Tuesday, February 12, 2008

ouT oF sIGhT bUt on My miNd

Well it's been 2 years but
WELCOME BACK TO THE FOLD.

Hope you're happy and rockin' the world post-NU.
Tell us where you're at and what you're up to.

I miss you all so much - you have no idea,
Debs

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Home Sweet Home

27 with light snow. Thought you might want to know.

B

Monday, November 14, 2005

Coming to America

Have you guys ever seen that movie? I love eddie murphy as an African prince. Anyways, I wanted to update you guys on my happenings. I have named this post 'Coming to America' as this weekend was an interesting sample of the US of A. So it began on Thursday nite as I was procrastinating doing physics homework that I found from metromix, the 52nd annual Native American Chicago Pow Wow was starting this weekend. As I missed my chance to go to a pow wow this summer with my parents in Traverse City, MI, I knew I must. My companions on my travel included Bizzle "Rebecca" Nikodem, Taylor Fabulous McNutly and Leila (pronounced Lie la) She doesn't like it said any other way. After wandering through an empty, bad part of town according to the guy who eventually gave us a ride to the UIC Pavilion, we got there right in time for their pow wow. Veteran by veteran, all those of elderly age and who had once served in the army, etc. were introduced and led the dance procession after which the dancers competing that night came in and then after several Native American anthems, the audience was allowed to join in, which we did. Besides the dancing, amazing costumes, we delightfully tasted some fryebread with cherries and mozied around the vendors shops. Their crafts are so beautiful.
Alrite, so that capped and end to day 1. Day 2: komal rises and shine early: 2 pm in the afternoon, I don't know what happened. I was sleep deprived. I do homework, read and eat.
Sunday: Komal rises at 2:30 pm after studying til 6 in the morning. Kanye West concert begins at 7:30 pm. Hansa, my sister came to the concert with me and spent the nite. Getting to the concert remined me of the teenybopper hysteria. Throngs of people running to the next open bus to catch a ride to Welsh-Ryan, where the concert was. So Fantasia, apparently an American Idol winner, opened up. Wearing black hot pants, a silver belt, stilleto black boots and a white formal shirt, Fantasia looked like she had potential. She is one who screams alot. All I can say is that she was NOT triumphant. No victory for her that nite. As my sister told me, "today is the day the music died." In good spirit, however I stood and danced and screamed for even her. Then, Kanye begins his show. He looked really good in his white pants and suit jacket. He hit all the favorites, Jesus Walks, Workout plan and Gold digger. Kanye was fabulous...he had so much energy and rapped like none other. It was great, but in order to dodge the crowd, we left a little early as we were also hungry. So the shuttles were no where to be found, but this cab driver with a person already in the cab let us in and drove us to Clarke's where we had a late nite bite. That was my sister, Taylor and I. We came back and went to bed. It's 8:20 in the mornin' on Monday Nov. 14th....alrite, sorry for the detail of it all...but hope you guys are doing well. Love, the koms

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Trying to throw my arounds around the world...

Alrite, so it's a little tragic that on this blog, it has primarily been Debsta, Me, occasionally Yiran, maybe a Rob and Brian posting...where are the others? Please keep us updated, we miss each other...when you come back next year, you won't be able to remember all the stories from each day or each week, we'll here the spark notes version of your year, perhaps the vivid details and that's it. It doesn't matter to me if you have something that you think is boring to post, please post it. For example, my post right now is very bland and although most of you might not read it, maybe there is one who will even if that one is someone just checking out our blog. Later you guys, smile gone KOmi

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

where are you guys?

Hello...please don't leave me out alone on this blog. You're part of this circle, make yourselves known- komeleon

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

And the fortune teller said...

So Taylor (fellow isrc resident) posted the following fortune on my door, we actually taped it up together...it's in the blank circle on my door...the rest of the circle are filled with globes that symbolize other people's worlds...For exampls, Columbus' World has a compass, Elvis' World has a vinyl record, Armstrong's World (the astronaut) has a moon, and there was one world left that had nothing in it, but now the space is filled with the following message: Lucky #'s 05, 13, 16, 20, 27, 29 and says, "You may attend a party where strange customs prevail" Haha...although Taylor found the fortune, she gave it to me...this was following a discussion in which I told her I wanted to have a feast on a frozen lake in the dead of winter in which everyone attended in their winter garb, I think the image is precious. I am in a giddy mood at the moment; I just came back from my first capoeria class (Brazilian African dance fighting), it was amazing...I love it to bits, if any of you get a chance, please join, it's a lot of fun. I know the Yiran, Dena and Debbie are already on that bandwagon. In other news, I have to now write a paper and study for a midterm, so later alligators, Love Komi.

Saturday, October 08, 2005

Headed to Geneva

Bonjour tout le monde -

Like Michelle, I don't generally go in for the mass email approach, but I figured this was a little different. I've just finished a four-week "orientation period" in Aix-en-Provence and am getting ready to leave for Geneva tomorrow to start the l'annee scolaire. It's been nice here, and being surrounded by fifteen some-odd girls has worked out well so far. The program is through Smith college, so it's me, Shannon, a couple of other girls from other universities, and a mix of "Flag-burners and trannies" (their words, not mine - sort of).
Classes here meant four days a week learning French grammar and culture, and alternating afternoons with a little seminar on the European Union and what they've been up to for the past few years - given by a rigid but smart French lady dubbed "La Petite" when she can't hear - as well as a litterature class where we studied a book by a local author, Jean Giono. Quite a change of pace from Chemistry and a Comp. Lit./film class this summer.
I don't quite know exactly where everyone is or when the weather changes there, so my apologies in advance if I piss anyone off when I say it's been warm here for just about the whole month. Not warm with a lot of wind or hot in the day and freezing at night, just warm/hot/whatever. We had half a week of hard rain and that's it. I can't say much more in particular since they tell me it's ten degrees when I wake up and twenty-three in the afternoon, and I say, that's nice. But despite having to do a conversion every time a look at the forecast, no complaints so far.
Winter's going to be another story, but Geneva really looks like a great city. We landed there the first day and spent the night before coming to Provence. I got the chance to walk around some and see the building where I'll be living. Lot of old buildings, lot of flags, and a big fountain on the side - what more could you ask for? And I move in to the Centre Protestante - only not necessarily for Protestants - on Sunday. I'll be living with six other students - typically the international crowd ends up there since the students from the area live at home - with my own box to sleep in and a communal living area/kitchen/bathroom?
Got to mention my host family here too. I've been living with a retired Catholic mother who raised four boys and a girl in large part by herself and now rents the empty rooms out to students. So also wondering around the house have been a Swedish girl studying the language here, and two students who attend the Sciences Economiques faculty here - one from Ghana and another French. Nightly activities have ranged from cooing at the hedgehog that wonders around the fence or watching goofy French comics to impersonations - good or bad I don't really know yet - of goofy French figures, on the tele.
French politics hit home the other day too. The peuple decided to faire un greve (go on strike), and I had to walk around everywhere until they decided to stop. Not really a big inconvenience for me, but apparently no one hear likes the wave of privatisation and capitalism thats rocking their world at the moment.
Now it's off to the land of chocolate and watches, where everything opens and closes on time I hear. Hope everyone's going fine for everyone, and I'll try to keep this blogging somewhat regular in Geneva.

A bientot,
Rob