Where in the World is Miss Ivy?

Southeast Asia...better late than never:)

2011-09-17T05:39:00.000-07:00

Here I am traveling again and I never posted my last blog for my time in south east Asia...I suppose re-entry to America was a bit distracting. My apologies. I'll be posting from Egypt soon:)
Laos
The sun here, especially in LPB, seems red and like it struggles to shine through the smoke of fires. The only comparison I have is when we had those fires in the O.C. I remember how strange the sun looked and felt on my skin, how even though there was less light the heat had been intensified. Very post apocalyptic.
Here, they say "Hey lady, hey lady!!" every where you go, but after India I'm just happy not to be called sir anymore.
Cambodia
Here the ATMs gave US dollars and although American currency is accepted in most foreign countries, preferred in many, I hadn't seen prices given in dollars since I left the states.

Vietnam
Tonight I went out with the girl I met here in Vietnam and her husband. Well, I call her a "girl" only b/c she looked so young, but cute couple. Although they hardly looked old enough to drink, they already had a daughter in first grade!! She's very nice and this was the second night we hung out. Last night we went out to a local bar and played pool which was really fun; alcohol is the great uniter after all. Tonight though she invited me back to her home where she she said we would have a "cooking class" and she would teach me how to cook authentic Vietnamese food!! It was exactly what I look for opportunities to do while I'm in these countries: hang out with a family, bond with the women in the kitchen and drink with the men afterwords. I had homemade liquor (which I could remove my nail polish with between shots) and I ate fox for the first time! That will go on the list right next to eating sting ray in Malaysia:) Sting ray btw is the most fantastic meat I've ever eaten...if you ever get a chance to try it do!!
Halong translates as ‘where the dragon descends’ and Hanoi translates to 'where the dragon ascends'. Legend has it that the islands of Halong Bay were created by a great dragon that lived in these mountains. As it charged towards the coast, its flailing tail gouged out valleys and crevasses. When it finally plunged into the sea, the area filled with water, leaving only the pinnacles of the rock formations visible.
Russians may have taken over Goa, but the French and the Germans have Southeast Asia in a choke hold!!

Malaysia
Don't bother to ask taxi drivers in Malaysia what country they are from because according to Malaysian law no one except someone born within the country is allowed to be a cab driver. But I found Malaysian people to be quite friendly:) They are fluent in English, quite helpful (which I find common in Islamic countries) and although many of the women wear abayas and the black robe the smiled at me from under their covers. Malaysia had the better qualities of the eastern culture including the cuisine, but brought in the Indian masala as well; Kuala Lumpur had development and building sizes comparable to Los Angeles or Capetown in the center, but if you walked 10 minutes outside the hustle and bustle you'd finds Chinatown and street meat vendors who's grill aroma was simply hypnotizing.
If Asia is the capital of false eyelashes then Malaysia is it's mecca. Every make up counter here has a "lash bar". Yes, you heard me correctly-lash bar. You have the strip kind that are layered, you have the kind that are colored, you even have the individuals which are a bundle of 4 or 5 eyelashes which are glued to the lid. When they aren't trying on the latest lashes they are drinking tea and discussing numerology. Many times over coffee several interpretations of the numbers in my date of birth gave rise to in depth discussion as to what it meant for me and my personality.
The percentage of foreigners here are from Switzerland.

China
While there may be less people in China than there are in India it sure didn't feel like it. In retrospect India may have been crowded and you may have been sure that people were going to run into you or worse run over you, but surprisingly they would come within centimeters from you and with skill learned only in a country that overpopulated, they never even touched you. In China they mow you down and not think twice about it.
It's VERY clean here, but I quickly figured out why. In a communist country everyone works for the common good, but EVERYONE works. Well, there are a lot of people here to find work for. I was in the store to buy shampoo, this is one of the lesser complicated of my tasks...usually. I mean how complicated can it be- there are pictures and smells to choose from. (Try using these criteria to identify meat...not as easy-or as relaxing.) So I pick up the first bottle, frosted green with an ergonomic shape. These are things I notice now. I don't think anything of the swarm of people both staring at me and speaking very loud- both culturally specific to Asian countries and most pronounced in China I have found. I puck up the bottle and hold it close to my nose, as 2 more people knock into me, and replace it on the shelf as a vision of my 3rd grade teacher is nostalgically brought to the forefront of my mind. (So many scents in the world, why do they always seem to smell of things/people I don't care to remember?) Here's the weird part: I put the shampoo back on the shelf and out of no where a guy wearing all white stands it front of it, straightens it, leans down and squints one eye like he's going to take out the eight ball and satisfied with his work disappears as quickly as he had appeared.
As a communist country China's government essentially has carte blanche. You have only as many rights as they allow you to have and the long arm of the law extends to the internet as well. The powers that be have blocked You Tube and Facebook for all including tourists. The locals have come up with a nickname for the national firewall: they call it the"New Great Wall". Clever huh?
As in Malaysia, all the taxi drivers are Chinese and although they were strongly encouraged by the government to learn English (or at least the essentials) for the Olympics, clearly it made no difference. One thing you can count on the cabbie for though: he'll roll the window down after no more than 2 minutes-EVERY time. Why you ask? They say westerners smell funny; they attribute it to all the milk we drink. They say that must be what makes us smell so sour. Ha!!
They are big on accessorizing here, accessories are as ubiquitous as eyelid stickers and perms, as effeminate men and wearing socks with sandals.
Interestingly, there is a huge Japanese influence here because of all the immigrants. They have the money to afford their creature comforts from home and China is willing to oblige...for a small profit of course.
The Chinese have a reputation in Southeast Asia as the cheapest tourists to visit. They were the tourists in Vietnam who would haggle the price of a one hour massage for $6 down to $4.

If India only had a system...

2010-03-21T02:11:00.000-07:00

I was at the post office the other day mailing postcards to friends and family. In most countries you are able to buy stamps in the same place where you are able to purchase postcards, but this is not the case in India. So be it. I was open to the idea of a journey to the post office anyway. After waiting in a line that really didn't exist except in my imagination, I learned two things: one, don't make up things that create obstacles like lines and use your words even if you think it makes you look stupid. I had waited in that "line" for 45 minutes so when I finally made it up to the window you can imagine my reaction when the guy said I needed to wait in the other line for the other window where I would be able to buy stamps. With forced patience I moved to the other line where I learned to cut the queue. I got to the window where a very tired older man and I communicated via notes that what I needed was stamps for 6 postcards. He sold me the stamps and told me to go put them on. I put them on the cards and returned only to be told that I needed to take the stamped postcards to the window I had gone to first. I went back to that line and cut to the front and attempted to hand my postcards to the man. His reply was a shake of his head and a look of disappointment when he told me it was a holiday weekend. What this had to do with me I had no idea...until he elaborated. He said that because it was a holiday weekend the postal rates were higher and as a result I needed another 2 rupee stamp on each postcard. With what little energy I had left after the 2 hours I had already been there I said to him "Fine, I'll pay the 2 more rupees. Just give me the stamps." His reply was borrowed from the French: impossible! I needed to go back to the other window to purchase more stamps. Indeed if India only had a system imagine what they could do...

In Africa getting money was difficult, in Europe traveling from A to B was difficult, but in India everything is hard!!

You commented on how much I was able to read on my journey, but truly it's as a matter of preservation not only self but otherwise. I do a lot of hurrying up to wait, so I bring a book along, the alternative is to run in circles like a child until I get dizzy enough to pass out. I prefer a book. The one I'm reading right now called "A Mapmaker's Dream" is about a monk in 16th century Venice who struggles to create a perfect map of the world without ever leaving his cell. Travelers bring him tales from all over the world and he uses the info to more accurately depict the lines of demarkation, but what he discovers is that the lines created are only set by those in our minds. It was much more philosophical than I am giving it credit for, but I really enjoyed it:) It also helped to pass the time in the airport when the power went out...

A method to the madness???

2010-03-21T02:06:00.001-07:00

Women wear toe rings because it is supposed to bring a healthy baby, so it also acts as a symbol of marriage and trying to have a child. When they do have a child a black power is put on the cheek of the baby to ward off the evil eye and to make the baby look less cute so as to discourage the necessity of passing the coconut shell with candle inside to break the spell. Indian mothers are the most protective and actively involved in their children's life I've seen in any culture.
Whenever a welcoming ceremony was performed in both Nepal and India they would give us garlands of flowers, but I began to notice, and too frequently for it to be a coincidence, that there was hair wrapped within the necklace. When I asked about this they explained that hair is seen as a relic of beauty and that it is given to the gods on many different occasions and that children's heads are shaved when they are very young to ensure thick hair...but just in case the shaved hair of the baby is given as an offering. They said that the hair in the garland was a way of "combining beauties".
Ash, kum kum or sandlewood are worn on the foreheads of the people in the south for two reasons: 1) the ash is a reminder that one day we too will be ash and 2) when put on the place on the forehead, it has an immediate cooling property to it.
India is where modern laws and ancient traditions collide. In a country where love affairs are punishable by death and you must be 25 to drink alcohol, one learns that what is written in the law books and what can be enforced in a population so dense are two different things. In a nation where 24% of GDP goes to national security and defense because of tension with China, Bangladesh and Pakistan. 5 million of India's 1.1 billion citizens are in the military.
I think the most surprising part of Indian culture wasn't the ceremonies, but rather the unexpected conservatism and socially acceptable domestic violence. When traveling to cover up countries you expect the repression of women; it's not only understood by the population it is written into law, but when you arrive in a country so exposed to the western culture and realize how little of it has been adopted it makes you wonder. Women in many parts of the country still ride side saddle on motorbikes and cover their faces in public. Indeed, many of the people especially in the south, are "educated", but I think a distinction needs to be made here when talking about education. Just because you are literate doesn't mean you are educated in the social sense. Infanticide based on gender is still as prevalent in the south as it is in the north and although finding out the sex of your child before birth is illegal it is still done.
Girls are the least desirable of the sexes to the point that one of the greatest insults you can say to someone is "may you have 10 daughters and may they all marry well". (The latter part of the phrase refers to the dowry paid by the family of the bride to the family of the husband.) In spite of this there is a common practice in families full of just sons. In these families one son is chosen, usually the youngest, and is dressed up, made to look like and treated as if he were a girl!! Some of these boys are unable to pull out of the female role and grow up living their lives as cross dressers. One of those occasions where they are allowed into the town is for a ceremony performed once a year for the boys. In this event an idol is built out of wood and tied together to be made to look like a person. The boys are wedded to this figure just before it is set on fire, (a la Burning Man style). The boys cry and scream that their husband is now dead and what are they going to do; this ceremony signifies the justification for their celibacy. These transexuals are exiled by society to the fringes of the towns and the only other time they are allowed to engage with society is when there is going to be a wedding or a child has just been born. In both of these cases a blessing from a transexual is very auspicious.
95% of all marriages are arranged in India and only 5% are what they call "love marriages". In a culture that gives more respect and credibility to men than it does to women it makes being a western woman in the country twice as difficult. Fortunately, I'm aware that my greatest asset in any country is a local and I am quick to meet people. You would be shocked how differently I get treated when I am with an India man than I do in any other circumstance! Something as menial as ordering a meal can take up to 3 hours and then the wrong meal arrives, then you wait another hour for the wrong check, but when I was with an Indian man that never happen.

What I've learned about India:
-Here, they do what is necessary at the moment
-Daybreak, sunset, middle of the night, it doesn't matter- roosters crow when they want.
-Your country is only as educated as the women in it
-Indians are like mirrors- they give you back the same expression you are wearing on your face
-I didn't realize I still had privacy until it was gone in India

What I've learned is international:
-smelly people
-tuk-tuk/matatus
-motorbike/boda/boda
-sucking teeth
-spitting
-cheap filler foods of empty carbs
-chai
-marketplaces
-negotiable EVERYTHING
-helpful people
-men who waste their time and money playing cards and drinking
-traffic lanes as suggestions and not laws
-out running the police as an option
-staff not privy to the services they provide customers with (ie: tech support when they don't have a computer of their own)

Indians are the Italians of Asia

2010-03-21T02:04:00.000-07:00

"There is so much Italian in the Indians, and so much Indian in the Italians. They are both people of the Madonna-they demand a goddess, even if the religion does not provide one. Every man in both countries is a singer when he is happy, and every woman a dancer when she walks to the shop at the corner. For them, food is music inside the body, and music is food inside the heart. The language of India and the language of Italy, they make every man a poet, and make something beautiful from every banalite. These are nations where love- amore, pyaar- makes a cavalier of a Borsalino on a street corner, and a princess of a peasant girl, if only for the second that her eyes meet yours."

