every now and then i get the strange urge to write in my blog again. indeed my posts have been dwindling, but for those of you who still check from time to time, (and mom and dad) heres whats new...
its been almost 2 weeks since i moved my butt into an nyu apartment by union square in the city (new yoaaak city). the apartment is basically just a dorm room with a kitchen, living room, and other bedroom attached - very simple - but its all i need. i dont spend much time in the room because hey, its new yoak city right?
my job in harlem has been okay. ill leave it at that. were painting a mural but today since it was forecasted to rain all day my boss said we could cancel work (the mural is outside). so i called all the kids and cancelled. and now its sunny as ever. free day! thank you weatherman!
in my free time, ive been busy as ever - running all over the place. ive been checking out parks and cafes like its my job. my favorite cafe is still the Cake Shop down in SoHo, but there are quite a few other ones that are up there. i hate the fact that coffee prices are ridiculous these days, so i only go to cafes when i plan on spending some time there, reading or writing or something. that way i at least feel like im getting my moneys worth.
ive been reading a ton. right now im reading the glass castle, small is beautiful, and africa trek. i have a laundry lists of other books i need to get to before school starts. ahhhh!
ive also been running a TON. i dont know how, but im suddenly a good runner! yesterday i ran 5 miles which is the farthest ive run since my track days back in high school! its really nice to run along the river and definitely helps me to clear my head from a busy day at work (we end at 330 so i can run while its still light out).
the other thing ive been doing is going to african dance! i found this place called Djoniba that is just 4 blocks away from my apartment and its pretty cool. i just got back from a af dance class actually and guess who was in it. tyra banks. yep. not kidding. the teacher was this cool dude named bangaly who is from cote d'ivoire and he speaks julakan which is basically the same as bambara so he had me speak to him in front of the whole class to prove to them that i can speak it. ohhhhhhh bambara!
the other nice thing about new york is that i know lots and lots of people living here for the summer. its so nice to be around friends again (philly did get a little lonely sometimes!)
but all that said, im really ready to go back to st louis. i miss my wash u friends oh so much! and i know it sounds dorky, but im really excited for the classes im taking this semester. i havent been in class for so long! ;aklsjdflakhhhh!
thats the update for now... if youre reading this, send me an email back and let me know what youre up to!
ciao
BINTOU
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
philly lately
things have been going going
saturday i drove to lancaster for katy's wedding... it was a bit of a trek but the wedding was really great and katy seemed so happy... it was also nice to see the fam and extended fam and boogie a little bit. there were some quotes that may or may not live on forever in bangser history. "well i made a mistake" (some of you will get that...)
sunday morning after a quick breakfast ben and i jumped in the car to drive back to philly (he came to visit!). we spent sunday walkin all over the place - exploring around south street, grabbing some crepes on 6th and bainbridge, chilling in the park, and eventually getting some indian buffet with a bunch of friends (including my friend alex from ny who was also visiting). why is indian food so effing good? ben 'bolted' out this afternoon to go home (boo... but ill see him in a few days).
so this afternoon i was walking past this african grocery store and i decided to go in just to see what they had. and i talked to the dude for a minute and hes from cote d'ivoire and speaks Julakan which is a lot like Bambara so we were able to speak a bit in both languages which was cool. then when i walked out of the store there were three dudes eating a dish together (the fact that they were sharing one plate made me think theyre probably african too). i said 'hello' as i passed and kept walking, but then they called me over saying they wanted to ask me a question. i was kind of curious as to where these dudes were from so i stopped and talked to them. they asked where i was from and then i did the same and they said cote d'ivoire too. i didnt say anything about mali or anything and was about to walk away when they said "come eat with us" which is something you always have to do in west africa. instead of responding in english, i just said "A Barika!" which means 'no thanks, i'm satisfied thank's to god' (more or less) in colloquial bambara/julakan. The guys like, jumped out of their seats. 'I be bamanankan fo wa?' (you speak bambara?) "awo" (yep). then we had a whole conversation in Bambara/Julakan and it was basically the coolest move i've ever pulled in my life. they were not expecting that from me at all! mwahahaha.
