Pretty uneventful really. I had to research the bureaucratic structure of Aikido in France, which is possible the most boring topic in human history. Fortunately, I was able to take Aikido classes with an awesome Greco-Malagasy man, Gaston Nicolessi. The paper (in French) was due on the same day as the presentation (in French). I only finished the paper at midnight the night before it was due, and had to totally BS a presentation at 8am the next morning. I got away with it by incorporating a lot of technique and not doing all that much talking.
After that, all the students from the language class got to go to Collioure, a sea side resort only a few miles from Spain. While there we took a hike along the Spanish border in the Pyrenean Mountains. At the end of the hike, I ditched the group and walked to Portbou in Spain. I got lost in a stream bed surrounded by millions of thorny plants. After escaping and nearly shredding my clothes, I ended up on the wrong side of a quarry. Rather than going back, I climbed into it and eventually worked my way to an industrial train station that stood between me and the town. I eventually found a tunnel (for cars and with no pedestrian shoulder) that went all the way under to the other side. Once there, I bought a ticket and came back.
Once back, I went with my home stay mom and two of the kids to visit her grandparents in the country. It was surprisingly fun, and they REALLY seemed to take to the fact that I am part Greek. The Grandmother even called me “The Greek”, kinda funny really. After that, I spent an awkward last few days with the family and then left for Paris. The hostel there was a piece of crap, so I spent as much time as possible sight seeing. It was hard to avoid the restaurants and cafes of Paris, but I was pretty much out of money, so I lived off of the grocery stores. I got to see a bunch of great sights, but most importantly, my home stay dad from Dschang was there, and I got to hang out with him and his brother-in-law for the afternoon.
I then took the Chunnel to London, and was promptly kicked “aux couilles” by the exchange rate. London was immensely uneventful. I stayed in a hellish Easyhotel and spent everyday but Sunday at the archives taking pictures of war crimes related stuff.
The hotel room was hellish because it had no window, no phone, a non-functioning TV, and was about the size of a bathroom (if you think I’m kidding, try staying in one).
My last adventure was coming home. I took the Chunnel back to Paris for a flight to NYC, but there was a train workers strike against President Sarkozy. All of the trains were stopped except for one (and only one) that was going to the airport. Unfortunately, the train was on a different track from the normal airport service and they were only announcing the change in French. I can barely understand train station announcement in English, so I consider myself to have been very lucky to catch which track I needed to go to. I had literally just stepped onto the train before the doors closed and we were off.
At the airport, I found out that the flight was overbooked and the not everyone would be able to go, at least not that night. Fortunately, I wasn’t someone asked to wait, and 7 hours later I was in NYC. It was then that I discovered the Air France had LOST MY LUGGAGE!!! Yup, they lost pretty much all my clothes and my second digital camera (I lost the first one getting out of Cameroun). I know many lost luggage stories have happy ending, here’s mine: In Cameroun, I lost about 20 pounds, so none of my clothes fit me anymore anyway. As long as Air France cuts me a nice fat check for everything, I’ll be happy.
Well, that’s about it. There and back again, a Humanities Student’s Holiday.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Istanbul
Hello Everyone,
Keeping in mind that it is entirely possible that no one actually reads this anymore, I’ve decide that give an update on my continued misadventures.
The semester abroad ended almost 2 months ago, but I’ll summarize what happened any way.
The second to last weekend in may, I went to visit Istanbul to see Tim Sparklin who was flying in from Cairo. I left Toulouse on a Friday afternoon, stopped in Frankfurt, and then arrived in Istanbul in the middle of the night. I then had a sudden moment of panic. There are two international airports in Istanbul and Tim and I hadn’t specified which one we were going to. Also, neither of us had cell phones and I didn’t remember the name of our hotel. But I didn’t really start to panic until I realized that there were no incoming flights from Cairo.
I considered my options. I could head into the city, try to find an internet café and check which hostel we had a reservation for. I could wait and hope that there was something wrong with the “arrivals” screen. Or I could go to the other airport, and wait there. I choose option 2, mostly because I was too exhausted to do any of the others. Fortunately, I choose wisely. Tim’s flight simply hadn’t been added to the list yet (even though many others arriving after it had been).
