Jhinuk’s blog

My last weeks away spent in India whizzed by and three weeks in Kolkata consisted of buzzing round villages visiting various members of the Sarkar family alongside being smothered by other family, being constantly fed by family (almost like a drip it was so continual!), not being able to escape the ever increasing smog, traffic, heat and humidity, risking your life by using any form of transport on the roads and, thankfully, lots of resting and sleeping!

India is a mad and funny place. Just before the main road in the small village of Sonarpur (meaning "Gold Village") where my mum's side of the family live (and where I stayed this time round-it's about an hour outside of the city) there were two tiny cute puppies, playing with each other. As I walked closer towards them, I noticed that one of them was actually trying to bite the other puppy's head off and had the whole head in his jaw. Needless to say, since that day whenever I walked to the main road, there was only one puppy loitering around the local shops and stalls. You just have to laugh and think "that's India for you". It literally is a dog-eat-dog world (sorry, I know it's a bad pun, but it's true!).

Thankfully, no hostels entered into this equation-a bed in a house I knew and people that knew me! A place also, that I knew more than I realised until now. Kolkata city has become more and more familiar to me over the years, and arriving to it this time, expecting to not know anywhere like I had expected in every other country I arrived in, really surprised me when I found it was the opposite. I did manage to discover new sides to it this time.

One of these sides was contemporary art. I went into the city and visited a gallery with the work I had done in Australia. It was only by chance that we (my mum and I) met a Kolkata gallery owner in Hong Kong as she had organised a show in Hong Kong Arts Centre for a group of artists from India. The work shown was interesting, modern,  unusual and varied. I didn't know this side of Indian art at all. She had seemed very nice and interested in my work and I wanted to find out about what a gallery space in Kolkata would be like-I'd never really thought about it before. I was invited to a private view (part of me groaned inside). But it was a cool little space and it is a possibility that I would tie in an exhibition with my next family visit to Kolkata.

It was great being in India without any of my other family members from the uk, I'd never gone there totally on my own before. I always felt like the baby being the youngest in the family from uk, but I felt like my family over there all suddenly saw me as an adult! Funny stuff....! I enjoyed going to watch my 10 year-old cousin (Iman) go to his swimming lessons in the local pond-yes pond! I did not envy him at all, even though I enjoy a good swim as I watched him and about forty other kids splashing about in murky brown pond waters, but I guess you have to adopt the "what doesn't kill you can only make you stronger" strategy to this activity. Iman also really got into learning how to draw from observation with me. For a 10 year-old, he had amazing patience. My other cousin Suman (19 years old) was coming back and forth from university in Durgapur, and it was interesting learning how uni-life is over there. His first year is certainly a far cry from my first year at Southwell Lodge in Norwich was, (singing Bohemian Rhapsody in a chorus down the drunken hallways of a very shoddy student accommodation building is one of the sad memories).

And now home. Where everybody knows your name (well, a lot more people than anywhere else, just suddenly-and very sadly-had the Cheers theme tune in my head). My plane journey home felt longer than ever. I really wanted to see London as we were flying in, but I think I was either on the wrong side of the plane, or it was a bit misty (ahh! Lovely British weather!).

It feels strange to be back, and I feel like I'm going to be poor forever, but it was very, very worth it. And I know I've been very lucky to have arrived home in one piece, probably only minus a couple of odd earrings, socks, flower hairclips, a data stick (actually really gutted about that one) and a pair of cheap shoes left on a plane somewhere. It could have been far worse!

So, signing off, thanks for listening to me rant, and commenting. All that's left to say now is simple:

GIVE ME A JOB!!!

"Kong Kong" is my new name for Hong Kong since my niece decided to rename it when she asked my sister something along the lines of "is Auntie Nuk in Kong Kong now?".

Anyway, a different and almost last section to my trip began. My mum came to meet me here and I was hanging on to see someone, anyone that would recognise me and knew me well (before this trip began). It felt like more of a non-event than I thought it would be.....don't get me wrong, I was very, very happy to see my mum. But it's amazing how easily you fall back into the same feelings and routines with people........enough said. Back to Kong Kong.

It's great here, lots of things to see and do-sometimes a little too familiar to other cities not too dissimilar to London. You know, the tube, the metro, the busy buses, the crowds of people, the high-end designer outlets etc etc etc, boring boring boring. The differences however, have been great.

There are some "city" things that have been great, and that I wish could be applied to London. The walkways for instance. There are loads of them built to go over huge main roads, like flyovers for human traffic, and they're covered too, which is great when it's chucking it down with rain...but maybe it makes the city feel ultra-futuristic and unreal? Not sure. Then there's the Octopus Card (Hong Kong's version of the Oyster - is there a secret rule that travel systems worldwide should use a seafood theme to name them? Strange....). Not only can you use it on all the transport systems, but you can use it to pay for your supermarket shopping and mum and I had breakfast in a café on the old Octopus one morning!

