My first time in africa. 3 days after my exam I still hadnt sorted my thoughts and come down from the adrenalin high and 14 hour study shifts. and suddenly im squeezing into a tightly packed ryanair machine, flying over the atlas mountains, which pieked out of fluffy cotton clouds. First stop agadir: a modern town, having been destroyed by an eartquake recently so that the oldest buildings are 60s precast concrete slab style. Apart from a nice beach, a good introduction to the frenzy of morrocan towns (not as crazy as india, but definately lots more crazy than anything youll find in europe) and an impressive, huge lighted arab writing, aadir seemed quite boring.
we decided to make for Taroundant, the main town of the Sous plateau the next day. we arrived the day of the weekly souk, the market. the weekly ones are held outside of town, on a field, while the daily ones inside town, in a huge market hall and around it. lovely vegetables, fresh from the field stacked up and up and up. Lush colours competed against each other, all wanting to be bought. He prices were so increadibly low I wished something similar was even remotely close to my normal stay.
We spent the next days rumaging among the market stalls and devouring the most delicious sweets ever from the bakery jsut across our hotel.
the next stop would be in the mountains. via ouled berhil we got a shared, grand taxi to take us across the tizi'n'test pass. A 2000m+ craze of a way to narrow street for more than one car at a time, a curve a second and no real boundary to the 100m+ downgoing mountain slope next to the road. It was not my idea. but in the end I was quite happy I held through. The scenery was spectacular! and the driver was the coolest I have ever seen. racing through the mountains at unbelievable accelleration and speed, completely unconcerned by the two throwing up morrocans on the seat next to him throwing up pretty much as soon as we left the village until we arrrived at our destination.
the next night we spent in asni at the house of a local with loads of mint tea. we slept on carpets, like most moroccans and had an ad hoc cooking course on morrocan cuisine.
We yearned for the coast and a decent stay. That was Essaouira were we stayed at a lovely dar with sea view. but instead of going to the touristy south beach we made our wy through the industrial quarter and the housing quarter to the north beach. Jürgen was about to chicken out when we saw a supermarket. That was an indication the area was by no means as poor as we had suspected. I convinced to have a look at the beach, and we spend a lovely day in the sun and sea.
As we had a bit more time thna planned, we decided to go or oualidia, a small but increasingly touristy village on the coast: no wonder. It had a lovely, calm lagoon surrounded by a rocky coast with picturesque rock formations that in combination with waves made very cool wave breaks.
And lastly the most crazy Marrakesh. The main square and touristy souks here had worried me since days, but outside the tourist zone it was a lot more friendly, less money focused and a lot less hasslesome. we visited tanneries (like in taroundant bu these were bigger), most major souks, the old town (medina) where we had a lovely hotel for 20 euros less than original price, the new town with mcdonalds and co. and of course the gardens with lovely, lush flowers.
pictures to come
Thursday, 14 April 2011
Thursday, 10 March 2011
IVDC 2011
best imperial b-team since 20 years:
best B team of all UK unis
chacha solo
best newcomer
third place team
same points as cambridge A, 1 more point than imperial A
14 of 84 in intermediate
successful tournament eh?
:D :D :D
best B team of all UK unis
chacha solo
best newcomer
third place team
same points as cambridge A, 1 more point than imperial A
14 of 84 in intermediate
successful tournament eh?
:D :D :D
Saturday, 26 February 2011
a minor issue with major frustration
And once again I am hugely frustrated - about dancing. I can imagine everyone now rolling there eyes now- Yes, been there done that. Frustration while dancing is nothing new. I have explerienced technique frustration, dancepartner frustration, not dancing frustration, trainer frustration and generalised frustration against anything.
My frustration, I fear, is frustration against everything. My dance partner is starting to get on my nerves. the other people are so arrogant its disgusting, and the teachers just simply suck, because they wont teach you properly. oh yes, and to top it off, i cant do what I am expecting myself to be able to dance.
I need a break from dancing here. I miss my old club, where I had even worse issues, but at least I had the few people that made dancing worthwile and bearable and where I could trust the teacher not to bullshit.
