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island fun

This weekend Ben was a resident photographer at the G! music festival in the Faroe Islands. I am playing the middle man and sharing some of his images. The photos make me miss the golden sunlight, great friends and edgy music that are a part of this annual event.

-a

 

homecoming

I wish that the sensation of coming home were as easy to describe as that of leaving. Many young authors have waxed poetic about the confusion of the senses that occurs with stepping out of a strange international airport into a teeming, developing world city. The humid heat of the outdoors is like entering a sauna fully clothed, the billowing steam scented with body odor, rotting trash and exhaust fumes.

Those first days abroad are euphoric in their strangeness--nothing is recognizable at first glance. Food, vehicles, structures and even clothing require a second look because their configurations are new. It is glimpsing the world with young eyes, realizing that everything is more interesting and connected than you ever knew.

Coming home is the opposite, because nothing requires a second glance. I know how all of the roads connect, I know what phone number to call in case of an emergency and I know where the teacups are in my house.  With all of the energy I am saving on the effort of daily living—not fighting traffic and heat on my commute to work, not talking myself through cockroach extermination in my bathroom, not washing my lettuce three times in a special cleansing solution—I am able to live outside of myself. I can laugh more generously, listen more attentively, forgive small slights and rest more peacefully because my energy and goodwill are overflowing.

Even the natural environment is contributing to my largess. Walking outside yesterday afternoon I sniffed the air like a wild Wyoming animal, tasting the rich grass and rain smell. Later that day, on a walk with my mother, the sight of the open plains, the brooding clouds and the vibrant sunset made tears sting my eyes, and in a rush of emotion I thought, “This is where I want to die.”

I am grateful to have life material to inspire prose about the emotional roller coaster that occurs with living in a new culture. Right now, though, I am content to embrace my melodramatic impulses at finally coming home.

-a

my friends call me marilyn

In five hours my newly-blond self will begin the long trip back to Wyoming, family and a brand new phase of life.

Hip hip hooray!

-a

harry

It is surprisingly difficult to find little black Harry Potter spectacles in Manila. Don’t worry, though, because I have found a fitting compromise for tonight’s premier fête. Myself, my in-laws and one poor coworker who doesn’t know what is happening will all receive fake Ray Ban sunglasses with the lenses popped out to wear to the movie theatre.

 

Life is simply too short to not enjoy something with this much potential for humor.

 

-a

ann & adrian

Some of my favorite pictures from Ann and Adrian’s great wedding in Klaksvik on Saturday. 

insult to injury

Today has been a long day. A very long day. It started at 7 a.m. when I awoke to my completely trashed apartment, the result of two days of halfhearted packing. I held it together pretty well until lunch, at which time I realized I had three times more things set aside to bring home than would possibly fit into my luggage. At that point I curled into a little ball on the floor and immersed myself in a teeny-bopper vampire romance (you know the one) until the arrival of my Super Superhero In-Laws.

Truly, today would not have happened without Cathy and J.J.'s faithful help. J.J.'s spiritual gift is packing uncanny amounts of things into small spaces, while Cathy immediately set off to find a notary public to process my move-out form. They even went head-to-head with building security when the guards tried to prevent us from removing my bags from the premises--not pretty. 

Did I mention that in the middle of the day my landlord's crony showed up at the door demanding payment for the $5 of water I had used last month, the same period in which my water was turned off twice for his boss's failure to pay his morgtage? I declined.

But the real blow came this evening when I went to a nearby cleaner's to retrieve a handbag and wallet I had left there a week ago. These two accessory items have been my faithful and classy companions for two years, and I was taking them to be cleaned as homage to their loyalty. I had carefully scouted cleaners for an establishment that seemed professional, and took for granted that the words, "It is no problem to clean leather goods," meant just that.

Stupid girl. 

The ruby red wallet bled its color all over the pretty paisley lining, and the leather, once polished and supple from use, is now cracked and covered with blotches the color of dried blood. The worst, though, is the totebag. It was a honeymoon present to myself, and hovers in value to me somewhere between my engagement ring and my laptop. The shiny saddle-colored leather that once made me look so very European now just makes me look like I had a confrontation with a bottle of motor oil. The finished product reminds me of nothing so much as a badly cleaned coyote hide cured in fabric softener, and I don't know how to make it better.

I want to cry little angry tears, mutter culturally-insensitive things that I would immediately regret, and leave this country on Sunday at the latest. At least I get to do one of those things.

-a 

jancy and jákup

I got to the Faroes on last Thursday and shot my first wedding last Saturday.  I will be here for about three more weeks doing weddings and commercial work, which is a really interesting change of pace from what I have been doing in the Philippines.  But it is a welcomed change. 

This is Jancy and Jákup, a really fun couple from Klaksvik.  They had a beautiful wedding and the weather cooperated for us, which in the Faroes is pretty amazing.  

no. 3

CLICK HERE to download our latest newsletter, our last update from the sunny tropics. This has been a wonderful, consequential year and we are grateful for the dozens of people who played a role in supporting our work.

-a

thank you?

The other day I was told, "Abby has shown us that you can be chubby while still being cute and sexy."

Coming from a Filipina I know that this was a simple statement of fact meant to be encouraging, not a backhanded compliment. Still, it is hard to totally remove my negavite cultural associations with the word "chubby". I am just trying to focus on the second half of the statement.

-a

whimsy

This week marked the beginning of my little time of solitude. Ben left on Tuesday for the Faroe Islands where he is taking thousands of pictures for money over the next month, my intern companion flew the country on Thursday, and Alice the Rabbit has made the trek across town to be with her new owner. What I am left with is a nasty head cold, five unwatched seasons of the Gilmore Girls, an apartment full of stuff that has to go somewhere in the next two weeks, and an enormous work project looming.

Of course I am making do nicely, but there are a few things I could imagine that would make this time go more quickly:

1. A magical Monopoly-style card which would give me an unlimited baggage allowance on my flight home. Instead, today I spent 30 consternating minutes on the phone to discover that United Airlines has an unpublished carrying policy that would charge me a hefty $550 for bringing one extra bag back with me.

2. For the water in our apartment to not be disconnected again. Fingers crossed.

3. That the new Harry Potter movie would be released. Oh wait!

4. For the tiny lizard that currently makes me shriek every time I walk into the kitchen and see it staring at me with its little beady eyes to somehow find its way out of the apartment.

5. That the United States Air Force would accidentally have mixed up Ben with his brother (who is in the Air Force) on a transfer list, and so send over complimentary movers. I have seen them work, and it's a miraculous and painless process--much different than trying to figure out how to prioritize your life into two, 50 lb. bags.

6. That one of my co-workers will have sudden revelation concerning their interest in our office's newsletter, and therefore beg me to let him/her write the stories for the August issue.

-a