Sightseeing stuff has included going up to the Peak (great overview of the city on a good day, ours was a bit cloudy), climbing the stairs up to the Big Buddha on Lantau Island (yes, it's huge), country walks and beaches on Lamma Island and riding the double-decker tram to Causeway Bay. Then you can market to your heart's content (aww, my mum loves a good haggle, bless her) in Kowloon at the Jade market not to mention all the other markets, night markets, womens market, cat street market, western market, any market you can imagine probably! The Hong Kong Museum of art and  other small galleries were a bit disappointing and/or very tucked away....but maybe I'm tired and a bit gallery'd out.

Over Easter weekend we made our way over to Macau and spent a few nights there exporing the weird fusion of Chinese and Portugese cultures and the astounding - or maybe overwhelmingly huge - casinos built there to which everyone flocks to for their quick fixes (mum and I noticed the repetition of the gambling problems adverts on tv over there!). We also met up with friends of the family who moved over there about a year ago. It was soooooo nice to have someone to help us find our bearings and show us stuff and suggest things we should see. I know it's not hard to do on your own and most of the time that's the fun in exploring somewhere new, but it was nice to have someone else take the reigns and makes some decisions!

One of the most unreal sights that our friends showed us was The Venetian. An absolutely crazy crazy crazy unimagineable place. A scary place that hopefully will not be the world to come! A hotel and casino essentially, but incorporating a shopping mall and, wait for it, built to emulate Venice (yes, the whole Italian city in it's entirety). So it's outside grounds has a mock San Marco Square and apparently it cost billions and billions. And makes billions and billions. And is the most expensive pile of tack, and so huge that people probably spend an entire weekend locked in this place without realising that they haven't set foot outside in the real outside world to breath in some air! There are motorised gondolas for pity's sake! Ok ok, my rant is over. It is indescribable, the mass of it. You do have to see it to believe it.

But it isn't my only memory of Macau and Hong Kong. Thank god! And now at the airport, on my way to the next and last stop-eek! Home before home. India. Kolkata. It's a shame, but my head is already thinking about home. Reality check. Jobs, money, the usual bores. But am trying to enjoy my last weeks while it lasts. And anyway, I can't wait to see you lot. And it's been great having some of you read this and support me, incredibly making me take you all with me on my trip.

So, looking forward to a last bit of heat and no doubt teaching my mama (Uncle) the joys of Skype.

See y'all soon-be afraid. Be very afraid.

xx

"Kong Kong" is my new name for Hong Kong since my niece decided to rename it when she asked my sister something along the lines of "is Auntie Nuk in Kong Kong now?".

Anyway, a different and almost last section to my trip began. My mum came to meet me here and I was hanging on to see someone, anyone that would recognise me and knew me well (before this trip began). It felt like more of a non-event than I thought it would be.....don't get me wrong, I was very, very happy to see my mum. But it's amazing how easily you fall back into the same feelings and routines with people........enough said. Back to Kong Kong.

It's great here, lots of things to see and do-sometimes a little too familiar to other cities not too dissimilar to London. You know, the tube, the metro, the busy buses, the crowds of people, the high-end designer outlets etc etc etc, boring boring boring. The differences however, have been great.

There are some "city" things that have been great, and that I wish could be applied to London. The walkways for instance. There are loads of them built to go over huge main roads, like flyovers for human traffic, and they're covered too, which is great when it's chucking it down with rain...but maybe it makes the city feel ultra-futuristic and unreal? Not sure. Then there's the Octopus Card (Hong Kong's version of the Oyster - is there a secret rule that travel systems worldwide should use a seafood theme to name them? Strange....). Not only can you use it on all the transport systems, but you can use it to pay for your supermarket shopping and mum and I had breakfast in a café on the old Octopus one morning!

Sightseeing stuff has included going up to the Peak (great overview of the city on a good day, ours was a bit cloudy), climbing the stairs up to the Big Buddha on Lantau Island (yes, it's huge), country walks and beaches on Lamma Island and riding the double-decker tram to Causeway Bay. Then you can market to your heart's content (aww, my mum loves a good haggle, bless her) in Kowloon at the Jade market not to mention all the other markets, night markets, womens market, cat street market, western market, any market you can imagine probably! The Hong Kong Museum of art and  other small galleries were a bit disappointing and/or very tucked away....but maybe I'm tired and a bit gallery'd out.

Over Easter weekend we made our way over to Macau and spent a few nights there exporing the weird fusion of Chinese and Portugese cultures and the astounding - or maybe overwhelmingly huge - casinos built there to which everyone flocks to for their quick fixes (mum and I noticed the repetition of the gambling problems adverts on tv over there!). We also met up with friends of the family who moved over there about a year ago. It was soooooo nice to have someone to help us find our bearings and show us stuff and suggest things we should see. I know it's not hard to do on your own and most of the time that's the fun in exploring somewhere new, but it was nice to have someone else take the reigns and makes some decisions!

