ktravula – a travelogue!

Protected: Saving the Words

This content is password-protected. To view it, please enter the password below.

Protected: Saving the Words was published on November 14th, 2010, with the tags , , , , , under the Academic, adventures, Opinion, Soliloquy category. There are currently Enter your password to view comments. on this article so far.

Accents

Watch this:

Accents was published on October 5th, 2010, with the tags , , , , under the Fun category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

El Mariachi

This was one of the songs that made me want to learn Spanish…

It’s from the movie Desperados, featuring Antonio Banderas, Steve Buscemi and the firector Quentin Tarantino himself. Lovely song.

El Mariachi was published on September 27th, 2010, with the tags , , , , , under the Art, Fun category. There are currently 1 comment on this article so far.

On Wednesday

Silence all around the campus, three young men and a girl pace around the parking lot opposite the Arts Theatre, sharing jokes and catching up on old times. Amidst occasional passage of cars between them and the Theatre across the road, there were smiles and jabs. They were young, and happy.

Then two girls walk by. One of them was white, possibly American. He had been told that a few American students might have arrived on this campus for a few weeks of study. Could these be some of them? The one in front – if American – would not be older than twenty years. She had dark shades on. The other was black but could also be foreign going by their pesky walk and general attitude to the campus environment.

“Oyinbo, bawo ni?” Segun quipped as they walked by, half smiling but not totally with an expectation of a fast informed response.
“Hey Dudu, how are you too?” She responded, just as quickly, pronouncing the dudu like doo-doo. And she kept walking, perhaps even giggling with her friends as she went away.

She had won. It was too sudden for Segun to grasp, and the girl had already gone too far from him to hear whatever he had to come up with afterwards. “Touche,” someone said, laughing, and it was one of those moments of fun enlightenment.

His friends could only gape, giggle and to laugh at their own errant selves, and the young quick-witted foreign student now forever etched in their memory.

On Wednesday was published on June 18th, 2010, with the tags , , , , , under the adventures, Observations category. There are currently 2 comments on this article so far.

Adventures in Paris

So I was in France, but only for a few hours as well. No, I didn’t visit the Eiffel Tower. (I at least said “Bonjour” and “Au revoir” to some woman, and she smiled back if only for a second. That should count for something.) Commuting from one part of the Charles De Gaulle airport to another, I couldn’t help but notice a very wide range of African clothings worn by the Africans and non-Africans moving through the airport. It gave a beautiful view of a colourful town. It was the first airport I’d been that had such array of cultural attires. American airports have everyone in jeans, tops and sneakers, or in jackets, ties and boots. No variety. Go to France and see a real multicultural environment. Well, not totally: everyone there spoke French. But in dressing, they all seemed to assert their identity, and I felt a little out of place wearing my SIUE sweat shirt.

Buying at airports have never always been my thing, but I saw a couple of nice “I was in France” t-shirts in the lounge and I tried to buy them. The conversation that ensued went somewhat like this:

Me (approaching the empty counter. It was about 5.40am, French time): Hellooo. Who’s here?

About two people who were already (window) shopping in the open shop looked at me for a brief second, and looked away.

Me: I’d like to buy a few of these. Who’s in charge?

Some young woman then came forward from the corner. She spoke some French that I couldn’t comprehend.

Me: Bonjour.

She speaks some more French.

Me: Erm, sorry. I don’t speak that much French. Do you speak English?

She: Yes.

There is something innately beautiful in a French person speaking the English language. I was mesmerized.

Me: Good. I’d like to take this, and this. How much are they?

She: So-and-so euros.

Me: Euros?

She: Yes.

Me: Do you accept dollars?

She: Yes.

Me: Alright, here is a hundred.

She: Oh, I’m sorry, we don’t have change for this.

Sigh.

She: If you’d go down that hall, you could get it changed.

I was too tired from the previous trip, and I didn’t want to make any more efforts so I said no.

Me: Do you take cards?

She: Yes.

Me: Good. Have this.

She collects it and swipes it on the machine.

She: It doesn’t work.

I gave up. I know I shouldn’t have expected an American card to work in a European country without first having directed it to by the issuing bank. The disappointment from the encounter was not only that I couldn’t buy some fancy French clothes and perfumes as gifts, but that I couldn’t stay long enough to hear much of that French English of hers. Super, I tell you.

Adventures in Paris was published on May 18th, 2010, with the tags , , , , , , under the adventures, Fun, Observations category. There are currently 1 comment on this article so far.