adventures of a tired coder

I’ve attended films from every year of the Seattle International Film Festival since I moved to Seattle, making this my 6th year. When I first started, I just thought it was cool that I lived in city big and diverse enough to support a festival that showed some international films. But I thought it was just as cool that I lived in a place that had Thai restaurants.

I’ve been in the area longer now, and I’m no longer excited about Thai restaurants, which seem to be located on every third block around here. But I’ve grown to really appreciate SIFF as something that we’re lucky to have. It’s the largest and most attended film festival in the United States. In a period of about three weeks, the festival screens more than 400 films.

Things that are cool:

1. I get to see films that not many other people get to see.

2. I get to see some films that many other people will see, but I get to see them before they do.

3. I get to listen to very interesting and insightful Q&A sessions with many of the directors. It’s even cooler when it’s for one of the films described in #2.

4. Newly discovered this year – volunteering = a chance to meet lots of great people and see a lot of free film!

5. SIFF, unlike the film festivals you normally hear about, is accessible to the general public and primarily attended by “normal people.” According to The Stranger, Ed Norton (who was in town for an award) said that most film festivals are commercial messes, but SIFF was a wonderful festival for a “great film town.”

This year, I definitely had my best SIFF experience to date. I saw about 18 films and volunteered 5 shifts. And my picks this year were great! No total clunkers and a lot of great films, including several that made the awards list. I also went outside my normal types of choices and added more documentaries, which were very informative and thought-provoking.

During one of my SIFF movies, I was trying to recall the name of a French film I saw in 2005. Google was failing me, and I didn’t want to search the SIFF site using my phone. Then I remembered that I blogged about it, so I went to my blog and found the name easily. Conclusion: I need to blog about SIFF this year so I can remember things in the future.

SIFF First Weekend (5/21-5/23)

I was out of town, so I missed the first weekend. Particularly bummed about missing Soul Kitchen and The Concert. The latter ended up on the Best of SIFF awards, too!

SIFF First Week (5/24-5/27)

The Reverse was a last minute addition to my schedule… a later (9:15pm) film the day after I got back from a state on Central Standard Time. A bit risky. And Polish dark comedy – I wasn’t sure the humor would translate. Turns out, this was possibly one of the biggest sleeper hits of the festival. It didn’t take itself too similarly, and the humor was compared to the Coen Brothers. And it won the Grand Jury Prize for Best New Director!

I normally don’t go for disturbing, gory war movies, but when I saw the description of City of Life and Death, I felt like I should probably put aside my dislike of violence to learn more about an important event that many American history books overlook, the Nanking Massacre. It was shot in black and white, making it look like documentary-style, and the production and acting was top notch. Most of the people in the group I went with didn’t realize how horrible that period was, and the film was a good jump start to conversation and research afterwards. And as hard as the cruelty in the film was to watch, they didn’t go as far as they could in the portrayal of the atrocities committed. For instance, they didn’t show any mutilation. And they didn’t just portray the Japanese as monsters.

SIFF Second Weekend (5/28-5/30)

I found out about volunteering and how easy it was to sign up. There was a Sunday shift at Uptown right before a film I had tickets to, and I signed up, not knowing really what to expect. It ended up being a lot of fun. We were betting on whether people coming in for the SIFF film or Sex and the City. :) I also got to see Khargosh, the film that was showing during my shift. I missed the beginning and the ending, but it was one of those slow, plotless films that’s visually appealing, so it didn’t matter.

The second film during the shift was The Hedgehog, a sold-out screening that has continually eluded me and ended up winning the Golden Space Needle audience favorite. (They added an additional screening, but I already had a film at the time. Then they added it to the Best of SIFF weekend, but I’m out of town. Sigh.) Interesting incident: the guy who got mad that we didn’t take his word that he’d bought a ticket, even though he didn’t bring it.

