minnesota

Books

Reading Roundup

I just read a memoir – Aftershocks by Nadia Owusu. She is a Third Culture Kid and grew up with a lot of trauma. Her mother was Armenian American and her father was Ghanaian. Growing up she lived in Tanzania, Italy, England, Ethiopia and Uganda and spent summers in Ghana. There were wars going on when she was in Ethiopia and Uganda. That is a lot to unpack but on top of that she had ongoing personal family issues to deal with. It is really not so much a memoir as a poem. A poem of self discovery. Who is she. Where is her home. How do the people around her influence her sense of self. How does the outside world influence her sense of self. It is a beautifully written introspective.

Speaking of Ghana. I read a fun murder mystery by a Ghanaian. Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey. I also read Dune for the first time. The Sci-Fi novel, Dune, was written in 1965 by Frank Herbert. The second part of the latest movie iteration just came out. After reading the book I watched both movies. It was a good plan. Read the book first.

And just to round things out, I’m currently reading Massacre in Minnesota: The Dakota War of 1862, the Most Violent Ethnic Conflict in American History by Gary Clayton Anderson. What a horrible thing that is. Ugh. I can only read a little at a time. Even though I have been reading about US History for many years, I am still shocked and disgusted by it. The unbelievable corruption and greed. In many ways it still carries over to the present day. Sad sad sad.

Another book I read recently was The American Adventuress: A Novel by CW Gortner. It is based on the life of Jennie Jerome, an American from New York, who married Randolph Churchill and was Winston Churchill’s mother. It explains a lot. She was a real character. In her later years she married a man Winston’s age. Mostly just because she could.

Next on my list: Burma Sahib by Paul Theroux. It is a novel based on George Orwell’s time in Burma as a servant of the British Empire. I am looking forward to it. George Orwell also wrote a book about his days in Burma – Burmese Days – which I read many many moons ago. I read someplace recently that many of his books were based on Burma and his time there. It influenced him heavily. 

If you are interested in more books specifically about expats and TCKs, see my TCK/Expats Films and Books page.

Random Thought

When I was very little I had a recurring dream about Babylonians waging war all around me.

In my 20’s I had a recurring dream about being in a big city running through alleyways evading bullets and bombs. 

Is that what life is? One big foxhole?

Sometimes I wonder.

Bye Bye Car

A few days before I went on my epic trip to South America my car got hit. I was driving through an intersection (yes, the light was green), and this complete idiot came at me from the left and ran right into my back passenger seat door. I could see him coming. I tried to swerve out of his way. I was sure he would stop. He had to have seen me. I was right in front of him. But, alas, he ran right into me. I got out of my car and walked over to where he had stopped. He was looking at his car puzzled. His front left bumper was hanging off. I said – What happened? And he said – ” I think I ran into somebody”. (Really?)

I said – ” yes, You ran into me!” Oh, he said. Then he said he was lost and was looking for the local Catholic Charity homeless shelter and did I know where it was. (Really??) I said it was nearby. “Do you have insurance?” I said. I wasn’t feeling hopeful but I had to ask.

Luckily the guy did have insurance. Unfortunately the damage was too great and the insurance company totaled my car. This upset me because although my car was 10 years old, it had low mileage and there was nothing wrong with it. The engine was fine. I thought about keeping it anyway. But after getting a couple of bids, it turned out it was too expensive to fund the repair myself.

They picked up my car yesterday. It was a sad day. I had a wake. By myself (and a little vodka). I really liked that car.

Having to come back from a long trip and immediately deal with all of this retarded my trip recovery. I usually need about a week to get back into the swing of things but this time it is taking longer. I also had an issue with my furnace just before I left and had to deal with that right away when I got back. Luckily it turned out to be a minor issue.

So now almost two weeks later, I have done most of my laundry, dealt with my car, dealt with my furnace, done some laundry, caught up on high school reunion plans, unpacked, and started planning my next trip in September. I guess I’ve done a lot. I’m almost back in step with reality.

Whether I like it or not.

Trip Roundup – I went to Easter Island and Patagonia with an organization called Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT). It was my first time using them. I’m not big on using organized tours but there are places I want to go to and are difficult to organize on my own. This was one of those places. I wanted to cover a lot of Patagonia and I didn’t want to go by boat so this was one of the few tours I found that offered what I was looking for. The Easter Island part was a pre-trip add on that I figured I couldn’t pass up and I’m glad I went for it. It was definitely worth it. A fabulous experience. The group was small, only eight people.

From there we went to Buenos Aires to meet up with the rest of the group and start the main tour. We were 16 to begin with but one guy got sick and left after about five days. So then we were 15. We had local guides at every stop and most of them were very good at providing interesting relevant information. One or two were a bit tedious. This tour group is big on having that “local experience”. I’m pretty cynical and have mixed feelings about such things since they are obviously staged and paid for so not very spontaneous. I have always enjoyed the magical moments that happen when you turn up in a village and somebody invites you in. But that is not so easy with 15 people in tow.