Tim and his roommate from Cairo arrived, we got out cash, and took the train into town. Between the 3 of us, we spoke at least semi-fluent English, French, and Arabic, but no Turkish. We arrived at our hostel at about 7:30am and had to struggle not to fall asleep. I knew well that I only had three full days in Istanbul.
We walked down to the Sea of Marmora and ordered tea at a little restaurant. As we were leaving, two Turkish men overheard Tim and Greg speaking Arabic and invited us to join them for another round of tea. We had a rather odd conversation. One of them spoke Turkish, a little English, and a little Arabic, the other spoke only Turkish and Arabic. Out of the three of us, we all spoke English, Tim and Greg spoke a little Arabic, and Greg and I spoke French. (and yes, it was just as confusing in my head at the time) I couldn’t understand about 85% of the conversation, but I did catch the topics of where we all lived, what we were doing in Istanbul, and Hilary Clinton. The man who spoke no English referred to her while making a rather descriptive hand gesture, which made me laugh. I noticed an interesting cultural feature of Turkish conversations; every time the man wanted my attention, he would tap my forearm. A little odd, but not creepy.
Afterwards, I asked Tim what the man had been saying about me. He told me that the man kept saying “but he must be Turkish, look at his beard”. That was the start of it. I have never had so many people ask me for directions in my life, and all of them speaking Turkish. Seriously, what about me made everyone on the street assume that I was one of them? I should work for the CIA, as I seem to be able to fit in anywhere. This chameleon like ability did have an advantage though. Downtown Istanbul is about as commercialized as it gets, and their touts are very aggressive, however, I found that if I walked with a simple look of disinterest people would leave me alone. It was actually kind of funny. The three of us would be walking single file through a crowded marketplace with me in the lead. I’d walk by and be ignored, and then Greg and Tim would get pounced on.
Any way, during our stay we were able to visit Hagia Sofia, Topkapi Palace, Galata Tower, Remnants of the great wall, the grand bazaar, Süleymaniye Mosque, and the Basilica Cistern. Also, we saw twirling dervishes and went to a Turkish bath, which was, well, really gay. If someone had told me a year before that I would one day pay good money to be scrubbed, slapped, de-toweled, and meowed at by fat old Turkish men, I would have told them that they were nuts.
Looking back, it’s surprising how well we did. No one got lost or robbed. And since a lot of the names for food are the same in Arabic and Turkish, we got by at restaurants too. It must have been an amusing sight to see two westerners shouting out the names of random vegetables in Arabic to their Turkish waiter.
On Monday afternoon, I left Tim and Greg and took the train back to the Airport. From there I flew back to Toulouse by way of Frankfurt again. I arrived after midnight and let myself in without disturbing the family.
Keeping in mind that it is entirely possible that no one actually reads this anymore, I’ve decide that give an update on my continued misadventures.
The semester abroad ended almost 2 months ago, but I’ll summarize what happened any way.
The second to last weekend in may, I went to visit Istanbul to see Tim Sparklin who was flying in from Cairo. I left Toulouse on a Friday afternoon, stopped in Frankfurt, and then arrived in Istanbul in the middle of the night. I then had a sudden moment of panic. There are two international airports in Istanbul and Tim and I hadn’t specified which one we were going to. Also, neither of us had cell phones and I didn’t remember the name of our hotel. But I didn’t really start to panic until I realized that there were no incoming flights from Cairo.
I considered my options. I could head into the city, try to find an internet café and check which hostel we had a reservation for. I could wait and hope that there was something wrong with the “arrivals” screen. Or I could go to the other airport, and wait there. I choose option 2, mostly because I was too exhausted to do any of the others. Fortunately, I choose wisely. Tim’s flight simply hadn’t been added to the list yet (even though many others arriving after it had been).
Tim and his roommate from Cairo arrived, we got out cash, and took the train into town. Between the 3 of us, we spoke at least semi-fluent English, French, and Arabic, but no Turkish. We arrived at our hostel at about 7:30am and had to struggle not to fall asleep. I knew well that I only had three full days in Istanbul.