Then finally, I saw the film I had tickets for, Cairo Time. Interesting incident: a woman from Italy before me in line was complaining about the system being “so terrible” because she had to wait outside. Apparently in Europe, they give you assigned seats when you buy movie tickets. I’d compare the film to a prettier, less boring, and more mature version of Lost in Translation. Same “person in a foreign land” feeling, same unrealized attraction. It was a bit slow at times, but the subtly was nice and the shots of Cairo were beautiful. Some shots were oddly reminiscent of Sex and the City 2, which Ann and I had coincidentally seen the night before, at different theaters. I really enjoyed the Q&A with the director, who had funny stories about filming in Cairo and evading the government tag-along. Patricia Clarkson was a runner up for the SIFF Best Actress award.

And that ends week 1! Film count: 4. Volunteer voucher count: 2.

I’m at that age where everyone is starting to get married. My high school friends started a long time ago, and a good number of them have kids now. But my childhood friends have taken a little longer, maybe because they’re either busy getting really educated or enjoying the fun of single life. Well, this summer, that has officially changed. In June, Ben (my boyfriend when I was 3 years old!) is getting married, and the weekend before Memorial Day, Alice and Shawn tied the knot.

I’ve known Alice since I was seven or so. That’s about twenty years. It’s crazy to think of lengths of friendships in terms of lengths of relationships – at my age, a five year relationship seems long. And though we might not have a lot in common and I’ve spent the last ten of those years away from Louisiana, I’ve kept in better touch with her than anyone else from Baton Rouge. We’ve shared a lot of history, listened to each other’s good stories and bad stories, many of them about boyfriends… shared a love of Sarah McLachlan, Tori Amos, and Vienna Teng. And after years of being a long-distance observer/confidante in her journey, it was really special to see her road of singlehood end at a beautiful ceremony in a city I called my home for a decade and a half. 

I really don’t get back to Baton Rouge as often as I want to. The city has changed a lot and many of the people I knew have gone off to other places. Alice took me to the Mall of Louisiana to see how much it’s expanded. There’s now a Sephora in Baton Rouge! Still no Nordstrom, though. On one hand, it’s great that Baton Rouge is becoming more of a “real city,” but I think it comes at the expense of its character. The photo I snapped of the outside shopping area looked as sterile as a computer-modeled image. New residential developments mimic the identical townhouse hell that I hate seeing here in the Issaquah Highlands (and many other places). But one thing Baton Rouge has in its favor is a lot of  land, which means they don’t need to knock down the old places as much. So I got to make my traditional trip to Mike Anderson’s, still the same, to eat one of my favorite meals of stuffed crab, stuffed potato, and hush puppies.

Next year is my 10 year high school reunion (OLD!!!) so it looks like I’ll finally make a trip back to Louisiana that isn’t for a wedding. :) Until then, I’ll be dreaming of crawfish.

Congratulations to Alice and Shawn!

Since I haven’t left the country since India last June and don’t currently have any plans to do so in the near future (particularly since my passport is expired), I have unconsciously been filling my travel need by having adventures near home. This time, I decided Friday night that I needed to take advantage of the non-rainy weather on Saturday by going hiking. Instead of fighting the Seattle crowds at Tiger Mountain or Mount Si, I opted instead to greet the smaller Bellingham crowd at Larrabee State Park.

We don’t get a lot of sunny, clear days in Seattle during the winter. And usually when we get them, it’s during the week. So when the weatherman predicted a weekend of good weather, I knew I had to get outside and do something. My original plan was to head down to Pike Place Market and walk around, but I’ve done that so much. Instead, I decided to look for a place with a view.

It didn’t take me long to decide on Upper Queen Anne. I can see the hill from my condo, and I’m in Lower Queen Anne all the time for shows, but for some reason I very rarely make it to the top. So I took a bus, aiming for Kerry Park, a place well known for its good views of downtown Seattle. Being unfamiliar with the area, I got my bus stops mixed up and rode too far, so I ended up walking through Kinnear Park, which gave a nice view of the Olympics and the Sound.

It was sad to leave Orchard Hut, almost like saying goodbye to distant relatives after finally meeting them for the first time. From there, we took a car to Pathankot, where we got on a train heading to Amritsar. Since it was a relatively short train ride, we got the authentic Indian experience by riding sleeper class. Sound nice? No AC, and I believe it’s the cheapest reserved seats available on the train. Finally, to give us the full authentic Indian experience, the train came to a halt for long enough to indicate that it wasn’t going anywhere for awhile. People jumped on another train passing by, but we had too much luggage to move quickly, so we stood next to the train to get some air (everyone else out there was male!). Finally, we found out what the deal was: “engine broke, they are bringing another one.” Awesome.

