To quote Sabrina, “Paris is always a good idea.” I had a wonderful time exploring the city of lights. Normally people think Paris is for lovers, but visiting by yourself can be awesome too!
My plane landed and after getting my luggage and passing customs it was only a short time before I was on a train headed for the Gare du Nord. My urgency would result in one minor incident, that I wouldn’t realize until later that night. Alas, I left my ipod on the plane! I do not have such a good track record with keeping a hold on these little buggers. Here’s the other issue… When I got on the plane I first had to kick someone out of my seat who had the middle seat, but was obviously hoping to have mine. Anyway, then I go to put my bag under my seat and the girl sitting ahead of me has her bag under her seat instead of the seat in front of her. Well, this kind of makes sense because she didn’t have a seat ahead of her. Instead, there was the section divider. Anyway, anyone who has flown their fair share of flights knows that the benefits of not having someone lean their chair back on you is offset by the fact that you have to stow your carry on bag in the overhead bin. Well, I kindly asked her to move it and she wouldn’t. She said she would wait until the cabin crew told her that it was my storage and not hers. At this point I was not so happy, I mean really… So I went and told the cabin crew the problem and they made her move her bag. That was all fine and lovely, but the whole time the guy who had to move from my seat was kind of glaring at me. This situation didn’t improve as to my horror I realized my backpack was too big to fit under the seat! What is one to do? I had officially ticked off both of the people around me and now had to shove my bag into a place that was far too small for it. Let me tell you, things were not looking good. So I try and settle in and reassure myself I did the right thing by making the girl move her bag… It was rightfully my space! Regardless, my ipod ran out of batteries during the flight and since I was half asleep and there was no chance I was getting to my bag again, I left it lying in my lap. That was the last time I remember seeing my dear, sweet, cute blue ipod :( What happened after that is a mystery. Did it fall on the floor and I didn’t see it in cleaning up my area? Did it fall in the crack between the seats? Did my resentful neighbor swipe it from me while I was in the throws of sleep? Did I accidentally wrap it up in the blanket and not see it? The possibilities are endless, but all I know is I should have made sure I had it before I stepped off the plane. It’s a hard lesson to learn, but at least it wasn’t my passport I lost! That would have been catastrophically bad, but I also would have probably figured out sooner that I had left… so… Anyway, I also wonder if losing my ipod was bad karma kicking me in the butt for being the jerk and making the girl move her bag. I could have easily put my bag up overhead, next time, my friend.
I digress, back to the train. I got the station and headed for the Metro. I found my hostel without a problem and was very impressed and pleased with my choice! Check in wasn’t until 2pm and I had arrived about 8:30am. I originally considered venturing out, but then instead opted to grab some of the free breakfast they had out and use their wireless internet to take care of the million and one things I had hanging over my head! I ended up keeping myself busy until at least 3:00pm. I checked into my room, changed into my running clothes and hit the road. I ran along this amazingly scenic canal and around a science amusement park. Very French. After washing up, I struck out for the Pompidou Center. It was about 5:30ish I think, when I left… I planned to walk the two miles or so to get there. That was an awesome idea except for the fact I didn’t have a map and went the wrong way to begin with… I ended up spending an additional forty five minutes walking through town. I managed to find my way by consulting the ever present maps outside of the subway entrances…
I made it to the museum and discovered to my great amazement that Wednesday nights from 6-9 there is free admission for young adults between 18 and 26 years of age! So I saved my seven euros and enjoyed the modern art exhibits even more reveling in my good fortune of getting in for free ;) In case you are curious as to what is special about the Pompidou Center, let me enlighten you. It is known as the inside outside building. All the stairs, escalators, piping, ductwork is all on the outside of the building. It is crazy cool to look at. Very modern art looking, effectively reflecting the essence of the museums contents.
Being close to 9 o’clock I opted to take the metro back. I had to switch lines a couple of times, but made it. I got back to the hostel and ate dinner which consisted of a sweet tuna salad I had picked up on the walk back from the nearest metro stop. I worked online a while again and then called it a night.
Thursday morning I got up and headed right for the Musee D’Orsay. I wanted to get there close to opening time. I succeeded, but was very disappointed to learn that the workers were on strike and only the first floor was open. Well, that certainly would never do, so I determined to return on Saturday and instead go to the Musee Rodin. Rodin was a famous sculptor and the line to get in to see the exhibits was wrapped around the corner! But had no other alternatives, so I waited… It was worth it. I wasn’t a huge fan of sculpture art before and am still not totally won over, but I can definitely appreciate it more. The only bummer of the day was that it was a bit cold and I had worn a skirt and so I was freezing! I went back and had a late lunch/early dinner. I worked on fixing up my pictures from my grad school visits and otherwise wasted time on my computer. When I finally pulled myself away it was about 30 minutes before dusk would set in. I had to snap out of the computer screen daze so I went for a quick run. Just the medicine the doctor ordered! I felt much better afterwards and headed to bed pretty early that night...
Friday was lovely, simply lovely! I ventured out of the Paris city limits to visit Monet’s Gardens in Givery. The train ride was nice. I had left pretty early and so was grateful to rest a bit. You can take a bus from the train station to the gardens, but I decided it would be more fun to walk the 6km instead. On my way I stopped at a grocery store and bought a picnic lunch. The guidebook had warned that there was no picnicking in the gardens and the town wasn’t so friendly to it either, but I didn’t care… tourist food is ridiculously overpriced, so I was willing to gamble. The walk was very peaceful, and I had my camera out taking all sorts of pictures! There was one point where I thought I was lost, but thankfully I wasn’t. I didn’t know how I would find the gardens, but I shouldn’t have worried because once I hit the town limits, there were tons of tourists all over the place. Besides, I learned the village was quite small and so even though I didn’t know exactly where I was going I could wander through the whole thing in very little time at all. I did finally find Monet’s house and Gardens. The gardens were breathtaking. However, the number of tourists did detract a bit, but who am I to talk. I was one adding to the numbers! Monet’s house was interesting. It was fun to imagine this genius of a painter walking around in the same rooms. The rooms by the way were painted these very bright colors. I asked the workers if they were the original colors and they said yes. Of course their have added coats of paint over the years, but the original colors were preserved. I’m talking bright yellows, blues, rose and green. Definitely a painter’s house! I would also like to note that the wooden Japanese bridge in the water lilies garden has been replaced by a replica steel version and they have done nothing to try and disguise the very industrial look now. I have to say, the painting are prettier than the real thing…
After visiting Monet’s crib, if you will, I changed into my running clothes then found a bench and had my picnic lunch. There was not a problem with that and I think that was the one thing the guide book has been wrong about so far. After lunch, I read for a while and then walked to the American Art Museum to see if could leave my bag there while I went running. Sure enough, the guard was sympathetic to my cause and let me use one of the lockers. I got to go running on one the nature paths up through the hills… It was amazing; definitely one of the highlights of the day trip. I kept on thinking I would wake up and all of this would have been some crazy dream. But no, it was all real and I couldn’t get enough of it!
Following my run I picked up my bag and made a quick retreat to the bus to get back to the train station. At the station, I tried to change in the bathroom, but it was a public toilet thing, they have them all over France… it looks like a little kiosk, but you push a button and the door opens and it was all wet on the ground. Not from, well you know, but instead because I would soon find out there were jets of water that spray from the floor to clean everything. I was standing inside trying to figure out how to make this situation work and then all of the sudden the cleaning jets came on and I was like “AHHHHH!!!” Then the panic set in of not knowing how to get out. Luckily I found the button on the inside that opened the door and hastily put that incident behind me. I was a bit shaken up, but the whole thing was hilarious. Foreigners! I caught the train back to Paris and was finally able to change out of my nasty running clothes at the main station where I paid .50Euro to use a restroom that didn’t attack me with jets of water!
The next thing on my agenda was the Salle Pleyel. The Russian National Symphony Orchestra was playing that night and I was going to try and get one of the last minute discount tickets. Well, I showed up a good three hours before the show to find out the procedure. I learned I should come back in an hour and then wait for another two hours in line… I decided to go take a few pictures of the Arc de Triumph, which was down the street, grabbed some food for dinner, and then made my way back to start “queing” as they would say in England. It was a long time to wait, and I was pretty tired. But I read my book a bit and enjoyed talking to a few of the other people in line. I did end up getting a ticket. So for $33 I got to see the Russian National Symphony Orchestra. They were incredible. I actually liked the first and last pieces the best. It was amazing because of the sound was just so clear and precise. I used to think that music was music and there wasn’t a huge difference between performance groups. Boy did that night prove me wrong! I can fully appreciate and discern good classical music now which is very cool. The only thing I was not so happy about was how tired I was! I had some trouble staying awake and so that made it a bit difficult at times, but none the less I wouldn’t have done it differently. You only have a chance to hear the best of Russian musicians perform in Paris once…
After the performance, I walked down to see the Arc de Triumph at night. It was lightly misting which just added to effect of awesomeness. From there, it was about 10:30pm, I hopped on the metro and went back to my hostel. It was a loooong day!
Saturday, I woke up and repeated the beginning of the day on Thursday, where I headed to the Musee D’Orsay. This time I did actually get to go in. The museum was cool, but since I hadn’t gotten to bed very early the night before and since I woke up early to get to the museum before the crowd, I was hurting. I kind of wish I had just slept in and muscled through all the tourists later on in the day… Each day of traveling you learn something new. I wasn’t too impressed with the collection at the museum. They were supposed to have this huge impressionist section and it was kind of weak if you ask me. It could have been because I was so tired and was always looking for those benches in the middle to sit down and rest. It also could have been the fact that even though I was there early, there were still a ton of people milling around which is super annoying. But again, I was adding to the numbers so I can’t complain.
After the so-so museum experience I decided to take the metro to La Defense, which is the modern business district. It was super cool; very futuristic. They also have this larger than life modern art rendition of an arch which is absolutely HUGE! Mind blowing really. There is a whole pedestrian mall area that is in the center of all the business buildings. There are no cars around and so it is really trippy in that way. It makes me think of iRobot, or that 5th Element movie. I tried to mail the postcards I had written out, but the post office closed a half hour before I got there. Bummer! Instead I found a grocery store, grabbed a cheap lunch, picked up snack for my bible study girls and a bottle of wine to bring back as a gift for Susan. I ate my lunch under the looming shadows of the arch. I also saw two girls eating Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and drinking Star Bucks. I was totally looking forward to some ice cream so I decided to ask them where they bought it. I wasn’t sure if they were French or American. There were so many Americans in Paris it was kind of ridiculous. I think I overheard more English being spoken than French! Anyway, I politely went up and asked them in French if they speak French or English. They looked at me like I had three heads and said English was okay… But they were clearly French so I asked them in French where they got their ice cream. They pointed me in the direction of the mall entrance and I thanked them. But MY GOODNESS! What effrontery… when I simply inquired about the ice cream! I mean really is that degree of standoff-ishness really necessary. (Roll my eyes…)
Anyway, I succeeded in procuring my ice cream. Unlike the US you cannot taste the flavor before you order and I got the brownie cheesecake which was less than stellar, but I still tried to enjoy it! Following my time at La Defense, I got back on the metro and journeyed back to my hostel. phew! I got back and decided to nap, and then run… And then head over to Montmatre for the free tour. It was a crazy plan, but it worked! The nap was refreshing, short, but much needed. The run was nice and to the point. I took the metro to Montmatre and found the free tour group. The young woman leading the tour was great. She was in theater school and so, as you can imagine, very animated. P.S. The tour was in English. It was technically free, but the convention is to give a tip at the end. I did tip her, but I was really close to not having enough money left so I didn’t give her as much as I would have liked. I also really wanted to buy one of the fake Pashmina scarves, but I refrained which was good because the place I went to dinner didn’t take credit cards and so I would have been way up the creek without a paddle. For dinner I went to an amazing place that serves salads with hot fried potatoes on top. It is truly a salad of the Gods. I refer you to this lovely blog page which corroborates my opinion of this fine gastronomic establishment. (Scroll down about three-fourths of the way... look for the name Le Relais Gascon, the name of the restaurant.) I actually got a table for one and sat and ate my salad alone. It was one of those landmark experiences: Going out to eat by yourself. It is not something I would like to do frequently, but I am glad it is not something beyond my abilities.
I should have gone back at this point, but the draw to see Paris from the Sacre Couer way up on the mountain was too strong. So, I steeled myself up for the many hundreds steps to climb and was duly rewarded by an amazing panorama of Paris at night. The Eiffel Tower was lit up and there was an impromptu band playing on the steps entraining a large crowd of tourists, poised to bring in a large income of tips judging by the excitement and size of the crowd they had drawn. After taking in the sights I descended the stairs and rode the metro back to my hostel. When I got back I repacked all my stuff. I would have to leave very early the next morning to get to the airport. Everything was ready and I climbed into bed. Terribly tired and yet so happy with my four day Paris adventure. I would do it again in a heart beat! I would also like to mention that I finished reading the Biomimicry book I had started a while back… It was very fascinating, but the middle was really slow going. After finishing that book I commenced reading Lolita. Talk about a whacked out book! The guy who founded the Oxford fellowship was the first to publish Lolita through his printing business a long time ago. I figured that since I would be meeting this guy, maybe I should read the incredibly controversial book he published.
Sunday morning I got up and went to a short run. I knew I would be sitting all day and didn’t want to feel like a slug. After I showered and got ready to go, I brought my bags downstairs. I didn’t have enough money left for the train to the airport, so I left my bags with the receptionist and went to the ATM down the road which was kind enough to work with my foreign ATM card. This is something I was having a big issue with. Anyway, I was overcome with dread when the machine wouldn’t work. I tried the next one down the street and had the same problem. What is one to do! So I went back, grabbed my bags, I was running late at this point, and took the metro to the main station. I figured something has to work out. Well, transferring from the Metro to the airport line there was no where to buy a ticket… So I got on, there was another girl from the hostel with me, and we rode to the airport. No problems. I got to the end of the line where I was to get off and thought to myself, what providence that I didn’t have to pay. Except that I took the escalator up to the exit and wha-bam there were the turnstiles to exit and surprise surprise you needed a ticket… I looked around and there were no ticket machines in sight, and no employees either for that matter. I am not going to write anything incriminating, so I will leave my next actions to your imagination. Let’s just say I was not the only one in my position and some of the turnstiles seemed to be malfunctioning. Regardless, I made it to the ticket counter in plenty of time ;)
As I was waiting in line to check in, an Air France employee asks me very slyly if I would like to make some money. First off, it kind of creped me out. If it wasn’t an airline employee I would have probably been inclined to walk the other way at a very determined pace. But then I realized they were probably looking for volunteers to take a later flight and they would be compensated. So I got past the initial odd comment and found out my hunch was correct. And well, since I didn’t have anything especially pressing to get back for I took them up on the offer and earned a 300Euro voucher and had my own nice hotel room and nice meals taken care of for the next day. I also spent another hour trying to track down my ipod, but it was to no avail. Unfortunately, I think it is lost for good. At least I hope someone is enjoying it! (Okay, so I have lost two ipod shuffles, isn’t about time I FOUND one…)
The little extension to my trip was great. The only two major downsides were that the hotel did not have free wireless and the woman working at the desk of the hotel was unnecessarily mean. She was so jerky about the internet stuff and unhelpful with the telephone. I went to the hotel next door to use the phone card I had received and was able to contact Leanna to let her know the change in plans. To add insult to injury both of the neighboring hotels had free wireless. I was ticked. The good thing was the lack of distractions. I was able to get down to business and write my Weidenfeld Fellowship Motivational Statement. I was super worried I would get back to Burkina and not be able to focus on it. Well, problem solved. I also watched iRobot, inspired by my visit to La Defense. It was great. I was able to go running the next day and enjoyed a great lunch the first day of amazing potato soup and a hamburger. What’s not to love.
Monday I headed to the airport for take two of traveling back to Burkina. I had to wait a long time in line to check in my bags and ended up having to scarf down my last free lunch. Instead of being sensible and getting a sandwich on the go or something I went to a sit down place and ordered something for real. Bad choice. I was so anxious the whole time and ate my food so fast I got heartburn. Again, another lesson learned. The only thing that made it worth it was the ice cream dessert that was covered in whipped cream. But again I had to eat it in like t-minus 3 minutes so not quite as enjoyable as one would have hoped. After my lunch fiasco I high tailed it to my gate, but realized I had forgotten I had to wait through the customs and security lines again. Grrr… I was getting pretty nervous now. I hate Charles de Gaulle Airport. I constantly feel like I am going to miss my flights! Anyway, I made it though and took the tram; yes I had to take a TRAM, to my gate. I was so relieved to be on board that plane. The flight was uneventful and since I had already lost my ipod I didn’t have to worry about losing it twice… I did manage to keep all my important documents with me which is saying something.
Leanna and Ben picked me up from the airport. It was so great to see them both again! Being back in Burkina for the next three days felt very weird, mainly because I knew I would be leaving again very soon. Back at my house, I was able to give Leanna the stuff I brought back for her. Susan also stopped by to say Hi which was nice :)
I went to sleep that night happy to be back in my own bed. But to be honest not all that stoked to be back in Burkina Faso. Hopefully, that would change.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Duke, my family and Hannah Montana! You get the best of both worlds...
