I miss England. I miss it terribly, even though I've only been there once in my life for 18 days. Sometimes, the photos you put up here stab me like a knife.
How do you feel towards the building now? Is it like an old school, which you're not, and can't be, part of any more, but retain fond memories for and still feel a sense of connection to?
Or is this such a big question it would require a long post in its own right to answer it? ;)
I feel less emotional connection than I do to my old school. In fact I feel very little emotional connection at all. It's a place where I once spent some time and that's about it. The memories I have of it aren't particularly fond, but nor are they particularly hostile. That part of my life seems very distant now.
I like it as much as anything because it's an attractive building. It's a pity I can't show the interior, which is really very fine.
Oh, it is and isn't. These are some pictures I have collected of Peru from various sites. Some are Lima: San Isidro facades, Fabu Old World Architecture, Camino Real, Street Lamp, Entering San Isidro, The Olivar pond at Sundown, The Juan de Arona Fountain, The Golf Lake. You can almost see my apartment in The Golf photo. I have also included a map of San Isidro and Miraflores for orientation. But these two districts, along with La Molina and some parts of Barranco are the only beautiful places.
Everywhere else it's just brown and gray, poor and cruel. The distance between haves and have-nots is unbearable. I don't like it, I don't like walking into a room and feeling the prejudice, the anger, the hatred. But I understand it. It's so strange after coming from islands. I mean, sure, there are always going to be haves and have-nots, but in the Pacific, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what they have, who they are, what they want, or where they're from.
I went to the in-beach Asia a few weekends ago and there was this guy walking around dressed business casual, so I made fun of him. My cousin became annoyed, "you shouldn't joke about him. He has a really hard job." I was like, "um, is he the lifeguard? 'Cause the ocean's that way." Nope, not the lifeguard, more important. The man was a depurador. I didn't know what that was either. Per my cousin and her friends, a depurador:
Removes people from the beach who contaminate the ambiance with inappropriate behavior before they thoroughly embarrass themselves. Removes strange people who are unaccompanied by someone from polite society. Unless they are very famous or very beautiful. Removes people who are "too dark" or "too yellow".
"Don't worry, Anaiis," she told me, "you have green eyes. You can hardly tell you're Japanese. Plus you're with us, so it's OK." "Dear God, I'm in an Edith Wharton novel!" "Who?" "I'm Countess Olenska!" "You are so weird, dear cousin. Please excuse her, she's--" in a whisper, "been in the EEUU. Oh!" giggles, "there goes Erica. Do not eat her foie gras, she buys it at Wong, alucina."
OMGWTFBBQ.
Yesterday there was a huayco (mudslide) in the sierra aspects of Lima. Some villages up there are completely blocked off from everyone due to the rocks and mud. People are dying, starving, their crops are gone. And what's on the radio? "It wouldn't surprise me if he won because he promised to make Asia a public beach." "Everyone promises that, it's such a cliche. It never happens." "Thank god, darling, because I just bought a house there."
I dig being shallow and stuff. But, dude. Not for real. Not like this! I want back to the civilized world.
Camino real- magical name. There's a expressionist play by Tenessee Williams I rather like which has various mythical and literary characters- including Don Quixote and Don Juan- preparing to set off across the the desert on the "camino real". Williams gets a lot of mileage out of the bilingual pun implicit in the word "real".
Oh, I have to read it! And yes, I was thinking about how interesting that was while trying to translate it for a friend the other day. It's great to live on the avenue. What's even weirder is that the apartment was procured for me and I didn't know this for a few months after my arrival, but the fountain across from it is actually a monument to my great uncle. No one knew about it. I found out from my grandfather when he visited. I have been meaning to write an entry about it but I am waiting to get my digital camera so I can snap a few pictures, too.
The places where I worked, 20 years ago, are gone. One, my old Navy ship, is scrap metal and the other, the Cypress Gardens zoo, was closed and dismantled, although new owners have built a new small zoo.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 05:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-09 01:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 05:15 am (UTC)Or is this such a big question it would require a long post in its own right to answer it? ;)
no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 06:44 am (UTC)I feel less emotional connection than I do to my old school. In fact I feel very little emotional connection at all. It's a place where I once spent some time and that's about it. The memories I have of it aren't particularly fond, but nor are they particularly hostile. That part of my life seems very distant now.
I like it as much as anything because it's an attractive building. It's a pity I can't show the interior, which is really very fine.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 08:10 am (UTC)Is there a ban on interior photography, or can you just not get a decent picture in the lighting conditions?
no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 10:44 am (UTC)Yes, exactly. It's just a rather decorative office building.
I didn't go inside because they keep it locked.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-09 12:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-09 01:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 06:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 10:47 am (UTC)But those aren't times that I revisit with pleasure. I don't very much like the Rev Tony Grist.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 10:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 10:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 10:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 10:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 11:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 12:49 pm (UTC)Everywhere else it's just brown and gray, poor and cruel. The distance between haves and have-nots is unbearable. I don't like it, I don't like walking into a room and feeling the prejudice, the anger, the hatred. But I understand it. It's so strange after coming from islands. I mean, sure, there are always going to be haves and have-nots, but in the Pacific, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what they have, who they are, what they want, or where they're from.
I went to the in-beach Asia a few weekends ago and there was this guy walking around dressed business casual, so I made fun of him. My cousin became annoyed, "you shouldn't joke about him. He has a really hard job." I was like, "um, is he the lifeguard? 'Cause the ocean's that way." Nope, not the lifeguard, more important. The man was a depurador. I didn't know what that was either. Per my cousin and her friends, a depurador:
Removes people from the beach who contaminate the ambiance with inappropriate behavior before they thoroughly embarrass themselves.
Removes strange people who are unaccompanied by someone from polite society. Unless they are very famous or very beautiful.
Removes people who are "too dark" or "too yellow".
"Don't worry, Anaiis," she told me, "you have green eyes. You can hardly tell you're Japanese. Plus you're with us, so it's OK."
"Dear God, I'm in an Edith Wharton novel!"
"Who?"
"I'm Countess Olenska!"
"You are so weird, dear cousin. Please excuse her, she's--" in a whisper, "been in the EEUU. Oh!" giggles, "there goes Erica. Do not eat her foie gras, she buys it at Wong, alucina."
OMGWTFBBQ.
Yesterday there was a huayco (mudslide) in the sierra aspects of Lima. Some villages up there are completely blocked off from everyone due to the rocks and mud. People are dying, starving, their crops are gone. And what's on the radio? "It wouldn't surprise me if he won because he promised to make Asia a public beach." "Everyone promises that, it's such a cliche. It never happens." "Thank god, darling, because I just bought a house there."
I dig being shallow and stuff. But, dude. Not for real. Not like this! I want back to the civilized world.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-09 02:05 am (UTC)Camino real- magical name. There's a expressionist play by Tenessee Williams I rather like which has various mythical and literary characters- including Don Quixote and Don Juan- preparing to set off across the the desert on the "camino real". Williams gets a lot of mileage out of the bilingual pun implicit in the word "real".
That story about the beach is horrible.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-09 01:05 pm (UTC)Of ALL Lima, seriously, what are the ODDS?!
no subject
Date: 2006-02-10 01:32 am (UTC)Or maybe, at some level we don't have access to, it was "intended".
no subject
Date: 2006-02-10 02:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 10:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 10:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-08 10:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-09 02:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-08 04:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-09 02:16 am (UTC)