Invasion of the Norwegians!
Today, the routine and monotony of Drik & Pathshala was broken by the arrival of the 15+ exchange students from Oslo University, Norway… They came to take part in a month long photojournalism workshop together with the Pathshala students… 4 days of which Jess & I have the privilege to participate in…
They had arrived the day before and were living at Ambrosia…A guesthouse further down Mirpur Road… We never saw them since we were at work and most of them were horribly jetlagged…
I had no idea how much damage they would do to us…
Jessica and I took off midway thru work to attend the welcome talk under the Big Boss’ invitation… We were expecting to go back to work as soon as it was over… But once we got there, we never went back to Drik (to work at least)… We got grouped into groups with the Norwegians and the Pathshala students and went sightseeing!!
There were six in my group… I was the only girl… Topu (not the usual one from Drik… Another one…), Ovid (also a Pathshala guy), Bjorn (pronounced Byeurn… Almost as bad as Gwen for the locals), Ivan (pronounced E-vahn), Eivince (pronounced I-vince)… Yup… Norwegian names are a real killer…
I found it quite easy to talk to Bjorn because he’s only slightly more than a year older than me… (He’s just turned 23 and I’m gonna be 22 soon)… He has a strange impression that I know a lot of Bangla and everytime Topu says something, he expects me to understand it… But seriously, all I did was bring him around Drik and get him some bottled water from Drik mini store…
Ok, he was around when I spoke a little Bangla to my boss… He (my boss) was lying about his mother being Norwegian as an explanation for his knowledge of the Norwegian language… He just spent a year in Norway… That’s all… So, I called my boss a “mitabadi” (liar)… My boss was pleasantly surprised and he thinks I’m turning into a Bengali…
The other person I really enjoyed talking to, in the group, was Topu… He’s 24 and is as friendly and funny as the Drik Topu…haha! He was our ‘tour guide’ and brought us to a few different places… He’s very friendly to the stranger kids and even went to join them in playing cricket! I thought that was really sweet… I really wish I knew what the kids are saying in Bangla… That’s my goal… All the kids speak better Bengali than me!!
So, everytime Topu says something in Bengali, I’d ask him to translate it… Or I’d think of something I want to learn and ask him for the translation… On one rickshaw ride where I was with Topu, the rickshaw driver could understand a bit of English and started to ask Topu to translate what we were saying into Bengali… The opposite of what I was asking for! Bengali to English translation… It was cool! That rickshaw driver could explain to me in English that “Bhalo Achi” is “I’m fine”! Wow!
Topu’s quite “ollosh” (lazy)… So he very quickly picked up my boss’ trick of speaking to me nonchalantly in Bengali… no translation… Pretty annoying but funny… I tried to explain that I couldn’t speak Bengali… But he asked me “ki bhalo na” (what’s not good?)… it’s the whole irony of telling people that you can’t speak Bengali in Bengali… “ami Bangla bolte pari na”… I say it so often that I actually sound fluent saying it!
Ok… Enough of my Bangla antics… There’s really a lot more… Like how I started telling little stranger girls and boys that they look pretty… And how I bought peanuts from a little boy for Tk3… Topu bargained it down from Tk4… But I shall not get into that… Even though the Norwegians were totally impressed! (They’re gonna realize how silly that is when they learn to do it themselves…)
We saw so much today!
We went to the Jatiya Sriti Saudha or the National Martyrs Memorial… The journey there was very nice… We took rickshaws there… 2 to 1 rickshaw… We went pass the older and more primitive parts of Dhaka… There were old shophouses… and when we approached the river, we saw paddy fields and brick factories on one side, and people’s simple housing on the other side… The view was breathtaking… (Sidetrack: It’s very strange when 6 people walk around with cameras at hand… We attracted so much attention! A lot, and I mean a lot, of people stared at us…Good thing it was in an open place so they didn’t congregate around us… They just stood near us, hoping to have their pictures taken…)
The memorial was a simple brick structure next to the Bangsi River… The memorial was small and simple… But the River was gorgeous! I would love to tell you that the waters were crystal blue turquoise... But I would be lying through my teeth… The water was black and polluted… Not helped by the residents and tourists who throw their rubbish overboard... We paid Tk200 in total to hire a boat to ride down the river… Just the six of us! Quite a good bargain… The ride was so cooling and nice… We saw three kids rowing a boat and one of the kids was flying a kite! Everytime we saw people in other boats or on the shore, we’d wave and smile at them… And take their pictures… Think they loved it… The boat ride lasted one pleasant hour…
After that, we took a rickshaw to old Dhaka to find the Fort Museum… But we got there too late and it was closed… On the way back, I saw the New Market… I really want to go there sometime to shop… But that plan is being hampered by the silly 60hr Hartal that started yesterday… And the next upcoming one that will be from 2 Feb to 7 Feb… Disgusting…
Oh yeah… Topu introduced me to a small fruit sold on the streets… It looks like a cherry but it’s dipped in some salt and tastes a bit sweet and a bit bitter… Can’t remember the name… Maybe Az can help again… I only had one… I gave the rest back to Topu…
The day was ended with a very nice dinner party thrown here in Pathshala… We had chapattis and kebabs! Very nice… But the chapattis were really filling…
Although Jess & I are not sure what’s going to happen next, since we only get to attend certain programs of the whole exchange, but things have been shaken up already… We’ve gotten out of Mirpur Road and Dhanmondi… We got to know new people from Pathshala and Norway… I think we’ll be busy with the workshop (for which we are going to need to submit our portfolios…) and our proposals… But when it’s offday or after work, we now have new tour guides (meaning the students) to bring us out!
