Why Couchsurfing?

Hey guys, now that I finally talked about the hip hop festival the next important adventure is the courage to finally travel by myself to a city. I always wanted to become a New Yorker since I was a kid since New York always excites me no matter how many times I visited the city. The diversity of the people, the infrastructure of Times Square, you know...the city life you see in TV. I always wanted to cruise around Central Park, sit at a coffee shop outside, attend plays, go to bars and nightclubs. However, I knew that if I wanted to stay in New York for the weekend, I have to find a place to stay. Unfortunately, I only had one friend at the time that lives in New York. Luckily for me, my amazing friend from Germany named Maria told me about this website where I could meet people from around the world and stay on their couches for at least one night. My initial thought? GO TO A STRANGER'S PLACE AND SLEEP THERE?!!! My mom will have my head!!!! After hearing about her successful weekends from couch-surfing and similar stories from my other international friends, I decided to first do couchcrash 2010 in order to check out the vibe of going to New York to meet with people. Much to my surprise, I am meeting many folks from around the world, including India, Germany and France.

Couchcrash is a series of New York city tours, dinners, museum trips, art projects, bike rides, workshops, barbeques and parties. Best of all, these events are all either free or really, really cheap. They have an amazing rooftop art party at the end of the party. Not only I have met the world for a day, but it convinced me that from this moment that I want to be a traveler. I know that I am going to Trinidad and Tobago in Spring 2011, but I hope I continue from there. Couch-surfing has grant me more friends in different places around the world as well as a chance to find a place to stay when I do not have enough money to stay at a hotel, although I did was fortunate to stay at a New York Hostel for 40 bucks and my friends lovely ladies from the UK. I am amazed of how elaborate the couchcrash rooftop party was from last year, although I doubted I met the owner of the place. You meet some of the nicest, coolest, and the most hilarious people in the world and the guy who hosted a party for hundreds of people and offer his place to stay for complete strangers is extraordinary. Before I go to any country, I am sure to look up potential hosts to lend me a place to stay.

The best thing about couchsurfing, whether you are getting a free place to stay and the chance to explore newly discovered places is that you come in as a stranger, but you leave as a friend. Trust me, I am sure to fill my future summers with some time for couchsurfing.

2010 International Hip Hop Festival

Okay, so I have not responded from my first post in over a year but I would like to start my adventures with my first encounter of my series of events, adventures, and travels. My journey starts with the The 5th annual 2010 International Hip Hop Festival held at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. This is my second year filming the 3 day event and I must say that this year was alot more busier and challenging, but worth the experience. I remember filming the 4th annual Hip Hop Festival my freshman year as I solely filmed the 2-night concerts at the Austin Arts Center. Each night the concerts ran from 9PM to 1AM, but Saturdays are usually more packed since the festival featured the main act of the festival. 2009 was the year K'naan took the stage and wowed the Trinity crowd with his hits such as TIA (This is Africa, woot) and Wavin' Flag. I was lucky to grab an autograph from K'naan and talked with him for a sec after his tour bus broke down. I have no clue where I placed my autographs like many of the autographs I got from artists. (I put a list of artists I met/vs I would like to meet next time)

Fast-forward to 2010 Hip Hop Festival, shall we? This was a bigger task at hand since I was not only assigned to film the 2-night concert, but also in-class lectures, official b-boy battles, and talks from International artists. I had a pleasure with the opportunity meeting and working with Magee Mcilvaine, one of the pioneers of the International Hip Hop Festival. Usually, he works with people who are at least are upperclassmen from what I was told from people working at the Hip Hop festival, but as an underclassman I guess I prove to be reliable person in terms of doing videos properly. I guess, I was an exception? I never forget my weekend (April 2nd and 3rd of 2011) and it was such a dedication of putting some kind of effort in getting as much footage of everything festival-related as I could. However, I did not do this task alone. I had help from my best friend and partner in crime, George, Chris, and Malcolm, especially since both Malcolm and Chris was involved in the festival a lot more longer than I have been. Although filming the lectures, discussions, and talks was not that difficult, doing this the entire Friday (from morning to concert time) with little time to relax was daunting.

With fatigue, filming the b-boy rounds was alot more difficult since I was close enough to get my jaw and camera shattered and I had to be more careful. The contestants were spinning and break dancing at very rapid speeds. I did got slightly injured when one of the b-boys foot did hit my arm that was filming the event, so I jokingly pretended that I was missing a tooth (Note: I lost a tooth a long time ago) because a b-boy kicked my face. I was only kidding. Throughout the lugging the heavy camera equipment from one end of campus to another, running back and forth for tapes, stuffing any kinds of food I could get, it was all worth it in the end. The second night of the concerts playing was well worth it. I had the chance of filming the finales of the b-boy battle, until I was asked by one of the event organizers to interview the main act himself, KRS-ONE. It was a good thing that George followed me to the press room since I can not speak on camera if I were to interview him. The press room interview conversation was quite long, but it was so worth it! I was given his new book: "The Gospel of Hip Hop" and signed my new copy, although he took my sharpie marker and never gave it back. I never forget George gave the last question to ask KRS-ONE, his idol or the pats on the back for filming on stage. I guess this is my start to my adventures afterall.

First Blog of the Nightcat

Hey there,

This is actually the first blog in my life. I thought having a facebook is enough as it is, but after my experiences in the International Hip Hop festival for the past two nights, I am more convinced to become a blogger. Ironic, huh? Well, since this is my first blog, I should briefly introduce my self. I'm Chioma Ozuzu (my middle name is often not disclosed) and I currently go to Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut as a second-year student. I don't consider myself an average college student, especially back at high school. Not many kids I know did film in High School and continued in college. I thought that I never get involved with film after my high school graduation, until going to Trinity changed my perception. I got into a few good schools, but I was torn between Trinity and University of Rochester. Both are my top choices, but which one? I decided, Trinity College after my visit for the first time. My reactions when I first arrived? "Yup, I see myself here, for some reason" I even told a girl that I see in you Japanese 101, although she was like, wtf. who is this kid? Going back, I always wanted to be involved in the TV station at Trinity, but as an extracurricular. Good thing, the TV station is restarted thanks to myself and another cool freshman. The TV station called TrinTV is what brought me to the International Hip Hop Festival. See you soon!