ktravula – a travelogue!

Browsing ktravula – a travelogue! blog archives for February, 2010.

More from the Mardi Gras

Here are some more pictures from the Mardi Gras, St. Louis that ended on Tuesday. Here’re are also a few of my observations from the event.

A disorientatingly large crowd.
Unexplainably expensive drinks.
(Eventually) drunk boys and girls from all over the world.
ATM machines that charged $8 on every transaction. Absence of any topless black girls. A heavy police presence, most of who came out of the state of Missouri. One of the cops we spoke to said he had come from Chicago. A confusing labyrinth of alleys at the Soulard Street where the event took place.
Rude, drunk and aggressive boys.
Liberal Brazilian girls with names written on all part of their clothing.
Colourful beautiful costumes, and beads.
Delicious turkey legs.
Somebody that looked so much like Prof Wole Soyinka.
Loud music. A long unending carnival of different kinds.
ID required for all drinks bought even if said ID belonged to someone else. Patriotism: the crowd yelled “USA. USA!” when the parade of American military men marched past.
A lively carnival atmosphere. Thousands and thousands of beads thrown into the crowd.

In New Orleans, Louisiana where the celebration has its largest following in the United States, as in St. Louis Missouri where on this day private transportation was suspended for reason of order and ease of movement of scheduled large buses and the numerous visitors, the Mardi Gras is always a colourful carnival featuring a series of activities during the days preceding the so called Fat Tuesday. Before the fasting of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, it is the belief that all indulgence are in order, and that believers (since it started as a religious festival) should eat all they could. This explains the amount of drunkenness and liberal behaviour that has defined the event as a cultural identity for the season, and for the cities in which they take place annually in the United States and all over the world.

Update (Friday February 19th 2010): There is an article in today’s NEXT newspaper about the event. I wonder who wrote it.

Reacciones

I do not read nor speak Spanish much, so these don’t really count as vanity. Or maybe they do. They’re responses from students of an intermediate Spanish class who attended my talk two weeks ago. Culled from the class Facebook group, thanks to Professor Cuervo.

Fui a la presentación oral de Kola. La población de Nigeria es más que 50 millón. El tiempo en Nigeria es muy muy caliente. Kola dijo que la gente de Yoruba mira muchas películas de los estados unidos. Aprendí que cuando Kola llegó en los estados unidos él fue muy frío pero Kola llegó en agosto. También aprendí que hay poetas y cantantes en los estados unidos que son de Yoruba. – K. Mraz

Me encanta la presentación de Kola sobre la cultura de Yoruba. Fue muy interesante. Aprendí que el país de Nigeria tiene más que 500 idiomas. El idioma de Yoruba es el segundo popular de todos los idiomas en el país. Tambíen, aprendí que los raíces “ola” y “ayo” son muy popular en los nombres de la gente de Yoruba. Los raíces “ola” y “ayo” significan riqueza. – A. DeLuca

Yo fui a el evento, Cultura de Yoruba, y pense que son fue muy interesante. Aprendí que “ola” significa “riqueza” en Yoruba. Kola es el nombre del hombre de Yoruba, y su nombre significa riqueza también. Kola hablas cinco lenguas! Yoruba es en Africa y hay 15,000,000 personas que habla la lengua,Yoruba. Kola él lleva un sombrero llamó un “fila”. El dijo que el clima es muy diferente aquí. La presentación fue muy de información. – J.M. Ritter

Me gusta mucho la cultura de Yoruba. Las comidas que tuvieron para tratar fueron deliciosas. El hombre de Yoruba fue muy cómico con su presentación. Habló de cerveza y fiestas para unos minutos. También habló de la clima mucho. Dijo que el tiempo es muy diferente aquí en los estados unidos. Una amiga de él (ella vive en África) llamó por teléfono y dijo que fue muy fría en África ayer. Él dijo, “¿Que fue el tiempo?” y ella respondió, “Fue 82 grados”. Pienso que esto es muy cómico porque ella fue seria. El hombre Yoruba nos dijo que tiene miedo porque muchas personas le dicen que tiempos más frías están llegando antes de la primavera. En totalidad, su presentación fue muy interesante. – T. Dent

Fui a la presentación sobre la cultura de la Yoruba. El hombre (no recuerdo su nombre) tiene veinte y ocho años, y sabe seis lenguas, pero en su cultura hay quinientas lenguas. Hay muchas personas famosas de Yoruba como Seal, Sade Adu, Hakeem Olajuwon, y Wole Soyinka que ganó el Premio Nobel en 1986. En nombres, la palabra “riqueza” es mencionada muchos tiempos. Nosotros podemos tratar el jugo de arándanos y galletas de plátano. – L. Murphy

Old Man’s Winter Guide To Beating The Snowpocalypse Blues

This is a guest-post by the blogger Rayo from Washington DC. All I know about her is that she is Yoruba, from Nigeria, and that she once attended Howard University. She also takes some very nice pictures. You can check her blog here. I’m featuring this post because for the first time in a long time according to the news, there was snow in all the states of the United States, except Hawaii. The people in the Washington DC and East Coast area were the worst hit with many feet of snow. Rayo has humorously captured her reaction to the season in twelve short informative nuggets. Enjoy.

