July

Hello!! This is my first post of many for this coming year. Here is the briefest explanation of what I am up to:

I am off on a Watson to study and experience the making of clothes all around the world! I often broaden what I am doing to ‘textiles,’ because the Watson is very encouraging that I forever open up my topic. But essentially, I am going to be working with craftspeople who hand make the traditional clothing of their country, and will occasionally work with contemporary designers.

This is going to be a year far from what I have been doing for the past four years. I just graduated from an onslaught of literature and philosophy at Bard, and am very interested in finding a way to return to these topics later, particularly philosophy. But this is a chance for me to immerse myself in something completely different for a year, and to work tangibly with my hands – without my analytical brain – and with others.

I am extremely excited!!!! I wander around always on the verge of combusting with excitement and anticipation. Books like the Alchemist and Siddhartha have fueled my imagination about the fact that I am on some kind of personal quest, and that this is the beginning!

Today is my very last day in the United States. I will write more soon – I am currently rushing around like a maniac, while simultaneously clinging to my parents and house like a hearty barnacle. Tomorrow I will be on the other side of a wall that has been in place for four months. I am so sad to leave this July of nighties and mothers and berries on the counter, but I am trusting completely in the other side of that strange vortex wall, and some deep kernel of unbreakable enthusiasm for this crazy plan.

So on with Iceland!!!! Here I go. Oh my god.

Send luck my way and I will write more soon!!!!

aaAAAAAA

Annie