One of my favorite American traditions
October 31, 2009
October 27, 2009
Lost Cowboy Hat...Found Mexican Sombrero
My dear old friend
went down to Tennessee
in order to send
a real cowboy hat to me.
Through many states did the hat fly
over mountains and rivers
somehow it got lost in the sky
making me cry.
Oh real cowboy hat
on my head you would have sat
perfectly shaped
for a MonkeyMan ape.
So I decided to go on my own
to land I've never known
further south than any ape has dared to go
only to find my sombrero in Mexico.
went down to Tennessee
in order to send
a real cowboy hat to me.
Through many states did the hat fly
over mountains and rivers
somehow it got lost in the sky
making me cry.
Oh real cowboy hat
on my head you would have sat
perfectly shaped
for a MonkeyMan ape.
So I decided to go on my own
to land I've never known
further south than any ape has dared to go
only to find my sombrero in Mexico.
October 25, 2009
MonkeyMan cultural observation #2: supermarkets cont.
The same goes for chips!
WHERE IS MONKEYMAN?
Click on image to enlarge
WHERE IS MONKEYMAN?
Click on image to enlarge
MonkeyMan cultural observation #2: supermarkets
Every time I walk into the cereal aisle of those mega supermarkets like Walmart, Pathmart etc. I nearly die of anxiety attack at the amount of choice that exists on the shelves.
Literally, a whole aisle is dedicated to cereals. First you may encounter the healthy organic cereal, all bran cereal, and low fat/calorie cereal which has appeared in recent years and takes up about one fifth of the cereal aisle. Next you will surely encounter overwhelmingly colorful boxes which tend to be all the child targeted cereals such as Lucky Charms, Fruit Loops, Cheerios and of course Rice Krispies. The most amazing one I saw at Pathmart were the Honey Bunches of Oats which had 8 different kinds!
This is a small yet very pertinent example of what American society is like. Everywhere people consume, yet the market here has been so segmented to target different audiences that the audience doesn't know what to choose anymore. Do we really need 8 different kinds of the same cereal and 30 different types of cereal? After all, cereal is such a basic food...simple grains...why complicate it so much?
To prove my point, I wasn't even able to fit all of the pictures I took into a panorama, the picture below is only about a third of all the cereals.
WHERE IS MONKEYMAN?
Click on image to enlarge
Literally, a whole aisle is dedicated to cereals. First you may encounter the healthy organic cereal, all bran cereal, and low fat/calorie cereal which has appeared in recent years and takes up about one fifth of the cereal aisle. Next you will surely encounter overwhelmingly colorful boxes which tend to be all the child targeted cereals such as Lucky Charms, Fruit Loops, Cheerios and of course Rice Krispies. The most amazing one I saw at Pathmart were the Honey Bunches of Oats which had 8 different kinds!
This is a small yet very pertinent example of what American society is like. Everywhere people consume, yet the market here has been so segmented to target different audiences that the audience doesn't know what to choose anymore. Do we really need 8 different kinds of the same cereal and 30 different types of cereal? After all, cereal is such a basic food...simple grains...why complicate it so much?
To prove my point, I wasn't even able to fit all of the pictures I took into a panorama, the picture below is only about a third of all the cereals.
WHERE IS MONKEYMAN?
Click on image to enlarge
October 17, 2009
MonkeyMan cultural observation #1: toilets
HeeHee part-time monkeys!
Am I the only one who has notice how much water there is in the toilet bowls here? The water almost reaches your butt when you sit down!
Is it just because everything else in the US is over sized and so toilets have larger tanks? Does that mean people here take larger poo-poos?
Please, the whole "going green" ideology has really hit hard, at least here in nyc. Everyone carries around their reusable bags and is going around planting trees in gardens, but no one seems to be thinking about water.
According to the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, New Yorkers consume 1068.7 million gallons of water EVERYDAY!
(http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/drinking_water/droughthist.shtml)
Check out this link on how to convert your toilet into a low-flush toilet and save gallons of water:
http://www.wikihow.com/Convert-Any-Toilet-to-a-Low-Flush-Toilet
Am I the only one who has notice how much water there is in the toilet bowls here? The water almost reaches your butt when you sit down!
Is it just because everything else in the US is over sized and so toilets have larger tanks? Does that mean people here take larger poo-poos?
Please, the whole "going green" ideology has really hit hard, at least here in nyc. Everyone carries around their reusable bags and is going around planting trees in gardens, but no one seems to be thinking about water.
According to the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, New Yorkers consume 1068.7 million gallons of water EVERYDAY!
