Al Vent

Al vent, (To the wind)
la cara al vent, (Face to the wind,)
el cor al vent, (Heart to the wind,)
les mans al vent, (Hands to the wind,)
els ulls al vent, (Eyes to the wind,)
al vent del món. (To the wind of the world.)

I tots, (And everyone,)
tots plens de nit, (Everyone full of night,)
buscant la llum, (Seeking light,)
buscant la pau, (Seeking peace,)
buscant a déu, (Seeking God,)
al vent del món. (To the wind of the world.)

La vida ens dóna penes, (Life gives us sorrows,)
ja el nàixer és un gran plor: (Even birth is a great cry:)
la vida pot ser eixe plor; (Life could be this cry;)
però nosaltres (But we)

al vent, (To the wind,)
la cara al vent, (Face to the wind,)
el cor al vent, (Heart to the wind,)
les mans al vent, (Hands to the wind,)
els ulls al vent, (Eyes to the wind,)
al vent del món. (To the wind of the world.)

I tots, (And everyone,)
tots plens de nit, (Everyone full of night,)
buscant la llum, (Seeking light,)
buscant la pau, (Seeking peace,)
buscant a déu, (Seeking God,)
al vent del món. (To the wind of the world.)

Haru Yo, Koi

This may just be my favourite song in Japanese. Although I understand only a handful of the words, it gives me such clear feelings. Somehow I feel that while there is a lot of emotion in J-Pop songs, etc, it doesn't always feel totally real and complex, but this song is very much an exception.

Awaki hikari tatsu niwakaame
Itoshi omokage no jin'chouge
Afururu namida no tsubomi kara
Hitotsu hitotsu kaori hajimeru

Sore wa sore wa sora wo koete
Yagate yagate mukae ni kuru

Haru yo tooki haru yo mabuta tojireba soko ni
Ai wo kureshi kimi no natsukashiki koe ga suru

Kimi ni azukeshi waga kokoro wa
Ima demo hen'ji wo matte imasu
Dore hodo tsukihi ga nagarete mo
Zutto zutto matte imasu

Sore wa sore wa asu wo koete
Itsuka itsuka kitto todoku

Haru yo mada minu haru mayoi tachidomaru toki
Yume wo kureshi kimi no manazashi ga kata wo daku

Yume yo asaki yume yo watashi wa koko ni imasu
Kimi wo omoinagara hitori aruite imasu
Nagaruru ame no gotoku nagaruru hana no gotoku

Haru yo tooki haru yo mabuta tojireba soko ni
Ai wo kureshi kimi no natsukashiki koe ga suru

Haru yo mada minu haru mayoi tachidomaru toki
Yume wo kureshi kimi no manazashi ga kata wo daku

- Haru yo, koi
Yumi Matsutoya

Moving In/Pandora Radio

Staff training has started, and we had a bit of free time tonight, starting around 8. :D I am continuing to get my room organized. I have so much space!! I think I'll even be able to move in my table.

I cooked some rice (finally!), with chicken broth. I realized that I don't have any salt, just every other seasoning on earth. XD Must have left it at the lake... oh well. With that I ate my mom's leftover Thai chicken. It made a nice first meal.

I just discovered Pandora Radio. I actually like it. You enter in a song that you like, and it tells you other songs you should like based on that, and here's the clencher - WHY you should like them. I never knew all these musicky words that explain what I like to listen to, so it's very educational.

To start with, I put in The Cranberries as a band I liked, and it gave me an old favourite: Thank You by Dido. :)

Dieses Leben

Minne Katosi Päivät?

Minne Katosi Päivät?
Where Have the Days Gone?

Undone

Scandinavian Music Group

I listen to this song when I need peace in my soul...

Once

Once, I can't remember
I was, long ago, someone strange
I was innocent and wise
And full of pain

Now that I'm a woman
Everything is strange

Once, when I was searching
Somewhere out of reach
Far away
In a place I could not find
Or heart obey

Now that I'm a woman
Everything is changed

- Now That I'm a Woman,
America

Àtjan

Wow. This takes the screaming thing to a beautiful and strange extreme...

Just what I needed right now...

Geile Zeit

New Helen Trevillion Music!

This is mostly for you, Jashen. XD

Hadn't checked in a while, but Helen Trevillion has a ton of new stuff up, and it sounds like she's selling CDs too. May buy one, one of these days. For now I've downloaded all of her new stuff.