That was a quote from the book "Shantaram" and though it may be true that Indians demand a goddess I assure you they don't value her as much as they would her male equivilent. This was one of the things I found most significant about India: for as exposed as they are to the western culture they are quite conservative as a country. In places like Africa and India's neighboring country, Nepal, the women were conservative to the extent that women from the baby boomer generation would were long skirts that covered their legs down to the ankle and would sit side saddle while riding a motorbike. You could see the progress of a country through the clothing and riding style of the younger girls. In India however every female member of that family piled on the motorbike would be ring side saddle. They have shawls that cover their heads in many areas and many walk a meter behind their husbands. The perception of western women and their "lack of morals" can't help but affect the way we are treated when visiting India...Let me tell you a story:
After arriving in Delhi, a poor and polluted city yes, but developed as far as I was concerned, I needed a beauty day. I went to the closest 5 star hotel with my hair color in hand. After sitting down for my manicure the young man, not more than 19, starts talking to me while my hands soak. He continues while he massages my hands and shoulders, but couldn't understand why I got upset when he started massaging my boobs!! (Btw, I really wish I could say that this is the first time this has happened...I wish I could say that this was the only country. But alas, Egypt's shampoo guy got a little frisky with the bubbles as well.)

God knows it's not India without the wabble, but the funniest part wasn't how I seamlessly picked it up unintentionally, (well that was pretty funny b/c I didn't even realize I was doing it on the phone), it was their responses when I would ask what it meant. No one gave me the same answer! I came to the conclusion that it means any one of the following:
- "How are you?"
- "I'm well"
- "I'm good and you can trust me"
- "I agree"
- "Okay"
- "Okay, but I don't agree"
- "Okay, but I don't want to"
- "No, but I don't want to tell you no"

There are literally people everywhere you go in the country so I think Indians have incorporated the only motto that can work in a country so densely populated: do what is necessary. When getting on the train along with everyone else and their mother what is necessary is to push your way through the non-existant queue and get yourself a seat on the train, but once on and the train begins to move assuring passengers boarded that they have nothing to worry about and passengers still trying to get on to cut their losses, what is necessary is to place one hand on my heart and the other hand on your knee that that I just bumped b/c as the passenger riding in the seat across from you for the next 12 hours that is what is necessary to make our journey pleasant.

75% of India's population are Hindu, the third largest religion in the world next to Islam and Christianity. Hinduism began in 2000 B.C. and Buddhism in 600 B.C.. Shiva, the destroyer or god of new opportunity, is popular in the south. Vishnu, the god who reincarnates himself to come to Earth essentially to save us from ourselves each time is quite popular in the north. (The 9th and latest reincarnation was Buddha.) I was quite unhappy to find that Brahma, my favorite god and husband of my favorite goddess Saraswati, had very few temples. (Saraswati is the goddess of learning and the arts, music and wisdom. She is the goddess students pray to just before an exam!) It seemed everyone was interested in worshipping Shiva and I though that was kind of unfair since Brahma was doing all the creating and Vishnu was continually fixing the situation. When I asked about why I was told of the story where Vishnu and Brahma got into an argument about which of them was more powerful. Shiva was to be referee and took on his largest form. He told Brahma to find his head and Vishnu to find his feet. The legend says that Brahma took a flower from a nest assuming the bird had been able to make it to the top, rather than having to go all the way himself, but when asked about it upon his return he lied and said he had gone to the top himself. His punishment for lying is that there were very few temples built for him.
Durga- Protectress and slayer of the buffalo demon
Lakshmi/Laxmi- Goddess of wealth, fortune and prosperity
Parvarti- (married to Shiva) Goddess of power
Ganesh- (son of Parvarti and Shiva) Elephant headed remover of obstacles
Brahma- (married to Saraswati) The Creator
Vishnu- (married to Laxmi) The Preserver
Shiva- (married to Parvarti) The Destroyer

"You Americans may have watches, but we Indians have time"

2010-03-21T02:03:00.001-07:00

You know you have been in a developing country when you take a paper towel from the dispenser before you even check the stall for paper. You know you've been in a developing country too long when you try to shove the unused paper towel back in the dispenser when you come out because there was toilet paper.

Here are some of the phrases and facts I've learned since I've learned since I've been in Nepal and India.
"Don't expect a banana from an apple tree"- This is the equivalent to our "you reap what you sow" saying.
"The bathroom may be nice, but you don't take your meals there"- This is used to prove the point that there is a time for everything.
I learned that goats with vasectomies tend to have more meat on their bodies and that goats which haven't been neutered have a stronger smelling meat.
Twice the circumference of an elephant's foot is equal to it's height.
The only place an elephant sweats is from the toenails.

The differences between Asian elephants and African elephants:
Asian African
2 domes on their head 1 dome on their head
10-12 feet tall 12-15 feet tall
Grey color Grey brown color
Spots on the ears and trunk that develop with age No spots at all
Ears are in the shape of India and Nepal Ears in the shape of Africa
Ear flaps forward Ear flaps back
Trunk comes to one point at the tip Trunk comes to two points at the tip
5 toes in the front and 4 in the back 4 toes in the front and 3 in the back

Rhinos only digest 45% of what they eat.
Rhinos always return to the same area to poo and this habit makes killing the rhinos much easier for the poacher because all they have to do is wait there for the rhino to return.
The "Rhino Apple Tree" is named after the rhino not only because they are the primary source of the seeds dispersal, but also because that is the best tree to climb when a rhino is chasing you. It has a smooth bark that won't tear up you skin.
Climbing a tree is one way to get away from a rhino when they attack, but be sure to run in a zig zag fashion because they have thick neck skin which makes it difficult for they to turn their heads or change direction.
When a tiger is attacking it's best to look them in the face rather than run because they will only attack from the back. This is why hunters wear a face mask on backwards when in the wild.

Namaste Nepal

2010-01-22T09:59:00.000-08:00

Well I'm finishing up my visit in Nepal and looking forward to my next adventure in India. I've been reading one of the best books I've read in a long time too, a fair contender for a position in my top five as a matter of fact. A nice blend of corruption and the philosophical contemplation of existence and how to objectively determine a measure of good and evil. The perfect in preparation for Delhi: "Shantaram". Below I've included some of the best one liners, although the book is full of them, and some excerpts that moved me. I hope you enjoy as much as I have:) Before I get to that though, I have two short stories of my own and my New Year's Choices to share with you first. The first story is about a guy I met who is working for U.S. Aide in Nepal and the second is about how I was compared to a monk...I know, I was as surprised as you are:)

Without Words
I've always been clear about what my nirvana would be like- it was the happy place I allowed my mind to slip into to indulge myself on occasion. Filled with feathers that licked your skin like eyelashes, warm winds as soothing as the gust from your hair dryer on a cold morning, but most of all I would drown in the sounds of my heaven...the laughing of children; the belly laugh of children who haven't learned yet to restrain their emotions. Not until a conversation I had this week did I realize I had never considered what hell would be like. Sharing traveling stories at the dinner table with two kids from U.S. Aid, one told me about his stint in the Peace Corp. He was placed in a village in Senegal (the western most country in Africa) to coordinate with other teachers to revamp the curriculum. It all sounded quite interesting and I asked if he has learned French before he got there. He laughed and said that that wouldn't have really helped since French was only spoken in the larger cities and he was in a village...where the next closest village was miles away; where the closest American was hours away. That actually didn't bother me as much as the fact that there was no one who spoke English at all in the village. Here he was there to help with the curriculum and I could picture him putting his index fingers on either side of his head and making a "moo" sound while gesturing to the meal on the plate. (Don't laugh, I've done it.) He didn't speak their language and they didn't speak his. This is in no way similar to my situation. Yes, I go into foreign countries where I quickly acclimate to the customs and societal ques given to me by the public. I may be in a different setting than I'm used to, but I can usually find someone eventually who can speak English, albeit broken, English nevertheless. He made an interesting point though after my mind was still trying to get around the idea that had been his reality. He said he chose to go there. That had it been something that was imposed upon him, he might have had a very different experience. Simply because of his approach to the situation, his perspective, he enthusiastically embraced his placement in that village was for 2 years.

Reintegration
While speculating upon some of the situations that may potentially cause a bit of culture shock on my part as I attempt to shove the toothpaste back in the tube by one day returning to the U.S., a story was shared with me from a book called "The Client that Changed My Life". The book is a compilation of accounts from therapists about a client that had a significant impact on their life. The one that reminded this person of my situation was about an American woman who had moved to Taiwan and become a monk. She had lived, chanted and immersed herself in the philosophy of Buddhism and after considerable time in the monastery she developed an allergy to one of the staple foods used daily in their meals. She had no choice but to leave and return to the U.S.. After years of living a fairly simple life without wants and with minimal needs, she found herself overwhelmed with Los Angeles and its life style. She began working as a spiritual guide hired by families for patients in the hospice ward of hospitals, helping them prepare to die. She recounted to her therapist taking several buses to get to a particular hospital in where one of her patients was staying. It was common knowledge that the time between buses was minimal- at best, barely making a transfer possible. People run across the busy street to make it to the next bus for transfer. The buddhist philosophy is contingent upon the principle of divine perfection in each moment: there is nothing you need to be, nothing you need to have (aside from the essentials) and nothing to get to. Life unfolds just as it is meant to. It states that the only moment is now and thus, monks don't run. Upon arrival at the terminal she determined that she would join the default race to the next bus like everyone else, because after all she was trying to re-acclimate to the "real world", but instead of running in stride with the rest of the passengers, she broke into a full-bellied laugh at the absurdity of it all. The whole situation and the significance with which people held on to it as the mob ran from one place to another was just too much for her. The person said that having gotten to know me, he could fore see this as the most challenging of situations- seeing the comedy, and the tragedy for that matter, and just allowing it to be.

10 New Year's Choices for 2010
- Learn 5 new things in each country I visit
- Choose a place to settle down and grow up
- Be generous in spirit by allowing others to contribute to me
- Live life like I'm on top of the jungle gym
- Be with it, whatever "it" may be, even when everything in me wants to run
- Say what I feel no matter how bad I think it makes me look
- Create something that will last on Earth longer than I will
- Fall in love passionately and whole heartedly without holding back
- Live in the present thoughtfully
- See the divinity in each moment

Shantaram ...on love
"The clue to everything a man should love and fear in her was there, right from the start, in the ironic smile that primed and swelled the archery of her full lips. There was a pride in that smile, a confidence in the set of her fine nose. Without understanding why, I knew beyond question that a lot of people would mistake her pride for arrogance, and confuse her confidence with impassivity. I didn't make that mistake. My eyes were lost, swimming, floating free in the shimmering lagoon of her steady, even stare. Her eyes were large and spectacularly green. It was the green that trees are, in vivid dreams. It was the green that the sea would be, if the sea were perfect.
"Her hand was still resting in the curve of my arm, near the elbow. The touch was exactly what the touch of a lover's hand should be: familiar, yet exciting as a whispered promise. I felt an almost irresistible urge to take her hand and place it flat against my chest, near my heart. Maybe I should have done it. I know now that she would've laughed, if I'd done it, and she would've liked me for it. But strangers that we were then, we stood for five long seconds and held the stare, while all the parallel worlds, all the parallel lives that might've been, and never would be, whirled around us...I listened as she spoke to them, but I couldn't understand the language. Her voice, in that language and in that conversation, was surprisingly deep and sonorous; the hairs on my arm tingled in response to the sound of it. And I suppose that, too, should've been a warning. The voice, Afghan matchmakers say, is more than half of love.
"She was so relaxed and at home, so much a part of the street and its inscrutable lore. What I found bewildering, all around me, seemed to be mundane for her. I was reminded of the foreigner in the slum-the man I'd seen from the window of the bus. Like him, she seemed calm and content in Bombay. She seemed to belong. I envied her, the warmth and acceptance she drew from those around her.
"But more than that, my eyes were drawn to her perfect loveliness. I looked at her, a stranger, and every other breath strained to force its way from my chest. A clamp like a tightening fist seized my heart. A voice in my blood said yes, yes, yes... The ancient Sanskrit legends speak of destined love, a karmic connection between souls that are fated to meet and collide and enrapture one another. The legends say that the loved one is instantly recognized because she is loved in every gesture, every expression of thought, every movement every sound and every mood that prays in her eyes. The legends say we know her by her wings-the wings that only we can see-and because wanting her kills every other desire of love.
"The same legends also carry warnings that such fated love may, sometimes, be the possession and the obsession of one, and only one, of the two souls twinned by destiny. But wisdom, in one sense, is the opposite of love. Love survives in us precisely because it isn't wise."