We walked down to the Sea of Marmora and ordered tea at a little restaurant. As we were leaving, two Turkish men overheard Tim and Greg speaking Arabic and invited us to join them for another round of tea. We had a rather odd conversation. One of them spoke Turkish, a little English, and a little Arabic, the other spoke only Turkish and Arabic. Out of the three of us, we all spoke English, Tim and Greg spoke a little Arabic, and Greg and I spoke French. (and yes, it was just as confusing in my head at the time) I couldn’t understand about 85% of the conversation, but I did catch the topics of where we all lived, what we were doing in Istanbul, and Hilary Clinton. The man who spoke no English referred to her while making a rather descriptive hand gesture, which made me laugh. I noticed an interesting cultural feature of Turkish conversations; every time the man wanted my attention, he would tap my forearm. A little odd, but not creepy.
Afterwards, I asked Tim what the man had been saying about me. He told me that the man kept saying “but he must be Turkish, look at his beard”. That was the start of it. I have never had so many people ask me for directions in my life, and all of them speaking Turkish. Seriously, what about me made everyone on the street assume that I was one of them? I should work for the CIA, as I seem to be able to fit in anywhere. This chameleon like ability did have an advantage though. Downtown Istanbul is about as commercialized as it gets, and their touts are very aggressive, however, I found that if I walked with a simple look of disinterest people would leave me alone. It was actually kind of funny. The three of us would be walking single file through a crowded marketplace with me in the lead. I’d walk by and be ignored, and then Greg and Tim would get pounced on.
Any way, during our stay we were able to visit Hagia Sofia, Topkapi Palace, Galata Tower, Remnants of the great wall, the grand bazaar, Süleymaniye Mosque, and the Basilica Cistern. Also, we saw twirling dervishes and went to a Turkish bath, which was, well, really gay. If someone had told me a year before that I would one day pay good money to be scrubbed, slapped, de-toweled, and meowed at by fat old Turkish men, I would have told them that they were nuts.
Looking back, it’s surprising how well we did. No one got lost or robbed. And since a lot of the names for food are the same in Arabic and Turkish, we got by at restaurants too. It must have been an amusing sight to see two westerners shouting out the names of random vegetables in Arabic to their Turkish waiter.
On Monday afternoon, I left Tim and Greg and took the train back to the Airport. From there I flew back to Toulouse by way of Frankfurt again. I arrived after midnight and let myself in without disturbing the family.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
I'm a rancher now.
All goes well in France. It’s been over a month since I last posted and a lot has happed. First off, the good news (and therefore not related in any way to SIT), I received the undergraduate research award from UMBC that I applied for. This is great, especially since I have already paid for my trip to London, in the hope that I would be successful. Also, I have been elected into Phi Beta Kappa, which, according to Wikipedia, is pretty awesome. I am looking forward to doing my senior history honors thesis next year, and it gives me an excuse to take a light course load.
A while back I decided to ditch the Research track with SIT because it’s easier and more interesting to do research in Cameroon. Right now the other “Cameroonians” are starting their research, and some of them have absolutely no idea of what they are going to research. I probably wouldn’t either. I’m taking language classes that only involve a small amount of research. My topic is the bureaucratic structure of Aikido in France. Not particularly interesting, but do-able.
I got back 4 days ago from the Ariege department of France. It is the 5th least populated out of 100. All the students were in different villages and we were supposed to conduct some research involving the region. My topic was the Merens horses that are indigenous to the region. It was pretty easy because I was living with someone who raises them. That’s the good part, the bad part was that I was stuck alone on a mountain with a weird French guy who tried to heat his entire house with a kitchen stove. Every night I used 7 blankets (the top ones kept sliding off) and every stitch of clothing that I had brought with me. It was definitely a worthwhile experience, but not entirely fun while it lasted. Much like this semester.
I’ve come back with quite a tan and hay in my hair. Also, I seem to have lost some French ability while I was there, or maybe it’s just that my home stay dad likes to use passé compose, inversion, and negation (at the same time) in his sentences. If you’ve taking French, you’ll know that it’s pretty much impossible to understand when spoken in this form.
I have about 2 and a half weeks to do about half a semester’s worth of research on Aikido. I present my work at the end of the month, and then I have about 11 days of semi-vacation. I’m planning on using some of that time to prep for my work at the British Archives. After that, I have a two day layover in Paris, which just happens to coincide with a Law conference that my Dschang Homestay dad will be attending. I’m hoping that we will be able to spend some time together, and that he will be interested in helping me get a Fulbright award.
I’m looking forward to the summer. I’m not planning on doing much of anything. I don’t feel too guilty about that decision because of this semester, the fact that I already have 128 credits including SIT, and the fact that over the last two summers I have earned 29 credits. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, so I’d better be careful. I’m planning on doing a little research, a little creative writing, and a lot of hangin’ with friends.
A la prochaine
A while back I decided to ditch the Research track with SIT because it’s easier and more interesting to do research in Cameroon. Right now the other “Cameroonians” are starting their research, and some of them have absolutely no idea of what they are going to research. I probably wouldn’t either. I’m taking language classes that only involve a small amount of research. My topic is the bureaucratic structure of Aikido in France. Not particularly interesting, but do-able.
I got back 4 days ago from the Ariege department of France. It is the 5th least populated out of 100. All the students were in different villages and we were supposed to conduct some research involving the region. My topic was the Merens horses that are indigenous to the region. It was pretty easy because I was living with someone who raises them. That’s the good part, the bad part was that I was stuck alone on a mountain with a weird French guy who tried to heat his entire house with a kitchen stove. Every night I used 7 blankets (the top ones kept sliding off) and every stitch of clothing that I had brought with me. It was definitely a worthwhile experience, but not entirely fun while it lasted. Much like this semester.
I’ve come back with quite a tan and hay in my hair. Also, I seem to have lost some French ability while I was there, or maybe it’s just that my home stay dad likes to use passé compose, inversion, and negation (at the same time) in his sentences. If you’ve taking French, you’ll know that it’s pretty much impossible to understand when spoken in this form.
I have about 2 and a half weeks to do about half a semester’s worth of research on Aikido. I present my work at the end of the month, and then I have about 11 days of semi-vacation. I’m planning on using some of that time to prep for my work at the British Archives. After that, I have a two day layover in Paris, which just happens to coincide with a Law conference that my Dschang Homestay dad will be attending. I’m hoping that we will be able to spend some time together, and that he will be interested in helping me get a Fulbright award.
I’m looking forward to the summer. I’m not planning on doing much of anything. I don’t feel too guilty about that decision because of this semester, the fact that I already have 128 credits including SIT, and the fact that over the last two summers I have earned 29 credits. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, so I’d better be careful. I’m planning on doing a little research, a little creative writing, and a lot of hangin’ with friends.
A la prochaine
Saturday, March 8, 2008
France...
My Fellow Americans,
I have safely arrived in France. I am in Toulouse (we call ourselves the “Tou-Losers”) in the south of France. It’s a beautiful and friendly town, but way too cold after Cameroon. The SIT program here really doesn’t know what to do with us. It is going to be difficult for the other students to do their research here because a lot of their plans were very Cameroon-specific. My plan was to research the conflict between the Bali and the Bawock peoples. Yeah, not too many tribal conflicts in France. So, I decided to take some intensive French classes instead. Right now I’m staying with a very nice French family with 3 kids and a west highland terrier (et j’aime bien les westie).
We left Cameroon saturday night thanks to the awesome people at the US embassy. They let us make free phone calls back to the states and then found us some early flights out of the country to France. It is both annoying and fascinating to have to go through culture shock again. However, this time the culture shock is far more complicated. I am not only an American in France, but one who was just getting used to Camerounian culture. It shouldn’t be too bad, though. The Family here is very chill. They’ve hosted many Americans in the past and they know that we like our privacy.
Anyway, that’s all for right now.
I have safely arrived in France. I am in Toulouse (we call ourselves the “Tou-Losers”) in the south of France. It’s a beautiful and friendly town, but way too cold after Cameroon. The SIT program here really doesn’t know what to do with us. It is going to be difficult for the other students to do their research here because a lot of their plans were very Cameroon-specific. My plan was to research the conflict between the Bali and the Bawock peoples. Yeah, not too many tribal conflicts in France. So, I decided to take some intensive French classes instead. Right now I’m staying with a very nice French family with 3 kids and a west highland terrier (et j’aime bien les westie).
We left Cameroon saturday night thanks to the awesome people at the US embassy. They let us make free phone calls back to the states and then found us some early flights out of the country to France. It is both annoying and fascinating to have to go through culture shock again. However, this time the culture shock is far more complicated. I am not only an American in France, but one who was just getting used to Camerounian culture. It shouldn’t be too bad, though. The Family here is very chill. They’ve hosted many Americans in the past and they know that we like our privacy.
Anyway, that’s all for right now.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Leaving Cameroun...
Hello Friends and Family,
I'm sorry that I haven't updated my blog yet, but it is suprisingly difficult to do that here in cameroon. Cybers are hard to come by, expensive, have french claviers where you have to press a shift key to get a period, and the internet connections are pretty unreliable. Right now I am in the Yaounde Hilton on SIT's/US embassy's dollar, because they are ordering us out of the country. The President of Cameroun, Paul Biya, have been the veritable dictator for 28 years and he is trying to change to constitution to remain in power even longer. There have been riots in the streets in protest and the goverment has sent to army into the cities to quell them. the day before yesterday 20 people were killed by soldiers just here in yaounde, but things are suprisingly stable today. mostly because Biya's personal presidential guard are protecting the hotel and therefore, me.
Its somewhat odd here, because the goverment of cameroon is evil and oppressive, and the average citizen is entirely justified in revoluting. However, it would be violent protesters who would, if anyone, harm us, while the oppressive goverment is assisting in our protection and evacuation. it messes with the mind.
The riots started with a taxi drivers strike on monday. I was talking with a law prof at the university of dschang, while the other students were at the cafeteria. about 400 young men with sticks and bottles broke in, and ran through the campus whacking various inanimate objects (cars, signs, buildings) with their clubs. They ran right past me, but cornered the other students in the cafeteria, threw bottles at them, manhandled them, and then threw them out. scary stuff. we hid on the floor of our class room until the mob left and the we sneak off of campus through an empty field.
we spent the next three days hiding in a hotel on the outkirsts of town. Once a mob came by and stopped in front of the hotel because they saw us through the windows. they aren't specifically targeting us, but they are targeting the french, and a white american can be very easily mistaken for a francais. While we were having dinner on the 3rd night, christane, our director, came in and told us that the mayor of Dschang was evacutating with a military escort to yaounde, and he was giving us 5 minutes to join him at the commissariat. I had to ditch all of my clothes and books, and only took my camera, passport, and credit card. Oh and my french grammar guide, a man has to prioritize after all.
At this very moment I am wearing the borrowed women's pants that I was wearing that night. I am, therefore, a man sans pants. anyway, we got to the commissariat in time, and joined a suprisingly large convo to baffousam and then on to Yaonde, the US embassy, and finally the hilton. On sunday we fly to Zurick, and from there to Paris. Things are stable in Yaounde today, I know because I left the hotel this morning and walked the streets a bit. the average camerounian is calm but seriously pissed off. Rumer has it that the unions and the SDF (the opposition party) are planning something big for mondy morning. I'm glad we won't be here for that.
I am very sorry to be leaving cameroon so soon. I have enjoyed living with two wonderful camerounian families who adopted me as one of their own without question. Also, I am worried about their safety, and i hope that they don't run out of food be for the street riots end.
I will be starting classes in Toulouse in the south of Franch in a few days, but I'm not really excited about them...
Anyway, I hope you are all well and can understand why I have been out of contact for so long.
I'll be able to update more often once I am in france, but i have a feeling it will be much more uneventful. Au revoir.
