Happy Republic Day in India!

Today is Republic Day in India, a day that - in short - celebrates India's Constitution. Today marks the 63rd such celebration. Republic Day is a national holiday replete with a grand parade and celebrations throughout India. For photos, please click here. In the meantime, check out the video I found on Facebook:  Finnair surprised its India-bound passengers with a Bollywood dance to celebrate Republic Day. LOL Now how fun is that?!!??

Read more »

The One Brown Girl Challenge

Live in the Moment.

I'm in the British Virgin Islands right now.  On a sailboat.  With my husband.  It's really nice out here. 

Yesterday, my husband accidentally left the lid loose on the dry pack so that when we got in the dinghy to go to dinner, water got inside and the dry pack became a wet pack.  Water also got inside of my camera and it is now fried.  Fried like chicken.  In fact, I actually heard it sizzle.  #kaput

But guess what?  I don't care. 

When I spoke at Blogalicious Weekend '11, I challenged travel & lifestyle bloggers to live in the moment.  To unplug just a wee bit while on vacation...and yes, even on a press trip.  You can't meet people, get stories or have magic moments if you are glued to your iPhone, your BlackBerry, or even your camera, right?  Right.

So I'm about to take my own advice and use my memory in lieu of my camera for the rest of my time away.  I'm not saying I won't sign on to my computer when all is quiet and the day is done, but now I won't feel compelled to have a photo of every. single. moment. in time.  I'll just have to use words to describe my experiences.  Imagine that.  #whatwritersdo

Time for me to scoot.  There's a big sea out there with my name on it.   In the meantime, consider un-plugging for a little while and living in the moment.  If you try to, I will too.  ;-)

Read more »

Happy New Year!

The 2012 Mayan calendar predicts that
2012 will be the start of a new age: The Golden Age
...and that sounds good to me! 

So *Cheers* everyone!  Happy New Year!

Here's to the start of something golden and new...

...from one Brown Girl to all of you.  =D

Read more »

When "T" Doesn't Stand for Tracey

It's Time.
Time for this Brown Girl to take a little Time Out.
Time to re-strategize, re-focus, re-energize, etc.
Time to write that children's book.
Time to dive head first in to The Passport Party Project and OBG Adventure Camps 2012 Hawaii adventure.
Time to focus on Shop OneBrownGirl a little more.
Time to find more guests bloggers for Foodie Fridays.
Time to pick up more outside freelance work.
Time to give myself a break from the responsibilities of frequent blogging on OneBrownGirl.com® and instead do some micro-blogging for awhile on my Tumblr, Foodspotting, Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter pages.
Time to figure out how to use Google+ and determine whether or not I want to be bothered with Triberr.

But here's what I promise:
Every time an article or post I write gets published on another site, I'll announce it.
Every time some type of milestone occurs, I'll announce it.
Whether on my micro-blogging sites or in the comments section of this post, I'll letcha know.
In the meantime, if you haven't spent a lot of time on this blog, feel free to surf around a bit and leave your comments.  I'd love to hear from you.  =)
See ya soon.

Read more »

République de Maurice

Le Morne Brabant, a UNESCO World Heritage Site 

Okay.  This is kinda neat.  Well for me anyway.

A day or so ago, I had just finished shopping (or so I thought) in one of the wholesale sections of Paris when I turned slightly to my left and got slapped in the face with a super cute jacket on a mannequin in the window of a non-descript storefront.  Naturally I walked across the street as the jacket called my name.  "Come in," said a friendly man who was sitting between a few boxes while chatting on the telephone.  "Quel est le prix?," I asked pointing to the jacket.  He quoted me...("Good price," I thought) and walked in.

Flag of Mauritius

I'm still not sure how we got off of the topic of the jacket and ended up talking about food, Los Angeles, Atlanta (where he lived for 9 years), the economy, and his 2 hour commute to work every day, but Maurice was quite the departure from the often surly predominantly Chinese merchants I encounter while shopping (no matter what part of the world I'm in, BTW).  Ultimately, Maurice told me he was from Mauritius, an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about 900 kilometres (560 mi) east of Madagascar.  [Love you Wiki; muah!] 

What might (or might not) interest you is Maurice doesn't consider himself Black or African.  He referred to both my husband and I in the same context as he did himself and referred to Black people as those from Mali, Ethiopia, etc.; i.e., new immigrants to France.  Our skin color was the same, I might add.  #interesting

Having just returned from World Travel Market London, it just so happens that I was re-introduced to Mauritius just a week or so ago and now again with Maurice.  And it is for this reason that I'd like to share with you 10 interesting facts about Mauritius (from three sources noted below).  Just because. 

