Are you there Blog? It's me, Alexis!

Hello everyone! I know, I know, It's been too long. In my defense, I was in Bali. In your defense, I got back a week ago and am just a terrible blogger. But, I'm here now and that's what counts. Bali was awesome, thanks for asking. We had a bunch of super fun time adventures like surfing, and walking through the sacred monkey forest, and biking down a volcano, and zip-lining through trees, and seeing The Dark Knight Rises in theaters. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera so we have very limited documentation of all this excitement. We have some pictures that the surf school took of Connor (none of me, because the guys at Big Kahuna Surf School are less than honest about what their "photo package" covers) and then a few photos of us with our friends Adam and Jan that we met on the bike ride, but I don't think Adam has sent those to us yet. We also have a few of us zip-lining but those are in print form and there is not a scanner to be found in Dili.
So what have I been knitting lately? A whole lot of everything. I can't keep my mind focused on a single project. I keep starting new things and then frogging them when I get bored. It's a bad existence for a knitter, not finishing any projects, but we all have our rough patches. Right now I'm working on something that I just might stick with because it's so funky and fun, but we'll see. I don't want to tell you and get your hopes up, just to dash them with another scrapped project.
Something that's seriously cramping my knitting? The lack of yarn. It simply doesn't exist here. I've found a substitute for lace-weight or cobweb, but if I want to make something chunky or worsted, I'm SOL. My mom sent me a few care packages filled with yarn and treats and the newest Nancy Drew PC game (I'm a huge ND nerd, don't judge, they're awesome games), but they haven't arrived yet. Carrick thinks they've either been lost, or more likely stolen. It's not a pretty thing to suspect, but when a package comes into a third-world country with a big sticker that says: "FROM AMERICA" it's more likely than not that it won't reach its final destination. Won't they be disappointed when they come to find that it's mostly just string? I hold out some hope that it's just sitting at the post office, waiting on some kind soul to make it out to this end of town.
Anyway, that's all I've got for now, sorry it's not more intriguing, or with fancy pictures, but that's just the way it goes sometimes. Hope you all are doing well!

Home is... Where again?

As you know, lately I've been feeling pretty down. Missing my family and my friends, basically missing everything. That feeling of loneliness and isolation has increased ten fold in the span of one day. Why, you ask? Because today is the 14th of July. It is both, my older sister Adaira's 23rd birthday, and my oldest friend's wedding day. Being so far away on a day that is so incredibly important back home is actually physically painful. So I'm not going to complain or whine, I'm just going to show you a little bit of my life, a little bit of my family. Maybe then I'll feel a little bit less alone.

From left: Adaira, Jesse, myself, Connor

 Adaira and our dad Mark at her University graduation

 The incredibly talented duo of Sarah (left) and Lauren (right), my baby sisters.

 LaRhonda, my ethereally gorgeous stepmom.

  My incredibly hard to get a picture of stepdad Don, and his lovely sisters Toni and Julianna.

Me and my oldest friend Stephanie, way back in high school.

  A more recent picture of her and her soon to be husband Marc.

Part of our Sign Language Family. At Deaf Nation Portland last year with Ian, Annmarie, and Connor.

This is only a small portion of the people in my life that I depend on and look up to. Just a handful of those that I'm missing so badly. I love all of you and I can't wait until I'll see you again.

P.S. Mom, the only reason you're not up here with the rest of them, is that I couldn't find a single damn photo of you. Curse you and your photophobia. It's like you're a vampire or something, seriously. Know that next time I mean to write a heartfelt blog about my love for my family, I will find a way to get your smiling face up here with the rest of us. Even if that means I have to hire Don to sneaky sneak get a photo of you when you're not looking.

 

Grumpy Gus.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but I've either been planning for, going on, or recuperating from this trip to Ramalau that happened last weekend (Ramalau is the tallest mountain in Timor, people regularly hike to the top). The whole thing was a giant debacle and a festival of errors. Luckily for you, I had my camera ready.
The whole thing started off fine enough, Connor and I were up and ready to go at 8 Saturday morning. It's about a six hour drive so it made sense that we'd get up early and make it to the Posada (hotel) at the base of the mountain early. The plan was to leave the house at 9 in the morning and have all day to drive there, or at least that's how the plan was described to me. What actually happened was that Connor and I were ready by 8:30 and the others weren't ready until 9:30. Then we didn't leave the house until 10:30. Then we stopped to pick up someone who was going with us, that neither Connor or I had any idea about (Her name is Jaquelin and she's quite a lovely person but that aside...). These are all minor irritations, I get it, but six hours in a tiny mitsubishi "4x4" with only a couple seat belts... You can see why I may have been a bit grumpy. We finally get out of Dili around 11 and then it's just bumpy roads and crazy drivers, all seemingly out to kill me.
The trip really didn't have a good side for me until we stopped here for lunch.