We ate at a family ranch, we dined with a family in their home, and we all helped make a local dish at a small farm. They were all things I could have lived without but all the people are nice and some were interesting. The other thing they like to do on these tours is have lectures on “controversial subjects”. They weren’t really controversial but I think they were educational and good for people to know about. We heard from a man whose mother was one of the “disappeared” in Argentina, and from a woman of German descent who talked about Nazis hiding in Chile and Argentina. The most interesting lecture for me was the one about the Mapuche Indians of Northern Patagonia. Apparently the Spaniards were never able to conquer them.

I really enjoyed the long bus rides through the Patagonian emptiness. The occasional encounters with rhea and guanaco. And of course the beauty of the landscape. That is why I went. All the other stuff like dealing with personalities, weird encounters, annoying guides, and too many airplane rides, didn’t matter.

Would I go with this tour group again? It is funny because most of the people on the trip had been on tours with this group 5 to 20 times. They all seemed to really love it. I thought they were well organized and the Trip Leader was fantastic. Overall I would say it was a good company. I probably wouldn’t go again with them unless they offered a particular trip I was interested in, like this one. I’m not a traveler just to travel. I travel to see particular things I am interested in. So I wouldn’t randomly choose this company. But you could.

Bridges and Towers

The last covered bridge in Minnesota is in Zumbrota, south of the Twin Cities. The bridge was originally built in 1869, to span the Zumbro River and is 120 feet long. It served as a stagecoach route between St Paul, Minnesota and Dubuque, Iowa. It was later restored and moved to its present site in the 1990’s. It still spans the Zumbro River and is now attached to a large city park.

This cute statue was outside the Public Library in Zumbrota. In the 1800’s the settlers of Zumbrota formed a Literary Society and Library Association. In 1877, it became the first public library in Minnesota supported by taxpayers. In 1908, the library received a grant form Andrew Carnegie and became the smallest Carnegie Library in the state. in 1995, it moved to its current location next to the covered bridge.

If you continue south on Highway 52, you will arrive in Rochester, Minnesota. There you will find the Ear of Corn Water Tower, standing 151 feet tall. It was built in 1931, to provide water for the Reid, Murdoch, and Company food cannery. The tower was illuminated by 10 spotlights and from the 1930’s to the 1960’s it was used by the Army Air Corps and Air Force to find a nearby airfield. The cannery changed hands several times and the tower was eventually bought by the county and fully restored in 2021.

Dark and Light

When I lived in Russia I liked to call it the Land of Dark. The winters were overcast and the sun only came up briefly. Now that I am in Minnesota, I am thinking, land of dark. I have had every light in the house on for days. It is depressing. I read an article in the New York Times this morning by Mary Pipher called Finding Light in Winter. It was lyrical and hopeful. She has a book out called Life in Light: Meditations on Impermanence. I am totally going to read it. She lives in Nebraska so also is experiencing dark days. But she finds light in nature, family, friends, young children, poetry, music, a painting by Monet, and memories of people no longer present.

A friend of mine needed to go to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota for some tests, so I went along. It was a nice break. Rochester is a fairly small city (population 122,000), and is the home of Mayo Clinic. Apparently 1.3 million patients go to Mayo every year, from all 50 states and 140 countries. There are like 20 Mayo facilities in Rochester. Plus Rochester has a branch of the University of Minnesota and a State Community College. For such a small town, it has a lot going on.

We stayed right downtown and were able to walk to everyplace we needed to go. Some interesting old buildings were among the glittering new ones. There was a warren of underground tunnels throughout the Mayo complex downtown so you could spend your day in spacious beautiful new buildings and never go outside. The cafeteria even had robots working to deliver food.

Besides being light and airy, the buildings were full of interesting artwork.

Three Columns, Cast Glass – Libensky and Brychtova
Man and Freedom, Ivan Mestrovic
Blown glass, Dale Chihuly
Blown glass, Sonja Blomdahl
Blown Glass, Dale Chihuly
Four Houses, Jennifer Bartlett

On the way back to the Twin Cities, we stopped at Frontenac State Park overlooking Lake Pepin. It started out kind of gloomy but amazingly, it cleared up to be a beautiful day. Light!!

Funny Story

So funny story. Our internet went out on Thursday. It was out from about noon to after 10 pm. It came back on the next morning. In my building that means the TV is also out. And it means the public garage we all use is not accessible. The fancy new system they put in just doesn’t work. You can’t get in or out. That night all the people who work downtown could not get out to go home. And residents could not get in to go home. Somebody didn’t think it through when they installed the new fancy scanners. The company that owns the garage almost had a riot in their hands. They finally dismantled everything and opened all the gates. That meant that this morning the garage was full of homeless people sheltering out of the rain.

One word – idiots! Not really so funny. The down side of technology. I think more and more, we need a back up for technology.

Facebook is reminding me about my trip to Ireland four years ago. Check it out.

Winter is coming. William O’Brian State Park was kind of magical.

Down By The Riverside…

I’m gonna lay down that atom bomb
Down by the riverside down by the riverside
Down by the riverside
I’m gonna lay down that atom bomb
Down by the riverside study war no more

I ain’t gonna study war no more
Ain’t gonna study war no more
— Pete Seeger

Hug me, squeeze me, love me, tease me
‘Til I can’t, ’til I can’t, ’til I can’t take no more of it
Take me to the water, drop me in the river
Push me in the water, drop me in the river
Washing me down, washing me down
— Al Green via Talking Heads