But we made it to Amritsar in time to get to the Golden Temple to see the nightly ceremony (Palki Sahib) where they bring their Holy Book from its day spot to its night spot. It was great to get the opportunity to see the Golden Temple both in the day and at night because the atmosphere was very different. The gold against the blackness of night was very majestic, but in the daytime, everything looked more peaceful (except the crowd of people trying to get inside the temple). There were people all over, bathing in the water, sleeping next to the water, eating from the free cafeteria, and chanting. For such a famous temple, it was impressive that it really felt like a holy place, not a tourist attraction.

Amritsar also marked the end of reasonable temperatures for me on this trip, going from the pleasant 70s of Chamba to a blazing 100 degrees. We also visited a modern Hindu temple in Amritsar (very different!) and Jallianwala Bagh, the site of a British massacre that is now a memorial. Finally, we made a trip to the India-Pakistan border to watch the very odd daily border closing ceremony. People packed into the stands on both sides of the border, and as they were waiting for things to begin, they played music on the Indian side and a bunch of women went down and started a dance party. Then announcers began the pep rally portion, shouting “Hindustan!” (echoed by the opposite side’s “Pakistan!”) followed by lines I really did not understand (though I did understand the “Allah!” shouts from the Pakistan side). Then soldiers did some funny marching, lowered the flags, and closed the border. For two countries that are supposed to not get along, they sure had to coordinate well to do this ceremony. As we followed the crowd out, I had two guys following me asking to take my picture, not an uncommon thing for foreigners in India to experience, but the fact that they were following me made me feel like a celebrity. :)

Then it was time to hop on an overnight train back to Delhi (AC this time, thank goodness!). I sadly said goodbye to my tour group after doing some shopping, and hopped on a train to Agra. The next morning I got up early enough to get to the Taj Mahal at opening time, 5am, and was rewarded by getting to experience it before all the crowds flooded in. It was really beautiful, and it’s hard to get a real sense of how big it is from just looking at pictures. Agra has a number of amazing tourist sites, but otherwise it’s an unpleasant place to be. Hot and polluted (I think we were at 110 degrees, but it felt hotter), full of people trying to sell you stuff or get you on their rickshaw. The heat was really killing me, so I saw the Agra Fort and then had to get back to my hotel (“No, Mr. Rickshaw Driver, I do NOT want to go to a bazaar!”). I’d already checked out, but they let me sleep in a room for a few hours for $5.

Took a train back to Delhi (it was late and then silently showed up at a different platform – I was the only person from my berth to actually make it to the right place right away), then flew out the next morning to Chennai. But that’s for part 4!

So continuing with my Indian adventure story… the part about the tour description that made me hesitate the most about booking it was the mention of a two day trek that was strenuous and required participants to be in great physical condition. I’m not in bad shape, but I don’t consider myself to be in great physical condition, either. My tour guide didn’t make it any better by harassing me and constantly asking if I wanted to change my mind about doing the trek (there was an option to ride a car to the next destination, which two people did choose).

In the end, it wasn’t as bad as I expected, and the scenery along the way was gorgeous. I did get off to a bad start by falling on my butt twice because we were going downhill on a dusty trail covered with pine needles. And the climb up was really steep. I had to make the group stop a few times to catch my breath, but even with those delays, the tour guide said it was the fastest he’d ever made it up there with a group. It was a lot of fun walking through the small villages because all of the kids would get excited and follow us around, yelling, “Hi!” and asking to get their photo taken. We also picked up dogs as we walked that would follow us for the entire day and then disappear. Temporary pets!

The second day of trekking was a lot easier, and then we arrived in Chamba, where a vehicle dropped us off as close as it could get to Orchard Hut, where we spent the next few days. The idea was to get the real village experience, so the closest road was about 30 minutes downhill. I really enjoyed the stay and the Indian hospitality we experienced there from the family. The food stood out as some of the best food I ate in India, homecooked local recipes that were very different from other Indian food I’d eaten before.

