so its been quite a while since i last wrote... but i haven't abandoned the blog altogether. summer is almost over - my last summer, i realized, before i graduate. i have two days left of my job which is killllllller but not in a good way. i think thats why i havent been writing as much -- ive been so consumed in work and havent felt like writing about it.
but i have been doing lots of other cool things in my precious hours away from work, so ill just talk about that! living in the city was amaaaazing. i stayed in an nyu apartment AT union square which is the best location ever (and one that i will never be able to afford). i already knew lots of people in new york from home and school and everywhere so i didn't really meet many new people. but i did spend some real quality bintou time exploring and what not.
i will tell you that i have sipped coffee in just about every cafe on the lower east side (minus starbucks) and usually with a book or my journal. i read a ton (and still am) - my last few reads (in the past 2 weeks or so) have been 'the glass castle', 'the kite runner', 'a people's history of the united states' (which i havent finished yet), and 'half of a golden sun' which i'm reading now and its great. i also started running just about every day and had a nice little loop down by the east river that came out to 4 miles or so. go me! am i repeating myself? i think i might have written about this in the last entry. i did art and secret projects ;) to amuse myself and did spend a lot of time with my friends in the area... alex and david, ashley, danielle, and allison were all right in the lower east side!
poetry slams, concerts, oddly relaxing vegetarian indian food restaurants with only one option on the menu, live music in public spaces, intense west-african-dancing, long walks, a couple movies (hoooooly dark knight!), fruit to the nines, late night ted talks, afternoons in the park with jackie and ashley, sun sun sun!, etcetera etcetera.
i popped out of the city quite a bit too on weekends and such. got to see some family, including the PECKS (hehe uncle jim) and did some geocaching with jamie and mom and ben one day. beached it up at compo once or twice and scrabbled like a maniac with mom. we have an addiction.
last weekend was pretty cool. mom, dad, and i drove up to the adirondacks to go see what ben has been working on all summer. he's been interning for these 2 really great sculptors who both have pieces at the beijing olympics (only 25 non-chinese sculptors were chosen from thousands of applicants). it was really beautiful up there and nice to get away from the ussssual for a bit. the sculptors that ben worked for were having a show so we all went and met them and the art was sweet and we were all proud of ben because he did good (kid). there was some geocaching involved too-- including one that lead us on a beautiful hike through the adirondackian wilderness. i will tell you there was some bear skat involved.
work finishes up on thursday (thank allah) and im heading back to school on sunday. though im really excited to go back, i think the excitement is more to be done with work than anything. ive been having fun chilling with my family since i moved back home (im commuting for this last week) and it will be strange to up-and-out again.
then of course, the Clucemarie adventures begin and that will be a whole new section...
hErE (i miss my mali)
BINTOU
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
NEW YOAK
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
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
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!
Sunday, June 22, 2008
bintou and warthog take on philly
yesterday was the longest day of the year and i took full advantage!
i woke up at 5:15 to see the sunrise, went to a few farmers markets all over the city, walked a few miles back to my house before lunch time, and then took my lunch (a salad with pears, farmer's market strawberries, gorgonzola, walnuts, and a strawberry balsamic vinaigrette, yum!) to clark park for the summer solstice festival where there was greaaat music and art stuff and it was a beautiful day and oh man it was wonderful! a couple people i live with came and we played frisbee on the field and ran around and i got my feet nice and dirty which is really the way i like my feet best. at 2:30 i took my bike to this place called the divine bike church which is this awesome biking co-op half a block from my apartment. you can go there to work on your bike - its all do it yourself - and they have new and used parts and volunteers with technical expertice so you can fix up your bike and get what you need from them. after 4 hours of solid work (i now understand how to put bikes together), Warthog was finished and ready to ride. Yep, thats my bikes new name (the perfect combination of speed and good looks). When I finished i went back to the park to hang out with my friend sam and we saw some people having a drum circle which was pretty cool.
then i went with mirah, jack, and their two friends who are visiting from out of town to the West Oak Lane Jazz and Arts Festival. It took us like, an hour and a half to get there (its in north north north philly), but when we did it was pretty sweet. the mainstage had a band called Mandrill playing and was situated smack dab in the middle of a primarily black neighborhood. Actually, we were pretty much the only white people out of thouuuusands of people there. so leave it to Bintou to get into a dance-off with this 65 year old black dude in the middle of the crowd. Yep, it was all out and the music was fast paced and there were all these people standing around us and cheering it was so funny and pretty exciting. it must have been a spectacle. and i got lots of smiles from the people standing around when the dancing cooled off. definitely an experience i won't forget.