My frustration, I fear, is frustration against everything. My dance partner is starting to get on my nerves. the other people are so arrogant its disgusting, and the teachers just simply suck, because they wont teach you properly. oh yes, and to top it off, i cant do what I am expecting myself to be able to dance.
I need a break from dancing here. I miss my old club, where I had even worse issues, but at least I had the few people that made dancing worthwile and bearable and where I could trust the teacher not to bullshit.
Monday, 21 February 2011
eight days a week
one of those impossible wishes i guess..
it rained. the first rain of the many more to come this year. the dust has settled down on the streets. the air smells of nature for a change. and my mind feels strangely awake.
i try to cram in a million little details about electrolytic cells and hydrostatics. and MY MIND IS TAKING IT ALL IN!! woah i feel wonderful. tht might explain my sudden urge to blog, hurriedly penning/keying in my thoughts before my lappy, running low on battery, dies.
it was wonderful to hear from you Julia. my comp as you know is still stuck in the middle ages, but now my mail also seems to have joined in. gives me awkward messages at awkward momments. so instead of trying to fight with that fiend, im here to say hi!!!!!!!!!!!!
in another less than 80 days i will be done with this overrated pursuit of college.
and i will be FREEEEEE!!!!!! TO D WHAT EVER I WANT::
so here's to the good times to come.
.
.
.
.
.
.
time to go back. i really love those leprechauns that carry the double charge of copper in that maze of enormous water monsters..
it rained. the first rain of the many more to come this year. the dust has settled down on the streets. the air smells of nature for a change. and my mind feels strangely awake.
i try to cram in a million little details about electrolytic cells and hydrostatics. and MY MIND IS TAKING IT ALL IN!! woah i feel wonderful. tht might explain my sudden urge to blog, hurriedly penning/keying in my thoughts before my lappy, running low on battery, dies.
it was wonderful to hear from you Julia. my comp as you know is still stuck in the middle ages, but now my mail also seems to have joined in. gives me awkward messages at awkward momments. so instead of trying to fight with that fiend, im here to say hi!!!!!!!!!!!!
in another less than 80 days i will be done with this overrated pursuit of college.
and i will be FREEEEEE!!!!!! TO D WHAT EVER I WANT::
so here's to the good times to come.
.
.
.
.
.
.
time to go back. i really love those leprechauns that carry the double charge of copper in that maze of enormous water monsters..
Saturday, 12 February 2011
male and female: black and white, or what?
When are you male/female?
This is a simple question, especially at fist thought, but actually so much more complicated. Is it what you look like? what you feel like or whether your cells contain XX or XY?
if your answer is what you look like, or the genetics, what happens to those unfortunate people "born in the wrong body?" Are these transvestites what they look or what they feel like?
Another scenario: you are female, have always been female, have been brought up as a female, and have female secondary sexual characteristics. But when going to the doctor to get advice on how to get pregnant, you dont only find out that you are infertile, but that your genotype is XY. are you male or female?
And what happens to the very few unfortunate babies born with XY but a partially functional testosterone receptor: half the testosterone works, the other half is changed to oestrogen due to the high androgen concentration. you get a mixture of both male and female genitalia. So what are these babies? male? female? and who decides?
and what about the hoard of other issues: sexual orientation, marriage, perspective of yourself and stigma of society.
finally if you are a doctor and your patient has this XY despite looking XX issue: do you tell them and risk deep psychological trauma, or do you not tell them, even though you know?
This is a simple question, especially at fist thought, but actually so much more complicated. Is it what you look like? what you feel like or whether your cells contain XX or XY?
if your answer is what you look like, or the genetics, what happens to those unfortunate people "born in the wrong body?" Are these transvestites what they look or what they feel like?
Another scenario: you are female, have always been female, have been brought up as a female, and have female secondary sexual characteristics. But when going to the doctor to get advice on how to get pregnant, you dont only find out that you are infertile, but that your genotype is XY. are you male or female?