(http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/drinking_water/droughthist.shtml)
Check out this link on how to convert your toilet into a low-flush toilet and save gallons of water:
http://www.wikihow.com/Convert-Any-Toilet-to-a-Low-Flush-Toilet
October 14, 2009
MonkeyMan business #2: UNIS (part 1)
I am what they refer to as a "UNIS survivor". For all of you who are oblivious to this expression I am an alumna of the United Nations International School who attended from Kindergarten through 12th grade (known as Tut 4 for all my fellow classmates). I managed to study enough for those looooong exams which tested you on 2 years worth of material to obtain an international diploma, while also having the time of my life.
You would think that I had enough of the school, yet I have returned this time as a temporary staff member. I first started working at the copy center/book room making photocopies for all my old teachers and sending packages and books to the corresponding classrooms.
As I was working there one day, an old teacher of mine told me that these types of jobs "build character", and boy is he right. You have to be direct and a bit nasty otherwise everyone is always asking you for favors. I never have imagined I would be working in a space the size of a walk-in closet serving the teachers who once assigned me essays. The funny thing is that you see these people in a different light...as just people... and not as someone who is purposefully trying to ruin your life by making you read Shakespeare.
The best part about the job was that I was able to speak Spanish all day and I became a small capillary in the network of veins and arteries which keep a school like UNIS going. It really all depends on those small jobs and how people are treated for a school to run smoothly. MonkeyMan stood by me through the hours of copying, sorting and stamping books reminding me that there still a world outside that little room with no window.
You would think that I had enough of the school, yet I have returned this time as a temporary staff member. I first started working at the copy center/book room making photocopies for all my old teachers and sending packages and books to the corresponding classrooms.
As I was working there one day, an old teacher of mine told me that these types of jobs "build character", and boy is he right. You have to be direct and a bit nasty otherwise everyone is always asking you for favors. I never have imagined I would be working in a space the size of a walk-in closet serving the teachers who once assigned me essays. The funny thing is that you see these people in a different light...as just people... and not as someone who is purposefully trying to ruin your life by making you read Shakespeare.
The best part about the job was that I was able to speak Spanish all day and I became a small capillary in the network of veins and arteries which keep a school like UNIS going. It really all depends on those small jobs and how people are treated for a school to run smoothly. MonkeyMan stood by me through the hours of copying, sorting and stamping books reminding me that there still a world outside that little room with no window.
October 08, 2009
MonkeyMan business #1: Appleseeds
Appleseeds was my first part-time monkey business since I got back to New York.
It's a Manhattan style children's center with a big indoor playground, lots of different classes as well as a store and hair salon.
For now I'm giving a mere two classes on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:15 to 10am to kids 18 months to 3 years of age. Yes, I have to take the subway that early in the morning for just a one hour class. The good thing about it is that it pays well, I get some exercise and above all its FUN! We play sports, run around and best of all we play with bubbles.
This type of early childhood center has existed in the US for a long time, but in Spain however, going to a place to spend quality time with your child is a completely new concept. That is not to say that Spaniards don't spend quality time with their children, it's just that they prefer to bring along to the bar while they have a couple of cañas (small beers) or let them run off in the park with other kids.
Funny enough, I feel that Americans spend much less time with their children simply because they are much busier and work most of the day. Seriously, life is so fast paced and hectic here, people don't even have time for children. Therefore, they usually have a nanny to take care of them all day and a lot of them come to Appleseeds.
At Gymboree, the center I was working at in Spain, nannies were definitely a minority. And lets just face it, most nannies are not as enthusiastic about attending a jolly happy sing a long class with a child that is not theirs.
Welcome to the part-time haven!
Hello part-timers!
I have decided that there are just too many other people like me out there running from one side of the city to the other in order to fulfill the various part-time/temporary jobs they have.
As for myself, I came back to the recessive US economy after 5 years in a country where the economy is permanently in recession...Spain. There I was lucky enough to be hired at an international franchise called Gymboree after my first ever official interview. However, in NYC, the capital of commerce, it seems like that luck is not lending me a helping hand.
I guess after graduating from university, we (all my fellow high school graduates) expected to find the full-time "awesome job of our dreams" and be able to move out of our parents house. Ironically, after having left the nest during a significant amount of time to study, the majority of us have been forced back to sharing our private lives with the family.
Now, there are certain perks and pouts to this:
your roommates don't steal your food yet your sibling may have eaten it all by the time you come around to cooking it; you don't have to pay rent yet everyone is all up in your business when you bring a girl or boy over; you don't have to argue about who's going to buy the next pack of toilet paper anymore yet they bathroom is always busy when everyone is getting ready in the morning.
Of course there are many more so please feel free to post any of your experiences...
As I was walking on the street with a friend of mine one day, I met MonkeyMan. He has been there with me through the first two months back in the US and has somehow managed to help me out way more than my B.A. in Arts.
Photos and explanations will be up shortly.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
