Roaming Cincy

(View from Eden Park)

 This past weekend my parents came up to visit and of course, I showed them a little more of Cincinnati. Friday night we went to a little restaurant called Doodles in Hyde Park. Doodles is an Asian-inspired noodle restaurant that serves a plethora of noodle dishes. It was pretty good, especially for the prices and sizes of the bowls.

After eating, we walked around Hyde Park and found a frozen yogurt place called Fave. We all chose a few different flavors and sat outside in the cool night air to talk. We then decided to take a drive to Eden Park to view Kentucky from the lookout spot. (Photo above.) The weather proved to be a short respite from the hot and humid days before. We all gazed upon the Ohio river as steamboats and barges road by, rippling waves in the misty water.

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Saturday morning our first stop was the Cincinnati Art Museum. There are several special exhibitions going on now that I wanted to show my parents and Claudio. My dad was especially excited to see the James Bond car. We made our way to see the car first, along with a crowd of sportscar enthusiasts. After viewing the gleaming Aston Martin, we perused other galleries in the museum. I led my parents upstairs to see the Henry O. Tanner exhibition as well as the Art of Sound exhibition. I always enjoy spending more time in the galleries even if I have seen the work before. I am glad Claudio and my parents enjoyed the artwork as much as I did. After spending a couple of hours at the museum, we were hungry for lunch so we decided to drive up to Mt. Adams for a bite.

                                     

                                                                (Cincinnati Art Museum)

We ended up at Longworth's tavern for brunch. We sat on their patio and ordered some "Cincy" style brunch, goetta sandwiches, hashbrowns with goetta, you get the picture. The service was ok but waiting for our food took a little too long (and they weren't even busy!). We then decided to walk to Mt. Adams lookout park for another view. I love walking up and down the hills of Mt. Adams, looking at the ecclectic houses and apartments that I wish I lived in. I almost feel like I am in other town, far away from Cincinnati. This is why I love the city so much, because there are so many different neighborhoods, each with its own personality. I think my parents enjoyed my little tour of the city and so did I.



Choirs Galore

(Photo taken in Austria)

If you do not live in the Cincinnati area you may or may not have heard of the World Choir Games going on these past two weeks. Choirs from around the country have gathered here to compete in choral competitions held throughout the city. Last week several choirs gathered at the Cincinnati Art Museum for a free "Friendship" concert. A choir from Japan, Germany, and Cincinnati sang in harmony in the Great Hall. The huge crowd was quite unexpected considering it was one of the first Friendship concerts to be held.

I happen to be working that day as a multitude of people entered the museum to hear the choirs sing. The parking lot filled up quickly just an hour before the concert began. Even the mayor came in to hear the choirs and see the crowd. I have also been experiencing the impact the games have made in other ways.

While working downtown I have seen various groups of young people walking around. It is fun to see downtown busy and exciting. Some people have even heard impromptu concerts on Fountain Square and in restaurants and buses. I did not get the chance to attend one of these concerts but I am sure it would be a great experience.

The mayor made it to the museum again yesterday to our staff meeting to thank us for hosting the choirs. It was a good feeling being a part of something so big in the city of Cincinnati. He said many people from these other countries told him Cincinnati has been the most hospitible of cities they have been to when traveling for the World Choir Games. Even though I am not a resident of Cincinnati, I can say I am proud to be a part of it.

Stuck

This world is huge. There is so much to learn in life, so much to explore, so many experiences waiting to be had. Sometimes I get so overwhelmed thinking about how short life is and how much I want to learn and see. There are so many places I want to go and so many people I want to meet. When I think back to my trips to Chile and Mexico and how much I learned when I was in those countries, my heart starts beating faster at the possibility to experience those feelings again.

I am beginning to start a new chapter in my life. I feel like I am reading my story with suspense of what will happen next. Unfortunately like a book, I cannot just skip the next 20 pages to find out what will transpire. I am excited, yet nervous at the plethora of options laid ahead of me. Sometimes I am even confused on what direction I should be going. I think I know what I desire as the end-result, yet I often times do not know how to get there.

For the past several months or so, my weeks seem to fly by. Next thing I know, I have lived in NKY for almost a year now. Where did all the time go? And what have I done with my time here? In general, I feel fairly content with the past year. I have gained experience working at a museum, learning new things with new people, and growing as a person through it all. But as time has passed, I have come to the realization that maybe I should have done things a little differently.

In the past two years after college, I wish I would have spent more time painting. I wish I would have gotten more involved in the arts, found a way to respond to my calling to the Hispanic people in my community and abroad, spent more time reading and learning about art, and of course, spent more time with my God. We all think back and sometimes wish we would have done things a little differently. Don't get me wrong, I love my life and enjoy the majority of each week!

The thing is, sometimes I just feel stuck. There are so many things I want to do and accomplish.  I guess I am just too impatient at times. The world is out there and I want to see it! I wish I could speed-read in order to learn all that I want, have ample spending money to travel the world and change lives while they change mine, jump ahead to the career that I dream about. Even though I wish all of these things, in the back of my mind I know that is not how things happen and God does have some kind of plan for me.

Right now I just need to figure out the next step and how to get there. After two years of being out of college, I feel a little ill-prepared to apply to graduate school. What if I don't get in any where? What if I get stuck working a by-the-hour job? I know I will get nowhere if I focus on those thoughts, so I must go full-steam ahead!

Ideas for an Essay

Time is ticking and I have to buckle down and do some studying. I am still looking at possibilities for graduate school, mostly for art history. I will be taking the GRE in September and I really need to get it together! I also need to do a little research to write a small paper. As one of the requirements for applications, most schools ask for a writing sample. This would not be a hard thing if it were not for the fact my computer was stolen with most of my left-over papers from college. So, from scratch it will have to be.

Fortunately, the museum I work at houses a fairly good-sized library with great resources. The librarian was kind enough to show me around last week so I could get an idea of where to begin. I have a couple areas of interest for my paper but I need to pin one down. During my senior thesis class I gained interest on an artist from Brazil named Tarsila do Amaral. I would like to learn more about her work as well as the other several artists she worked closely with.

I also took a "Women and Art" class during my last semesters and enjoyed looking at feminism and art. This morning I began to read some pages from a book we used entitled Representing Women by well-known art historian Linda Nochlin. Maybe by re-reading some of this book I will get some ideas on a topic I can use.

So, for now I may be posting some "mini" essays about different topics and/or artworks. I think this would help me with ideas as well as working on my writing skills. I do hope that you all may enjoy them also!