So Much For My Last Free Weekend Before School

I ended up getting into an additional class (I think the professor, who also happens to be my advisor, took pity on the lack of open classes and let me into her class):

Culture, Gender, and Global Communications T 4-7:50

I was pretty excited to get into this class, bringing my credit total up to 13 for this quarter, but knew that it would add a lot more work onto my load. I figured I could just take the weekend to relax and gear up for classes Monday morning. That idea was short lived as I received an e-mail from the professor this afternoon with over 50 pages in PDFs to read before class.

Graduate School, my dear friend, I have a feeling we are going to have a very strong love/hate relationship for the next two years. Here's hoping there's far more love than hate!

What the Next 10 Weeks of My Life Will Look Like:

Beginning Spanish M-Th 11-11:50

Human Rights in the Global World M, W 12-1:50

Not quite the heavy load I had planned (9 credits instead of 18), but since I’m a new student, I was the last to register and almost everything else was already full. I’m hoping to use my extra time to study Spanish and skip a few classes for an earlier graduation date.

I have a lot to do before classes start next Monday (insurance, books, student id, etc), but I’m definitely ready to begin this new adventure!

Greetings From My New Home

The somewhat gloomy view from my window today

(if you squint you can see downtown Denver in the fog)

The last week has been a whirlwind of craziness. I spent last Wednesday training my replacement at work, Thursday running errands and packing, Friday loading everything into the U-Haul and spending the evening with my family, Saturday cleaning, Sunday driving 12 hours to Denver, Monday moving in, and yesterday I had some appointments at school. Today I was finally able to relax a little bit (between trips to Walmart and the grocery store).

I'm working on getting settled in my new place, but I love it so far. Where else can you get free hot chocolate, cookies, personal training, yoga classes, car washes, etc? Oh, and to top it off, this was waiting for me when I moved in:

I think I'm definitely spoiled.

I register for classes on Monday, and they start a week after that. I'm getting pretty anxious to begin school as I really have nothing to do until then (except for all of the unpacking of course :)). I won't know which classes I will be taking until I register (and see what's still available), but I'm getting really excited about the possibilities.

I still find it hard to believe I live in Denver and am not just on some sort of vacation! It's just crazy to think that a few months ago, I applied to the IIC program at DU, thinking I didn't have a chance to get in, and now here I am, about to start a program that's more perfect for me than I ever could have imagined. Here's to going after your dreams, no matter how unattainable they may seem!

This...

...is the chaos I currently call my life. I can't wait to move to Denver, unpack, and actually have space again!

Thanks Financial Aid!

I am the proud new owner of a MacBook Pro! I've wanted one for years, but decided that since I'm heading back to grad school, now was the perfect time to get one. Now I have two months to figure out how to use it before school starts!

Reason For My Blogging Absence

Remember this post about giving up a great opportunity for the chance to follow my dreams? Well, it seems that I made the right decision!

I was just accepted into grad school at the University of Denver and will be moving to Denver in March! I will be getting my M.A. in International and Intercultural Communications with an emphasis in human rights. I couldn't have found a more perfect program since it's a hybrid between their communications school and their international school.

I'm slightly overwhelmed with everything I have to do before I go, but I'm very excited to see where 2010 will take me!

Who's on First?

Me: Hi Danette, I have a question. I’m reading this book, and it says it’s a novel, but then it has a preface by the guy it’s about, and he says it’s a true story. Aren’t novels fiction?

Danette: Yes, that’s weird. Let me look it up. What’s the title?

Me: What is the what?

Danette: What is the title?

Me: What is the what?

Danette: The title!

Me: What is the what?

Danette: THE TITLE! What is it?!?!

Me: The title is What is the What?!

I Am Still Here

Sorry for my absence. I have been in LeaderLuncheon Land which means I've been working insane hours for the past couple of months. The luncheon was Friday, and it went pretty well, so I'm just starting to recover. For now, I'll leave you with a few pics...

