For those of you who have e-mailed about missing posts and articles…I am in the process of transitioning to the new design structure of this blog, in addition to revamping some of my website. The new blog look should be uploaded by Friday morning (June 12). Articles from the last month will be available at that time; in the following weeks, I will upload past posts gradually. Please bear with me through this change. Thanks!
For those people who were fans of the anime movie and TV show…
So…I’m here at the symposium, having a great time meeting people and seeing wonderful things. Ryan and I went to Acoma Pueblo on Wednesday to see Sky City (the oldest continuously inhabited community in America). It was pretty amazing and very beautiful. We both got a little flipped out by how impossible it was to judge distance for two West Virginians in a landscape where you can see for miles. 
Yesterday was the first day of the conference, with a variety of guest speakers and special film screenings. IAIA (the Institute of American Indian Arts) held a special screening of student film projects from this summer’s workshop session that was really interesting; some of the pieces (like Nizhoni and A Thousand Unsaid Words) were truly impressive. Additionally, there was a special screening of Kent Mackenzie’s 1961 film noir-esque The Exiles which Ryan and I both really loved.
I’m taking a quick break to eat this delicious fruit tart and drink some iced coffee after my plenary session, which I thought went very well (even if my DVD skipped over the title menu and my first quotation). I really enjoyed the work of both of my co-presenters (Sheila Rochia of the Indigenous Collective of Theater & Art and Barbara Robins of University of Nebraska) - we all agreed afterwards that our presentations were really well matched. I came up with the perfect introduction for my video essay yesterday evening while driving back for the evening screenings after a delicious meal of sopaipillas soaked with honey and carne adovada with some friends from the conference squished together in our rental car…unfortunately, our panel was pressed for time so I largely ditched it in favor of getting to the DVD, but I’ll have to remember it to use in the future. The response was largely positive (I did notice some individuals seemed uncomfortable, but there’s a theoretical divide on the concept of using contemporary media and Gen Y digital cultures to discuss Native lifestyles and issues - some people feel the twain should not meet, if you catch my drift). Two great things, though — I was invited to look into the IAIA summer filmmaking program by a very kind representative who attended my presentation…and SIMON ORTIZ was in the audience for my screening and actually took a DVD with him. There must be nothing more nerve-wracking then presenting your work in front of someone whose work you really enjoy.
But.
Time for more sessions and presentations…and to finish this delicious tart…
So I am a little over one week away from departure to China. I have my visa and my plane tickets, but that’s about it. I have yet to even purchase a suitcase (it appears I only have those little-wheely-carryon-thingers and then one mammoth suitcase for those very long trips overseas with absolutely nothing in between - for which I entirely blame that attempted mugging in Glasgow on New Year’s 2006…attempted because I instinctively beat up the guy trying to take my suitcase, which then had the unfortunate side effect of destroying the framework of the case when he fell onto it to escape my kicking legs…so, lost a suitcase and retained all the valuables, fortunately…I just have had yet to replace it as I bought this huge monstrosity in Belfast to lug back home the contents of our Northern Irish ghetto instead of a comparable case)…but anyway.
I’ll be going to Soochow University in Suzhou for a month to study Chinese language and culture, then Ryan will join me and we’ll travel around for a quick bit to Hong Kong, Beijing, Xi’an, Chengdu and one or two other places before heading back to Shanghai and back to Western shores. While we’re studying at Soochow we plan to take weekend trips to visit nearby cities like Hangzhou, Shanghai and Nanjing. I’ve been promised visits to teahouses and tea plantations (Suzhou is known for its teas), as well as bookstores, restaurants, boat rides down the Yangtze and the consumption of dog (I kid you not) from street vendors…it’s apparently a pretty popular snack…
Ryan has also very thoughtfully replaced my coffee-soaked original iPod (five years old and still was working perfectly until it decided to tangle with a Starbucks Doubleshot), with a groovy new iPod nano. I cannot get over how tiny it is. Like a kitten tongue or baby fingers, I find it fascinatingly delicate and fragile. It is seriously smaller than a credit card and weighs almost nothing…and will protect me from the constant crowdedness of one of the most populated countries in the world for those times when I just need to close my eyes and imagine that I live alone on a desert island filled with mangoes, fresh fish and all my favorite books.
Seriously, though…I promise while I am away to make a very big effort to be more social than I am used to as an American, in addition to being very open to new experiences and trying new things at least once…even if they do happen to be chicken feet covered in pig fat (a delicacy in some parts of China).
I’ll post on here regularly while I’m away. Additionally, West Virginia University has asked me to be their Study Abroad Blogger for the summer, so I’ll be posting on their site as well - http://fromabroad.blogs.wvu.edu/authors/erin_clemens - or just http://fromabroad.blogs.wvu.edu if you want to access the main posts.
Since it’s getting so close to the trip itself, people have started asking me if I’m getting excited or nervous. Well, I would be pretty excited about it if I weren’t in a completely deadened emotional state from finals, and probably will experience life and joy again once this week is over.
Did I mention that today is Friday of Finals Week? I find myself arduously and agonizingly crawling towards the finish line of a marathon exam schedule that has turned out to be include 4 final exams, 2 special presentations and 5 papers…one of which was required to be about 30 pages long…I sat down last night…well, toppled over in a daze from stress, illness and lack of sleep…and realized that between my assigned papers and the various essays on my tests (six - if anyone is curious), by the end of this week I will have written just under 100 pages of research and opinion on obscure literature, politics and cultural issues…NEVER AGAIN! NEVER, EVER AGAIN!
Oh, well. Onward and upward. Off to finish up the last leg of this mythic contest of endurance and willpower (AKA finals.) I hope somebody meets me at the finish line with hard liquor.