photo / Peace Corps / Post

Bienvenidos a mi casa — Welcoming my first guests

by karen on Jul 21, 2011 • No Comments
I’m not doing any­thing fan­cy, but hav­ing my first guests has moti­vat­ed me to fin­ish a few of the home-improve­ment projects that I had start­ed — main­ly get­ting plants and straight­en­ing up. So now I have a few plants, but they aren’t com­plete­ly pot­ted into good recep­ta­cles.  I still have to go buy anoth­er pil­low...
Self-Medicating
Daily Photo

Self-Medicating

by karen on Jul 16, 2011 • No Comments
I could get used to this. I’m just glad that I have two more.
My first real use of incidental leave - visit to Puebla
Photo Gallery / Post

My first real use of incidental leave — visit to Puebla

by karen on Jul 11, 2011 • No Comments
I got back late last night from a great week­end in Puebla vis­it­ing my best girl­friend and co-vol­un­teer. We didn’t even real­ly do any­thing except catch up, and that was per­fect. I only messed up a lit­tle on the way back, because I thought that I had bought my bus tick­et online the day before,...
Secondary Project activity at Niños y Niñas de México, A.C.
Photo Gallery / Post

Secondary Project activity at Niños y Niñas de México, A.C.

by karen on Jul 7, 2011 • No Comments
I joined anoth­er vol­un­teer in one of her sec­ondary project activ­i­ties yes­ter­day help­ing Oto­mi women at the Niños y Niñas de Méx­i­co orga­ni­za­tion work on they gift-card mak­ing project. They make cards that have an embroi­dered cov­er with a large vari­ety of designs. The women do the embroi­dery work then they can bring...
Posh Core
Post

Posh Core

by karen on Jul 1, 2011 • No Comments
Every­thing was deliv­ered today, even though I just ordered inter­net yes­ter­day. So, now I can work and blog from my couch and get focused on oth­er projects, which will hope­ful­ly keep me out of the house. Still, it is feel­ing very nice to have this place to come home to, and I’m...
Furniture delivered...with style
Peace Corps / Post

Furniture delivered…with style

by karen on Jun 28, 2011 • 3 Comments
I would like to say that this is the last post about mov­ing in, but I’m very excit­ed about my futon deliv­ery on Thurs­day, so there will prob­a­bly be a pic­ture of that as well. These mov­ing-in pic­tures and posts are what is hap­pen­ing in my life right now, but they...
Where I'm at (no turntables nor microphones)
Post

Where I’m at (no turntables nor microphones)

by karen on Jun 21, 2011 • No Comments
With much trep­i­da­tion and frus­tra­tion I went to look at my apart­ment last night. I was sup­posed to move in on the 20th, but the repairs to the kitchen sink are tak­ing longer than expect­ed.  I didn’t know what to expect with my lim­it­ed under­stand­ing of the prob­lem, but I heard some­thing about the...
Sunday in Las Tepuzas (I think)
Post

Sunday in Las Tepuzas (I think)

by karen on Jun 20, 2011 • No Comments
I had anoth­er great climb­ing day this Sun­day. We drove just into Gua­na­ju­a­to state, and I think I’ve found the loca­tion on the map which indi­cates that the climb­ing is actu­al­ly in Quere­taro state: And you can start your day with que­sadil­las and pulque at the turn off to the crag....
Market bounty
Daily Photo

Market bounty

by karen on Jun 20, 2011 • No Comments
Leftovers
Photo Gallery / Post

Leftovers

by karen on Jun 15, 2011 • No Comments
I’ve been work­ing on a per­son­al pre­sen­ta­tion to give to peo­ple at my site as a way of intro­duc­ing myself, my back­ground, and more for­mer work. So, I’ve been going through a lot of pic­tures, and I found a bunch of strag­glers that didn’t quite make the cut the first time. How­ev­er, a lot of these...
Sigh of relief, it was about time
Photo Gallery / Post

Sigh of relief, it was about time

by karen on Jun 14, 2011 • No Comments
It was fan­tas­ti­cal­ly great to get back on real rock this week­end. With the group from the local climb­ing gym, I went boul­der­ing in Acul­co, basi­cal­ly here: The rock was nice and I did a vari­ety of prob­lems. I wasn’t work­ing on any­thing too hard, but I sent every­thing I tried in a cou­ple of attempts, except...
First day on the job
Post

