|
|
Post by me on Jan 21, 2008 9:41:21 GMT -5
Last week, I saw the movie "Guelwaar", by the African director Sembene, who lived in France for some time. It's set in the director's home country of Senegal, with the underlying subtext of Christian/Muslim tensions. About half the movie is in French, and half in the Senegalese language. Richard Yancey, a guy i knew in high school (actually, i knew his older brother much better) who's now a Presbyterian minister, has spent some years in Senegal with his Seattle born wife, Wendy, as missionaries. actually, i think they met when they were both missionaries in Nigeria. (before he'd left for Nigeria all those years ago, i'd given him some Chinua Achebe to read. figured he might be better accepted if he showed the local culture the respect of knowing a bit about it. turned out he was sent to Northern Nigeria - Hausa country - which is a different culture) before they went to Senegal, they were sent to Albertville, France, to learn French, the official language in Senegal. but, once they got to Senegal, they discovered Wolof to be the lingua franca of the Wolof people to whom they were evangelizing. the Wolof are the biggest ethnic group in Senegal, per Richard. |
|
|
|
Post by CuriousToronto on Nov 29, 2008 21:20:31 GMT -5
I know I've done this one before........but I think I should update it. Here goes! 1) Name: Curious Toronto (lol - Karen) 2) Height: 5'5" 3) Occupation: Lawyer ;D (remember when I first started writing here and I hadn't even applied to law school yet? I'll always remember sharing the good news with you guys - my hands were still shaking when I wrote that post) 4) What do you do on Sundays? depends - Sundays are generally a lazy day. But I like to work out, sleep late, and hang out with the boy! 5) What languages can you speak? English, Spanish (my mother tongue), French, and a teensy bit of Italian 6) Who has had the most influence on you? Probably my mother 7) What's on your "To Do" list? Get married in the next year to year and a half, travel, buy a home, travel, did I mention travel?  8) Discribe your living situation: I have recently moved from beautiful Victoria on the West Coast of Canada (I'm a Toronto native) to the British Columbia Rockies! I can see the mountains from my window and that makes me smile. The remind me of my Gimmelwald.  9) Previous Halloween costumes: I didn't dress-up when I was little. None. 10) Your dream job: I think my current job comes pretty close..........but if there could be a way to mix up law, travel, foreign languages, and international issues into one job, I'd be there! lol |
|
|
|
Post by Eagle on Nov 30, 2008 0:34:57 GMT -5
CuriousToronto, THERE YOU ARE!!! I wondered if you had forgotten about us, but it's nice to hear from you again.
In your "updated profile", I didn't see any mention of an impending trip or any current planning for one? Hopefully you and "the boy" are planning another European adventure? You'll have to read some of the other posts here to get up to date on what the GFE group has been doing lately.
Congratulations on "passing the Bar" (I think that's what it's called, isn't it?). Yes, I do remember your previous posts when you were accepted to Law School. I was curious on your new home in the "Rockies". Send me a PM if you don't want to post the location. I'm sort of in the same area (Okanagan Valley).
Cheers!
|
|
|
|
Post by jennifer on Nov 30, 2008 21:02:57 GMT -5
Oh Gimmelwald Congrats CT! Félicitations! C'est vraiment génial! |
|
|
|
Post by madamtrashheap on Nov 30, 2008 21:53:29 GMT -5
Welcome back CT! Great news about "officially" being a Lawyer too! ;D
|
|
|
|
Post by WillTravel on Nov 30, 2008 22:28:41 GMT -5
CT, very interesting to hear more of your personal evolution in the past few years. That's great you have a position you enjoy.
|
|
|
|
Post by CuriousToronto on Dec 21, 2008 11:59:20 GMT -5
Thanks everyone!! It's good to be back!  Believe me, I hadn't forgotten about you. Far from it!!! In fact whenever someone tells me they're planning a Europe trip I still rave about Guide for Europe and refer them to this message board. I just haven't been to Europe since my last trip and didn't feel I had much to contribute. And unfortunately there aren't any Europe trips planned in the next little while! Boo!! lol See I've been, for the time being, banned from taking long or expensive trips. The boy and I hope to get married early in 2010 so that is money that could be used for that instead. But don't worry - I still haven't forgotten my traveling ways. We plan on getting married in Latin America...........the location is a bit of a toss-up but it's between Antigua (Guatemala), San Miguel de Allende (Mexico), Roatan (Honduras), and Tulum (Mexico). If anyone wants to start a Guide for Mexico message board I may be able to help there in the future!  As for where I live now - it's Cranbrook, BC. Not a beautiful city but the surrounding scenery is stunning! Which makes me a happy camper. I miss Victoria a great deal though - much more than I thought I would!! Anywho - I'll be checking in once in a while. Wouldn't want to lose touch with my friends. Other than that you can find me on facebook (PM me and I can add you), or on my blogs: kepenate.blog-city.com (that's the one I started when I went to Paris so if you go back in the archives you can read those entries - way back in 2003). And then there is my weight loss/fitness blog: tobethewholepackage.blogspot.com (happy to report I don't look anything like I did in my Paris pictures - I lost 65lbs ) CT |
|
|
|
Post by WillTravel on Dec 21, 2008 15:00:42 GMT -5
CT, I am going to San Miguel de Allende later this week, so I'll send you a message about how I like it. All of those sound like great honeymoon ideas.
It sounds like things are going great for you! Merry Christmas, Happy New Year!
