World.Wide.Wanderer

I read Sanaa’s blog entry about her film project. She is using her own personal exprience to bring the issue of arranged marriages to the forefront. I think Sanaa’s idea is brave, necessary and interesting. I have great admiration for her ambition to make a film that is so close to her heart and that must be so difficult for her to experience again. However, it is those people that make a stand and use their past for good that change the future.

I think Sanna’s idea will definitely help other Pakistani women that are in the same situation or that fear that they may be in the future. I think it will also be of interest to a wider audience as it is an interesting journey and issue and the attention that you could potentially draw to the issue will be very positive.

It has made me look at the work i have done and am wanting to do in the future. The use of personal experiences explicitly or implicitly are important in creating a strong successful project. I believe that if your heart is involved with something, your attention will be focused so much more than if your heart wasn’t involved.

I have chosen to use personal experriences many times in my work, even this blog and my online documenatry are directly or indirectly realted to people i know or my own experiences, opinions and issues that interest me.

I beleive that writing what you know also has an effect on the ‘believabilty’ of your work to others. If you write what you know, what has happened to you, it will be believable, as opposed to something you have imagined. I am in no way saying that imagination in any way is a bad tool, i think the use of this in combination with personal experiences is what great stories are made of.

There is a presumption that when you elect to participate in a particular activity, say travelling with a group of strangers overseas, or choosing a particular subject at university, that you will learn helpful skills for the future. But what do we really learn?

I have found that often things aren’t what we expect them to be, that what we think we will learn we don’t, sometimes this is dissapointing other times this turns out for the best.

In my travels i have found that i learn about particular aspects of the cultures i visit that i wasn’t expecting to. This has been beneficial for me as usually i learn alot more than i thought i would. Through particular subjects at university i have found numerous times that i have experienced the opposite. Learning to me should be specific i think. It should benefit the reason i am studying a particular course and assist me for the future.

There is nothing worse than having to partcipate in a subject that seems to be irrelevant, that is not taught adequately or set out in inefficiently. Presumption is usually the centre of mistakes. It is the reason that people ultimately fail. Subjects, or those teaching it should not presume this no matter at what level becasue this is not fair.

Learning is something that should be clear, it is something that should allow us, as individuals, to leave a circumstance with more knowledge that what we began with, it should also be helpful to the purpose that we joined or became invloved with the first place, it should also leave us with a feeling of empowerment at its conclusion.

My travelling experiences have done this, university in alot of circumstances has not. I just wonder what others experiences are?

Sanaa referred to Transient Spaces “creating a community”. She believes that the class has been brought together by blogging, trackbacking and the discussion of community itself. I hadn’t thought of the subject having this effect, but when pointed out to me i guess it has.

It makes me think of how different people, put in a common circumstance, place or situation are often put in positions where they ‘have to’ make friendships or communities. This has happened at university, it has also occured to me when i was travelling. You are able to meet people from different backgrounds and cultures, and form interesting and often strong relationships with them.

 ‘Contiki community’ in Monaco

I was just wondering if Sanaa had made these sorts of interetsing and strong realtionships through this community or any others she had not purposely chosen to be a part of?

Ore-voi France arrivadeci Italy. We arrived in Italy today, home of pizza, pasta, and all sorts of delicious food and drinks, including one of my favourite beers, Nastro! Florence was our first port of call we toured the city, saw many statues of David, and shopped throughout the cities many piazza’s. It was here i found my much alluded twenty first birthday dress from a little Italian designer store, which to my joy was half price! It was my best ever bargain, the dress was stunning and fit like a glove, still brings a smile to my face even today.

From Florence to Rome. We explored the city that houses so many significant land marks, including the Colleseum, Pantheon, Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain.It was an expereince that developed my knowledge of the ancient city remarkably.It was also an experience that taught me alot about the Italian culture, even witnessing a proposal between an Italian stranger and one of my travelling partners, Tarryn.

Mobile Phones

May 4th, 2006

Language when travelling is so confusing and amazing. After reading Sanaa’s blog that linked with Andrew’s blog it is interesting to see the way in which language is moderated and adapted to fit into our own needs.Spanglish and Mynglish were interesting concepts to hear about. I felt that through my trip there were many other versions of this. So many places such as Germany, Italy and France there was a combination of languages used with English, and adaptions of both in everyday social dialogue.

Even our group was accomidating this language technique, it attempt to learn the languages while we visited particular countries. Many of our seneteces were a combination of two languages.

I think language is a vital and important factor to look at in regard to travel, and just generally. The way in which we use it and how this changes reflects our society and the way in which we are becoming a global network, interelating with one another on a higher level.

After our fabulous journey of Paris, we headed toward the Meditaranean city of Nice, stopping at Lyon for the night.

Many of our group decided that this was an opportunity to try some French cuisine including frogs legs, crepes and esgargot. My friends and I decided against this, playing it safe with burgers and fries at a PIzza restartaunt./ However we were suprised when we recieved our raw burgers.

After we finished our interesting meal we rode on the Ferris Wheel which lit up the sky. I am fine with heights but for some reason the ride shook me to my core. I was clutching for life on the metal frame as we made circles for what seemed an eternity.

The next day we headed to Nice. Finally there were some blue skies and reasonably warm weather, it was such a nice change. Nice was beautiful, the sky and water so blue it was breathtaking. The day in Nice involved wandering around the town markets, visting the fort that stood at the highest point of Nice and we followed it with a dinner in Monaco, where someone in my group saw Prince Albert!

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SANAA’S BLOG IS COOL!!!!

Hellooooo testing 123….to SANAA’S BLOG.