One of the most unreal sights that our friends showed us was The Venetian. An absolutely crazy crazy crazy unimagineable place. A scary place that hopefully will not be the world to come! A hotel and casino essentially, but incorporating a shopping mall and, wait for it, built to emulate Venice (yes, the whole Italian city in it's entirety). So it's outside grounds has a mock San Marco Square and apparently it cost billions and billions. And makes billions and billions. And is the most expensive pile of tack, and so huge that people probably spend an entire weekend locked in this place without realising that they haven't set foot outside in the real outside world to breath in some air! There are motorised gondolas for pity's sake! Ok ok, my rant is over. It is indescribable, the mass of it. You do have to see it to believe it.

But it isn't my only memory of Macau and Hong Kong. Thank god! And now at the airport, on my way to the next and last stop-eek! Home before home. India. Kolkata. It's a shame, but my head is already thinking about home. Reality check. Jobs, money, the usual bores. But am trying to enjoy my last weeks while it lasts. And anyway, I can't wait to see you lot. And it's been great having some of you read this and support me, incredibly making me take you all with me on my trip.

So, looking forward to a last bit of heat and no doubt teaching my mama (Uncle) the joys of Skype.

See y'all soon-be afraid. Be very afraid.

xx

I finally got to settle in somewhere and unpack that wretched bag that I have become so sick of along with all the clothes in it!

I'm so glad that this residency happened-I would've missed out on Western Australia otherwise and I much prefer it here to the East Coast. Fremantle- or 'freo' has a little bit of a Norwich vibe to it if you can imagine that folks! But you need to add about 30 degrees celsius of heat and a couple of small beaches to it to make that a more accurate observation......drawings and work seemed to pour out of me over the last couple of months, I hadn't realised how many ideas were buzzing around my head-and how nice it was to slow down, have my own space, receive and write letters, have a kitchen to cook in that wasn't full of 30 strange people all trying to cook at the same time-yes I even got to watch a couple of episodes of Neighbours, you just have to don't you?!

Stopping in one place for a while got me into a little routine which I could happily carry on for another six months. This consisted of a day of drawing, an afternoon swim in the sea to cool off, bar/waitress work in the evening (good for regaining the finances, witnessing an Australian wedding at home, and viewing a few peculiar fancy dress parties!) and food shopping in the local markets at the weekend, located just behind the cottage I got to stay in.

Living completely on my own took some getting used to-but it definitely made me productive. And even though it was an unusual whirlwind of a one day, low-key show, I was really glad to have done it. It was quite new territory for me too, to turn the cottage itself into an exhibition area and to collaborate on work in a very different way, but I think it was a small success from my point of view. Working with artist Thurle Wright was great - see www.thurle.com and my flickr photos (on my links to the right) for pics of the installations (Thurle is my ex-landlord from London's friend-get that round your head if you can make sense of it!). Collaborating really opened up my own ideas for further work when I get back. Even just travelling has been an inspiration for so many ideas for new work that are all just written down for the moment, it feels like I've woken up from some creative coma (without wanting to sound missus-wordy-fancypants!). It was just nice to know I can still get really involved in it and enjoy it. I also really enjoyed having a studio and I'm really going to miss that,it might have to be a priority to set up one when I get back to the UK somehow.

Meeting locals and other artists was great too (I even got to teach an art class for short session to local kids-VERY different to the last lot of kids I worked with in Bolivia, to say the least). And having some people know who I am was a feeling I haven't experienced for a while, so it's sad to be leaving. But alas, the piggybank does not permit a longer stay, and I managed to do a little bit of sightseeing and daytripping, so I've been lucky really. Bushwalking, swimming and cycling around Rottnest Island (an old prison camp used to enslave Aboriginal people and also home to the Quokka, a weird hybrid of a creature that looks like a half kangaroo, half rat!) and driving down through the Swan Valley.

So for the last part of my journey alone (as my mum is meeting me in Hong Kong and sounds like she's going to burst when we meet up she sounds that excited! Funny....and then from there I go to India to be, quite possibly literally, smothered by family) I head to Cairns tonight and have saved enough for a trip to see the Great Barrier Reef, followed by a VERY long bus ride to Brisbane before leaving Oz altogether.

The tiredness is setting in, and I'm beginning to think about all you lot back home - can't wait to see you all! Even the possibility of an exhibition in India that is yet to be confirmed by my wheeler-dealer/entrepeneur/del-boy style Mama (Uncle) makes me feel tired (but very intrigued about how an exhibition works over there and how my work will be received to an Indian audience). But it's all gravy (aka good).

Highlights of Australia? Obviously Kangaroos, Gallahs, Neighbours, the free courtyard music every Sunday at Freo Arts Centre (where I was able to see Mike Compton, a great mandolin player from the States play his bluegrass-who did the music for 'Oh Brother Where Art Thou?'), attending a very random lecture by filmaker Peter Greenaway (and got to see preview clips of his new project 'The Lupin Suitcase Series' as well as be a geeky groupie by sitting on the front row, a few yards away from his speaker stand - he's quite intimidating!). But the best is this: during working at a wedding last Saturday, I served an old Ozzy geezer a 'middy' of beer and brought it to his table, to which he said to me 'you're a bit of an alright sorta Sheila aren't ya?'.

