Page 10 - PINE CREST 2000
P. 10
n d less
S um m ers
By Paul Kowalski
Above: On a game drive, Kristin Ragland witnesses Kenyan lions sleeping.
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After the rain comes the sunshine. After nine of experience in life is rampant in the novelties a sum
months of Pine Crest comes the sacred summer slum mer can deliver.
ber. Most students tend to think of their own exist A person who knows only his own culture defies
ences in terms of summers, and not school terms— no the very nature of his existence. Travel is an opportu
obligations, no choices, no weight of expectations, no nity to see how the other half lives, and should be taken
need to conform to the socializing of institutions; only whenever possible. This past summer I spent a month
freedom. Freedom includes the earned right to spend of my freedom in Earl’s Court, London, visiting friends
three months in front of a television, or at the beach, and soaking up the city’s vibrancy. Not only did I wit
but it also entitles people to actively pursue the adven ness the Trooping the Color, a public celebration of the
tures they have been putting off during the school year. Queen’s birthday, and the Windsor wedding of Edward
Many use the time to travel. Two summers past, and Sophie, but one crisp Monday afternoon I also found
Kristin Ragland made a family excursion to Kenya. myself in the middle of an anti-capitalist riot in Trafalgar
After a brief tourist stint in the city, she moved on to Square. Leaving pomp and circumstance behind in early
Samburu where she experienced a game drive every June, I flew to Roskilde, a tiny town just outside
sunrise and sunset for four days. She later commented Copenhagen in Denmark. The town is the site of the
on the unique privilege of experiencing animals in their largest annual rock festival in the world. A four-day
natural surroundings as opposed to in the captivity of long 70,000-person orgy of sound and culture, this fes
American zoos. Next on her agenda was visiting tival played host to the likes of Molotov, R.E.M., Marilyn
Massai Mara and being immersed by the Massai tribe Manson, Jello Biafra, Metallica, Ministry, Robbie Wil
culture. Somewhere amidst all of Kristin’s traveling, liams, The Chemical Brothers, Suede, and Blur to name
she also had the opportunity to meet Jane Goodall and but a few bands. After pitching tent on Thursday after
even sit next to her at dinner. Kristin described the noon and listening to the bands play for four days on
experience as captivating and life changing. Goodall’s one of the seven stages at the festival, on the final night
enthusiasm and eccentricity in her fireside story-tell campers pay homage to the Gods of Rock by setting
ing was especially directed at the younger travelers on everything in sight on fire. Unlike the violent and inanely
the trip, “for nature and animals must always be passed run Woodstock disaster in the summer of 1999, the
into the care of another generation of humans, and edu Roskilde Festival is a peaceful and successful gathering
cating the young is the key to preventing needless, ig of a large quantity of people who merely seek good music
norant destruction.” Indeed, the quintessential aspect and a good time. If next year’s festival is anything like