IP Soundtrack Choices

These are the ones I'm contributing to our group CD. The theme is Exile or Belonging:

• A Thing Called Love (Johnny Cash - American Country)
• Amerika (Rammstein - German Rock/Metal)
• Andre Som Jeg (Norwegian Tarzan Soundtrack)
• Anima Libera (Emi - Italian Pop)
• Born to Run (Springsteen - American Rock)
• Eldamar (Heaven Trevillion - Elvish Prayer)
• Ja, Vi Elsker (Norwegian National Anthem)
• Pod Hladinou (Czech Little Mermaid Soundtrack)
• Song of Lebennin (Helen Trevillion - Elvish Song)
• Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down (Kris Kristofferson - American 'Country')
• Tasogare no Umi (See-Saw - Japanese Pop)
• Valley of Mist (.hack/ - Weird Japanese Instrumental)
• When You're Alone (Springsteen - American 'Rock')
• Wildflower (Spirit Dreams - Native American Flute Music)
• World's Apart (Springsteen - Middle-Eastern-Inspired Love Song)
• Zombie (The Cranberries - Sort of Scary, Sort of Rock IRA Protest)
  

Born to Run

Wendy let me in I wanna be your friend
I want to guard your dreams and visions
Just wrap your legs round these velvet rims
And strap your hands across my engines
Together we could break this trap
We’ll run till we drop, baby we’ll never go back
Will you walk with me out on the wire
`cause baby I’m just a scared and lonely rider
But I gotta find out how it feels
I want to know if love is wild, girl I want to know if love is real

The highway’s jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive
Everybody’s out on the run tonight but there’s no place left to hide
Together wendy we’ll live with the sadness
I’ll love you with all the madness in my soul
Someday girl I don’t know when we’re gonna get to that place
Where we really want to go and we’ll walk in the sun
But till then tramps like us baby we were born to run

- Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen

General Listening

Music Picks for a General Listening CD:

Anima Libera
Rosenrot
The River
Andre Som Jeg
Ormurin Langi
Tasogare No Umi
Arabic Track II
Ariadiamus
Hijo De Hombre
If I Never Knew You (Thai)
Move Along
Avec La Foi
Eldamar
Ohne Dich
Desert Rose

Anima Libera

Anima libera,
ti senti candida,
lassù nel cielo volerai
Anima libera,
sempre mi illumina,
nel buio dei pensieri miei
Anima libera,
sovente e magica,
sei la speranza dentro me
Anima libera,
leggera e unica,
nel cosmo azzurro brillerai
E non lasciare che,
paure inutili,
nascondano la luce in te
Io non ti scorderò,
io ti celebrerò,
col ritmo di questa canzone...

- Anima Libera, EMI

(Beautiful song, even more beautiful language. :D)

This Weekend

This Weekend I'm running like my feet can't bear to stay on the ground.

Friday, Racquetball game. Immediately after school. Opponent's a sour natured girl, who won't shake hands properly and frowns and whines and tells all her friends I'm cheating for having good positioning. I go from this to Babysitting, no time to change. They jump on me and want to play tag and have milk and dinner and the little baby wants to poop and scream and run around and Grace wants to jump from furniture to furniture, that's not allowed...

I sing to Nate as I rock him to sleep, I sing "Into the West", it's what comes into my head, and he falls to sleep in my arms and I kiss his little face on his soft cheekbone, and a little eyelash is there. It's dark and long; not from a baby's eye. So the wish is mine, and I wish that someday...

Memory fades out, I dream of the National Vocabulary Competition, and making Sra. Altadonna a ball of stress and nerves, and we get there just in time, and sit together, Laura and Christy and I, as it all begins, and up on the stage there's bright lights and dry ice and a noise like thunder and the first girl goes up, and it's not even Vocabulary but Geography, and I don't know if she even get's it right - what does that buzzer mean, after all?

It means wake up, up I get, I shower, go down and shove a strawberry crepe down my throat and take the highway to work, barely get there ontime, half asleep and with an arm throbbing from Racquetball and Baby-Changing and forty new dollars in my pocket and it's payday and I get a 400$ paycheck, so now I'm rich but I have to shelve books all day...

