Shoestring wanderlust

Our tickets to Peru have been purchased!  We are arriving August 18th in Lima and then we will be flying out of Santiago October 7th.  I have purchased the first three levels of Rosetta Stone and all our South American shoestring travel books arrived a few days ago.  We're budgeting $10-$50 per person per day and I think we'll make it back with enough money for a security deposit on a new apartment (that we don't have yet) and some foodstuffs until we start our new jobs (that we also don't have yet).  

It seems a little reckless sometimes when I think about it, but it's also kind of ridiculous to expect to be able to find a job now that doesn't start until October.  I'm hoping that I can just show up at some inner-city early childhood program, mention that I've encountered children before and know CPR, and have a job.  My absolute last resort is nannying, though in all honesty it's probably generally more lucrative than a job in a school to begin with.

And so now I wait.  I began painting portraits of the more Germanic versions of my favorite fairy tale characters (I'm laboring over what I'm hoping will be a more sympathetic Rumplestilskin.. is it just me, or does he sort of get screwed over in that story?) and researching their origins.  The most widespread of the classic princess tale seems to be Cinderella, though across cultures and centuries, we've still been fed the most watered down, sugar-coated version possible.  From the most inane and only slightly scandalous discrepancies (in the French oral tradition, fur and glass are almost indiscernible, but they go with glass because a Prince trying to find the perfect fit of a fur slipper on every maiden in the land makes him seem somewhat less.. noble) to much more disturbing details (the wicked step-sisters hack off their toes and heels to fit in the shoe and later have their eyes pecked out by birds for their wickedness) to the absurd (in China, the fairy godmother is a giant talking fish) the most boring is the Disney version.  It seems bestiality, mutilation, and incest are hardly uncommon themes, and unlike the Scandinavian versions (which sought to frighten children into desirable behavior) most of these tales were for adult men in seedy taverns.  

My favorite so far has been Sleeping Beauty.  In an early version, she doesn't get pricked by a spindle but rather gets a piece of flax lodged under her fingernail.  When the prince finds her sleeping, he doesn't nobly awaken her with a chaste and dutiful kiss but simply is so "overcome by her beauty" that he beds her, which of course does not awaken her as the flax is still beneath her nail.  So, he leaves.  She then becomes pregnant and gives birth to his twins while comatose, who eventually suck the flax out while searching for milk.  She wakes, and presumably has a lot of questions for the prince who knocked her up, only he is in his other kingdom with his wife.  The end.

Rumplestilskin is hardly a disappointment as well-- the little man throws his tantrum as we've all learned, only he either rips himself in half or lodges himself in the Queen's vagina, depending on the translation.