I got called a Sheila.

Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas and New Year's went by in a flash, but it's all been better than I thought it would be spending it on my own. The south Island of New Zealand was a whole lot prettier and magnificent in it's scenery-highlights would have to be visiting Milford Sound and doing a day workshop of bone carving in Nelson (see a few Flickr photos I've uploaded).
After the initial culture shock of arriving from South America, New Zealand had grown on me and I was beginning to feel fond of the quiet (REALLY QUIET) little towns I had tottered along through. Queenstown was a pretty little town by a beautiful lake, very calm and sleepy. Frans Josef town (housing the glacier of the same name) was extremely tiny, but fun to visit apart from the rain. I had bad luck there and didn't get to see the Glaciers properly, I would've been able to walk through and inside them if it hadn't been raining so much that there was a cold foggy mist over the whole town. I took a walk up to the glacier as close as possible with some others from the same hostel as me that I had befriended which was awing enough scenery in itself, so I'm not complaionging. Because of the rain, I also got to improve my chess skills through several games!

I knew that Australia was going to get busier, so it was sad to fly out of Christchurch before xmas, but I was looking forward to (dare I say it) being able to work and start work again soon. I have only done a few bits and bobs in NZ in return for accommodation, so it was satisfying to know I could get proper work soon. But first stop was Melbourne. Only a few days, so unfortunately not enough time to see or go to the Great Ocean road, I hope I get to go back though, I liked Melbourne. My friend of friend Penny from Melbourne kindly put me up in her house share which was great, I got to live with proper Melbourners for a few days. The city is very arty, went to a great Nick Cave exhibition showing his journals, music progression and photographs of his career, very cool. Lots of cool aboroginal art, very inspiring, good cheap restaurants, food, cinemas and (if I could've been frivolous) good shopping too. The trams are cute and easy to get around, I even went over to Williamstown, a quaint little harbour town from which you got a good view of Melbourne city. I cooked a variant of Sarkar's Moussaka for the housemates as a kind of thank you and bought all of my ingredients fresh from Victoria's outdoor market, a great market with loads of gourmet and fresh produce (yes I was in heaven again).

So 23rd, I headed off to Canberra to meet up with Nicola (a fellow volunteer friend I worked with in Peru) who had invited me to her and her mum's for christmas. It was low key, but great. Canberra is a very quiet city, but interesting, I'm glad I made it to the capital at least! We went on a crazy christmas lights trail, finding houses scattered around Canberra that do crazy things to their houses like turn them into grottos etc and hand out sweets to kids that jump out of hteir parents' cars in pyjamas, it made me feel slightly more christmassy in this weird summer heat that I wasn't used to in December....Christmas eve day, Nic and I went to visit her horse and had a little ride around the paddocks, it was very cool, very peaceful. Then we had Christmas dinner that evening, consisting of BBQ'd turkey! I was spoilt too and received a beach bag hand made bu Sue (nic's mum) and a stocking (made by nic) full of chocolate gold coins! Christmas day, we had a picnic of leftovers by one of Canberra's lakes, then drove to Sydney and stayed in-yes-a hotel! The drive was interesting, spotting dead wallabies on the roadside of the highway (how are such large animals wild?!!) The hotel was a nice little luxury for me after all the hostels!

Boxing day, I made my way to the flat in North Bondi I was subletting a room from through a friend of a friend from back home. And headed straight to Bondi Beach on Boxing day! It was so nice to be 10 minutes away from the beaches. The coastal walk brought you along to the other beaches like Tamarama (where friend of friend Ruth lives) and Brontew hich I preferred as they were less crowded. It also went further along to Coogee beach and before that a really amazing cemetery overlooking rocks on a bay of the sea. I went for swims quite regularly, until the last few days as the sea has been very rough. In between I have fitted in the Opera House and the botanical Gardens at New Year's eve-very spectacular, going to Sydney Festival with Ruth where I got to see Brian Wilson shake his hands to Good Vibrations for free, hiking around the Blue Mountains just west of Sydney (spotting Kangaroos there!) and taking the ferry over to Manly, another town with beautiful beaches lined with pine trees (not like pine tree avenue kids).

So now, I spend my last day in Sydney before flying to Perth and travelling to Fremantle tonight. I will be starting my residency and hopefully finding other work to do things like, you know, eat and stuff : ) So a busy bee I will be from now on, and hopefully a chance to finally sort out photos and start uploading the mass that I have to show you all.........until then xx

New Zealand.

What a shock to my system. I spent the first couple of days wandering around Christchurch in the South island wondering why no one was speaking Spanish to me anymore, why I didn't have to think so hard about what I wanted to say to someone before I said it. It made me feel a little homesick hearing English again, but not being home...