"...'Yes. You're a good listener. That's dangerous, because it's so hard to resist. Being listened to--really listened to--is the second-best thing in the world.'
'What's the first best thing?'
'Everybody knows that. The best thing in the world is power.'
'Oh, is it?' I asked, laughing. 'What about sex?'
'No. Apart from the biology, sex is all about power. That's why it's such a rush.'
I laughed again.
'And what about love? A lot of people say that love is the best thing in the world, not power.'
"They're wrong,' she said with terse finality. 'Love is the opposite of power. That's why we fear it so much.'"

"...She loved the guy. She did it for him. She would've done anything for him. Some loves are like that. Most loves are like that, from what I can see. Your heart starts to feel like an overcrowded lifeboat. You throw your pride out to keep it afloat, and your self-respect and your independence. After a while you start throwing people out-- your friends, everyone you used to know. And it's still not enough. The lifeboat is sinking and you know it's going to take you down with it."

Shantarum ...on acceptance of the differences in cultures
"'It's good to know what's wrong with the world,' Karla said after a while. 'But it's just as important to know that sometimes, no matter how wrong it is, you can't change it. A lot of the bad stuff in the world wasn't really that bad until someone tried to change it.'
"'...I went down from my hotel to meet Prabaker [his guide] on the street. But on the stairwell, there were these Indian guys, one after the other, carrying big pots of water on their heads, and climbing the stairs. I had to stand against the wall to let them pass. When I made it to the bottom, I saw this big wooden barrel with iron-rimmed wheels attached to it. It was a kind of water wagon. Another guy was using a bucket, and he was dipping it into the barrel and filling the big carry-pots with water.
'I watched this for ages, and the men made a lot of trips, up and down the stairs. When Prabaker came along, I asked him what they were doing. He told me that was the water for my shower. That the shower came from a tank on the roof, and that these men filled the tank with their pots.'
'Of course.'
'Yeah, you know that, and I know that now, but yesterday was the first I heard of it. In this heat, I've been in the habit of taking three showers a day. I never realized that men had to climb six flights of stairs, to fill a damn tank, so that I could take those showers. I felt horrible about it, you know? I told Prabaker I'd never take another shower in that hotel again. Not ever.'
'What did he say?'
'He said No, no you don't understand. He called it a people-job. It's only because of tourists like me, he explained, that those men have a job. And he told me that each man is supporting a family of his own from his wages. You should have three showers, four showers, even five showers every day, he told me.'
She nodded in agreement.
'Then he told me to watch the men while they got themselves ready to run through the city again, pushing their water wagon. And I think I knew what he meant, what he wanted me to see. They were strong, those guys. They were strong and proud and healthy. They weren't begging or stealing. They were working hard to earn their way, and they were proud of it. When they ran off into the traffic, with their strong muscles, and getting a few sly looks from some of the young Indian girls, I saw that their heads were up and their eyes straight ahead.'

"Now, long years and many journeys after that first ride on a crowded rural train, I know that the scrambled fighting and courteous deference were both expressions of the one philosophy: the doctrine of necessity. The amount of force and violence necessary to board the train, for example, was no less and no more than the amount of politeness and consideration necessary to ensure that the cramped journey was as pleasant as possible afterwards. What is necessary? That was the unspoken but implied and unavoidable question everywhere in India. When I understood that, a great many of the characteristically perplexing aspects of public life became comprehensible: from the acceptance of sprawling slums by city authorities, to the freedom that cows had to roam at random in the midst of traffic; from the toleration of beggars on the streets, to the concatenate complexity of the bureaucracies; and from the gorgeous, unashamed escapism of Bollywood movies, to the accommodation of hundreds of thousands of refugees from Tibet, Iran, Afghanistan, Africa and Bangladesh, in a country that was already too crowded with sorrows and needs of its own."

"As I walked along the narrow rag-and-plastic lanes of the slum, word spread that the foreigner was on his way. A large crowd of children gathered and pooled around Prabaker and me, close to us but never touching. Their eyes were wide with surprise and excitement. They burst into fierce gusts of nervous laughter, shouted to one another, and leapt into jerky, spontaneous dances as we approached.
"People came out of their huts to stand in every doorway. Dozens, and eventually hundreds, of people crowded into the side-lanes and the occasional gaps between houses. They were all staring at me with such gravity, such a fixity of frowning intensity, that I felt sure they must bear me enormous ill-will. I was wrong, of course. I couldn't know then, on my first day, that the people were simply staring at my fear. They were trying to understand what demons haunted my mind, causing me to dread so terribly the place they knew to be a sanctuary from fates far worse than slum life."

Shantaram...tidbits
"Truth is a bully we all pretend to like."
"It's a fact of life on the run that you often love more people than you trust. For most people in the safe world, of course, the opposite is true."
"As the minutes passed, I reflected on that particularly Indian custom of amiable abduction."
"We have a saying in Persian- Sometimes the lion must roar, just to remind the horse of his fear."
"The burden of happiness can only be relieved by the balm of suffering."
"I think there are two points about suffering that we should remember, and they have to do with pleasure and pain. The first is this: that pain and suffering are connected, but they are not the same thing. Pain can exist without suffering, and it is also possible to suffer without feeling pain...The difference between them is this, I think: that what we learn from pain-for example, that fire burns and is dangerous- is always individual, for ourselves alone, but what we learn from suffering is what unites us as one human people. If we do not suffer with our pain, then we have not learned about anything but ourselves. Pain without suffering is like victory without struggle. We do not learn from it what makes us stronger or better or closer to God."
"Every virtuous act has some dark secret in its heart...and every risk we take contains a mystery that can't be solved."
"Cruel laughter is the way cowards cry when they're not alone, and causing pain is how they grieve."
"You can never tell what people have inside them until you start taking it away, one hope at a time."
"I love him because he has the task, where other men do not even have the dream, of changing the whole world."

Christmas in Nepal

2009-12-21T09:15:00.000-08:00

In addition to the hands on learning, I've been doing a lot of reading; "Things I want My Daughters to Know", "Cathedral of the Sea", "A Brief History of Nearly Everything", "Three Cups of Tea", "The Secret Life of Bees", "A Year in Provence", "Paradise in Our Backyard", "The Memory Keeper's Daughter", "The Time Traveler's Wife" and "Something Borrowed"...(I spend long hours in airports, what can I say?) But the book I'm currently reading is "The Motorcycle Diaries" by Ernesto 'Che' Guevara. Its a first person account of his travels through South America to North America with his best friend on a motorcycle named "La Poderosa", meaning the "powerful one". The nine month journey takes these two from Argentina to Chile, Peru, Columbia, and Venezuela before making it to the U.S. and then back to Argentina all the while keeping records of their disasters and discoveries. In the introduction "So We Understand Each Other", Che shares, much better than I, what traveling and journaling can and cannot do. Enjoy:

"This is not a story of incredible heroism, or merely the narrative of a cynic; at least I do not mean for it to be. It is a glimpse of two lives that ran parallel for a time, with similar hopes and convergent dreams.
In the nine months of a man's life he can think a lot of things, from the loftiest meditations on philosophy to the most desperate longing for a bowl of soup-in total accord with the state of his stomach. And if, at the same time, he's somewhat of an adventurer, he might live through episodes of interest to other people and his haphazard record might read something like these notes.
And so, the coin was thrown in the air, turning many times, landing sometimes heads and other times tails. Man, the measure of all things, speaks here through my mouth and narrates in my own language that which my eyes have seen. It is likely that out of 10 possible heads I have seen only one true tail, or vice versa. In fact it is probable, and there are no excuses, for these lips can only describe what these eyes actually see. Is it that our whole vision was never quite complete, that it was too transient or not always well-informed? Were we too uncompromising in our judgments? Okay, but this is how the typewriter interpreted those fleeting impulses raising my fingers to the keys, and those impulses have now died. Moreover, no one can be held responsible for them.
The person who wrote these notes passed away the moment his feet touched Argentine soil. The person who reorganizes and polishes them, me, is no longer, at least I'm not the person I once was. All this wandering around 'Our America with a capital A' changed me more than I thought.
In any photographic manual you'll come across the strikingly clear image of a landscape, apparently taken by night, in the light of a full moon. The secret behind this magical vision of "darkness at noon" is usually revealed in the accompanying text. Readers of this book will not be well versed about the sensitivity of my retina- I can hardly sense it myself. So they will not be able to check what is said against a photographic plate to discover at precisely what time each of my "pictures"was taken. What this means is that if I present you with an image and say for instance that it was taken at night, you can either believe me or not; it matters little to me, since if you don't happen to know the scene I've "photographed"in my notes, it will be hard for you to find an alternative to the truth I'm about to tell. But I'll leave you now, with myself, the man I used to be..."

Arriving in Kathmandu and making the 13 kilometers journey outside of the capital to Bhaktapur, home to Durbar Square. I would be in Bhaktapur teaching for 2 weeks before the rest of the group comes to Nepal. I was able to take in the sights, sounds and smells of my newest country. This square used to be the former palace of the royal family (when Nepal was run by a monarchy). The square is filled with temples, buildings, monuments and in keeping with the authenticity of the ancient city, the roads are quite narrow so automated transportation were not allowed in, but progress made this impossible. So buses, cars, motorbikes, buffalo and tractors navigate the narrow roads with a kind of iron determination that would surely cause me to have a heart attack if I were to try the commutes they make. I actually had an in depth discussion about the driving situation with my sherpa A.D.. We decided that motorbikes began as a great idea, a way in which to navigate through traffic and wind around the obstacles that keep four wheel vehicle at a stand still...but then more and more people began to see the advantages and their semi-affordability- at least compared to cars. (The 265% motor vehicle tax makes owning a car nearly impossible, but owning a motor bike possible). People bought motorbikes and now no one can get through the traffic jams-especially the motorbikes!! The lines in the road here aren't even a "suggestion" as I've been referring to them in other countries.

I walked the intricate alleyways of Thamel, the "downtown" district of Kathmandu during the time I have off for a change of scenery. The following weekend A.D. and I went to explore Pokhara, one of the Top 5 tourist trekking destinations in the world. It was full of nature and beauty beyond imagination. We hiked up to the World Peace Pagoda, just a large white mass at the top of a mountain until you get to the top. It was beautiful, but the view from up there was breathtaking!! We took a canoe ride from lakeside to the Hindu Temple island:)
As with most of the poorer countries the biggest problems are pretty standard: drinking water, food, poverty, corrupt government, (including the 25% income tax and strikes which make businesses, schools and roads shut down.)

-The group got in yesterday from the U.S. and I met them in Kathmandu. We will be traveling all over Nepal presenting scholarships to girls in primary schools funded by donations to the foundation I'm working with. It was eye opening for me because it wasn't until I was with my own people, so to speak, that I was really able to see the changes in myself. I'm much more laid back as far as my expectations on time frames, delivery on services and the length of time a meal should take. I enjoy conversation more because I'm less rushed and I feel like I can engage in a conversation that I might not have started if I thought the meal would only last 40 minutes. I really enjoy 3 hour meals with tea before and coffee after, I enjoy moseying along the streets of a city with no particular place to go...and no need to pretend I'm on my way to somewhere important to ward off approachers for that matter. I love sitting in coffee shops, tea houses or market places and not take my book out. Instead I can transform a stranger into a friend...probably even learn something. I walk with the humility of seeing too many hungry faces; no longer the swagger of a tourist in new travel gear who believes that reading the guide book has prepared them for the streets. No, I've seen too much truth to not bow my head and pull my hands together for a child I meet; the god in me will always recognize the god in them. (That is the literal translation of "Namaste").

-Load-shedding is a term most people in the U.S. aren't familiar with, but the way our energy use is going we may be soon. It is where districts/cities/towns elect few hours per day in which they will go with out power to share the load of the electricity usage. In Tanzania they took a different approach: they elect a full day, from 9a.m. until 11p.m. in which they go without.

-Add to the list of things I've tried: I ate buffalo meat, yak cheese and the most delightful sweet treat called goodpack.

-For their New Year's celebration (in April), they have a week long festival in which they throw rocks across the square at each other to get out the frustrations and anger of the year before. Because everyone is throwing the rocks there is a sense on anonymity so when someone says they got hurt, the typical response is "Oh, one of my rocks must have hit you".