A few weeks ago, Nic and I hiked to the top of Granduer Peak during the full moon. This was the view of the city (although night pictures never turn out nearly as amazing as the view is).

Last weekend we took the tram to the top of Snowbird....

...the view was beautiful...

...and then we ran/walked down the mountain. I'm going to be sad when winter comes and we can't hike anymore...I guess that's what snowshoes are for!

I just got this new phone, which I am totally and completely in LOVE with! The best part is that I got it for FREE! T-Mobile rocks.

Today...

...I gave up the opportunity for more money, good experience, and a great career...to have a slight chance at following my dreams.

Here's hoping it was the right choice. :)

Sister's Weekend

The Science Museum of Minnesota had a huge Titanic exhibit that I really wanted to see, so over the 24th Nic and I flew out. I've spent quite a bit of time in Minnesota over the years visiting Danette. This time, Robyn and Dejan decided to drive down so we could all spend the weekend together. I hadn't seen either sister in a year, and we hadn't all been together for two, so it was great to spend some quality time together, especially since I spend hours on the phone with both of them each week! Hopefully the boys didn't get too bored. :)

PS the Science Museum of Minnesota ROCKS! I could go again every time I visit and never get bored!

Robyn and Danette

Nic examining my eyes at the science museum

Cute Robyn and Dejan taking a break from bowling

This is what I will look like in nine years :)

Danette showing off her bowling skills

The Illusion of Safety

I flew to Minnesota this weekend to hang out with my sisters (more on that in a future post). On the way back, I was stopped at airport security because I had accidentally left a partially filled water bottle in my backpack. Oops!

I wouldn't have been as annoyed about this if I hadn't gotten through security on the way to Minnesota with mace in my carry on. This means that the last two times I have flown, I have carried mace on the plane (accidentally both times). Within the last few years, Nic has also accidentally carried his leatherman knife on a plane.

I understand the necessity of security at airports. I understand why they want us to go through metal detectors and X-Ray our bags. However, I don't understand why they have all these "security measures" (take off your shoes, no water through security, etc) when they can't even catch mace or a knife.

Maybe TSA should start thinking of security measures that are actually efficient and effective instead of just an illusion of safety.

It's Never a Good Thing...

Might have to get used to this look for a little while.

...when the optometrist looks into your eyes and tells you that your contact looks like a petri dish….a petri dish that’s been growing bacteria for weeks.

It seems I didn’t make it back from Africa completely bacteria-free.

Luckily (and hopefully!) all it will take is a few days in glasses, a new set of contacts, a new contact case, and some allergy drops (because apparently, my eyes don't like whatever bacteria stowed away in my contact case).

This does nothing to help my irrational fear of optometrists.

Utah Couple Survives African Slums, Safari, and Streets Only to be Attacked by the Orange Tabby From Hell in Salt Lake City

Yeah, looks cute, huh? It is cute...and sweet...at first....

After a nice long hike, we arrived at my house. I was inside, and Nic ran out to his car. I heard him saying "Hey! Hey!" sort of angrily. When he came into the house, I asked what was going on. He said that an orange tabby had attacked him. I was skeptical. There are a lot of cats around here, and I have never once been attacked. Once his leg started bleeding, I realized he was telling the truth.

I figured we should find the owner and let them know they had a vengeful kitty. I went outside with bare ankles and feet (obviously not thinking) and saw a really cute, fat, probably pregnant orange cat out by Nic's car. I saw that it had a collar, so I called it over to try to see whose cat it was. It rubbed up against my leg and purred. I started to pet it as I thought Nic was crazy because this was the friendliest cat ever (and I know cats...we had bunches of them growing up).

All of a sudden, everything changed. The kitty came at me with teeth and claws bared, hissing. It got one good swipe at my ankle before retreating a little bit. It started to charge again, but I used my hand to block it's attempt at another attack, pushing it aside. I ran as fast as I could inside the house as it started to follow. We still have no idea whose cat it is, but we both have blood on our ankles from the crazy kitty.

Is the kitty pregnant? Maybe....

Is the spawn of satan inside its womb? Definitely!

Congrats, Nic!

Nic just found out that he passed his PE exam*! He took it four days before we left for Africa, so things were a little hectic, but he pulled it off! I'm so proud of him and knew he could do it.

You can tell how smart he is from looking at the photo above...he can read! :)

*For those of you who don't know, the Professional Engineer exam is 8 hours long, and is necessary to become a certified professional chemical engineer along with 4 years of experience.

Photos

Okay, so I've updated my photos. First are Kruger National Park, then Cape Town, then our safari in Maasai Mara, and then our time in Thika. We have a TON of photos, so I tried to just grab a good sampling.

Disclaimer: There are photos inlcuded which contain babboons mating, a lioness eating a wildabeast, and a lion eating a giraffe. Consider yourself warned. :)

Annalisa, I included multiple warthog pictures for you. I have many more. :)

Thanks to Dejan for letting me borrow his Flickr account since it has unlimited space.

Last Day Here!

I can't believe it is our last full day in Africa! Five weeks has gone by so quickly!

Kruger was really cool, although we were pretty spoiled after our safari in Kenya. We were able to see some different animals close up, though, so that was cool. It was about eight hours of driving every day which was tiring, but it was still really cool. We went on a night tour, which was really cool. It was pitch black, and then we had five spotlights that we would shine around looking for animals. We ended up finding a lion who had just killed a wildebeast, and our driver got us really close, so that was neat. We also saw a HUGE owl and a hyena that was circling the truck.

On our way back to Johannesburg, we went through Blyde Canyone Reserve. It had a lot of beautiful rugged geological formations. It was absolutely gorgeous and had amazing views of a canyon. It made me miss the mountains back home since we haven't seen a whole lot of them here. We also stopped at God's Window which is supposed to be pretty cool, but we were so high up, that we were in a cloud and couldn't see anything but white.

Yesterday we met up with the Cannons (Nic's friend's parents who are presidents of the MTC here) and they took us to lunch and shopping. It was great to see them and spend time with them. They were great to show us some of the city because today we are going to try to drive in alone. We are hoping to make it to the Apartheid museum which we hear is really sobering, but great.

Well, I guess that's it for now. We are going to head out and enjoy our last day here. :)

Time Flies!

I can't believe we are already flying out of Cape Town today! This trip is flying by! Cape Town has been a really interesting place. It's pretty much Euro-San Francisco, with slums everywhere right outside the city. It seems there's no middle class, just the extremely wealthy and the extremely poor (at least in the areas we've seen). Unemployment is almost 25%!

The first day here we took the cable car to the top of Table Mountain. We ended up hiking all around the top and then hiking down the mountain instead of taking the cable car. We figure we did about 6-7 miles, and we still look like old people while going up and down stairs because our calves are so sore (and it was three days ago!).

The next day we went down to the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. It was a little difficult hiking around because we were so sore, but the views were amazing. We also saw some ostriches, penguins, and baboons, so that was fun. After that we drove up to wine country which was gorgeous! Unfortunately, the light was awful, so the pictures will never do it justice. We had a nice dinner at a little restaurant and then came back to Cape Town.

Yesterday we took a boat out to Robben Island and took a tour. Nic and I both agree that we need to read more about Nelson Mandela. Our tour guide was actually a prisoner there because he and some others set fire to a building (in an attempt to destroy some files having to to with apartheid...he didn't give specifics) when they were 18. The court called it sabotage, and he was sentenced to 7 years (he served 5 1/2). It was really cool to hear about it from someone who was actually there, even though he missed Mandela by about four years.

Well, I guess that's our Cape Town update! We are flying to Johannesburg today, and then heading to Kruger National Park tomorrow. We don't really think we'll have access to Internet, so it could be about a week before I am able to write again. I hope everyone is doing well!

Greetings from Cape Town!

We are in Cape Town now, and it seems we will have no problem with fast Internet or downloading photos (although I'm not sure we'll have time to do it today).

We left Thika Monday afternoon and headed into Nairobi. We were dropped off at a house where other volunteers are staying, and then we took a bus into downtown Nairobi. It was weird to see so much diversity, especially so many white people. We went to the Nairobi Gallery to an exhibit called Kenya Burning. It was a photojournalism exhibit about the clashes last year after elections. We really wanted to see it because we had talked to people who had experienced it, and we had seen burnt out homes and IDP (Internally Displaced People) camps where victims are STILL living in tents because they were chased away from their homes. The exhibit was very graphic and hard to look at, but it was really moving. That night we went back to the house and met some of the other volunteers, including two guys from Kaysville...small world!

Tuesday morning, we caught a taxi at 5 am to the airport. We flew to Johannesburg, then Cape Town. I was pretty sick all day (worst cramps of my life), so it wasn't a fun flying day for me. Once we arrived in Cape Town, we got our rental car (VW Citi), and after a few wrong turns and an hour and a half, we found our hotel (The Fritz Hotel). We definitely miss Thika and Kenya as Cape Town is pretty much like San Francisco, rather than "Africa," but we must admit that it is nice to have a "real" shower, "real" bed, and fast internet. :)

Leaving Thika

Our time in Thika has come to an end. Nic and I are very sad about it, and wish we could spend our remaining two weeks here instead of going to South Africa. We have made so many great friends and can't wait to come back again!

This week has flown by! Through Family Health Option Kenya, we were able to continue to visit different parts of Thika this week and learn about more issues/problems here in Kenya. Our last couple of days were spent setting up a food program for a primary school. We visited 4 or 5 schools, and they all had feeding programs except Kisiwa. The kids who go there are VERY poor, and probably don't get much of a chance to eat at home. Then they have to go to school and try to learn while still not being fed. All it took was a few bags of food to start the program up. They will charge a small fee (like 2-5 shillings) a day, and that money should be able to sustain the program. It's crazy that it took something so small to feed so many children indefinitely. We also were able to get a few bikes for FHOK. They travel so far every day (some days we walked over 20 km!), often without lunch or water, and they only have time to visit a few clients. We are hoping with the addition of bikes, they will be able to visit many more clients each day. We are really going to miss our friends at FHOK!

Last night, our family and friends all came over, and we roasted a goat (well, a quarter of one). Everyone is so surprised that we don't eat goat back at home, and I must say that it was really tasty. We might have to start a new movement. :)

We are off to Nairobi today, and South Africa tomorrow! We are hoping we have more internet access and can post some of our pictures, but we don't want to get our hopes up too high. :)

Back from Safari!

Hello, everyone! Well, we are back from safari. We have tons of great pictures and videos...too bad none of these Kenyan computer labs have USB ports...we're still hoping for South Africa.

The safari was really cool. We went to Maasai Mara for the first few days. Pretty much the only animals we didn't see were a crocodile and a leopard, but it wasn't for lack of trying. Our guide, Mike, was so great and really tried to make sure we saw everything we wanted to. In fact, we only missed a leopard by about 10 seconds, but we did see the antelope it had killed and dragged up a tree. We got really close to all sorts of animals, including lions. We even saw a lion eating a giraffe, so that was quite the experience. On our last night there, the Maasai people came to do some traditional dancing and teach us all about their culture. Cassi even did the marriage dance and got married to a Maasai man...sorry, Nic! :)

Lake Nukuru was more safara-ing. We saw thousands and thousands of flamingos which was absolutely amaznig. We also saw rhinos and many other animals. We really liked the baby babboons and wart hogs (note to Annalisa...they don't have pigs here, so I'll get you a wart hog something or other :)).

We pretty much spent 4 days in a van (and many times on VERY bumpy roads), but it was well worth it, and I can't wait to post pictures! We were all really excited to get "home" after our long weekend journey. It's odd to think that in a week, we will be in Cape Town, and won't be seeing our home or family again. We are definitely planning a return trip!

Anyway, I better go since Cyber is slow and I have some other things I need to do. I hope everyone is well!!!!