David Bailey this is for you

Post from Kristen:

I got to hang out with Cheese in Ethiopia (note the spelling). No big deal. But it was awesome. He adapted amazingly fast. By the time he left, he was quite habesha-ed out. I'm proud of the kid.

So I've really enjoyed reading everyone's life updates. It's a beautiful thing, however I feel like we've really strayed from the roots of 30-travs. Thus, I will do everything I can to get us back on course. Time: 1:51pm Location: Bahir Dar, Ethiopia overlooking Tana Lake. There is a pleasant breeze and it's lovely today. There are no ugly babies in Ethiopia.

That taken care of: Matt- I can't believe the Trooper is gone. That's kinda devastating for some reason. Keith! I'm reading life of Pi right now too! I'm just at the part where we talk about zoos a lot, so you've really ruined the rest of the book for me. But I thought your post was delightful. Elaine! The preposition thing changes everything. You have no idea how many times my mom would correct sentence endings in my papers and I would insist that it was an antiquated rule. Thank you for vindicating me. Howes! Count me in for dinner at your house. What are we having? Candis- wow. Incredible. Aaron, no matter what Matt says about you, you're still my favorite person in the world. And does anyone know what happened to Eric and Emily? Someone should check on them. They could be dead.

Umm… not much going on lately. I went through I mid-peace corps crisis shortly after Cheese abandoned me here but I seem to be pulling through nicely. Work has been busy and I've really started diversifying my after work exploring. I found a route that leads to a village and my latest goal is to become friends with the natives. The oldest man in the village has already invited me to coffee, so I feel like I'm making progress. I think he's at least 100 years old. Or he just doesn't age well.

In other news, I think we should all do something fun for new years this year. Nothing like planning ahead. Keith said he would arrange it, so maybe ask him for details? David, thank you for your encouragement. Being chastised by you was a little hard to handle, but I think I'm a stronger person now for it. I hope this lives up to your expectations. Miss you guys!

Once Upon a Michael Scott...

The night after the majestic frosting of the Magic City, merely hours after Ryan stole the sweet, naïve hearts of two Swedish girls newly arrived to America, Warden, Keith, Elaine, and I tramped over to Jonathan Benton Bookseller in the Brook to watch the Triceratops perform for the umpteenth time. Tonight, however, was to be of a different sort- The Triceratops were backing a band called These United States, a brave bunch who were on a tour of thirty-three cities, using a different accompanying band at every stop.

They were quite enjoyable; unfortunately, the Triceratops were mediocre. Thankfully, that’s not the story… No, no… our memorable tale begins when the lead singer of These United States, a decidedly-clever, Sam-Beam-beard-sporting fellow comically & rhetorically remarked, after Stewart Vann & the TUS guitarist switched instruments yet again, “Can anyone else play anything? You should play with us” or something of the like.

In a nanosecond, a pale kid with a poof head shot up and emphatically pointed towards his friend declaring, “Oh, THIS guy is!” A hardly-sheepish high schooler in an over-sized army jacket and goofy hat “graciously” acknowledged the comment and rose to the occasion. The lead singer made a few comments about how terribly set-up this must all seem & swore that he had never before met the strange child standing before him, who claimed to be an exceptional “clapper.”

So the jolly misfit clapped and clapped until a lightning bolt struck his awkward brain and he stole behind the drum set and asked permission to throw down on the sleigh bells. The song reached its beautiful conclusion… but our valiant hero was far from finished. In fact, he disappeared behind the band in between songs only to re-emerge with two solid footstools- one to sit on and the other to beat as a drum. We winced. Keith, barely able to watch, commented that the kid reminded him of “Michael Scott”- in other words, blissfully unaware that he was painfully awkward. Captain Uncomfortable swallowed the end of the next song with his footstool/djimbae roll. And I almost forgot to mention that his friend, mushroom-head himself, was feverishly documenting the most spectacular scene of his companion’s undeniably graceless life frame by frame. It hurt to witness.