-These are some expressions in Nepali that I've learned:
"The tongue has no bone"- It means that people can twist words all kinds of ways to make it sound pretty to the ear.
"I've changed my clothes more times than you have"- It means I'm older than you and have more experience.
"The mustache doesn't prevent the mouth from eating"- It means if you want something bad enough, nothing will get in your way. (Similar to the expression "Where there is a will, there's a way".

-The colored flags you see all over Nepal are the Buddhist prayer flags written in a language only the monk know how to read. They are covered with the written prayers, but when the sun has faded the flag to the point where they are no longer able to be read, they say that that is when the prayers have gone up to heaven.

-"Garaha" is the energy someone gives off; the unexplainable attraction or repulsion you feel for a person even before you have spoken with him/her.

-In the pictures of the water spouts throughout Nepal you will notice that most of them are made in the shape of a frog or a snake of some sort. This is because when the pipes would clog up, they would send a frog up through the pipe and a few minutes later they would send a snake in after it. The frog would break up the clog in the pipe trying to get away from the snake. Brilliant!!

-I was surprised to hear that although Nepal is one of the poorer countries as well as quite small, they sent 80 representatives to the G Summit in Copenhagen. Interesting because with that many representatives one would hope for a better line of defense against the pollution than surgical masks color coordinated to match their outfits.

-Perhaps it is because of the pollution, at least that is what I choose to think, but I've never heard so much hawking and spitting in my whole life!! Everyone here, including the women, spit on the streets. They say it is caused by the exhaust, but I've been breathing the same air and I'm not doing that...but then again I am getting headaches.

-Today's pollution level should have been much better because it is the first day of ANOTHER 3 day strike organized by the Maoists. The story is they want more power, influence and money. They have 40% membership in Parliament they feel they aren't fairly represented in the government so to retaliate they use their presence in government to stop potential progress and have imposed a "general" strike on the whole country. What this means is that every school, store, restaurant, business, market and petrol stations are closed; every bus, car and motorbike is off the street and no one risks challenging the Maoists who march through the streets. This isn't because the people agree with them, in fact it's ONLY because they are afraid of them that they adhere to the strike. The charred remains of businesses whose owner thought they might get by or the dented cars of the drivers that thought they would be lucky are left as a visible reminder and warning to the rest. In order for our guide to pick up arrivals from the airport he had to make a deal with a taxi driver he found on the road. Not only did he agree to pay a higher rate because of the risk the driver was taking, but he agreed to take care of any damages incurred should the car be attacked along the way.

Dubai...$80 billion later

2009-11-29T12:39:00.000-08:00

- This is the first country for a while where I've been able to get a proper salad...(you'd be shocked the things that have been called "salads" in other countries.)
- A very international country. 41 different languages spoken just in Dubai alone! And only 6% of the population in this city are citizens of United Arab Emirates, the resta re immigrants here for business, travel, etc.
- To open a business here as a foreigner you need a local sponsor; someone from this country to say that they support the business you are bringing into the country. In turn, the sponsor owns 51% of the company...on paper that is. In theory this has been put in place by the government to protect the interests of the citizens, but what actually ends up happening is big business come in and pay a local anywhere from $10-50K per year, depending on the size of the business to endorse them on paper.
-Interestingly, as international as this city is you see very little conflict culturally on the streets...perhaps that is because almost everyone here is a "foreigner". The population of Indians is the highest, Pakistanis bringing in a close second and Filipinos coming in with a strong third. Here I see Indians EVERYWHERE !! Although Indians owned most of the businesses in Uganda and South Africa has the highest population of Indians outside of India, I saw very little of them aside from their strong influence on the cuisine. This it would seem because they owned the businesses rather than having the face-to-face with the customers. Lincoln said, and I'm paraphrasing here, "...any man can endure adversity, but if you want to know a man's character give him power."
- There have been places that I've traveled that I would love to go back to for a vacation, but this is the first city I've been to where I can realistically see myself living and working in.
- I thought Dubai would be like a larger version of Vegas and was preparing myself for that especially after flying here from Africa, but what I found was quite the contrary.
- Dubai maybe in debt to the tune of $80 billion conjuring up images of decadence and over indulgence, and yes that is here. In fact you don't have to search very far for it, but you do need to search. What I had pictured was hotel after hotel sparkling sending your system into sensory overload. They are here...just more spread out and the sparkles are on the inside:)
-Btw, a good portion of that debt that Dubai has asked for an extension on repaying (sending everyone clutching their purses) is because Dubai's government invested in hotel shares in the U.S....namely MGM, Bellagio and the like. (Ironic don't you think.) Since the crisis Dubai has canceled "The World" project (where man made island would have been constructed to mimic a map of the world). Construction cranes perch atop every other building waiting patiently for people to feel secure enough to indulge once again...and they will:)

Uganda

2009-11-10T09:47:00.000-08:00

-I learned the true meaning of generosity from Ugandans
-They are collectively the most codependent people I've ever met. They know what you need before you do!!
-If "You are welcome" or "karabo" in swahili is the most popular saying in Africa, the most popular saying in Uganda is "Sorry". I would say I have no brothers, they would say "oh, sorry". I would say someone cut in line at the grocery store (apparently I left too much room between myself and the person in front of me) and they would reply "oh, sorry". I found it similar to "How are you?" in that we have said it so much in society that it has lost all its meaning.
-If transportation is the biggest and most self-defeating obstacle to overcome in Europe, then the equivalent in Uganda is accessing your money!!!
-Matatoos, or vans, are stuffed with endless amounts of people everywhere in Africa, but unique to Uganda is the popularity of a motor bike called a "boda-boda". Their drivers have NO fear and have been on the road way too long. They began calling them boda-bodas because they transport people from border to border. Ha!
-In their version the tooth fairy isn't a fairy at all, but a rat!! The child leaves the tooth for the rat to take in the night and, get this, the more money he leaves for your tooth the longer it takes for the tooth to grow in:)
(I found that in South Africa the animal is a mouse and it builds its house out of the teeth of children!! And in their version the more money you get from the mouse the shinier the tooth will be. HA!)
-Music being part of their culture may have influenced the way in which they greet each other. At first I described it by saying they "sing" to each other, but actually with more exposure I refined the description to more of a "cooing" or a kind of musical moan. It's quite soothing to tell you the truth.
-An answer "yes" in response to a question was the most difficult to translate because all they do is briefly raise their eyebrows so you need to be watching them when you ask a question.
-When I went to the falls there was a man who offered to ride the rapids with nothing more than a jerrycan between himself and the lethal tides...for a small fee of course (Jerrycans are the bright yellow containers they use to transport water. They are about a foot and a half tall and a foot wide...not much against the force of the water.) After a brief lecture on his career choices he got the hint that I wasn't going to be any part of his jumping off that cliff. When I shared the story later in the village they said that that guy has "diamonds in his hair". I asked what that meant and they said that it is the spirits around him that protect him from death.
-The villagers nicknamed me the second day I was there: "motis". It means the expander; that which makes others grow:) I like it.
-I heard a great saying from the guide at the Kasubi Tombs: "Swahili was born in Kenya, raised in Tanzania, got sick in Congo and came to die in Uganda."
-It rains a lot here, its one of the many ways Uganda is blessed. There are times in which the rain continues even though the sun has come out fully and they have an expression for it. They call this when "the monkey is getting married" sometimes it is when "the monkey married a fox" (or some other arbitrary animal). So you can guess what my next question was...WHY??? They said because neither happens very often.

-As far as schools:
-The staff quarters are still not completed and aren't expected to be completed until late this year...perhaps next year so I commuted in each day at the first school.
-Students were called out of class to help push the car I was in out of the mud of the driveway in front of the school on my first day!
-Students as young as P1, or first grade, use razor blades to sharpen their pencils!!
-They share erasers, pens and pencils...sometimes between 3 students or more.
-There is only one textbook for each subject of each grade and the teacher uses it to direct instruction. The teacher transcribes all work, text and important excerpts on to the parts of the blackboard that are still black...where it is then copied by the students into their composition books. Practice exercises are also written on the chalkboard by the teacher to be copied by the students and completed independently at their desks.
-Realia is unheard of and these students can sit for 3 hours at a time soaking in information and not one complains or attempts to create disruption. And if you think your day is long, well you have nothing on these kids. They walk from home for miles and arrive at 7am for P-7 (because they are preparing for exit exams) and 8am for the rest of the student body. Classes end at 5pm and then they walk back home to do their homework for the next day.
-Several students are without composition books so during the lesson while everyone else is copying the activity and exercise into their books, they just sit there. (staff said that some student's parents just couldn't afford school fees or the books for the students to write in.)
-Enrollment is down because school fees were raised to cover costs...they aren't sure where the students who no longer attend went
-It is assumed that the students eat breakfast before walking to school in the morning and supper upon returning home. Even with this belief, (which isn't true), they are only given porridge at 1pm for lunch. That isn't enough fuel to think for the 9 hour school day, nor for the whole day which is the reality of the situation.

They kneel when they are asking the teacher for something
They wait at the door way of the classroom for you to grant them permission to enter
They thank you at the end of the day for teaching them
They came into the classroom where I was observing and took me back to their classroom because they wanted me to teach them another lesson:)

Some stupid facts of the day about the game in Africa:)

2009-11-10T09:45:00.000-08:00

-Zebras and wildebeest stick together in the wild because they make a good team...Zebras have good eyesight and wildebeest have a good sense of smell.
-The biggest killers in Africa are the Hippos
-I remember this fact like this: "Cheetahs cry because leopards are bigger". Cheetahs and leopard look very similar, but one way to differentiate them is that cheetahs have the markings on their face that make them look like they are crying. Also, leopards tend to be larger in size than cheetahs...hence the expression above.
-Neither hippos nor elephants can jump.
-Impalas have harems, but elephants are matriarchal, traveling in herds and quite sensitive in general. At the elephant orphanage they rotate the staff members when they are on the overnight shift because the elephants will become too attached to one staff member and will refuse to eat food from another.
-Elephants are susceptible to pneumonia, in part because keepers have no way of detecting the symptoms because elephants can't cough or sneeze. Their lungs are attached to their ribcage so by the time their trunk starts dripping its already too late:(
-Giraffes make no noise. They also frequently get cataracts because they spend so much time craning their necks to the tops of trees to eat while staring into the sun.
-Giraffe diet consist of acacia trees which, if you've ever seen them, have very intimidating spikes all over them. Giraffes are able to eat away without a care in the world because their saliva is filled with antiseptic constantly healing the wounds from their last meal.
-Hyenas and vultures poop white!! What a cool trick huh?!? That happens because they are both scavengers and eat the bones of the animal as well as the meat. The white of the poop is from the calcium in the bones they have digested.
-Hyenas can eat dead meat, meaning they can eat an animal that they haven't killed themselves but just came across...however, if a member of the pack comes across food it must let the other members of the pack know about it. If they don't and the pack finds out they will kill the individual hyena. Who says there isn't justice in the wild???

Kenya to Tanzania via camping...yes, you heard right camping!!

