more

soon ill update this.

my internship is. i research environmental health problems for communities and groups that apply to CHEJ for assistance. i help gather information into fact packs, which we then distribute to help in the understanding of the problem. my job currently consists of finding new medical studies, articles of interest, or policy updates. but more on this later. theres much more ill be doing. such as GIS mapping.

gone to the zoo.

met some of Dana's friends from American U.

might start doing Krav Maga.

spend a lot of time at Tryst, an excellent bar/coffee shop/lounge where i go to grab a Guiness w/ expresso (a Dufrain) and read a book or work on my tutorial, which i am far behind on.

the bulk of my time is spend wandering to parks, getting something nice to eat and drink, and reading. ive read 3 books so far and am constantly hungry for more. im starting another Calvino tomorrow. i love reading on the Metro.

i feel torn between wanting to do grassroots/bottom-up public health work and desperately wanting to be a writer like Chatwin or Kapuscinski or Orwell and write about the human condition. anthropological and ethnographic, but not anthropology or ethnography. its funny. a whole discipline set up around writing on the human condition and everyday life, but by a group who, far and wide, are not good writers. for it takes a lot of talent to sucessfully portray the magic of daily life and the condition. The Road to Wigan Pier was so great.

so heres some more, adapted from my amazon.com wishlist. just to add to the others, just because.

Birds Without Wings
by Louis de Bernières

Speak, Memory
by Vladimir Nabokov

Desierto: Memories of the Future (Paperback)
by Charles Bowden

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
by James Agee

Stranger in the Village of the Sick: A Memoir of Cancer, Sorcery, and Healing
by Paul Stoller

A Field Guide to Getting Lost
by Rebecca Solnit

Lines: A Brief History
by Tim Ingold

My Life as an Explorer
by Sven Hedin

When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa
by Peter Godwin

The Great Railway Bazaar
by Paul Theroux

The Soul of the Rhino
by Hemanta Mishra

Spider's House: A Novel
by Paul Bowles

The Voices of Marrakesh: A Record of a Visit
by Elias Canetti

i realize its ideas of the body, place, and memory that get to me, for the best writing i enjoy to read. the experience of remembering being, physically, in a space and place.

i think i will incorperate this into my senior project. Body Toxic was inspiring to read as a piece of literature but as social commentary and i think something like that...

the used bookstore in adams morgan will be a good place to start. all this reading makes me inspired, to be honest. its a nice break from everything else, even if it does lead to me being a bit anti social. but theres always the good conversations in parks with strangers.

hope for humanity.