Rock the Vote!

Everyone vote for Molly in the annual CGE photo contest! Follow the link, "Like" the window photo and repost! You're the best!


If you really love us, you'll also repost it and message all of your friends individually, since that seems to work the best. Some dude took a picture of a topless white guy in Africa, and it's winning somehow. We can't let this stand. 

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151545609575317&set=a.10151545608815317.840071.93007475316&type=1&theater

So . . .

This happened.

Photo Contest within a Photo Contest

Molly is applying for a photo contest! The Center for Global Education, the organization where we are currently working, has an annual photo contest for alums from the semester programs and travel seminars. The winner gets a $150 Fair Trade gift certificate, and even though we work for the organization, Molly can still apply since she is a graduate of the Central America program. We're pretty sure the voting will be slightly biased against Molly - because who wants to give the first place prize to someone who is an insider? There could be a riot! So, we need YOU to vote on which photo could be so irresistibly beautiful that they couldn't not give at least one of the prizes to Miss Molly Bryant. Leave your vote in the comments section!

Favricio, my host brother, in Miraflor, Nicaragua

Window in Chichicastenango, Guatemala

View from the bell tower in Granada, Nicaragua 

Woman at Lake Atitlan, Guatemala

Bird's eye view of Granada, Nicaragua

My host dad and Mayan priest performing a ceremony in Cantel, Guatemala

Please leave a comment with your vote for the winning photo! Thank you!

A Blog Post About Nothing

I'll be frank.

As a sometime fan of popular culture, it's a real black eye for me that, as of a year and a half ago, I had seen only the occasional rerun of Seinfeld on late night TV. I always enjoyed the show when it was on, though it always seemed as though I only half-understood and could only half-laugh at it, like I was on the outside of some huge decade-long inside joke.

But then came the woman that changed my life, in oh so many ways. She took me to Ecuador, then Mexico, but most of all, she led me to this wonderful show about nothing, a show that had been staring me in the face for most of my life. Before we moved to Ecuador, we downloaded seasons six and seven and watched them, over and over and over - watched them to death, really, or what surely would be death for any other series.

It's a little pathetic, I realize, that having steady access to the internet was one of the major pluses of us coming here to Mexico, and even a little more pathetic that being able to watch the remaining seven seasons of the show was one of the major pluses of having steady access to the internet. Seinfeld was our refuge after a long day of work, a distraction from the stress, our release from the complaints of a bunch of childish college kids. The irony, of course, is that the entire show is comprised of the complaints of four childish thirtysomethings.

In a very real way, the world makes more sense now: "No soup for you!", "Yada yada yada," low talkers, sidlers, high talkers, shrinkage, the puffy shirt, cigar store Indians, Bosco, Jon Voight, the Bro, man hands, jimmy legs, Festivus, "Hello . . . Newman," "Hellooooooo! La la la," the urban sombrero. I'm sure I've encountered thousands of references to Seinfeld up until the past few months, but I'm determined never to miss one again.

The show is so funny, it almost makes me wish for a life of meaningless relationships, wisecracks, superficiality, and pettiness. Almost.

People Can Be Surprising: An Exercise in Cooperative Creative Speaking

An Exercise in Cooperative Creative Speaking Where One Person Knows That It Is Happening And The Other Does Not: Round One, A Glimpse Into A Saturday Night In The Bryant-Gentzler Household

"What should we write about?" - Molly
"I think it should start, 'People can be surprising!'" - Ryan
"What does that mean?" - Molly
"It just means that something interesting is coming." - Ryan

"People can be surprising . . . " - Molly
"When you least expect it . . ." - Ryan
"They will reach out and touch you. . . " - Molly
"Often when you are least expecting it . . ." - Ryan
"They will reach out and touch you . . . " - Molly

"Puppies make the world go 'round . . . " - Molly
"In both a literal and figurative sense . . .  The paws of millions of puppies stepping in unison - wait, scratch that - everyone knows that the paws of millions of puppies stepping in unison in the same direction create the revolutions . . . " - Ryan
"Of our time. Their perseverance and generosity and even their aerodynamic, waggly tails bring forth the magnetism and hope of future generations . . . " - Molly
"But did you also know that puppies are cute? and cuddly? Both in the USA and outside of it. In other countries that you haven't even been to, yet. Did you?" - Ryan
"Did you?" - Molly

Honeycake & Co.

My amazingly talented and creative sister, Bethanie, has finally started her own business on Etsy! It's called Honeycake & Co. For years she has been making felt animal portraits, felt dolls and stuffed animals, and many other awesomely beautiful creations. She hand-stitches all of her products and uses felt made out of recycled plastic bottles. She can make just about anything you could ever want. Check it out! http://www.etsy.com/shop/honeycakeandco

Also, take a look at her Facebook page if you get chance and "like" it! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Honeycake-Co/273194672751741

Nacho Typical Wedding

This is not, nor will ever be, a "wedding blog." It's not who I am - and clearly not who Ryan is. Although, I have to admit that I sometimes think about how awesome of a wedding blogger I could be. I love crafts and I love writing and I love sharing ideas about how to do things cheaply and beautifully. The pull may not be very strong, but embarrassingly enough, it is there . . . even if it is just a slight tug. Mostly I just want to talk crafts.

Ryan and I have been engaged since June and won't be walking down the aisle, so to speak, until October. Our engagement is long, but since we are strapped for cash, it gives us plenty of time to make our wedding. And with that long period of time to mull over ideas, decide on them, change them, search for deals and tediously make every detail of the wedding, we have become quite the creative ones. Even if  we had $10,000 to spend (waste?) on a wedding, there is not a chance in hell that we would. It's the principle, man.

So we are planning the cheapest, most personal, most Ryan and Molly wedding of all time. Get ready.


We are currently in the midst of several projects aimed at keeping these nuptials within the parameters that we decided on- 1) Very "Us." 2) As inexpensive as possible without eloping. 3) Not hipster. Therefore, our apartment is cluttered with scraps of book pages, paints, crayons, scissors, glue, thread, and other materials that may or may not make their way to Oklahoma in the fall. I'm teaching myself to knit in the hopes of making Ryan and my brother-in-laws' autumnal colored, handmade, knit ties. We'll see. I have my doubts, but I could surprise myself. My amazingly talented sister and brother-in-law are our very own graphic designers who are making the invitations of the century. My Mom and grandma are growing the flowers.

The engagement ring - meaning the second ring, not the first ring which was $8 from a market in Cuenca - is made of recycled material from a local jeweler in Maine with a gorgeous pearl in the middle and cost about one-twentieth or less than the normal price of an engagement ring. The band may be my next-door-neighbor-growing-up's kickass Western Swing band - check out The Hot Club of Cowtown!

Oh, and our favorite author is writing us something specifically for the wedding.

And there will be pizza and salads with homemade dressing. And Weber's root beer bottled for us. And dark beer. And pumpkin beer. AND PIES. So many pies.

I don't get to dish these details to my besties back in the States, and it feels a little sad to be so far away from my girls (woop! woop!) who I would normally be telling all the annoying details to. So, if this is too much like every other 20-something who is getting married and acts like she's the only one on earth who is planning a wedding, then please, please, I beg of you, tell me, and I will never speak of this again on Our Vagrant Life.