2009-10-18T11:21:00.000-07:00

Today is day five of my 19 day African Adventure, so I've got some catching up to do. Lucky for me I've got helpers around me to jog my memory:)
Day 1: Niarobi
My flight left Cairo at 11:25pm today and I arrived in Nairobi minus a night's sleep. I hit the ground running in what tourists lovingly refer to as "Nairobbery" and left the hotel with part of the group for a visit to the Elephant Orphanage. Elephants found in many situations all resulting in them not having a mother to take care of them are taken to this place and raised with the intentions of releasing them back into the wild. So that the elephants don't become too accustomed to humans they only allow public feeding of the baby elephants for one hour each day. After that we went to feed the giraffes at the Giraffe Park (where I got a picture kissing a giraffe!!). You hold the pellet of food in your mouth and the giraffe gets it from you providing the best pic ever! After all that we went to the Cultural center to watch some traditional dances.
Day 2: Masai Mara
We left Nairobi for Masai Mara...a 6 hour drive in which one of the two vans we were riding in broke down on the way:) Breakdown #1 We arrived and got settled into our structure tents, complete with beds inside then left for our first safari ride that afternoon!!! It was great and although it was only 2 hours long because we were running so far behind on schedule due to the breakdown, we saw more animals that afternoon than we have seen on one single outing since.
Day 3: Masai Mara
Today we woke at 7am went for an all day safari then went to the Masai Village to see how they live.
Day 4: Masai Mara to Nakuru
We got up way early this morning for a short drive to see the animals in the beginning hours of the day. Afterwards we came back to the camp and had breakfast before heading out for the 7 hour drive to Nakuru...when the van broke down again. Breakdown #2. We arrived at about 8pm and immediately ate and went to sleep, exhausted from the drive.
Day 5: Lake Nakuru National Park
Today we got to sleep in and have a leisurely breakfast. We left around 9am for a safari drive through Lake Nakuru National Park. This place was so different from the other park. For one thing it was green in some areas!! Which actually a surprise because they are going through quite a drought right now and what used to be a lake containing flamingos in the millions is now home to 3-5,000 flamingos.
Day 6: Nakuru to Amboseli National Park
We arrived late to Amboseli and were barely able to set up the tents before the sun went down. It seems as though this place doesn't really cool off at night the way the last one did.
Day 7: Amboseli National Park
Amboseli National park was quite an experience. I got some great shots of the sunrise on one side and the moon set on the other. We went for a game drive and they have several swamps here where the hippos and elephants spend the day wallowing in and grazing through...if they don't get stuck that is. Most of the pics I got have Kilimanjaro in the background. Wow it's beautiful here...until the dust storms kicked in that is. It didn't really matter how beautiful it was at that point because you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. Some of the group made the mistake of washing their clothes and hanging them out to dry just before the storm hit...nothing like wet clothes or a wet body for that matter to attract the red colored dirt of this park.
Day 8: Tsavo West National Park
On our way to Tsavo National Park we stopped at Shitani or "Ghost" Hills where black lava covers the ground as far as the eye can see. We arrived and went for our last night game drive and ended the evening having a drink at the local resort's bar overlooking the animal watering hole and watching the sunset.
Day 9: Tsavo to Mombasa
We began the day with a morning game drive before breakfast. We then set out on our drive to Mombasa. Upon getting there a few of us decided to go for a walking tour that included the spice market and Fort Jesus.
Day 10: Mombasa
Today is the last day with this group and aside from dinner tonight we really have no plans for the day. I took advantage of the proper bathroom and accommodations by doing laundry, but not until the evening did I realize that this was the most humid place we would encounter throughout the entire 19 day tour. I said goodbye to the first half of my trip and prepared to begin again with clean albeit wet clothes tomorrow.
Day 11: Shimba Hills/ Diani Beach
Shortly after breakfast we began the 7 hour drive from Mombasa to Diani beach where the tour shifts from schedules, planned meals and game drives to laiseez faire optional water sport excursions, byo snacks and coastal views. We stopped along the way at Shimba Hills for what turned out to be an impromptu hike at the peak of the day's heat!! Fortunately I didn't feel like I was going to die until we had to hike back up, but the hike down to Shedrick Falls was amazing:) We finished the day off at thhe local resort for a beer and to watch the elephants come drink at the watering hole.
Day 12: Diani Beach
Today we went to the Kia village for a tour of the Sacred forest and a briefing of the culture from the guide/member of the tribe. Afterwards we stopped by the Monkey Rescue center for a tour of the grounds.
Day 13: Shimoni
Early day began with breakfast before our dhow boat and snorkel adventure:) On the way to Kisite underwater Marine Park where they have the largest fish in the most spectacular colors I've ever seen we saw dozens of dolphins playing in the water. We had a lunch of fresh lobster and crab on Wasini Island and took a tour of the village. We saw the Kokoni Bridge and Rock Garden constructed by the women of the village and headed back to the boat. We finished up with more snorkeling out to a sand bar to lay out. Once inland we visited the Shimoni Slave Caves (an underground arrangement where slaves were stored and exported via an underwater tunnel that led to Zanzibar). We then walked to the treehouse where we would spend the night.
Day 14: Shimoni to Pangani
Today was a travel day in which we crossed the border from Kenya to Tanzania. I had bought my visa ahead of time, but guess who was the only member of the group they gave a hard time to about crossing the border. Thank goodness Edmund, our guide, was there to run interference. He said that the guys at the border were "being naughty" and trying to do "funny things" so that they could "get a little tea". Geez... The drive really wouldn't be complete, nor would this second group really capture the whole African experience without a breakdown. Breakdown #3
Day 15: Pangani
We arrived for the second all day snorkeling excursion. After snorkeling the Marine Park we rested on the most beautiful sand bar in the middle of the ocean. The water was turquoise blue and waves lapped at both sides.
Day 16: Saadani National Park
We packed our stuff and drove to the waters edge to catch the next ferry across the water. The vans drove on and 10 minutes later we were on the other side. We arrived at the park and went on a game drive that night.
Day 17: Bagamoyo
We awoke early for our last game drive before heading out to Bagamoyo. There we relaxed, played cards and camped with a view of the ocean, sleeping to the sound of the waves.
Day 18 and 19: Dar es Salaam
We drove to Dar es Salaam where out trip together would end...again for me. What an adventure!!

Have we been flipping our kids off this whole time??: Cairo, Egypt

2009-10-18T07:22:00.000-07:00

-Each country has it's own unique customs which I enjoy so much learning about. For example Turkey had me laughing when I found out that the sign to flip someone off is the same thing that we do to children when we say "Got your nose"!! In Egypt making the pinky swear with someone is a way to tell them that you are mad at them.

-The similarities differ slightly like in Turkey you would find women in the streets selling tissues for money while wearing Louis Vuitton hajabs, but in Egypt they wait until the evening when they go to the mall to spend their tissue money to put on the designer wear.

-Another unfortunate similarity is the "Democratic" system that they both have in common. Interestingly enough Egypt's president "won" the election...again with a 95% majority. However, during the voting time my friend went to cast his vote like many other citizen only to be turned away at the polls with any number of excuses the police could find to not allow its citizens to vote. I asked my friend what the people of Egypt do with a president who leads his country like a monarch. He said the same thing they have been doing for 20 years: wait for him to die.

-The layout of the streets and the navigation of them has definately left it's dizzying impression. There are no left-hand turns so in order to go to a location you must pass it several times and that is assuming that everyone else follows the general unspoken rules of the road...which they don't!! Horns are used to indicate turns, to tell another driver you are there, to say hello, to let someone know you are backing up, to tell people you are about to drive the wrong way down a one-way street, etc. It is deafening, but if that doesn't get you and the u-turns have left you with something to be desired, then the multiple brushes with death will surely keep you on your toes. With lines in the roads as mere "suggestions" of lanes and cops as corrupt as I've ever seen it is beyond me why they have no public transportation. The most comical part of all was going to the mall and paying a guy to "watch" you car as he double parked it in front of his shop, (for a small fee of course), making sure to remind you to leave the car in neutral so he could push it out of the way in case the owner of the car you parked in came back. He waves as he puts a large rock behind each of your back tires so it won't roll backwards into traffic!!

-Many of the things I observe are funny and definitely worth mentioning for a laugh, but now being in Uganda (one of the poorest countries in the world) I can say that the city of Cairo is worse off than here. Cairo is unjustifiably poor!! Not that there is a justifiable poverty, but one is able to string together logically the causes or contributor to the lack of wealth. But in the case of Cairo they are the home to two of the seven wonders of the world including the Sphinx and the pyramids of Giza. These tourist traps bring in untold amounts of money that the Egyptians never see. That saddens me more than anything and it makes me upset that though they have tried, they just can't seem to shake corrupt government, democratic or not.

Happy last day of Ramadan!! Yes please Turkey:)

2009-10-18T06:52:00.000-07:00

-I've learned so much during my travels; each country deepening my understanding of society, culture, mankind and in turn, myself though (sometimes much more directly). Normally there is one person who acts as a catalyst, a person who seems to have an uncanny ability to say/do/be something in passing that hits so close to home you shudder. When you are lucky you find two in one city like I did.
Upon my arrival in Istanbul, like so many times before, I decided that to relax would be just a waste of a day. In the conversation in my mind I came to a compromise as is typical in the ongoing reconciliation of the many facets of my personality: I would go wander around after checking into my hostel and once I arrived at one of the sights on my ambitious list I would have a tea. Pleased with my plan I set off walking. Hungry from fasting for Ramadan and tired from a day of travel, and ended up getting lost...yet again. (It doesn't really bother me anymore to get lost, in fact it's in the category with everyone around me speaking another language, it's inevitable.) I ducked in the first travel agency I saw to ask for directions to the Blue Mosque and met Yalcin. Yalcin and I sat, talked and had tea while he shared (as only locals can properly) the history, must see locations and nuances of the culture. It turned out he and his sister owned the travel agency so the tour he helped me to book was going to be awesome. So fun in fact that at dinner we decided he would come along as well. The next day I saw the Blue Mosque and the Aya Sophia and went with his sister for a much needed mani-pedi and an unbelievable Turkish Bath scrub down before leaving for Selcek. From there we took a day trip to Pamukkale and Ephesus and stayed in Antalya before leaving on the first boat cruise from Olimpos. Over the next 4 days on the boat we saw the Sunken City and docked in Kas and Kalkan to explore the towns. We jumped off the side of the boat in St.Nicholas Bay and Tarzan Bay.
-I'm always intrigued to find out the customs that make the countries I'm in unique. Turkey may be the least conservative of the Islamic countries, but it is still is quite traditional especially when it comes to male-felmale relationships. When a young girl and boy like each other and the family of the boy goes to visit the family of the girl, she can let him know that she likes him secretly. After the tea has been prepared, instead of putting sugar in his cup she puts salt. He will know immediately that she likes him after the first sip. If he likes her back he show her by drinking all of it.
-The Ottoman empire was extremely influential and parts of it's legacy still live on today. The tea cups for example are shaped like tulips because at one point behind the Ottoman gates was the only place in the world they could be found. When the queen of Holland came to visit Turkey she saw the flower for the first time and fell in love with it. Wanting to bring it back to her own palace she asked for a plant, but her request was denied. She wasn't going to let a "no" stop her from getting what she wanted, she was a queen after all. Before she left the grounds she secretly plucked a tulip and hid it under the curls of her up do!! She smuggled the flower back to her palace and now Holland is the world's number one exporter of tulips.

"Money is like dirt, there is always more"

"My Third Nostril"

2009-08-23T08:03:00.000-07:00

I haven't done a blog entry for quite a while now and for that I'm sorry. It's not that you've missed so much, I just know that this is my lifeline to the rest of the world and if you are "here with me" as I say then you should be aware of what's going on:) As I'm moving through my journey internet access is becoming less and less available and I can make no guarantees about the frequency of my entries when I'm in Africa, India or Nepal, but for now let me tell you about Greece.
I'm telling you, island hopping is the new black!! Although the first island is difficult to get to...no matter where you are, it's so easy just to go from island to island once you are here. Each one has a different vibe and gives off a different energy, you would never think they are all part of the same country. Santorini had a Caribbean feel to it; if you aren't on "island time" like everyone else, very quickly you begin to feel uptight. The result of this neither good nor bad, just always the same: you end up staying longer than you had planned because it's easier to stay than it is to leave:) The next island I ferried to was Mykonos... mecca of the gay community. I can compare this island to a cross between South Beach and Cancun. The island was packed to the brim with tourists...mainly Italians on holiday for the month of August. The "beach bungalow" (which sounds FAR more glamorous than it was) had no view and ironically was no where close to the beach. This I didn't really mind...it was the 45 euros per night I was paying to stay on a campsite (yes, a campsite!!) that really hurt. (In "real money" that is the equivalent of about $65!!) After lodging and one drink at 15 euros (about $22) I was over Mykonos. I've loop holes in many of the places where I've been and been able to get, at the very least, free wifi... When I got to the campsite and asked about free wifi the driver said "Nothing is free in Mykonos...welcome to Paradise". (To be fair the name of the area where we were staying was Paradise Beach, so it doesn't sound that bad when put in context.) My next island was Naxos where I camped as well. The people there were great and I had a blast! It was far less expensive and felt "real" not the showy feel that Mykonos had. I'm now on the island of Paros which is sort of a cross between Mykonos and Naxos. The prices here are higher than Naxos, but not ridiculous like Mykonos; the aesthetics are as beautiful as both if not better! Still, it has the artificial feel of Mykonos...the girls are in heels and full make up. I'm not about to cave to the cosmetic industry now...I've gone this long. Most of the time I just feel bad for the girls because I know how uncomfortable those shoes are!!
Some of the nicest people I've met have been from the places where I've been told the people are "mean" or to "watch out for the locals". Greece and Morocco are both great examples of this. I don't think the people in either occurred any differently to me than they would have normally or that my expectations of them were lower because of the things I had heard. I think people are generally doing what they are doing in good faith...whether it's trying to look out for a solo female traveler by warning her or a culture consciously being on their best behavior because they are aware that they have a poor reputation and are working to turn it around. I was told that the Greek people were mean and aggressive before I came here, but what I have found is just the opposite. I think this is another one of those cultural misunderstandings. The Greeks, like Italians, are very expressive and to some extent curt, but any foreign language spoken loudly and coupled with hand gestures is going to sound mean and aggressive to a listener who can't understand what is being said. I consider myself soft spoken for the most part and gentle with my voice, but in the hierarchy of descriptors apparently "ability to adapt" ranks higher. I've found it takes me about 2 days in a country before I have taken on the cultural nuances and adopted the country specific characteristics. This is by no means intentional, but has proven to be by far my greatest asset on this trip.