The flight to Raleigh from Chicago was uneventful and much more pleasant than the previous one. Besides, Ryan and I watched Hannah Montana and listened to music together so what more could one want. When we got to Raleigh, Uncle Glenn and Aunt Ruth picked us up. We went back to their house and I slept more soundly than I have slept in a very long time… I didn’t get up until about 10am the next morning.
Saturday started off with a nice run with my Dad and brother through the historic Oakwood neighborhood. I was dying though. Truly and honestly I had spent the whole day yesterday traveling and hadn’t been in the same place for more than a few days. Taxing to say the least. Getting my legs just to pick up my feet was quite the chore. After running, a shower and a great breakfast the crew headed out to peruse the local flea market, a beloved pastime of my family. Besides two used books, which I could have probably done without, the only other items whose draw was strong enough to get us to part with our money were some great socks. I needed some new socks so it was prefect. Random, but good. Oh, and an aside is that there was this very convincing lady trying to get my Mom to by some Himalayan salt. It was supposed to be detoxifying, blah blah blah. The lady was quite the saleswoman and for a moment she had me going, but then I snapped back into reality when she said that one person she knew went to California for a detoxing treatment and on the way back, just in the airplane and through the airports, the friend had reabsorbed 247,000 toxins. That is BS if you ask me. That number is completely arbitrary, how on earth could you know something like that. I would like to see that list of those 247,000 toxins, thank you.
On the way back we stopped to grab some lunch meat to make a small snack, which inevitably turned into much more than that. So after our not so small afternoon snack it was about 4:00pm and everyone was about as far from wanting dinner in the next few hours as you can get. So my Mom, Dad, Ryan and I headed off to run some errands for me. I needed new running shoes, underwear, and a few other things that have since slipped my mind. The running shoes turned out to be more troublesome to locate that I originally had anticipated. First of we tried to find a Sports Authority. We had an address and a phone number, but the store was no where to be found. We even looked it up and it was listed in the phone book, so it must have closed or something, but man was it frustrating! So instead we went to Dick’s sporting goods. (Maybe that used to be the Sports Authority…) Anyway, Dick’s is way too expensive. I wanted shoes that I didn’t mind trashing and leaving in Burkina because that is what was going to happen. So we sojourned on to Target to pick up the other random things I needed. Afterwards, just before calling it a night we stopped at Kohl’s and to my delight found a pair of shoes that worked. Unfortunately, the box didn’t match the shoes and so we didn’t know the price and couldn’t find anymore shoes of the same style. We were going to just try and see if the lady would notice they were in a different box, but thought better of it. Turns out the shoes only cost $12. Talk about a steal! Oh, and my Dad found a pair of really really nice Asics, like their newest shoe but on clearance, clearly a mistake, for $24. They were just a hair too big for me but we bought them anyway for one of my Dad’s runners. A $100 pair of shoes for $24; that you can’t pass up. We got back to the Sappie House pretty late, actually, and had some pizza with Uncle Glenn before Ryan and I watched some Hannah Montana to finish off a very splendid day.
Sunday started with a lovely Skype conversation with Leanna. I missed talking to her and so it was nice to be able to catch up, even if it was only for 30 minutes. I grabbed a quick breakfast and then we all headed off to the Duke chapel for the Sunday service. We got there nice and early. Oh yes, and let me tell you to our surprise it was Alumni Day. SO the place was crawling with people! The service was okay, I hate grading church like this was an A- or a C+ sermon, but there has to be some reflection and everybody has their own preferences. I thought the choir was amazing. I wasn’t super taken by the liturgy, but I was still able to worship. Towards the end of the service I noticed this girl kind of sobbing to herself. I felt this overwhelming need to go say something to her. I didn’t really want to, but I know when I am being called to do something and so I took a deep breathe gently pushed pass my father and went over to say hi this is woman. I simply introduced myself and asked her if everything was okay. Apparently she was an alumnus and had sung in the choir so being back just brought back a bunch of memories for her. She indicated she had no prayer requests and we parted ways, but she did say my saying hi to her made her day. That wasn’t really my purpose I was just being obedient to what God had placed on my heart, but it was nice to hear.
After church we toured the Sarah P. Duke Gardens. I got my picture in front of the sign covering the end of the name so it was simply the Sara Gardens :) The gardens were a nice idea, but I guess everybody else thought so too. There were a ton of people around and it was rather distressing actually. The gardens were beautiful, but somewhat hard to enjoy through the throng of people. So after getting our fill of nature we got back in the car and drove back to Raleigh. Arriving in Raleigh, Glenn gave us a short driving tour of the downtown area which was quite interesting. Once we were home and things were settled down again I made a few phone calls to friends. It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon! Afterwards I went on a short run with my Dad and after a quick shower, my Mom, Dad and Ryan and I struck off again on our own, this time in search of a Walmart. Leanna had given me a short list of things they could use in Burkina and I thought I would oblige. The Walmart trip was surprising brief. I sometimes think Walmart is a sort of time warp. You walk in and can walk out 45 minutes later and it feels like only 5 have passed. Have you ever had that experience? Anyway, we had a little more time left and I was hoping to get to a book store. So Ryan, being quite clever, used google info via cell phone to locate a bookstore. We had to call Uncle Glenn for clearer directions, but it all worked out. The place we found was a Borders and I was able to replenish my stock of reading supplies. The new books added to my collection are Lolita, White Man’s Burden, The End of Poverty and Utopia. I was quite pleased by my selections. I used to cringe at paying full price for books, but now that I actually like what I am reading and hope to start a nice book collection it is rather satisfying going into a book store, finding what you want to read, granted that you already know what that is, and buying it.
When we finally returned from shopping round two, we all went out in search of Mexican food for dinner. I still wanted to have real Mexican food, a rarity in Burkina. However, the place we walked to closed at 8:00pm on Sunday, so we were out of luck. After walking around a bit we at last we settled on a sports bar slash grill place. We made the most out of it and things greatly improved after Uncle Glenn got them to turn the music down a little so that an actual conversation could go on… The one thing I didn’t like about the place was that if you wanted to substitute something else for french fries you had to add another one to two dollars to the price of your meal, even though a side of lets say potato salad actually costs less than french fries on the menu. That really frosted my cookies. So in my own little way I rebelled and ordered only a bowl of soup. The soup was pretty good so I can’t complain and the company was superb so again, lemonade from lemons…
After dinner my Mom and I went for a walk since we hadn’t really gotten a chance to talk talk because of all the activity going on. We walked up and down the street and it was great to flesh out how I had been feeling about grad schools and life in general. When we got back I made us some stove top popcorn and again Hannah Montana was the chosen evening entertainment. That night we only lasted through one show since everyone was wiped out!
Monday was my official visit day at Duke. I got there about 9:15am and didn’t leave until 3:30pm. It was nice that they had a whole schedule made up for me. I met with five plus professors. Each for between a half to a full hour! It was crazy. I was so beat by the time I walked off the campus. Just a bit overkill. The nicest part of the day was getting to tour the campus and have lunch with two current graduate students. They were very nice and helpful with offering honest information about the graduate program and how it is run. Just two quick notes. One professor started off her meeting with me by telling me she had emailed me and I had failed to email her back. Where do go from there? So I apologized and tried to move on. I honestly hadn’t remembered getting her email, so she looked it up on her computer and told me the date she sent it! Turns out later I did remember getting it. But it was a totally random email. She never identified herself as a Duke professor and simply asked if I had made a decision for graduate school or not yet. I seriously thought it was a grad student who had been recruited to check up on admitted students and see if they had any questions. So the fault is not all mine, the email could have been a bit clearer. Secondly, another professor I met with literally talked non-stop. I couldn’t get a word in edge-wise! It was ridiculous… and not to mention I was super tired and really struggling to hold back my yawns. However, my will power sometimes could not overcome my body’s need for endorphins that yawns kick out.
After the final meeting, my parents picked me up again and we went for a very early dinner to an authentic Mexican restaurant in Durham. It was really good. I ordered a Burrito which could have easily fed two people. Which it ended up doing because my Uncle had the leftovers for dinner :) After dinner we stopped by a goodwill store to pick up a suitcase for me to use to bring things back with me. $8.00 later I was owner of a rolly suitcase that I was confident would make travel through Paris much easier. From there we headed to the airport because my family was leaving to go back to Chicago. It was so great to spend with them. I really do have a great family. As my Mom was saying goodbye, crying, she asked me if I was really happy. She said I seemed really happy, but she just wanted to make sure I wasn’t pretending. I was able to reassure her that I was truly and honestly happy. In fact, I was the happiest I have been in a long time during those ten whirlwind days. I totally blocked work out of my mind and was about as care free as I have ever been! Awesome.
I drove the car back to my Aunt and Uncle’s house and we had a chill night. I packed up my stuff and when my Aunt Ruth got back we went out in search of some ice cream. It was close to 10pm so we were lucky to anything open still. We were headed to Ben and Jerry’s when my Uncle spotted an Indian restaurant that he promised had amazing ice cream. I was skeptical, but we gave it a try. After convincing the owner to serve us, they were pretty much closed up, we enjoyed a quick cup of ice cream. It was really good. Very different. Refreshing, light and nice. I think a monster chocolate number from another place would have not made me sleep so well or not feel so good on the plane the next day; so, the Indian ice cream plan worked out just great! Before I turned in for the night I talked my friend Carolyn on the phone. I knew it would be one my last chances to catch her and it was great to reconnect. She is at med school and LOVES it! That was awesome to hear!
Tuesday morning I got up and tried to accept Stanford’s offer for admission. They had gotten back to me saying that if I got the Oxford scholarship I could defer for a year and the same financial package would be offered. Talk about amazing. Anyway, there was a problem with the server. The department had forgotten to register my application as admitted so I couldn’t log on! Quel dommage! (What a shame!) so I spent a lot of the morning fretting about not being able to go to Stanford and losing the financial support. Because of that I was hesitating declining the other schools. I mean what if I couldn’t end up at Stanford and had to go to MIT? Anyway, I wrote up the emails to all the professors I had visited. The decline ones were the hardest.
I called the Stanford people as soon as they opened which wasn’t until 10am our time because of the time change. Well, we were supposed to leave at 10am so we were a little late heading out. We got to the airport in fine time. I said good bye to Aunt Ruth and thanked her for the amazing hospitality they had extended to us. Back to the acceptance dilemma, I left messages for Professor Hildemann and Professor Davis at Stanford letting them know the situation. There wasn’t much I could do at that point, so I chilled out and figured I would tackle it again once I got to Boston and was waiting for my flight to Paris. I called and talked to my Grandmom for a few minutes before leaving Raleigh and promised to call back from Boston so I could talk to my Grandad. That was a promise I was able to keep and it was so nice to talk to them both on the phone! It was a short conversation, though, as my flight was already starting to board… The flight from Raleigh to Boston was great. It was a very small plane and not full and the woman I sat next to was really nice. Talkative, but not overbearingly so… We had a few interesting conversations. Turns out she works for the Department of Defense. Nice. That just sounds intimidating doesn’t it.
At Logan airport I paid the $8 for internet and officially declined the MIT and Duke offers for admission. I was able to reach Professor Hildemann who said she would be able to take my email as confirmation of my decision and they would go into the system and make all the necessary changes. Phew. I was also able to email the thank you notes to the professors who took the time to meet with me. I really did appreciate it! With that I signed offline made a few quick calls to friends, my grandparents and then my Mom letting her know the acceptance has been registered and that she should start getting used to the idea of California ;) I tried to board the plane while talking to Annie on the phone, but the stewardess didn’t like that so I had to say goodbye… I shutoff my phone for the last time and stepped on to the plane that would shortly whisk me away from my homeland and onto four days of adventuring in Paris.
Saturday started off with a nice run with my Dad and brother through the historic Oakwood neighborhood. I was dying though. Truly and honestly I had spent the whole day yesterday traveling and hadn’t been in the same place for more than a few days. Taxing to say the least. Getting my legs just to pick up my feet was quite the chore. After running, a shower and a great breakfast the crew headed out to peruse the local flea market, a beloved pastime of my family. Besides two used books, which I could have probably done without, the only other items whose draw was strong enough to get us to part with our money were some great socks. I needed some new socks so it was prefect. Random, but good. Oh, and an aside is that there was this very convincing lady trying to get my Mom to by some Himalayan salt. It was supposed to be detoxifying, blah blah blah. The lady was quite the saleswoman and for a moment she had me going, but then I snapped back into reality when she said that one person she knew went to California for a detoxing treatment and on the way back, just in the airplane and through the airports, the friend had reabsorbed 247,000 toxins. That is BS if you ask me. That number is completely arbitrary, how on earth could you know something like that. I would like to see that list of those 247,000 toxins, thank you.
On the way back we stopped to grab some lunch meat to make a small snack, which inevitably turned into much more than that. So after our not so small afternoon snack it was about 4:00pm and everyone was about as far from wanting dinner in the next few hours as you can get. So my Mom, Dad, Ryan and I headed off to run some errands for me. I needed new running shoes, underwear, and a few other things that have since slipped my mind. The running shoes turned out to be more troublesome to locate that I originally had anticipated. First of we tried to find a Sports Authority. We had an address and a phone number, but the store was no where to be found. We even looked it up and it was listed in the phone book, so it must have closed or something, but man was it frustrating! So instead we went to Dick’s sporting goods. (Maybe that used to be the Sports Authority…) Anyway, Dick’s is way too expensive. I wanted shoes that I didn’t mind trashing and leaving in Burkina because that is what was going to happen. So we sojourned on to Target to pick up the other random things I needed. Afterwards, just before calling it a night we stopped at Kohl’s and to my delight found a pair of shoes that worked. Unfortunately, the box didn’t match the shoes and so we didn’t know the price and couldn’t find anymore shoes of the same style. We were going to just try and see if the lady would notice they were in a different box, but thought better of it. Turns out the shoes only cost $12. Talk about a steal! Oh, and my Dad found a pair of really really nice Asics, like their newest shoe but on clearance, clearly a mistake, for $24. They were just a hair too big for me but we bought them anyway for one of my Dad’s runners. A $100 pair of shoes for $24; that you can’t pass up. We got back to the Sappie House pretty late, actually, and had some pizza with Uncle Glenn before Ryan and I watched some Hannah Montana to finish off a very splendid day.
Sunday started with a lovely Skype conversation with Leanna. I missed talking to her and so it was nice to be able to catch up, even if it was only for 30 minutes. I grabbed a quick breakfast and then we all headed off to the Duke chapel for the Sunday service. We got there nice and early. Oh yes, and let me tell you to our surprise it was Alumni Day. SO the place was crawling with people! The service was okay, I hate grading church like this was an A- or a C+ sermon, but there has to be some reflection and everybody has their own preferences. I thought the choir was amazing. I wasn’t super taken by the liturgy, but I was still able to worship. Towards the end of the service I noticed this girl kind of sobbing to herself. I felt this overwhelming need to go say something to her. I didn’t really want to, but I know when I am being called to do something and so I took a deep breathe gently pushed pass my father and went over to say hi this is woman. I simply introduced myself and asked her if everything was okay. Apparently she was an alumnus and had sung in the choir so being back just brought back a bunch of memories for her. She indicated she had no prayer requests and we parted ways, but she did say my saying hi to her made her day. That wasn’t really my purpose I was just being obedient to what God had placed on my heart, but it was nice to hear.
After church we toured the Sarah P. Duke Gardens. I got my picture in front of the sign covering the end of the name so it was simply the Sara Gardens :) The gardens were a nice idea, but I guess everybody else thought so too. There were a ton of people around and it was rather distressing actually. The gardens were beautiful, but somewhat hard to enjoy through the throng of people. So after getting our fill of nature we got back in the car and drove back to Raleigh. Arriving in Raleigh, Glenn gave us a short driving tour of the downtown area which was quite interesting. Once we were home and things were settled down again I made a few phone calls to friends. It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon! Afterwards I went on a short run with my Dad and after a quick shower, my Mom, Dad and Ryan and I struck off again on our own, this time in search of a Walmart. Leanna had given me a short list of things they could use in Burkina and I thought I would oblige. The Walmart trip was surprising brief. I sometimes think Walmart is a sort of time warp. You walk in and can walk out 45 minutes later and it feels like only 5 have passed. Have you ever had that experience? Anyway, we had a little more time left and I was hoping to get to a book store. So Ryan, being quite clever, used google info via cell phone to locate a bookstore. We had to call Uncle Glenn for clearer directions, but it all worked out. The place we found was a Borders and I was able to replenish my stock of reading supplies. The new books added to my collection are Lolita, White Man’s Burden, The End of Poverty and Utopia. I was quite pleased by my selections. I used to cringe at paying full price for books, but now that I actually like what I am reading and hope to start a nice book collection it is rather satisfying going into a book store, finding what you want to read, granted that you already know what that is, and buying it.
