Oberlin Blogs

The Nomad Narratives, August Edition

August 27, 2012

Chinwe Okona ’13

How quickly the time flies. I join you again; from the same place we began this journey--30,000 feet in the air, in some unknown time zone, somewhere over Middle America. The past two weeks have been a bit of a blur; wrapping up valuable time spent is never simple and never easy. As I hinted, on August 1st, I found myself back in the 'West Bay' and once again living in the lower Haight. Unlike the rest of my summer, where I found myself primarily residing on whichever side of the bay I was currently living, I did not spend much time in San Francisco. I discovered I had grown roots, substantial 'oak' roots to be exact. In fact the only thing that kept me from spending entire weeks back at my July home was the fact that my job was so much more accessible from the lower Haight than from Fruitvale. My weekends, however, were devoted wholly to Oakland and all its beautiful intricacies. My summer of love concluded with goodbyes told between jokes, over endless glasses of homemade sangria.

Here's where I insert a photo montage of Bay Area folks and things and happenings:

People want to slap the Golden Gate Bridge on everything, but let's be honest: the Bay Bridge is where it's at.

Close up of a student looking at something not pictured

My friend Nicole at the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair; Nicole biked to the Bay from Canada. Amazing.

A woman is at a street fair looking ast something not pictured

This is Lina. She's contemplating buying a huge hunk of meat.

Aaaand Lina breaks her budget.

Street signs for the corner of Ashbury and Haight

Classic.

Street performer at the fair; she was balancing on a globe and had a beautiful voice.

While I was taking this photo, the snake was crawling up my shirt.

A man wearing a jean jacket with a portrait of San Francisco

Pretty flashy.

I was a volunteer photographer for the East Bay AIDS Walk and managed to capture some really sweet moments.

My housemate/friend/big sister Ana painting her bookshelf on a whim; I helped and also documented.

The view of Frisco from a sweet spot called Albany Bulb.

My friend Ali took me to the Bulb and was so tolerant of me shoving my camera in her face.

She's so cute.

The author poses in front of an art piece

One fine Oakland day, Lina decided she would be the photographer and I would be the subject. Outside the Oakland Museum of California.

The author poses in front of the Children's Fairyland sign

Fairyland is the funniest, creepiest part of Lake Merritt.

Can you spot the Oakland oak tree?

Then we went to the Lake Merritt Farmers Market; I love orchids.

And of course, we had to make a trip to Arizmendi.

The author and a friend pose with their cheese rolls

A very kind stranger offered to take a photo of us...so Lina hid behind her cheese roll.

From Arizmendi, we decided to make our way to Berkeley for an event and we ran into these beauties.

I wasn't sure how I felt about them.

Just kidding. I fell in love at first sight.

Lina loved them too.

Lina and I also did a StoryCorps interview; a good friend and Oberlin alum managed to get us in after a cancelled appointment.

The author poses for a photo with their thumb up

Outtake 1 from the housemate photo shoot.

So many good laughs in this house.

Concepts of time in this blog entry are a little funny, due to the fact that I'm writing this second half exactly one week after arriving in Ohio. HAAAY, I'M HEREE. After arriving on campus at 2 AM, the next morning I was immediately immersed in Oberlin varsity athlete world. While seeing familiar faces has made this preseason much more bearable than previous years, the reality of being back in rural Ohio is packing quite a punch. Nevertheless, there are already quite a few people on campus (Resident Assistants, or RAs, are back!), aka the lines at Stevenson are already getting long. Tomorrow, there will be freshmen everywhere, and their parents will be driving recklessly on the sidewalks. Soon after that, all the upperclassmen will be back and classes will be starting. Funny how things happen so quickly; senior year is here!

Postscript - While none of the above photos are Instagram'd, I not only fulfilled my summer goal of learning how to use Instagram, I've successfully become an Instagram fiend.