i went to this thing tonight called 'books through bars' and it was really effin cool. its basically this program that sends book to prisoners upon request. they have a big collection of donated books (mostly used, but a few new ones) and prisoners from all over the midatlantic region, and california and florida, write to request books. so people go to volunteer for this program and what you do is you pick a letter from a prisoner and then try to find books that he/she would like. the program is meant to 1. promote self-education of prisoners and 2. educate the public about the problems in our criminal justice system (i.e. many of these places have no educational materials available!) it was pretty cool to read the letters from the prisoners. i fulfilled 2 requests in the time i was there, giving one guy 5 books and another one 4 (normally its just 2-4 but the first guy had so many interests i squeezed in an extra skinny one). of the letters i read while deciding the ones i was going to work on, it was cool to see that many of them were really interested in self-improvement, poetry, african american history, and languages. there are also tons of requests for dictionaries (malcolm x?). anyway, its too bad im just discovering this as i leave the city... they do it 6 times a month and i think its a really cool program and more people should get involved and donate books and stuff.
in case anyone was wondering, warthog is doing well. i discovered the other day that its really funny to say that word if you pronounce the "th" sound like "th" -- i think it gives it more character (though im not sure it will stick).
im excited to start the job in harlem just because im ready to be outside a lot again... but i which i could have some permanence in my life. im so nomadic these days!
saturday i drove to lancaster for katy's wedding... it was a bit of a trek but the wedding was really great and katy seemed so happy... it was also nice to see the fam and extended fam and boogie a little bit. there were some quotes that may or may not live on forever in bangser history. "well i made a mistake" (some of you will get that...)
sunday morning after a quick breakfast ben and i jumped in the car to drive back to philly (he came to visit!). we spent sunday walkin all over the place - exploring around south street, grabbing some crepes on 6th and bainbridge, chilling in the park, and eventually getting some indian buffet with a bunch of friends (including my friend alex from ny who was also visiting). why is indian food so effing good? ben 'bolted' out this afternoon to go home (boo... but ill see him in a few days).
so this afternoon i was walking past this african grocery store and i decided to go in just to see what they had. and i talked to the dude for a minute and hes from cote d'ivoire and speaks Julakan which is a lot like Bambara so we were able to speak a bit in both languages which was cool. then when i walked out of the store there were three dudes eating a dish together (the fact that they were sharing one plate made me think theyre probably african too). i said 'hello' as i passed and kept walking, but then they called me over saying they wanted to ask me a question. i was kind of curious as to where these dudes were from so i stopped and talked to them. they asked where i was from and then i did the same and they said cote d'ivoire too. i didnt say anything about mali or anything and was about to walk away when they said "come eat with us" which is something you always have to do in west africa. instead of responding in english, i just said "A Barika!" which means 'no thanks, i'm satisfied thank's to god' (more or less) in colloquial bambara/julakan. The guys like, jumped out of their seats. 'I be bamanankan fo wa?' (you speak bambara?) "awo" (yep). then we had a whole conversation in Bambara/Julakan and it was basically the coolest move i've ever pulled in my life. they were not expecting that from me at all! mwahahaha.
i went to this thing tonight called 'books through bars' and it was really effin cool. its basically this program that sends book to prisoners upon request. they have a big collection of donated books (mostly used, but a few new ones) and prisoners from all over the midatlantic region, and california and florida, write to request books. so people go to volunteer for this program and what you do is you pick a letter from a prisoner and then try to find books that he/she would like. the program is meant to 1. promote self-education of prisoners and 2. educate the public about the problems in our criminal justice system (i.e. many of these places have no educational materials available!) it was pretty cool to read the letters from the prisoners. i fulfilled 2 requests in the time i was there, giving one guy 5 books and another one 4 (normally its just 2-4 but the first guy had so many interests i squeezed in an extra skinny one). of the letters i read while deciding the ones i was going to work on, it was cool to see that many of them were really interested in self-improvement, poetry, african american history, and languages. there are also tons of requests for dictionaries (malcolm x?). anyway, its too bad im just discovering this as i leave the city... they do it 6 times a month and i think its a really cool program and more people should get involved and donate books and stuff.
in case anyone was wondering, warthog is doing well. i discovered the other day that its really funny to say that word if you pronounce the "th" sound like "th" -- i think it gives it more character (though im not sure it will stick).
im excited to start the job in harlem just because im ready to be outside a lot again... but i which i could have some permanence in my life. im so nomadic these days!
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