1. Mauritius is officially known as the Republic of Mauritius also known as République de Maurice.
2. The main languages spoken in Mauritius are Mauritian Creole, French and English.  Mauritian society includes people from many different ethnic groups. The republic's residents are the descendants of people from India (Indo-Mauritian), continental Africa (Mauritian Creole people usually known as 'Creoles' in Mauritian Creole), France (Franco-Mauritian) and China (Sino-Mauritian), among other places.
3. The country's populace is composed of several ethnicities, including Indian, African, Chinese and French with a population of 1.2 million. The first European explorers found no indigenous people living on the island.
4. Le Morne Brabant (the main photo above) is a peninsula at the extreme south-western tip of Mauritius is a UNESCO World Heritage Site; in the 19th century, runaway slaves used Le Morne Brabant as a hideaway. 
5. Every Mauritian is brought up with the Sega dance. With its rhythmic, lively music and colourful Creole lyrics, the Sega is regarded nationally as a dance that expresses freedom and ' joie de vivre'.  Despite this ‘feel-good’ vibe, it is interesting to note that the dance actually originated from slaves brought from Africa.



Dodo Bird [extinct]
Wiki

6. The island of Mauritius is renowned for having been the only known home of the now extinct dodo bird.
7. The first recorded visit on the island was by Arab sailors in the Middle Ages; the Portugese arrived in 1511 but weren't really interested in laying claim; the Dutch named it Mauritius in 1598 and all attempts at settlement basically failed and they abandoned the island in 1710; the French took control in 1715; the British took over in 1810; Mauritius became independent in 1968; and became a republic in 1992.  It is politically stable.
8. Tourism in Mauritius tends to be high end tourism, with a focus on coastal resorts and diving.  It is a world class diving destination.
9. The monetary unit is the Mauritian Rupee (Rs.) which is divided into 100 cents (cs).
10. The cuisine of Mauritius is a blend of Indian, African, Chinese and European influences. It is common for a combination of cuisines to form part of the same meal.  Sugarcare was first introduced by the Dutch and the production of rum is widespread on the island.

I have to go back to see Maurice next week (to pick up those jackets), so I imagine we'll have lots more to talk about now that I'm up on some of the basics of his homeland.  And of course, now I want to go to Mauritius.  Of course. 

À bientôt...

Sources:  1. Discover Mauritius 2. Wiki 3. Mauritius Tourism Office

Read more »

Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité

Place de la Bastille / Paris
Photo by OneBrownGirl

My 9th floor apartment here in Paris is in Le Marais and about a 60 second walk to the Place de la Bastille, an important part of French history.  In fact, on July 14, 1789 the Bastille (built as a fortress in the mid-late 1300s and later used as a state prison in 1417) was stormed during the French Revolution and most of it destroyed by November of the same year.  In 1793 a large Revolutionary fountain featuring a statue of Isis was built on the former site of the fortress, which became known as the Place de la Bastille.  And that's a super short story about a very complex and interesting French history.



Bastille circa 1790 / East View
Wiki



As I sit here typing, I can turn to my left and see Isis just outside of my windows and tonight, I could hear a ruckus coming from the same direction and I knew it was at the Bastille.  You see, Place de la Bastille is a very popular spot in France for protests of every kind.  And after an hour of hearing the chanting and roaring of the crowd, I decided to go out and take a look for myself.  

The back story:  Former president of the Ivory Coast Laurent Gbagbo refused to step down from power early this year so that the newly elected president Alassane Ouattara could step in.  On April 11, 2011, the Ivory Coast’s ex-President Gbagbo [was] ‘arrested in Abidjan’ by French forces leading Ouattara troups, but after much bloodshed.  The French have a military base in the Ivory Coast, a country that is a former French colonial possession.  Now.  Here's what I gleaned from running outside to see what the protest was all about:

The Ivorian Popular Front (Front populaire ivoirien in French), a political party founded in 1982 by then-history professor Laurent Gbagbo (and a party expelled from Socialist International because of the Ivory Coast conflict) is mad at France (which of course includes President Sarkozy and the French army, gendarmes, etc. and also explains why some of the women I saw were shouting at the police).  According to the sign pictured "Right now the French Army and L'ONUCI are the police in the streets of Abidjan and the people are being mistreated.  Wattera [sic] is disengaged."  I guess we know what side the protestors are on.

I took a dozen or so photos (some of which are posted here) and then came back in to the apartment to report back.  Although the gendarmes were out en masse and I didn't feel threatened in any way, I imagine some people did...particularly since the group gathered was 100% African and this neighborhood is not.  (Just keeping it real.)  What about you?  If you saw a protest while you were on a trip, would you run toward it or run away?

Liberté, égalité, fraternité is French for Liberty, Equality & Brotherhood and is the national motto of France with origins in the French Revolution.  I thought it was appropriate somehow.

Read more »