Tired… looks like there will be a part three to this entry :)

This is a long overdue entry, since this trip happened in May last year, but better late than never!

My friend Yamini decided on a wedding date in June of 2009, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to attend her wedding and visit India. I was going to have a travel partner, but those plans fell through, and I found myself with a plane ticket for three weeks in India. It ended up being an oddly pieced together trip, but in the end I had a lot of fun and got to experience amazing things.

After buying tickets, I was looking at possible itineraries to explore. The state of Himachal Pradesh began to look really appealing, mainly because it was one of the few places in India at the time where the temperatures weren’t blazing hot. Intrepid had a tour from Delhi into HP and Amritsar whose dates happened to work perfectly with my dates. The tour started the morning after I arrived in Delhi, and it ended with enough time for me to do a day in Agra before heading to Chennai for the wedding. So much to my mom’s relief, I booked the tour, drastically shortening my alone time in India.

I think the rumors that India is really unsafe for single female travelers is mostly false. It was definitely easier to be with a tour guide for my first experience, but I would have been okay on my own, though probably harassed more. Any time I was off on my own, some guy would inevitably approach me and ask to be my friend, then follow me around for as long as I would let him. Very strange experience for me, but I did make the first guy take me to get a SIM card for my phone and to an ATM. :)

The tour (called “Mountains and Mystics”) really showed a lot of different sides of India. We started off with some time in crazy Delhi, taking cycle rickshaws through Old Delhi and exploring the markets in 110 degree temperatures. The morning before the tour started, I’d taken a rickshaw to Humayun’s Tomb, but there were definitely a lot more Delhi attractions that I didn’t make it to. I was thankful we didn’t stay that long because I wanted to get out of the heat. The next morning, we took an early train to Kalka, where were transferred onto the historic toy train that wound its way up, through tunnels and over pretty bridges, to the hill station of Shimla. I’d looked into the logistics of doing this trip on my own before booking the tour, and by then, there were only wait list positions open (and they were pretty high numbers) since those hot months are high season for Shimla. I was curious how we got tickets for the train. Turns out, we didn’t have confirmed reservations, either, and our tour guide kept bribing the train guy, first to let us get on the train and a few times afterwards so he would let us stay on. Ah, India. :)

Shimla was quite a contrast from Delhi, the temperature drop reflecting a corresponding drop in insanity. This was where the Indians went on vacation to escape the heat. We met quite a few families who were on holiday, including one whose daughter had just gotten married. We admired her saree, and she told us that if she wasn’t on her honeymoon, she’d be dressed like we were! The highlights of Shimla were the bazaars, full of little shops, the Viceroyal Lodge (which now houses a center for higher studies), and the Jakhu Temple, which was full of mean, evil monkeys. We saw one steal the glasses off a guy’s head and another one eat a vendor’s samosas. They rent sticks at the bottom of the hill you have to walk up, and I had to use mine to fend off an attacking monkey! He was holding someone’s broken glasses, and I wanted to take a picture. However, he misinterpreted this as a trade gesture, so he dropped the glasses. I didn’t think my camera was a fair swap, so I didn’t give it to him, and he got mad. All of the Indians who were watching us fight found it very amusing, though.

After Shimla, we took a private vehicle with an insane driver to Dharamsala. See, it’s one thing to pass a car on a 2-lane road. Then there’s passing a car on a winding 2-lane road where there’s not much between the outer lane and the death cliff. Then there’s doing all of the above without slowing or looking for oncoming traffic. Or seeing the oncoming traffic and creating a third lane.

We spent three days in Dharamsala/McLeod Ganj, which we all agreed was a bit excessive. The highlights were the Tibetan things, like the Dalai Lama’s residence (we got to see monks debating) and the Norblingka Institute, where we got to see Tibetan arts and crafts. But the rest of it was very touristy, geared towards hippie Westerners. The setting was very beautiful, though, and the idea was to relax for a few days before heading on our trek.

Okay, that’s enough for one day. Part 2 to follow!