And what happens to the very few unfortunate babies born with XY but a partially functional testosterone receptor: half the testosterone works, the other half is changed to oestrogen due to the high androgen concentration. you get a mixture of both male and female genitalia. So what are these babies? male? female? and who decides?
and what about the hoard of other issues: sexual orientation, marriage, perspective of yourself and stigma of society.
finally if you are a doctor and your patient has this XY despite looking XX issue: do you tell them and risk deep psychological trauma, or do you not tell them, even though you know?
Sunday, 2 January 2011
firecrackers and more
as so often writing this blog seems to be catch up with whatever happened which happend so fast I had no time to record it.
I did get home in the end, and I am very thankful.
Reading your blog entry I was reminded of how I spent those few spectacular, wondorous and quite overrated few minutes in which another year silently and inevitably slips by. I was in Berlin, again, and the first time with Jürgen. having walked through an hour of 30cm snow and a street full of quite slippery ice, I was quite unhappy I realised I would not only be increadibly cold and wet (feet) but also very much in danger by the masses of vacuumeheads which decided they would all squeeze onto the Oberbaum bridge in berlin, fire lots of fireworks, and get very very very drunk. I was not amused. I was even less amused when an ideot firing a firecracker had the face of the kid next to him so close that they got some of the flame which sets the mini rocket off into their face. So we decided we would get away and that super quickly. we found a niche next to the river where you could still watch the firecrackers all around, but were surrounded by less ideots.
It was a wondrous spectacle. As I was standing on snow, the icy coldness and wetness slowly seeped through my shoes into my socks and feet. At the same time, I was curious to watch. I am still amazed at firecrackers and find them great and special every time. All around, 360° you could see firecrackers rise en masse in the 10 minutes before and especially in the 15 minutes after midnight. Then there was also the sparkly wine bottle we had organised earlier, which we now, quite unstylishly, shared between us directly from the bottle. And through the conglomerate of freezing, getting more and more tired, alcohol and busteling people trying to get a decent place to watch or fire off their crackers I realised several distinct things. Things I would never have anticipated a year ago:
I live in london. I realised how much has happened: interview, offer, IB, summer, moving in and freshers and now in jan my first exam. I still feel like a tourist.
I travelled to Costa Rica and organised all of it and learned quite a lot of spanish. I realised how much more self sufficient I have become. I organise many new things by myself: travelling, washing, cleaning, cooking, shopping. and it works!!! I am amazed (and so is my mum)
Jürgen is still around. This is the second new year we have spent together. How many more to come?
The rest of the night is a blur. There is no distinct border between 2010 and 2011, no countdown and no second of "now its the new year". Maybe I have stopped to really make a big deal out of it? Then home to the hotel to change soaking shoes and heat me up. Then back out (people in berlin go out very late) to dance in one of the most famous techno clubs in the world, the tresor. home with the tube in the morning at 5:30, bed at 6:00. Thats not something I do on a regular basis.
happy new year!!! (clinks)
and I will see you soon
I did get home in the end, and I am very thankful.
Reading your blog entry I was reminded of how I spent those few spectacular, wondorous and quite overrated few minutes in which another year silently and inevitably slips by. I was in Berlin, again, and the first time with Jürgen. having walked through an hour of 30cm snow and a street full of quite slippery ice, I was quite unhappy I realised I would not only be increadibly cold and wet (feet) but also very much in danger by the masses of vacuumeheads which decided they would all squeeze onto the Oberbaum bridge in berlin, fire lots of fireworks, and get very very very drunk. I was not amused. I was even less amused when an ideot firing a firecracker had the face of the kid next to him so close that they got some of the flame which sets the mini rocket off into their face. So we decided we would get away and that super quickly. we found a niche next to the river where you could still watch the firecrackers all around, but were surrounded by less ideots.
