What would you like to know about me? I was born and raised on New York's Upper West Side. Don't ask me how I figured out that civilization extended out beyond the Hudson.

My name is Ithamar, and the html and code and layout here are not my own. My girlfriend and love, Haldis, created them, but the words and thoughts are mine. I also selected the graphic for the logo. I've been told that there is not much here yet. This feels odd since I can always find something to say or write.

When I was a junior in high school, I read about Deep Springs College and was captivated. Against the wishes of my parents, I decided to apply and much to their astonishment and my own, got accepted. Deep Springs has only twenty-six students enrolled at a time. Students decide what will be taught and the college is also a working ranch with the students spending a fair amount of their time doing chores.

For someone who grew up in the city, this was quite a change. I had never been around large animals, and some jobs, such as butchering animals were simply beyond me. I did work in the garden one term and in the office another term, but most of my time I was on general work detail. I enjoyed reading the classics, and my favorite subject was art appreciation.

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The most challenging part of life at Deep Springs was learning to live with people very different from myself. Well that is almost everybody in the world, though my landlord, Jacob, says I am not as unique as I think I am. My dorm mates came from all over the world. We had different interests and very different ideas about what was important, outside of wanting to do well in school which is something you can't get out of you after twelve years of being an academic consumer, but there is a world outside of ambition and that was the world we learned to explore together, and the world I am still exploring.

I finished at Deep Springs not knowing what I wanted to do. I knew I had to finish getting a bachelors, but I did not want to return to New York. One of my classmates sold me a truck, and I drove east. I sometimes did odd jobs and stayed in a town for a while and tried to rent a room or an apartment. I didn't mind working but was surprised at how little voice and diginity there is for low wage work, when the same work in college was considered important. I decided I would major in either English or literature and kept a journal.

I reached Iowa City in early May of this year and because I was broke lived out of my truck. This was not as bad as it sounds. I rented a mailbox and established in-state residence. I also had applied to go to school again. I was lucky enough to land a summer custodian's job and after a fight with a colleague who did not know the meaning of doing decent work and being a colleague, I found myself boarding at Dr.Jacob Bechstien's house.

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Somewhere in the midst of all this, I met Dr. Bechstien's niece, Haldis. We became not only friends, but lovers. We still are even though she must go east to Dartmouth this fall to start work on a degree in engineering science. Haldis is practical and technically inclined. She does not demand stupid macho tricks and she understands some of the things I've studied and believe. With Haldis, I learn some of the way women think and feel. They are much fussier about practical things. This is comforting at times and utterly crazy making at other times.

Dr. Bechstien considers me naively classical and old fashioned. He has tried to introduce me to modern and transgressive literature and film. I don't like all of what I see. Neither does Haldis. Sometimes I suggest books for Haldis to read. Sometimes she and Dr. Bechstien suggest things. Haldis has tried to teach me html code, but so far, all I can do is fill in paragraphs. She says pages are supposed to have guestbooks, counters, etc... The next page we'll probably add to this site (and it is we because I can't fully code yet.) is a pseudoblog. I'm not sure what else I want besides that. If this is my page, I'm not sure I even want competition graphics on it. You'll see a couple of those' on Haldis' page. It is bad enough that I have to put up with my free provider's advertisements. This page is going to grow very slowly.

Ithamar K. Cardozo
ithamar@marbella.to
9/12/03

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