Lauren Lim's blog

"I am curvecious. Be slow."

Lauren Lim — Sat, 5 Jul 2008 10:20:21 -0500

Or: surreal experiences of Ladakh, part one!

Attempting to mantra my way out of exploding out of all the holes in my body, ham-sa ham-sa ham-sa, on the bus ride of treachery between Manali and Leh. The ride wouldn't have been so terrible if I hadn't had had bacteria in the belly, though there were...

sztuczki (tricks)

Lauren Lim — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 01:30:06 -0500

The nun made me do it. She pushed me. Twice.

So I got up and walked towards the smaller prayer wheel, where two Tibetan boys were reading the lyrics of a James Blunt song to practice their English, and introduced myself.

Gurmit invited me to his home almost immediately. "Do you...

External forces are dragging me way down, man.

Lauren Lim — Thu, 15 May 2008 10:58:49 -0500

The idea of free will is flimsy to begin with, but at least I can often delude myself into believing it exists. In fact, the first thing I do when I wake up is grab my compact mirror, look myself in the eye, and shout, "Life is a boat! Swim it!"[1] Usually this irritates my roommates, Emma...

Teremiski

Lauren Lim — Thu, 8 May 2008 05:37:55 -0500

Once upon a time, the villagers were forced to leave their homes. First the Russians came and took all the able bodied men and put them away in Siberia. Then the Germans came and moved all the women, children, and elderly to Belarus. As a little boy and his family were leaving,...

I terrorize hedgehogs with my love

Lauren Lim — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:03:32 -0500

I haven’t been going to the forest, so the forest came to me. It toddled over my laptop, ran under my bed, and waited patiently as I frantically tried to take photos of it in manual, in bad lighting, with poor composition, cursing under my breath all the while.

Aga brought Hedgehog in for...

wizard

Lauren Lim — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:10:26 -0500

I woke up and shuffled around the flat until eleven-ish, intending to go to the Warsaw Uprising Museum. On route, Emma and I decided that what we really wanted was to go to Tarabuk, this coffee shop-bookstore a block away from the university library that fits me just, that wants me to be...

can't sleep, falafels keeping me up

Lauren Lim — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 18:23:11 -0500

I'm not often harassed for my gender, ethnicity, or nationality. But it seems to recur in Polish falafel shops. The men behind the counter recognize me as a foreigner as soon as I walk in. They assume I'm American, so speak English even though I can communicate in Polish. They ask me where I'm from...

Lyme Disease and Other Curious Details

Lauren Lim — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 07:00:50 -0600

I.
I recently found out, by way of a poorly made short documentary, that Jacek Kuroń was unstoppably loquacious. This interests me because his widow, Danuta, is a relentless talker as well. Fond of business dinners, she keeps us at the table for excruciatingly long periods of time....

I'm going to be honest, and it's going to make me look, probably,

Lauren Lim — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 10:53:33 -0600

like a selfish, inconsiderate, ungrateful, no-good ass.

I've been thinking about this since a bad email exchange with my father right before Chinese New Year, and after a week of brooding, it's finally popped out in a somewhat articulate fashion. My friend Kathryn sent me a care package and...

The most kick ass flat in Warsaw

Lauren Lim — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 16:29:48 -0600

happens to belong to an old, um, dead lady. I was trying to figure out what it was about J’s place that was so delightful, and in the morning, when I woke up with a mild headache and phlegm in my throat from breathing in dust all night, I realized that her flat’s the best museum I’ve been...

Turn me off.

Lauren Lim — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:04:54 -0600

I went caroling with my students on Saturday, for Orthodox Christmas, and I was narrating the whole time. The voice in my head wouldn't shut it, even after I ducked out and ran home after an hour and a half. Emma was sick in bed, we were talking, and I was narrating our conversation...

Things that do and do not like me.

Lauren Lim — Sat, 8 Dec 2007 11:04:22 -0600

Babcias don’t like me.

The turtle is like the neck part of the turtleneck. Or a very warm necklace.

Emma and I were walking home from the village shop when a babcia – a grandmother – stopped us, stared at Emma as if she were the strangest thing since sliced bread, and peppered her with...

Don’t thank mountain men. Make pretty babies.

Lauren Lim — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 06:48:38 -0600

We arrived in Krakow at 10:30 at night, and Emma ran
straight to the nearest vendor because we were all dehydrated. It was easily the most delicious water I’ve
had since I returned to Poland in September – what is it about fizzy water,
anyway? Emma looked un-dead now, and as
a man...

Oh. As in ha ha funny?

Lauren Lim — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 13:38:14 -0600

I know that part of the travel experience is to get to know
locals, to be open to talking to strangers.
A tourist only talks to other tourists and a traveler...a traveler what? Learns the language, gets to know the people,
shies away from the road oft taken.

If this is...

VICTORY...............meh

Lauren Lim — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 12:47:29 -0500

If you’ve been paying (very very close) attention to the
BBC or my beloved NPR, you’ll have noticed that we had elections this past
Sunday in Poland. Out with the old super
conservative PM Jarosław Kaczynski! In with
the new...center conservative...PM Donald Tusk...

And then the Gods said: Art thou alone in the forest? Why, we can fix that!