Home again, it's out the door, to Arabic Church - I've turned it into my Government service project as well. Little kids climbing and kicking and screaming, Alleh, Daniel, Daniela, Eva, Evaline, Mary, and a new little girl, and we watch the service, it's interesting, and we eat some food, and we're home again, the house is cold and empty without Mom or Dad or Melissa or Tidbit.

Asleep - for longer, but not long enough. I skip Racquetball practice to write the Government essay, Angie hasn't even done it, for all that. Due on Tuesday at midnight, I want to get my English essay done tonight, perhaps it will happen. Lovely times at Layla's house, such nice smells and golden colours and a bird hits the window and whirls about with a wounded wing scattering decaying leaves about it.

Dark and Deadly Kaos, Smooth and Simple Peace... I look forward to Thanksgiving, and to Christmas, and to next year being a Senior, and College, and seeing the world, and meeting someone I want to spend my life with, and having adorable little dark haired children, and then quite suddenly I don't want to go forward any more - the tunnel plummets onward to the end of my life. So I sit back, and concentrate on the minute - what do you have to do RIGHT NOW, this very minute. What's due in the next? What's important?

And I decide blogging. :D

Day Three - Athens City, the Agora

The air was clear when we first woke up, bright and early - eight o' clock in Greece and midnight back home. The air was clear, so we could see then that what we had previously mistaken for open sea was perhaps a bay, or a water so crowded with islands that they ringed us with seemingly unbroken land.

At breakfast the quiet lay upon us still. The banquet hall and porches contain, in full, too many silent seagulls, a very friendly cat, and some exquisitely coloured birds with the most graceful shape, all striking black on white. The waiter is a slightly frightening man with a very square head, perhaps vaguely inspired by Frankenstein. Beyond that our company is nothing, and we had the distinction of being alone in a restaurant, watching trays of fried eggs replaced by trays of fried eggs, twice an hour, like clockwork. It seemed to me a waste, but for all I know they may be swapping the same two trays ad infinitum. What would stop them?

I sample everything and arrive at my favourites: squares of soft bread, warm, in cinnamon and sugar; sesame rings with salami; 'Frutomania!', also known as yogurt for small Greek children, bearing a picture reminiscent of Pokemon, a little boy with his hand outstretched presenting an unusual, star shaped fruit. I found slices of this same fruit and sampled them, but their taste was about as remarkable as that of a pear, and nothing like the yogurt. Still, I wonder who could make the connection between a grape and a grape slushee? I'll have to look it up when I get home... I've also taken a picture of said yogurt.



On we went to Athens itself, taking a cab to the Plaka. Anywhere in that district you can stop and look around you, find no less than one site of ancient ruins, two tourist shops, one taverna, four motorcycles, one random peddler, and a hundred and fifty Greek people. So, while it is a tourist neighborhood, understand that is only because the tourists love it there, not because the Greeks do not.



The tourist shops all have postcards, picture books of Greece, coffee tabled books (invariably Athens, Greece, the Acropolis, Greek Lovers, Greek Islands, and Kitties!... I don't pretend to understand that.) They also have lots of jewelry, lots of realistic looking pottery (my favourites were the salt and pepper shakers), all the little statues, and nice chess sets. There are these little medallions everywhere - blue, with a sort of eye painted on them, which are to ward off the evil eye. For Melissa we wanted a necklace of blue beads with a single, medium sized evil eye medallion at the end, but this was easier stated than followed through on. They had everything but that particular design, and finally we compromised with a bracelet of pretty blue beads and the evil eye every four spaces.

Eventually, of course, we bought the obligatory tourist clothing. My Dad bought a T-shirt of the Acropolis, and I got for myself and Melissa a shirt with the first lines of the Odyssey in Greek. What I really wanted was an entirely non touristy shirt with Greek writing like the natives might wear, but this was better than most. For Mom we bought a "traditional virgins dress" because it was cuter than the "traditional matrons dress", and besides, everything in those stores are "traditional". We picked a deep olive green like pine needles because it goes nicely with our skin tone.

Now this next part was purely destiny. The store had a thousand shirts saying "Greece!" or "Athens!" or "The Olympics!" and exactly one which said, "Norway". I had to have it. I didn't know or care what it was doing in the Plaka of Athens Greece, but I knew I couldn't find them in Ballwin MO, and here they were. It also has a little flag, and the whole shirt is decent quality... embroidered and the like.