When we finally returned from shopping round two, we all went out in search of Mexican food for dinner. I still wanted to have real Mexican food, a rarity in Burkina. However, the place we walked to closed at 8:00pm on Sunday, so we were out of luck. After walking around a bit we at last we settled on a sports bar slash grill place. We made the most out of it and things greatly improved after Uncle Glenn got them to turn the music down a little so that an actual conversation could go on… The one thing I didn’t like about the place was that if you wanted to substitute something else for french fries you had to add another one to two dollars to the price of your meal, even though a side of lets say potato salad actually costs less than french fries on the menu. That really frosted my cookies. So in my own little way I rebelled and ordered only a bowl of soup. The soup was pretty good so I can’t complain and the company was superb so again, lemonade from lemons…
After dinner my Mom and I went for a walk since we hadn’t really gotten a chance to talk talk because of all the activity going on. We walked up and down the street and it was great to flesh out how I had been feeling about grad schools and life in general. When we got back I made us some stove top popcorn and again Hannah Montana was the chosen evening entertainment. That night we only lasted through one show since everyone was wiped out!
Monday was my official visit day at Duke. I got there about 9:15am and didn’t leave until 3:30pm. It was nice that they had a whole schedule made up for me. I met with five plus professors. Each for between a half to a full hour! It was crazy. I was so beat by the time I walked off the campus. Just a bit overkill. The nicest part of the day was getting to tour the campus and have lunch with two current graduate students. They were very nice and helpful with offering honest information about the graduate program and how it is run. Just two quick notes. One professor started off her meeting with me by telling me she had emailed me and I had failed to email her back. Where do go from there? So I apologized and tried to move on. I honestly hadn’t remembered getting her email, so she looked it up on her computer and told me the date she sent it! Turns out later I did remember getting it. But it was a totally random email. She never identified herself as a Duke professor and simply asked if I had made a decision for graduate school or not yet. I seriously thought it was a grad student who had been recruited to check up on admitted students and see if they had any questions. So the fault is not all mine, the email could have been a bit clearer. Secondly, another professor I met with literally talked non-stop. I couldn’t get a word in edge-wise! It was ridiculous… and not to mention I was super tired and really struggling to hold back my yawns. However, my will power sometimes could not overcome my body’s need for endorphins that yawns kick out.
After the final meeting, my parents picked me up again and we went for a very early dinner to an authentic Mexican restaurant in Durham. It was really good. I ordered a Burrito which could have easily fed two people. Which it ended up doing because my Uncle had the leftovers for dinner :) After dinner we stopped by a goodwill store to pick up a suitcase for me to use to bring things back with me. $8.00 later I was owner of a rolly suitcase that I was confident would make travel through Paris much easier. From there we headed to the airport because my family was leaving to go back to Chicago. It was so great to spend with them. I really do have a great family. As my Mom was saying goodbye, crying, she asked me if I was really happy. She said I seemed really happy, but she just wanted to make sure I wasn’t pretending. I was able to reassure her that I was truly and honestly happy. In fact, I was the happiest I have been in a long time during those ten whirlwind days. I totally blocked work out of my mind and was about as care free as I have ever been! Awesome.
I drove the car back to my Aunt and Uncle’s house and we had a chill night. I packed up my stuff and when my Aunt Ruth got back we went out in search of some ice cream. It was close to 10pm so we were lucky to anything open still. We were headed to Ben and Jerry’s when my Uncle spotted an Indian restaurant that he promised had amazing ice cream. I was skeptical, but we gave it a try. After convincing the owner to serve us, they were pretty much closed up, we enjoyed a quick cup of ice cream. It was really good. Very different. Refreshing, light and nice. I think a monster chocolate number from another place would have not made me sleep so well or not feel so good on the plane the next day; so, the Indian ice cream plan worked out just great! Before I turned in for the night I talked my friend Carolyn on the phone. I knew it would be one my last chances to catch her and it was great to reconnect. She is at med school and LOVES it! That was awesome to hear!
Tuesday morning I got up and tried to accept Stanford’s offer for admission. They had gotten back to me saying that if I got the Oxford scholarship I could defer for a year and the same financial package would be offered. Talk about amazing. Anyway, there was a problem with the server. The department had forgotten to register my application as admitted so I couldn’t log on! Quel dommage! (What a shame!) so I spent a lot of the morning fretting about not being able to go to Stanford and losing the financial support. Because of that I was hesitating declining the other schools. I mean what if I couldn’t end up at Stanford and had to go to MIT? Anyway, I wrote up the emails to all the professors I had visited. The decline ones were the hardest.
I called the Stanford people as soon as they opened which wasn’t until 10am our time because of the time change. Well, we were supposed to leave at 10am so we were a little late heading out. We got to the airport in fine time. I said good bye to Aunt Ruth and thanked her for the amazing hospitality they had extended to us. Back to the acceptance dilemma, I left messages for Professor Hildemann and Professor Davis at Stanford letting them know the situation. There wasn’t much I could do at that point, so I chilled out and figured I would tackle it again once I got to Boston and was waiting for my flight to Paris. I called and talked to my Grandmom for a few minutes before leaving Raleigh and promised to call back from Boston so I could talk to my Grandad. That was a promise I was able to keep and it was so nice to talk to them both on the phone! It was a short conversation, though, as my flight was already starting to board… The flight from Raleigh to Boston was great. It was a very small plane and not full and the woman I sat next to was really nice. Talkative, but not overbearingly so… We had a few interesting conversations. Turns out she works for the Department of Defense. Nice. That just sounds intimidating doesn’t it.
At Logan airport I paid the $8 for internet and officially declined the MIT and Duke offers for admission. I was able to reach Professor Hildemann who said she would be able to take my email as confirmation of my decision and they would go into the system and make all the necessary changes. Phew. I was also able to email the thank you notes to the professors who took the time to meet with me. I really did appreciate it! With that I signed offline made a few quick calls to friends, my grandparents and then my Mom letting her know the acceptance has been registered and that she should start getting used to the idea of California ;) I tried to board the plane while talking to Annie on the phone, but the stewardess didn’t like that so I had to say goodbye… I shutoff my phone for the last time and stepped on to the plane that would shortly whisk me away from my homeland and onto four days of adventuring in Paris.
Stanford, Stanford, Stanford, Oxford, Stanford, Stanford… (a bit like duck, duck, goose ;)
Getting to the San Francisco airport I checked my email one last time to any last minute instructions and then caught the shuttle to Stanford. The driver was really nice, but more importantly during the ride was able to call and talk to Cassy. She is doing so well! I miss her a ton and it was so nice to hear her voice. She and I lived together for three years! crazy! Anyway, I got to Stanford and found my friend Sarah’s apartment. She had left a key for under the mat. I was able to shower and get ready in time for Professor Davis to come get me for dinner. She picked me up and had with her two students she is currently advising. We went to a great Thai place. It was a very nice start to my visit :) After dinner Amy, one of the students, went with me to a lecture in a series called troubled waters which was put on by the department I would be in and I got a chance to hear three different professors talk. It was great! However, I didn’t stay the whole time but ducked out after the first few questions in the Q&A time mainly because I was about to fall asleep right there in the chair. I walked back to Sarah’s and called my Mom. She had been asleep so we didn’t talk long, but I did want to let her know I was there safe and had a nice time the first night.
In the morning on Wednesday I met with Amy in a more formal manner. She showed me around the building and we talked about professors, requirements, ect. Then I was able to sit in on an indoor air quality class which was interesting. After the class and before lunch I had just enough time to check my email. To my surprise, I discovered that I had been shortlisted for the Weidenfeld Scholarship at Oxford. This was huge news, but came at a very odd time indeed. Here I am falling in love with Stanford and all of the sudden Oxford is back on the map! Now what? Well, I accepted the invitation to attend the interview weekend and then figured out how to talk to the Stanford people about it. I also called my Mom about in hysterics with glee… I pulled it together and went to the next activity on my schedule which happened to be lunch :) Another grad student took me to lunch which was really fun. He was quite nice and has very similar research interests so we had a lot to talk about. Not to mention the food we got was great.
I had most of the afternoon free and so I went to the library and worked a bit on my paper for my thesis advisor who happened to be on sabbatical at Stanford. Talk about great timing. Anyway, for dinner I met up with my friend Mike from Princeton. We actually ate at one of the undergrad dining halls. I can’t complain though. They had amazing salmon and I welcomed the buffet style service ;) Sarah joined us as well for dinner which was great. Afterwards, she helped me do some laundry and we saw some other graduate housing options. Stanford has really nice facilities. And the laundry is free. (well, I am sure it is paid for many times over in the tuition, but you don’t have to think about every time you want to wash your clothes…) That night I turned in early. The time change makes talking to people on the East Coast at night rather challenging.
Thursday, my second day at Stanford was just as enjoyable as the first. In the morning I went running with Sarah. She showed me a great run up into the foothills. Sarah was leaving that morning to fly to NJ and visit some friends, but I was able to stay in her place while she was gone which was so nice of her. After quickly showering and eating a very nice breakfast with Sarah I was off to attend a course taught by Professor Davis, I really like her style, by the way. I had lunch with another Sara, one of the students from the first evening’s dinner. We ate with a bunch of other grad students in what they called “Lunch Club”. You sign up and then everyone takes turns making lunch for everybody else. I would also like to note at this point, if I end up at Stanford I will likely become a vegetarian or something resembling one. It is kind of inevitable. It seems like many of the students here are vegetarian. We’ll see how long I can hold out against the California influence. After lunch I met the civil and environmental engineering department chair, who it turns out advised one of my favorite Princeton professors when she was in grad school! Small world! My final appointment for the day was with Professor Davis. It was great to talk to her and I am happy about getting to work with her. I think it will be a good fit my interests and personality. She was also really excited about the Oxford possibility and has contact with a professor there as well. If I get the scholarship I will be able to defer Stanford for a year, get a Master’s from Oxford and then head to Stanford. If I don’t get the scholarship I can come straight to Stanford. Not bad options. Before going back to Sarah’s place I met with my thesis advisor and we went over the paper we had submitted and the changes I had made. It was great to get to talk to her and I glad I had such a positive experience with all of that stuff last year. She also introduced me to another professor there who teaches an advanced statistics course. It was nice to make that connection through someone else, as I will probably be taking one of her courses and now I know her.
I made it back to Sarah’s apartment and only stayed long enough to grab my camera. I walked around the campus taking pictures! Stanford is so beautiful. It is really quite astonishing! While photographing I saw an advertisement for the Stanford Art Museum. It wasn’t far so I decided to wander over in that direction as I was taking pictures. Fortunately for me it was a Thursday which meant the museum was open late and I could still go in. They have an extensive collection of Rodin Sculptures which were interesting to see, and I saw a special exhibit of Winslow Homer, Fredrich Church and some other guy about American landscapes. Funny thing is though, as I am going through I realize that everything is surprisingly familiar. That would be because I saw the same traveling exhibit when it was one display at the Tampa Art Museum. What a small world it is indeed! Anyway, to finish up my account of Thursday I decided to try and take one of the Stanford buses back instead of walking. I figured I should try out the public transportation system if I was going to go there. Well, turns out I took the bus in the wrong direction and ended up at the Palo Alto transit center. There I had to wait 40 minutes for the next bus going back. Needless to say it took about an hour and fifteen minutes for me to get back when if I had walked it would have been 20/25 at the most. You live, you learn. Besides I got to call and talk to my friend Lillie while I was waiting so all was not lost.
That night I turned in early, knowing I would be getting up early to run before Sara, the super nice grad student, was going to drive me to the airport. Originally, I was planning on taking the train which would have been fine, but it is only a 45 minute drive and Sara insisted that someone drive me. It was such a nice thing for her to do and I really appreciated it. Not having to haul my bags around and getting there in plenty of time to just relax was great. The run I went on Friday morning was also great. I ran a loop around the campus which was about 4 miles. I was toast afterwards. Traveling was really taking a toll on me.
My flight to Chicago, was in a word, unpleasant. There was a family with two little kids behind me and they were super hyped up. The kids were feeding off of each other’s antics and why the parents didn’t split up and divide and conquer is beyond me. And the two other people in my row were super sourpusses. I was very happy when that plane touched down. I was even happier though when I found my parents at the airport! I got to hug my Mom, Dad, Jordan and Ryan. Mom, Dad, and Ryan were coming to North Carolina with me, but Jordan had some other obligations. However, it was great he was able to come and spend some time at dinner with us. That meant a lot to me. At dinner, I unloaded all my Africa souvenirs and had fun sharing stories as fast I could get them out! Jordan headed home and the rest of us boarded our plane.
In the morning on Wednesday I met with Amy in a more formal manner. She showed me around the building and we talked about professors, requirements, ect. Then I was able to sit in on an indoor air quality class which was interesting. After the class and before lunch I had just enough time to check my email. To my surprise, I discovered that I had been shortlisted for the Weidenfeld Scholarship at Oxford. This was huge news, but came at a very odd time indeed. Here I am falling in love with Stanford and all of the sudden Oxford is back on the map! Now what? Well, I accepted the invitation to attend the interview weekend and then figured out how to talk to the Stanford people about it. I also called my Mom about in hysterics with glee… I pulled it together and went to the next activity on my schedule which happened to be lunch :) Another grad student took me to lunch which was really fun. He was quite nice and has very similar research interests so we had a lot to talk about. Not to mention the food we got was great.
I had most of the afternoon free and so I went to the library and worked a bit on my paper for my thesis advisor who happened to be on sabbatical at Stanford. Talk about great timing. Anyway, for dinner I met up with my friend Mike from Princeton. We actually ate at one of the undergrad dining halls. I can’t complain though. They had amazing salmon and I welcomed the buffet style service ;) Sarah joined us as well for dinner which was great. Afterwards, she helped me do some laundry and we saw some other graduate housing options. Stanford has really nice facilities. And the laundry is free. (well, I am sure it is paid for many times over in the tuition, but you don’t have to think about every time you want to wash your clothes…) That night I turned in early. The time change makes talking to people on the East Coast at night rather challenging.
Thursday, my second day at Stanford was just as enjoyable as the first. In the morning I went running with Sarah. She showed me a great run up into the foothills. Sarah was leaving that morning to fly to NJ and visit some friends, but I was able to stay in her place while she was gone which was so nice of her. After quickly showering and eating a very nice breakfast with Sarah I was off to attend a course taught by Professor Davis, I really like her style, by the way. I had lunch with another Sara, one of the students from the first evening’s dinner. We ate with a bunch of other grad students in what they called “Lunch Club”. You sign up and then everyone takes turns making lunch for everybody else. I would also like to note at this point, if I end up at Stanford I will likely become a vegetarian or something resembling one. It is kind of inevitable. It seems like many of the students here are vegetarian. We’ll see how long I can hold out against the California influence. After lunch I met the civil and environmental engineering department chair, who it turns out advised one of my favorite Princeton professors when she was in grad school! Small world! My final appointment for the day was with Professor Davis. It was great to talk to her and I am happy about getting to work with her. I think it will be a good fit my interests and personality. She was also really excited about the Oxford possibility and has contact with a professor there as well. If I get the scholarship I will be able to defer Stanford for a year, get a Master’s from Oxford and then head to Stanford. If I don’t get the scholarship I can come straight to Stanford. Not bad options. Before going back to Sarah’s place I met with my thesis advisor and we went over the paper we had submitted and the changes I had made. It was great to get to talk to her and I glad I had such a positive experience with all of that stuff last year. She also introduced me to another professor there who teaches an advanced statistics course. It was nice to make that connection through someone else, as I will probably be taking one of her courses and now I know her.
I made it back to Sarah’s apartment and only stayed long enough to grab my camera. I walked around the campus taking pictures! Stanford is so beautiful. It is really quite astonishing! While photographing I saw an advertisement for the Stanford Art Museum. It wasn’t far so I decided to wander over in that direction as I was taking pictures. Fortunately for me it was a Thursday which meant the museum was open late and I could still go in. They have an extensive collection of Rodin Sculptures which were interesting to see, and I saw a special exhibit of Winslow Homer, Fredrich Church and some other guy about American landscapes. Funny thing is though, as I am going through I realize that everything is surprisingly familiar. That would be because I saw the same traveling exhibit when it was one display at the Tampa Art Museum. What a small world it is indeed! Anyway, to finish up my account of Thursday I decided to try and take one of the Stanford buses back instead of walking. I figured I should try out the public transportation system if I was going to go there. Well, turns out I took the bus in the wrong direction and ended up at the Palo Alto transit center. There I had to wait 40 minutes for the next bus going back. Needless to say it took about an hour and fifteen minutes for me to get back when if I had walked it would have been 20/25 at the most. You live, you learn. Besides I got to call and talk to my friend Lillie while I was waiting so all was not lost.
That night I turned in early, knowing I would be getting up early to run before Sara, the super nice grad student, was going to drive me to the airport. Originally, I was planning on taking the train which would have been fine, but it is only a 45 minute drive and Sara insisted that someone drive me. It was such a nice thing for her to do and I really appreciated it. Not having to haul my bags around and getting there in plenty of time to just relax was great. The run I went on Friday morning was also great. I ran a loop around the campus which was about 4 miles. I was toast afterwards. Traveling was really taking a toll on me.
