Weekend

I just wanted to post about our trip up to the Chumash Cave drawings. It was myself and a group of friends and we headed up originally trying to go Red Rocks. It's a pretty long drive up into the mountains, but the views are really nice. I can never get over how SB has the ocean on one side, mountains on the other. When you go up into the mountains, it really reminds me of a European Ski resort and you can understand why it is sometimes called the French Riviera. Red Rocks was actually closed because the storm had left a lot of debris. It is meant to be a really nice place with huge lakes and waterfalls, so now we know where it is I hope we can return.

Red Rocks 

 Instead, a little down the mountains, we visited the cave paintings. We spent most of our time hiking down the river bed over boulders and admiring the view over the whole of Santa Barbara. There is always quite a peaceful atmosphere about Native American sites and I have literally given up on running so it's good exercise. Today was definitely less active, I spent the day on the beach. I'm trying to get as much beach time as possible, in the sad event I am not near one next year.

On a different note, for Film Studies this week I watched the film 'Osama'. It was about a little girl under Taliban rule, how her mother is desperately poor as the father is dead. Thus, in order to survive the little girl must pretend to be a boy so he can go out and work. As under Taliban rule women's rights were non existent and they couldn't leave the house without a man or work at all. It was actually incredibly sad, so realistic because it was the first film to be made after the ending of Taliban rule. This was because film was banned under their rule, and the director used amateur actors so it was even more realistic. It is awful to see any real glimpse into life under that rule. The desperate measures the main plot is that the girl has to dress up as a boy in order for the family to survive unfortunately she is then caught. The constant fear just by watching is really and the absolute brutality of the rule- stoning and torture etc. I think I mentioned before where I want my path to go, definitely international women's rights and human rights in general are key to what I want to do. Seeing a film like this only reaffirms my ambition and heightens ones knowledge about what occurred, definitely not for the faint hearted though. It is just crazy to think a regime like this can pursue a reign of terror, really awful.