This morning i woke up and decided to take Warthog out for a ride. we ended up going out for 2 and 1/2 hours, first biking around the city and then heading on the bike path that follows the schuylkill river really really far. it was so beautiful i just kept going further and further. i love being alone in this city because i just do whatever i want when i want to and can just keep going further if i feel like it. i saw some pretty great things while i was riding. like at one point i was riding next to a crew team in the river, and on the front of their boat they had a djembe player keeping this great beat for them! i slowed down for that stretch so i could stay with the music. i also passed this really cute little black kid who was probably 8 or 9 who was riding alone and just BELTING a song at the top of his voice!
After my ride, i made lunch and then headed to the park to grab a coffee with sam and then read by my tree (which has the perfect, back conforming shape) for a couple hours. there was
1. a cool yellow beetle on my leg
2. a people-watcher watching people, with a joint
3. a dude playing flute on a bench on the other side of the park
4. one bite of fair-trade dark chocolate for eatin'
5. a huge bag of handmade colorful ceramic beads that some dude sold me on the side of the street for five dollars (the whole bag!)
6. a topless couple (man and woman) in jeans, having a beer in the alley behind their house on my way home
tonight i got indian food (buffet) with my friend amy which was so filling but sooo good. tomorrow its back to work!
i woke up at 5:15 to see the sunrise, went to a few farmers markets all over the city, walked a few miles back to my house before lunch time, and then took my lunch (a salad with pears, farmer's market strawberries, gorgonzola, walnuts, and a strawberry balsamic vinaigrette, yum!) to clark park for the summer solstice festival where there was greaaat music and art stuff and it was a beautiful day and oh man it was wonderful! a couple people i live with came and we played frisbee on the field and ran around and i got my feet nice and dirty which is really the way i like my feet best. at 2:30 i took my bike to this place called the divine bike church which is this awesome biking co-op half a block from my apartment. you can go there to work on your bike - its all do it yourself - and they have new and used parts and volunteers with technical expertice so you can fix up your bike and get what you need from them. after 4 hours of solid work (i now understand how to put bikes together), Warthog was finished and ready to ride. Yep, thats my bikes new name (the perfect combination of speed and good looks). When I finished i went back to the park to hang out with my friend sam and we saw some people having a drum circle which was pretty cool.
then i went with mirah, jack, and their two friends who are visiting from out of town to the West Oak Lane Jazz and Arts Festival. It took us like, an hour and a half to get there (its in north north north philly), but when we did it was pretty sweet. the mainstage had a band called Mandrill playing and was situated smack dab in the middle of a primarily black neighborhood. Actually, we were pretty much the only white people out of thouuuusands of people there. so leave it to Bintou to get into a dance-off with this 65 year old black dude in the middle of the crowd. Yep, it was all out and the music was fast paced and there were all these people standing around us and cheering it was so funny and pretty exciting. it must have been a spectacle. and i got lots of smiles from the people standing around when the dancing cooled off. definitely an experience i won't forget.
This morning i woke up and decided to take Warthog out for a ride. we ended up going out for 2 and 1/2 hours, first biking around the city and then heading on the bike path that follows the schuylkill river really really far. it was so beautiful i just kept going further and further. i love being alone in this city because i just do whatever i want when i want to and can just keep going further if i feel like it. i saw some pretty great things while i was riding. like at one point i was riding next to a crew team in the river, and on the front of their boat they had a djembe player keeping this great beat for them! i slowed down for that stretch so i could stay with the music. i also passed this really cute little black kid who was probably 8 or 9 who was riding alone and just BELTING a song at the top of his voice!