My flight to Chicago, was in a word, unpleasant. There was a family with two little kids behind me and they were super hyped up. The kids were feeding off of each other’s antics and why the parents didn’t split up and divide and conquer is beyond me. And the two other people in my row were super sourpusses. I was very happy when that plane touched down. I was even happier though when I found my parents at the airport! I got to hug my Mom, Dad, Jordan and Ryan. Mom, Dad, and Ryan were coming to North Carolina with me, but Jordan had some other obligations. However, it was great he was able to come and spend some time at dinner with us. That meant a lot to me. At dinner, I unloaded all my Africa souvenirs and had fun sharing stories as fast I could get them out! Jordan headed home and the rest of us boarded our plane.
Cell phone, MIT, and the freedom trail… tales from my MIT visit
Even though I would like to dive right in with a retelling of my adventure tales from Paris I would be remise not to go back and fill in the details of all that happened during my US trip. So let me start there… When I finally arrived at Logan International Airport in Boston I got my bags and made my way through customs as quickly as possible. I found the taxi stand area, but ducked into the bathroom for a moment to change my outfit into something more fresh and appropriate for the MIT reception I was heading to. I had the name of the building and directions on how to get there. I figured no problem, any cab should know what I am talking about. Well, that was a wrong assumption and I paid dearly for it. After getting a cab who would accept a credit card, which wasn’t too hard, I watched as the fare meter ticked higher and higher. I had planned on spending like $20-25 on cab fare to get to MIT, however, this ride cost me a whopping $33. Ouch. And to add insult to injury the cab driver didn’t know where he was going and kept asking where to go and I couldn’t answer him but simply repeat the directions I had already given him. So I finally had him drop me off at one of the nearby MIT dorms and went inside to ask. I ended up walking about 300m in the misting rain to actually arrive at my destination. Needless to say it was not most pleasant welcoming I home I have ever had. Oh, and to make you aware of the full extent of this cab drivers rudeness wait until you hear this. I gave him my credit card to pay. I was a bit frazzled at this point and forgot to write in a tip. No problem, though, I thought, I have two dollars in my wallet and I will tip him in cash. Well, the driver gets the receipt and flippantly says, “Thanks a lot, you know this will cost me 8% to cash.” “Excuse me” I reply. Is there a problem? “Oh, no, no problem…” he retorts. I tell him if the tip is the problem I was planning on tipping him in cash, if that would be okay with him. He seemed a bit ashamed and I continued to tell him, thankfully I had such clarity of mind, that he has made this trip extremely unpleasant for me. With that I got out of the cab, thankful to be done with that mess. You know in Burkina Faso I stop a taxi ask him how much the fare will be to such and such a place, he tells me and if it is a reasonable price I get in and that is how much I pay. And they generally don’t get lost. Even though I am sometimes squished in with 3 other people in the back seat I was never as uncomfortable as I was in the US taxi. Thanks buddy. Oh and cab fare in Burkina, on average, about $0.60, cab fare in the states lets not even go there…
Well, besides my storybook cab driver horror story, I did make it to the MIT reception in time to catch the end of the socializing and attend the dinner. I should have been a bit more intimidated, but I had just gotten off of a plane. It was freezing cold and wet outside and all I had to wear on my feet were flip flops. I was so happy to walk into the right building and see the crowd of people that I didn’t care about what entrance I would make. I asked the man at the desk to guard my bags, which he happily did, and then moseyed on over the large room bustling with a crowd of young and old people. The young people being the prospective students and the old people being the professors, sorry profs, no offense. I found a woman you looked kind of secretary-ish and introduced myself, bingo! She immediately remembered my name and warmly welcomed me. I got a name tag and she went to introduce me to several people. But as we were standing there, I looked over and who do I see but a familiar face from Princeton. A friend in the 2007 CEE program whom I knew from countless courses, ect was at the open house to check out MIT as well. What a joy to see someone I knew! You could not wipe the smile off my face. I met with other professors and was introduced to the students who were hosting me. Both girls were very kind and friendly, they didn’t fit the typical MIT student mold I had formed in my head which was refreshing. They had also just both been to Africa so we had great stories to share and they could totally relate to what I was saying! As the reception wound down, I got a chance to talk with Susan Murcott, the woman at MIT who works on the Point of Use water treatments. She and I clicked right away. She was lovely. We talked quite a bit and as we were leaving she proposed I come quickly to her office, a detour enroute to dinner, and she would show me some things from the presentation she gave earlier in the day. It was incredibly nice of her. I felt like the exchange of information and interests that followed was happening at light speed. There was so much I wanted to tell her about the work I have been doing and so much she wanted to tell me about the program. We ended sitting next to each other at dinner which was great. It was a wonderful chance to fill in the blanks left by our harried conversation from before.
For dinner we went to a Chinese restaurant, yum. I should mention I borrowed a girls phone to call my Mom to let her know I was safely in the US and she was so happy. She pretty much wouldn’t stop giggling and saying oh yeah. Finally she calmed down and I assured her I would call again to talk tomorrow once I figured out the phone business. After dinner I walked back to my host’s room with another girl who was staying there. Logic told me to go to bed, but I was too hyped up and so instead I went online and checked out stuff for paris, things to do in Boston and prices for phone plans. The pay as go stuff was going to cost me an arm and a leg and I really wanted to be able to catch up with my friends while I was here so I started seriously considering instead a one month plan which comes with the benefits of nights and weekends, ect. When I did finally turn in I slept quite soundly. I just didn’t think about the time zone changes or what I would normally been doing at any given point in time and that seemed to work pretty well.
Saturday morning I got up and met another prospective student for breakfast. She and I by happenstance stumbled upon a fantastic breakfast place. I can’t remember the name, but it was on a side street off of Massachusetts Ave across from a Middle Eastern place. I had an amazing meal of chocolate chip pancakes! They were even better than the ones I used to get at Frist, so that is saying something… We talked about grad schools and it was really nice to hear her perspective on things as well. She was pretty sure she was going to go to MIT, but thought I would really like Stanford. Interesting. After lunch, I went to investigate the phone situation. After consulting a Radioshack about the pay as go plans I ventured over to a T-mobile dealer. He also recommended their pay as you go plan because I would only be here for two weeks, but then I explained how much I wanted to use my phone and he finally came around to the idea of a month-by-month plan. Those are usually for people with bad credit, but whatever, it was suiting my needs. I would get 300 anytime minutes, unlimited nights and weekends, and unlimited calling to 5 people I chose. The package would put me back $40, but the guy wanted $20 for the SIM card. I was like, what!? So I start talking to him about how my family has T-mobile and if there are any customer loyalty plans, ect. And it finally comes up that he might be able to sell me the SIM card for $10. Now that is more like it. I tell him nonchalantly, trying to hide me extreme feeling of satisfaction, that I will take it. Unfortunately he asks his coworker if he thinks the $10 thing would be okay. The kid says that the store buys them for $10 and so maybe I could pay $15. To this I replied, well, since we already discussed and I agreed to $10, I would rather pay $10. The guy working with me obviously didn’t want to get in trouble with his boss, so even though I point out that although they wouldn’t be making a profit on the card, they would be getting my contract signed in the store and that should be something, he wasn’t going to budge. Honestly, I think he would have let me walk out without buying anything which would have been terrible salesmanship, but just my luck, at that moment, the manager walks in and saves the day. He okays the $10 SIM card sale and I am soon, after signing several papers and swiping my long dormant credit card through the machine, the proud owner of a T-mobile plan that will allow me all the joys of cell phone usage for the next 10 days. I guess all that bargaining I am doing in Africa has really paid off already!
As I left the store, I immediately called my house and talked with my Mom and brother. It was so great to hear their voices over a clear connection. Unfortunately, my battery was not holding up under the cold weather so after regaling them with story of cell phone victory, I said goodbye and promised to call later when I recharged my battery. Upon ending the call, to my delight, I spotted a Goodwill store across the street. In need of some warm clothes and starved for real thrift store shopping I gleefully entered the mecca of used goods. This place had two major things going for it; one, they take credit cards, and two, they have a ton of brand name clothes that appear nearly untouched. I spent about an hour combing through the racks endlessly impressed and in awe of the bounty which exists in this country. I had a similar moment of awe earlier, as well, as I walked through Walgreen’s and was met by an impressive display of every color flip flop imaginable and a cosmetics selection which spanned the length of the store. The thought of, “Is this all really necessary?” crossed my mind, but was fleetingly beat out by my happy acceptance to be back in the land of plenty. Enjoy life where you are at. If that is Burkina and you have nothing, or America where you have too much at times, make the best of it and stop being all philosophical about it. I took my own advice and happily soaked in as much as I could of the society I had been absent from for six months. Anyway, my goodwill shopping trip was a huge success. I acquired a cashmere sweater, black pants, a long sleeve gap shirt, a running top, khaki adventure style capris, and two very classy dress shirts all for the low price of thirty-nine dollars. What a deal!
High off my latest purchases and not ready to call it a day I struck out in search of the other thrift store whose address I looked up online. It was a place called the Garment District. The clothes were a bit pricier, but the selection was much better and whole experience much more upscale. Unlike the goodwill store, there were no singing homeless men wandering the aisles. Not that that bothered me, in fact, it made me feel kind of at home as such odd behavior is rather common place in Burkina Faso… After taking my time and trying on countless jeans, skirts, tops and shoes I settled on buying a pair of jeans, two skirts, two tops and two pairs of shoes, one pair of black prada dress shoes, oh yes I went there, and one pair of white strappy designer sandals. With my plunder in hand I headed back for the dorm where I was staying. As I walked along the river I was happily imagining myself living in Boston, sailing on the Charles, promenading through Boston Commons. The dorm was a good 25 minute walk back. But thankfully the sun had come out and made it a pleasant stroll. I got back to the dorm and called my friend Robbie to set up dinner. I had contacted him the night before, but we hadn’t firmed up any particular plans. I wanted to go running so we settled that I would run, shower, and then call him when I was on my way up to Harvard Square. I ended up running with one of the girls who was hosting me. She was really nice and it was great to get to ask her all sorts of questions… we also kept a similar pace which made running nice. We ran up and down the Charles River. It was very picturesque.
We finished up running I showered and put on some of the spoils from my earlier shopping trip. I wore my new black pants, blue cashmere sweater and prada dress shoes. My friend is at Harvard law and I wanted to play the part appropriately. I think I did okay :) We ended up a tavern called John Harvards. I had requested either something authentically American, or deliciously Mexican. American it was and I got a fantastic hamburger with a side of excellent soup instead of fries, as is my normal preference. Following dinner we headed over the local Mexican place for some margaritas. It was a nice idea, but I forgot to bring my ID, (why would I need that silly old thing… oh right there is a drinking age in the states. doah!) and I was carded, denied a drink, the first time in my adult life actually. I guess there is a first for everything and so we changed plans and found a swinging tea joint and ordered tea infused hot chocolate. Sounds gross, but let me tell you it will knock your socks off. At about 10pm I decided the best way to get back given the hour and my lack of familiarity with Cambridge streets, was to take a taxi. Ten minutes and eleven dollars later I was back at the dorm. Since it was the weekend I picked up my phone and called my friend Annie, Katha and then my Mom. It was great to hear their voices and reconnect :) I went to bed about 1:30am planning to get up at 8:00 to meet my friend Sandy for church and brunch in the morning on Sunday.
The 8:00am plan was ambitious, probably too ambitious as I look back upon it in hindsight. I hit snooze one too many times and ended up having to call my friend and we arranged to go to the later service at the church. Instead of going to the early service and getting brunch afterwards, we would eat before church and then part ways after the service. I made my way over to Newberry Street where she lived and we found a very nice Italian place that served up some very impressive waffles. Expensive yes, delicious, you bet! However, more important than the food was the excellent conversation. It was so great getting to see Sandy and talk to her about Africa, she had worked in Botswana for the summer and we were able to discuss some very critical issues that are important to both of us. She seems to be doing really well and enjoying life which is such an encouragement to see. After the morning meal, we went to Trinity Church. It was a lovely service and just nice to be back in an English speaking church.
Following the service Sandy went back to get some work done for classes and I wandered over to Boston Commons. It so much reminded me of Hyde Park in London, always a welcomed recollection, indeed. I made it to the information center just in time to pay my $10 and join the tour of the freedom trail. The tour guide was great, but the group was so big it was slow in going. AND it was freezing outside! We didn’t walk all that far, but ended at Quincy Market. I went inside to warm up before I voyaged back to the dorm. I took the T, the Boston subway, to get back since the thought of walking for an hour in the biting wind honestly made me a bit queasy. Back at the dorm I got online and wasted away my time as usual doing who knows what… For dinner Kelly, one of my hosts, was making omelets and offered to make me one too :) They were really good! We had a nice talk about MIT which was really helpful for me in gathering more information. I again talked to people on the phone until the wee hours of the night and hit the hay exhausted.
Monday morning I got up and went running with Robbie. We ran along the Charles River and around the MIT campus because even though it is less than a mile from Harvard he had never seen it! After the run I grabbed an amazing Boston bagel from a shop in Harvard Square and took the bus back to MIT. I quickly showered and headed over the office buildings to meet with Professor Adams. He was very amiable and answered all my questions. We also grabbed lunch in the student center which was nice because the run made me quite hungry and the bagel wasn’t holding me over for long…
After talking with Professor Adams I was able to see a couple of PhD students, one of whom recommended I stop over and talk with the director of the technology and policy program since my interests have a wide range reaching all the way to policy. She was wonderful and we were able to work out the program of my doing a double major master’s degree and possibly working towards a PhD. However, I hadn’t applied to that program and there would have to be a lot of maneuvering in the next few days for it to be a possibility. Because I really liked the idea of being in Boston and just the East Coast in general where most of my friends are, I wrote the necessary emails to get the ball rolling. Things were looking promising, but it just felt like the whole time I would be fighting the system. And as technical as MIT is, they seem surprisingly unorganized! You tell me…?
My official visit day finished up with my using the computer in one of the Sloan Business School buildings to reserve a shuttle to Stanford the next day, confirm subway, train, and bus times to get to the Providence airport and finalize plans for where I was going to sleep that night. After spending 3 nights with the MIT girls, I felt like it was time to go. So I contacted two of my crew teammates and was able to stay at Devan’s apartment. The only hassle was porting my bags about a mile plus from the dorm to her apartment. My bags were not packed well and were getting pretty heavy. However, the pain was worth it. I had so much fun and Margaret, the other teammate, came over for dinner and cookie baking as well. It turns out Princeton was racing Radcliff the next weekend and it is customary for former teammates to indulge the current team members with all sorts of treats for after the race. Devan made an awesome roast, with veggies and an outstanding beet salad. It was really quite gourmet, and she makes it all look so easy! She had a super cool fold out chair that I slept in and I said goodbye that night before we turned in for the night because I was leaving at 5:15 in the morning to start making my way to Providence.
My alarm went off and the only thing getting me out of bed was horror that coursed through my veins at the thought of missing my flight to San Francisco. So I walked the 7 minutes from Devan’s apartment to the T station, and caught a subway train to South Central Station. There I bought my ticket to Providence and got on the train in time to relax a little before we pulled out of the station. 45 minutes later the train pulled into providence and loading up my bags in the least awkward way possible walked across the commons to find the bus station. I got there in time to take the 7:15 bus that stopped at T.F. Green airport. The fare was only $1.50 and I was pleased as punch that all the transfers went as well as they did. I got the airport, checked in and went through security. I was at the gate my 8:15am, approximately 3 hours after I left Devan’s place and over two hours before my flight was going to leave. The reason why getting to the airport was such a challenge was that the first direct bus from Boston left at 8:30 getting me to the airport at 9:30 which was cutting it too close for my liking for a 10:25 flight. Regardless, everything worked out and I was able to get online, after paying an exorbitant fee, and reserve my Paris hostel, get Sarah Moore’s contact information for Stanford and email my parents to let them know I was okay… The flight was fine. I slept most of the way to Chicago fading in and out of consciousness. The layover in Chicago was a bit trippy. To be there and not be going home felt odd. I did, however, get lunch at PotBelly’s subs which made my day. The flight to San Francisco was great. I had a row to myself so I stretched out and slept slept for 4 hours. Exactly what I needed to make sure I made a good impression at Stanford when I finally got there.
Well, besides my storybook cab driver horror story, I did make it to the MIT reception in time to catch the end of the socializing and attend the dinner. I should have been a bit more intimidated, but I had just gotten off of a plane. It was freezing cold and wet outside and all I had to wear on my feet were flip flops. I was so happy to walk into the right building and see the crowd of people that I didn’t care about what entrance I would make. I asked the man at the desk to guard my bags, which he happily did, and then moseyed on over the large room bustling with a crowd of young and old people. The young people being the prospective students and the old people being the professors, sorry profs, no offense. I found a woman you looked kind of secretary-ish and introduced myself, bingo! She immediately remembered my name and warmly welcomed me. I got a name tag and she went to introduce me to several people. But as we were standing there, I looked over and who do I see but a familiar face from Princeton. A friend in the 2007 CEE program whom I knew from countless courses, ect was at the open house to check out MIT as well. What a joy to see someone I knew! You could not wipe the smile off my face. I met with other professors and was introduced to the students who were hosting me. Both girls were very kind and friendly, they didn’t fit the typical MIT student mold I had formed in my head which was refreshing. They had also just both been to Africa so we had great stories to share and they could totally relate to what I was saying! As the reception wound down, I got a chance to talk with Susan Murcott, the woman at MIT who works on the Point of Use water treatments. She and I clicked right away. She was lovely. We talked quite a bit and as we were leaving she proposed I come quickly to her office, a detour enroute to dinner, and she would show me some things from the presentation she gave earlier in the day. It was incredibly nice of her. I felt like the exchange of information and interests that followed was happening at light speed. There was so much I wanted to tell her about the work I have been doing and so much she wanted to tell me about the program. We ended sitting next to each other at dinner which was great. It was a wonderful chance to fill in the blanks left by our harried conversation from before.