First day on the job

by karen on Jun 6, 2011 • 1 Comment
I’m sit­ting in my new office with a few min­utes to breathe. I always for­get how much paper­work can be involved when start­ing a new job, espe­cial­ly when the approach to this new endeav­or isn’t like any oth­er job or even real­ly a job. As a good friend said about train­ing “this isn’t a pro­fes­sion­al envi­ron­ment,...
Sworn-in and now presenting the volunteers of PCMexico-10
Post

Sworn-in and now presenting the volunteers of PCMexico-10

by karen on Jun 2, 2011 • 1 Comment
We were offi­cial­ly sworn-in yes­ter­day in a very nice cer­e­mo­ny held at the PC head­quar­ters office here in Mex­i­co. The cer­e­mo­ny and apero after­wards were a sat­is­fy­ing way to end the stress­ful train­ing time, and then we, the new vol­un­teers, basi­cal­ly just cel­e­brat­ed for the rest of the day. So today is...
Swearing-in Day
Post

Swearing-in Day

by karen on Jun 1, 2011 • No Comments
Head­ed to the office soon for our swear­ing-in cer­e­mo­ny. Actu­al­ly turn­ing out to be rather excit­ing. Had a nice run this morn­ing, and still plen­ty of time to iron my shirt and write a quick post. Not a bad way to start any day — not that I’m ever going to start iron­ing...
Last week of training
Post

Last week of training

by karen on May 30, 2011 • No Comments
I’m sit­ting in my last “Pro­gram and week-end pro­cess­ing” ses­sion still not know­ing where I’m mov­ing to in 3 days, but try­ing des­per­ate­ly to get infor­ma­tion. The last few days of train­ing con­tain lots of reviews, eval­u­a­tions, and feed­back ses­sions. At least my tal­ent show pre­sen­ta­tion is done — except for...
Mexico City - Context Visit
Photo Gallery

Mexico City — Context Visit

by karen on May 28, 2011 • No Comments
We are just back from our final field trip for PST — our “Con­text Vis­it” to Mex­i­co City. It was a quick trip to a bunch of head­quar­ters — CONACYT, UNAM, IMPI, and sev­er­al embassy resources. Even with only two nights free in D.F., I’m smit­ten with the city. I can’t wait to...
Nothing like a circus
Photo Gallery / Post

Nothing like a circus

by karen on May 22, 2011 • No Comments
espe­cial­ly on a Sat­ur­day night after a hard week
My (first) award-winning photographs
Daily Photo / Peace Corps / Post

My (first) award-winning photographs

by karen on May 21, 2011 • No Comments
I’m hap­py that I over­came my pro­cras­ti­na­tion and entered the PC Mex­i­co 50th Anniver­sary Pho­to Con­test cel­e­brat­ing 50 years of Peace Corps. I won the “Faces of Mex­i­co” cat­e­go­ry with the first pho­to below, tak­en dur­ing the silent pro­ces­sion dur­ing Sem­ana San­ta. The sec­ond pho­to, ¡Lucha Libre!, gar­nered an hon­or­able men­tion in the...
Dancing in the streets
Daily Photo

Dancing in the streets

by karen on May 19, 2011 • 1 Comment
Tech Transfer in Mexico, or my visiting professorship after PST
Peace Corps / Post

Tech Transfer in Mexico, or my visiting professorship after PST

by karen on May 19, 2011 • No Comments
We start­ed out the week with the Coun­ter­part Work­shop, and then I spent the day yes­ter­day at my new work­place, where I will be start­ing in June. Anoth­er trainee (very soon-to-be vol­un­teer) and I are going to the same site, and we are the first vol­un­teers to be at this cen­ter. There are...
Day trip - San Miguel de Allende
Daily Photo

Day trip — San Miguel de Allende

by karen on May 9, 2011 • No Comments
Only one thing is miss­ing, the pic­tures of the best part — La Gru­ta. How­ev­er, I’ve been light on post­ing pic­tures of old church­es. So, here you go.
Week 8, for the win!
Peace Corps / Post

Week 8, for the win!