I was asked to write an article telling about my journey for "Adventure Woman" newsletter!!! (The link is on my Facebook page.) Some of the questions and topics addressed in my article are why I took this trip, the inner and outer journey/transformation, would I do it again? Recommend it to others? Has it changed me? What is the best advice I would give someone embarking on (or dreaming of) a similar journey/expedition. The article follows below. Enjoy!!

"My Third Nostril"
It is the end of August and I am rounding the corner on my third month of traveling! It is actually a drop in the bucket when I look at the year and a half left in front of me. I'm currently in Greece, the 13th country I've visited after moving counterclockwise through Europe. I began June 1st in London, took the Eurostar to Paris and the train through Belgium stopping in Brussels, Bruges and Oostende before heading up to Amsterdam. I took a few days in Bordeaux before switching gears to Spain's Madrid, Sevilla and Malaga. I took the ferry to Morocco and enjoyed the cities of Tangier, Marrakech and Casablanca before flying to Barcelona. I returned to the coastline of Nice, Cannes, Antibes and Montecarlo, then hopped on another ferry to Corsica. I took the overnight train to Vienna and Salzberg before going to Munich. I stayed in Prague for a few days to relax and enjoy what I had always remembered as my favorite city in Europe. I explored eastern Europe's Budapest, Zagreb and Split before a stop over in Italy and what has turned into an island hopping extravaganza including Santorini, Mykonos, Naxos and Paros. My plans are to fly out of Athens on the 1st of September to begin the next leg of my journey to Turkey, Egypt and Africa, Dubai, India and Nepal, followed by China, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand, before ending in Japan. Many have asked me why I'm doing this...and I've never been one to need reasons, but the more times I answer the question the closer I come to the answer. I remember hearing a quote that said "Those willing life takes hand in hand; those unwilling life takes kicking and screaming". This trip chose me; I'm clear about that. The variables that made it easier were that I'm a teacher and there are no jobs, I'm not in debt, I'm not married and I have no children...If those aren't reason enough, I'm young and probably won't get a chance to do something like this again. It's not that I didn't have reasons to stay; I'm just bigger than my reasons:) It's not that I don't get scared; I feel it. I just don't let fear stop me.
The inner transformation is best described as the equivalent to getting a third nostril. That may sound silly, but you didn't realize how much you needed both of them until one plugged up when you got sick right? Well traveling is like growing a third...you can't imagine that there is this much air out there!! I've learned there is a fine line between naïvety and intentional ignorance and that both are self defeating. I'm aware of my own transformations in some instances like my relationship with women. There is a kinship that I either denied or never chose to be a part of, but I've come to see that the bond amongst women has a language all it's own.
The outer transformation...well it's a humbling experience realizing your personal level of vanity. Going without hair color, cuts, facials, waxing...you get the idea. Men lose weight in Europe, women gain weight. Fair or not, that's how it is. There is no "low/non fat" or "sugarfree" anything and I hope you like ham because its in everything:)
"Would I do it again?" Well it's not over yet, but so far- in a heartbeat!! At times it felt closer to an endurance test than a vacation, but the yoda-like ticket lady in Oostende said it best: "You'll eventually get there...don't worry". I would recommend this experience to everyone! It's so difficult to realistically consider it once you have begun your career. Two weeks vacation really isn't enough time to go anywhere, but the world that opens up is beyond words.
The trip I'm taking at the age of 31 years old is very different that the trip I took to Europe just 9 years ago for my semester abroad.
I think the biggest challenge, in the beginning especially, was getting used to the sound of the voice in my head. Now if growing up an only child doesn't prepare you for traveling alone, I really think there can be no training.
I believe this trip has already significantly altered my thoughts, but as for my outward personality, well I'll have to ask my friends when I return home...in 2011.

Austria, Prague and Hungary, oh my!!!

2009-08-04T23:36:00.000-07:00

I've been open-minded enough to have unusual food and have ended up enjoying Moroccan sacrificial lamb and goulash, but this morning for breakfast I was so excited at an alternative to the typical European "bread-fast"- I was going to have an Austrian omelet!! I ordered it, but requested "no ham". (If you've ever been to Europe you will notice 3 main ingredients, much like the rice, beans and tortillas of Mexican food. Here the big 3 are bread, ham and egg...in EVERYTHING! There is the occasional exception of tuna-even on pizza. Here nothing is sacred.) Instead of ham, the young man put pork and bacon...and cheese...and then salted it. How is it possible that with the way they eat in Europe that they still live longer than we do in America?!?! Is stress really that lethal? It must be because they eat a lot of unhealthy stuff here. What do Muslims eat? Ever since the issues in France with the burkas in school, I've noticed a lot more traditional Muslims in other countries I've been to.
I think the lack of stress is a trickle down thing as well. The way they are with their children is really admirable. They have a laissez-fair approach to the role of parenting. There is a cause and effect to the choices that the children make and parents don't get involved in its relationship. Because of this the children are in more control of themselves and regulate themselves. Here is testimony to that fact: I've seen one temper tantrum during my trip and it was by a boy from England.
-How can a shower bring you back from the dead??? I'm not sure how, but it did!!
-It's amazing the transformation your body goes through when you're traveling- gain weight, lose weight, gain muscle, you can see the little purple veins in your feet from walking, your skin changes from the food you are eating, your hair changes from the water you are washing it with
-I'm realizing it isn't so much about the places you go...how many castles/cathedrals/collections of shiny thing can one person go see? I'm finding it's more about the company you keep in the places you DO go. You may take all kinds of pictures, but the relationships you build, the time you invest along the way, the laughs and the tears shared with people that at on point were mere strangers. The backpackers that I have met seem to understand this. They have learned to enjoy the moment for what it is and not live in a state of perpetual anticipation of the future. It seem as though many of us are trying to speed life up, slow it down or pause it and hold on to something that is forever changing. I'm learning to enjoy the moment, not force situations and realizing that I may not always know the best way...and for a teacher that is a huge hurdle to overcome. I don't know it all, but I'm a fast learner, an even better listener and hungry for knowledge.
-It's funny how when people are speaking a language you don't understand you are sure they are talking about very important things...they aren't. Trust me on this one. I was a bit concerned because as the announcements for the train come on the overhead speaker, the conductor speaks in German for a good 4 minutes. When he is finished he says, in English, "We will be arriving in blah, blah station in 2 minutes". You get a little worried because you don't know what you have missed. Well, I finally had someone translate what they were saying and it was about the color of the train seats, about the orientation of the 1st and second class cars and how this train differs from others because of these particular features. I liked it better when I had no idea what he was talking about:) At least I could make up something interesting.
-I've been learning about the controversy surrounding Nestle and how they refuse to switch to conflict free/non-child labor obtained chocolate because of the profit margin they would lose. I'm amazed we haven't heard about this in the U.S.
-I've noticed stages that I've gone through as I've been traveling...right now I'm burnt out. I really think the heat and humidity has A LOT to do with it though and I'm optimistic.
-Today I leave from Budapest to Croatia. I leave here highly indebted to this country for reminding me of humility...not for the reasons you may think either. While skyping friends in Prague I unplugged my computer to get better sound by the window. In the midst of the emotion I forgot my computer charger in Czech Republic and didn't realize it until I was here. I have always been the hardest on myself and this case was no exception. As I was walking downtown trying to blow off some steam, I heard a woman next to me talking to her friend, mimicking the same conversation I was hearing in my head. "I didn't even realize until I was here...I'm so upset with myself", she was saying. "I can't believe I left my passport under my pillow in the hotel." I stopped in my tracks. At that moment I realized just how much worse off I could be. I officially dropped it, forgave myself and used my words to find an alternative. As it turned out, there was an Apple Store (called "istyle" here) within walking distance from where I was staying. Again, life was gentle with me and I'm grateful.
-Tip of the week: When washing out your clothes in the sink, DON'T look at the color of the water that is running off of them!!
-I'm so pleased that I've been able to share desserts. We in America may have big everything, but we have nothing on Europe's desserts. When I've gone out to eat and ordered dessert I've never been able to get even halfway through it, but the restaurants here have no concept of "doggie bag" and even if they did, desserts don't keep. So I've taken up offering the rest to a neighbor. I explain that the dessert is wonderful, but that I can't possibly finish and if they would like it they are more than welcome to it. You know what...they take it!! That makes me so happy. I'm really a sharer at heart and to see others enjoy what I've enjoyed makes the experience that much richer:) How wonderful!!

Vienna, Salburg and off to Munich tomorrow

2009-07-23T14:12:00.000-07:00

-Monte Carlo/Monaco can keep their Ferrarris, I want a Vespa from Santa
-Another unexpected delay in the transportation plans, but no a problem. It just meant I got 2 more days in Nice...I cant complain. I've learned not to get attached to travel plans.
-Originally I had planned to go to Geneva, Switzerland, but I need to visit another expensive European "economic center" like a hole in the head. I've opted instead to forgo Switzerland and go straight to Vienna via overnight couchette. I have great memories of Vienna from when I lived in Europe 9 years ago on a study abroad, but I'm noticing that the European Union does something to its member countries...most notibly, make them unbearingly expensive. Since the majority of my trip so far has been to the more developed Western European countries AND the dollar is so weak right now, I'm really feeling the squeeze in my wallet. I had a great conversation in the train with a member of the foreign legion who gave me several great points and suggestions for my journey. He pointed out that as I move in the route that I have planned the cost of living is going to go down considerably. I'm moving eastbound around the world so Europe will be the most expensive place I will be. I decided at that point to let it go. If this is the steepest it will get then I will enjoy where I am when I am there and be happy to cut corners where I can. I'm not going to undermine the quality of my travels for the sake of a few euros. This may not sound like a big deal to you, but it is a huge burden off of my shoulders and I'm glad I'm back in the moment.
- I've noticed a huge difference in the authenticity of touch here as well. In general, Europeans are much more unaware of their personal space (see the loss of "my last creature comfort" in previous entry). In the metro nothing is sacred, you are inundated with hands and smells, but it's never intrusive. As much as you are positive you are going to be trampled at any minute, they skim you without contact (mainly in Morocco) or gently bump you without so much as an "excuse me" (mainly Spain and France). For as much physical contact as experienced from strangers, you can see why transactions in the stores caught me off guard: hands never touch during purchases. When you are buying something, your money goes in the dish to pay for it, it is picked up by the teller, your change put back in the dish and you pick it up. I remember days at home when the only physical contact I got with another person was when I would go to buy something and our hands would touch...how sad is that. Here I kiss strangers on the cheeks when I say goodbye. I hold hands with people I've known a day...and it seems so natural.
-The Austrians are very nice and look to me like Americanized Germans. They are taller, have darker hair and Everyone has piercing and tattoos...I mean like they look like they fought a tackle-box and lost.
-I like the German influence on the schedules. Everything runs on time!! No problems with transportation and there seems to be a continuity to the system. I'm going to get used to it though. From what I hear Italian train are just about the worst and without different classes in the cars, there goes the ace up my sleeve.
-I've never seen the kind of humidity that I did today. It was even worse than Madrid's weather, but it held out until I was at dinner before it started pouring buckets of water from the sky. Weird thunder and lightening storm followed and I got to witness the "threads" of diagonal rain that Salzburg is so famous for.
-It doesn't smell like honey, jasmine, wood, playdoh and salt water the way that Corsica did, but the smell of pennies in the air indicating rain to break the humidity will be just fine with me:)

