ktravula – a travelogue!

Browsing the archives for the Fun category.

End of Term

With my final examination completed this afternoon, I am finally done with the Fall Semester, and the holiday for me officially begins. Let me tell you a little about the exam. It was a test of everything we have done in the Linguistics class, and it lasted an hour, forty minutes, even though I finished before the set time. The notable thing was that the professor allowed us to bring notes into the examination hall, as long as it was on only one side of a blank sheet, and handwritten. It was a way, I guess, to make sure that everyone has a chance to succeed.

Many other changes are taking place around the campus. It is thinning out, and in a few days, the once bubbling mini-town that is campus will become an almost ghost town. Chris, my housemate has already packed his bags and is heading home. Ben, the rugged one, will be here for a little while more, but he will also eventually leave, and I will have the whole apartment all to myself. I may have to go buy my own christmas tree… Audrey the French is leaving. Her academic exchange programme was supposed to last one semester, and is now over. We are organizing a party for her at the apartment on Friday, which should be fun. She was such a nice company, fun, adorable and lively, although I haven’t seen her for a while in the last three weeks because of the hectic nature of that time of the semester. Also leaving are other international students from France who came on the same programme as Audrey. They all added colour in some way to the semester.

My most memorable times with Audrey included a long walk around Chicago in November while we were trying to locate our hostel much without luck. Until then, I had never seen her cute Frenchie self so upset by anything. And even though we all tried to maintain a sense of balance as frustration grew on us and the maps refused to point us in the right direction, when we stood at the bridge across Michigan Avenue and thought of how to proceed, I thought I saw her really pissed off, especially since we didn’t seem to understand each other’s words and motives. Eventually, her phone came to the rescue and we found out that we had just walked past the HI Chicago building by just one block. I also remember one of the many discussions we had in Chicago about breastfeeding (she was thoroughly against it, believing that it is “disgusting” to have anything come out of her breasts for anyone to drink), religion (doesn’t believe in it, rationalizing that there is too much wickedness in the world to believe in a good and kind God), and homosexuality (doesn’t have anything against it, since humans all have the right to express whatever they are), and how opposed to Reham she was every time the conversations took place. “As soon as I have a baby,” Audrey always said, “I will spend all my nights in bed, sleeping while my husband will feed the baby whenever it cries. I carried the baby for nine months, after all, and I’m not about to lose my sleep for anybody.”

She was fun.

The semester was fun. I hope the next one is just as fantastic.

Why Fulbright?

The heaviness on my person since I returned from Washington DC on Monday, I have realized, has to do with more than just my delirious nostalgia for the taste of a certain thrill and an unexplainable positive strangeness that dominated that trip to the East. It could easily have been because of the food, because it was the one thing that almost equally matched the large number of workshop sessions that followed each other one after the other, sometimes without much of a breathing space. We got out of one conference workshop session and we hopped right into another. It was mostly worth it, but it will take the whole of my holiday to truly catch up with the details of all that we were taught. The food however was a different matter. They were diverse as they were elaborate, and I left that hotel on Sunday feeling that I’d committed an unforgivable sin of indulgence – as my mum would have called it. In any case, it was scarcely two hours after then before I entered another cycle of feeding, this time in the neighbouring state of Maryland, and the foods (most of it) were Nigerian for a change.

Fried eggs, bread, pringles, mangoes, (green) tea, orange juice…

and then later in the evening: pounded yam, rice, beans (note: not baked beans or anything American, but Naija style cooking), snails, cow leg and other beef parts in pepper sauce, vegetable soup, Hennessey cognac, and finally some red Malbec Argentinian wine…

I should probably confess that I have never ever eaten this much food in one day. On the one hand, it could be some form of indulgence which I immediately justified from previous frustrations with pizza and long queues at pastries food stands. On the other hand, it just was a very convenient acquiescence to the warmth of my Nigerian hosts who were more than happy to have me around. I felt loved.

It is in returning to my base now that the value of those warm connections are making their presence felt on my wandering self. But again, more than just the thrill, I have been very humbled by the responsibilities the Fulbright tag, and slightly worried that I may have been irreparably changed by the week-long indulgence in a way that I might not yet recognize. Oh well, give me another week or two in this now gradually emptying University campus and I will regain my required pungency. Until then, let us drink to life, and to hope for the parts of the world where there is none. And to peace and understanding – no matter how elusive it gets. Yea, it’s still me speaking. I told you that I’ve changed. Where did the old cynical travula go? I too have no idea.