by karen on May 5, 2011 • No Comments
Because we are all “primeros respon­di­entes” now after our day of first aid train­ing, of course. Or, because we got our site assign­ments, and I didn’t end up on the floor as in the above pic­ture. We may have been able to skip the bal­loons-and-darts por­tion of the pre­sen­ta­tion, but we...
Hogar del Joven/Día del Niño
Post

Hogar del Joven/Día del Niño

by karen on May 3, 2011 • No Comments
I backed into the per­fect activ­i­ty for Children’s Day this past week­end. A cur­rent vol­un­teer brought to our atten­tion a sort of a halfway house for chil­dren in one of the north­ern colo­nias of the city that des­per­ate­ly needs repairs. She orga­nized a group of cur­rent vol­un­teers and trainees to go out and start...
Nortec Collective - great show
Daily Photo / Post

Nortec Collective — great show

by karen on Apr 29, 2011 • No Comments
The annu­al Fes­ti­val de San­ti­a­go start­ed in Queré­taro on Wednes­day. There are simul­ta­ne­ous per­for­mances on-going dur­ing the evenings in many of the gar­dens around town. We went to see the Nortec Col­lec­tive show at the rec­om­men­da­tion of our Span­ish teach­ers, who were excit­ed all day. To intro­duce us to the...
Semana Santa - Day 4
Photo Gallery

Semana Santa — Day 4

by karen on Apr 26, 2011 • 1 Comment
In which things are blown up… rep­re­sent­ing la Que­ma de Judas
Semana Santa - Day 3
Daily Photo

Semana Santa — Day 3

by karen on Apr 25, 2011 • 1 Comment
In which deli­cious tor­tas were had by all…
Semana Santa - Day 2
Photo Gallery

Semana Santa — Day 2

by karen on Apr 24, 2011 • No Comments
The silent pro­ces­sion is one of the main events for Sem­ana San­ta here in Queré­taro. The large pro­ces­sion of most­ly hood­ed pen­i­tents walks through the city in silence. Most of the men walk bare­foot, car­ry­ing large cross­es, and with chains around their ankles. We were told to be pre­pared for...
Semana Santa - Day 1
Daily Photo / Post

Semana Santa — Day 1

by karen on Apr 24, 2011 • No Comments
For the first vaca­tion day of Sem­ana San­ta, a group of us made a day trip out to the town of Bernal so we could walk part of the way up the third largest mono­lith in the world. It made me want my climb­ing stuff, soon. It looked like there are fair...
Mid-Training/Evening Explorations 3
Post

Mid-Training/Evening Explorations 3

by karen on Apr 20, 2011 • No Comments
We have been informed that we are mid-train­ing, and we are there­fore tak­ing part in all sorts of eval­u­a­tive process­es to deter­mine how things are pro­gress­ing. I wasn’t feel­ing burnt out at all until I was told that I should be feel­ing stressed and tired of all this. Span­ish class is still fan­tas­tic....
Return from Volunteer Visit
Post

Return from Volunteer Visit

by karen on Apr 18, 2011 • No Comments
I’m back from a few days in the cam­po. Great trip. Only time for a few pic­tures right now. Start­ing with the most impor­tant — the food. Had deli­cious huaraches in the mer­ca­do, and def­i­nite­ly not the shoe vari­ety — blue corn, nopales, pota­to, and mucho que­so. Also had some time in...
Volunteer Visit
Post

Volunteer Visit

by karen on Apr 14, 2011 • No Comments
I’m head­ed out for my Vol­un­teer Vis­it tomor­row. I’ll be trav­el­ing into the cam­po to see three cur­rent vol­un­teers in the envi­ron­ment pro­gram. I’m very excit­ed to see what they are doing, and since these are some of the oth­er PC climb­ing chi­cas. I’ll most like­ly be with­out inter­net until...
Market Day
Daily Photo / Photo Gallery

Market Day

by karen on Apr 13, 2011 • No Comments
Anoth­er trip to an amaz­ing mar­ket.
Guanajuato, Mexico
Photo Gallery

Guanajuato, Mexico

by karen on Apr 10, 2011 • No Comments
There was no doubt that every­one was enchant­ed by Gua­na­ju­a­to. The most com­mon lament was that no one would be sta­tioned there. While we had anoth­er meet­ing can­celed here, the frus­tra­tion was tem­pered by the extra time for our cul­tur­al activ­i­ties. Even though I wasn’t real­ly eat­ing, I loved the green bak­ery,...
León, Mexico
Photo Gallery

