Our Final is only two weeks away and since there's going to be a listening comprehension on the exam I thought it might not be a bad idea to get some practice. I decided to listen to one of the programmes on Here on Earth, which was titled “Life of a Modern Nomad”.
Jean Feraca’s guest is Stephanie Elizondo Griest who is a world traveller, journalist, ac
tivist and author (her latest book is “100 Places Every Woman Should Go”). Stephanie describes herself as modern nomad who is constantly moving from one country to the other. What distinguishes her from a traveller though, is that she doesn’t travel for landscape, food or museums but for human interaction. Nomads travel out of necessity and are constantly searching for better hunting, planting and feeding grounds - Stephanie is likewise constantly searching for material for her writing and her art. She is a nomad out of choice, which also entails making a lot of sacrifices, even if it just means that she can’t be part of any club or, just to give an example, attend a dancing course. She also couldn’t live the way she does if she was in any committed relationship, had a child or a sick person to take care off.
Right now, Stephanie is staying at a writer’s retreat in Nebraska where she working on her new book. There are hundreds of such artist residences in the US and around the world, which are set up by wealthy people who are dedicating their life to art. Artists go to these retreats in order to get inspiration and some uninterrupted time to work. Most of these residences are free or only charge a small amount of money.
One of the best experiences Stephanie’s ever had, was the time she spend as a ‘trekker’ traveling across the United States, documenting history that is generally overlooked in classroom textbooks for a non-profit educational website called The Odyssey. Stephanie was part of a very diverse team, including, among others, an African American, Native American, Asian, Iranian and a Chicano (herself). It was their job to write about history of the perspective of the people they represented. What made it even more adventurous for them was that they only had 15 dollars a day at their disposal, so they mainly had to depend on the kindness of strangers. During that time, Stephanie learned that Americans are much more hospital than she had imagined, since she spent many great nights with people who offered to take her team in without even hesitating.
Jean Feraca’s guest is Stephanie Elizondo Griest who is a world traveller, journalist, ac
tivist and author (her latest book is “100 Places Every Woman Should Go”). Stephanie describes herself as modern nomad who is constantly moving from one country to the other. What distinguishes her from a traveller though, is that she doesn’t travel for landscape, food or museums but for human interaction. Nomads travel out of necessity and are constantly searching for better hunting, planting and feeding grounds - Stephanie is likewise constantly searching for material for her writing and her art. She is a nomad out of choice, which also entails making a lot of sacrifices, even if it just means that she can’t be part of any club or, just to give an example, attend a dancing course. She also couldn’t live the way she does if she was in any committed relationship, had a child or a sick person to take care off.Right now, Stephanie is staying at a writer’s retreat in Nebraska where she working on her new book. There are hundreds of such artist residences in the US and around the world, which are set up by wealthy people who are dedicating their life to art. Artists go to these retreats in order to get inspiration and some uninterrupted time to work. Most of these residences are free or only charge a small amount of money.
One of the best experiences Stephanie’s ever had, was the time she spend as a ‘trekker’ traveling across the United States, documenting history that is generally overlooked in classroom textbooks for a non-profit educational website called The Odyssey. Stephanie was part of a very diverse team, including, among others, an African American, Native American, Asian, Iranian and a Chicano (herself). It was their job to write about history of the perspective of the people they represented. What made it even more adventurous for them was that they only had 15 dollars a day at their disposal, so they mainly had to depend on the kindness of strangers. During that time, Stephanie learned that Americans are much more hospital than she had imagined, since she spent many great nights with people who offered to take her team in without even hesitating.
Stephanie also tells us about a website called “Let me stay for a day”. It’s set up by a guy who decided to travel around the world for two years without any money in his pocket. On his website he would write where he was going next and that he was looking for places to stay. People were even fighting to have him for a day since in exchange for their hospitality he would put a little story about them online.
During her life, Stephanie had the opportunity to spend some time with different groups of Mongolian nomads. 30% of all Mongolians are fully or semi nomadic, travelling by horseback from one place to the other. One important thing she learned from these nomads is to pack and live extremely lightly. But just like the Mongolian nomads, there are a few devotional and nostalgic items that she constantly carries with her no matter where she goes. These special items give her a little bit of grounding wherever she is. Mongolians see their entire homeland (Mongolia) as their home – Stephanie feels at home in the whole world. For her, ‘home’ is a deep little place inside of us.
No comments:
Post a Comment