A Good Day

So you'd think a short week (after having Monday off) would mean it would be an easy week... but that wasn't the case. However, instead of going through my list of grievances from my week, I'd rather run down my Saturday for you. It began with sleeping until about 7am, getting up to let the pooperdog pee and eat breakfast, and proceeding to crawl back in bed until sometime after 10:30. This was followed by a somewhat lazy progression of getting up (as in going to lay in the hammock, then laying in the recliner, and finally taking a shower (that was progress, I could have laid in the tub, but I was too lazy to clean it). Then Debbie, Ryan (her new boyfriend) and her little brother Nate came and picked me up and we went to find some fun. We started with bumper boats (I lost... had a very wet butt), proceeded to cheer for Ryan and Nate as they drove a go-kart, and then cheer for them as they road the (very very slow) train. Then the grownups played in the batting cages for a while (I did good!). Then it was off to some lunch, followed by a great game of putt-putt golf (I came in second, thanks to our generous "let's call that a 4" rule). This was followed by the mandatory trip to the big slide. Then I came home, picked up laundry, stopped by McDees and headed to the Leija's to babysit the kiddos while the parents got some adult time. Lucy and I made peanut butter cookies and then we all watched UP. All in all... a pretty good day :)

Double Moose Day!

So I haven't blogged much since I haven't had much good stuff to report... I love my new class, but everything else is a bit crappy. But today I went on a hike with fun friends and we saw TWO moose!! :)

Bierstadt Lake

So on our way up to Bierstadt Lake yesterday, Debbie and I saw 6 bears and a herd of 17 HUGE moose! We also saw 11 giraffes, 2 elephants, and a tiger.

Ok, actually we saw some ducks and a lot of squirrels.... but it was a good hike :)

Just life

So my brother was ragging on me the other day about not blogging much lately, to which I replied that not much was going on in my life, to which HE replied was when the best bloggers blogged about nothing! Well apparently I'm not the best blogger, but I figured I'd still blog a little about nothing just to keep you up to date on my not-really-exciting life. :)
So summer school is in the second week and will be over Friday. My answer when people ask how it's going is "well.... I'm getting paid extra to do it!" Actually it's not too bad, I just don't feel that it is really very helpful to many of the kids. Science has been fun though. We've blown up Diet Coke (with Mentos) and made snot (out of borax and glue) and dissected a virtual frog. We're also doing an egg drop this Friday, so they've been testing their egg-protecting inventions to see if they can have their egg not break when they chuck it off the second story of the school.
Outside of summer school I'm still just enjoying life in the mountains. Debbie and I went for a hike in the park the other day and saw a very cute and very fat black bear. He was right on the trail (and Debbie was a little freaked out) but he didn't give a hoot that we were there... he was just eating his berries and digging for bugs under the rocks to get all chubby for winter. It sucks that Sherlock can't go into the National Park, but I take him swimming a lot nearby, so he's been a happy pup.
That's really about it from here... I'm off to play with the pupper dog and then do some yoga!

The Happy Bus!

Susan had this picture on her camera and finally posted it on facebook, but I thought I'd put it here too :) From left to right: Jordan, Jessica, Me, Benjamin (our driver), Ben, Kathryn, Susan, and Tim -- aka the happy bus :)

P.S. Summer school is going well :)

Last Days of Freedom

So I've been avoiding the blog because I really don't want to admit that summer is coming to an end.... but it is :( Next week I start teaching half-days of summer school for two weeks, and then there's a week of inservice and work-days, and then all the kiddos come on the 23rd. I'm ready to be back in a routine, and I am ready to have the fun of teaching... but not quite ready for the stress that I know will come with it.
Anyway, just to catch you up on life stuff, I was in a bit of a post-Africa funk for a while. It was hard to come back to "normal" life after that amazing trip. Luckily, I got to go spend a week down at the parents' house and play with the Vermont Frostman crew. Since then I've just been enjoying the perks of living in a Colorado mountain town (although I would be really happy if I didn't have to share it with all the stupid tourists). I got to see my first Estes Park bear just across the road from my house (he was little and very cute!). A long-time friend (and life guru) from California stopped by for a visit and it was wonderful to see him. I also drove down to Colorado Springs for an unofficial reunion with my CC-Masters crew. Most of all, i've finally had time to hang out with my friends here and have enjoyed hikes, lunches, shopping trips, and dinners. Here's a picture of some of the gals on a hike that we did recently to some lakes up in RMNP.

In other life news, I'm also car shopping since Cujo is 10 years old and I REALLY want a new car. I'm 99% sure that I'll be getting a 2011 Subaru Impreza hatchback. I'll have to wait until I get my extra $$ from teaching summer school to pay off the final portion of the Africa trip before I bite into the new-car-loan debt... but the 2011's haven't hit the dealerships yet anyway, so I think (hope) I'll have time to find my perfect car before the snow gets here.
Anyway, today I'm off to get my hair cut, play some putt putt golf, and enjoy a summer concert in the park. Gotta enjoy these last days as much as possible :)

Trip Report Part VII (Nairobi, getting home, and memories...)

