One of my good friends--who incidentally is not a geographer--remarked to me once that a cup of coffee buys space.
I am acutely aware of that today as (after a quick search for coffee and wifi) I sit in a coffee shop adjacent to the train station. For a couple bucks I have bought myself a corner seat, complete with free wireless, a powerstrip (charge the phone, charge the netbook) and table space to spread my work on.
I have six hours to burn while I wait for my train. Ah coffee.
I have many more things to say on the subject of coffee and space, but perhaps that's for another time...
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
You are here.
I'm currently in residence at the Sustainable Living Center at UCSC. Also known as the Village.
I'm officially half-way through an intensive course on Agroecology and Sustinability, which has, thus far, afforded me the opportunity to sit in on lectures by the founding agroecologists (and also from the professors--Altieri and Nigh--who first got me interested in doing work on agriculture in Chiapas); visit farms employing agroecological methods; travel a bit around the downtown Santa Cruz area and take in the weekday farmers market; and eat amazing food from the gardens here and from local veg and fruit growers....oh my expanding waistline! yum!
Of greatest importance, thus far, I have made contacts with folks in Chiapas and with other researchers who have interest in my work. I'm giving a short presentation for everyone tomorrow night after dinner, so hopefully I will get some critical feedback on my work before I head into the funding fray. Also, tomorrow's official lectures promise to be exciting...food sovereignty, small farmer traditional systems and direct trade coffee from CAN (something I would love to get involved with in a research capacity). The team of lecturers here is quite a family...for them (this is their 12th course), it's a reunion...so that is really quite inspiring and wonderful to see in the academic community.
I had some trepidation before coming because I knew I'd be staying a dorm setting....all fears completely unfounded. The village is surrounded by fruit trees, redwood trees, small garden plots and families of bunnies, quails and deer. It's wonderful...and in the evenings I compete with the young bucks to get to the plum trees.
I'm officially half-way through an intensive course on Agroecology and Sustinability, which has, thus far, afforded me the opportunity to sit in on lectures by the founding agroecologists (and also from the professors--Altieri and Nigh--who first got me interested in doing work on agriculture in Chiapas); visit farms employing agroecological methods; travel a bit around the downtown Santa Cruz area and take in the weekday farmers market; and eat amazing food from the gardens here and from local veg and fruit growers....oh my expanding waistline! yum!Of greatest importance, thus far, I have made contacts with folks in Chiapas and with other researchers who have interest in my work. I'm giving a short presentation for everyone tomorrow night after dinner, so hopefully I will get some critical feedback on my work before I head into the funding fray. Also, tomorrow's official lectures promise to be exciting...food sovereignty, small farmer traditional systems and direct trade coffee from CAN (something I would love to get involved with in a research capacity). The team of lecturers here is quite a family...for them (this is their 12th course), it's a reunion...so that is really quite inspiring and wonderful to see in the academic community.
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| my residence...and some familiar humor |
I had some trepidation before coming because I knew I'd be staying a dorm setting....all fears completely unfounded. The village is surrounded by fruit trees, redwood trees, small garden plots and families of bunnies, quails and deer. It's wonderful...and in the evenings I compete with the young bucks to get to the plum trees.
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