Our original plan, all through the year-long RTW trip, was to spend the summer in Boise, helping Mama and Papa "prep" to move, until about September or so, by which time I would have been offered a fabulous job that would probably involve moving to the East Coast for a couple of years, until we could actually get to Africa. The problem with this plan, is that it would involve moving to the East Coast, which neither of us is at all fond of. But whatever, we're willing to suck it up, sometimes.

But then, after spending about four days in Boise, I realized how much I really do like it: there's so little traffic, and people are so nice. Plus, Idaho has everything we love to do in the out of doors. The politics leave a lot to be desired, but really, other than that, Boise is perfect. So we've decided to stay for a couple of years while we figure out a way of getting to Africa without having to spend a few years back East.

Naturally, however, all of this means we need to be seeking employment. Or at least one of us does, anyway. So as all good decision makers do when making important, potentially life-changing decisions, we played rock paper scissors to determine which one of us has to actually get a job. And sadly, I lost. David wouldn't even go for my best-out-of-three ploy! Can you believe it?

So now, whenever we get around to making the old house presentable to sell, I'll be looking for a job. Sigh. But until then, I won't have one, which is just so much better.

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A month later, we're in the final stages of moving (we hope), and, as such, have taken to following David's prescription, which is to "blitz" rooms. I'm not sure why he uses that word, but whatever, it seems to suit the action, since in blitzing we remove everything from a room. In doing so we find some interesting things, like a grocery recipt from July 13, 1989. Want to know what was purchased? Of course you do!

Continue reading "the things you find" »

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We haven't done too much in Mendoza over the three weeks we've been here, other than going to the zoo (where, of course, we took lots of pictures), running and spending entirely too much time watching tv. It makes me feel so decadent. Courtesy of the public library and its (rather pitiful) collection of English books, my brain also managed to not rot completely, since I finally decided to take up one of David's favorite science writers.

Continue reading "thinking about stars" »

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People sometimes express surprise that we're able to travel together for so long. It can be hard: we have just each other to talk to, all day, every day. But we manage. Actually, we more than manage: we're quite compatible, all things considered, and when we're not so compatible, well, like most couples we've figured out how to bicker with the best of them. One of the ways in which we are compatible is that we're not terribly sentimental people, so it wasn't until we'd been separated while I was living in Morocco that we came up with "our song." David played it for me when he came to visit one time, and of course I loved it. It just fits us so well. In honor of our 11 years together today (I know, we can't believe it, either!), I highly recommend you find the song online to listen to. But if you can't, the lyrics are below.

Happy anniversary to us!

Since you been gone--Weird Al
(sung a cappella, in the style of a barbershop quartet)

Since you've been gone
Well, I feel like I've been chewing on tinfoil
Since you've been gone
It's like I got a great big mouthful of cod liver oil
Oh well, I'm feelin like I stuck my hand
Inside a blender and turned it on
You know, I've been in a buttload of pain
Since you've been gone

(Since you've been gone)
I couldn't feel any worse if you dropped
A two-ton bowling ball on my toes
(Since you've been gone)
It couldn't hurt any more if you shoved
A red-hot cactus up my nose

Since you've been gone
Well, it feels like I'm getting tetanus shots every day
Since you've been gone
It's like I've got an ice cream headache that won't go away
Ever since that day you left me
I've been so miserable, my dear
I feel almost as bad as I did
When you were still here

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Since it is the holiday season, and we should all be thinking of others, I thought I'd point you to this site. It's one of the nifty "save the world without spending any of your own money" sites. This time the site is Bradt, the publisher of one of the better guidebooks, and one that we like because of their focus on conservation. Which is why you can choose from five animals to donate money to.

So, again, if you want to use your trigger finger and click to give, go here.

Happy holidays!

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Irene recently mentioned her degree in film studies, but she neglected to tell you that she also has a masters in Moving Image Archiving and Preservation (MIAP!). But what really qualifies her to write about movies, which David and I nagged her to do for us for months, is the fact that she really, really loves movies.

When we were little, on weekend nights we would sneak upstairs into the TV room, after Mama and Papa had gone to bed, and watch old movies on AMC until the wee hours of the morning. Of course, this was back when AMC was still a good channel and actually showed classic movies, which apparently is doesn't do anymore. We watched most of the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies, as well as Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn (sometimes together!), and lots of other great stars. Sometimes we were disappointed and had to sit through a boring Western until another musical, comedy or drama would come on, but usually we were lucky.

After a few years, though, I started staying up late reading and leaving Irene to watch movies by herself. Which she did, with impressive regularity. And she still does, because, did I mention this, she really loves movies ? And TV. So if you have any questions about old, new, obscure or box-office movies that you'd like answered, feel free to ask her. We always do.

UPDATE: Irene has informed me that part of the reason AMC sucks now, is that Turner bought out RKO's archive, simultaneously making Turner Classic Movies way cooler to watch, and AMC not at all.