I'm sorry that I haven't updated my blog yet, but it is suprisingly difficult to do that here in cameroon. Cybers are hard to come by, expensive, have french claviers where you have to press a shift key to get a period, and the internet connections are pretty unreliable. Right now I am in the Yaounde Hilton on SIT's/US embassy's dollar, because they are ordering us out of the country. The President of Cameroun, Paul Biya, have been the veritable dictator for 28 years and he is trying to change to constitution to remain in power even longer. There have been riots in the streets in protest and the goverment has sent to army into the cities to quell them. the day before yesterday 20 people were killed by soldiers just here in yaounde, but things are suprisingly stable today. mostly because Biya's personal presidential guard are protecting the hotel and therefore, me.
Its somewhat odd here, because the goverment of cameroon is evil and oppressive, and the average citizen is entirely justified in revoluting. However, it would be violent protesters who would, if anyone, harm us, while the oppressive goverment is assisting in our protection and evacuation. it messes with the mind.
The riots started with a taxi drivers strike on monday. I was talking with a law prof at the university of dschang, while the other students were at the cafeteria. about 400 young men with sticks and bottles broke in, and ran through the campus whacking various inanimate objects (cars, signs, buildings) with their clubs. They ran right past me, but cornered the other students in the cafeteria, threw bottles at them, manhandled them, and then threw them out. scary stuff. we hid on the floor of our class room until the mob left and the we sneak off of campus through an empty field.
we spent the next three days hiding in a hotel on the outkirsts of town. Once a mob came by and stopped in front of the hotel because they saw us through the windows. they aren't specifically targeting us, but they are targeting the french, and a white american can be very easily mistaken for a francais. While we were having dinner on the 3rd night, christane, our director, came in and told us that the mayor of Dschang was evacutating with a military escort to yaounde, and he was giving us 5 minutes to join him at the commissariat. I had to ditch all of my clothes and books, and only took my camera, passport, and credit card. Oh and my french grammar guide, a man has to prioritize after all.
At this very moment I am wearing the borrowed women's pants that I was wearing that night. I am, therefore, a man sans pants. anyway, we got to the commissariat in time, and joined a suprisingly large convo to baffousam and then on to Yaonde, the US embassy, and finally the hilton. On sunday we fly to Zurick, and from there to Paris. Things are stable in Yaounde today, I know because I left the hotel this morning and walked the streets a bit. the average camerounian is calm but seriously pissed off. Rumer has it that the unions and the SDF (the opposition party) are planning something big for mondy morning. I'm glad we won't be here for that.
I am very sorry to be leaving cameroon so soon. I have enjoyed living with two wonderful camerounian families who adopted me as one of their own without question. Also, I am worried about their safety, and i hope that they don't run out of food be for the street riots end.
I will be starting classes in Toulouse in the south of Franch in a few days, but I'm not really excited about them...
Anyway, I hope you are all well and can understand why I have been out of contact for so long.
I'll be able to update more often once I am in france, but i have a feeling it will be much more uneventful. Au revoir.
Friday, January 25, 2008
One day until departure
Hello and welcome to my first post. I am not by nature a blogger, so I expect my output here to be initially hesitant.
Early tomorrow morning I leave for New Jersey to spend some time with my brother at Rutgers School of Law. The day after, sunday the 27th, I will be flying out from JFK on a 7hr flight to Paris. From there I will be flying to Doula in Cameroon, and finally to the capital, Yaounde.
SIT, the program that I am going there with, is based in Yaounde. At their office they have a computer with internet access available to the students. I will only be in Yaounde off and on, but while I'm there I hope to make regular updates.
Early tomorrow morning I leave for New Jersey to spend some time with my brother at Rutgers School of Law. The day after, sunday the 27th, I will be flying out from JFK on a 7hr flight to Paris. From there I will be flying to Doula in Cameroon, and finally to the capital, Yaounde.
SIT, the program that I am going there with, is based in Yaounde. At their office they have a computer with internet access available to the students. I will only be in Yaounde off and on, but while I'm there I hope to make regular updates.
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