But it's so beautiful here, the last two weeks have been a whirlwind but really amazing. After Christchurch, I decided to head up quickly to the north island as I have to head back to Christchurch anyway to fly onwards, so still a lot more to see in the South which I'm really looking forward to like the ice glaciers and Milford Sound on the west coast.

Wellington was a great harbour city, everything's so clean and new looking, but the history of the Maori people here is really interesting and has a really strong identity in terms of the arts (so, interesting for me anyway!). Great Botanical Gardens too for those interested (mum).I have been a good girl and went to see a client there as well with my work. They were very friendly and encouraging and not as intimidating as I thought it could have been! I also met up with another artist I used to represent, Chris and his wife Anna, and their daughter Aurian who live in a little town called Masterton, just in from the east coast in the north island. Chris took me to a spot along the coast to see the seals in their natural surrounding, not fenced off or anything, it was really amazing. And I'm not kidding, I'll try and upload the clip soon, but one very protective mother seal thought that Chris and I were a little too close so came bounding (even though they are big lumps, they are fast) towards us, not quite as cute in real life-quite scary!

From there I headed to Napier near the wine region of Hawke's bay and tasted some lovely wines in the vineyards, cheeses and honey made from the Manuka plant here-a lot of you know how much of a food pervert (lover) I am, so as you can imagine, I was in heaven!

From Napier, Taupo was my next stop, near NZ's largest lake of the same name. Everyone (in hostels previously who I spoke to ) said I MUST skydive or bungy jump in Taupo (it's cheap here you see). Erm, no thank you. Are you kidding? I'm the biggest wuss on earth! I'd consider it if I was with friends, but really not for me. Think what you will of me, I will do it in the next life! The scenery was breath-taking enough (I know, I sound like a granny). I had a great night out there with some friendly people I have met on the way, I wasn't in the best shape the next day let's put it that way. But I did manage to do the walk up to Huka Falls-an amazing waterfall that generates so much energy, it's used to make a mass of electricity, and looks so beautiful.

Now in Roturoa, a city rich with Maori culture as there's some villages with tribes in nearby that I visited this morning. They gave me a welcoming ceremony and greeted me (touched noses twice, a form of saying I am a friend, not an enemy) and performed the Hanga (that famous dance associated with rugby, the staring eyes, the tongue sticking out etc) which is a war dance to intimidate people and avoid fights, so not sure what they were trying to tell me there!).

Tomorrow, I'm off to see the Waitamo caves where large amounts of Glow-worms (worms, not flies Jonaki) breed and then up to the main city of Auckland. There is so much natural beauty here in the landscapes, it's quite overwhelming. With all this open land and only 4million people living in the whole of nz, you can get the idea of how sparse this place is compared to say, London!

I hope to see more of the South island after Auckland, but my time (and money : ) ) is limited now.....I'm sorry if this is boring people, I know it can be a bore to receive this regularly, but I think it will be a great way for me to remember everything too, so, you guys will have to just forgive me : )

Hope all is well with all of you.....I still like getting emails!

Cheers, nuk x

So my flight to New Zealnd is this afternoon and I'm feeling quite sad to be leaving South America now, it finally got easier to communicate in Spanish and now I'm not sure when I'll be able to speak it again!

From La Paz where I did eventually finish the dreaded mural-see Flickr pics-I made my way on the scariest and dodgiest overnight bus journey ever to Uyuni. The roads were so bumpy and the bus driver so hell bent on giving us an alternative to an Alton Towers rollercoaster ride, we rocked so much I felt like I was on a boat at sea, not a dust road in Bolivia! I honestly thought at some points that the whole bus would turn on it's side in the next moment...but I survived............just, to arrive in Uyuni at 5.30am with no feeling in my toes as they were so cold and I truly thought I must have frostbite! But as the sun started to rise, I gained feeling back in the little piggies and checked to see that they looked normal-I was fine, mini drama over!

From Uyuni I took 3 days out to visit the salt flats which were stunning, a strange feeling of being in a desert-come-antarctic type atmosphere, really beautiful. When on the first night, staying in a "hotel"of made of salt-yes, really-the sky outside was so so clear, I've never seen that many stars before, not even in India.....although not that many shooting stars which I thought I would see because it was so clear......but anyway, there was such amazing scenery surrounding the arond the area, filled with volcanoes, geysers-which are, well, imagine the Eternal Bog of Stench from the film The Labyrinth for those of you who know it! Litereally bog holes in the earth bubbling liquid away in the natural air temperature. It wreaked of Sulphur! There were several lagoons filled with natural minerals that made them into brilliant colours, like the Lagune Colorado and Verde-some of these photos will be uploaded later when I have a better connection...... I even managed to take a dip in some natural Hot Springs which were  soooo HOT, but really relaxing! It was so good to relax after that mural......

It was a shame because they did a kind of Inauguration ceremony to celebrate the mural being finished at the home-but only after I had left as they weren't able to do it before, and I had to go if I wanted to spend a few days in Buenos Aires before my flight today.....but Hilary, Damien and Marteja-the other volunteers I met in La Paz who really helped me out in finishing the mural with the kids-went along and took some photos of it for me, I'll put them up on Flickr later, they're great.

