No more car

While on the Pedalers trip in New Orleans, I was reflecting a lot on my options for transportation this summer...
I've got my Subaru legacy at home. Although old, this car has got quite the life in it. "The Suby" has endured my mom's work days as a Public Health Nurse, my brother's high school and college careers, and finally the majority of my high school years also. Now it sits at home, ready for anyone's leisure use.
My dad and I previously decided that I would have my car...
But now I'll use my bike, rather!

Critical Mass

When in New Orleans I found out by a passerby-er that Critical Mass is a nation-wide movement that started in the E Coast====Awesome!

I was thinking that this whole time it was just in Minneapolis... But how wrong I was.

Well, for those avid bikers, let's get out this friday and join the other hundreds of people in this grassroots movements that can raise some serious environmental awareness, eh!
This Friday, Loring Park---be there at 5 pm and we'll "roll out"
!

Soon-to-be Sister-in-Law

So after many...MANY hours of being on the Greyhound through Sunday and up to Monday, I got a hold of my brother via the airwaves and he told me he proposed to his long-time girlfriend
!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow, this is a first for me so I am going to have to let down my sisterly-protections and cut the bride-to-be some slack
;)

But it makes me feel absolutely great to hear the happiness in his voice and in hers; so a beautiful day it was!

PS--when I spoke with my mom earlier and she told me that my brother was trying to call me, I just got the marriage vibes somehow... I guess I'm just intuitive!

Love,

Annika

First Week Back

So who knows what I was thinking when I thought the first week back at school from Spring Break would be relaxed... Yes, because it's not.
But since all of us Pedalers departed from one another yesterday, I have been missing the group vibes and each of their unique personalities that I grew so accustomed to during our week+ together.

Pedalers for Peace ride out again participating in Critical Mass this Friday.
Get ready. I am.

First Night in New Orleans

We were told by our contact person that sleeping across the street from his house--in the median of the road--was the place where other volunteers had stayed and that we would be safe sleeping there. No one would mess with us, we were told. Our contact person warned us that if we had any trouble, the only source of that trouble would be the police.
Well, he turned out to be right on the money.

Yes, The Pedalers and I pitched our tents and were ready for some real food [after eating insurmountable amounts of pre-packaged gas station food]... but all we could get was the neighborhood store called "Spider Meats" [which we ended up loving, by the way] and different waves of police officers/military personnel encounters.
After being questioned if we were OK, if we knew what the area was like that we were staying in, and after being told that this "wasn't a good neighborhood," the final squad car rolled up the median where we were set-up on and the officers acted quite harsh to us.
Needless to say our tents eventually--eventually but quickly--came down from the median and we would spend the majority of the rest of our nights in our contact's dilapidated house.
PS--the neighborhood did not have a good reputation but that was mainly told to us by seemingly rich people who would drive through in their polished SUVs... people who obviously had already pre-judged the community members of the area in which we were staying. What a shame for them, though, because it was those neighborhood members who treated us the best, advocated for us, and supplied us with things that they most likely needed themselves.
Wow, now that is caring for your neighbor. Maybe those people in the SUVs should stay in that Saint Bernard community for a while and humble themselves.

Spring Break was Crazzzyyy---in SUCH a beautiful way

New Orleans--and the South as a whole--was a whole different world in many ways. Sure, so essentially almost all of the things we had planned were "destroyed" and warped into randomness... but the action that was done with that--the attitude of "rollin' with the punches" is what made those last-minute decisions and that randomness beautiful.

There is so much in the South that we must become aware of. On the way down, after getting out for a half-hour stretch break from the Greyhound bus, some friends and I did a little exploring of Jackson, Mississippi. We ended up having a conversation with two people of the community who were born and raised in Jackson and who still inhabited the area. My friends and I were in awe when these people answered our questions of "what happened to the homes and stores here;" "where are the jobs;" "where do people live if all of the buildings have been ransacked, looted and destroyed??"...

Many places in the SOuth are just simply ignored and not talked about because of different, corrupt agendas

almost 20-some hours later our group of the Pedalers for Peace was in New Orleans, LA...

Wrapping it up.

Thursday is already coming tomorrow and bit by bit I am feeling more content with my standings in the week...
Yes, tomorrow I will be half-way to being fully organized for Pedalers for Peace... we leave at 7:30 am Saturday, PS.
I am finally almost done with my one/two history essay/s (I combined them so I'm still trying to figure out if Prof. Kolnick will accept them as two answers or as one..hmmm...)
Then tomorrow I can maybe organize more of my study abroad stuff before I head off this weekend... but there may be more vital things to do first hmm...
You see this, THIS [the above] is what has been going on in my head all this week. and more. !!
But you know what--no complaints--nope--none!! Because I am not the only one here that is in such mental situations. Everybody else is just about ready to wrap it up!
So I guess if I think of all of these tedious last-minute things [not forgetting about my HIS of US Foreign Policy mid-term exam on Friday] as a "communal initiative," then it's not so bad!
All right, leaving you here with the "communal initiative" vibes~~~

and smile.