In other news, I tried to make fun of Will applying to the NPR post by informing him that a radio playlist had to include more than four and a half bands, but he quickly quipped that tithing was supposed to be about giving ten percent of your money, not your ministry time. Well played, sir. Also, in three days, Jamie Leigh Simpson and I will ride the Spirit of St. Louis to The Beloved Country. Erin & I will be spending St. Patrick’s Day in Dublin. Don’t worry, I’ll drown your jealously for you… with Guinness… in a truly Irish Pub.

Lastly, (DISCLAIMER: MISTUH BLIAN WEED DIS) I took the job with Campus Outreach. I’m guaranteed to be in Birmingham through the end of 2008, but I’m not sure precisely where I’m headed after that. God-willing, I’ll stick in the ‘Ham. Keep up the good posting.

snow.day.satur.day.

delightful.

feeling compelled by the trend set by you other media-savvy bloggers, i give you this glorious photograph. i'm sure many of you have asked umpteen times, "now what would a travel guru such as rick steves tell me to do in this hairy predicament?" well, in future such circumstances you can look no further than yours truly for two reasons.

1) i met the guy. and given my astonishing ability to glean all of a person's wisdom and experience from sharing a few casual words, i'd say it's only a matter of time before aaron convinces his tv station that they should quit doing news and give me my own show. i mean, it's all entertainment anyway, right?
(mr. steves did a couple events for Bread this week. he supports our work, and i really think i could listen to him talk about ethnocentric americans and cheese for days on end.)

2) even if my powers of extraction have (doubtedly) failed, i may soon have the opportunity to become a travel guru in my own right. this summer i have the amazing opportunity to go on a semi-around-the-world trip to 5 foreign countries on 3 continents in 6 weeks!! it's gonna be crazy. crazy incredible! AND i will hopefully get to SEE KRISTEN!!!!! that's right - we'll be spending 2 whole weeks in ethiopia!! ahhh i can't even imagine it! so the whole trip will be romania, ethiopia, uganda, nyc, haiti, mexico...and then birmingham. late june-august 10.
so i wanted you all to know. the trip is focused on poverty (the millennium development goals, specifically) and is being organized by the same group (cbf) that is sponsoring my internship at Bread. we'll be meeting up with their missions personnel at each location. i'm pumped.
i'd also like to thank ryan for his inspiring advise in his last post and am already contemplating ways i can apply it to this trip. i'm excited about trying to laugh in all these different languages when i fall down, but i worry about knocking people down as i go for what i want. i think rick steves would frown upon it.

i love this blog. i love you all, and i sincerely miss you.

.

Ha ha ha, bang bang (while waving gun hands in the style of a wild cowboy with a mix of Shooter McGavin)! This is a story of the feathery floating feeling of being on spring break. Upon rocking four tests this week and finishing the first half of my first semester in PT school, there is a great feeling of doable…ness. I didn’t know what it would look like, but I am actually enjoying the road to my degree, not just getting through. I leaned to a friend last week during lecture and said “isn’t it great we get to listen to lectures on muscular pathologies? I mean, what if we had to be suffering through differential equations? (no offense mistuh blian)”. He thought I was kidding, but I wasn’t. I wasn’t. I smile at the glimpse of the joy that has had a tendency to fall asleep in years past; David, I wade with you.

So we took a physical therapy retreat for a couple days last week. Yes, a graduate school retreat, complete with team building exercises and the creation of flags that represent our “culture”. I found out during the flag presentations that I AM a minority as I didn’t have a large “roll tide” logo and obligatory cross in the middle of my poster. During this retreat, I was telling my Jamaican friend Camille about a swinging bridge over the river we should check out. She urged me to take her on a date there after our lunch. All in all, it was a very relaxed and fun date, we connected on levels never dreamed of on a first date. When we got back to the main cabin our friends inquired about our whereabouts accompanied with inter-race dating jokes such as “once you go black you never go back”. She stood by my side with a sense of pride. Its important to know that she is sarcastic and engaged.

