Clifftop

Clifftop

Friday, May 27, 2011

Getting more acquainted

I'm getting close to finishing The Good Earth and I love it.  I highly recommend this read.  It transports you to another world and you can tell in Pearl's writing that she was thinking in Chinese, but wrote in English, which gives the book a dimension of authenticity.  I'm also reading a biography of Pearl written by Hilary Spurling, which I am definitely enjoying as well.  Her life is really interesting and I am so thankful that I found this home and this internship.

I've learned some more about the Greenbriar Valley, such as why there is spotty cell service.  Near Hillsboro, in Green Bank, is the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.  Apparently it is the world's largets fully steerable radio telescope.  Now I don't know what that even means, but I do know that because of it, cell towers are not allowed to be installed within a certain amount of miles.  It's a radio dead zone or something and that is why there is no service.  Rumor has it that if you live next to this Observatory, you can't have as much as a microwave because of the waves it sends out.  Also, if you tour it (its free, so I might go in the future) you can't use a digital camera because of the "radio pollution that can ruin astronomers' data."  Ridiculous.  Another thing I learned about this wonderfully modern area is that jets from the base at Virginia Beach like to buzz Hillsboro and the surrounding communities.  Monday alone, they buzzed the area 7 times.  The first time I heard it, last Saturday when I was alone at the PSB Birthplace, I thought the sky was falling, like Chicken Little style.  A large storm was supposed to be coming through about that time and I flipped out.  I ran to the window and frantically searched for an signs of movement from the outside in case the rapture had actually come.  Then I realized I was being a total moron.  But the jets do fly around the area about twice a day, during the week.

Last night I went to an open house at the Briar Patch Farm next to the PSB Birthplace.  Sue and Jay invited me and as soon as I got their, Ginger, the super nice hippie librarian, introduced me to a bunch of people.  I met a really nice girl named Cynthia that I seemed to entertain with my excitement at the happenings around me.  There were five guys playing guitars and a guy with a fiddle and another with a harmonica.  They weren't a band, just a bunch of dudes that all like jamming together.  I got overly excited when a guy showed up with a standing base.  Cynthia must have thought I was some kind of city folk that had never seen one before, but really I was just excited that such an extensive jam session was happening in the middle of some farm land.  I then made a remark that I was excited so many hippies were there (because there were, in fact, a lot of hippies at this open house).  And again the girl thought I was semi-crazy.  But seriously there were a lot of hippies.  The guys who started the farm had previously been VISTAs and started the farm to be able to provide organic produce to the community.  Super cool idea. 

From Cynthia, I learned that there is a drive-in movie theater just outside of town.  Tonight they'll be playing Inception, next week The Princess Bride, then Tangled.  Also, there's a new bar in Marlinton that has trivia during the week.  The Cranberry Wilderness has some pretty sweet waterfalls and different vistas to see the Little Levels valley.  So there is definitely a lot to do here, which was very unexpected.  Thus, I encourage people to come visit me!  I promise we won't just sit around my trailer and look at each other: there are actually things to do!

I've started working on one of the displays that I plan to put up next week.  We have in our possession lots of things that Pearl and her family brought back from China: clothes, shoes, banners, musical instruments. So I'll be creating a display of the artifacts we have from China.  Each one has it's own little story to tell, so I'm pretty excited about it.  After that I'm gonna focus on Pearl's parents, Carie and Absalom, and I've started a family tree.  I'll definitely be taking pictures and documenting my displays for future use.

How I spend my days off: with coffee, Pearl, and my gnomes.

These classy gentlemen came to town on their tractor and one of them did not feel the need to be fully clothed. 

My pet snake, and his gift to me: his skin, which is now hanging on my back porch. 

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Realizations and all that jazz

I have now lived in West Virginia a whole week!  Man, what an accomplishment.  I've started to get a little homesick, but I suppose that's because without cell service or internet, I don't have much connection with the outside world and I haven't socialized too much since I've been up here.  On the positive side, I am definitely diggin this area of West Virginia, known as the Little Levels.  The mountains are amazing and there are trails everywhere.  It reminds me a lot of Ohio.  Here, the fresh-cut grass smells like Ohio and when the breeze comes through the trees, it feels like Ohio.  Not to mention that my landlords remind me of an aunt and uncle in Ohio.  Other than those things, West Virginia is pretty Southern.  The natives (people who have lived here all their lives) have a bit of a southern drawl.  Everything moves a little slower in the service industry here - waitresses will get to you when they get to you, handymen show up when they can, if they want to, who knows when the grass is gonna get mowed.  It's a weird feeling when a place is both Southern and Northern.  I suppose that's why I like it here, because I'm both Southern and Northern.