For dinner we went to a Chinese restaurant, yum. I should mention I borrowed a girls phone to call my Mom to let her know I was safely in the US and she was so happy. She pretty much wouldn’t stop giggling and saying oh yeah. Finally she calmed down and I assured her I would call again to talk tomorrow once I figured out the phone business. After dinner I walked back to my host’s room with another girl who was staying there. Logic told me to go to bed, but I was too hyped up and so instead I went online and checked out stuff for paris, things to do in Boston and prices for phone plans. The pay as go stuff was going to cost me an arm and a leg and I really wanted to be able to catch up with my friends while I was here so I started seriously considering instead a one month plan which comes with the benefits of nights and weekends, ect. When I did finally turn in I slept quite soundly. I just didn’t think about the time zone changes or what I would normally been doing at any given point in time and that seemed to work pretty well.
Saturday morning I got up and met another prospective student for breakfast. She and I by happenstance stumbled upon a fantastic breakfast place. I can’t remember the name, but it was on a side street off of Massachusetts Ave across from a Middle Eastern place. I had an amazing meal of chocolate chip pancakes! They were even better than the ones I used to get at Frist, so that is saying something… We talked about grad schools and it was really nice to hear her perspective on things as well. She was pretty sure she was going to go to MIT, but thought I would really like Stanford. Interesting. After lunch, I went to investigate the phone situation. After consulting a Radioshack about the pay as go plans I ventured over to a T-mobile dealer. He also recommended their pay as you go plan because I would only be here for two weeks, but then I explained how much I wanted to use my phone and he finally came around to the idea of a month-by-month plan. Those are usually for people with bad credit, but whatever, it was suiting my needs. I would get 300 anytime minutes, unlimited nights and weekends, and unlimited calling to 5 people I chose. The package would put me back $40, but the guy wanted $20 for the SIM card. I was like, what!? So I start talking to him about how my family has T-mobile and if there are any customer loyalty plans, ect. And it finally comes up that he might be able to sell me the SIM card for $10. Now that is more like it. I tell him nonchalantly, trying to hide me extreme feeling of satisfaction, that I will take it. Unfortunately he asks his coworker if he thinks the $10 thing would be okay. The kid says that the store buys them for $10 and so maybe I could pay $15. To this I replied, well, since we already discussed and I agreed to $10, I would rather pay $10. The guy working with me obviously didn’t want to get in trouble with his boss, so even though I point out that although they wouldn’t be making a profit on the card, they would be getting my contract signed in the store and that should be something, he wasn’t going to budge. Honestly, I think he would have let me walk out without buying anything which would have been terrible salesmanship, but just my luck, at that moment, the manager walks in and saves the day. He okays the $10 SIM card sale and I am soon, after signing several papers and swiping my long dormant credit card through the machine, the proud owner of a T-mobile plan that will allow me all the joys of cell phone usage for the next 10 days. I guess all that bargaining I am doing in Africa has really paid off already!
As I left the store, I immediately called my house and talked with my Mom and brother. It was so great to hear their voices over a clear connection. Unfortunately, my battery was not holding up under the cold weather so after regaling them with story of cell phone victory, I said goodbye and promised to call later when I recharged my battery. Upon ending the call, to my delight, I spotted a Goodwill store across the street. In need of some warm clothes and starved for real thrift store shopping I gleefully entered the mecca of used goods. This place had two major things going for it; one, they take credit cards, and two, they have a ton of brand name clothes that appear nearly untouched. I spent about an hour combing through the racks endlessly impressed and in awe of the bounty which exists in this country. I had a similar moment of awe earlier, as well, as I walked through Walgreen’s and was met by an impressive display of every color flip flop imaginable and a cosmetics selection which spanned the length of the store. The thought of, “Is this all really necessary?” crossed my mind, but was fleetingly beat out by my happy acceptance to be back in the land of plenty. Enjoy life where you are at. If that is Burkina and you have nothing, or America where you have too much at times, make the best of it and stop being all philosophical about it. I took my own advice and happily soaked in as much as I could of the society I had been absent from for six months. Anyway, my goodwill shopping trip was a huge success. I acquired a cashmere sweater, black pants, a long sleeve gap shirt, a running top, khaki adventure style capris, and two very classy dress shirts all for the low price of thirty-nine dollars. What a deal!
High off my latest purchases and not ready to call it a day I struck out in search of the other thrift store whose address I looked up online. It was a place called the Garment District. The clothes were a bit pricier, but the selection was much better and whole experience much more upscale. Unlike the goodwill store, there were no singing homeless men wandering the aisles. Not that that bothered me, in fact, it made me feel kind of at home as such odd behavior is rather common place in Burkina Faso… After taking my time and trying on countless jeans, skirts, tops and shoes I settled on buying a pair of jeans, two skirts, two tops and two pairs of shoes, one pair of black prada dress shoes, oh yes I went there, and one pair of white strappy designer sandals. With my plunder in hand I headed back for the dorm where I was staying. As I walked along the river I was happily imagining myself living in Boston, sailing on the Charles, promenading through Boston Commons. The dorm was a good 25 minute walk back. But thankfully the sun had come out and made it a pleasant stroll. I got back to the dorm and called my friend Robbie to set up dinner. I had contacted him the night before, but we hadn’t firmed up any particular plans. I wanted to go running so we settled that I would run, shower, and then call him when I was on my way up to Harvard Square. I ended up running with one of the girls who was hosting me. She was really nice and it was great to get to ask her all sorts of questions… we also kept a similar pace which made running nice. We ran up and down the Charles River. It was very picturesque.
We finished up running I showered and put on some of the spoils from my earlier shopping trip. I wore my new black pants, blue cashmere sweater and prada dress shoes. My friend is at Harvard law and I wanted to play the part appropriately. I think I did okay :) We ended up a tavern called John Harvards. I had requested either something authentically American, or deliciously Mexican. American it was and I got a fantastic hamburger with a side of excellent soup instead of fries, as is my normal preference. Following dinner we headed over the local Mexican place for some margaritas. It was a nice idea, but I forgot to bring my ID, (why would I need that silly old thing… oh right there is a drinking age in the states. doah!) and I was carded, denied a drink, the first time in my adult life actually. I guess there is a first for everything and so we changed plans and found a swinging tea joint and ordered tea infused hot chocolate. Sounds gross, but let me tell you it will knock your socks off. At about 10pm I decided the best way to get back given the hour and my lack of familiarity with Cambridge streets, was to take a taxi. Ten minutes and eleven dollars later I was back at the dorm. Since it was the weekend I picked up my phone and called my friend Annie, Katha and then my Mom. It was great to hear their voices and reconnect :) I went to bed about 1:30am planning to get up at 8:00 to meet my friend Sandy for church and brunch in the morning on Sunday.
The 8:00am plan was ambitious, probably too ambitious as I look back upon it in hindsight. I hit snooze one too many times and ended up having to call my friend and we arranged to go to the later service at the church. Instead of going to the early service and getting brunch afterwards, we would eat before church and then part ways after the service. I made my way over to Newberry Street where she lived and we found a very nice Italian place that served up some very impressive waffles. Expensive yes, delicious, you bet! However, more important than the food was the excellent conversation. It was so great getting to see Sandy and talk to her about Africa, she had worked in Botswana for the summer and we were able to discuss some very critical issues that are important to both of us. She seems to be doing really well and enjoying life which is such an encouragement to see. After the morning meal, we went to Trinity Church. It was a lovely service and just nice to be back in an English speaking church.
Following the service Sandy went back to get some work done for classes and I wandered over to Boston Commons. It so much reminded me of Hyde Park in London, always a welcomed recollection, indeed. I made it to the information center just in time to pay my $10 and join the tour of the freedom trail. The tour guide was great, but the group was so big it was slow in going. AND it was freezing outside! We didn’t walk all that far, but ended at Quincy Market. I went inside to warm up before I voyaged back to the dorm. I took the T, the Boston subway, to get back since the thought of walking for an hour in the biting wind honestly made me a bit queasy. Back at the dorm I got online and wasted away my time as usual doing who knows what… For dinner Kelly, one of my hosts, was making omelets and offered to make me one too :) They were really good! We had a nice talk about MIT which was really helpful for me in gathering more information. I again talked to people on the phone until the wee hours of the night and hit the hay exhausted.
Monday morning I got up and went running with Robbie. We ran along the Charles River and around the MIT campus because even though it is less than a mile from Harvard he had never seen it! After the run I grabbed an amazing Boston bagel from a shop in Harvard Square and took the bus back to MIT. I quickly showered and headed over the office buildings to meet with Professor Adams. He was very amiable and answered all my questions. We also grabbed lunch in the student center which was nice because the run made me quite hungry and the bagel wasn’t holding me over for long…
After talking with Professor Adams I was able to see a couple of PhD students, one of whom recommended I stop over and talk with the director of the technology and policy program since my interests have a wide range reaching all the way to policy. She was wonderful and we were able to work out the program of my doing a double major master’s degree and possibly working towards a PhD. However, I hadn’t applied to that program and there would have to be a lot of maneuvering in the next few days for it to be a possibility. Because I really liked the idea of being in Boston and just the East Coast in general where most of my friends are, I wrote the necessary emails to get the ball rolling. Things were looking promising, but it just felt like the whole time I would be fighting the system. And as technical as MIT is, they seem surprisingly unorganized! You tell me…?
My official visit day finished up with my using the computer in one of the Sloan Business School buildings to reserve a shuttle to Stanford the next day, confirm subway, train, and bus times to get to the Providence airport and finalize plans for where I was going to sleep that night. After spending 3 nights with the MIT girls, I felt like it was time to go. So I contacted two of my crew teammates and was able to stay at Devan’s apartment. The only hassle was porting my bags about a mile plus from the dorm to her apartment. My bags were not packed well and were getting pretty heavy. However, the pain was worth it. I had so much fun and Margaret, the other teammate, came over for dinner and cookie baking as well. It turns out Princeton was racing Radcliff the next weekend and it is customary for former teammates to indulge the current team members with all sorts of treats for after the race. Devan made an awesome roast, with veggies and an outstanding beet salad. It was really quite gourmet, and she makes it all look so easy! She had a super cool fold out chair that I slept in and I said goodbye that night before we turned in for the night because I was leaving at 5:15 in the morning to start making my way to Providence.
My alarm went off and the only thing getting me out of bed was horror that coursed through my veins at the thought of missing my flight to San Francisco. So I walked the 7 minutes from Devan’s apartment to the T station, and caught a subway train to South Central Station. There I bought my ticket to Providence and got on the train in time to relax a little before we pulled out of the station. 45 minutes later the train pulled into providence and loading up my bags in the least awkward way possible walked across the commons to find the bus station. I got there in time to take the 7:15 bus that stopped at T.F. Green airport. The fare was only $1.50 and I was pleased as punch that all the transfers went as well as they did. I got the airport, checked in and went through security. I was at the gate my 8:15am, approximately 3 hours after I left Devan’s place and over two hours before my flight was going to leave. The reason why getting to the airport was such a challenge was that the first direct bus from Boston left at 8:30 getting me to the airport at 9:30 which was cutting it too close for my liking for a 10:25 flight. Regardless, everything worked out and I was able to get online, after paying an exorbitant fee, and reserve my Paris hostel, get Sarah Moore’s contact information for Stanford and email my parents to let them know I was okay… The flight was fine. I slept most of the way to Chicago fading in and out of consciousness. The layover in Chicago was a bit trippy. To be there and not be going home felt odd. I did, however, get lunch at PotBelly’s subs which made my day. The flight to San Francisco was great. I had a row to myself so I stretched out and slept slept for 4 hours. Exactly what I needed to make sure I made a good impression at Stanford when I finally got there.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Boston, Cali and North Carolina... Love the USA!
In case you couldn't tell, the first group of photos is from the Boston MIT visit. Then we move to Stanford and finally onto Duke :)
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
USA Readers Digest installment numero uno...
I would like to start off this post with a very enthusiastic proclamation of my love for the United States of America. I am sure this warm fuzzy feeling for the homeland will eventually wear off, but at the moment I am relishing it. It is good to be back, even if only for a few days.
So two quick observations about traveling:
1. I really don’t like having to remove my laptop to go through security. I’m not going to lie… usually my carry-on is precariously packed and frankly after taking out my computer sometimes I fear it’s not going to fit back in :)
2. At the Paris airport and the San Francisco airport they have this thing called visual paging now. So instead of announcing flights and other information over the airwaves you have to look at the TV monitors all over the place. This seems like a great idea except if you didn’t realize that the system was new and since you were waiting to hear your flight announced you almost missed it because you didn’t look at the right screen!
So in response to various conversations I have had with people I am going to give a Readers Digest version of my week for those of you avid readers with limited time and then a more detailed accounting of my every move just for the sake of posterity… who knows.
Boston to San Francisco
My flight landed on Friday and I headed to the MIT open house for prospective students. Friday night I stayed with Tamar and Kelly two grad students currently in the program.
On Saturday I grabbed brunch with an perspective student named Lisa and then had an awesome afternoon shopping. I got a SIM card for my phone (a great story in itself) and then basically a new wardrobe by scouring two really great thrift stores in Cambridge. Saturday afternoon I went for a run with Tamar along the Charles and then met up with Robbie and had dinner at John Harvards Pub followed by some great tea infused hot chocolate. We originally had planned on Margaritas but Sara, not remembering that there is actually a drinking age in the US, didn’t bring her ID…so hence the hot chocolate. I think I liked it better anyway ;)
Sunday I met up with friend Sandy for breakfast and then a lovely service at Trinity Church in Boston. After church I walked through Boston commons and decided to pay for the guided tour of the freedom trail. A well spent $10 is you ask me :) BUT man was it cold! I froze… Sunday night I chilled out back at Tamar and Kelly’s place. Kelly made great omelets for dinner.
Monday morning I got up early and went running with Robbie. I ran up to Harvard and then we ran down to MIT along the Charles, again a very nice run. Almost too long though, by the end I was so done. After running and grabbing an excellent bagel for breakfast I headed back to MIT and went to meet with some professors. The meetings lasted like all afternoon and by the time I was done I was exhausted. However, I made plans to stay at a friends place on Monday night so it would be easier to get on the subway in the morning. I had dinner and baked cookies with Margaret and Devan, two of my crew teammates. Devan cooked and it was amazing. I stayed at her house that night :)
Tuesday morning started super early. I got on the subway to get to the train station to get to Providence to take a bus to the airport. Surprisingly the trip went off without a hitch. It took three hours, but I left in enough time that I wasn’t stressed out. The cross country flight was great. I was able to sleep the whole time. I slept really well from Chicago to San Francisco when I was able to lay out across three seats and really crash. In SF, I took a shuttle to Sarah Moore’s apartment, showered and then met Professor Davis and two graduate students for dinner at this great Thai restaurant. By this time I was still pretty awake from all the excitement of a new place, ect. So I went to a lecture on water that Stanford was sponsoring. I stayed for a little over an hour and then headed home and passed out on Sarah’s futon…
Wednesday I had a lovely breakfast with Sarah and then went to start the day of meetings and such that I was scheduled for at Stanford. It was great. I really enjoyed talking with the different professors and I sat in on a class. For lunch I got to eat with a student in the program who shares many of my same interests. We had a great lunch conversation and he has connections in Paris I may be able to tap into when I head there on the 15th. The other big deal is I found out on Wednesday I was selected to interview at Oxford for the Weidenfeld Scholarship. I could not have been happier! Talk about overflowing blessings. In an ideal world, I would get the Oxford scholarship, go there for a year then head out to Stanford. But first I have to go to Oxford at the end of April to interview! Wish me luck :) I really hope this one comes through, it would mean a lot for my future… Wednesday afternoon I spent in the Stanford library taking care of email and other things. It was so nice to be back in a library like that ;) I met my friend Mike for dinner. We oddly enough went to an undergraduate dining hall, but I didn’t mind. I actually welcomed the buffet style eating for one meal.
Thursday morning I went for a run with Sarah before she left for the airport. Sarah was leaving but was totally cool with me still crashing at her place :) After the run I had more meetings and I sat in on Professor Davis’s course. Professor Davis would be my advisor and I really like her style so that is great! I had lunch with another student. We went to a “lunch club” in the environmental engineering building. Each week someone takes turn cooking. It was pretty awesome. In the afternoon I had a great final meeting with Professor Davis, I really look forward to working with her. Then I went and met up with Professor Young who was thesis advisor at Princeton who is at Stanford on sabbatical for a year! It was prefect because we were able to go over the article together we are trying to publish. After my day of meetings I walked around campus and took pictures. I ended up at the art museum which pretty much sealed the deal for me. Talk about amazing! I headed back to Sarah’s from art museum, but unfortunately took the wrong bus and had to switch and wait a while. Anyway, even though I could have walked from the art museum back to Sarah’s about 3 time in the time it took me to get lost on the bus and find my way back, it was quite an adventure and now I know how NOT to use the bus system ;) I had a great talk with Annie when I got back and packed up all my stuff, off to a new destination in the morning!