It was a tiny little restaurant up on this hill in a place called Mobessie. It was the last "big" town we would hit before we turned on a dirt road and headed up into the mountains. It was a nice little place, had some tasty rice, veggies and chips. The owners of the place did try to stiff us a bit when they said we had ordered three meals instead of two. We only ordered two but used three plates to share it among ourselves. They didn't like that. Sharanya and Connor talked them down until it was just two dollars over what we should have paid. It sucked, but that's just the way it is sometimes.
After eating, we walked around the garden.

And then we spent some time just happy to be out of the car, gazing out into the magnificent hills.

(Connor is the one standing atop the crumbling wall. My little mountain goat...)
Breathtaking as these views were, we soon had to pile back into the car. The hills and cliffs were still gorgeous, but I find that they can loose a little bit of their majesty when you're worried that your little car is going to pitch over the side of one.

Yeah, four more hours of roads that look like that. That is, if they're even there at all and haven't been washed away by heavy rains. It was incredibly nerve wracking.
 Especially when we actually did go partially over the edge of a cliff a little while later. I would have taken pictures but I was too worried about not being in the car if it went over, and then once I was out I was worrying about the car crushing the home that was at the base of said cliff. So was the woman who owned the house, because a few minutes after we got the car stuck, halfway over a cliff, she came up to remind us that we could have crushed her house, and then oh so helpfully tell us that we would never be able to push it back onto the road.
Sharannya called the Posada and told them what had happened and they said they would send someone, but not when. So in case things didn't work out, we flagged down a truck that was going to the base of the mountain anyway, and Jaquelin and myself hitched a ride. It was a long crazy process, but eventually they got the car unstuck by having about sixty young men, lift it from various angles and deposit it back onto the road. Meanwhile, Jaquelin and I were safely snuggled in at the Posada, waiting for them to arrive
When they finally did, it was about 8pm, and as the others wanted to catch the sunrise from on top of Ramalau, we were getting up at 3am to start the hike. We didn't end up getting to bed until about 11, and I was pretty pissed.
Four hours of iffy sleep later, the alarm goes off and we wake up, put on our many layers, and meet the guide outside. It was absolutely freezing. But that was soon forgotten as we started our trek and the heat our bodies were making became so unbearable that we shed our layers and continued climbing in silence.
About a mile up, I was sick. I was sick into some bushes, I was sick into a ditch, and I'm pretty sure I was sick into someone's front yard. Come to find out, that we hadn't even gotten to the mountain yet. We were just on the road up to it. I'm not ashamed to say I couldn't do it. Connor walked me back down to the Posada, being super great, contributing my illness to a combination of poor sleep and altitude sickness. I don't know what it was, but I'm sure glad I didn't go all the way up.
After jogging to catch up with the rest of the group (Yeah, my guy's a champ), they caught the sunrise from the peak and had a good long rest while I lay in bed and nibble on bread far below them. When they finally made it back to the Posada at noon, I was up and feeling a bit better. Connor told me that he was glad I wasn't there with him, because it would have been miserable for me. What we had been told was a mild, three hour hike there and maybe two back, was actually more like a five hour hike up, and four hours back. Yeah, forget that.
After everyone rested their legs for a while, we piled back into the car and headed back down the mountain. back in Mobessie we stopped for gas. I can tell you now, that getting gas from a dark container sold by some guy on the street, was not a good idea. As soon as we were out of town the car started acting funny. Jolting and barely creeping up hills, and making this awful coughing sound. The return trip that should have taken six hours, took eight. I was pretty grumpy by the time it was all over.
It was pretty alright, but does that make up for a trip where I spent a total of 14 hours on the middle hump in the back of a tiny car with no seat belt? Does it make up for a trip where I spent at least 60% of all the time in the car thinking that we were going to skid right off a cliff? Does it make up for altitude sickness and going to a mountain just to sleep at it's base and then going home?

Oh yeah it did.

What a Game...