At one store a lady was complaining as we entered that the same pottery she once bought for some hundreds of currency thirty years ago was now selling for Europennies in comparison. She was actually still lamenting this bitterly as we left ten minutes later...

"With the exchange rate, that makes almost 300 times!!" Alas for her...

There are an incredible amount of birds, cats, and dogs in Athens. In every olive tree you find a pack of the kitties, all shy and wary, but friendly, too. They snake their way through each ruin, as well, oblivious to signs and 'archeological sites" and "Do not touch the marble!", walking the streets humans once walked.

And on every ancient stone and outlook the dogs gather, many of them no more than puppies. We heard one fight and encountered the one strange dog our first night, but otherwise found them all rather amicable. They frolicked all over the hillsides, through parks filled with pot smokers and ancient statues, jumping over holes as perfect circles, once wells, now communal trash heaps. They even made their way into a few of our photos.

There are also peddlers everywhere. No straight out begging, but many instruments, trinkets, flowers, and obviously pirated DVD's striving for a glimpse at your wallet. I don't know how many people tried to sell me keychains, roses, or Pirates of the Carribean. From the Monostiraki beside Hadrian's Library I snapped a picture of one of the more unusual ones, an old lady selling cloth.

The place was beautiful. The Acropolis stood golden above it, nestled amoung many other hills, some deep pine green and others shimmering desert-like in the smog. Greek music wafted out of tavernas and down into the streets, and at our favourite store grape vines had grown up the treets and over across to one another, creating a shady and lovely green canopy.


Most of the Greek in the city had a translation, which was a bit of a shame, but what was interesting was that the translation wasn't always in English. There were several in German, a handful in Spanish, Italian, or French, and exactly two (that I saw), in Japanese.

We saw Socrates's prison, Pan's sanctuary, the Fountain of Kalliroe, the Sacred Gate, and more in the hills above Athens, then climbed in a roundabout way through homes carved into rock to the steps of the Acropolis and climbed to the rock of Pnix, where the first democratic assemblies were held.



I thought my prayers had been answered when the refreshments man, having no water, described one of his juices as "lemon."

"My God." I said, "It's Lemonade, in Europe!" But it wasn't meant to be. The juice was, as advertised, straight, pulpy, sour, lemon juice. It actually made me thirstier.

I counted thirty postcards from the cheapest store, at 20 Eurocents a pop. They all show Athens, Santorini, the Acropolis, the Karyatides, or the Tower of the Winds. I may wait until I get home to send them though, sorry to all those who hoped for a postmark. It's too complicated here.



After this I enjoyed some Gelato, a cone of vanilla. It's funny, I can't quite say whether it is more sugary or more creamy or what than regular ice cream, but I will say that it is different, and just as good, and it was what I had in Köln all those years ago.

The ancient Agora is amazing as well. You can see quite clearly where houses have been cut from the soft stone out of the hillsides, where enormous temples once stood. There are bits of rock everywhere, most plain but many with sculpturing: the top of a column, perhaps, and here and there a truly carved piece: a horse rearing to charge, arrested by the stone, half a woman's face. It's eerie in it's own way.

The pride of the Agora is the Hephaisteion, and rightfully so. The best preserved temple in Greece, it actually looks whole, or nearly enough so, though two black pigeons did take the place where the heads of a few statues once sat. Though small and perhaps not quite as ornate as the Parthenon or the Nike, it gives a good idea of what all the temples may have looked like complete.

The whole Agora was shaded, which was nice; I'm glad we did it on the hottest day of our visit. Also lovely viewing from the Plaka area, even if you don't make the climb, is the multi domed Church of St. Marina, patron saint of pregnant women, on the Hill of the Nymphs. I kid you not; the church is pink, a sleepy rose colour with a light red and tiled roof. It looks lovely perched in the trees.

As we climbed over Athens we heard the sound of a flute creeping through the streets and over the hills, a haunting tune that stirred the little yellow flowers that bloomed amoung the ruins. It shall forever be the voice of Greece for me, and there's the irony. Upon chasing down the source of the music at last, we discovered a band of Native Americans...