León, Mexico

by karen on Apr 10, 2011 • No Comments
As I look over the pic­tures from León, tak­en dur­ing our Field Based Train­ing, I think that I’m not giv­ing the city enough cred­it. It cer­tain­ly looks like we had some fun. The expe­ri­ence was a bit taint­ed, fig­u­ra­tive­ly and lit­er­al­ly, by the frus­tra­tion of hav­ing one of our meet­ings can­celed. the trou­ble...
Just your typical Tuesday night
Photo Gallery / Post

Just your typical Tuesday night

by karen on Apr 7, 2011 • No Comments
I have been want­i­ng to go to a real ¡Lucha Libre! match since I was intro­duced to the movies of San­to back in the late 90’s/early 2000’s. It also hap­pens to be an activ­i­ty in our cul­tur­al pass­port, and it turns out that I’m liv­ing about a 10 minute walk from the are­na....
Too amazing to go in order
Post

Too amazing to go in order

by karen on Apr 4, 2011 • No Comments
Per­haps the high­light of the cul­tur­al side of the field-based train­ing was the mum­my muse­um in Gua­na­ju­a­to. So, I had to edit and post these pho­tos first, even though they are from the last activ­i­ty of the trip. I’m still work­ing on the gal­leries for Léon and Gua­na­ju­a­to. Mum­mies trump build­ings,...
Return from FBT
Post

Return from FBT

by karen on Apr 3, 2011 • No Comments
I’m back from my most­ly inter­est­ing trip to Léon and Gua­na­ju­a­to. The high­light was def­i­nite­ly Gua­na­ju­a­to. Not only is the city just beau­ti­ful, but the mum­my muse­um is also amaz­ing. I’m work­ing on edit­ing the pic­tures, but here is a panora­ma of Gua­na­ju­a­to to get start­ed. I think every­one was dis­ap­point­ed...
Evening Explorations 2
Daily Photo

Evening Explorations 2

by karen on Mar 30, 2011 • No Comments
Fiesta de Olé
Post

Fiesta de Olé

by karen on Mar 28, 2011 • No Comments
Our Span­ish school host­ed a par­ty for us and our host fam­i­lies last Fri­day. The high­light was def­i­nite­ly the danc­ing. There were demon­stra­tions of 3 styles of tra­di­tion­al Mex­i­can danc­ing — from the north­ern, cen­tral, and south­ern regions. After the demon­stra­tion, the dance teach­ers were giv­ing a bit of a group les­son to those...
flores de bienvenida
Daily Photo / Peace Corps

flores de bienvenida

by karen on Mar 22, 2011 • 1 Comment
The end of week one: arrival at my host family’s home where I will be liv­ing for the next 11 weeks. Train­ing begins in full force on Mon­day. They are a love­ly fam­i­ly — very warm, gen­er­ous, and patient. I am their sec­ond Peace Corps trainee, but I’m not sure what lev­el of...
Arrival in Mexico
Peace Corps / Post

Arrival in Mexico

by karen on Mar 22, 2011 • No Comments
I have many new pho­tos to upload, but I am still try­ing to get my inter­net rou­tine back to a reg­u­lar sched­ule, in addi­tion to learn­ing Span­ish for some­thing like 6 hours a day and absorb­ing all the oth­er infor­ma­tion of a new Peace Corps Trainee. So, it is about a week delayed, but here is...
Are these the mountains to climb?
Daily Photo

Are these the mountains to climb?

by karen on Mar 17, 2011 • 2 Comments
Spot­ted while fly­ing south over Mex­i­co
Headed to Mexico tomorrow
Daily Photo

Headed to Mexico tomorrow

by karen on Mar 15, 2011 • No Comments
Offi­cial­ly a trainee for the next 11 weeks.
Good party
Post

Good party

by karen on Mar 13, 2011 • No Comments
I’m def­i­nite­ly a bit sad today, and say­ing good­bye to peo­ple at the par­ty was tough. It’s going about as well as it can though, since it’s turn­ing out to be a nice, calm day.
Going-away Party Day
Post