I have to apologize for my serious lack of blogging lately, but I've been in a ridiculous funk. I never really thought about it before moving, but in Timor I have exactly one thing. I have Connor and that's it. Don't get me wrong, I adore Connor, he is my love, but when you're in a different world one person can't be enough to hold you there. Every day it's like I'm in a fishbowl, swimming in circles going no where. I know the whole deal about home sickness coming in waves, and culture shock taking it's toll and whatnot, but it's more than that.
Imagine you were picked up and dropped off in a foreign country with three things you held dear, three things to keep you happy for your entire time there. Do you know what my three are? Connor, my knitting, and my Jurassic Park Trilogy set. How sad is that? I can't even site the internet as making me happy because the coverage is so shotty here and once you run out, you're out for a week at a time until you can drag your keister to the Timor Telecom office that has a 50/50 chance of being open.
To put it simply, I am incredibly lonely. Because of this, I have been feeling sorry for myself and not blogging like I should, so I apologize. I will try and be better.
On a pleasant note, I might teach Mana Angela how to knit soon. It might be a bit difficult because we don't speak much of the same language, but if we can manage it, it might give me a little bit of purpose. She said she could maybe give me some yarn for my trouble, which is a big deal here because there is not a single knitting store on the whole island of Timor. Just my luck, huh? I'm actually almost out of yarn and without enough yarn to make one solid project I've been working on an entrelac blanket entirely out of scrap yarn. This is what I've got so far.

Not bad, right? It's only a few inches long now but so far I really like the way the scrap colors are working together.

I like the kind of "patchwork circus tent" vibe it has thus far. When it's done it'll be about four and a half feet wide and about seven feet long. It'll be a good blanket for napping on the couch. The sad bit is that I won't get much further without more yarn. My stash is running dry and the care package my mom is sending (full of treats, Nancy Drew games, and yarn) won't arrive for another few weeks. Oh woe is me.

Working for the man.

So for this story to make sense to you all, I'll need to give you some background. The place we're living in here in Dili is a two bedroom, two bathroom flat that is the second story of our landlord's home. In the house below ours there are essentially three families. Six children that I know of, and countless adults. One of the adults living below us, Mana Angela, is our housekeeper. She does our laundry, washes dishes, sweeps, and is basically a godsend. When she's not being amazing, she makes Timorese flags for soccer matches and festivals and such.
The other day I was walking up to our flat, after a run at the beach with boyfriend. I had the Sea Glass bag tied around my waist because the beach we ran at had piles of the colorful shards and I loaded up. As I approached the stairs Mana Angela came out from her house with her adult son Colbain (apparently he was supposed to be named after Kurt Cobain but "Cobain" is a tricky one in Tetun). Mana Angela told her son that I had made the bag around my waist and he asked me how long it took me.
"Eh, a day or two."
"Could you make me a hat? Black hat?"
"Yes, I could do that."
In exchange for my hat making services Mana Angela promised me a Timor flag to hang on our living room wall. So over the next few days I chipped away at a simple ski-cap for Colbain. I for one, did not see the appeal in having a hat where the average temperature is 85 degrees with 75% humidity. But it's what he wanted and I was more than able so I knit him up a neat little cap over the span of a few days.
This afternoon when the Mana came in to drop off some finished laundry, I told her that I had the hat for her son all finished and ready for his wear. I gave it to her and she left quickly, showering me with praise. A short while later Colbain himself came up to thank me and tell me that he very much liked his hat, and that I was a very good "crafter" (I don't think the word for knitting translates very well).
Later this evening, after Connor and Carrick were back from working out, and Sharanya was back from work, we all settled down to watch some t.v. and talk about our days. The doorbell rings and when Connor answered it, I hear Colbain's voice from the other side of the door, along with a few others in the background.
"I am uhhhh.... Like to speak with... Alexander?"
"Do you mean Alexis? Yes, she's right here."
I step out onto the porch to find Colbain and five others from his family. One older woman and her young son, two teenage girls, and a boy who looked about my age, all talking in hushed whispers and pointing at Colbain's hat.
The older woman started: "You make hat or sell hat?"
"I made the hat, but Angela is going to make me a Timor flag for it, so I did kind of sell it as well I guess."
"You make hat?"
"Yes, I made it."
"Oh..."
Everyone's quiet for a while, and then the older woman spoke rather carefully:
"We can all have hats?"
Now the seriousness of the situation struck me in an odd way. Here are six people on my front porch, looking at me dead-serious, waiting to see if I will be offended by their request. I smile softly and say:
"You all want hats?"
They nod.
"You want a hat too?" I ask the little boy tucked into his mother's side. He smiles and says "Hat!" and touches his head.
"Yes I can make you all hats. It's going to take me a few days, but I can make them for you."
Suddenly the tension is gone and everyone starts talking at once about colors they want and if maybe I could do stripes, and how much I charge, and the little boy asks Colbain if he can have his very own hat. Colbain translated for me and I nodded and smiled to the boy. I wrote down requests and assured them that as soon as they were all done, I would give them to Colbain to hand them out to everyone.
I'm pretty sure the family down stairs adores me.
I let you know how everything is going once I dig my way out of this pile of hats.

Anyone want to see what I've been working on?

 The many fiber-related things I've been working on since first arriving in Timor!

