Place to go, things to do
The Friday tradition continues...
If you've ever wanted to be a lighthouse keeper (and live by the side of the bay), Traverse City, Michigan, is offering you the chance. The "tiny" 138-year-old lighthouse is at the tip of Old Mission Peninsula (in the northwest part of the state) and is available for $800 a month.
Somewhat related, the vacation rental company Untours (love that name) is offering an enticing package - 14 nights in a cottage in Provence, round-trip airfare from New York, car rental and on-site support for $2,289 per person.
Sea Kayak Adventures has a 6-day trip (by kayak wouldn't you know) around the island archipelago off Port Hardy, British Columbia, an area rich in whales, seals, sea otters and porpoises. The cost of $1,195 includes water taxi from Port Hardy, guides, meals, camping and kayaking gear.
A few festivals of note: The Palo de Mayo (Maypole Festival) takes place throughout the month of - you guessed it - May in - here's the surprise - Nicaragua. Lots of costumes, beauty pageants, reggae dancing, etc.
The fourth annual "Taste Trinidad & Tobago" will take place in Port-of-Spain May 24-25 and focus on the relationship between tradition and food. Restaurant week follows May 26-31.
Jen reminded me that this weekend is the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, so if you're in Southern California you can hear, among others, Pico Iyer talking about his new book on the Dalai Lama.
And if you're in Washington, DC, from May 3-17 many embassies and cultural centers will be opening their doors to visitors.
The Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan has come up with a "The Girls Are Back in Town" package (in honor of the release of the Sex And The City movie) which includes a room at the Roosevelt, cosmos at the new Mad-46 Rooftop Lounge, a Sex And The City Tour, a milk and cookies midnight snack and breakfast in bed. Cost is $521 for two, based on double occupancy and a minimum stay of two nights.
Not to be outdone, out on the west coast Esotouric (another wonderfully named company) and City Lights Books are offering "Haunts of A Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's 'LA' Bus Tour" on May 31 (appropriately, during BookExpo) from 5 pm - 9 pm. The tour will include visits to Skid Row, Crown Hill and favorite bars and liquor stores. There will be no milk and coookies.
Now friends - as the Republican candidate for president likes to say - what interesting things are happening in your backyards?
Comments
A small event in my class yesterday embodied cross-cultural misunderstandings. Santa Monica College has a very large population of international students - many being Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Middle Eastern, and Latin American. All of my classes represent the same mix of people. In a business class yesterday, a Chinese girl gave a presentation about another Chinese-American's business. In the middle of her powerpoint, there was a bulleted slide that said "Mexican Worker." When she reached the bullet, she said "They have Mexican worker...it's good to have Mexican worker, yeah." The class, being probably a quarter Latin American, gave a round of nervous laughter, and the poor girl looked confused and surprised at the reaction. Eventually it came out later in her presentation that it was important for them to have a Spanish-speaking employee because it is the first language of most of their clients. I felt bad, because I knew it wasn't really funny, that I was being impolite, and because I found it hard to stop laughing after the rest of it died down...I had to bite my cheek and pinch my arm to stop. I think it was the presenter's confused look that got me, and the general un-p.c.-ness of her statement. The girl next to me was also quaking with silent laughter, one making the other's attempts to keep quiet even more difficult. If the situation had been in the hands of an American student, perhaps the result would have been different. Professors work hard to avoid these kinds of situations. Can we excuse what sounds like racism if the offender doesn't know any better? And are we to make the girl a pariah because she simply stated what so many employers think already? I really don't know.
Posted by: jen | April 25, 2008 4:00 PM