Wednesday, April 19, 2006

its a small world

here's a brief for my few faithful readers, although i might add that i'm less inspired to write and more inspired to stuff my sister's suitcase in the closet and climb into it and sleep away the next 4-11 days (or just go on a mad job hunt). these one day trips back to denver are too tantalizing to motivate me back on the next aircraft. (and i will also add that the few hours that i am back i have tried to contact a few of my long-staying-here compadres...ahem, sean, you ought to pay your phone bill. and dan and zack: was lovely sharing your 23 min lunch break over a 6" sub with you and i apologize again for the reckless driving...still stuck in africa.)

moving on to a mini review of the 10 days in the golden state.
i hung out with my cousins and co-piloted for my aunt as she drove the gang down the coast from San Jose to L.A. on to San Deigo then back to L.A. and finally back to their home for Easter. if you ever want to feel the culture shock of your life: go straight from a sandy school on the east coast of Africa to a crowded ride at Disneyland in Anaheim, California; from watching 7 yr olds balancing the family's daily water supply on their head to 8 yr olds screaming for a pair mickey ear's. i was trying to take it all in stride but somewhere between LA and San Diego an exotic strain of some california flu caught up with me. by then i wasn't even impressed with the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. did anyone else realize they hold the Academy Awards in a mall?? right across the street from a fastfood mexican joint?? when i noticed a homeless guy/gal (?not sure?) a stream of TP in hand, pulling down his/her pants to make a deposit in the front not-so-conspicuous corner of the biggest and nicest looking bank building on the block my mind suddenly flew me back a couple thousand miles and i was instantly connected to images of my third world travels...this world really wasn't so big or so different (i do think the toilet paper is a bit softer over here though).

Thursday, April 06, 2006

one flight down

for those of you that still care and are still reading...

i'm back safely in the United States of America, home of the spoiled rotten.

i'll have to fill you in my more details of the trip back at a later time, maybe...i'm still too delirious to think clearly enough.

stay tuned for more travel tales...i leave colorado tomorrow for my next trek...the great state of california, yeah, i know you all wish you were me...unless of course you already live there, but you probably still wish you were me, i'm not sure why, but i bet you do. (ok, severe lack of sleep in taking over and i'm shutting up now...)

Monday, April 03, 2006

the wheels on the bus

trip from Maputo, Mozambique to Pretoria/Centurion, South Africa: uneventful (no, really)

i saw some interesting things on the way over, at least until the lady sitting in front of me decided she wanted to shade her window with the shade that was attached to the wall from behind my seat, thus making it impossible for me to see out. i tried to imagine some cool things, but in all actuality the passing veld was fairly calm.

i'm currently contemplating exactly how much bubble wrap to use around the various artifacts that i have collected and it still fit in my backpack.

i leave tomorrow for Johannesburg Airport, then to Frankfurt, then to Denver. then on to the next safari: California...i wonder what breed of lions and monkeys and mosquitos i'll see there?