I can hardly wait to see what February is going to bring… Besides the silly 6 day hartal of cos…
They had arrived the day before and were living at Ambrosia…A guesthouse further down Mirpur Road… We never saw them since we were at work and most of them were horribly jetlagged…
I had no idea how much damage they would do to us…
Jessica and I took off midway thru work to attend the welcome talk under the Big Boss’ invitation… We were expecting to go back to work as soon as it was over… But once we got there, we never went back to Drik (to work at least)… We got grouped into groups with the Norwegians and the Pathshala students and went sightseeing!!
There were six in my group… I was the only girl… Topu (not the usual one from Drik… Another one…), Ovid (also a Pathshala guy), Bjorn (pronounced Byeurn… Almost as bad as Gwen for the locals), Ivan (pronounced E-vahn), Eivince (pronounced I-vince)… Yup… Norwegian names are a real killer…
I found it quite easy to talk to Bjorn because he’s only slightly more than a year older than me… (He’s just turned 23 and I’m gonna be 22 soon)… He has a strange impression that I know a lot of Bangla and everytime Topu says something, he expects me to understand it… But seriously, all I did was bring him around Drik and get him some bottled water from Drik mini store…
Ok, he was around when I spoke a little Bangla to my boss… He (my boss) was lying about his mother being Norwegian as an explanation for his knowledge of the Norwegian language… He just spent a year in Norway… That’s all… So, I called my boss a “mitabadi” (liar)… My boss was pleasantly surprised and he thinks I’m turning into a Bengali…
The other person I really enjoyed talking to, in the group, was Topu… He’s 24 and is as friendly and funny as the Drik Topu…haha! He was our ‘tour guide’ and brought us to a few different places… He’s very friendly to the stranger kids and even went to join them in playing cricket! I thought that was really sweet… I really wish I knew what the kids are saying in Bangla… That’s my goal… All the kids speak better Bengali than me!!
So, everytime Topu says something in Bengali, I’d ask him to translate it… Or I’d think of something I want to learn and ask him for the translation… On one rickshaw ride where I was with Topu, the rickshaw driver could understand a bit of English and started to ask Topu to translate what we were saying into Bengali… The opposite of what I was asking for! Bengali to English translation… It was cool! That rickshaw driver could explain to me in English that “Bhalo Achi” is “I’m fine”! Wow!
Topu’s quite “ollosh” (lazy)… So he very quickly picked up my boss’ trick of speaking to me nonchalantly in Bengali… no translation… Pretty annoying but funny… I tried to explain that I couldn’t speak Bengali… But he asked me “ki bhalo na” (what’s not good?)… it’s the whole irony of telling people that you can’t speak Bengali in Bengali… “ami Bangla bolte pari na”… I say it so often that I actually sound fluent saying it!
Ok… Enough of my Bangla antics… There’s really a lot more… Like how I started telling little stranger girls and boys that they look pretty… And how I bought peanuts from a little boy for Tk3… Topu bargained it down from Tk4… But I shall not get into that… Even though the Norwegians were totally impressed! (They’re gonna realize how silly that is when they learn to do it themselves…)
We saw so much today!
We went to the Jatiya Sriti Saudha or the National Martyrs Memorial… The journey there was very nice… We took rickshaws there… 2 to 1 rickshaw… We went pass the older and more primitive parts of Dhaka… There were old shophouses… and when we approached the river, we saw paddy fields and brick factories on one side, and people’s simple housing on the other side… The view was breathtaking… (Sidetrack: It’s very strange when 6 people walk around with cameras at hand… We attracted so much attention! A lot, and I mean a lot, of people stared at us…Good thing it was in an open place so they didn’t congregate around us… They just stood near us, hoping to have their pictures taken…)
The memorial was a simple brick structure next to the Bangsi River… The memorial was small and simple… But the River was gorgeous! I would love to tell you that the waters were crystal blue turquoise... But I would be lying through my teeth… The water was black and polluted… Not helped by the residents and tourists who throw their rubbish overboard... We paid Tk200 in total to hire a boat to ride down the river… Just the six of us! Quite a good bargain… The ride was so cooling and nice… We saw three kids rowing a boat and one of the kids was flying a kite! Everytime we saw people in other boats or on the shore, we’d wave and smile at them… And take their pictures… Think they loved it… The boat ride lasted one pleasant hour…
After that, we took a rickshaw to old Dhaka to find the Fort Museum… But we got there too late and it was closed… On the way back, I saw the New Market… I really want to go there sometime to shop… But that plan is being hampered by the silly 60hr Hartal that started yesterday… And the next upcoming one that will be from 2 Feb to 7 Feb… Disgusting…
Oh yeah… Topu introduced me to a small fruit sold on the streets… It looks like a cherry but it’s dipped in some salt and tastes a bit sweet and a bit bitter… Can’t remember the name… Maybe Az can help again… I only had one… I gave the rest back to Topu…
The day was ended with a very nice dinner party thrown here in Pathshala… We had chapattis and kebabs! Very nice… But the chapattis were really filling…
Although Jess & I are not sure what’s going to happen next, since we only get to attend certain programs of the whole exchange, but things have been shaken up already… We’ve gotten out of Mirpur Road and Dhanmondi… We got to know new people from Pathshala and Norway… I think we’ll be busy with the workshop (for which we are going to need to submit our portfolios…) and our proposals… But when it’s offday or after work, we now have new tour guides (meaning the students) to bring us out!
I can hardly wait to see what February is going to bring… Besides the silly 6 day hartal of cos…
posted by thebemusedphotog @ 11:30 PM
1 Comments:
"a cherry but it’s dipped in some salt and tastes a bit sweet and a bit bitter" --> Ok, it is called "kool" or "boroi". Its very tasty. I am jealous of u, I am missing all those sitting here in Canada, when I am a Bangladeshi, but u r enjoying it :(
Nasser
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