So, after Uyuni, I made my way down to the Argentinian border-and as soon as I crossed the border and finished my bus journey to Salta, I really noticed a difference-I think I may have even had a bit of culture shock! It was so warm all day and night! It felt more mixed culturally and maybe even a bit more European....it definitely felt like a richer country, such a difference...the buses were so amazing, they had tv screens showing films on them and served food, and still so cheap, felt like I was on a plane! Salta felt like a real holiday town...and I only stayed there a couple of days, but it was enough, quite a small place and basically good for shoe/clothes shopping, and since I can't really do much of that I made my way to Buenos Aires on the longest bus journey I've been on to date I think, at least on this trip! It was about 20hours, but it was overnight, and so cheap and amazingly comfortable, the chairs practically fell back into beds!

Arriving in Buenos Aires was very strange, very much a capital city, very mixed and has it's different areas, San Telmo-where I stayed-was very historical, lots of cobbled streets, markets and traditional buildings, all very European in style though. Then posh Pallermo, and posh but new Porto Madero with it's very commercialised area along the harbour for tourists, then Recoleta in the centre, very posh too, but filled with beautiful grand buildings, the museums and a huge cemetary where Eva Peron's body has finally been laid to rest. And then La Boca, supposedly a bit dodgy, in which you can visit Camonita with it's vibrantly coloured buildings made of leftover materials used to build ships in the 50s-quite a touristy area now, but once very poor. Also home to the very good football team the Boca Juniors-I passed the stadium, but that's as far as the football went for me!

I also met up with Javier-for those of you who don't know, he's an illustrator I used to represent when I was working at The Organisation-illustration agency....I've known him for about 2 years and worked with him a lot, but never met him in person, and it was so great. He was such a gentleman, took me out for dinner, walked around different areas and told me some history about the different architectures, he even tried to teach me the different accents of the different classes in Argentina-it didn't work however, I couldn't tell the shh, from the zschhh from the cccchhh! But I tried. He also showed me his beautiful flat on the edge of San Telmo and I met his gorgeaous dog, Sepia, a brown and white dalmation. It was cool to see his studio in his flat so I could imagine where he worked all the time whilst I was hassling him with emails and phone calls back in London. But no more of that for me....we met up yesterday for the last time and had ice cream-the local speciality of Dulche de Leche-very very sweet, like caramel, but soo yummy! My hostal even gave me a recipe for how to make it-thought you might be interested Jonaki, looks good!

My hostel was great, they even roped me into trying Tango as they do free classes every week, it was fun. It's a real smooth and provocative, but serious dance! I learnt how to distinguish the three different varieties and rythyms of Tango and that it's acutally an African word "Tango" that was used initially to describe the dances that the black slaves used to dance when they worked over here. My second night in the hostel involved me getting my tort cards read, not sure how much I believe of all of that, but ho hum, bit of fun! And even watching "The Motorcycle Diaries" on a quiet night in was good, it made me realise how much my Spanish had come along as I understood so much more compared to the first time I watched it!

But alas, espanol no mas, Nuevo Zealande ahoy! I hope to find work asap, as money's getting quite low, but I think for the first time ever, I'm not soooo worried about it, must be all this"lazing about and doing nothing....but at least I have some great news that I've been given an artist residency for at least a month, hopefully two, when I get to Australia, it's in Perth, so I'm quite excited to go there, if a bit scared about this residency...have to act like a responsible artist now, hmm, let's see.....

Working hard always makes you slack in other areas-like updating your blog and photos (yet to do, sorry).

But it feels good to be busy again-and doing stuff I really enjoy too. The murals coming along now, thanks to the help of a few other volunteers who kindly lent me a hand-I needed it! And the kids have been filling in a bit too (where they can reach) when they aren´t feeling too lazy-sometimes I need to give them a kick up the bum, but a few have really done a lot...

I still can´t quite capture the setting of this mural in a photo at all. It´s amazing. It´s in a slighlty posher part of La Paz in an area called Obrajes on the edge of Zone Asur. So on one side of the school we have big houses and the other is a whole scenio view of rocky cliffs with mountains in the background-and a really black rocky mountain called Devil´s peak that can look so rich black against the bright blue sky....I´ll try my best with a photo but I´m not promising the best.

At the deaf school up in Villa Pabon, my Spanish sign language is coming along-I had a test yesterday, only a small one of about 10 questions....but I got them all right (I know, boffin)! I was quite pleased with myself! The lessons will carry on after I leave, which is a shame, as I really feel like I´m starting to have conversations with the kids now and not just one word or a greeting here or there.

The family I´m staying with have been really welcoming, very homely. Hilary (the other volunteer staying in the house) and I went with Cleidy (the niece) the other day up to El Alto-another very small town slightly higher up than La Paz. We went to a barbeque of her university friends-the food was great, I haven´t had a barbeque in ages. Yes there was Ron (rum) too but it didn´t get too messy! We got roped into learning traditional Bolivian dances with Cleidy´s friends and then the boys got out the instruments and started a mini mariachi style gig in the living room, it was great.

