this is me

airport, that is. This is a 26 hour trek home, and that doesn't include the SuperShuttle from the airport to my apartment. 8ish hours from Nairobi to Amsterdam, 9ish hour layover in lovely Schiphol Airport (i'm serious, it really is lovely), and 8ish hours to DC. I'm so ready to be home, even if it is too hot for early June and I will likely turn into a sweaty complainer as soon as I step outside. I look forward to colleagues receiving emails from me that say they were sent at 1am on a Saturday morning. Man, I'll look dedicated. Anyway, the airport. There is a store called Flowers & Bulbs that has the most beautiful tulips, and bulbs and seeds you can bring home, and all sorts of tulip souvenirs...which I would totally buy if it didn't feel ridiculous buying a trinket from a country I've never actually set foot in. I want to bring a bouquet of tulips with me but I can't imagine they'll survive the flight in any way that would be worth the cost....

Today we made it to the elephant orphanage! Well, it's really more than that - see here for more info. Viewing hours are from 11am-12pm only, and Martin decided he'd like to be my chauffeur, so we headed out after breakfast and got there just as the 'show' was starting. There were nine elephants under 18 months old being fed and having a good ol' time playing in the dirt. Some selected shots: From Nairobi, take 2 From Nairobi, take 2 From Nairobi, take 2 I've never seen that many elephants interact at once - so playful, so small yet huge...pretty awesome. And, we saw two of these guys on the way out (behind bars, don't worry): From Nairobi, take 2 And I bought a bag I really like, so that was icing on the cake. This concludes the 'fun' portion of my stay in Nairobi - from now til I leave it's work, work, work (mixed in with a trip to the wine cellar restaurant in this hotel, perhaps).

The new project manager owns this car: From Nairobi, take 2 which he purchased when he lived in Burundi and drove to Nairobi before he moved to Afghanistan. (Yes, it's a lot to keep track of). In any case, it's been hanging out at a friend's house the past few years, and he's made use of it whenever he's come to Nairobi on holiday. Yesterday in his search to find a house to rent during his tenure as my project's manager, he found a house he might like to buy. It's somewhere southwest of point B on the map below - i.e., very off road. View Larger Map He asked if I'd like to accompany him for a second visit, and I gladly accepted. This is the house next door to the one he might buy (and his inspiration for renovations): From Nairobi, take 2 and this is the view from there, complete with giraffe: From Nairobi, take 2 (can you see it?) So good to get out of the city for a bit. This was the view on the way back to the hotel: From Nairobi, take 2 Pretty clo...

From Nairobi, take 2 In my sleep-deprived state on my way to Nairobi last weekend, I found these souvenirs in the Amsterdam airport very amusing. I've always heard that clogs are sold everywhere in the Netherlands, but didn't quite expect these bright orange, seemingly plasticized clogs to be the first I saw. From Nairobi, take 2 Nairobi is famous for its traffic. Apparently the city's population has grown from 8 million to 40 million since the '60s, and the infrastructure certainly has not kept up. This was taken at about 5:15 on a Thursday. Most of the main roads have roundabouts where they cross each other. I've heard stories of it taking 2 1/2 hours to go less than a kilometer when it's raining. From Nairobi, take 2 The Fairview Hotel is a sprawling complex with gorgeous gardens - green, green, green, with flowering plants I've never seen before. Nairobi overall is very green - the north part of the city is flanked by the Karura Forest -- and vendors s...

I would write a poem about the range of emotions that one goes through while waiting for luggage in a foreign airport. Being a last minute packer, and this being my 3rd trip to Africa (with the first two being uneventful), I decided to chance it and not pack an extra set of clothes in my carry on. Fortunately, both bags arrived. I got through the visa/passport control quickly and waited over half an hour at the baggage 'hall' as they call it, but no problems at all. This rest of this post will likely be fairly scattered, so let's use bullet points: Someone wrote 'Obama was here' on the registration sticker in the elevator in our office building here. That made me smile. Everything seems really familiar, which is nice, considering it's been 20+ months since I was last (and first) here. My colleagues are all very kind, helpful people, and it's great to see those I email everyday face to face. The main purpose of me being here is to assist with the transit...

