Sunday, January 29, 2006

witness of a communist demonstration





Yesterday I went to Basel with a nonrotary exchange student from eugene oregon who lives in the next town over here...we were in a store, then come out and one of the main streets is absolutely full with people. Dressed in black, with masks on, shouting things in what I believe was Russian, and were carrying huge signs. Well it turns out it was a communist demonstation...anti democracy. We had no idea it was going to be happening, but there were a load of people there from news companies and stuff. I would guess there were approximately 2000 people marching through the streets of Basel...from all around the world, or just Europe perhaps, no idea. But they had signs in Gerrman, french, spanish, english, russian, turkish, and some asian languages. Lots of shouting in foreign languages too. Eryn and I decided to be as non american as possible at the moment. There was no violence, but still a little creepy. Really kinda surreal actually...Ive never seen anything like that...and these people were carrying huge picutures and flags with Stalin, Lenin, Ho Chi Mihn, Castro, Karl Marx, and Engels on them...and more that I forget or didnt recognize. They also had MANY signs with the USSR flags symbol, the hammer crossed with the sickle (yes I just looked that word up becasue I never knew what those things are called) and the star. you can see that on the top picture. so that was an interesting experience. and boooohoooooooooooooooooo i am saaaaddddd......my exchange is just about half over......cry.....

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

that's kinda cool, jus cause it'sa experience yer not gunna get here in the us of a, y'know? more world knowledge and whatnot. and by the way, yer right, that's a dang good-lookin crepe. mmm. all that fruit... yum.

so yesterday i went and hung out with Maria, the chilean-american girl who is outbound to taiwan. she lives in dowtown houston, and us and a whole bunch of her friends went to this 24-hour greek restuarant called Bibas downtown, and eventually thaere was about 14 of us, all of them people i didn't know, and then we all went back to maria's house and hung out drinking tea and eating ice cream and talking until like 2-ish, and then all the guys (includin a very cute quiet one named Flash - awesome name, no?) left, and so did some f the girls, and it was just me, maria, her two brothers (sergio, 1, and danny, 10) and her two friend jack (short for jacklyn) and katie. we put in a movie, but maria and jack fell asleep before it was over, and katie and i stayed up for it all. it wasn't over until about five, and we got up at nine, so i only got like four hours of sleep :| oh well. i hope i don't get sick; but it was worth it.

all those kids were so much nicer and cooler than almost all of clear lake high... they all go or went to last year the houston public art school... mom thought about sending me there but unless we lived downtown it would be really har dot get into, so i go to poopy clear lake instead :( oh well - it's only one year... and like you said, it's hal fover. sad for you... but not for me :) brasil!

anyhows, maria invited me to go out to a discotheque with her and some friends this friday.. i hope i can go :| ... mom might not let me, since she lives like 45 minutes away.... but if mom drve me halfway there, and then maria drove the other half and picked me up... dang, i need to leanr to drive. sigh. well, i lurve you!

mel o'knee

ps i think i'll send this to the gang too, it's so long...

Anonymous said...

Well kari.. it looks like Europens are wild and crazy!! Im sitting here wondering if I am going to survive the night... the wind is blowing like mad and it feel's as if there is a permanent earthquake going on in my trailer that doesnt ever stop...Good thing it wasnt an earthquake though because that would mean Blaine needs to run to high ground.. I was looking at a tsunami warning map of Arcata.. and the places it would hit first... yup thats me I would be under water at 5 ft above sea level so I gotta book it on outa here.. I guess in reality I feel like the ants that I try to suck up with the vaccum that hold on for dear life as I attempt to end there lives... to bad that they are stronger than the pull of the vaccum and withstand its sucking capacity.. piece of garbage mom got me at a yard sale.. Hmmm the wind just died my exciting night just ended.. how boring.. I guess I will just keep playing my game pin the finger on the ant.. Oh the winds back.. it just died for a few minutes. Well... I spose I shall get to bed its 11:10 good bye

Anonymous said...

blaine's post made me laugh. crazy relatives.

Anonymous said...

Kari.. I just saw something I thought that you should know about.. There was an old man riding his bike down the street... It wasnt juist any bike though... Ive seen it before close up it had little figurines on the handle bars glued in place... the figures are all ceramic or plastic looks to be the seven drawf's but there is more than seven... more like 15 and on top of that he had a parrot on his shoulder... maybe his previous occupation was a scallywag on a ship!