I also experienced Molotov-a Mexican band which came to play (my host father Willy is a big fan, but didn´t go-must get some music of theirs from him)in the stadium and seem to be really huge here! They were very hard rock at first, but then seemed to vary a lot....in some ways they reminded me of the Pixies, it was a strange feeling not being able to understand every word, but I had a great time, it was good to go to a gig again.

Molotov had some very political songs-they even dedicated one to Bush! And they also stated how they felt about banning football up here....the Government´s thinking about banning football at a certain level of altitude upwards for health reasons, but of course, the public say no-and I think it´s a tough one. They say that people who are born at altitude are rarely affected by it, but I´m not so sure. Even when we went up to El Alto I felt slightly more giddy.........

So I have to go now and prepare for the workshop with the deaf school tomorrow. We´re finalising these bird costumes we´ve made and they will make up a dance to do in them and perform it in the stadium on Thursday-they´re having their sports day there and  our dance will be like an opening ceremony. The kids who can hear or feel the beats in music will lead and the others will follow-it could be a complete disaster, but we´ll give it a go!

And I´ve been  asked by my project coordinator to face paint at this Halloween charity party on the 31st, so if anyone has any tips-help!

So long, and will upload pics as soon as poss.

Cheers,

nuk x

So since leaving Peru, I feel like I´ve packed in a few things travelling wise and working in these two new places in La Paz (billed as the highest city in the world-so, huffing and puffing a bit whilst writing).

I said my goodbyes to my Peruvian host family and promised to keep in touch, then made my way to Puno by bus, a city near Lake Titicaca-really beautiful, and huge! I spent a night in Puno (not a lot to see, very small and touristy but ok) and then took a boat trip to the island of Taquile (about 5km wide) via the floating Islands of Uros-yes, they did really float! Made of reeds from the lake packed tightly together in layers, very wobbly underfoot, and little wigwam-like houses where the people of Uros ¨lived¨(personally think it has become a bit of a tourist show now, but really interesting nonetheless!).

I stayed a night in Taquile, and there are no hotels/hostels there, you pay a family to stay with them and they cook for you too! And, although I was the only one from my boat that stayed that night, and it was quite eerily quiet, it was beautiful, unspoiled, and the two sisters Sebastiana (21) and Belen (16) that cooked for me were very timid, but managed to chat to them (yes in Español) and were really friendly. There was no electricity and the few people that did only had it because they had solar panels. We had dinner by candlelight and I was freezing at night, but it was a great island to walk around, very peaceful.

I made my way back to Puno the next day and then took a bus to Copacabana (I can hear certain friends and family members singing the Barry Manilow song, so stop it now). A tiny, sleepy, hippy town-I only spent a few hours there, but really liked it. From there I just did a quick day boat round trip to the Isla de Sol, another Island that had some beautiful Inca ruins on it too, I could´ve stayed there too, but wanted to get to La Paz a few days before I started work. So I took the night bus from Copacabana to La Paz (and what a trip, have you ever been on a bus that drives onto a makeshift boat-I´m talking a large piece of driftwood-to cross a river in the middle of the night? Crazy) and arrived in a different stop than the one that was planned by the bus driver....but my new host family mother eventually picked me up-with four kids in tow! I felt so bad, but they were all excited to see me and they are a very lively lot. Marisel and Willy have 3 kids, Sebastian (13), Belen (8) and Fabrizio (6) and the are crazy hyper-but really funny! They also have their nephew Patricio (22) and niece Cleidy (24) living with them, they study at uni here. They´re both great and have been promised a night out playing pool/billiards with Cleidy during next week. Willy has a passion for a lot of different kinds of music, so we get on quite well (though I need to buy him some Clash).

I now have my own room, but for this first week, because there were more volunteers staying with them than planned, I was sleeping in the kids room! But they had lots of Spanish dubbed programmes like McGuiver and such, so I felt a bit at home.....

I´m working in the deaf School Monday to Friday in the afternoons, and we (another German girl Nicole on the same program as me, really lovely) plan to make bird costumes with the younger kids for a dance for their parents by the end of the month and with the older ones, we´ve got some fabric paints and are going to make stencils to do t-shirt prints........in between all of this, Nicole and I are  learning Spanish sign language from a deaf teacher Ricardo. He´s amazing, he knows english, German, Spanish, Korean and then Spanish sign, American sign, Korean Sign-and he´s a great teacher, I´m really enjoying the classes!

Then Saturday and Sunday-wait for it, yes, another mural project! I´m determined to get this one done, but I might need to work some mornings for this as the space is huge! It´s in a home for children physically disabled called Iri and there are five panels (it´s outdoors facing a small fottball pitch they have where they watch the nearby workers play-one of the kids does a great commentry!) and each panel is 1.4m high, and four of them or around 4.8m length, the 5th one 2.5m! But I´ve designed it-and I´ll draw the grid up tomorrow morning (we had to prepare the poor condition walls this weekend and put a primer on) and some of the more capable kids (have use of their hands, a few can walk) are going to help me draw it up and paint it, and add their own bugs (it´s a jungle scene).....so, a lot to do! But I´m remaining optimistic!