After my ride, i made lunch and then headed to the park to grab a coffee with sam and then read by my tree (which has the perfect, back conforming shape) for a couple hours. there was
1. a cool yellow beetle on my leg
2. a people-watcher watching people, with a joint
3. a dude playing flute on a bench on the other side of the park
4. one bite of fair-trade dark chocolate for eatin'
5. a huge bag of handmade colorful ceramic beads that some dude sold me on the side of the street for five dollars (the whole bag!)
6. a topless couple (man and woman) in jeans, having a beer in the alley behind their house on my way home
tonight i got indian food (buffet) with my friend amy which was so filling but sooo good. tomorrow its back to work!
Thursday, June 19, 2008
bintou spends six dollars
this evening (beautiful, sunny, 72) after my walk home from 30th street station, i dropped my stuff off at home and changed into a comfy pair of jeans and a tshirt plus scarf. as i set off on my non-specific adventure, i discovered $6 in my pocket. this, i decided, would be my capital for the evening. i just got home a few minutes ago and here is what i have acquired since i left around 7:
oh also, the coolest thing happened when i got home. me and bike were just about to walk in the door when we noticed a group of people standing around outside the pinball arcade. i thought it was a fight at first, but then i realized it was just a bunch of guys that were having a freestyling battle. man they were amazing. it was like being at a really good slam at the nuyorican only it was on the streets and they were like, in each others faces. at first it was just 2 guys going back and forth and then a few other guys got into it it was basically just a gangsta rap battle (to quote flight of the conchords).
so that was my day after 7. minus all the details of what i did to aquire all those things. philadelphia is a pretty exciting place to be if you dont know anyone (actually, i have 5 friends! not even including the people i live with!). this saturday is the longest day of the year and i plan on using every minute of daylight in some really fun way. hopefully bike will be ready to go.
- a fresh head of lettuce from the farmers market
- a beautiful onion with long green stems (its probably a special kind of onion but i dont know what its called), also from the farmers market
- a bag of really yummy granola (hand made, farmers market)
- a lunch-size container with tasssssty vegetable curry (leftovers from the dinner i made with amy) - also containing a zucchini i got at the farmers market
- a beautiful, rusty, skinny green roadbike (!) - acquired from the wonderful mirah and jack and their interesting landlord who no longer wanted it. the name of the bike will be revealed once im finished fixing him up (tubes, gears, chain, lock)
- the song 'down by the river' stuck in my head from 2 cute neighbors having band practice on their front porch
- a new liberian friend who speaks bambara and works at an african record store (no, he didnt physically come home with me)
- a flyer that i'm probably going to throw away (ok, its a stretch)
oh also, the coolest thing happened when i got home. me and bike were just about to walk in the door when we noticed a group of people standing around outside the pinball arcade. i thought it was a fight at first, but then i realized it was just a bunch of guys that were having a freestyling battle. man they were amazing. it was like being at a really good slam at the nuyorican only it was on the streets and they were like, in each others faces. at first it was just 2 guys going back and forth and then a few other guys got into it it was basically just a gangsta rap battle (to quote flight of the conchords).
so that was my day after 7. minus all the details of what i did to aquire all those things. philadelphia is a pretty exciting place to be if you dont know anyone (actually, i have 5 friends! not even including the people i live with!). this saturday is the longest day of the year and i plan on using every minute of daylight in some really fun way. hopefully bike will be ready to go.
Friday, June 13, 2008
The Next Chapter
Its been a couple weeks since i'm home from africa and i've just started the next chapter in my summer... philadelphia! my life is still crazy and exciting and i kind of miss blogging so i figure, why stop? maybe my readers will dwindle... but hey, this is more for me than anyone else right?
so i just moved into the city on wednesday -- decided to sublet a room without seeing it first. mayyyybe not the best idea. while the location is good...i live... in a frat house. okay not really. not officially. but the NINE guys I live with are all in "SAMMY" (a frat) and i just found out tonight that this house is known as "SAMMY II." (Whhhhyyyy was this not posted on craigslist??) Anyway, its not a big deal... the guys are actually all really nice. My room is small and has an up close and personal view of the nextdoor neighbor's kitchen, but my bed is lofted and my fan is solid so im set. plus the kitchen is huge.