Friday morning I got up very early, 6:30! and went for a 4 mile run around the campus drive loop encircling the Stanford campus. It was great! I grabbed some breakfast, showered, and met up with another Sara, one of the girls in the program I would work with, who offered to drive me to the airport. It was SO nice of her and made my morning so much less stressful :) Everything about my visit to Stanford was wonderful. I think I would be very happy there. It is quite an inspiring place. Now I may have to wait a year while I pursue my dream of studying at Oxford, but eventually I will be in Stanford…
Well, it is time for me to board my flight. This was, believe it or not, the Reader Digest version. I may or may not give you more details. I depends on how I feel… but at least you have an idea of how my American journeys have progressed.
Much Love,
Sara
So two quick observations about traveling:
1. I really don’t like having to remove my laptop to go through security. I’m not going to lie… usually my carry-on is precariously packed and frankly after taking out my computer sometimes I fear it’s not going to fit back in :)
2. At the Paris airport and the San Francisco airport they have this thing called visual paging now. So instead of announcing flights and other information over the airwaves you have to look at the TV monitors all over the place. This seems like a great idea except if you didn’t realize that the system was new and since you were waiting to hear your flight announced you almost missed it because you didn’t look at the right screen!
So in response to various conversations I have had with people I am going to give a Readers Digest version of my week for those of you avid readers with limited time and then a more detailed accounting of my every move just for the sake of posterity… who knows.
Boston to San Francisco
My flight landed on Friday and I headed to the MIT open house for prospective students. Friday night I stayed with Tamar and Kelly two grad students currently in the program.
On Saturday I grabbed brunch with an perspective student named Lisa and then had an awesome afternoon shopping. I got a SIM card for my phone (a great story in itself) and then basically a new wardrobe by scouring two really great thrift stores in Cambridge. Saturday afternoon I went for a run with Tamar along the Charles and then met up with Robbie and had dinner at John Harvards Pub followed by some great tea infused hot chocolate. We originally had planned on Margaritas but Sara, not remembering that there is actually a drinking age in the US, didn’t bring her ID…so hence the hot chocolate. I think I liked it better anyway ;)
Sunday I met up with friend Sandy for breakfast and then a lovely service at Trinity Church in Boston. After church I walked through Boston commons and decided to pay for the guided tour of the freedom trail. A well spent $10 is you ask me :) BUT man was it cold! I froze… Sunday night I chilled out back at Tamar and Kelly’s place. Kelly made great omelets for dinner.
Monday morning I got up early and went running with Robbie. I ran up to Harvard and then we ran down to MIT along the Charles, again a very nice run. Almost too long though, by the end I was so done. After running and grabbing an excellent bagel for breakfast I headed back to MIT and went to meet with some professors. The meetings lasted like all afternoon and by the time I was done I was exhausted. However, I made plans to stay at a friends place on Monday night so it would be easier to get on the subway in the morning. I had dinner and baked cookies with Margaret and Devan, two of my crew teammates. Devan cooked and it was amazing. I stayed at her house that night :)
Tuesday morning started super early. I got on the subway to get to the train station to get to Providence to take a bus to the airport. Surprisingly the trip went off without a hitch. It took three hours, but I left in enough time that I wasn’t stressed out. The cross country flight was great. I was able to sleep the whole time. I slept really well from Chicago to San Francisco when I was able to lay out across three seats and really crash. In SF, I took a shuttle to Sarah Moore’s apartment, showered and then met Professor Davis and two graduate students for dinner at this great Thai restaurant. By this time I was still pretty awake from all the excitement of a new place, ect. So I went to a lecture on water that Stanford was sponsoring. I stayed for a little over an hour and then headed home and passed out on Sarah’s futon…
Wednesday I had a lovely breakfast with Sarah and then went to start the day of meetings and such that I was scheduled for at Stanford. It was great. I really enjoyed talking with the different professors and I sat in on a class. For lunch I got to eat with a student in the program who shares many of my same interests. We had a great lunch conversation and he has connections in Paris I may be able to tap into when I head there on the 15th. The other big deal is I found out on Wednesday I was selected to interview at Oxford for the Weidenfeld Scholarship. I could not have been happier! Talk about overflowing blessings. In an ideal world, I would get the Oxford scholarship, go there for a year then head out to Stanford. But first I have to go to Oxford at the end of April to interview! Wish me luck :) I really hope this one comes through, it would mean a lot for my future… Wednesday afternoon I spent in the Stanford library taking care of email and other things. It was so nice to be back in a library like that ;) I met my friend Mike for dinner. We oddly enough went to an undergraduate dining hall, but I didn’t mind. I actually welcomed the buffet style eating for one meal.
Thursday morning I went for a run with Sarah before she left for the airport. Sarah was leaving but was totally cool with me still crashing at her place :) After the run I had more meetings and I sat in on Professor Davis’s course. Professor Davis would be my advisor and I really like her style so that is great! I had lunch with another student. We went to a “lunch club” in the environmental engineering building. Each week someone takes turn cooking. It was pretty awesome. In the afternoon I had a great final meeting with Professor Davis, I really look forward to working with her. Then I went and met up with Professor Young who was thesis advisor at Princeton who is at Stanford on sabbatical for a year! It was prefect because we were able to go over the article together we are trying to publish. After my day of meetings I walked around campus and took pictures. I ended up at the art museum which pretty much sealed the deal for me. Talk about amazing! I headed back to Sarah’s from art museum, but unfortunately took the wrong bus and had to switch and wait a while. Anyway, even though I could have walked from the art museum back to Sarah’s about 3 time in the time it took me to get lost on the bus and find my way back, it was quite an adventure and now I know how NOT to use the bus system ;) I had a great talk with Annie when I got back and packed up all my stuff, off to a new destination in the morning!
Friday morning I got up very early, 6:30! and went for a 4 mile run around the campus drive loop encircling the Stanford campus. It was great! I grabbed some breakfast, showered, and met up with another Sara, one of the girls in the program I would work with, who offered to drive me to the airport. It was SO nice of her and made my morning so much less stressful :) Everything about my visit to Stanford was wonderful. I think I would be very happy there. It is quite an inspiring place. Now I may have to wait a year while I pursue my dream of studying at Oxford, but eventually I will be in Stanford…
Well, it is time for me to board my flight. This was, believe it or not, the Reader Digest version. I may or may not give you more details. I depends on how I feel… but at least you have an idea of how my American journeys have progressed.
Much Love,
Sara
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Catch up post in brief…
Yeah so my brilliant idea of having oodles of time to write posts, rewrite papers and catch up with life seems to have been somewhat of a pipe dream. I have been non-stop busy since my plane touched down in Boston. Since all that is still fresh in my mind, before I recount the fun visit I had to MIT in Boston, I thought I would take a few minutes this morning (the time change is causing me to get up at 7:00am Stanford time instead of 8:00am, I can’t sleep in that late, and actually it is really four in the afternoon in Burkina Faso, so….) to write the catch up entry that I promised. I will keep it short because I don’t have much time and because the recent events in my life seem to dwarf any importance of these few lost days, but for the sake of continuity and prosperity I can not let these days’ events just slip into the abyss of time unrecorded.
Let me remind you what was going on around March 26th. I had just gotten back from my Bobo Banfora trip and had gone to the nurse about a not so pleasant rash on my face… The medicine worked. Slowly but surely. I did work on Wednesday, but kept everything pretty low key. I somehow managed to complete some Microbiology tests, nice. Science waits for no one ;)
Thursday I woke up and went to work late. I slept in hoping to give my body a chance to fight whatever was wrecking havoc on my body’s largest organ, the skin. My face wasn’t quite as sensitive to the sun anymore which was good. And in general it looked like things would be fine for teaching Susan’s class on Friday and the toastmaster’s marathon on Saturday. During the day on Thursday, I continued with my flow rate measurements and worked on some MES analysis. In the evening, I helped out at WIRED. It was Tyler’s last week there so he talked. He did a very nice job talking about failing forward and using failure to jump start a new beginning. I was going to go out with a group of people to hang out, but instead opted to come home was oddly inspired to work on my paper for the journal submission. It went very well :)
Friday morning I got up and reviewed my notes on my Point of Use water treatment presentation. I took the bus to the Kamboise campus and was in a room ready to teach Susan’s L3 English class at 7:00am. Now that my friend is early. The first part of the class time we went over what had been learning in the class so far. Then we worked through the list of vocabulary words Susan picked out that went along with my presentation. An hour later, we took a quick break and then I gave my presentation: Beyond Conventional Thinking: Point of Use Water Treatments. I don’t know how much they understood, but they were asking questions and I believe they were generally interested which is awesome. The class ended at 9:30ish and I went to the teacher’s resource area and worked on my own stuff until lunch time. For lunch I grabbed something from the cafeteria because I didn’t have anything at home to pack a lunch with anyway. The Sprite was room temperature which was uber annoying, but I can’t really complain…it was still refreshing ;)
The second class I taught in the afternoon was a carbon copy of the first except the A/C stopped working and there were much fewer students. We had to take multiple breaks because of the heat to keep people somewhat interested in what was going on. I took the 6:00pm bus back to Ouagadougou. Oh, I should note I got a call from a Professor at Duke while I was teaching and asked if he could call back about 6:45ish my time. He thought that would be fine. And I got a call from the tailor because he was going to come over and a call from Emile about the tennis tournament… I never get phone calls, and I go to teach a class and get interrupted three times! Go figure ;)
I rode the bus home and the tailor was there waiting. I quickly finished up with him just as the Duke professor called. Just about perfect timing. I did end up paying the tailor 1000CFA more than we agreed on, but I couldn’t at the moment argue, but in hindsight that is a bit upsetting. The conversation with the Professor went great. He talked to me about the NASA grant they had just received to study landsat data for an area of sub-sahara Africa. Anyway, he offered me full funding for a PhD and the project seems really interesting. At this point, I had not received news of my NSF fellowship and a fully funded PhD, that did not require a prior master’s was looking really good. Even after receiving the NSF, things still look pretty good. I liked the professor’s style and manner about things. This is always a good thing…
I got off the phone with him and rushed over the rec center not sure what was going to happen with the tennis tournament. I didn’t end up playing which was just fine with me, but both Pam and Maryellen were there so I stayed around and chatted with them. I got dinner there, phew, I had nothing at home… and also hit the treadmill for 20 minutes before calling it a day!
Saturday was a big day… It was the Toastmaster’s marathon meeting and I was the toastmaster! That is a lot of responsibility. I had, however, already prepared everything in advance, mostly on Wednesday night I think… details lost to the abyss of time, what to do? The meeting went off very nicely. I was able to wear the new skirt the tailor dropped off the night before and had a fun time being basically the MC. The meeting went about an hour late and the woman from Accra didn’t get there until 12:30pm. We were still able to fit her in and it was nice to hear her speak, she is quite talented! After the meeting we all went out and celebrated at Club Belko. It was a lovely time, but I ate fried foods, which is a no-no and was not feeling so great later on… I left about 3:00pm to go talk to Ryan online. That was a fine idea, but we were both pretty distracted so we ended up cutting things short and deciding to talk later. Saturday night I went over to Leanna’s and we watched National Treasure. It was entertaining, but the logical fallacies were almost too much. Leanna drove me home afterwards because it was too late for me ride back when we were done. This meant my bike was left over there. No big deal, I figured I could walk over on Sunday and pike it up.
Oh yes, I forgot to mention something very important. Last Tuesday my roommates informed me that they were moving out. Like for good. They moved out on Wednesday. It was so refreshing that week to not have to deal with other people in the house. They left a few things because they were headed to Bobo for some field work and would pick it up later. This was NO problem what so ever…
Sunday is kind of a blur. I know I slept in a long time and then probably listened to a sermon and worked out. I do remember the evening which consisted of going over to Leanna’s house for pizza and a fun game of Uno with the guys… Since my bike was left over there I walked to get there. Problem was I didn’t leave until like 6:30 and it was getting dark and it is a much farther walk than I remembered, all in all I was fine, but needless to say I will be leaving earlier next time.
Monday March 31st I got up and felt compelled to work on my paper again. So I did :) I worked in my room so I didn’t show up to the office until about lunch time, but that is okay because I was working in the morning. I did go to the gym in the afternoon which was nice. I should also mention at this point I still have no food around, and I was out of toilet paper and using tissues instead, maybe too much detail for you… forgive me. Anyway, work in the afternoon was jam packed. I met with Oulon the journalist to discuss the possibility of putting together a movie for the upcoming Niger movie festrial. It was a great meeting, but at 6:00 I leave and head over to Pete’s house for a Baptism service planning meeting. This went well and I was done by 7:15 and went over to Leanna’s just to keep her company and hang out. We made baguette pizzas for dinner and played the card game speed. It was SO MUCH FUN! I rode my bike back just pleased as punch with life, love and the pursuit of happiness.
Tuesday was really the turning point in the week and the reason why I am writing this post from the United States. The work day went well. I had my French lesson as usual and then debated working out or going food shopping. Considering I had run out of tissues I opted to go grocery shopping. Good choice. Anyway, I went back to my office and found an email waiting for me congratulating me on my NSF fellowship. I about jumped through the ceiling! Thankfully my family was online so I could share the news with them. Leanna wasn’t around and neither was Susan, so after ample time of celebration on the phone with my parents I went home and had a Sara Dance Party which started off with some amazing Hannah Montana tunes then progressed to more house music and finally on to the classics like Bon Jovi. I indulged in some chocolates from my friend Maggie, which were from my birthday and I was saving them for this exact occasion. I was either going to use them for celebration or to drown my disappointment in chocolates as any normal 20-something woman is apt to do… I also made a strawberry smoothie, popcorn and watched Casino Royale. I love that movie, if only for the line after he resuscitates himself from being poisoned and says, “Sorry, that last hand nearly killed me…” I love that line.
Anyway, I couldn’t really sleep because I was so hyped up on sugar and soaring high from my good news… I did finally catch some Zzzzz’S and the rest is history documented in the post on April 4th :)
Tell you about Boston and Stanford ASAP. Ahh, so much to do!
Let me remind you what was going on around March 26th. I had just gotten back from my Bobo Banfora trip and had gone to the nurse about a not so pleasant rash on my face… The medicine worked. Slowly but surely. I did work on Wednesday, but kept everything pretty low key. I somehow managed to complete some Microbiology tests, nice. Science waits for no one ;)
Thursday I woke up and went to work late. I slept in hoping to give my body a chance to fight whatever was wrecking havoc on my body’s largest organ, the skin. My face wasn’t quite as sensitive to the sun anymore which was good. And in general it looked like things would be fine for teaching Susan’s class on Friday and the toastmaster’s marathon on Saturday. During the day on Thursday, I continued with my flow rate measurements and worked on some MES analysis. In the evening, I helped out at WIRED. It was Tyler’s last week there so he talked. He did a very nice job talking about failing forward and using failure to jump start a new beginning. I was going to go out with a group of people to hang out, but instead opted to come home was oddly inspired to work on my paper for the journal submission. It went very well :)
Friday morning I got up and reviewed my notes on my Point of Use water treatment presentation. I took the bus to the Kamboise campus and was in a room ready to teach Susan’s L3 English class at 7:00am. Now that my friend is early. The first part of the class time we went over what had been learning in the class so far. Then we worked through the list of vocabulary words Susan picked out that went along with my presentation. An hour later, we took a quick break and then I gave my presentation: Beyond Conventional Thinking: Point of Use Water Treatments. I don’t know how much they understood, but they were asking questions and I believe they were generally interested which is awesome. The class ended at 9:30ish and I went to the teacher’s resource area and worked on my own stuff until lunch time. For lunch I grabbed something from the cafeteria because I didn’t have anything at home to pack a lunch with anyway. The Sprite was room temperature which was uber annoying, but I can’t really complain…it was still refreshing ;)
The second class I taught in the afternoon was a carbon copy of the first except the A/C stopped working and there were much fewer students. We had to take multiple breaks because of the heat to keep people somewhat interested in what was going on. I took the 6:00pm bus back to Ouagadougou. Oh, I should note I got a call from a Professor at Duke while I was teaching and asked if he could call back about 6:45ish my time. He thought that would be fine. And I got a call from the tailor because he was going to come over and a call from Emile about the tennis tournament… I never get phone calls, and I go to teach a class and get interrupted three times! Go figure ;)
I rode the bus home and the tailor was there waiting. I quickly finished up with him just as the Duke professor called. Just about perfect timing. I did end up paying the tailor 1000CFA more than we agreed on, but I couldn’t at the moment argue, but in hindsight that is a bit upsetting. The conversation with the Professor went great. He talked to me about the NASA grant they had just received to study landsat data for an area of sub-sahara Africa. Anyway, he offered me full funding for a PhD and the project seems really interesting. At this point, I had not received news of my NSF fellowship and a fully funded PhD, that did not require a prior master’s was looking really good. Even after receiving the NSF, things still look pretty good. I liked the professor’s style and manner about things. This is always a good thing…
I got off the phone with him and rushed over the rec center not sure what was going to happen with the tennis tournament. I didn’t end up playing which was just fine with me, but both Pam and Maryellen were there so I stayed around and chatted with them. I got dinner there, phew, I had nothing at home… and also hit the treadmill for 20 minutes before calling it a day!
