Which continent, exactly?

This blog's title isn't in reference to actual continents (I've now been to four), but is rather drawn from "The Third and Final Continent," a stunning short story by Jhumpa Lahiri, from her collection, The Interpreter of Maladies. In particular, I'm inspired by the following quote that summarizes the attitude I try to carry with me through life and on my travels

I am not the only person to seek his fortune far from home, and certainly I am not the first. Still there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination.

I love this. It calls on us to consider the tiny details of our experiences, both one-by-one, and in the aggregate, and to maintain a sense of wonder even about the seemingly mundane things that are the building blocks of our lives, and often, the glue that binds us to our traveling companions.

This blog began as a chronicle of my study abroad experience in Cairo in Spring 2008, and continued last year while volunteering in Geneva, and South Sudan with a wonderful organization, VIDES.

Now in graduate school, I'm returning to the Continent this summer while interning in New Delhi, India.

Please enjoy, inquire, and learn.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Reading like a champion

So without Wifi in the residence (read: a Tube-free  environment), and with a handy Kindle Fire that has become my only personal functioning gadget, I have been reading like crazy.  It has been really been nice to rediscover the joys of just reading without all of the distractions (read: all of the Internet) that have taken me off the literary bandwagon in recent years.  It’s one of the many ways that I’ve been able to get a little of growth and the peace of mind I was looking for during these few months, along with the search for service, growth in compassion, travel, and relationship-building that led me to where I am.   Thanks to my sister and fellow VIDES volunteer who gave me a bunch of reading material, and for Amazon for making so many classics available for free.

New Conquests:
Don Quixote, which has been on my list since high school
The Qur’an in English, which has been on my list since college.
Cutting for Stone:  Fantastic. Came highly recommended by my sister, and I repeat the endorsement
A Casual Vacancy:  A good read, can see the Harry Potter voice in there, a good story but from Africa didn’t really move me
The Mantle of the Prophet, about religion in Iran, which I first bought when I begin with Farsi over a year ago.  It was excellent for anyone who wants to start getting their head around modern Iran
Un-Orthodox
Little Bee (fantastic, highly recommended)
This is How You Lose Her
The Road
Behind the Beautiful Forevers
A Hearbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
The Communist Manifesto, which I’ve been threatening to read since high school.


Beloved rereads:
Life of Pi, shortly before I saw the movie, once on my kindle in transit, once with the sisters, which is a good adaptation, although goes a bit overboard with the CGI.
A Tale of Two Cities:   Had been wanting to reread since Paris. Started in Rome, finished in Juba
100 Years of Solitude
The Hunger Games
Madeleine L’engle’s Wrinkle in Time, Swiftly Tilting Planet, Wind in the Door and Many Waters
A few stories from Interpreter of Maladies, my blog title’s baby mama.

Future challenges:
Democracy in America, vol. 1 and 2 (has been on my list since High School)
The Book of Mormon


Like in other phases of life where I’ve read a lot, it’s been a joy to find the connections between the written word and life experiences, and among the different, barely-related books I’m chewing through, from Cutting for Stone that referenced the Ethiopian dish I’d eaten the night before, to shifting from the story of Noah in the Qur’an to the its novelization in Many Waters.

Anyway, am posting this in case you were curious what I can possibly do when there’s no school in a world without home wi-fi access.  And it’s good motivation to continue knocking away at my list.
Other fun assigned reading:
P8 compositions. 

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