Going-away Party Day

by karen on Mar 12, 2011 • No Comments
Two more days in Switzer­land, and I’m not sleep­ing so well as a result. The stress isn’t too bad though, or else this flu would have hit me much worse. After M ruth­less­ly helped me go through my suit­cas­es last night, they are under-weight with only a few things still to go in....
Packing is the worst
Post

Packing is the worst

by karen on Mar 8, 2011 • No Comments
I can’t do it. Two suit­cas­es and my back­pack just aren’t quite enough. I’m going to have to check a third bag. If I could sneak past check in with a car­ry-on suit­case, a brief­case, and a purse then I will tech­ni­cal­ly be with­in the lim­its. Or, I’m going to recon­sid­er what I am try­ing to take...
One week
Daily Photo

One week

by karen on Mar 7, 2011 • No Comments
Packed up the kitchen today and showed the apart­ment. Just over 40 peo­ple showed up in the hour we had it open. Not too bad for Zurich, but still stress­ful.
Birthday flowers/Centerpiece
Daily Photo

Birthday flowers/Centerpiece

by karen on Mar 6, 2011 • No Comments
I had to leave them at M’s parent’s, since we are pack­ing up the kitchen tomor­row, but they were great.
Application Timeline
Peace Corps / Post

Application Timeline

by karen on Mar 4, 2011 • 1 Comment
I saw this type of post on anoth­er blog (http://mobleyfamily.info/), and thought it was at least good for myself to have the time­line doc­u­ment­ed. Then I found it on many oth­er Peace Corps expe­ri­ence blogs, but most of the oth­er are unread­able. It has been a long process. I pulled up my “Peace...
What moving looks like in Zurich
Daily Photo

What moving looks like in Zurich

by karen on Mar 1, 2011 • No Comments
Bulk, house­hold garbage tram one day   Elec­tron­ics waste tram the next Best part was when one of the guys at the elec­tron­ics waste tram res­cued a stack of VHS tapes for him­self.
What I used to do
Post

What I used to do

by karen on Feb 17, 2011 • No Comments
  and sum­ma­rized:  
Awesome Chameleon
Daily Photo

Awesome Chameleon

by karen on Feb 15, 2011 • No Comments
from the Zurich zoo  
Favorite pictures of myself
Photo Gallery / Post

Favorite pictures of myself

by karen on Feb 13, 2011 • No Comments
It makes me smile to try this. My guy is a good pho­tog­ra­ph­er, and since we do a lot of activ­i­ties con­ducive to pho­tos, I’ve had to get a lot bet­ter about being pho­tographed, and I think I’ve done a splen­did job, for some­thing I hate so much. The real test will be when I can work...
Band of Horses - good show
Daily Photo

Band of Horses — good show

by karen on Feb 13, 2011 • No Comments
 
The full list
Post

The full list

by karen on Feb 12, 2011 • No Comments
I have a thing with pod­casts. I lis­ten to a lot of them, for years now. I nev­er tell peo­ple about all of the shows, even though I will always share rec­om­men­da­tions. Once I get start­ed talk­ing about them, I prob­a­bly usu­al­ly over­whelm peo­ple. How­ev­er, when it comes to the full list, I’m embar­rassed by a few of...
Contraction, yet again
Post

Contraction, yet again

by karen on Feb 10, 2011 • No Comments
I’m hav­ing on-and-off pro­duc­tive days as I try to get rid of stuff — con­tract my pos­ses­sions. This is my sec­ond over­seas move, and I’m feel­ing fine about the amount of stuff that I have and get­ting rid of much of it. I’m going to end up with more stuff in “stor­age”...
March and Procrastination
Peace Corps / Post

March and Procrastination

by karen on Feb 5, 2011 • No Comments
  I still don’t have a plane tick­et, but I received anoth­er let­ter which said that I will start my Peace Corps stuff on March 14th in D.C. before head­ing to Mex­i­co. Start­ing to feel the mov­ing stress, but that is the moti­va­tor. Post­ed the plants online for sale, and the snow­shoes, but...
Latest entries
I'm just going to sit here
Daily Photo

I’m just going to sit here

by karen on Aug 1, 2013 • 2 Comments
Don’t make me decide. It’s too hot to do any­thing but swim. Real­ly  too hot to swim, so I’m just going to sit here.
When nature color-blocks
Daily Photo

