tsaugustine.blogspot.com
The Constant Traveler: July 2009
http://tsaugustine.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html
Thursday, July 23, 2009. What often goes unnoticed in our lives is the fact humanity shares a common language. It doesn't matter if we speak English, Arabic, Spanish, or sign language; if we are communicating with each other (or attempting to), we are doing something I think is quite magical: we are inviting another person into our life- our narrative, our story. We happily left for another round; this time, in a beautiful antique shop. Another wave of Arabic from the three of us put a grin on his fa...
tsaugustine.blogspot.com
The Constant Traveler: October 2009
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Monday, October 26, 2009. A Brief Chance to Breathe. Our second week my program took us on a political trip to Edinburgh- probably the most magical city in the world. The skyline lights up at sunset like a fairy tale (first picture) complete with castles, volcanic rock jutting out and colored amber in the twilight, and black-stone buildings looming over grass so green it looks like a fresh coat of paint. Today marks the first complete week I've spent in London since flying over. After the whirlwind o...
tsaugustine.blogspot.com
The Constant Traveler: A First-Rate Intelligence
http://tsaugustine.blogspot.com/2009/08/first-rate-intelligence.html
Monday, August 10, 2009. Readjusting to your culture after spending weeks or months in another is a very tricky matter for me- because I tend to want to forget it. The experiences I've had abroad have changed my life, altered my worldview, and challenged me; but I have an uncanny ability to walk between my world and the other, and hang up that world on a coat-rack, and for awhile forget about it. What's happening to me is a phenomenon I'd like to label after an F. Scott Fitzgerald's quote: ". Going back ...
tsaugustine.blogspot.com
The Constant Traveler: A Brief Chance to Breathe
http://tsaugustine.blogspot.com/2009/10/brief-chance-to-breathe.html
Monday, October 26, 2009. A Brief Chance to Breathe. Our second week my program took us on a political trip to Edinburgh- probably the most magical city in the world. The skyline lights up at sunset like a fairy tale (first picture) complete with castles, volcanic rock jutting out and colored amber in the twilight, and black-stone buildings looming over grass so green it looks like a fresh coat of paint. Today marks the first complete week I've spent in London since flying over. After the whirlwind o...
theconstantconversation.blogspot.com
The Conversation: Education of the Whole Palin
http://theconstantconversation.blogspot.com/2009/12/education-of-whole-palin.html
Thursday, December 3, 2009. Education of the Whole Palin. There are a great deal of Americans who belong to a re-surging minority of populism—a narrow, twofold worldview in which one, that America at home should glorify the Average Joe-Six-Packs and “ordinary people” and two, that America abroad is the sole shining light of the world, always right and always just, incapable of doing any wrong. Why care about populism? Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom). Published weekly in the Los Angeles Loyolan, "The C...
theconstantconversation.blogspot.com
The Conversation: Information Overload
http://theconstantconversation.blogspot.com/2009/10/information-overload.html
Thursday, October 22, 2009. I don't know about you, but I'm getting really overstimulated by conversation. Everything from the health care debates (is bloodbath too harsh? To Kanye West flipping out at the VMAs is making my brain nauseous. Yes, nauseous. As in my brain is keeling over from the fact that despite all the information we come across every day, very little of it seems relevant or important. Yet it just keeps coming, whether we like it or not. But, like my poor nauseous brain can attest to, th...
theconstantconversation.blogspot.com
The Conversation: September 2009
http://theconstantconversation.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html
Tuesday, September 29, 2009. I once had a professor who asked me whether I was an optimist or a pessimist. When I answered “both”, he laughed and said that, sooner or later, I would end up becoming one or the other. When I asked him why, he shrugged and said that it was easier for people to take sides in how they viewed the world. That single phrase—that, sooner or later, we all become one or the other—disturbed me in its simplicity. If I'm too critical, could I really appreciate life? We may not delegat...
theconstantconversation.blogspot.com
The Conversation: Easier Than Thinking
http://theconstantconversation.blogspot.com/2009/09/easier-than-thinking.html
Tuesday, September 29, 2009. I once had a professor who asked me whether I was an optimist or a pessimist. When I answered “both”, he laughed and said that, sooner or later, I would end up becoming one or the other. When I asked him why, he shrugged and said that it was easier for people to take sides in how they viewed the world. That single phrase—that, sooner or later, we all become one or the other—disturbed me in its simplicity. If I'm too critical, could I really appreciate life? We may not delegat...