Lauren Lim — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 14:51:24 -0500

My personal good luck was born out of terrible luck for
my university. The Polish government
changed its legislation regarding funding to non profits and stuck it to our ovaries. Big.
Because our program isn’t regional, because we gather our students from
all across...

Być albo nie być. Oto jest patanie.

Lauren Lim — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 09:56:23 -0500

Hamlet in Polish tonight.
Should be interesting. If I can
play a witch in Macbeth in Polish (which led me to determine that I am never
acting again, let alone in a foreign language), surely I can figure this one
out. Then again, I've never had much luck with Shakespeare in non-teen...

Damn, I should’ve eaten more spinach while I was in San Francisco

Lauren Lim — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 13:53:29 -0500

This morning I woke up and thought, “UGH, I’M IN WARSAW”
and I turned over and went back to sleep. Four times. Lucky my meeting was
at one. I was on the bus and in the
underground for an hour and a half to two hours both ways for a ten minute
meeting. Ugh, I’m in Warsaw.

Not the best oil stick in the city

Lauren Lim — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 23:00:27 -0500

Bring on the good times! It’s déjà vu city. The office back in Warsaw has been causing me stress for the past few weeks: where’s the permit? Where’s the visa? It was supposed to be here last week? I have to change my ticket again? I have to pay for...

i know, right?

Lauren Lim — Sat, 8 Sep 2007 13:11:56 -0500

Miles Newbold Clark said...

The absolute best way to be productive is to move to a foreign county.
One of two things will happen: either you will meet an attractive
native person, begin learning the language, arranging entry visas,
seeing the sights, and witnessing the gradual collapse of your...

Anywho, in the spirit of procrastination

Lauren Lim — Fri, 7 Sep 2007 02:10:16 -0500

Right, so when I was writing and revising non fiction I was absolutely certain that fiction would be so much easier (after all, you just make shit up!) and now that I'm writing and revising fiction I've changed my mind. Both suck. I procrastinate a lot more when it comes to revising fiction...

where to find a twenty foot mummy

Lauren Lim — Mon, 6 Aug 2007 19:28:59 -0500

or at least it used to be there. saturday was the clean up at toxic tire cove (aka warm water cove). bad pop blaring from huge loudspeakers. muffins the size of my head for volunteers only (damn). kudos for planting trees, dumping mulch, getting rid of the tires (and thereby the toxic tire moniker)....

July 31st, 2007 (again and again and again)

Lauren Lim — Fri, 3 Aug 2007 09:30:33 -0500

The girl sitting next to me asks what my book is about. I fumble around for the right words and end lamely with “It’s something like magical realism, except with less magic…and…more…real...” How does one describe A Wild Sheep Chase anyway? What does it say about me that most of my...

Maybe I should just resign myself to the fact that they will never stop singing (3 of 3)

Lauren Lim — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 05:29:40 -0500

2007-07-22

I.
I used to think that I love to sing. I’ve been in and out of choirs since I was ten, and in college I loved gospel choir, even though I don’t love Jesus. Now I know that “love” is much too strong of a word. They’re still singing now, after we’ve sung all day. They’re...

I did get french fries for dinner the next day, only not in a tree (2 of 3)

Lauren Lim — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 13:14:57 -0500

2007-07-11

A group of five girls show up at the school in the morning and spend the entire day with us. It’s a pity they’re only in their second year of high school; they’d make good candidates for the University. Everybody who participates in our event is too young. The kids we talked to...

Anyway, the pizza was terrible (1 of 3)

Lauren Lim — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 10:49:52 -0500

2007. 07. 20

Three trains, two buses, and eight hours: Warsaw to Janowiec. A group of teenagers are playing basketball at the school when we finally arrive. We are beaten down by the heat and the travel, and we are singing gypsy songs. They eye us suspiciously. Later when we go talk to them, they...

On writing, revising, and restraining myself from throwing my laptop out the window

Lauren Lim — Mon, 9 Jul 2007 10:37:05 -0500

Submission #1: The Traverse Writing-Photography Competition

After proposing a few ideas to David Miller, we managed to refine one of them and I set to writing. I rubbed my hands gleefully and cackled. Oh, was the world ready for this? I sat down at the old-school typewriter with its missing...

Don't lie. You know you love it.

Lauren Lim — Wed, 4 Jul 2007 05:21:54 -0500

“Spam is the Paul Giamatti or John C. Reilly of the culinary world, an everyman food that lacks the charisma or looks of a leading ingredient, but consistently makes all other ingredients taste better.” Howard Yoon

I can’t quite figure if that’s a diss or just the plain truth (regarding...

I've had it up to here with churches.

Lauren Lim — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 11:04:34 -0500

2007-06-01
(First day of six-day bike trip from Teremiski to Sejny.)

I’m not a big fan of churches, generally avoid them except to attend the occasional gospel choir concert. We’ve been to five churches today. Five. I’ve heard five different reports about when given church was built and...

I tried to fly and my face broke the fall.

Lauren Lim — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 06:22:36 -0500

At least I didn't eat shit literally. I mean, it could've happened. There are cowpies everywhere in the countryside.

Within the bad luck of: getting into an accident on the last day of biking, after 300 kilometers; my wreck (and I do mean wreck) of a face; not being able to go to Lithuania; being...