luckily, philadelphia is an awesome city so i've been out doing lots of exploring. i live right nextdoor to a pinball arcade and a restaurant that is called "CUPABANANAS" or something. its a burger joint. i know... what? just down the road theres tons of ethnic food -- thai, indian, senegalese, middle eastern, greek, italian, ethiopian, yadda yadda. i found a couple cute used book stores and bought "the end of poverty" by jeffrey sachs yesterday which ive been reading on the trains to and from work... its quite good so far! i'm also really close to penn and drexel so there are lots of young people around and lots of random truck restaurants that sell food out of the back or side.
so on tuesday at work (heres where my life gets crazy), one of my coworkers came up to me and said "hey claire, have you met Adou?" and pointed to this big black dude on the other side of the office. "no" "oh you should come meet him... i think he's from mali."... what??! i got all excited and went over to meet him. small world as it is, turns out hes from Bamako! he used to work for geneva global and has been living in the US for the past 6 years!!! we had a whole conversation in Bambara and he got really excited bc hes never met a westerner that speaks his native language. he wants me to teach his wife (who is american). I, of course, was excited because here I thought I had left mali and BAM! its back! Adou says theres a big malian population in Philly... who knew?
Work has been woooonderful by the way. i love geneva global and they have put me on a really important project -- i'm creating a huge, comprehensive database of NGOs in 10 countries in africa. i've been cranking out a country a day and reading lots and lots of NGO descriptions... which is really interesting (i know, i'm a dork) and also pretty inspiring. everyone in the office is also really hilarious. our boss was out on thursday which happened to be his 50th birthday, so we decided to wrap everything in his office in wrapping paper -- his computer, stacks of papers, the stapler, the phone, pens, a dirty coffee mug, the trash can, EVERYTHING. Then we blew up a million balloons and filled up his office with them and covered it all with a huge yellow table cloth. when he came in this morning, we all surprised him and someone also presented him with a wonderfully photoshopped photo of all of us plus him in a kilt with a wig on. so funny. we had a big birthday potluck for him at lunch and he told us crazy stories about his past... like this time he was captured in Liberia... i know, crazy.
tonight i met up with my malian friend adou and we went to a malian restaurant that he knew of called "MALIBA" We were the only people eating, but there were a bunch of malians hanging out that worked there and they looooved that i spoke bambara and it was really fun meeting everyone. the food was also DELICIOUS and it was so nice to eat with my hands again-- i cant wait to go back. Adou invited me to a party hes having tomorrow that will be all malian people. he said i should wear a malian outfit since everyone will be dressed traditionally. i cant wait!
but before that, i'm going to a flea market with some friends i hung out with tonight at this artsy musicy party on hazel ave. it was actually my friend mirah's brother, and there were lots of very cool, laid back people i would like to hang out with again. i also might go on a bike ride with a few people i met there... one guy says he has 4 bikes and can lend me one...woooeee!
oh! i also made a friend today when i stopped to have some tea (i know, weird) at a coffee shop. he was sitting outside at a table near me and asked me to watch his stuff when he went into the bathroom. when he came back he jokingly said "so, did anyone try to take my books?" and i said "yeah, a few people tried to steal 'Balkans'" (which is actually the name of the book he is reading) and we both had a laugh and ended up talking for like 2 hours. his name is Sam and he just graduated from oberlin last year. he came to the party with us and seems like a cool dude.
so im integrating well into life in philly i think. this weekend should be fun, since it will be the first time i really get to spend the morning/afternoon time in the city (ive been working everyday since i arrived). this entry is looooong but ive been slacking on my journal so
hoo RAHHHH for printers!
so i just moved into the city on wednesday -- decided to sublet a room without seeing it first. mayyyybe not the best idea. while the location is good...i live... in a frat house. okay not really. not officially. but the NINE guys I live with are all in "SAMMY" (a frat) and i just found out tonight that this house is known as "SAMMY II." (Whhhhyyyy was this not posted on craigslist??) Anyway, its not a big deal... the guys are actually all really nice. My room is small and has an up close and personal view of the nextdoor neighbor's kitchen, but my bed is lofted and my fan is solid so im set. plus the kitchen is huge.
