biked below the bluff today. it is like a different world down there. the vast majority of Vermillion exists above the bluff, far from the reaches of the mighty Missouri and slightly less mighty Vermillion rivers. originally Vermillion was settled by the river, but after a rather unfortunate flood, the decision was made to move it uphill.
if you bike down Broadway- the original Main St.- you see train tracks which carry grain and hay trains that are 80+ cars long and positively hulkingly large structures of farming equipment. it looks like it should be explored. i've become so comfortable in Vermillion that it's almost jarring to be reminded that this is still farm country.
on Friday my yoga teacher had an art show that began with a 45 minute yoga session that she had designed to move the group through our chakras. it felt important to have so many people together doing yoga. funny, because many of the yoga classes in nyc or at cornell have bazillions of people in them all the time and it would be unthinkable to be the only person in class (as i was once here), but this gathering felt good. i love events that reclaim spaces, shifting them and helping you reevaluate.
as the weather changes and it becomes clear that this is the winding down period of the year i am very conscious of experiencing all there is to experience in SD. yesterday i sat in the coffee shop reading for awhile and watching these adorable kids who i'd never seen before and today i biked past them as i came back from the supermarket, a certain i heart verm moment. more to be documented...
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Thursday, March 22, 2007
spring is springing!
There has been a lot of whining lately, mostly originating from me, but it is nice out and I am happy and figured that this was a good time to blog about it. I hate the internet, and the word blog, yet am irrevocably attached.
Two weeks ago I went to Austin, TX with a group of South Dakotans for an Alternative Spring Break (woohoo!) trip. Besides the important service aspects and traditional group bonding moments, I have to say that Austin rekindled my love of coffee. Specifically the act of lazily drinking outside of a hip and cool cafe with people who are wearing funky clothes (and I don't mean H&M funky) and drinking out of Mason jars. The hippy element of Vermillion is much appreciated and definitely existing, but you don't get the same overarching sense that there is a creative mass of people out there discussing and thinking and creating. Maybe that is unfair, and I am NOT knocking Vermillion, after all, there are just 10,000 people here, but I have to say that it made me extra special super excited for my upcoming trip to Ithaca.
Austin and Ithaca are actually pretty similar- smallish (or small feeling) hippy towns, with amazing greenery and dramatic gorges (or gorge-like places). What Austin doesn't have gorges it makes up for in dinosaur footprints, real live ones that you can stand in while contemplating brontosauri strolling through the river bed. That is seriously neat. I also felt a sort of kinship between the Rhizome Collective, an organization that serves as a living space and a sustainable educational center. It was like a mix between Common Ground (the collective I stayed at in New Orleans) and the Eco-Village in Ithaca.
Anyway, I am looking forward to stroll down by the Vermillion river- a spot I just discovered and am more than a little excited about.
Two weeks ago I went to Austin, TX with a group of South Dakotans for an Alternative Spring Break (woohoo!) trip. Besides the important service aspects and traditional group bonding moments, I have to say that Austin rekindled my love of coffee. Specifically the act of lazily drinking outside of a hip and cool cafe with people who are wearing funky clothes (and I don't mean H&M funky) and drinking out of Mason jars. The hippy element of Vermillion is much appreciated and definitely existing, but you don't get the same overarching sense that there is a creative mass of people out there discussing and thinking and creating. Maybe that is unfair, and I am NOT knocking Vermillion, after all, there are just 10,000 people here, but I have to say that it made me extra special super excited for my upcoming trip to Ithaca.
Austin and Ithaca are actually pretty similar- smallish (or small feeling) hippy towns, with amazing greenery and dramatic gorges (or gorge-like places). What Austin doesn't have gorges it makes up for in dinosaur footprints, real live ones that you can stand in while contemplating brontosauri strolling through the river bed. That is seriously neat. I also felt a sort of kinship between the Rhizome Collective, an organization that serves as a living space and a sustainable educational center. It was like a mix between Common Ground (the collective I stayed at in New Orleans) and the Eco-Village in Ithaca.
Anyway, I am looking forward to stroll down by the Vermillion river- a spot I just discovered and am more than a little excited about.
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