 First, the spinning:

I've only done a few batches from the raw wool I brought with me here. I haven't set the Purple or the Green yet, but I'm hoping to spin some yellow and some pink and work it into a traditional Timorese pattern.

 This is a scarf that I worked up in about a day and a half using the "Snowdrift Mobius Cowl" pattern that you can find here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/snowdrift-mobius-cowl
(While looking up this pattern on Ravelry I found this one, also called "Snowdrift" and I want to make it! I'll add it to the list. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/snowdrift-2)

This guy, I call "Fire Ant". Mostly because it's small and red, but also because I'm watching a Planet Earth documentary and insects are the main focus of the episode. This little shawlette was a project I worked up because it was simple and I was incredibly bored. The only really interesting thing about it is it's scalloped edge.

See? It's not especially fancy, but I like a little flared edge to spice things up.

This is "Sea Glass". It's a little draw-string bag that fastens around my waist so that when I'm frolicking about on the beach (be it snorkeling, wading, or just lounging), if I find an interesting piece of sea glass or shell, I can just toss it in the bag and bring it home with me. I am an avid sea glass collector so an accessory like this it just what I need.

Now the next things I'm going to show you are not my work, but in the interest of the fiber arts, I must show you what I got.

These little beauties are called Taiis (ty-es). It's an incredibly beautiful and complex form of weaving using tiny silk threads. There's a Taiis market not too far from our house where women have stalls where they sell their gorgeous works. I'm afraid and excited that I might build up quite the collection while I'm here.

So that's what I've been up to lately, not a whole lot, but you know how it goes. I'll keep you guys updated with new knits and crazy stories.

P.S. I've tried to write this post like, four times, but each time my computer has crashed or I get booted off the internet, or my battery dies, or something else that causes me to lose the entire post. Fifth time's the charm?

Busy busy busy...

Hello my lovlies, I'm sorry that there has been such a delay in my postings but I've been busy doing... Nothing really. There's so much to tell you about that every time I sit down to write it all out, it just seems like way too much work and I play a Nancy Drew game instead. Let's do a brief overview of my activities, shall we?

-I've been knitting like a fiend. Churned out a mobius scarf, a wee coin purse for my coins, a belt-bag to collect seaglass in (who's pattern I designed and may very well put on Ravelry), and a slouchy hat that I only just started today but that should be done by the time Connor gets home. I also have a passport cozy on the needles for Carrick, but that will have to wait until I have enough motivation to pick it up again.
-Connor and I went to the East Timor equivalent of the DMV. It. Was. Awful. Almost worse than back at home if you can believe it. Carrick's fiancee Sharanya told us it would only take forty minutes or so, but it ended up taking several hours. We would have been there even longer if a helpful Timorese man hadn't come up to us and said: "Sim?" Which is a permit to drive. We nodded and he whisked us away to another window, filled out all the paperwork for us, and took us through every step of the way, thereby putting us in front of himself and making his trip to the DMV twice as long. After we got our permits, I tried to hand him some money for his trouble (before anyone gets offended, that kind of behavior is customary here. Help someone out, get a few bucks) and he shook his head and said: "Just to help." What an awesome guy!
-Missed my skype date with my family on Monday due to an unfortunate miscommunication with Sharanya about when she was leaving for West Timor (taking the internet stick with her, as was agreed upon). I was super bummed all day, but Connor went out and got another one, so hopefully I'll be able to talk to my family soon.
-I don't know if it's a children's week festival or something, but for the last few days, whenever the sun goes down, children gather in the streets and start chanting something in Tetun and then break into song. This lasts all evening and well into the night. It might be cute if it wasn't so... creepy. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a strange aversion to children singing. It's too much like the shining. When kids sing, I get a wicked case of the hee-bee jee-bees.
-I've been reading like a fiend too. I've been a fast reader my entire life but in the last few weeks I've broken some of my own records. I read Stieg Larson's "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" in just a few days, I re-read one of my favorite romance novels whose name I will not divulge due to embarrassment, I read Suzanne Collins' "The Hunger Games" yesterday, and I read a fantastic book by Stephanie Bond called "In Deep Voodoo" today. I need to either get more books on my kindle or start reading slower. All I have left that I haven't read are "Mocking Jay" the second of the Hunger Games trilogy, "The Girl who Played with Fire", the second of the Melinium Trilogy, and Jane Eyre. I'll probably be through those by the end of the week.

Well that's all I've got for now but next time I'll definitely have pictures of my latest knitted goodies.

P.S. If you have a Kindle, like mystery novels, and want a new read, then you should take a look at "In Deep Voodoo". It's incredibly good, totally blew my mind in terms of what I was expecting it to be. Plus it's free for Kindles! I don't know about Nooks though...