We saw the sunset from an ancient roadway that looked over the sea, sharing the area with a few other tourists, a college student studying, and a pack of half grown dogs. Back in the city as it grew dark, we got a seat at a table where we could see the Acropolis lit up for the evening. We tried with varying success to get a picture of the citadel shining golden against the sky, but such a thing can't really be captured.

The whole city erupted into furious backgammon playing as we sat and enjoyed some quality father-daughter time. The menu offered Grilled Soloman, which would have been very interesting to eat. Old, a bit gamey, but still good! :D Obviously, it was a mistranslation of Salmon, but strangely enough, there was a Salmon of wisdom, and Soloman was very wise as well. Coincidence? I think not!

We had a hard time getting a taxi, actually. First two didn't want to go all the way to the hotel because they had faster turnover with more money staying in the city. We finally found a guy on smoke break, though, and he agreed to take us provided he could finish his cigarette on the way.

He was an interesting fellow; intensely Greek, the second most Greek person we met. He was quite surprised that I had read the Iliad and the Odyssey. Shocked, really. He quizzed me on them. Of course, this was probably due to the fact that he thought I was 13 or so.

Sleep came quickly. That's never the problem.

Music and Trees

Everythings so pointless and vaguely depressing. I know everything will get better, but I can't help but feeling... Like maybe it won't. Maybe it's a human disease. How can I explain it?

It's like Music, right? We like Music, but do we like it every day, every minute, as we seem to? Or is it just that we can't find silence, and so we figure we might as well cover their noise with noise of our own choosing? Sometimes, you know, I crave the silence and the quiet, but there are always sirens and car horns and 141 and the horrid Saint Louis Cicada's, saying, it seems, "Hey-a, Hey-a... Why-a, Why-a..." from dinnertime to midnight.

And then theres trees. They're as beautiful as they always were, but they just... depress me. This tree has too few leaves, this one too few branches, this one has that awful disease with the tumours spread out on its twigs, this one is just perfect, just familiar, but someday it will change, this one is tall and beautiful and I can't even comprehend it.

I want to change my life so completely that it doesn't even occur to me to look back and cry for what was good and what was bad, both. I'm so tired of remembering.

Favourite Songs

I've decided that these are my three favourite songs:

Suteki Da Ne - Rikki
Vi Er Ett - Lion King II :P
The River - Bruce Springsteen


For your listening pleasure, since it seems legal to download music if it's attached to a video file:


Suteki Da Ne - Rikki
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0jUB7QNLB0

Vi Er Ett - Lion King II :P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyIl_Hk-Tgw
I just love the Norwegian version of this song! I know it's disney and corny but I like it. :)

The River - Bruce Springsteen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Nm67k4DCIg
Never mind the animation, but the sound will give you a bare idea... it's so much better if you can nab the acoustic live version from Live 1975-1985 (Disc 3) by Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band. It's my favourite rendition; not as bad as some live versions, but this is a song that works better emotionally than crystal clear. It's brilliant in that version, still wonderful in others... :D Remember; With Springsteen, it's 60% lyrics, 40% music... You can forgive the voice, it doesn't have any weight to carry. ;)

Tolkiens Price

The other day I was looking at the largest section of my book collection, the Tolkien section. Now, it should be mentioned that my Tolkien section ALONE is almost ten times bigger than my entire Manga collection, putting things nicely in perspective.

I started doing a rough estimate on how much Tolkien has cost me over the years. I got worried when I hit 250$ and stopped counting. I was about halfway, and had only done the smaller, paperback books that far.

Then I realised; that was only the books. The dvds cost me another 150$ by their lonesomes. Then you take into account soundtracks, board games, bookmarks, and other propaganda including the ill-advised present of fellowship figurines a confused Ellie recieved for christmas a couple years ago... Your quickly going over 500$

Now I realise that some collectors of rare crap spend that much on a single item, but Ill remind you that Im a high school student who makes all her own freespending money, and thinks in terms of:

Small Purchase: Pocky 3$
Purchase: Paperback Book 7$
Large Purchase: Hardback Book 30$
Very Large Purchase: Playstation2 Game 50$
Mega-purchase: Console, Dvd Player, Portable Keyboard 200$

So 500$ for a single intrest is a lot; plus when tax, movie snacks, bandwithe, etc is figured in it probably cost more. O.o Not to mention that I wouldnt even have started collecting books w/o tolkien, nor would I be in to rpg video games...

Ai Elbereth! What I do for Tolkien!