In the Truman Show, one of my favorite movies ever, Truman has dreams of going to Fiji. Someone asks him where Fiji is and Truman shows him on a globe and says, "You can't go any further away before you start coming back."
I'm feeling a bit that way about this new city. There is an eleven hour time change between here and Sudan/Kenya. Eleven hours! I am on the opposite side of the world!
I am madly in love with my little apartment. I just sit in it for hours, and look around and smile and say, "This is MY APARTMENT!" Mine.
But I can feel Africa over on the other side of the world and it won't be long before I start coming back.
I marked New Year's Day at 1 p.m. (East Africa), 2 p.m. (Central Africa), 4 p.m. (West Africa), 9 p.m. (Eastern U.S.), and 12 a.m. (Western U.S.).
I went to a bar on New Year's Eve where live entertainment was provided by an "Afro-beat" band. I might PERHAPS have made fun of the white guys in African shirts. (No comment.) My friend asked me what I thought of the music and I said, "Well, it's a lot like someone took African music and just threw it at jazz. It's not very common to have saxophones in African music" It had a good beat and we all danced a lot, but the sound of the drum made me homesick for going out in Africa. I hate going out in the U.S. Going out in the U.S. is so LOUD and you can't talk to one another and the purposes seem to be two: 1. to get drunk. 2. to pick up men/women, depending on one's persuasion. In Africa, one can hear oneself think at bars and the purpose is to sit back and talk to people, new and old.
"You can't go any further away before you start coming back."
...
(Random unrelated Fiji side story: one year in college, my roommate's parents came to visit her right after they had made a trip to Australia and Fiji. They were telling me about the trip when I met them and regarding Fiji they said, "It was so terribly poor. It ruined our vacation, to have to see so many poor people, just all along the road like that with their awful little huts." I very nearly choked on my water and I got out of there as soon as I could. Yes, it IS terrible, isn't it, when the wealthy white people of the world have to so much as SEE that not everyone in the world is wealthy and white? It just RUINS one's expensive vacation.)
I'm feeling a bit that way about this new city. There is an eleven hour time change between here and Sudan/Kenya. Eleven hours! I am on the opposite side of the world!
I am madly in love with my little apartment. I just sit in it for hours, and look around and smile and say, "This is MY APARTMENT!" Mine.
But I can feel Africa over on the other side of the world and it won't be long before I start coming back.
I marked New Year's Day at 1 p.m. (East Africa), 2 p.m. (Central Africa), 4 p.m. (West Africa), 9 p.m. (Eastern U.S.), and 12 a.m. (Western U.S.).
I went to a bar on New Year's Eve where live entertainment was provided by an "Afro-beat" band. I might PERHAPS have made fun of the white guys in African shirts. (No comment.) My friend asked me what I thought of the music and I said, "Well, it's a lot like someone took African music and just threw it at jazz. It's not very common to have saxophones in African music" It had a good beat and we all danced a lot, but the sound of the drum made me homesick for going out in Africa. I hate going out in the U.S. Going out in the U.S. is so LOUD and you can't talk to one another and the purposes seem to be two: 1. to get drunk. 2. to pick up men/women, depending on one's persuasion. In Africa, one can hear oneself think at bars and the purpose is to sit back and talk to people, new and old.
"You can't go any further away before you start coming back."
...
(Random unrelated Fiji side story: one year in college, my roommate's parents came to visit her right after they had made a trip to Australia and Fiji. They were telling me about the trip when I met them and regarding Fiji they said, "It was so terribly poor. It ruined our vacation, to have to see so many poor people, just all along the road like that with their awful little huts." I very nearly choked on my water and I got out of there as soon as I could. Yes, it IS terrible, isn't it, when the wealthy white people of the world have to so much as SEE that not everyone in the world is wealthy and white? It just RUINS one's expensive vacation.)
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