It was a wondrous spectacle. As I was standing on snow, the icy coldness and wetness slowly seeped through my shoes into my socks and feet. At the same time, I was curious to watch. I am still amazed at firecrackers and find them great and special every time. All around, 360° you could see firecrackers rise en masse in the 10 minutes before and especially in the 15 minutes after midnight. Then there was also the sparkly wine bottle we had organised earlier, which we now, quite unstylishly, shared between us directly from the bottle. And through the conglomerate of freezing, getting more and more tired, alcohol and busteling people trying to get a decent place to watch or fire off their crackers I realised several distinct things. Things I would never have anticipated a year ago:
I live in london. I realised how much has happened: interview, offer, IB, summer, moving in and freshers and now in jan my first exam. I still feel like a tourist.
I travelled to Costa Rica and organised all of it and learned quite a lot of spanish. I realised how much more self sufficient I have become. I organise many new things by myself: travelling, washing, cleaning, cooking, shopping. and it works!!! I am amazed (and so is my mum)
Jürgen is still around. This is the second new year we have spent together. How many more to come?
The rest of the night is a blur. There is no distinct border between 2010 and 2011, no countdown and no second of "now its the new year". Maybe I have stopped to really make a big deal out of it? Then home to the hotel to change soaking shoes and heat me up. Then back out (people in berlin go out very late) to dance in one of the most famous techno clubs in the world, the tresor. home with the tube in the morning at 5:30, bed at 6:00. Thats not something I do on a regular basis.
happy new year!!! (clinks)
and I will see you soon
Saturday, 1 January 2011
another year comes by
it's new year. crackers bursting, and the clinks of sparkly glasses usher in the new year all around as i sit in my bedroom, with the intense desire to be left alone. I'm overwhelmed by the year that went by, cos in my life it has been my most significant and richest year. the year i recognized friendship, love, respect and most of all a renewed desire to live. from this time last year, i have grown immensely (though i continue my existence with a below normal height).
i no longer fear sleeping alone. i am stronger around people and am not carried away by the things they say. i have discovered that the one i love the most in this world is my mum,
i have learnt to stay focused in pursuit of my goal. it's the first time in my life that i have single-mindedly pursued a dream (however unromantic my dream of getting into iit is - - it will lead to greater, bigger, lovelier things I'm sure). it's also the first time that i have sacrificed things i love for a greater cause.
i have discovered the love a third person can offer. its so wondrous to know that even without the bounds of obligation, there can be so much care and love. i have experienced friendships that will last for life and have met people who'l stand by me, no matter what.
i have come to realise that other people have lives as intricate and delicately f****d up as mine and that those sorrows that linger on are nothing but withered flowers that have no place in my beautiful garden.
my dreams have been woven a million times as i rested, sometimes uneasily, every night and woke up in the morning glad to see the sun shining through.
this night as i usher in the new year with the beatles playing in my head, i raise my own imaginary sparkly glass and say , here's to the memories of this year... and to our dreams...May we never stop believing in them. And taking the actions that will make them a reality.
to new beginnings (clink)
wish you a happy new year.
i no longer fear sleeping alone. i am stronger around people and am not carried away by the things they say. i have discovered that the one i love the most in this world is my mum,
i have learnt to stay focused in pursuit of my goal. it's the first time in my life that i have single-mindedly pursued a dream (however unromantic my dream of getting into iit is - - it will lead to greater, bigger, lovelier things I'm sure). it's also the first time that i have sacrificed things i love for a greater cause.
i have discovered the love a third person can offer. its so wondrous to know that even without the bounds of obligation, there can be so much care and love. i have experienced friendships that will last for life and have met people who'l stand by me, no matter what.
i have come to realise that other people have lives as intricate and delicately f****d up as mine and that those sorrows that linger on are nothing but withered flowers that have no place in my beautiful garden.
my dreams have been woven a million times as i rested, sometimes uneasily, every night and woke up in the morning glad to see the sun shining through.
this night as i usher in the new year with the beatles playing in my head, i raise my own imaginary sparkly glass and say , here's to the memories of this year... and to our dreams...May we never stop believing in them. And taking the actions that will make them a reality.
to new beginnings (clink)
wish you a happy new year.
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