Saturday was a big day… It was the Toastmaster’s marathon meeting and I was the toastmaster! That is a lot of responsibility. I had, however, already prepared everything in advance, mostly on Wednesday night I think… details lost to the abyss of time, what to do? The meeting went off very nicely. I was able to wear the new skirt the tailor dropped off the night before and had a fun time being basically the MC. The meeting went about an hour late and the woman from Accra didn’t get there until 12:30pm. We were still able to fit her in and it was nice to hear her speak, she is quite talented! After the meeting we all went out and celebrated at Club Belko. It was a lovely time, but I ate fried foods, which is a no-no and was not feeling so great later on… I left about 3:00pm to go talk to Ryan online. That was a fine idea, but we were both pretty distracted so we ended up cutting things short and deciding to talk later. Saturday night I went over to Leanna’s and we watched National Treasure. It was entertaining, but the logical fallacies were almost too much. Leanna drove me home afterwards because it was too late for me ride back when we were done. This meant my bike was left over there. No big deal, I figured I could walk over on Sunday and pike it up.
Oh yes, I forgot to mention something very important. Last Tuesday my roommates informed me that they were moving out. Like for good. They moved out on Wednesday. It was so refreshing that week to not have to deal with other people in the house. They left a few things because they were headed to Bobo for some field work and would pick it up later. This was NO problem what so ever…
Sunday is kind of a blur. I know I slept in a long time and then probably listened to a sermon and worked out. I do remember the evening which consisted of going over to Leanna’s house for pizza and a fun game of Uno with the guys… Since my bike was left over there I walked to get there. Problem was I didn’t leave until like 6:30 and it was getting dark and it is a much farther walk than I remembered, all in all I was fine, but needless to say I will be leaving earlier next time.
Monday March 31st I got up and felt compelled to work on my paper again. So I did :) I worked in my room so I didn’t show up to the office until about lunch time, but that is okay because I was working in the morning. I did go to the gym in the afternoon which was nice. I should also mention at this point I still have no food around, and I was out of toilet paper and using tissues instead, maybe too much detail for you… forgive me. Anyway, work in the afternoon was jam packed. I met with Oulon the journalist to discuss the possibility of putting together a movie for the upcoming Niger movie festrial. It was a great meeting, but at 6:00 I leave and head over to Pete’s house for a Baptism service planning meeting. This went well and I was done by 7:15 and went over to Leanna’s just to keep her company and hang out. We made baguette pizzas for dinner and played the card game speed. It was SO MUCH FUN! I rode my bike back just pleased as punch with life, love and the pursuit of happiness.
Tuesday was really the turning point in the week and the reason why I am writing this post from the United States. The work day went well. I had my French lesson as usual and then debated working out or going food shopping. Considering I had run out of tissues I opted to go grocery shopping. Good choice. Anyway, I went back to my office and found an email waiting for me congratulating me on my NSF fellowship. I about jumped through the ceiling! Thankfully my family was online so I could share the news with them. Leanna wasn’t around and neither was Susan, so after ample time of celebration on the phone with my parents I went home and had a Sara Dance Party which started off with some amazing Hannah Montana tunes then progressed to more house music and finally on to the classics like Bon Jovi. I indulged in some chocolates from my friend Maggie, which were from my birthday and I was saving them for this exact occasion. I was either going to use them for celebration or to drown my disappointment in chocolates as any normal 20-something woman is apt to do… I also made a strawberry smoothie, popcorn and watched Casino Royale. I love that movie, if only for the line after he resuscitates himself from being poisoned and says, “Sorry, that last hand nearly killed me…” I love that line.
Anyway, I couldn’t really sleep because I was so hyped up on sugar and soaring high from my good news… I did finally catch some Zzzzz’S and the rest is history documented in the post on April 4th :)
Tell you about Boston and Stanford ASAP. Ahh, so much to do!
Friday, April 4, 2008
USA here I come... God is good.
I am typing this update from the terminal of the Charles de Gaulle Paris airport. From that you can probably conclude for yourself that I have decided to travel back to the US to visit the graduate schools I need to chose between. Wow, the last 24 hours have been a veritable whirlwind. I think the best way to go about retelling this epic tale is to start with when I woke up on Thursday morning. I woke up at 7:00am and little did I know that in 10 hours time I would be sitting in the waiting room of the Ouagadougou airport heading to the good old US of A! So what all happened in those 10 hours…
What you are about to read will both puzzle and astound you! The hand of God was guiding my every step and it was truly his will that I am where I am right now. Too many things went right… things never go that smoothly, except when you give up control and let God lead.
After getting 4 hours of sleep I got up surprisingly energized and started soaking the few items of clothing I needed washed to bring with me. Then I went to my office to check my email… this would be the moment of truth. I found affirmative responses on travel funds from Stanford and Duke. In conjunction with the support from MIT that was confirmed the night before, those two emails sealed the deal. I immediately contacted the travel agent and arranged to go to the office and buy my ticket before 9:30am. I talked to my Mom at 8:00am my time which meant she got up at 3am to talk to me. Thanks MOM! I wanted to just talk things out with her again and had to get the credit card information so I could purchase my ticket. Oye. We hung up at 8:30 and I went to talk to Professor Wethe to get the okay. He also suggested I talk to the Director’s Advisor which I did. Both Wethe and the advisor were very supportive and gave me the green light. All I needed to do was email Professor Maiga and let him know the plan. He is in South Africa right now so I couldn’t get permission directly from him. Anyway, from there I ran back to my house to finish the wash and hang it up to dry. At this point I was planning on taking an Air Maroc flight leaving at 3am Friday morning. No problem, I had all day to get ready and would still be able to play guitar at the baptism ceremony. The only glitch was I was a bit confused by the itinerary the agent sent me because although he said I would be leaving Friday at 3am the date said April 5th 3am which would be Saturday at 3am. I figured I would get things cleared up when I went into buy my ticket.
I rode my bike to the travel agency feeling like a million bucks. I also thought to bring my bank cards and passport in case I needed them for something. Arriving at the travel agency, as is the norm, there were like 5 Africans swarming me trying to sell me stuff. I joked with them about something Peace Corps and just walked pass and into the office. I was helped right away. The guy helping me was great! I asked him about the itinerary, and I was right I wasn’t leaving until the next day… Not good. What was I going to do for another day in Ouaga. It would have been such a waste, so I asked if there were any flights for that night. He works and works and comes up with one. But it is AirFrace so I figure it will be much more expensive. At first it is because of the Raleigh leaving point and the date of the 16th. However, if I could get back up to Boston and leave the 15th it would actually be cheaper…Wow! I asked if he could add a domestic flight from Raleigh to Boston to the package. No problem. In total, with the connect, flying Air France leaving that night in about 8 hours now would only cost me like $50 more. Well worth it if you ask me. And I was flying direct into Boston arriving on Friday instead of Saturday! Arriving on Friday meant I would be able to participate in the second part of the official visitation day. Great! I would get to meet some of my prospective classmates, very important indeed… So now arranging the flight back I was going to have a 12 hour layover in Paris. Ugh. So I asked if I could extend it to a couple of days and have myself a little mini Paris vacation. Voila. For $30 more, I am staying in Paris for 4 days on my way back to Burkina Faso. I am so excited! I want to visit the Louvre again, walk along the Seine, and take a million pictures with my new camera. I also might try and get to Giverny, the place were Monet painted a lot. Oh, c’est la vie! and I can try out my French skills, yay.
Okay, awesome. The flights are amazing! Flying Air France is SO much better than Air Maroc. The flights were such a God thing. The only bad part was I would have to be at the airport about 6:00pm and it was 10am now. Being at the airport at 6pm also had the other negative ramification of making me miss the baptism and leaving the worship high and dry. I felt bad about this and called and talked to Nancy Burg about it before I took the ticket. She thought if I could talk to Amy or Peter about taking over for me it should be okay, but that I should do what I have to do and Air France is way nicer so whatever.
The ticket was booked and now all that was left to do was pay. I got out the information I wrote down from my Mom. The only problem was the travel agent said he needed the actual card. Doah! I thought this might be a problem. So I said, hold on, and I went to the Bank of Africa across the street. I needed 962,000CFA. I hadn’t been to the bank in a while and didn’t know how much money I had. I figured it should be close that amount, but hadn’t done the math lately with my balance to be sure. Anyway, I got the desk and request to know my balance. Get this… I had 1,015,000CFA… just enough! Another God moment. So I withdrew 1,000,000CFA in cash. If have ever withdrawn that much money before you know it gives a person quite a rush. So now I have $2,000 plus dollars in my bag and have to ride my bike back to the travel agency, and I am in Africa. Great idea right. Well, things went just fine and I paid for my ticket in cash. That was pretty crazy!
Walking out of the travel agency my whole attitude was different. I was happier, lighter and so excited to be going back! I was also very confident I would be ready to go by 6:00pm. Packing the night before and writing all those emails was essential though. My being ready would have never happened if I hadn’t gotten up and spent 3 hours preparing the night before. Again, evidence of divine intervention :)
I left the travel agent at 10:30. The whole thing only took 1 hour, can you believe it? I figured I needed to be back to my office by 12:00. I would buy my domestic airfare and send all my emails, hopefully finish that by 2:30 and then go pack for good. From there I didn’t quite know what would happen, but the plans formed as the day went on.
Well, knowing I was going to the US I immediately thought about bringing stuff back for people. I know it wasn’t necessary, but I have the luggage space now and probably won’t have as much coming back in June. So as I rode my bike back from the travel agent I stopped at the Grand Marche and then the mini village artisanal. I was so on my game. All of the sudden my French was amazing and so were my bargaining skills. I ended up buying 45,000CFA worth of gifts which is a lot of money, but you don’t have any idea of how much stuff I got… I got 5 wooden keychains, 2 pagnas, 2 sets of earrings, 2 wooden guard figurines, a large beaded lizard, 2 mini lizard keychains, a puzzle, 2 leather boxes, 2 necklaces, 2 bronze giraffes, 4 woven trivets, large basket, a calabase jewelry box, 3 painted cards, and an adorable basket with a handle and lid. Again, I had such clarity. I knew what I wanted to buy and was able to bargain very well. I finish at the artisanal and I am riding back and this guy starts riding next to me telling me he wants to sell me some jewelry. I was feeling pretty joyous at this moment and threw caution to the wind and stopped by the side of the road so he could show me the jewelry he had in his bag. I was skeptical, but I was leaving Ouagadougou that night so I have legitimate license to take some chances :) I also have a great excuse when the artisans invite me out the club dancing… oh, no sorry I am leaving! ha! Okay, back to the sketchy jewelry dealings, and btw this was on the side of the major road outside the Presidence so there was like zero risk of personal injury or anything bad happening. The only thing I thought was that it would be exactly the same stuff I have seen over and over. At first it was, but then he brought out these really cool bracelets. Great presents for my friends, and I kind of wanted one for myself too. He originally asks 3500CFA for each! Generally the rule is that you can get any item for about half of the price they tell you, sometimes a little more, sometimes a less. Well, this guy was one tough cookie. I originally wanted 3 bracelets, and was willing to pay 2000CFA each. This was a good price. However, he didn’t like it, but did agree to 5 for 10000CFA. Done. I could give two more of these bracelets as presents and that was price I was willing to pay. Buy this time I am quite loaded down with goods, but my spirits are so high I hardly notice!
I got back to my house at noon as planned and was able to inform the house keeper that I will be leaving that night and will be gone for 2 weeks. Awesome. The office was my next stop and thankfully my Mom was available again to talk. I finally get to share my awesome news about the flight arrangements! It was a tough call sitting there. Spending that amount of money and having to make the final call alone; definitely a growing experience. My Mom was so relieved about the Air France airline carrier instead of Air Maroc. Frankly, so am I. We figures out my domestic flights together and I was able to use my Southwest rapid rewards credits to buy them. Flying Boston to San Francisco, San Francisco to Raleigh would have cost me $600. But I only had to paid $10 and that was for security fees. This all sounds nice, but it was tense for a few minutes because I wasn’t sure if I could use the rewards without a long advance time and they have blackout dates too. Thankfully, again, God directing things… the domestic flights were taken care of. My Mom and I finish up discussing possibilities for her to come visit me in Raleigh. It looks like it will probably happen… I can’t believe it and am so looking forward to it ;) And I am stocked about the fact that I will be spending 4 days in Paris. Love it!
Now that the flights are all booked I sent out all my emails. The whole sha-bang. All that I wrote the night before, as well as about six more I had to write just then. But things were going according to plan and I finish at 2:30. I went home and packed. Given that I did most of that last night it was just physically fitting everything plus all the cool gifts I just bought into my suitcase and carry-on. I worked with awesome efficiency and realized at 3:00 I was done! Wow. From there I went to go write 4 more emails, but these were harder. I had to email Professor Maiga and all the contacts at MIT, Stanford, and Duke to confirm I was coming and to start setting up the details. Most important was to figure out where I needed to go when I landed in Boston. I also needed to give them an idea of who I wanted to speak and request housing for Friday and Saturday nights… My, oh my. So I had to look through the CEE department website and come up with a list of people I was hoping to talk to. This actually took a while as did crafting all these emails explaining my travel details, ect. BUT I did it. I finished at 4:15 and then had to go see the information technology people because they changed the email system on Monday and I hadn’t been able to check my messages since. And being gone for 2 weeks I thought I should check my work email every once and a while… Oh also, Leanna called and we discussed the music stuff. I had called Amy and Leanna talked to Peter so things were taken care of. Phew. And… Leanna offered to take me to the airport! I love her! Not only that, she brought me a take along dinner! Again, awesomeness. She was planning to come get me at 5:30. We needed to walk out the door when she came because Ouagadougou traffic at rush hour, i.e. 6:00pm is a nightmare. Imagine trying to maneuver a car through a sea of motorbikes and other vehicles who may or may not decide to obey traffic laws. Okay, so I left the information people at 4:30 and they have fixed the problem, yay! I went home and worked out. I know, I know, but I felt I needed to get my legs moving since I knew I would be seated for so long… So I worked out for 20 minutes, showered and got dressed to leave. I put the finishing touches on my awesome packing job and put the bags by the door. I had 6 minutes to spare. I run to the kitchen and washed the few cups and juice pitcher. 4 Minutes, I dried my hair. 5:30. I take one more pass through my room and a look over of the house. I locked up my room and walked to the front door as Leanna was pulling up.
Ben came with Leanna which was great becuase he carried my bag to the car. Oh, yeah and as I was getting ready to start working out my old housemate stopped by to get the last of the things they left there. I could have cared less. I was on a mission and in a state of bliss really. On another note, since Leanna was going to the baptism that night and they Grey family would be there I put the mini Christmas tree that has been awkwardly standing in my living room by my front door to send with her. I honestly feel like I have thought of everything. I feel so at peace with leaving which is amazing considering I had all of 7 hours to wrap up my life in Ouagadougou for two weeks. I even remembered to text my French teacher and tell him not to come until after the 21st and to leave Susan’s book club book with someone so she would have it for Sunday!
Well, the drive the airport went fine. We just beat the traffic rush. Leanna and Ben gave me hugs goodbye and then peaced out. I went through all the steps of checking in and could finally sit and do nothing starting about 6:30ish. I waited 45 minutes until they started boarding the plane and then sat on the plane a while because the flight was to leave at 8:15. The dinner Leanna packed me was great and the only real food I had all day, sloppy joe, a roll and pasta salad. I was too busy to stop and eat when getting ready to go!
I didn’t realize this and it didn’t really matter, but we had a stop over in Niamey, Niger. Crazy. I didn’t understand why leaving at 8:15pm we wouldn’t get to Paris until 6:15am when it is a 6 hour flight… Turns out the layover in Niamey is a doosey. We just sat in the plane the whole time. I wasn’t able to sleep sleep persay, but I did rest. The food on the flight actual was okay. It smelled better than it tasted though. I also watched the movie, The Golden Compass. I wouldn’t recommend it… I didn’t think it was all that great. But after the movie I was able to sleep for about two and half hours which was great.
We got to Paris on time and it was great to be in a developed country again; sliding glass doors, garbage cans, paper towels in the bathroom, flat screen flight monitor screens, Prada stores, Rolex stores all in the airport. Hallelujah! It took me a while to figure out where to go in the airport. My flight isn’t until 1:40pm so the gate info wasn’t displayed yet. But I managed. I found the gate and then found the bathroom. The next thing on the agenda was to check my email and hopefully have responses from all the emails I sent to know what to do when I land in Boston. I paid 6euros for 30 minutes and YES! I had all the information I needed waiting for me in my inbox :)
After checking my email I grabbed a quick breakfast of yogurt which I was able to pay for in Euros because I had some leftover and even thought to bring them! After breakfast I walked around a bit and then determined I was took tired to function so I found an empty area and sit down. I then took my roll of clothes I have in my carry on to change into once I arrive, and used it as a pillow. I actually fell asleep asleep for like 40 minutes and was able to rest for an additional hour. This was essential if I wanted to be functional when I arrive at MIT ;) There is something funny, however, about laying down on the ground in plain sight in a very public place like an airport. I kept my arms around my luggage so that wasn’t a worry. OH and you won’t believe this… at the airport they have these great luggage carts. They are kind of like shopping carts, but smaller and sleeker and designed to hold you carry-ons, purses, ect.