When nature color-blocks

by karen on Jul 23, 2013 • No Comments
Summertime
Daily Photo

Summertime

by karen on Jul 16, 2013 • No Comments
Yep, that’s pret­ty much it.
Let it out
Daily Photo

Let it out

by karen on Jul 13, 2013 • 2 Comments
It wasn’t the most amaz­ing sun­set ever, but it still makes me take a deep breath, let it out, and feel more relaxed. Michi­gan in the sum­mer is so amaz­ing­ly beau­ti­ful. I had no idea.
Brand Spankin' New
Daily Photo

Brand Spankin’ New

by karen on Jul 1, 2013 • No Comments
I’m at an age where I seem to con­sis­tent­ly have 3 or 4 preg­nant friends at any time. At least this time it was a local friend so I can at least take some pic­tures now that the baby is here. I want­ed to meet the baby pri­mar­i­ly, but I also want­ed to give them some decent pic­tures. No more bad cell...
End of day monarchy
Daily Photo

End of day monarchy

by karen on Jun 18, 2013 • No Comments
I’m not even sure what the title means, that is how fried I am. How­ev­er, a quick pho­tog­ra­phy stop for sun­flow­ers became even more glo­ri­ous with my lep­i­dopter­ous friend here. Again, unabashed word abuse, but I like the way it sounds.
TB Chronicles - curious compatriots
Post

TB Chronicles — curious compatriots

by karen on Jun 7, 2013 • 2 Comments
As the days speed by towards half-way through my INH treat­ment, I have been feel­ing that it is time for an update. How­ev­er, I have noth­ing to report for myself. I have no iso­ni­azid side effects and my month­ly refill vis­its to the Texas Health Depart­ment have been so easy as to be near delight­ful. After an errant...
My what big eyes you have
Daily Photo

My what big eyes you have

by karen on May 25, 2013 • 1 Comment
I need­ed a goal before I began tack­ling some pho­to library orga­ni­za­tion and clean-up this evening. It only took me 4 days to actu­al­ly start after think­ing up the idea. Tedious but nec­es­sary. Find­ing inter­est­ing eyes makes it a bit more bear­able.
Hopefully "Pardon Our Dust" Coming Soon
Daily Photo

Hopefully “Pardon Our Dust” Coming Soon

by karen on May 16, 2013 • No Comments
Can’t you just see it? Makes per­fect sense, doesn’t it? I’m a rock­star at mind-map­ping. Def­i­nite­ly need to add that to the résumé. Now I have to find the time to sit down and actu­al­ly do the redesign. The idea is that by post­ing this, I have to hold myself account­able to it. We’ll see how well it works....
A plumed thistle for your thoughts?
Daily Photo

A plumed thistle for your thoughts?

by karen on May 5, 2013 • 6 Comments
Found on a pleas­ant evening dog-walk. It is either a Wavyleaf this­tle or a Texas this­tle — still inves­ti­gat­ing the sub­tle dif­fer­ences between Cir­si­um undu­la­tum and Cir­si­um tex­anum. Any botanists want to chime in? Both are plumed this­tles, I believe.
Local Flavor
Photo Gallery / Post

Local Flavor

by karen on Apr 30, 2013 • No Comments
Also known as Eeyore’s Birth­day Par­ty. Not that the name makes any more sense, but this year was the 50th annu­al cel­e­bra­tion. Oh Austin. You can google the actu­al event and read the his­to­ry. I tried to most­ly stay away from just tak­ing pic­tures of wacky peo­ple, so I focused on wacky ani­mals and their peo­ple instead....
Turn the car around
Daily Photo

Turn the car around

by karen on Apr 22, 2013 • No Comments
No seri­ous­ly, I swear there are zebras back there. Noth­ing like clas­sic week­end Amer­i­cana in Texas Hill Coun­try. Best unex­pect­ed zebra detail: fuzzy ears I just hope they aren’t for sell­ing zebra meat.

Get Connected

RSS Feed
Facebook
Vimeo

My Instagrams

    Archives

    Disclaimer

    For some of the content on the site, those pages do not represent the positions, views, or intent of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps. The views expressed here are my own.

    © 2013 karenmagid. All Rights Reserved.
    Powered by WordPress.

    site credits
    contact me