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In the wake of the current record-breaking winter weather in the Washington, DC, area, I decided to explore my neighborhood and assess the damages that this record-breaking snowfall has caused. Boy was I surprised when I came across Old Man Winter! This little guy hasn’t been sighted in over 110 years—since the “Snowmageddon of 1899”—so it caught me by surprise when I saw him just chilling by the side of the road a few days ago. After much coaxing (he’s camera shy), my friend and I were able to convince him to pose for some photographs as well as give us some Do’s and Don’ts for surviving the Snowpocalypse. It’s a pretty good guide, especially for those that aren’t used to so much snow.

1. DO go grocery shopping before the snowfall gets too heavy. If you don’t, you might find that when you get hungry and realize that there’s nothing in the fridge, the grocery store will be closed.

2. DO take caution when “ice-walking” more than two miles under white-out conditions to your favorite Chinese food carryout because the grocery store is closed and the carryout is the only place crazy enough to stay open. Remember that, since the sidewalks will become mountains of snow, you will have to walk on the road. Make sure you’re walking in the opposite direction of traffic. This way, you’ll know when to jump when a car is sliding towards you.

3. DO buy thick gloves and a ski mask (or thick scarf) in order to prevent your hands and face from freezing and falling off while walking in hurricane-like winter conditions.

4. DO make sure you have at least two back-up means of transportation. You might wake up and find (or not find) your car in this type of situation. Not good. You might also find that the Metro buses are either out of service or are only running on “special routes,” or that only underground train stations are open and even those stations have special delays. In short, be prepared to walk.

5. DO be patient with the public transit employees. Remember that even though you don’t have to work and you’re only on your way to a snowball fight, they have to work. Plus, there’s nothing like the comfort of feeling like you’re in a meatpacking factory.

6. DO try to make it into work at least one day during the Snowpocalypse. Although you might be annoyed to discover how many people are actually going to come into your office with complaints, do try to smile as much as possible.

7. DO NOT WEAR HEELS!!! You WILL fall! Safety before vanity. If you must wear heels or open shoes, put them in a bag and change into them when you arrive safely at your destination.

8. It’s sad that I have to say this but I just saw someone wearing a pair.…DO NOT WEAR FLIP FLOPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

9. DO invest in snow boots or shoes with good traction. There’s nothing funnier than seeing someone fall face-first in 50-something inches of snow…unless the person falling is you. Although the snow might cushion your fall, it’s still better to have not fallen at all.

10. DO attend mass snowball fights—they’re a great way to get your daily exercise; practice your war-game skills; have fun in the snow; and they also help to prevent the dreaded cabin fever.

11. DO go to the movies…FOR FREE!!! There are many websites out there that allow people to attend movie premieres for free (i.e. www.eventful.com). This way, you can get a first-hand look at new movies even before they start playing in theaters. You might have to trek though the snow to get there but if the movie is good enough (and hopefully it will be good), it’ll be worth the trek.

12. DO pay homage to your fallen comrades. Here’s to the trees and umbrellas and power lines and even cars that did not survive the hurricane-like winds and heavy snow.

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Thank you Rayo for this wonderful post.

Things To Remember

* A campus theatre workshop on campus from Friday 19th to Sunday 21.

* African Cultural Night on the night of Saturday 20th.

* The new Sentinel Nigeria Magazine debut which features some of my poems, and photography.

* Thousands of Haitian children, and helpless orphans. Yesterday, a classroom wall broke and fell on a bunch of school children killing four of them.

* A new external hard drive.

* An article for the Fulbright newsletter.

* A talk on Friday by Argentinean writer Paula Varsavsky.

* At least one article for the New York Times or the Washington Post. Or both.

* A Youtube video featuring the three-time Emmy winner Bobby Norfolk performing his story-telling.

* An exhibition of photography on campus, and at St. Louis.

* A continuation of departmental talk series: “India: A Plethora of Languages and Cultures” on Wednesday 17th February.

* A coming talk, along with Reham, to senior citizens at Edwardsville on Ibadan and Cairo, in March.

* Spring break, and a possible trip to Miami, Florida.

* More guest posts.

Black History Month – An Event

This is my 300th post.

Yesterday, I attended an event at the Liberty Middle School Auditorium a little distance from campus. Called the Lincoln School Alumni Foundation 23rd “Children of the Dream” event, it was show that featured poetry reading, dance, singing, stand-up comedy, and an extraordinary recitation performance by the famous and three-time Emmy Award-winning comedian and dramatist Bobby Norfolk. He was spectacular. I made a video from the event and will soon put it on Youtube. But here are pictures from the event.