Sorry it's taken me a few days to get this last post done. I had a great weekend hanging out with friends, hiking, and especially watching the Estes Park fireworks show. Fantastic!! :) So anyway, here's the wrap-up of the Africa trip:

I'm putting the pictures link here, since this is a longer (and not-as exciting) post, and there aren't many pictures for these last couple of days.
Sunday (6/20) we had to say goodbye to the Masai Mara and head back to Nairobi. It was nice to see a herd of elephants, some zebra, buffalo, and wildebeests come to the road to say goodbye to us (apparently the cheetah didn't get the memo that we were leaving). We drove back through the Great Rift Valley, but the light was pretty flat, so the pictures aren't nearly as impressive as the valley itself is. We were all pretty worn out at this point, so there was a lot of van-napping. We also shared pet-pictures (Ben and Kathryn have two kitties and Tim and Susan have two bunnies!) and exchanged email addresses and such. Benjamin took us on a shortcut back to Nairobi which took us through the rich suburbs. It was really bizarre, after all the poverty we had seen, to be driving through this gated community of mansions and gardens (and I found it funny that the road was as full of pot holes there as anywhere else!) Ben and Kathryn were staying at a different hotel outside of the city center, so we dropped them off first and then headed back to the Stanley. I have forgotten in the last posts to tell about how now, whenever I hit my head, I'll think of Ben... as (being 6'4") he hit his head on Jesus or something else multiple times per day. I suppose it sounds awful to say that after the first several times, we just laughed, but he never really seemed to be bothered :) Anyway, I have to say it was kind of depressing to say goodbye to new friends and drive back into all that traffic and pollution and know that my time in the wild of Africa was over. It's a very good thing that I had my Jessica and Jordan with me, because I knew that WE would still get to have fun for these last couple of days. We had decided to share a room these last couple nights, so we checked back into the Stanley, and said goodbye and a HUGE thank-you to Benjamin (who was very excited to get back home to his friends and family to spend his tip-money on a big beer party). Then we also said goodbye to Tim and Susan (who were flying out the next day), and headed up to our room. It was actually a really nice, big room (the pictures of Nairobi are from our balcony), and while it took us over a day to figure out how to turn the lights on and off the way we wanted to (thanks Jordan, you're so smart!) we were glad to be able to relax.
I was really torn between taking a nap, and heading out to explore the city with Jess and Jordan, but when the concierge told us that the Masai market probably wouldn't be open the next day, we all decided that we wanted to give it a shot. Now I have to say that the people at the hotel had many suggestions of things for us to do in Nairobi, but going to this market was not one of them, and in fact we got the overall impression that they really did NOT suggest that we go. I am guessing that this is because the "suggested" activities were all things like museums and parks... things where you had to pay admission and thus were "safe" for tourists... but Jordan felt pretty confident that we would be just fine, so off we went. First we stopped at the Nairobi version of a fast-food place. Very surreal to be ordering a burger and fries while on a trip to Africa (even more of an experience to be the only white people in the restaurant...and probably on the whole city block) Honestly the food wasn't that great (especially as their version of ketchup is a watered-down sweet and sour sauce), but it was an interesting experience. So then we walked a few more blocks to the market. Basically this was just a big fenced-in city block with somewhere in the neighborhood of a hundred little booths (by booths, I mean blankets on the ground and sometimes a table, rarely an actual booth) that sold all kinds of things from jewelry to bead work to t-shirts to woodwork. I don't know if this market was reserved only for people of the Masai tribes, but many of the people sitting at their booths were dressed in the traditional Masai garb (although plenty of others weren't). As we headed towards the square, we were SWARMED by men. If I hadn't been with Jessica and Jordan, I would have been absolutely terrified, and even with them, I was pretty a little scared and definitely uncomfortable. I didn't exactly feel threatened physically... no one tried to actually grab me in any way, but they all wanted to shake hands, and there was absolutely NO personal space. We were kind of herded into the square, and then it took a while for Jordan to get most of the men to disperse. Apparently, these are the salesmen of the whole market, and while we never did figure out how it all worked, it seemed to be kind of like a furniture store, where the next salesman in line got to pounce on the next person in the door. So we were assigned a few men to help us, and we began to walk around the market. These guys were this bizarre combination of really pushy and really nice and helpful. They were dressed in regular clothing, and often seemed to talk down to the individual booth runners, but no one seemed to protest to this. I still would like to know how the whole thing works. Anyway! They wanted us to pick out anything that we might like and call it a "maybe" and then they would carry our "maybes" around while we looked at other things. Jordan said that this was very different from the markets in Nigeria (where you deal with each booth individually), but we adapted and found some things that we loved. Jordan and