Anyway, I got up feeling much better. I went and brushed my teeth, nothing like a clean fresh smile to make you feel like it is a new day and that you have slept… Then I started writing this post and so arrive at the same point in time. I will leave this post again with just a few observations.
1. Flying over Africa at night is kind of freaky. I think I may have mentioned this before when I was describing my initial trip, but it is SO dark. There are no lights to look out the window and see. Unlike flying out of Chicago where the city of lights spreads out like a glowing spider web, Ouaga’s lights were few to begin with and trailed off to nothingness, pitch black within a few minutes. So that is why they call Africa the Dark Continent… well maybe there are other reasons for that as well, but whatever.
2. In Ouaga people will often where the airline eye masks as mouth guards to help keep them from breathing in the terrible dust and exhaust fumes of Ouaga. The first time I saw this I was pretty surprised but it has become a normal sight for me now. BUT the funny thing is a guy on the plane, an African I presume, was wearing it over his mouth instead of his eyes on the plane! I wanted to be like, yeah, um that isn’t what they are really for and the air in this plane probably has higher quality and more filtered air than any you have every breathed before… But I just smiled to myself and was contented to write about it in my blog.
3. Finally, flying into Paris this morning it was still dark out. It was amazing to see the tangles of lights. The roads in Paris look like someone scribbled them in, they are all twisty turny and circling each other. Not at all like the grids of US cities. I also noticed that the lights had different hues. Some were very yellow, others a clear white and some had a bluish hue. This must be because of different kinds of lighting, but it is cool to think of light having different colors. I guess that is why there is a market for products like the GE Reveal light bulbs.
Alright. Over and out. I will write a catch up post for my time for Wednesday March 26th to April 2nd soon.
p.s. my friends in Ouaga tease me about my long blog posts. I think they are just jealous, hehehe…
What you are about to read will both puzzle and astound you! The hand of God was guiding my every step and it was truly his will that I am where I am right now. Too many things went right… things never go that smoothly, except when you give up control and let God lead.
After getting 4 hours of sleep I got up surprisingly energized and started soaking the few items of clothing I needed washed to bring with me. Then I went to my office to check my email… this would be the moment of truth. I found affirmative responses on travel funds from Stanford and Duke. In conjunction with the support from MIT that was confirmed the night before, those two emails sealed the deal. I immediately contacted the travel agent and arranged to go to the office and buy my ticket before 9:30am. I talked to my Mom at 8:00am my time which meant she got up at 3am to talk to me. Thanks MOM! I wanted to just talk things out with her again and had to get the credit card information so I could purchase my ticket. Oye. We hung up at 8:30 and I went to talk to Professor Wethe to get the okay. He also suggested I talk to the Director’s Advisor which I did. Both Wethe and the advisor were very supportive and gave me the green light. All I needed to do was email Professor Maiga and let him know the plan. He is in South Africa right now so I couldn’t get permission directly from him. Anyway, from there I ran back to my house to finish the wash and hang it up to dry. At this point I was planning on taking an Air Maroc flight leaving at 3am Friday morning. No problem, I had all day to get ready and would still be able to play guitar at the baptism ceremony. The only glitch was I was a bit confused by the itinerary the agent sent me because although he said I would be leaving Friday at 3am the date said April 5th 3am which would be Saturday at 3am. I figured I would get things cleared up when I went into buy my ticket.
I rode my bike to the travel agency feeling like a million bucks. I also thought to bring my bank cards and passport in case I needed them for something. Arriving at the travel agency, as is the norm, there were like 5 Africans swarming me trying to sell me stuff. I joked with them about something Peace Corps and just walked pass and into the office. I was helped right away. The guy helping me was great! I asked him about the itinerary, and I was right I wasn’t leaving until the next day… Not good. What was I going to do for another day in Ouaga. It would have been such a waste, so I asked if there were any flights for that night. He works and works and comes up with one. But it is AirFrace so I figure it will be much more expensive. At first it is because of the Raleigh leaving point and the date of the 16th. However, if I could get back up to Boston and leave the 15th it would actually be cheaper…Wow! I asked if he could add a domestic flight from Raleigh to Boston to the package. No problem. In total, with the connect, flying Air France leaving that night in about 8 hours now would only cost me like $50 more. Well worth it if you ask me. And I was flying direct into Boston arriving on Friday instead of Saturday! Arriving on Friday meant I would be able to participate in the second part of the official visitation day. Great! I would get to meet some of my prospective classmates, very important indeed… So now arranging the flight back I was going to have a 12 hour layover in Paris. Ugh. So I asked if I could extend it to a couple of days and have myself a little mini Paris vacation. Voila. For $30 more, I am staying in Paris for 4 days on my way back to Burkina Faso. I am so excited! I want to visit the Louvre again, walk along the Seine, and take a million pictures with my new camera. I also might try and get to Giverny, the place were Monet painted a lot. Oh, c’est la vie! and I can try out my French skills, yay.
Okay, awesome. The flights are amazing! Flying Air France is SO much better than Air Maroc. The flights were such a God thing. The only bad part was I would have to be at the airport about 6:00pm and it was 10am now. Being at the airport at 6pm also had the other negative ramification of making me miss the baptism and leaving the worship high and dry. I felt bad about this and called and talked to Nancy Burg about it before I took the ticket. She thought if I could talk to Amy or Peter about taking over for me it should be okay, but that I should do what I have to do and Air France is way nicer so whatever.
The ticket was booked and now all that was left to do was pay. I got out the information I wrote down from my Mom. The only problem was the travel agent said he needed the actual card. Doah! I thought this might be a problem. So I said, hold on, and I went to the Bank of Africa across the street. I needed 962,000CFA. I hadn’t been to the bank in a while and didn’t know how much money I had. I figured it should be close that amount, but hadn’t done the math lately with my balance to be sure. Anyway, I got the desk and request to know my balance. Get this… I had 1,015,000CFA… just enough! Another God moment. So I withdrew 1,000,000CFA in cash. If have ever withdrawn that much money before you know it gives a person quite a rush. So now I have $2,000 plus dollars in my bag and have to ride my bike back to the travel agency, and I am in Africa. Great idea right. Well, things went just fine and I paid for my ticket in cash. That was pretty crazy!
Walking out of the travel agency my whole attitude was different. I was happier, lighter and so excited to be going back! I was also very confident I would be ready to go by 6:00pm. Packing the night before and writing all those emails was essential though. My being ready would have never happened if I hadn’t gotten up and spent 3 hours preparing the night before. Again, evidence of divine intervention :)
I left the travel agent at 10:30. The whole thing only took 1 hour, can you believe it? I figured I needed to be back to my office by 12:00. I would buy my domestic airfare and send all my emails, hopefully finish that by 2:30 and then go pack for good. From there I didn’t quite know what would happen, but the plans formed as the day went on.
Well, knowing I was going to the US I immediately thought about bringing stuff back for people. I know it wasn’t necessary, but I have the luggage space now and probably won’t have as much coming back in June. So as I rode my bike back from the travel agent I stopped at the Grand Marche and then the mini village artisanal. I was so on my game. All of the sudden my French was amazing and so were my bargaining skills. I ended up buying 45,000CFA worth of gifts which is a lot of money, but you don’t have any idea of how much stuff I got… I got 5 wooden keychains, 2 pagnas, 2 sets of earrings, 2 wooden guard figurines, a large beaded lizard, 2 mini lizard keychains, a puzzle, 2 leather boxes, 2 necklaces, 2 bronze giraffes, 4 woven trivets, large basket, a calabase jewelry box, 3 painted cards, and an adorable basket with a handle and lid. Again, I had such clarity. I knew what I wanted to buy and was able to bargain very well. I finish at the artisanal and I am riding back and this guy starts riding next to me telling me he wants to sell me some jewelry. I was feeling pretty joyous at this moment and threw caution to the wind and stopped by the side of the road so he could show me the jewelry he had in his bag. I was skeptical, but I was leaving Ouagadougou that night so I have legitimate license to take some chances :) I also have a great excuse when the artisans invite me out the club dancing… oh, no sorry I am leaving! ha! Okay, back to the sketchy jewelry dealings, and btw this was on the side of the major road outside the Presidence so there was like zero risk of personal injury or anything bad happening. The only thing I thought was that it would be exactly the same stuff I have seen over and over. At first it was, but then he brought out these really cool bracelets. Great presents for my friends, and I kind of wanted one for myself too. He originally asks 3500CFA for each! Generally the rule is that you can get any item for about half of the price they tell you, sometimes a little more, sometimes a less. Well, this guy was one tough cookie. I originally wanted 3 bracelets, and was willing to pay 2000CFA each. This was a good price. However, he didn’t like it, but did agree to 5 for 10000CFA. Done. I could give two more of these bracelets as presents and that was price I was willing to pay. Buy this time I am quite loaded down with goods, but my spirits are so high I hardly notice!
I got back to my house at noon as planned and was able to inform the house keeper that I will be leaving that night and will be gone for 2 weeks. Awesome. The office was my next stop and thankfully my Mom was available again to talk. I finally get to share my awesome news about the flight arrangements! It was a tough call sitting there. Spending that amount of money and having to make the final call alone; definitely a growing experience. My Mom was so relieved about the Air France airline carrier instead of Air Maroc. Frankly, so am I. We figures out my domestic flights together and I was able to use my Southwest rapid rewards credits to buy them. Flying Boston to San Francisco, San Francisco to Raleigh would have cost me $600. But I only had to paid $10 and that was for security fees. This all sounds nice, but it was tense for a few minutes because I wasn’t sure if I could use the rewards without a long advance time and they have blackout dates too. Thankfully, again, God directing things… the domestic flights were taken care of. My Mom and I finish up discussing possibilities for her to come visit me in Raleigh. It looks like it will probably happen… I can’t believe it and am so looking forward to it ;) And I am stocked about the fact that I will be spending 4 days in Paris. Love it!
Now that the flights are all booked I sent out all my emails. The whole sha-bang. All that I wrote the night before, as well as about six more I had to write just then. But things were going according to plan and I finish at 2:30. I went home and packed. Given that I did most of that last night it was just physically fitting everything plus all the cool gifts I just bought into my suitcase and carry-on. I worked with awesome efficiency and realized at 3:00 I was done! Wow. From there I went to go write 4 more emails, but these were harder. I had to email Professor Maiga and all the contacts at MIT, Stanford, and Duke to confirm I was coming and to start setting up the details. Most important was to figure out where I needed to go when I landed in Boston. I also needed to give them an idea of who I wanted to speak and request housing for Friday and Saturday nights… My, oh my. So I had to look through the CEE department website and come up with a list of people I was hoping to talk to. This actually took a while as did crafting all these emails explaining my travel details, ect. BUT I did it. I finished at 4:15 and then had to go see the information technology people because they changed the email system on Monday and I hadn’t been able to check my messages since. And being gone for 2 weeks I thought I should check my work email every once and a while… Oh also, Leanna called and we discussed the music stuff. I had called Amy and Leanna talked to Peter so things were taken care of. Phew. And… Leanna offered to take me to the airport! I love her! Not only that, she brought me a take along dinner! Again, awesomeness. She was planning to come get me at 5:30. We needed to walk out the door when she came because Ouagadougou traffic at rush hour, i.e. 6:00pm is a nightmare. Imagine trying to maneuver a car through a sea of motorbikes and other vehicles who may or may not decide to obey traffic laws. Okay, so I left the information people at 4:30 and they have fixed the problem, yay! I went home and worked out. I know, I know, but I felt I needed to get my legs moving since I knew I would be seated for so long… So I worked out for 20 minutes, showered and got dressed to leave. I put the finishing touches on my awesome packing job and put the bags by the door. I had 6 minutes to spare. I run to the kitchen and washed the few cups and juice pitcher. 4 Minutes, I dried my hair. 5:30. I take one more pass through my room and a look over of the house. I locked up my room and walked to the front door as Leanna was pulling up.
Ben came with Leanna which was great becuase he carried my bag to the car. Oh, yeah and as I was getting ready to start working out my old housemate stopped by to get the last of the things they left there. I could have cared less. I was on a mission and in a state of bliss really. On another note, since Leanna was going to the baptism that night and they Grey family would be there I put the mini Christmas tree that has been awkwardly standing in my living room by my front door to send with her. I honestly feel like I have thought of everything. I feel so at peace with leaving which is amazing considering I had all of 7 hours to wrap up my life in Ouagadougou for two weeks. I even remembered to text my French teacher and tell him not to come until after the 21st and to leave Susan’s book club book with someone so she would have it for Sunday!
Well, the drive the airport went fine. We just beat the traffic rush. Leanna and Ben gave me hugs goodbye and then peaced out. I went through all the steps of checking in and could finally sit and do nothing starting about 6:30ish. I waited 45 minutes until they started boarding the plane and then sat on the plane a while because the flight was to leave at 8:15. The dinner Leanna packed me was great and the only real food I had all day, sloppy joe, a roll and pasta salad. I was too busy to stop and eat when getting ready to go!
I didn’t realize this and it didn’t really matter, but we had a stop over in Niamey, Niger. Crazy. I didn’t understand why leaving at 8:15pm we wouldn’t get to Paris until 6:15am when it is a 6 hour flight… Turns out the layover in Niamey is a doosey. We just sat in the plane the whole time. I wasn’t able to sleep sleep persay, but I did rest. The food on the flight actual was okay. It smelled better than it tasted though. I also watched the movie, The Golden Compass. I wouldn’t recommend it… I didn’t think it was all that great. But after the movie I was able to sleep for about two and half hours which was great.
We got to Paris on time and it was great to be in a developed country again; sliding glass doors, garbage cans, paper towels in the bathroom, flat screen flight monitor screens, Prada stores, Rolex stores all in the airport. Hallelujah! It took me a while to figure out where to go in the airport. My flight isn’t until 1:40pm so the gate info wasn’t displayed yet. But I managed. I found the gate and then found the bathroom. The next thing on the agenda was to check my email and hopefully have responses from all the emails I sent to know what to do when I land in Boston. I paid 6euros for 30 minutes and YES! I had all the information I needed waiting for me in my inbox :)
After checking my email I grabbed a quick breakfast of yogurt which I was able to pay for in Euros because I had some leftover and even thought to bring them! After breakfast I walked around a bit and then determined I was took tired to function so I found an empty area and sit down. I then took my roll of clothes I have in my carry on to change into once I arrive, and used it as a pillow. I actually fell asleep asleep for like 40 minutes and was able to rest for an additional hour. This was essential if I wanted to be functional when I arrive at MIT ;) There is something funny, however, about laying down on the ground in plain sight in a very public place like an airport. I kept my arms around my luggage so that wasn’t a worry. OH and you won’t believe this… at the airport they have these great luggage carts. They are kind of like shopping carts, but smaller and sleeker and designed to hold you carry-ons, purses, ect.
Anyway, I got up feeling much better. I went and brushed my teeth, nothing like a clean fresh smile to make you feel like it is a new day and that you have slept… Then I started writing this post and so arrive at the same point in time. I will leave this post again with just a few observations.
1. Flying over Africa at night is kind of freaky. I think I may have mentioned this before when I was describing my initial trip, but it is SO dark. There are no lights to look out the window and see. Unlike flying out of Chicago where the city of lights spreads out like a glowing spider web, Ouaga’s lights were few to begin with and trailed off to nothingness, pitch black within a few minutes. So that is why they call Africa the Dark Continent… well maybe there are other reasons for that as well, but whatever.
2. In Ouaga people will often where the airline eye masks as mouth guards to help keep them from breathing in the terrible dust and exhaust fumes of Ouaga. The first time I saw this I was pretty surprised but it has become a normal sight for me now. BUT the funny thing is a guy on the plane, an African I presume, was wearing it over his mouth instead of his eyes on the plane! I wanted to be like, yeah, um that isn’t what they are really for and the air in this plane probably has higher quality and more filtered air than any you have every breathed before… But I just smiled to myself and was contented to write about it in my blog.
3. Finally, flying into Paris this morning it was still dark out. It was amazing to see the tangles of lights. The roads in Paris look like someone scribbled them in, they are all twisty turny and circling each other. Not at all like the grids of US cities. I also noticed that the lights had different hues. Some were very yellow, others a clear white and some had a bluish hue. This must be because of different kinds of lighting, but it is cool to think of light having different colors. I guess that is why there is a market for products like the GE Reveal light bulbs.
Alright. Over and out. I will write a catch up post for my time for Wednesday March 26th to April 2nd soon.
p.s. my friends in Ouaga tease me about my long blog posts. I think they are just jealous, hehehe…
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