Or should I say,
Feliz Navidad y Prospero Año Nuevo.
|
|
|
|
Post by CuriousToronto on Dec 21, 2008 18:22:52 GMT -5
CT, I am going to San Miguel de Allende later this week, so I'll send you a message about how I like it. All of those sound like great honeymoon ideas. It sounds like things are going great for you! Merry Christmas, Happy New Year! Or should I say, Feliz Navidad y Prospero Año Nuevo. Oh yes please!! I'd love to hear what you think about the place! I haven't visited but everyone seems to rave about it. And I think it would give me an opportunity to explore my Hispanic side at my wedding (and at a locale safer than El Salvador)! Buen Viaje!!!! Toma muchas fotos!! |
|
|
|
Post by WillTravel on Dec 22, 2008 4:30:24 GMT -5
CT, I should say I *was* going to SMA!
I had to change my plans, because I just discovered earlier on Sunday that the airline I was going to fly in Mexico, Alma de Mexico, went bankrupt. I was double-checking my flight times for later in the week, so I could book a shuttle, and found the sad news (www.alma.com.mx). This bankruptcy happened in November. I didn't get any notice. I should have noticed before now, but luckily I did notice now.
So I have changed my plans. The origin of this trip was a free ticket, which I am taking Seattle - El Paso. So from El Paso, instead of my original plan of crossing the border and flying to Leon (near SMA), I will instead take the bus to Zacatecas.
Mexican first-class buses are supposed to be very good. It's a long bus ride, but I will bring a lot of books, and I don't mind that. Also, this way I don't have to buy any other flights or prepay anything ahead of time, and the way the weather looks now, I wonder if I will ever get off the ground! Zacatecas is supposed to be a very beautiful town, so let's hope my new plan works.
And AMEX will give me my money back for the flights on the bankrupt carrier.
|
|
|
|
Post by Eagle on Dec 22, 2008 11:32:30 GMT -5
C.T., first of all, congratulations on your engagement! It's great to hear that everything is going so well. I assume you're practising Law now?
I was going to make a suggestion regarding your wedding plans. When I make travel plans, I usually try to look for the most creative options and those that allow me to accomplish as much as possible. Another option for your wedding might be to hold it in Spain rather than Mexico. Think of all the exotic locations you could visit on the honeymoon (French Riviera, Cinque Terre, Lago di Como!) and of course the "piece de resistance" would be to finish in Paris! I assume you're still fluent in both French and Spanish? BTW, I'm still struggling to become fluent in Italian. By 2010 there may be direct flights to Europe from Kelowna, so travel would be fairly straightforward (of course, Calgary or Vancouver are good also). Just a thought......
Cranbrook - what a coincidence! I'm "dating myself" a bit, but I lived there for about a year in 1976 / 77. I really liked the town as (at that time) it had somewhat of a "small town ambience" (that might have changed now?). However, I do remember that it gets bitterly cold in the winter at times, more so than here in the Okanagan (although this winter it's been "bitter" everywhere).
Good luck with your weight loss / fitness regimen! 65 lbs. - that's awesome! You'll have to give me a few tips, as that's something I've been struggling with for a while.
Cheers!
|
|
|
|
Post by CuriousToronto on Dec 24, 2008 0:10:01 GMT -5
C.T., first of all, congratulations on your engagement! It's great to hear that everything is going so well. I assume you're practising Law now? I was going to make a suggestion regarding your wedding plans. When I make travel plans, I usually try to look for the most creative options and those that allow me to accomplish as much as possible. Another option for your wedding might be to hold it in Spain rather than Mexico. Think of all the exotic locations you could visit on the honeymoon (French Riviera, Cinque Terre, Lago di Como!) and of course the "piece de resistance" would be to finish in Paris! I assume you're still fluent in both French and Spanish? BTW, I'm still struggling to become fluent in Italian. By 2010 there may be direct flights to Europe from Kelowna, so travel would be fairly straightforward (of course, Calgary or Vancouver are good also). Just a thought...... Good luck with your weight loss / fitness regimen! 65 lbs. - that's awesome! You'll have to give me a few tips, as that's something I've been struggling with for a while. Cheers! Eagle: LOL No formal engagement yet. The formality of it all (getting down on one nee and all that jazz will come in the next couple of months. But it's as good as a done deal! And because we know we'll have a destination wedding we'd like to be pretty good to go shortly after a formal engagement. And alas there will be no European weddings for me. Unfortunately, it would be prohibitively costly for a lot of my guests. Especially the American ones and the Latin American ones. In fact part of the reason we are consider Latin America is that it would allow my great-grandmother to be there. She's almost 100 and it would be awesome if she could attend! And yup to answer your question I'm practicing now . . . I'm a criminal prosecutor. Life is indeed good! |
|
|
|
Post by WillTravel on Dec 24, 2008 5:43:05 GMT -5
Wow, CT - that is wonderful that you have your great-grandmother. Good luck with all the planning and deciding!
|
|
|
|
Post by CuriousToronto on Mar 27, 2009 15:59:36 GMT -5
Hello Everyone!!!!! ;D Back with some good news! I am formally engaged now. The boy asked this past Monday and after some jumping up and down I said yes! lol You can read all about it on my blog post here: tobethewholepackage.blogspot.com/2009/03/someday-somebodys-going-to-ask-you.htmlStill thinking Mexico for the wedding! In fact I am heading there with the boy and my mom in June to scout locations around Tulum! Anywho thought I'd share my good news!!! |
|
|
|
Post by Eagle on Mar 27, 2009 22:59:04 GMT -5
Karen,
Fantastic news! I'll be the first to say CONGRATULATIONS!!! You and "the boy" look very happy. ;D
Have you decided yet where and when the wedding will be held? In our previous discussions, you mentioned "Latin America", but nowhere specific. Perhaps they could hold the ceremony in Spanish?
While all your relatives will be able to attend, you'll probably have to do some research to find a good wedding Photographer. If you need a recommendation, send me a PM.
|
|