luckily, philadelphia is an awesome city so i've been out doing lots of exploring. i live right nextdoor to a pinball arcade and a restaurant that is called "CUPABANANAS" or something. its a burger joint. i know... what? just down the road theres tons of ethnic food -- thai, indian, senegalese, middle eastern, greek, italian, ethiopian, yadda yadda. i found a couple cute used book stores and bought "the end of poverty" by jeffrey sachs yesterday which ive been reading on the trains to and from work... its quite good so far! i'm also really close to penn and drexel so there are lots of young people around and lots of random truck restaurants that sell food out of the back or side.
so on tuesday at work (heres where my life gets crazy), one of my coworkers came up to me and said "hey claire, have you met Adou?" and pointed to this big black dude on the other side of the office. "no" "oh you should come meet him... i think he's from mali."... what??! i got all excited and went over to meet him. small world as it is, turns out hes from Bamako! he used to work for geneva global and has been living in the US for the past 6 years!!! we had a whole conversation in Bambara and he got really excited bc hes never met a westerner that speaks his native language. he wants me to teach his wife (who is american). I, of course, was excited because here I thought I had left mali and BAM! its back! Adou says theres a big malian population in Philly... who knew?
Work has been woooonderful by the way. i love geneva global and they have put me on a really important project -- i'm creating a huge, comprehensive database of NGOs in 10 countries in africa. i've been cranking out a country a day and reading lots and lots of NGO descriptions... which is really interesting (i know, i'm a dork) and also pretty inspiring. everyone in the office is also really hilarious. our boss was out on thursday which happened to be his 50th birthday, so we decided to wrap everything in his office in wrapping paper -- his computer, stacks of papers, the stapler, the phone, pens, a dirty coffee mug, the trash can, EVERYTHING. Then we blew up a million balloons and filled up his office with them and covered it all with a huge yellow table cloth. when he came in this morning, we all surprised him and someone also presented him with a wonderfully photoshopped photo of all of us plus him in a kilt with a wig on. so funny. we had a big birthday potluck for him at lunch and he told us crazy stories about his past... like this time he was captured in Liberia... i know, crazy.
tonight i met up with my malian friend adou and we went to a malian restaurant that he knew of called "MALIBA" We were the only people eating, but there were a bunch of malians hanging out that worked there and they looooved that i spoke bambara and it was really fun meeting everyone. the food was also DELICIOUS and it was so nice to eat with my hands again-- i cant wait to go back. Adou invited me to a party hes having tomorrow that will be all malian people. he said i should wear a malian outfit since everyone will be dressed traditionally. i cant wait!
but before that, i'm going to a flea market with some friends i hung out with tonight at this artsy musicy party on hazel ave. it was actually my friend mirah's brother, and there were lots of very cool, laid back people i would like to hang out with again. i also might go on a bike ride with a few people i met there... one guy says he has 4 bikes and can lend me one...woooeee!
oh! i also made a friend today when i stopped to have some tea (i know, weird) at a coffee shop. he was sitting outside at a table near me and asked me to watch his stuff when he went into the bathroom. when he came back he jokingly said "so, did anyone try to take my books?" and i said "yeah, a few people tried to steal 'Balkans'" (which is actually the name of the book he is reading) and we both had a laugh and ended up talking for like 2 hours. his name is Sam and he just graduated from oberlin last year. he came to the party with us and seems like a cool dude.
so im integrating well into life in philly i think. this weekend should be fun, since it will be the first time i really get to spend the morning/afternoon time in the city (ive been working everyday since i arrived). this entry is looooong but ive been slacking on my journal so
hoo RAHHHH for printers!
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
youre invited...
hey all, im home from bamako (sad) and am spending a few days in westport before heading to philly on sunday
for those of you who are still checking my blog every now and then
and happen to be in the westport area...
ill be giving a short presentation about my research and findings at the women's market gardening cooperative in Mali
where: at my house
when: this saturday at 4pm (for no more than an hour)
call me or post on this blog if youre interested in coming!
hErE,
bintou
for those of you who are still checking my blog every now and then
and happen to be in the westport area...
ill be giving a short presentation about my research and findings at the women's market gardening cooperative in Mali
where: at my house
when: this saturday at 4pm (for no more than an hour)
call me or post on this blog if youre interested in coming!
hErE,
bintou
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