Hello from Atlanta!
This is Jodi... squeezing in a post before our check out at 11:45am. There's so much to reflect on, it's hard to sum it all up. Atlanta has been such a meaningful experience. We met lots of people at the hostel, I guess two days ago, and then yesterday after the gardens (see rach's post below) and the paste magazine interview -- which we'll re-write into this blog-- we came back to some people we had met at the hostel and talked for a while with our friend Ru. She's from Croatia and she is so much fun! Really intelligent, sweet, nice, wonderful person to be around, so we invited her out to dinner to get Tapas. We asked her lots and lots of questions about America and Croatia, and Atlanta, and she really opened up to us and had a great time with us. She had never had tapas before so each time they brought out a new plate she would make this face like "oooh how fancy!" I was also so happy to find out that she had taken an african drum class, and so have I! and she had her drum with her in her room. So of course, we took to the porch on the third floor with her drum and my guitar, and even though she had never played drums with guitar before, it sounded great! Simple and nice.
While we were on the porch, our friend Fisnik came to join us. Rach and Judy were singing beautiful harmonies to the songs I was playing (some of my songs... some indigo girls, death cab, postal service, dashboard... etc). We met another couple that I was looking for, they are from Colombia and have been together for 9 years and are professional choreographers. They said they would dance for us, but I think we got back after they had gone to sleep, so that was unfortunate. They were great people though, I got to practice mi espanol with them. After getting yelled at by the neighbors for playing our music too loud on the porch... we took to Ru's room, which was a room with bunk beds, that usually sleeps six, but she was the only one there. We got to see pictures of Fisnik's family in Kosovo and heard lots of devastating stories about the war and the deaths he's had to endure. I really learned a lot just listening to these people, not to mention how much fun they were to be with. I wished we could stay and hang out more, but we've got lots of work to do.
Rach was saying to me earlier how the further we get into this trip, the deeper it gets... And I think that's really true. We're getting deeper into the south, deeper into ourselves, deeper into this journey, deeper into the lives of people that we meet.
Yesterday we had some encounters with a few homeless people on the street... Rach gave one guy half of her sandwich because he was digging through the trash for food. Another guy came up to us right after that with flowers, he wanted money, but we didn't have any cash... he gave us the flowers anyway. Next a guy came up in a wheelchair (on the same road, within a minute of the last encounter), and asked us for water. I had a full nalgiene and figured it couldn't hurt... He drank half of it, and went on his way. I was happy to be able to hydrate him, and then we put the flowers in the nalgiene bottle. It was a really cool experience for me.
I think it's those little encounters that stick with me the most... SPEAKING of STICKING with me-- i was in the parking lot of Publix (grocery store) and i stepped in gum!! it dragged so far and it was sooo sticky, and i looked up in my embarassment and this lady was in her car making this "feeling sorry for me" face... and it made me laugh so much! people really interact with you in the south. they're not afraid or too busy to stop and roll down the window and say "that's the WORST! ... but it could be worse." It made stepping in gum so much funnier because this lady decided to join in on the moment since she saw it from her car. I just really like it here, and I'm so thankful for my experience here!
We're still working on pictures!!! I've got to go, thanks for staying in touch. I don't think we'll have much time/much internet access in biloxi, but we'll get pictures/reflections up after our 5 days there. Adios!
Jodi
This is Jodi... squeezing in a post before our check out at 11:45am. There's so much to reflect on, it's hard to sum it all up. Atlanta has been such a meaningful experience. We met lots of people at the hostel, I guess two days ago, and then yesterday after the gardens (see rach's post below) and the paste magazine interview -- which we'll re-write into this blog-- we came back to some people we had met at the hostel and talked for a while with our friend Ru. She's from Croatia and she is so much fun! Really intelligent, sweet, nice, wonderful person to be around, so we invited her out to dinner to get Tapas. We asked her lots and lots of questions about America and Croatia, and Atlanta, and she really opened up to us and had a great time with us. She had never had tapas before so each time they brought out a new plate she would make this face like "oooh how fancy!" I was also so happy to find out that she had taken an african drum class, and so have I! and she had her drum with her in her room. So of course, we took to the porch on the third floor with her drum and my guitar, and even though she had never played drums with guitar before, it sounded great! Simple and nice.
While we were on the porch, our friend Fisnik came to join us. Rach and Judy were singing beautiful harmonies to the songs I was playing (some of my songs... some indigo girls, death cab, postal service, dashboard... etc). We met another couple that I was looking for, they are from Colombia and have been together for 9 years and are professional choreographers. They said they would dance for us, but I think we got back after they had gone to sleep, so that was unfortunate. They were great people though, I got to practice mi espanol with them. After getting yelled at by the neighbors for playing our music too loud on the porch... we took to Ru's room, which was a room with bunk beds, that usually sleeps six, but she was the only one there. We got to see pictures of Fisnik's family in Kosovo and heard lots of devastating stories about the war and the deaths he's had to endure. I really learned a lot just listening to these people, not to mention how much fun they were to be with. I wished we could stay and hang out more, but we've got lots of work to do.
Rach was saying to me earlier how the further we get into this trip, the deeper it gets... And I think that's really true. We're getting deeper into the south, deeper into ourselves, deeper into this journey, deeper into the lives of people that we meet.
Yesterday we had some encounters with a few homeless people on the street... Rach gave one guy half of her sandwich because he was digging through the trash for food. Another guy came up to us right after that with flowers, he wanted money, but we didn't have any cash... he gave us the flowers anyway. Next a guy came up in a wheelchair (on the same road, within a minute of the last encounter), and asked us for water. I had a full nalgiene and figured it couldn't hurt... He drank half of it, and went on his way. I was happy to be able to hydrate him, and then we put the flowers in the nalgiene bottle. It was a really cool experience for me.
I think it's those little encounters that stick with me the most... SPEAKING of STICKING with me-- i was in the parking lot of Publix (grocery store) and i stepped in gum!! it dragged so far and it was sooo sticky, and i looked up in my embarassment and this lady was in her car making this "feeling sorry for me" face... and it made me laugh so much! people really interact with you in the south. they're not afraid or too busy to stop and roll down the window and say "that's the WORST! ... but it could be worse." It made stepping in gum so much funnier because this lady decided to join in on the moment since she saw it from her car. I just really like it here, and I'm so thankful for my experience here!
We're still working on pictures!!! I've got to go, thanks for staying in touch. I don't think we'll have much time/much internet access in biloxi, but we'll get pictures/reflections up after our 5 days there. Adios!
Jodi
posted by Jodi | 7:50 AM
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