Jessica had been on the hunt for some rugs for their home in Nigeria, but we didn't have any luck. We did find some artwork, cloth, and jewelry that we liked, and after some interesting bargaining (thank you again Jordan!) we called it a day. I don't know that I exactly "liked" the market, there were more children begging and a good portion of the people working the booths seemed to be unhappy... but as it was late in the day perhaps they just wanted to go home. Either way, it was part of the experience, and I'm really thankful that I was there with Jessica and Jordan so that I was able to have that experience since I know I would never have done it alone. Oh... I also found out after the fact that my personal shopper/assistant, Issac, had offered to pay Jordan 200 cows to marry me. Now I don't really know if that is a good offer or not, but thank the lord for my friend who did NOT sell me at the market :)
So back at the room, we decided that we were really worn out and deserved a day of relaxation, so we went up to the spa and booked massages for the next day. Then it was back to the room for some long showers, catch-up-on-email time, watching tv, and order room-service time! It felt so good to just hang out with friends, look at safari pictures, and of course, watch some football (soccer) on TV :) We all crashed relatively early.
Monday (6/21) we were all planning to sleep in, but after a week of waking up early... yup... I woke up early. As we hadn't figured out how to turn on/off individual lights yet, and I wasn't up for showering in the dark, I decided to look at safari pictures instead, which I did until I got sleepy again. Eventually we all got up and had a big breakfast and then went up to lounge around by the pool. Unfortunately it got cloudy, but we still enjoyed just being lazy and not being on a schedule. After a while Jessica and I went and poked around the shops in/near the hotel, but didn't find anything good. Eventually it was time for our massages (which were heavenly) and then some nap-time. My tummy hadn't been feeling very well that morning, and wasn't any better by the evening, so Jordan and Jessica went to the Thai restaurant in the hotel (apparently very good) while I hung out in the room and watched a movie. While it was certainly no fun not to feel good, I was so glad that if I had to not feel good, it was when there was nothing better we had to do! We spent the rest of the evening just talking and watching TV... with a little bit of re-packing.
Tuesday (6/22) we had scheduled a late checkout time, so we weren't in any hurry to get up and showered. I went to breakfast with Jess and Jordan, but my tummy still wasn't interested in having food in it, so I headed back up to the room to finish packing. We checked out around noon, but the safari company wasn't picking us up until 2:30ish so we stashed our luggage at the front desk and headed back up to the pool area. We came back down around 2:00 and waited in the lobby until we were picked up. I had decided to go to the airport with Jess and Jordan even though their flight left like 4 hours before mine just to make sure I got there in plenty of time, so while I sat and read a book, they checked in and then we said our goodbyes. I think it helped the goodbye not be too sad since I knew I would see them again really soon as they are back in the states for a bit now... otherwise I think I would have been in tears. What amazing friends they are :)
So to keep a very long and boring part of this story relativly short, I had a very long but uneventful trip back to the states. Once my flight was posted, I checked in and spent a couple of hours wandering around the Nairobi airport, shopping and people-watching. Then I went through security at the gate and eventually got on another very big plane for another very long flight. I was a little worried about eating, so I picked at the food, but luckily my tummy seemed ok with the stuff I chose. Unfortunately, I think the dry airplane-air and overall tiredness of my body gave into the airplane germs and by the time we got to Amsterdam I felt like complete crap. Luckily after some exploring, I found a quite lounge-type area with lounge-chair type seats and was able to sleep for a couple of hours. Then I wandered around, got something to munch, and got on another big plane. I watched a couple of movies, napped some more, and coughed and sneezed a lot (sorry other people on the plane... although I always covered my mouth!). Eventually we got to JFK... which was a nightmare. Whatever idiot designs and/or runs that place should be shot. Although the immigration guy who checked me in did make me laugh by saying he would much rather teach 22 4th graders than do his job (I said me too!!) So eventually I got on yet another plane, and after sitting on the runway for an hour, we actually took off (the pilot said that most airlines predict this with JFK and thus it was built into our flight plan and we shouldn't be very late... which is just sad). Back in good old DIA, I found my mommy and my luggage and we headed back to my aunt's house. Mums really wanted me to spend the night there, but I was awake, feeling yucky, and REALLY wanting my own bed, so I rolled down all the windows and enjoyed driving home in the moonlight and fresh mountain air. It was nice to be home... although I think I will always miss Africa. It was certainly the trip of a lifetime and I am so very glad that I went. I'm so thankful that I went with friends (and met new friends!) and I certainly gained a new side to my perspective on life. There are still a lot of things that I feel like I need in my life, need to have, or need to accomplish... but sometimes it's good to remember, as they say in Kenya (and they really do say it!!) Hakuna Matata!! (no worries!)