Because of all the work, La Paz hasn´t been properly explored yet, but the street food (know I shouldn´t but it´s very tasty and cheap and my Willy told me the dodgy places to avoid) like the salteñas and empanadas are so great! The markets are a variety of fun, and I plan to make a visit to the witches market this week where I´m told you can find Llama foeti (why?), so all good fun.

Blahhh, I feel like I´ve just written verbal vomit on my blog, so, tell me what´s going on in your world? I am missing music now and friends too. Keep me posted,

nuk x

It´s been a busy few weeks here in Cusco, but all has been great.

I´m slowly getting the hang of Spanish, and able to hold some conversation that doesn´t involve buying something, ordering something or reserving something like they teach you in the simple ¨teach yourself¨language books!

Wilde and Rosa (the dentist and-as I found out-wife to be-getting married in October) are both so lovely and their daughter Alejandra is warming to me now (the other day she asked if I could take a photo of us both together before I leave). I´m actually sleeping in Alejandra´s room! Poor girl, so I am currently painting posters of Dora and possibly Pucca (her favourites) for her room as a thank you! And as Wilde & Rosa are getting hitched, am currently doing a painting for them as a present of the condor, Puma and Snake (3 animals used a lot to symbolise life, death and the afterworld in Inca traditions).

A couple of weekends ago, I travelled around the some of the Sacred Valley villages (named sacred for the amount of good crops of corn and other agriculture they are always able to crop each year). On the same weekend, we (I went with the other volunteer from my programme, Caroline, who was only here for a couple of weeks) stayed a night in a village called Aguas Calientes-named so after the natural hot springs that are there (which I did dip in.....not that hot, but really nice all the same, think there´s one pic of it on my flickr-worth it just for the surrounding scenery of green lush hills!). Aguas Calientes was very near to Machu Picchu, so the next day we got up at 5am (yes, I was dead, but awake) to get the bus up to the amazing view of the first discovered Inca town amongst the beautiful mountains (see my numerous, probably too many pics on Flickr...excuse the very rough looking pics of me, it was early!)

Apart from that, Cusco has become very small the more I have got to know it, but a really lovely town, and so cheap! I can eat a 3 course lunch for about 4 soles (last time I looked it was about 6.7 soles to the english pound!). Wilde and Rosa are somewhat party goers-I found out Wilde used to teach Salsa and they both danced all night they took me out to 3 (awful music apart from the Salsa) clubs-but looked really amazing dancing it together. And yes, they dragged me to a place that taught Salsa first and I tried it, really enjoyed it, but was really crap! P.S. Having a hangover at altitude is far worse than one in England-there´s a lesson to be learned there....

I was asked to help out with the school on a Saturday with a demonstration protest the kids were doing for more education and less work exploitation for kids (most of them go to school, do homework and then go out on the streets to work, they don´t have ¨kid time¨). It was pretty interesting, walking around Cusco for 3 hours with all the kids-I was amazed that they didn´t get bored or over tired, I think they must be used to all of this hard work. Most of them walk for over an hour just to come to the centre or get to school. To celebrate that evening, the live music night I went to with the other volunteers at the centre/school one night in this ridiculously tiny bar was really cool, blues-y, latin stuff, all acoustic with bongos and big bottles of Cusqueña for 4soles each, much more my kind of evening (and hilarious when they tried to please some other english tourists in the bar by playing beatles songs which they didn´t know any of the words to so filled them in with Spanish ones!).

The school where I´m volunteering is slowly letting me do more creative stuff and we have made masks which we used to put on a small performance, and this week we´re drawing portraits for a competition I made up-it´s fun, the kids are so much more well behaved here compared to UK-though they constantly need reminding about hygiene! The time´s going so quickly, but still have lots planned....this weekend Rosa´s niece Christa wants to go out dancing and I´m going to a local league Peruvian football match on Sunday with the other volunteers from the School. Apparently it´s traditional to drink the Chicha (I think it´s called that-a really strong beer made from the local corn) and then go for pollo con papas fritas (chicken ´n´chips) afterwards....so should be good!

I´m also meant to be meeting up with a couple of local illustrators that I met whilst investigating the local arts school. They seemed pretty interesting and interested in my work too. They are gonna hopefully help me find places I can go to exhibit some work (though I may have to come back next year to do so-oh what a shame!). I really would like to as I didn´t get a chance to do the 4-day Inca-trail trek as it´s high season here and you need to book well in advance.

Soon (in about a week and a half) I leave for Puno (near Lake Titicaca and the floating Islands) where I stop for a few days before heading onto Bolivia where my second volunteer placement is.....will keep you all posted-whoever´s reading.....!