Leaving the "Crazy Woman" for $6 tea

2009-07-15T09:22:00.000-07:00

Barcelona got me. In all her brilliance, in her fountains that endlessly spew water synced to Disney music, in her museums that have dizzying layouts...she got me. I've extended my stay here and will be staying at my friend Elsa's house. This is the same Elsa that I met in Bordeaux who moved out to Barcelona about 3 weeks ago. Things are going well and I'm feeling better though not 100% in the least. But I do feel well enough to go explore Barcelona the way it should be explored.
When speaking with a Romanian waitress the other day she and I were discussing the Spanish dichotomy: those who love Madrid tend to dislike Barcelona and vice versa. Admitting that I had found myself to belong to the party of the lovers of Barcelona she disclosed the same with a laugh. I shared with her how I had extended my stay and still didn't feel ready to leave. At this she said not to worry because Barcelona is "like a crazy woman". With a puzzled look on my face I'm sure, I ran over the words in my mind again to be sure I had the translation correct. At this she switched to English. "Barcelona is like a crazy woman" she said, "because although you may leave her...you always come back". I love that!! And I know it to be true with everything in me. The advantage to staying in hostels are being told the sites to avoid and short cuts through the system, but it also comes with the story of the individual sharing the pointers. I've met half a dozen people who either came to Barcelona to visit and never left or swore to some back after a visit and are on the return journey or were backpacking and have been in Barcelona since a date they can no longer recall. In the bar where the Romanian girl works there is a saying on the wall that reads "So close to the port you forget the date". I've fallen head over heels with Barcelona and I vow to come back to retrieve my heart.
Today is the day it happened...I'll never forget it. I prepared for a full day of travel (at times it looked as if it would be even more...) on the train from Barcelona to Nice on France's Independence day. The French train system is unreliable to begin with, but you put a holiday in there and all bets are off. I could only buy the train ticket to get from Barcelona to Montpellier, but would have to buy my ticket to get from Montpellier to Nice when I arrived in that station. While standing in line to purchase the ticket the attendant told me that the train was "full"...the trains here are always "full", but interestingly enough have MANY empty seats. The complicated part is to find the conductor in the 3 minutes the train is in the station and tell him (in broken French) the situation and that you MUST be on this train and have him agree to print you a reserved ticket before you board the train. If, God forbid, the fates should never meet and you take off in the train and are caught without a ticket, or a promise of one, you can be fined and kicked off the train. Nothing like a little crisis, sleep deprivation and a heavy pack on your back to heighten the language skills. I can now dance the European language samba! Today I've skipped between French, Spanish and English so much that I'm convinced that I could get my point across no matter the country.
It seems difficult to put into words, but today I feel more fortunate than I have in a long time. I'm not quite sure why, but suffice to say that today I became a true international traveller. I began my day early, hunted a hostel directly in front of the train station to give myself as much time as possible to sleep the night before and by chance found myself in a train car with the most attractive man I've seen since I've been here. It's strange how life works with it's twisted humor utilizing hormones to aide in playing out it's dramas and we, as pawns, slaves to our emotions, pick up the play cues and dance the dance. We've all done it, but in this case it was done with eyes, in conversation and at the discovery of separate destinations, futile attempts were made to alter what had already been written: we had now and that was to be enjoyed. What greater a lesson, what sweeter a way in which to be reminded of it.

I just finished two books while sipping my cup of $6 tea...I don't know how much more of this I can afford. Anyway, the first book is "Paris to the Moon" and the second is "The Lost Stradivarius" by Faulkner. Both were good, but the quotes I share with you are from the former.
"Most Americans draw their identities from the things they buy, while the French draw theirs from the things they do. What we think of as French rudeness and what they think of as American arrogance arise from this difference...For us, an elevator operator is only a tourist's way of getting to the top of the Eiffel Tower. For the French, a tourist is only an elevator operator's way opportunity to practice his metier in a suitably impressive setting."

"Loss, like distance, gives permission for romance."

"The hardest thing to convey is how lovely it all is and how that loveliness seems all you need. The ghosts that haunted you in New York or Pittsburgh will haunt you anywhere you go because they are your ghosts and the house they haunt is you. But they become disconcerted, shaken, confused for half a minute and in that moment in a December at four o'clock when you are walking from the bus stop to the Rue Saint Dominique and the lights are twinkling across the river [...] you feel as if you have escaped your ghosts if only because, being you, they are transfixed too looking at the lights in the trees on the other bank which they haven't seen before either."

"Suis-moi je te fuis, fuis-moi je te suis." (Come to me I'll run away, runaway and I'll come to you)

From Spain and skin to Morocco and sobriety...

2009-07-06T11:52:00.001-07:00

From Malaga to Algaciris on an unforgettable train ride, then from Algeciris on a ferry to Tangier, Morocco. I'm traveling with 2 girls I met in Spain on holiday from Great Britain and we get along well. Got to Morocco last night late and spent the day walking around the city experiencing the culture. Women walk around covered from head to toe in sweltering, humid heat that has storekeepers seated in the shade. I was fortunate enough to have spoken to another girl at the last hostel who had just come from Morocco and I hadn't realized how close I was to cutting it out of my trip...worse, for really no reason at all other than I was buying into the preconceived ideas about what I though Morocco would be like. I had something along the lines of T.J. with a gypsy vibe and people looking to rip me off at any opportunity. She told me that, and I quote, "Casablanca [Morocco] changed my life." She went on about how kind the people were and how she had thought, before she had gone there, that everyone in Morocco was a thief and that her friends had cautioned her to be careful. I'm so glad I talked with her before I decided to kill of my trip here. Culturally speaking, I prepared accordingly (buying a small ring to wear as a wedding band and brought a balaclava with me to wear), but most important I believe is I chose to be aware, not make stupid choices that put me in compromising situations and above all to give

After discussions with people in the countries I've been to I'm beginning to see a pattern emerge in American behavior and the way in which we are perceived by the rest of the world. With sincerity and honest curiosity they've asked me why it is than whenever you talk to an American it's always "the worst time they've ever had" or "the best place they've ever been to"? False intensity and lack of authenticity is what we are known for. As I move from country to country I've noticed that what I once called my "personal space" (or rather the relinquishing of it as my last creature comfort), is not really caused by a lack of personal space at all. It's actually a lot of people living in a very small space. We have a cultural norm that is unspoken, but agreed upon in America of what I've coined as "timely chaos". We have a schedule that we adhere to and are very attached to its implementation despite what others may have on their agendas. We never intentionally move in a slow fashion to prevent others from accomplishing what they need to do...right? But when someone isn't moving at a rapid pace and it is directly affecting you, you are SURE that they are deliberately standing between you and where you need to be/what you need to get done/success. This is stressful and makes us tightly wound...and this, my friends, is why everyone else in the world smokes, drinks and parties until 6 a.m. and we as Americans still die first. Try being in a hurry in the countries I've been to...actually don't. It doesn't work. You get frustrated...until you're not anymore and you come back to reality and see that NOTHING was changed by your stress/anger/frustration. Eventually, you learn that you're eventually going to get where you need to be whenever that may be, but for now you are where you are, so have a beer/mojito/cappuccino and enjoy the moment because it is the best part of right now:)
I'm currently in Casablanca, considered to be the "economic center of Morocco"...funny. I only think they call it that because it's a little less chaotic than Marrakech and Tanger.
"Spinning is its own reward; there wouldn't be carousels if weren't so."

Sevilla and Malaga

2009-06-29T13:36:00.000-07:00

Well, I didn't think it could be done, but Spain has managed to top itself. Up until now, Sevilla was my favorite city of my travels, but Malaga has been able to keep the best part of Spain, (insert siestas and names of drinks here), and add the beach to the whole experience!! The people are friendly and even though most of them don't speak English they will work with you and try to get you what you need. That's another interesting point worth mentioning: they may not speak English, but they have no problem singing along to American music. The best was my cab driver singing along to Blondie after we were forced to draw pictures when the language barrier became such a problem...Ha!! Everywhere I go I hear American music...In a way I think it's sad. Music is such a huge part of culture that to give it up for the likes of Brittany Spears or T-Pain it seems a shame.
I didn't realize I hadn't explained what the drinks were that I was raving about. Caipirinhas are like mojitos, but have lemons as well as limes, without mint and are made with Brazilian sugar cane rum. Tinta de veranos is my recent favorite and literally translated means the "color of summer". It's similar to sangria, but not as sweet and stronger. It's made with iced red wine and a kind of carbonated lemonade...my description doesn't do it justice. I don't know what I'm gonna do with all these new habits when I get home.
I spent the past 4 days in Sevilla and Malaga and I have to say these are my two favorite cities in my travels to date. Although Madrid is a major city in Spain it has the impersonal feel of well, a big city. Sevilla is the fourth largest city in Spain, but hasn't lost it's small town feel. I'm taking well to the siestas in the afternoons. (Any country that can incorporate nap time and getting drunk at lunch into their cultural customs has my vote!) I'm having a blast and thinking of all of you. I miss you and want you to know you are here with me.
I finished "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and cried at the end...great book. I'm now reading "The Great Gatsby":)
My favorite quote from the book...so far:
"It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of reassurance in it that you may come across maybe four or five times in life. It faced, or seemed to face, the whole external world for an instant and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood; believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself and assured you it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey."

Madrid with no voice:(

2009-06-26T03:17:00.000-07:00

Having grown up in California I'm comfortable enough with my Spanish to get by. However...in Madrid not only do they speak another language, but they speak it differently than I've ever heard Spanish spoken before. The "sss" sound in words like gracias and Barcelona are pronounced "th", so the words sound like "grathias" and "Barthelona". Fortunately I was prepared for it, but it still takes some getting used to.
Between opening their shops late (usually around 11am) and taking a siesta in the afternoon from around 2-5pm, it's hard to imagine that, on average, the people of Spain get an hour less of sleep than any other European country, but trust me on this one.
Today is my last day here in Madrid and aside from a few delays with the trains, (which I now account for in my estimations of travel time), my arrival was without incident. The greatest adjustment has been from the crisp chill of France's 60F to the body draining humidity of Madrid's 106F! Still trying to figure out what is going on, my body shut down and I've gotten sick...these things happen and I suppose it's all part of the experience right? Either way it got me to stop and take in what is going on around me rather than running from museum to historical sight like I've been doing in the cities up until this point. If it wasn't me getting sick that slowed me down, it would have been the heat.
I've been able to meet more people and to catch up on some of the audio books I've been wanting to read. Currently, I'm reading "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and feel like I'm still experiencing the country/city because the book takes place in Madrid. I've included my favorite quote so far below. I'm sorry this entry will be brief because I'm really not feeling very well.

"And for her everything was red, orange, gold-red from the sun on the closed eyes and it was all that color, all of it. The filling, the possessing, the having, all of that color, all in a blindness of that color. For him it was a dark passage that led to no where, then to no where, then again to no where, once again to no where, always and forever to no where. Heavy on the elbows on the earth to no where. Dark, never any end to no where. Hung on all time always to unknowing no where. This time and again for always to no where. Now, not to be born once again, always and to no where. Now beyond all, bearing up, up, up and into no where. Suddenly, scaldingly, holdingly all no where gone and time absolutely still and they were both there, time having stopped. And he felt the earth move out and away from under them. Then he was lying on his side, his head deep in the heather smelling it and the smell of the roots and the earth and the sun came through it..." For Whom the Bell Tolls

Oostende, the train and Bordeaux

2009-06-21T05:24:00.000-07:00

Things I will never take for granted again:
Non-smoking restaurants/bars/clubs
Gum-my kingdom for a piece of gum
English being spoken freely and without stigma
Elevators
Free toilets
Deodorant!!!!
Breakfast
Moderately sized sea gulls