I realized this morning that I have a lot more in common with Pearl Buck than I thought.  She was born in America, but moved to China as an infant.  She only came back to the US for short visits during the first 40 years of her life, after which she moved back permanently.  Growing up she didn't feel Chinese because of her blonde hair and unbound feet.  When she moved back to the US, she didn't feel quite American because her Chinese upbringing was totally different than that of an American upbringing.  She felt both Chinese and American, and at the same time she didn't feel a total connection to both "homes."  In this, I feel linked to Pearl.  I've lived half my life in Ohio and half in Georgia.  Even though I have strong connections to both, neither feels quite like home.  People ask me where I'm from and I say Georgia, but I don't have an accent because I grew up in Ohio. Or I say Ohio, but my parents live in Georgia and I went to school there.  I guess I always took for granted the concept of "home" and now I'm not quite sure what to think.

In other news, I have a pet.  It's a black snake that lives under my trailer.  I saw him the other day and in front of my eyes (I have the best timing ever) he shed his skin.  So now I have a 3 foot long snake skin on my back porch.  I think it's awesome, but that's because I'm weird and I'm a tomboy and kind of like snakes.  Sue told me that once they had a snake inside their house, living in the cupboards in the kitchen.  That I would NOT be okay with.  I have many other pets at the trailer.  Wasps, spiders, flies, bees, anything and everything that crawls and is creepy.  Yesterday alone I killed seven wasps and two spiders.  I get a weird high when I kill bugs - after smashing an insect into gooey pieces, I fell like I can take on the world.  I feel bad for Meghan and Viviana because their heroic bug killer no longer lives with them.  (hint: I was their heroic bug killer).

Two of my brothers are coming to visit this weekend for Memorial Day.  I believe we'll be doing some hiking in the Cranberry Wilderness.  Maybe we'll come across a bear or two.  I'm pretty excited to see them and explore more of the area.

Work has been really sloooooow.  Three people came to visit on Saturday.  It bums me out that people don't know about this place, or even who Pearl is.  If you would have asked me a month ago who she was, I wouldn't have been able to tell you.  I love the fact that I'm constantly learning: about Pearl and her family and Chinese culture.  Things I never thought I would want, or need, to learn about I now can't stop reading about.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Hipsters

I wasn't sure how often I wanted to update this thing, but with little contact to the outside world, due to me being in a third world country, I thought what the hell and I decided to write again.  My first day on the job went pretty well.  I got a more detailed tour of the house and went on the "official" tour with Tim and some visitors.  I feel like I know a lot more about the house now, but not quite enough to give my own tour.  Tim told me that I kind of have free reign over what I want to do.  A couple of days a week, I'll be giving tours.  But with about 8 visitors a day, I won't be too busy with that.  On top of tours, Tim wants me to help spruce up the place.  Which means I get to organize and create my own displays in different rooms to highlight pretty much whatever I want.  You should be jealous.  I got to poke around in all the rooms, look in drawers, open things that visitors can't.  I got to go into the attic and for a moment I thought I was gonna be locked up there and eaten by some weird creature.  I watch to many horror movies.  As it turns out, there are a million hats in the house.  Hats from the time period, replicas, fugly hats, donated hats.  So I'm pretty sure I'll be doing a hat thing at some point.  Another idea is to highlight the community and showcase Hillsboro and the surrounding land through the years.  We have in our possession the first telephone that ever came to Hillsboro (the man was so excited by the telephone that when he bought it he forgot that someone else has to have a telephone for it to actually work) and also one of the first chain stitch sewing machines (don't worry, I don't know what that means either) but it was invented by a guy from Mill Point, WV.  We also have an absurd amount of documents saved from the beginning of the museum in the 70s and it's kind of a mess, so I'll be working on organizing the office and whatnot. Apparently Tim called my college professor and she told him that I don't need much guidance and like to do things on my own.  So he told me I get to do pretty much whatever I want (hence I'm writing this at work).
Here's your freaking enter button, Justin.
Before work yesterday, I went to the library (voted the best rural library in 2003 - not kidding) to get a card so I can start getting books and whatever and Sue was there and introduced me to the librarian Ginger, and her Americorps VISTA volunteer MeriBeth.  They were both super friendly and helpful and invited me to a bunch of community events happening over the next week.  So I have a lot to read and a lot to do.  Then yesterday after work, I went to the Greenbriar River Trail, which follows where the old railroad went along the Greenbriar.  It's really pretty and maybe it'll encourage me to start running.  Then I checked my email to find that another VISTA girl, Emily who had worked for the museum before me, invited me to a party at her house in Marlinton.  I show up and.....hipsters.  Somehow, I have no idea how, but the hipsters found me.  Then I realized that they were all VISTA kids, meaning they had at least a 4 year degree and were probably well-to-do and were interested in helping the poor and living in the mountains.  So of course there would be hipsters here.  They seem more like hippie hipsters than stick-up-their-ass, I'm-better-than-you, obscure music loving hipsters.  Although they were confused when I said I wasn't a VISTA volunteer.  They didn't think it was possible to be just an intern.  Whatevs.  They invited me to a bunch of stuff around the area, so I approve of these hipsters.
 More carpet woes.  The new carpet came and it was damaged too.  So the carpet guy said he has enough to do my bedroom and then he'll try to piece together the rest of the two damaged carpets to finish the other bedroom and the living room.  At this point, I don't care about the smoke smell, I just want to move in!  Tim said they found me a bed somewhere and he'll try to deliver it today.  Then he asked if I wanted a dresser, to which I responded sure if there was one available, if not no problem.  To which he responded, I can take one out the the museum.  lol  Not all the furniture is authentic of course, so I can take a donated one if I wanted.  awesome.
Well, fudge, I rambled again.  My apologies. I just thought some of this was funny and since I can't call anyone to tell them my stories, you gonna have to read em.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Mountain driving