until I set foot in Nairobi again. So much to do before then! Excited for fun things to blog about coming up.

i love random things like this that give me hope on the days where i lose sight of how good my life is. today will be different : "

"They take pictures of mountain climbers at the top of the mountain. They're smiling, ecstatic, triumphant. They don't take pictures along the way, because who wants to remember the rest of it? We push ourselves because we have to, not because we like it. The relentless climb, the pain and anguish of taking it to the next level - nobody takes pictures of that. Nobody wants to remember. We just want to remember the view from the top. The breathtaking moment at the edge of the world. That's what keeps us climbing. And it's worth the pain - that's the crazy part. It's worth anything." Sage words from the writers of Grey's Anatomy. Who knew?

I've shared this on Twitter, Facebook, and my gChat status so far, but I love this commercial so much that I must post it to my blog for all to see. Also, I'm too exhausted to write anything productive. Enjoy!

this is surely one of thousands of blog posts about the snowy weekend in DC, but I wanted to share some of the sweet snapshots I was able to take. (i'm having trouble getting the captions in the right place, so i'll just number them below) 1. Near Eastern Market at about 10:30pm on Friday night. I would guess maybe 6 inches was on the ground at this point. 2. Saturday afternoon around 3pm. About 20 inches on the ground and still snowing steadily. 3. Smithsonian Metro Station. 4. the Korean War Memorial, which is eerie enough without the snow. Forecast shows 4-10" more are coming tomorrow night! Yeesh.

this week, i have experienced some 'you become like your parents as you get older' symptoms. let me explain. my dear ol' dad is the biggest fan of Doppler radar out there. my sister and i love to tell the story of the time (it has to be close to a decade ago, now) when he called from his office to see if it was raining at our house, because the Doppler said it was. my sister had picked up the phone in our dungeon basement that at that time doubled as our computer room, and the only source of outside light was through a small window that looked out into a grate on our driveway. when she responded that she couldn't tell, he asked if she'd mind going upstairs to check. i can't remember if sis complied or not, but remember thinking, didn't dad have anything better to do at work? then this week happened. we got a few inches of snow over the weekend. and a few more on tuesday night (which i took a walk in and it was the prettiest sight i've seen in a whil...

Here's how my Thursday started: About 5 minutes before I was ready to walk out the door, one of my contacts decided to lodge itself in the far reaches of my eye. After much coaxing and some cursing, and the addition of some eye drops, it returned to its proper place. My eye was bright red at that point so I opted to wear my glasses today. As I walked out the door, one of the buttons on my new winter coat popped off. The one that goes across my chest. So I was left with a button around my neck, and two around the middle, creating a nice gap in an obvious spot. The train ahead of mine malfunctioned, offloaded, and caused a 15 minutes standstill, followed by single-tracking. It took twice as long to get to work as it should have. The bright spot in my morning? The barista at Firehook put a coffee clutch with a smiley face on it on my latte. The kindness of a stranger brought some redemption to an otherwise hideous start to my day.

i'm not feeling terribly creative at the moment. I started a post about my tendency to be a bit of a sap and tear up at things like commercials for Extreme Home Makeover, but couldn't flesh it out. But i'm thinking about writing, which is a step. The words will come.

I didn't make any New Year's resolutions this year, at least not at the traditional time. Sometime in the past week, however, I decided that I needed to sign up for my 2nd 5k, and found one for March 13th . Then I decided my goal for 2010 will be to run three 5k's. And I will do whatever I have to in order to stick to that goal. Have I made it to the gym since? No. But at least the determination is there, and that's a start. This blog (and that post specifically) made me decide that I want to blog regularly again. I tend to only blog when I travel, but the only writing I do these days is in email form, which is less than satisfying. The world certainly doesn't need another blogger, but I need an outlet, and so I will attempt to write a weekly post, no topic off-limits. I have been happier these last few months than at any point in my adult memory, and I hope these two resolutions will deepen that happiness. Here's to a new year.