Things I think we should adopt from the Europeans:
PDA
Husbands and wives that hold hands
Sunsets at 10pm
escalators that are still until you step on them
Chocolate that melts in your fingers and tastes like sin
Sincerity
Flowers for the sake of beauty
Affordable flowers
Mojitos made with real mint leaves and limes
Meals that are enjoyed and last over an hour
Leave it to me to find the LA Jolla of Europe! Oostende is very resort-ish with it's sandy beaches, boardwalk and ginormous sea gulls. I've gotta tell you, I was really looking forward to this place... It's a good thing too because I'm here an extra day due to the train being full. I've had a love-hate relationship with the train system since I got here. With the global pass I have you are supposed to be able to travel unlimited to 21 different countries in Eastern and Western Europe for 3 months without a problem. For this "convienice" you pay a hefty sum for the pass, but they failed to mention that there are additional reservation fees, couchette/overnight fees and fees for fast trains. In the pecking order of priorities, apparently, a place to sleep falls second to transportation to the location. I was supposed to be in Bordeaux this afternoon, but because of lack of train service and electrical problems I'm now booked at two different hostels for tonight...I'm on vacation, traveling and as much as I may complain about the inconvience, I'm not really put out except for a few euro as a deposit, but I wonder what the locals who depend on these trains as their primary mode of transportation do when the train just doesn't show up. What do they tell their bosses, their family/friends? It's quite a shift from the metro system of London or Paris that even I can navigate. That's another thing-no out of country booking! So because I'm going from Oostede (Belgium) to Bordeaux (France) I can book here, except the train is full and they said I should have booked ahead. So I decided to book ahead for the NEXT leg of my trip, from Bordeaux to Madrid, but because it's not a TGV train they can't do it...geez. When I explained the circular argument to the woman booking the trains she laughed because it's hard to deny the ridiculousness of it. She then asked if she could give me a piece of advise: she said to relax, that I'll get there and I'll have fun doing it because I look like the "adventurous type". (Lack of showers will make anyone look adventurous...Ha!) She is right though. Part of this trip is to distinguish what I have control over and what I don't. I'm here in Oostende, on the beach, drinking mojjitos for another day...what better place to be than here?? :)
Arrived in Bordeaux last night at midnight and got some rest. I met two girls in my room, one from France and one from Russia. Elsa, the one from France, is on her way to Barcelona right now after we had coffee and talked politics. (I've missed conversation!!) I'm going to meet her in Barcelona on the 7th of July when I'll be going to Spain. Natasha, the Russian girl and I are meeting in about 20 minutes at the Place de la Bourse for lunch. She and I talked in the dark last night about educaion and business while laying in our bunk beds. I'm finding traveling is one part summer camp and one part fear factor...
On the train ride here I listened to the audio book "Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe" by Bill Bryson and my fellow drivers must have thought I was a lunatic because I was laughing out loud at some of the stories he was sharing about. He wrote (or dictated from his book in this case) something that seemed to capture in words the experience of traveling this way.

"I love the idea that you can never be sure of anything in Europe...but that's the glory of foreign travel as far as I'm concerned. I can't think of anything that excites a greater sense of child-like wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything. Suddenly, you are five years old again. You can't read anything, you have only the most rudimentary sense of how things work, you can't even reliably cross the street without endangering your life. You whole existence becomes a series of interesting guesses."

Bruges

2009-06-18T07:12:00.000-07:00

Today's Bruges has a population of about 45.000 people (the Europeans put commas where we put decimals and decimals where we put commas). It is also the capital of the Belgian province of West-Flanders and among the important cities of Belgium. A lot of people take day-trips from Brussels to Bruges, (about an hour train ride), but there is a lot see in this quiant little walking town. Like Amsterdam there are quite a few bikes on the road, but I chose to walk it. Today I went to the museum within the Belfort Belfry Tower. Here the bells toll for no apparent reason, far more often than on the hour. Afterwards I went to the Dali museum next door where many of his pieces were on display. I'm convinced that man was tortured by day-mares! He was obsessed with animals and requestes a horse and several sheep be brought to his room when he stayed here in Bruges...I don't want to know. (See pics on FB)
The hostel was cool for hanging out and partying, but at some point I wanted to go to sleep and found it challenging with everyone still drinking and playing guitar until late. I suppose train rides are made for sleeping:) I'm leaving this evening for Oostende, a small resort town on the west side of Belgium about a 15 minute ride from here.

Hamsterdam:)

2009-06-18T01:57:00.000-07:00

What a great time I had in the Netherlands...Oh Amsterdam with your alluring tall men and people with skin so clear it would put Irina out of business. (I'm seriously considering making herring a regular part of my diet. I'm convinced that's what does it.) I stayed at the Stayokay hostel just next to Vonder Park and in was lovely. Some of you will be able to appreciate the following: When I arrived after travelling on the train I wanted to take a shower so I got my towel and clothes and left the room to find the showers. I walked the whole floor before deciding to knock on a neighbors door for directions. (Fortunately they didn't answer...) I went back to the room, frustrated and tired from my journey, to discover the private bathroom and shower in our room!! It even had a regular twist faucet and not the push kind that spays water for 10 seconds like I'm used to.
I met the nicest bunch of girls in Amsterdam!! The first was my roommate Heloisa, a 29 year old from Brazil also traveling alone:) She was great and I miss her company already. While she was at the library checking her email she met two other girls, Elvira and Maria, who happened to be locals. They took us out to a little Latin salsa bar where we shared dance moves and met their friends Tanya and Sophie. All of us are in the picture posted on my Facebook page:) They taught me the funniest Dutch sayings...like when something happens that you knew would you say "There comes the monkey out of the sleeve" and when something goes your way you say, "I always get my sin". When someone makes you mad you say they've "got the blood under your nails" and when someone won't leave things in the past tell them "Don't pull the old cow out of the water". My favorite was used to describe why the oldest prostitute in the red light district was so popular "To learn, you need and old bike". Ha!! I love it.
I went to the market and had some authentic local food and went to the Van Gogh museum. I had a great time in Amsterdam and have the girls above to thank for it:) Thanks for the memories!!

Au revoir Paris, bonjour Brussels!

2009-06-13T04:11:00.001-07:00

A bittersweet good bye yesterday to the city of Paris. It seems just as I begin to adjust to the city that I'm in I change cities and I'm still not sure which causes which. In Paris I discovered my new favorite: escargot, "salted" soy sauce versus "sweet" soy sauce and that in Europe it's not called wi-fi, but rather "wee-fee". Ha! (It's just funny to hear them say it.) One thing I can tell you without a doubt is that the people in Belgium smell a hell of a lot better than the people in Paris did:)
I spoke with Freddy before I left and asked him what countries in Europe would I be welcome in as an American and not feel I had a dirty secret. Between him and his friend, they came up with one: Kosovo!! Are you kidding me?!?! Geez...
I'm really proud of myself. Yesterday, upon my arrival, I hit the ground running. I went straight to the Centre Vincent Van Gogh and checked in, dropped off my pack and began walking the city. As directionally challenged as I am I almost count on getting lost, but yesterday I didn't!!! I got out my map and decide to go to the Botanical Gardens. There I found myself in a garden labyrinth complete with a bar and "wee-fee". Is there anything the Europeans haven't thought of?! I figured it was about time for dinner after that and mussels in Brussels couldn't be better!!! (I say "I figured it was time for dinner" because this is the season of Northern lights so it gets dark much later. Many of the pictures I've taken so far have been taken after 9pm, but you would never know it based on the amount of light in the photo.) I had remembered how amazing the mussels were last time I was here and I was ready for an encore. I walked from the Botanical Gardens past Grand Place to Rue de Bouchers where the air smells of lobster and butter. I had mussels that melted in my mouth and made sure to take a picture to share:) I ate one before I took the pic because it didn't even look real!!! I had one of the 500 different beers brewed here and then left to go walking around. I had read about a place called Havana that had djs spinning everything from techno to salsa and that on the weekends they have live music. They hadn't opened yet when I got there so I popped into a little restaurant owned by a husband and wife a few doors down. They were the cutest! I had the greatest time talking with them, watching Nadine run around the cafe like it was her kitchen at home with their dog close at her heels wielding his pacifier. (Apparently he is a puppy and "training his teeth" as they put it.)
Today I leave for Amsterdam. I'll tell you about that someday when you're a little older...Ha!! I'm kidding:) I'll be in touch.
Somethings I've learned since I've been here: to make the conversion from pounds to dollars double the number. For conversion in euros add half again as much. From celsius to fahrenheit double the number and add 30:) Remember, "coffee" in Europe is espresso! And the barely legal kind that has you grinding your teeth for hours!!! I'm convinced that the majority of the population is either drunk or spun out on caffeine.

Au revoir Paris, bonjour Brussels!

2009-06-13T04:11:00.000-07:00

Pictures

2009-06-09T05:53:00.000-07:00

I'll be posting my pics on my Facebook page because it's just easier from my computer. Find me at "missivy949"

In Paris!!!!

2009-06-09T05:51:00.000-07:00

As opposed to "Mad Donnoe" as I am it seems to be the new Starbucks in Paris...so here I am blogging in the plush executive seats that they are furnished with!
France has been welcoming me with constant showers since my arrival via the Eurostar Sunday evening. I was met by my good friend Frederik whom I have not seen in 9 years! After a quick catching up and a few metro rides around, we arrived at the Blue Planet Hostel where I dropped off my stuff and quickly changed for the evening. Frederick planned to escort me to an evening hosted by the Belgium Embassy for the results of the European Union elections held this week. But first we took a quick detour to the neighborhood where I lived when I was here in 2000 for my study abroad semester. Although it was late in the evening during the summer months it doesn't get dark until around 10pm. As we walked I saw brasseries and tabacs which seemed as though they had been frozen in time, unchanged. The biggest difference I noticed was in the cleanliness of the buildings and the lack of prostitutes...that sounds bad as I write it but they were as much a part of the Parisian experience as the distinct smell of the metro. (I'm not ruling out that the two are some how related...) When we arrived at my former home Alexandra was there to greet us. She has been working there since it was home to me but has since settled down with a husband and had a baby:) She invited us for dinner at her house the following night so I could meet her family. I had no idea what I was in for...Monday night was unbelievable. We got to catch up, I got to meet her daughter and her husband, not to mention the largest spread of Serbian French fusion you could imagine. The meal was so expansive it took shifts where everyone literally took a break, got up and walked around before the next course. What a treat being able to enjoy good conversation, good company and good food:) I'm still tring to talk Freddy into going out to the Rex Club where the group of us used to go dancing all night when I lived here. Years ago there would be a point in the night where we would need to make a decision as to whether we wanted to take the last metro or continue to party and take the first metro in the morning. What fun!!!

Safe arrival

2009-06-02T14:37:00.000-07:00

I landed safely this afternoon to the most beautiful weather London has seen in months according to residents:) My transit here was without incident, waiting or long lines and even included an upgrade...tee hee Ironically, international flights are far more smooth than domestic.
I'm realizing I don't have much to blog about right now except that my pack is heavier than I am!! Everything seems important to pack at the time...until you have to carry it on your back!! Uphill, both ways...geez I'm sure that will no longer be a problem by the time I leave for Paris.
I'm missing all of you, but doubt the reality of where I am and what I am doing has really hit me yet. I'll be sure to keep you updated on the adventures as they unfold.
Before I go, a particularly warm thank you to James, Anthony and Joe for spending days moving all my worldly belongings into a "holding cell" until I return. Additional thanks to Vikki, Heather and Brenda for helping with the pesky red tape that comes with putting your life on hold. So far I've learned more about how incredible the people I call my friends are. Thank you for knowing me better than I know myself.
I'm going to go play drinking games with a bunch of strangers...I'm loving this already. Cheers!

Booking the flights...

2009-04-19T13:54:00.000-07:00

Well this is it, no turning back now:) As of today I am officially scheduled to leave on June 1st out of LAX to begin my world journey. My itinerary starts in Europe where I look forward to spending June, July and August exploring the cities of:
London
Paris
Amsterdam
Brussels
Bruges
Oostende
Bordeaux
Madrid
Lisbon
Porto
Malaga
Costa del Sol
Morocco
Valencia
Barcelona
Figueres
Nice/French Riviera
Antibes
Monte Carlo
Corsica
Geneva
Zurich
Lucern
Prague
Vienna
Milan
Venice
Florence
Siena
Rome
Naples
Capri
Pompeii
Bari
Athens

At this point in my trip I will head into Turkey and Egypt for the month of September touring the pyramids and the like before flying to Nairobi.

The following leg of my trip I will be taking an overland tour of East Africa's wildlife and coast including:
Nairobi
Masai Mara
Nakuru
Amboseli National Park
Tsavo West National Park
Mombasa
Shimba Hills/Diana Beach
Shimoni
Pangani
Saadani National Park
Bagamoyo
Dar es Salaam

I will then, hopefully, be teaching in Uganda for a bit before stopping in Zambia to visit Victoria Falls. From there I will fly to Johannesburg and to Dubai before my next destination: India.
I'll spend the month of November in India, again hopefully teaching at an American Montessori school just outside of Delhi.

My last scheduled stop is in Kathmandu where I will be working with a foundation which, with support, finances the $40 educational career of young girls to ensure they are not sold into slavery.

I will leave you with this on the first blog of many: It is only because of the generosity of many and variables outside of my control that this opportunity has been brought forth as a possibility. Thank you to all of you.
With gratitude and humility,
Ivy