Ode to the Artichoke

This is a translation of a poem written by Pablo Neruda from my Spanish class, Intro. to Hispanic Texts. It made me smile, and I hope it does the same for you.

Ode to the Artichoke

The artichoke
With a tender heart
Dressed up like a warrior,
Standing at attention, it built
A small helmet
Under its scales
It remained
Unshakeable,
By its side
The crazy vegetables
Uncurled
Their tendrills and leaf-crowns,
Throbbing bulbs,
In the sub-soil
The carrot
With its red mustaches
Was sleeping,
The grapevine
Hung out to dry its branches
Through which the wine will rise,
The cabbage
Dedicated itself
To trying on skirts,
The oregano
To perfuming the world,
And the sweet
Artichoke
There in the garden,
Dressed like a warrior,
Burnished
Like a proud
Pomegrante.

And one day
Side by side
In big wicker baskets
Walking through the market
To realize their dream
The artichoke army
In formation.
Never was it so military
Like on parade.
The men
In their white shirts
Among the vegetables
Were
The Marshals
Of the artichokes
Lines in close order
Command voices,
And the bang
Of a falling box.

But
Then
Maria
Comes
With her basket
She chooses
An artichoke,
She's not afraid of it.
She examines it, she observes it
Up against the light like it was an egg,
She buys it,
She mixes it up
In her handbag
With a pair of shoes
With a cabbage head and a
Bottle
Of vinegar
Until
She enters the kitchen
And submerges it in a pot.

Thus ends
In peace
This career
Of the armed vegetable
Which is called an artichoke,
Then
Scale by scale,
We strip off
The delicacy
And eat
The peaceful mush
Of its green heart.

Halloween!

To celebrate Halloween and a chance for pumpkin pie, I, along with the help of my fellow social chair, hosted a Halloween party for the Barton Residence Hall. We served homemade pumpkin pie and cider, played some Halloween games, and watched Hitchcock's classic, Psycho. I have to say, my favorite part of the evening was seeing the costumes people came up with! Most people created their own and were really creative.

I went as Nancy Drew- classy, smart, intuitive. . .
It was Halloween, so I could pretend to be whatever I wanted, ok?

Argh!

Pirates, DNA Translation, and Space Crunch

Last weekend, I organized a dual, surprise, pirate-themed birthday party for two of my friends from Anders. We had newspaper pirate hats, Capn' Crunch, pirate decorations and games like pin the eye patch on the pirate, a pirate ship cake, and music from Pirates of the Caribbean. The two friends were really surprised- especially Robert who we surprised as he was coming out of the shower. Don't worry- he was in a towel!

This has definitely been a stressful semester for me with at least one, usually two, tests each week and projects and papers scattered here and there. I guess that is college. Unfortunately, I am now sick. Last night we had our honors retreat so with four hours of sleep after a week of not much sleep, I'm a little worn out. We had dinner at the campground, fun and games (I learned how to do the Thriller dance), geam olympics where I was in charge of space crunch (teams have to fit inside a very small space that is taped off and hold the position for 60 seconds), and late night (a dance, bon fire, bingo, rock band. . . ) Lucky for me, I am able to now rest on my lovely futon, wrapped up in a blanket and watching Gilmore Girls with a kleenix box on my left, a bottle of water on my right, and the chance to just be a bum for one sweet night. Reading about DNA translation? That can wait until tomorrow.

School

I am about to start my 6th week of classes this semester- crazy! The past couple of weeks have been full of tests, presentations, and all of the other stuff that comes along with school. To lower stress levels, I like to do some fun things, too: ultimate frisbee, dancing, crumpets, broomball. . . hmm, crumpets and broomball both include hitting things. Like I said, it is good to find stress relievers. Hopefully once things settle down, I'll be able to make more regular posts.