Bibimboopoopidoop

Here's another take on the Korean bibimbap, fresh from the farm.

rice
egg
zucchini
carrot
red lettuce
sesame seeds
gouda cheese
lemon
soy sauce
olive oil
salt

~cook rice (lightly salt), for salad chop lettuce, shred carrot, cut cheese into cubes, toss and sprinkle with lemon juice and salt, thinly slice zucchini, on med-heat sautee zucchini in olive oil and salt, when cooked, add dash of soy sauce and sprinkle sesame seeds (take care not to burn seeds!), place salad, zucchini, and rice in bowl in sectioned thirds, top with fried egg. It's likely there will be a bunch of toasty sesame seeds still in the frying pan so scrape those out on top of everything, add bibimbap or siracha(sp?) sauce to taste, enjoy with chopsticks and iced tea with dallop of organic honey from the lady you interviewed for your rodeo feature story whose husband owns a bee farm~

Where am I?/What am I doing?/When will I take my future "seriously"?

Most of you (all 3 or 4 of you) already know I currently live in Chile for a journalism/organic farming internship. At the beginning of last year, as my university career was coming to an end, I felt the impulse to slow that train down.

I love being a student, I love the freedom and forgiveness and benefits the sub-profession affords me. It's not the homework or lectures I love, but the societal recognition that you're young and optimistic enough to be pro-actively discovering and open to discovery. I love the title. I can deal with the borderline poverty and occasional feeling of aimlessness that college often entails. Also, I couldn't register for the thesis seminar required for my history major until the following Spring quarter (this upcoming March), so I had some time to kill. It was senseless to stay in school during the 6 month gap until I could finally take that damn class, wasting money on credits I didn't need. So instead, I got an internship with the Santiago Times, which a good friend and fellow Buenos Aires expat Natalie suggested I apply for. A lot of people don't get why I'm doing this internship if it "has nothing to do with my major" and I want to tell them to fuck off...but instead I recite the following spiel: I've been interested in but ignorant of organic farming/sustainable food production for a while and what better way to learn about it than hands-on and in a foreign country where I can simultaneously improve my Spanish. And though I dropped a possible journalism major my freshman year, I enjoy writing and see the value in acquiring newswriting experience (historians and journalists need to perfect the same skills: investigative research, effective communication to the public, story development, etc.). I'm killing a lot of birds with one stone here. (Or as Argentines would say, "matando dos conejos con un palo", killing two rabbits with one stick).

tempting college life alternative (freshman year, photo cred: Sarah Mollner)

After pulling together earnings from sushi waitressing tips, a salmon cannery stint, and a garage sale, I threw some belongings into my school backpack and started the nearly 4-month trip towards Chile from Baja California. That trip itself was quite the whirlwind. Since I got to Santiago, Chile over two months ago, I've been living on the newspaper editor's small organic farm a couple hours outside of the city, working on the farm and for the English newspaper from there.

To be honest, I can't even remember what compelled me to do this, but it makes perfect sense now. I can confidently say I'm fluent in Spanish, I know how to create and maintain an organic garden and greenhouse, and I have over 40 (and counting) news articles published. All of this while practically on "vacation". After almost 7 months abroad I've spent roughly $3000 (less than $300 since I started living in Chile since I don't pay rent and most of my food is garden-grown). Compared to the more than $6000 (rent not included, which would add another $2000) that would have been spent on two quarters at school (with probably less applicable knowledge attained and higher blood pressure from academic stresses), I think I made the right choice. Am I bragging? Maybe so, but mostly I want to (re-)clarify to myself and the masses why I haven't graduated already. And dammit that's okay.

I currently reside in a tiny, isolated pueblo called Caleu. To give you an idea of where "home" has been lately:

Located in Central Chile northwest of Santiago. Santiago is roughly in the middle of the brown "Region Metropolitana". This is from a little "About Caleu" booklet Carlos lent me.

From the daily bus that takes me from Stgo to Caleu

I live in the Lo Marin part of Caleu- perfectly nestled between two big hills

This is how sparsely populated Caleu is. From Steve's farm you don't see other homes or farms. You see this.