I know the original blogging structure has phased out recently, but it is 1100 am and I am sitting in the downtown starbucks loft with J-me and Franny. i am currently reading Beloved, a story about the heaviness of the past, and Fear and Trembling, a book mocking our cheap understanding of faith. as hinted earlier my spirit feels light and hopeful. oh, and there happens to be a super cute Italian baby strutting his stuff around the loft at this very moment, his father watches with a proud eye as baby goes about his business knocking things over and squeeling. I can respect the freedom of spirit encouraged by this parenting technique. Friends, I think we can learn much from this baby. My charge to you is… go out, live big. stomp your feet of change. knock over things, especially other people on the way to getting what you want. yell loudly to those who don’t think your way is the best way. if you go down, go down laughing.

this is new...

i am officially an aunt! my sister had a beautiful little girl named valerie brice (after my mom). they are going to call her vale. she is 6 lb 11 or 12 oz, and has curly dark hair. man, babies are cool...


ps. i have a great boyfriend ;)

So here's a picture of Kris and I dressed like Ethiopians, except my manskirt is a traditional Somali garmet.

Hey guys, so I got back at 12:15 central time from ethiopia last night after about 40 hours of continuos travel and I have to say it was single handedly( if thats a real word) one of the greatest trips ever. Turns out that the couple we were going to meet was actually working with the Somali people, who because of the constant wars and warlords who control that country have been forced to flee into the surrounding countries (jbuti, eritria, kenya, and ethiopia). It was a real enlightening experience to learn about the plight of these people, because all I really knew about these people I had learned from the movie Black Hawk Down. What we did was travel from Addis Ababa to the city of Dire Dawa, which is closer to the Somali border in order to help this couple decide if they would want to move there and base there work there. We visited several villages, and had a really warm greeting also we visited a hospital and health clinic that worked with the Somali people, we also spent some time with this swiss dude who had been living in Ethiopia for over 12 years nd was building a hotel in the style of the Etheopian huts (which was an incredible place).
Also, for the last two days Kristin came to Addis and hung out with us. Guys she is a beast. She was dropped by the Peace Corps in to the village by herself, and is trying to singlehandedly change their view on AIDS. Man she knows the language really well, she actually did all of my haggling for me while we were in the market. It was awesome to spend some time with her. She needs our prayers though, its tough on her, if y'all can, email her tell her ya'll care. I'm worried she might burn out. 

they say there's a first time for everything...

i briefly wrote about this in my update email...but i thought it was worthy of the blog too.

so i had a wreck on my way to the airport. it was my fault. i'd never been to the airport and was going to pick up a couple (both in their 80's) who are teaching English at the college with me. i was just following airport signs when all of a sudden there was a sign for the airport exiting to the left...i was 2 lanes over on the right! It was an impulse decision to go for it...my thought was, if i don't take this exit, I'll be lost forever in this huge city with it's massive roads and interchanges. This probably wasn't true (although I would've been lost for a while). I did look over my shoulder, didn't really see any thing that stopped me, and then I just went for it. The good news is i made the exit. the bad news is a mini-van hit the passenger side of my car as i lurched for the exit. oh, what a day that turned out to be. time of accident: 10:15am

the man who hit me was not too happy. I was surprisingly calm. i've always wondered what i would do if i had a wreck or got pulled over: cry? burst into hysterically laughter? snort til i couldn't breathe? i really had a peace about it all and had one thing on my mind: i have to get to the airport. I got out of the car, smile on my face and confidently approached this man, not sure if my license (that reads Alabama at the top of it) was truly international and hesitant about my car being registered under my company. so the man says, "..." well i don't think he said anything at this point. I said, "i'm sorry. i'm trying to find the airport. Is this the way to the airport?" he kinda looked at me like did you really just ask me that? and then he confirmed that this exit was indeed the route to the airport. He asked me what do we do. i'm thinking i have no idea. i'm not the local here. he said we could settle and i pay him money or we could call the police. he laughed when i offered to pay him 75 rm ($25) but that was all i had on me. i ended up paying him some money, gave him my address and then said, ok, i've got to go to the airport, and off i went. the poor couple i was picking up! They had to sit on broken glass in the backseat, with the passenger side rear window busted in, and crawl in the car through the drivers side back door! arrived at airport: 11:40 am

