H E L L O E V E R Y O N E! I’ve just finished my last exam for this semester and I am so relieved to have completed this first semester back at university. It’s been two years since I was last … Continue reading One Semester Closer!
Category: The Student Travels
Columbus, Seasides & Brick Walls [Normandy, France 2019] Part ONE
Coming from an island Christopher Columbus arrived at on his third voyage, and having spent much of my formal education dutifully studying history, such an in depth report and retelling of Columbus’ journey was enticing enough.
Five Years
This started as an experiment, a log, diary sort of thing, turned into a travel blog, a public place to share private emotions. It was a place where I connected with so many people whose feelings at some point or another matched mine. It was … Continue reading Five Years
Les Temps Passé |TAPIF 2017/2018 Strasbourg
I am once again a student, my official title of English Language Assistant in the Academy of Strasbourg is no more. Alas, seven months have passed.
“… Is FEAR Itself”
I’ll challenge myself to use wisdom not fear, to speak words of encouragement not doubt. I’ll learn and grow, not with a spirit of fear but with one of intuition.
I’m sewing a garden bed of clarity.
Becoming Aware of my Bias: Caribbean- “Best in the World”
I am now realising the extent to which, somewhere deep inside of me, I have a bias that the Caribbean, with all of its corruption, poor excuses for self-governance and traditionalism, is the BEST place in the world.
PHOTOBLOG: Autumn Life in France, Germany & Switzerland | TAPIF Two Months Check-In
Ça mache? Yup! That’s life these days. Learning French, teaching English, weekends in Strasbourg, weekdays further south, day trips to Switzerland, camping trips in Germany. I have a lot of catching up to do because of my wishes to do things miraculously. While I only work … Continue reading PHOTOBLOG: Autumn Life in France, Germany & Switzerland | TAPIF Two Months Check-In
Bye University, Bonjour France!
The paper-society that we have constructed frustrates me. However, in as much as I am in this environment, I’ve decided to take advantage of the opportunities presented to me.
One Year Later |A Place to Leave My Heart Behind
It’s 11:11!
I can almost remember this time one year ago. Exactly one year ago, this was my first night in Montreal.
I had a plan but not much of one. I booked the last room, in the last hostel with space in Downtown Montreal. In addition to that, I was booked for only one night. After this night, the 1st of September, 16, there was no more room. With not enough money to pay for a lease, I’d have to wait until my scholarship funds got released to me. Only, I needed to have a lease for the funds to be released.
Around this time, I was making my way up Saint Laurent Avenue trying to find number 3655. The street bustled with bars, restaurants, more hipsters than I’d ever seen before and half drunk freshmen enjoying the ‘frosh’ activities of whichever of the four major universities they now belonged to.
Why was I heading here? A friend that I made a year before in Trinidad, while he was on a student exchange had just moved in. I carried two, half dead doubles for him. Of course, my phone had died and I was a wee bit lost. In those first few days, I was more lost than ‘found’. I had walked 40 minutes West or East in the direction opposite to the one I should have been walking in when trying to find Boulevard Saint Laurent. Now, on the street, I was just as lost.
When I eventually figured out how the numbers ran and which side of the street I should be on, I found the address. Out in front, as with most other buildings, there was a mountain of debris left behind by August 31st movers. Looking up at the old brick building, there was a window open with twentysomethings moving, smoking, chatting and drinking. I wondered whether to call out my friend’s name. I decided against.
Being lost humbles you in so many ways. Being in a large, loud, bright, city, makes me shy. I hung around the door that I couldn’t enter. I had no fob and the apartment number rang with no answer. I hung around because things work themselves out. Doors eventually open for you.
The person to open the door was a tall, lanky guy with a not very Canadian accent. I entered and tried to find the apartment. I got directions after knocking at the wrong door, then entered a place that unbeknownst to me at the time would become my home. Its inhabitants, my people. Its floor, my floor.
But on first days you don’t yet know these things. With my stale doubles and a gift of grapes, I sat there and chatted on chairs that I would sit on for many more times. On first days you don’t know. The people, the culture, the streets, the administration. You don’t know but you soon will. On first days you don’t know if you’ve entered a space that a piece of your spirit, being, vibe, heart, soul, whatever you wish to call it, will never leave.
On first days, you don’t know.
Very soon I’ll be having another first day. If you check back or follow this blog, you can be a part of that journey as well.
Stay in, stay adventurous, stay wild,
Rusharella
Girl, laugh! One on being true to yourself
I wrote this, because that girl was being true to herself. Something that everyone tells you to do but I promise you, it’s easier to move a mountain than to be true to yourself.