nihonjin gakusei volunteer week + mind grapes.

i went home for 10 days and hence have not posted.  forgive me, imaginary audience.  in all honesty, this won't be a particularly interesting post unless you have altruistic leanings; so if you don't, junk for you.
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fresh off the plane and deliriously tired, i went to join a group of japanese exchange students at an adult elder/developmentally disabled day facility (one of very few funded by the state that covers a large geographic area and is perpetually on the chopping block, unfortunately) where students created calligraphy for and assisted adults with making origami.  the funny thing was one lady assumed that i also was a fluent japanese speaker because i'm asian.  although i tried to politely say i don't really know, she would still roll around and bellow, "hey you! hey you! how do you say, 'pain in the ass'?!" (referring to herself in a self-effacing joke, for context).  she was quite a card.  my pictures did not come out for this, crap.
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the next day, i met everyone at a very large food distribution center that sorts and often repacks donated or resourced food to be distributed through local food banks.

900 lbs of french fry shovelling.

happy meal faces.

minna minna!

i think the volunteer coordinator said they repacked enough food for more than 2200 meals or something. well done.
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the next morning we went to a section of the duwamish greenbelt to do some blackberry clearing with one of my favorite non-profits that marries art and culture with conservancy and restoration:

teamwork!

cleaning up the background.

industrious lads and lasses, the lot of them.
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i'm housesitting, and the homeowners have a hot tub, housed in a greenhouse-type addition where i can sing and drink beer in a warm watery cocoon until the fingertip crinkles appear.  when i was a child, i used to think hot tubs held an allure i wasn't yet ready to understand.  i imagined two people, bathed in the dark of night and rising steam; hungry.  now, a public hot tub appears to me like a soup of fifty individuals' skin flecks, sweat, semen and urine.  i don't know if any amount of chlorine could reconstitute my sexy construct.  and i can't stand chlorine anyway.
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i am unapologetically happy without condition and i feel so light and content.
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i freaking love gogol bordello.  i want to travel the world with them in my headphones.  here's an oldie but a goodie:

and a new one of them coming rougher. everytime: