Check underneath the brief Paris post, it's about my time in London.
Family heading out tomorrow AM and I'm heading to visit Sommer in Germany. Yay!
mercredi 31 décembre 2008
lundi 29 décembre 2008
Paris
So I started writing a blog about my time in London and do really need to post it, but am having trouble getting myself to do so. It will come soon, I promise.
The fam is here (yay!) and I am freezing cold (fun, but where's the snow!?). Lots of pics are coming to Picasa asap!
The fam is here (yay!) and I am freezing cold (fun, but where's the snow!?). Lots of pics are coming to Picasa asap!
vendredi 26 décembre 2008
Happy Boxing Day!!!!!!!!!!!!--posted a day or two later
Merry Christmas everyone and as the Brits would say today, Happy Boxing Day as well!
Last night, Saki and I made a FABULOUS Christmas dinner, including chicken (precooked, we just heated it up), mashed taters (premade too...thanks Sainesbury!), gravy (powdered plus water), yummy baked veggies, green beans, rolls, French wine, mincemeat pie, and chocolate cake. Yummy!
Christmas Eve was quite the day! Since all of the museums were closed, Saki and I thought that it might be fun to visit the crazy-big and super ridiculously luxurious department store, Harrod's. Saki had to wait at her apartment for much of the morning for some furniture delivery men, so we agreed to meet up at the Princess Diana and Dodi AlFayeed (sp?) memorial at a designated time. I quickly found the memorial and went off to explore all of the crazy rooms (like the Luxury Room and Egyptian Room or Food Room). When the time to meet up approached, I headed to our meeting place and waited and waited. I figured she was held up somewhere, so I went to go and find a bathroom in part of the store I hadn't yet visited, passing by several of the large David Beckham Armani ad's (that's the brand, right? I forget). As I walked by a counter, I heard a women mention David and Victoria Beckham, but didn't know what she was talking about. Anyways, found the bathroom, but the line was way too freakin' long and I was worried about missing Saki, so I hurried back to the memorial. As I was standing against the wall facing the escalators (alone, probably looking a little suspicious), a crowd came down on the escalators. I notice that there are two young boys, both very well dressed in shirts and ties and I think, "wow, they must be going somewhere soon for Christmas Eve." There father was behind them and I noticed that he was also dressed very well (and pretty handsome looking as well). The kids turn to continue going down the escalator in the opposite direction, there's an old man and another person and then the woman who I assume is the wife/mom of the group because she was thin, pretty, and also very well dressed. She looks me straight in the eyes as she goes down the escalator and I realize, "wait! That's Posh Spice!!!!!!!!" as she turns to continue down the escalator. I notice a group of people behind them, taking pictures with camera phones, remember I have a camera in my purse, pull it out, and snag a quick pick, yes! I have just seen the Beckhams! Craziness! And just a day or two before I had been telling Saki how I didn't think I had really seen anyone famous (other than Condi Rice and now that I think about it, various other people the KPU brought to campus, mostly politics-related). Very cool and totally made my Christmas Eve Day, justly beating out dinner at McDonald's since every other place in Chelsea was closed or had stopped serving food.
Other highlights from my trip to the UK included the V(ictoria) and A(lbert) Museum, overpaying to see the movie Four Christmases with Saki, seeing The Sound of Music, Midnight Mass (which actually started at midnight) and the extremely cold 30+ min walk back to my apartment made in 15 min, shopping at H&M for cold weather gear, walking around London at dusk (er 3pm!), and a super delicious Whole Foods salad!!!! These were all in addition to the fabulous Sunday I spent with Theresa and Rob in Oxford, their home for the next few years.
Above all, thank you Saki for showing me around London and finding me a fab place to stay for an enjoyable holiday week (which was also not nearly as lonely as I had predicted it might be). You were amazing!
I will try and post pics on this blog too, but pics have recently been updated on Picasa, though many still need descriptions. More will come soon, Inchallah, due to the recent acquisition of my laptop.
Last night, Saki and I made a FABULOUS Christmas dinner, including chicken (precooked, we just heated it up), mashed taters (premade too...thanks Sainesbury!), gravy (powdered plus water), yummy baked veggies, green beans, rolls, French wine, mincemeat pie, and chocolate cake. Yummy!
Christmas Eve was quite the day! Since all of the museums were closed, Saki and I thought that it might be fun to visit the crazy-big and super ridiculously luxurious department store, Harrod's. Saki had to wait at her apartment for much of the morning for some furniture delivery men, so we agreed to meet up at the Princess Diana and Dodi AlFayeed (sp?) memorial at a designated time. I quickly found the memorial and went off to explore all of the crazy rooms (like the Luxury Room and Egyptian Room or Food Room). When the time to meet up approached, I headed to our meeting place and waited and waited. I figured she was held up somewhere, so I went to go and find a bathroom in part of the store I hadn't yet visited, passing by several of the large David Beckham Armani ad's (that's the brand, right? I forget). As I walked by a counter, I heard a women mention David and Victoria Beckham, but didn't know what she was talking about. Anyways, found the bathroom, but the line was way too freakin' long and I was worried about missing Saki, so I hurried back to the memorial. As I was standing against the wall facing the escalators (alone, probably looking a little suspicious), a crowd came down on the escalators. I notice that there are two young boys, both very well dressed in shirts and ties and I think, "wow, they must be going somewhere soon for Christmas Eve." There father was behind them and I noticed that he was also dressed very well (and pretty handsome looking as well). The kids turn to continue going down the escalator in the opposite direction, there's an old man and another person and then the woman who I assume is the wife/mom of the group because she was thin, pretty, and also very well dressed. She looks me straight in the eyes as she goes down the escalator and I realize, "wait! That's Posh Spice!!!!!!!!" as she turns to continue down the escalator. I notice a group of people behind them, taking pictures with camera phones, remember I have a camera in my purse, pull it out, and snag a quick pick, yes! I have just seen the Beckhams! Craziness! And just a day or two before I had been telling Saki how I didn't think I had really seen anyone famous (other than Condi Rice and now that I think about it, various other people the KPU brought to campus, mostly politics-related). Very cool and totally made my Christmas Eve Day, justly beating out dinner at McDonald's since every other place in Chelsea was closed or had stopped serving food.
Other highlights from my trip to the UK included the V(ictoria) and A(lbert) Museum, overpaying to see the movie Four Christmases with Saki, seeing The Sound of Music, Midnight Mass (which actually started at midnight) and the extremely cold 30+ min walk back to my apartment made in 15 min, shopping at H&M for cold weather gear, walking around London at dusk (er 3pm!), and a super delicious Whole Foods salad!!!! These were all in addition to the fabulous Sunday I spent with Theresa and Rob in Oxford, their home for the next few years.
Above all, thank you Saki for showing me around London and finding me a fab place to stay for an enjoyable holiday week (which was also not nearly as lonely as I had predicted it might be). You were amazing!
I will try and post pics on this blog too, but pics have recently been updated on Picasa, though many still need descriptions. More will come soon, Inchallah, due to the recent acquisition of my laptop.
lundi 22 décembre 2008
London Calling
Greetings from London!!!!!!!!! Vacation is thus far going well (though expensive) and it's great seeing Saki again and seeing Theresa in Oxford yesterday. It's crazy how much London feels like America and so many things are a bit of a shock to the system...like grocery shopping! Many things I had only kind of realized that I had missed and just generally realizing how much my life has changed in the last 9.5 months.
Anyway, I just wanted to take this chance to wish everyone a very Merry and blessed Christmas!!!!!!!!! (and Channukah and Kwanza and Boxing Day and everything else...). More when I have the chance (and quasi-free internet). I love and miss you all!
Anyway, I just wanted to take this chance to wish everyone a very Merry and blessed Christmas!!!!!!!!! (and Channukah and Kwanza and Boxing Day and everything else...). More when I have the chance (and quasi-free internet). I love and miss you all!
jeudi 18 décembre 2008
Tabaski in pictures
So, Tabaski has now come and gone and I have pics to prove it. It is probably the biggest holiday of the year for Senegal (and other Muslim countries) and in many ways parallels Christmas because family member travel across the country to go back home for a week and be together, eating good food, though the meaning is different. Taken straight from Annicka's blog, this is the general gist of Tabaski:
"Tabaski is the celebration of what I believe in Jewish tradition is the Akedah? It’s when Abraham took his son to the mountain to sacrifice him and the son was spared and God provided a ram to stand in his place. Judeo-christian belief is that it was Isaac. Muslims tell the story with Ishmael. To each his own, literally. So each family has appointed at least one person to be responsible for sacrificing a sheep on Tabaski. They’ll fast until after the prayer service and then they’ll slaughter the sheep and we’ll eat meat all day long. "
Tabaski dinner, the Gningues
"Tabaski is the celebration of what I believe in Jewish tradition is the Akedah? It’s when Abraham took his son to the mountain to sacrifice him and the son was spared and God provided a ram to stand in his place. Judeo-christian belief is that it was Isaac. Muslims tell the story with Ishmael. To each his own, literally. So each family has appointed at least one person to be responsible for sacrificing a sheep on Tabaski. They’ll fast until after the prayer service and then they’ll slaughter the sheep and we’ll eat meat all day long. "
Yea, that's basically it...
There were a lot more pics, but I can't change the orientation of pictures with blogspot, so the pic of the sheep being gutted and a bunch of the kids are only available on picasa (which has also been updated, but not arranged or with descriptions, yet).
Tabaski dinner, the GninguesKilling the Gningues' Tabaski dinner
Prepping the "sauce" with the Gningue women
Abdou "Jambar" Diouf and Kara Diouf, my village parents
"George" Gningue and Mame Dib, his first wife. (He's the 93 year old who thinks I'm his 3rd wife...not so much!)
Head shot of my in my Tabaski outfit...you can't see the braids or the henna, but they are there, I promise!
A week later, I took my hair out of the braids, and this was the scary result...
Prepping the "sauce" with the Gningue women
Abdou "Jambar" Diouf and Kara Diouf, my village parents"George" Gningue and Mame Dib, his first wife. (He's the 93 year old who thinks I'm his 3rd wife...not so much!)
Head shot of my in my Tabaski outfit...you can't see the braids or the henna, but they are there, I promise!A week later, I took my hair out of the braids, and this was the scary result...
And now I am off on vacation, yay!!!!!! More posts from there, maybe :)
vendredi 28 novembre 2008
Thanksgiving shots, in reverse order
A lot of people crowded around the small Kaolack living room.
Jaime with 2 of the birds. 3 turkeys and 1 chicken, but the meat was gone within minutes, lame!
8:10pm, time to eat!
Afternoon football at the high school
Chris, the top chef and Thankgsiving Master did a fabulous job with everything! Way to be Chris! (and Kyle and everyone else who played a role in the cooking)Myself, I helped cut veggies for the salad, grill the sweet potatos, and clean a lot...plus the requisite taste testing. Delicious food and greet company!
On the Eve of Thanksgiving--Posted the Day After
I’ve been debating whether or not to update the blog right now as not much is really going on. My biggest news is that my vacation is 3 weeks away and I am just about to start the 7th and final Harry Potter book, one of the big goals of my PC Service.
So basically nothing of what I said would happen in my last blog entry occurred in the past two weeks. So Africa… I still haven’t heard official word about my grant, but unofficially that it’s a go…though it may take 4-5 weeks for the money to go through. Since I just received my 3 month pay, I may front some of the money and wait for the grant to come through, just so that we don’t have to wait FOREVER for the project to start, but whatever. Then again, maybe I won’t.
I did not wind up going to “Pulaar Land,” aka up north for Thanksgiving and am instead writing this from dirty ol’ Kaolack (much improved, however, with the dry season). There are about 25-30 Vols here and we are making Senegalese versions of the American classics (and some Vols’ kind family members sent over lots of cans of pumpkin filling and cranberry sauce). We have 3 turkeys and 1 chicken (please don’t think American sized turkeys or chickens…it would disappoint), a bunch of apple and pumpkin pies, stuffing, mashed potatos, etc. And an afternoon game of football planned in a nearby field.
Almost all of last week I spent prepping for my big village meeting when we were to create an Action Plan based on the major health and environmental problems of the village and thus focus my work the next two years. After the morning meeting, there was to be a nice lunch for the 35 or so participants and then an afternoon teacher training. The meal was perhaps the most dramatic part. Last Tuesday, I went to Foundiougne and bought 6kg onions, 4kg carrots, 2 kg navet (a root veggie), 6 heads of garlic (is that what they are called?), 6 hot peppers, and 3 green peppers. Thursday morning I bought 20 maggi cubes (large bouillon cubes, basically), a ton of pepper, mustard, random seasoning, vinegar, dish soap, drink flavoring, 2kg sugar (smuggled from the Gambia…), and 1/4kg tea. As I was heading back to my village from town Thursday morning, I was planning on going around to buy 15kgs of rice, 4L oil, and make sure the 5 chickens were purchased and procured. However, while planning, I received a text message from my APCD saying he had Malaria and wouldn’t be coming the next day anymore. I don’t blame him in the least—he was traveling around the country running these meetings the past several months and was worn out and such. However, it did mean that most of my planning and work of the week went to naught, and a lot of money was spent, which I may or may not receive back... I gave the veggies to my family and a few others in the village, kept the nonperishables to use when he does come, and begged my counterpart for the chicken money back.
The big achievement of the week however was starting my own garden in my backyard. My nearest PCV neighbor came by on Monday to help me dig space for the school veggie pepineer, which was a lot of work. We had to dig through 6-9 inches of hard clay before getting to soil (rectangle space about 1m x 2.5m or so), dig that up, mix in manure and fertilizer, and water. We wound up not planting the seeds for the pepineer since there still wasn’t official word on the grant, but I did spend the next few days digging up similar spaces next to it for my own garden. I planted carrots, green beans, zucchini, and pumpkins, and when the eggplant and green peppers are ready, will add those to the plot as well. It’s small because it was so much work to dig and prepare the space, but oh well. Until I talk with the teachers more about the garden and have a better timeline, I still can’t plant their veggie pepineer, unfortunately (don’t want them to be ready to be out-planted only to not yet have a fence or garden space prepared, etc).
Also, I took a TON of pictures this past week, of the people of the village, myself, my backyard, etc, so hopefully I will at some point have access to a good internet connection to upload more photos. My village has also started having weekly Saturday night wrestling tournaments. This past weekend it was Friday AND Saturday. They are an experience worthy of a good blog entry, which will come at a later point in time.
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I am thankful for this opportunity, to be here, serving, even though I do not always know what my purpose or work is, and experiencing a new way of life. I am thankful for my family in the village, fellow PCVs, for dancing, laughter, and having a hut to call my very own. Most of all, I am thankful for all of my loved ones in the States and around the world who have sent me mail, packages, thoughts, and most importantly, their prayers. Thank you for the support and encouragement. It means a lot, more than words can even begin to express my gratitude and amazement at all of the love, especially on the worst days, the best days, and everything in between.
Thanks. Merci beaucoup. Njookoonjal. Jeregeenjef.
So basically nothing of what I said would happen in my last blog entry occurred in the past two weeks. So Africa… I still haven’t heard official word about my grant, but unofficially that it’s a go…though it may take 4-5 weeks for the money to go through. Since I just received my 3 month pay, I may front some of the money and wait for the grant to come through, just so that we don’t have to wait FOREVER for the project to start, but whatever. Then again, maybe I won’t.
I did not wind up going to “Pulaar Land,” aka up north for Thanksgiving and am instead writing this from dirty ol’ Kaolack (much improved, however, with the dry season). There are about 25-30 Vols here and we are making Senegalese versions of the American classics (and some Vols’ kind family members sent over lots of cans of pumpkin filling and cranberry sauce). We have 3 turkeys and 1 chicken (please don’t think American sized turkeys or chickens…it would disappoint), a bunch of apple and pumpkin pies, stuffing, mashed potatos, etc. And an afternoon game of football planned in a nearby field.
Almost all of last week I spent prepping for my big village meeting when we were to create an Action Plan based on the major health and environmental problems of the village and thus focus my work the next two years. After the morning meeting, there was to be a nice lunch for the 35 or so participants and then an afternoon teacher training. The meal was perhaps the most dramatic part. Last Tuesday, I went to Foundiougne and bought 6kg onions, 4kg carrots, 2 kg navet (a root veggie), 6 heads of garlic (is that what they are called?), 6 hot peppers, and 3 green peppers. Thursday morning I bought 20 maggi cubes (large bouillon cubes, basically), a ton of pepper, mustard, random seasoning, vinegar, dish soap, drink flavoring, 2kg sugar (smuggled from the Gambia…), and 1/4kg tea. As I was heading back to my village from town Thursday morning, I was planning on going around to buy 15kgs of rice, 4L oil, and make sure the 5 chickens were purchased and procured. However, while planning, I received a text message from my APCD saying he had Malaria and wouldn’t be coming the next day anymore. I don’t blame him in the least—he was traveling around the country running these meetings the past several months and was worn out and such. However, it did mean that most of my planning and work of the week went to naught, and a lot of money was spent, which I may or may not receive back... I gave the veggies to my family and a few others in the village, kept the nonperishables to use when he does come, and begged my counterpart for the chicken money back.
The big achievement of the week however was starting my own garden in my backyard. My nearest PCV neighbor came by on Monday to help me dig space for the school veggie pepineer, which was a lot of work. We had to dig through 6-9 inches of hard clay before getting to soil (rectangle space about 1m x 2.5m or so), dig that up, mix in manure and fertilizer, and water. We wound up not planting the seeds for the pepineer since there still wasn’t official word on the grant, but I did spend the next few days digging up similar spaces next to it for my own garden. I planted carrots, green beans, zucchini, and pumpkins, and when the eggplant and green peppers are ready, will add those to the plot as well. It’s small because it was so much work to dig and prepare the space, but oh well. Until I talk with the teachers more about the garden and have a better timeline, I still can’t plant their veggie pepineer, unfortunately (don’t want them to be ready to be out-planted only to not yet have a fence or garden space prepared, etc).
Also, I took a TON of pictures this past week, of the people of the village, myself, my backyard, etc, so hopefully I will at some point have access to a good internet connection to upload more photos. My village has also started having weekly Saturday night wrestling tournaments. This past weekend it was Friday AND Saturday. They are an experience worthy of a good blog entry, which will come at a later point in time.
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I am thankful for this opportunity, to be here, serving, even though I do not always know what my purpose or work is, and experiencing a new way of life. I am thankful for my family in the village, fellow PCVs, for dancing, laughter, and having a hut to call my very own. Most of all, I am thankful for all of my loved ones in the States and around the world who have sent me mail, packages, thoughts, and most importantly, their prayers. Thank you for the support and encouragement. It means a lot, more than words can even begin to express my gratitude and amazement at all of the love, especially on the worst days, the best days, and everything in between.
Thanks. Merci beaucoup. Njookoonjal. Jeregeenjef.
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