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Some things are supposed to be simple--like sending postcards. A little handwritten message on the back of a picture taken in the 60's can be flung around the world with just a fistful of stamps in just six short weeks. Can it be called anything other than stunning? However, I just learned, to my shock, that the post office places a long white sticker with a barcode or something along the bottom edge of postcards, presumably in the name of automation. It is troubling to think about how long it would take without this automation. Sadly, of course, this is also the place on the card where I usually end with an pithy, idiomatic--read, boring--salutation and a handsome signature. Now I find out that for some time all the postcards I've sent seem to end in mid-thought. So, if you've received one of these postcards, this post is to emphasize that underneath that tape I'm closing the message, rather than just writing a short note and not

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Yes, 'tis I, Irene, Leah's interfering sister with another post on my recent trip to India. And yes, it is true that I have never met a comma that I wasn't willing to use, and if necessary, abuse.

While I have many memories of my last trip to India, some of the strongest memories involve transportation. Primarily riding on trains. Train travel, particularly in western United States, is definitely not the preferred method of transport, so it has always held a kind of mystique for me. I think train travel still holds a certain mystique for many Indians, though it is also completely commonplace. During my first trip, I learned that there are enough train tracks throughout the country that if they were laid one after another, they would circle the Earth three times.

I took several trains while in India—round trips from Kolkata to Kharagpur; Kolkata to New Delhi; New Delhi to Agra; and finally Kolkata to Darjeeling. While we rode primarily in first class—thus ensuring reserved seats or in the case of overnight travel, bunks as well as the luxury of air conditioning—one of the fondest memories is the return trip to Kolkata from Darjeeling. Due to some snafu or another that I can't quite recall, we rode in a 2nd class compartment. Meaning the seats were not padded and there was no air conditioning. Fortunately the monsoons had started to make their selves known and I got to watch a storm gather, break and retreat from the vantage of my open window seat. It was quite an experience and I was looking forward to another Indian railways experience this past trip.

Continue reading "tata sumos, ambassadors, and a rickshaw, oh my!" »

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I'm in the middle of reading Jack London's Cruise of the Snark. Several of the passages he wrote about taking an around-the-world voyage in a sailboat resonated rather well, given some of the questions we've been asked about why we travel, so of course I thought I'd let someone else more coherently express what I feel.

Our friends cannot understand why we make this voyage. They think I am crazy. In return, I am sympathetic. It is a state of mind familiar to me. We are all prone to think there is something wrong with the mental processes of the man who disagrees with us.

...The things I like constitute my set of values. They thing I like most of all is personal achievement--not achievement for the world's applause, but achievement for my own delight. It is the old, "I did it! I did it! With my own hands I did it!"

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With some free time this week, I wrote a few small programs (scripts) to generate a webpage that displays my reading list. I've finally disentangled myself from the yoke of MediaQueue and entangled myself with my own code, uninspiringly named BookGallery. Improvements include the flexibility to add my own ratings, comments, and provide links to WorldCat, rather than Amazon. WorldCat is a search engine that locates books at libraries nearest to you, or, if you're dying to spend money, the ubiquitous Amazon link is on many WorldCat pages. On the downside, my scripts don't have a nice graphical interface, like MediaQueue's, to search for books--at least, not yet. However, for now, I plan to pause development on BookGallery and use some re-acquired free time to read.

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Amy, our wonderful friend, posted about geotagging in flickr. If, like myself, you are new to geotagging, it's a map that displays thumbnail pictures positioned where the photos were taken. Truely spatial people may be touched with awe, probably somewhere on the right side of the brain. With joy, I just discovered geotagging is also possible with Picasa and Google Earth. Randomly, I found a nice tutorial on Picasa geotagging by Joe Hughes. I don't know the full extent of the functionality yet, but I did save a file so click here to download three pictures from Labor Day weekend. One disadvantage to this file: it must be opened with Google Earth, so you need to have it installed on your computer. But if you have Google Earth, or don't mind downloading it (for free), the map and picture set is fun.

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David and I have been together for long enough that today was the 10th birthday of mine we've spent together. He asked, this morning, where I've been on all my birthdays and going through the list, I thought it was kind of neat.

Turned 22 in Boise, ID
Turned 23 in Zurich, Switerland
Turned 24 in Boise, ID
Turned 25 in Bursa, Turkey
Turned 26 in Boise, ID
Turned 27 in Essaouira, Morocco
Turned 28 in Padova, Italy
Turned 29 on the Mulange Massif in Malawi
Turned 30 in Old Jeshwang, The Gambia
Turned 31 in Haerbin, China

Tentatively we'll be biking in Scotland or Ireland for my next birthday, but you can be sure we'll keep you all updated.

-Leah

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Thanks to our fabulous friend Amy, we now have this website, which we thought might be a better way to share travel information than the mass emails. If nothing else, it means no more flooding of inboxes every summer. Also, it means I don't have to feel like you're all just dying to hear what we have to say, when you probably have other things to do.

We're planning on posting pictures in addition to writing once a week or so, so come back when you want and enjoy!

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We shall not cease from exploring, and at the end of our exploration, we will return to where we started, and know the place for the first time. -T.S. Eliot

Becoming, never being, till / Becoming is a being still. -Stanley Kunitz

...I’ve seen a lot of people and places, and at least I have a somewhat more detailed and precise idea of my ignorance than I did in the beginning. -Paul Bowles

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