Our next stop was the college where we teach English. we drove around for 1.5 hours before we finally found it! then i spent the rest of the day trying to file a police report (in case the man who hit me called me later and demanded more money) but ended up going to 2 different police stations before I found the right place. Every time i got out at a station men haggled me trying to tell me they'd hook me up from a to zet with insurance, blah, blah, blah. what they didn't know is my car is not insured... time is now approaching 6:00pm

So, i finally find the right police station, describe exactly where the accident took place, write a report of what happened and explained that although he hit me, it was technically my fault. so, turns out my Alabama license is a valid international license and my car registration was fine. then the police officer tells me he's gonna write me a fine...300 rm (about $100). ugh.
time i got home from this ordeal 9:00 pm
what a day. the next day was full of trying to find an honest, reasonable mechanic (i heard price ranges from 1,200 to 4,000...some mumbo jumbo about the color of my car being more expensive...i think that translates to how much money can we get out of the little white girl) but it was not as bad as one would think having a wreck in a foreign country might imagine. Praise the Father no one was hurt, i didn't cry, but stayed calm. i think i'll choose to get lost from now on though...it's a little cheaper.
well, that's all i got for now. glad to see the blogs getting a little more action now...
love to all!

Sad Logic, Indeed...

i saw this. i resonated with it. i felt the need to share it.

(click image to enlarge)

well that's reassuring

to everyone out there reading Thirty Travelers-- it's been a while. hello there.

to hutchens-- here's the address of a site that will translate this post into spanish for you. hopefully you can read the sentence that tells you about the link. http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en

and now for the entry proper:

don't get me wrong, i'm loving grad school. things are going great, i love the lab i'm doing my research in, and classes aren't too rough so far. i've never put this much time into anything before- particularly school- but i'm feeling pretty great about my choice at this point. nevertheless, when staring down the barrel of a 6-7 year program, there are moments that are less than reassuring... some of which i'd like to share with you.

(1) calling the financial aid rep for the dental school to ask about dmd/phd issues, and eliciting an initial response of (word for word): "You're a what student? Are you sure?" I found that odd... "What do you mean am I sure?" I asked. "I don't think we even have a DMD/PhD program. Do you mean MD/PhD? I can connect you to the medical school representative," she replied. ...Crap.

(2) meeting James, the 4 year old son of a post-doc researcher I'm working with named Haiyan. James is really cute and pretty damn funny-- everything you could hope for from a chinese immigrant preschooler. But his interpretation of the work his mom and i are doing is a bit disheartening. After Haiyan showed him a photo printout of a PCR analysis we ran (i'll spare you the details- but it's a black background with white spots), James screwed up his face, looked at me, looked at Haiyan, and asked in earnest, "Mom, why you work so much late with Mistuh Blian? Me you can draw pictures together home." ...Sigh.

(3) being asked twice in the past week by cashiers- one at Broadway Barbecue, and one at Piggly Wiggly- what exactly it is that I do at uab. And then being asked via roundabout hints to stop. One literally just sort of walked away, and the other started talking to her coworker as my voice trailed off to a sad sigh. Molecular biology seems to be the great alienator.

(4) receiving a phone call from my bank requesting an estimated date of graduation for their records since i have a student checking account. telling them 2014. being asked, "really?", hearing some keystrokes, and then, "can you give us another date? the computer blank only works up to 5 years in advance." Thanks computer.

(5) opening mail from my cousin with the following note: "Hey B- grandma found this article in US News & World Report about advances in dentistry and oral heatlh, and she asked me if I could pop it in the mail since it might interest you. It's 12 pages long, which was gonna take more than one stamp. I only found one stamp at grandma's place, and I didn't have time to go get more, so I'm just gonna mail you a page or two a year. That should last just about until you graduate, yeah? Love you. -Coley" No time to buy a stamp, but plenty of time to be a smartass. I love you too, Nicole.

(6) Gob Bluth reminding me that he heard "the verdict is still out on science" as I pass out on the guys' couch at the end of the most exhausting week yet.

nerds rule.
-brian