G is for Goodbye

Oh no, not another alphabetic title, you say! Well, my time in this enchanting city is now over. In less than eight hours from this moment, I will be entering another mode of transportation out of the District of Columbia.

We have just had a wonderful session of international dancing in the ballroom of our wonderful hotel…

We have also been given certificates of participation, and the shirt pins that will mark us from now on as “Fulbright Fellows” for the rest of our lives.

We have shed our tears and said our goodbyes. For many of us going back to different parts of the country, we would not be seeing each other again until we return home. But what a great time we had.

The photo was taken at the base of the Washington Monument

350 At The White House

We went back to the White House today, this time to see the North side of the building. And it was there where we saw the 350 volunteers with placards demonstrating in front of the gate – under the watch of one police car – to petition the President of the United States to pay more attention to climate change, and to do the right thing at Copenhagen, in Denmark, where the conference on climate change would take place.

On the 350 Website, the mission states that “350.org is an international campaign dedicated to building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis–the solutions that science and justice demand.”

It continues: “Our focus is on the number 350–as in parts per million, the level scientists have identified as the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere. But 350 is more than a number–it’s a symbol of where we need to head as a planet.

To tackle climate change we need to move quickly, and we need to act in unison—and 2009 will be an absolutely crucial year. This December, world leaders will meet in Copenhagen, Denmark to craft a new global treaty on cutting emissions. The problem is, the treaty currently on the table doesn’t meet the severity of the climate crisis—it doesn’t pass the 350 test.”

Anyway, it was night and freezing, and they had been there in front of the White House since the day began, calling attention and taking pictures to be sent all over the world. Nothing doing, we joined them holding candles and taking pictures with the 350 sign held up high. Here’s the freedom to assemble and protest as guaranteed under the US constitution, but is not afforded to millions of citizens in many around the world. Here was the seat of power, and yet here were citizens, making their presence with simple, dignified protests and demonstrations on climate change. We shared stories with them, exchanged contacts and ideas, and then made our way back home, again on foot in the freezing weather, but feeling much, much pleased.

You may f ollow 350 on Twitter.

The Nation’s Capital

Just photos… all taken on my first day in Washington District of Colombia. Those familiar with the famous landmarks in the city would recognize the Capitol (which houses both legislative houses of the country, and in front of which each new president takes his oath of office), the Lincoln Memorial (which houses a larger than life marble structure of President Lincoln, and in front of which Reverend Martin Luther King delivered his I Have A Dream speech), the Washington Monument (which was at one time the tallest structure in the whole world before being overtaken by the Eiffel Tower in France and later the St. Louis Gateway Arch among others. Now, it’s just the tallest structure in DC), and the White House which houses the president.

The rest were random shots taken on the streets as I walked along. Around the Washington Monument is a fountain which is surrounded by walls that bear the name of each of the fifty states of the country. I am guessing that this was where Nigeria got its own idea for a “Unity Fountain” in Abuja that bears the name of all the states in the country. Or else, maybe the Americans “stole” our own idea. Hmm. No, I won’t bet on this one.

There were scores and scores of beautiful buildings, government houses and cathedrals along the way which I couldn’t shoot for lack of time. There is also the President Jefferson Memorial somewhere close, but I couldn’t see that either.

One more notable thing about this capital city is the abundance of aircrafts in the sky. From the hotel to the Lincoln Memorial, I counted more than ten aircrafts either flying towards where I suspect the airport to be, or hovering around the city like the few military helicopters that I saw.

The design of the city places each notable monument or memorial at very accessible points. There is certainly an order to this city. And if there is a chance in the next couple of days, and we get to go out for sightseeing, I will definitely take more pictures. I was speaking with a French FLTA earlier today who told me of her surprise and happiness that Washington DC was planned and designed by a French man. “Hmm, I see,” I said. “The French seem to have their hands in everything.”

PS: I have noticed that all the public structures looked really nicer at night. You will see it too in the last pictures of the Monument and the Capitol. It is because of a set of powerful lights placed in vantage points around them that make them look so bright against the background of the night. It’s definitely a sight to see.

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