After a lovely visit with some good friends of mine in Greenville, South Carolina, I finally began my journey to West Virginia on May 19.  My car was busting at the seems with all of my belongings.  Seriously, not a spare inch of space was available for anything extra.  The drive was smooth: no problems, no traffic, no weather.  I wanted to make a detour through Blackburg, VA to see Virginia Tech.  It wasn't far off my course and I was interested in finding the building where the shootings took place on April 17, 2007.  The campus was beautiful: all the buildings are made of stone and look like Scottish castles, the horizon is full of mountains on all sides.  I found Norris Hall only to find that there was no memorial outside.  One man happily invited me inside to take a look around, but I was too freaked out (not by him, but by the building itself), so I went back to my car.  My handy GPS (which had gotten me off track twice already) gave me some directions that claimed were faster, or rather more direct.  Stupid me didn't put it together that more direct in the mountains is not in fact faster.  My GPS took me to the top of a mountain when the road decided to stop being paved and I was on gravel.  Gravel alone would have been fine, but then the houses decided to stop being built.  Then a creek decided to travel back and forth across the road and create canyons that my poor weighed down Camry had to ford.  Needless to say, I thought I was gonna die.  One pop of a tire and I would be stranded for a loooong time.  No cell service, no doors to knock on, no passing cars.  My hands were so tight on that steering wheel that they are sore today and my teeth were clenched so hard that I'm gonna have to get dentures soon.  Moral of the story: don't trust your GPS.  Although I did have some great views and I found some really cool mountain towns and I know where some awesome trails are.  So I finally find pavement again and I get to West Virginia!  then back into Virginia.  then West Virginia!  then back into Virginia.  Then finally permanently back into West Virginia!  I get into Pocahontas County (that's correct.  I live in Pocahontas County) and finally a sign for Hillsboro!  To my surprise, there is a gas station ($4.09/gallon) and some other interesting looking establishments.  I stop by the museum to meet Tim, the director, and he gives me a quick tour.  The house is amazing and has a lot of the original furniture, which makes it even cooler.  Then I attempt to find my new home (for now).  Pause story.  One of the board members at the museum, Sue, offered free housing to the summer intern.  She and her husband own a house on 11 acres in Hillsboro and there is also a trailer on the property that is usually rented out, but as luck would have it, it was available.  Unfortunately, the previous tenants were smokers and the carpet stinks and  Sue wanted it replaced before I arrived.  Well things work a little differently in the mountains, kind of like how they work down south: everything is a little slower, things will get done, but you're never sure when or what kind of quality.  Anyways, the carpet was ordered, then went missing and is now late.  So I can't move into the trailer until Saturday...at the earliest.  So I'm staying in Sue's house until the carpet is finished.  Luckily for me, Sue and her husband Jay are super nice and friendly and definitely my kinda people.  I immediately felt comfortable with them; they even reminded me of my aunt and uncle in Ohio.  They took me out to dinner to the only restaurant in town: Pretty Penny Cafe.  A country band (Girls, Guns, & Glory) from Boston (weird right?) happened to be playing and they weren't all that bad.  I got to unload some of my stuff into the trailer's kitchen, so that I didn't have to keep hauling around four tons of my stuff in my car.  Got to watch the season finale of The Office (Jim is totally gonna be manager) and then off to bed.  I work up this morning ready to get to the museum for my first day when Tim called Sue's phone (my phone doesn't have service in the entire state so far) to tell me that he had a meeting and I didn't have to go to work til 12.  And that's where I'm at right now.  With a couple extra hours on my hands I thought I'd try out the new blog thing.  I realize I rambled on and on about nothing in particular and I didn't even have any witty comments, and for that I apologize.  I promise to be better next time.  I've already heard that county meetings are a riot, so I'm assuming that it's like Stars Hollow's meetings on Gilmore Girls.  So I definitely plan on attending a couple.  Once I get unpacked in the trailer and figure out where all my stuff is, I'll upload some pictures.



Norris Hall, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA


This is my place of work. 

This is the view from the parking lot.  That's right.  Be jealous.

My drive to work everyday looks like this.