Categories
Mombasa

Did a Whole Term Just Fly By?

In fact, yes.

Tomorrow will be the last day of classes for this term, followed by exams week.  I’ll be administering the same exams as last term, maybe just with the questions reordered, since it will provide an easy way to track progress.  This means, then, that tomorrow is the last real day of the term!

That’s not to say that it’s been a tough week, though, because it hasn’t.  On Tuesday morning I had a hard time opening my left eye, which is not normal.  A look in the mirror revealed that either I was transforming in the Toxic Avenger, or I had an eye infection.  As it turns out, I’ll never know, because the eye drops I stopped whatever it was from progressing.

It turns out that I wasn’t alone though—there had been a breakout at the school, with other teachers, students, even the cooks having disgusting, swollen red eyes.  I decided to stay home and wallow, and up until today (Thursday), I haven’t really interacted with my own students, since the thing seems highly contagious.

I did add a pictures section to the blog while I was hiding out in my house.  You should check it out, especially those of you who skim my blog and tolerate my ramblings just in case I post any more animal photos—now you can see all my new pictures consolidated in one place!  The link is the “Pics” tab, toward the top of the site.

I wasn’t a total blog nerd, though.  I snuck out yesterday evening and I saw Up in the Air, which was a good flick, but it made me a bit sad and lonely.  After the movie I shared a tuk-tuk back to town with a Chinese girl going to a nightclub.  The ride was a real language test.  Between me (English), her (Mandarin?), and the tuk-tuk driver (Swahili), we could barely communicate at all.  I did establish that she moved to Kenya to sell mobile phones, and/or she wanted my mobile number.  Maybe both.  Ironically, she’ll have to get in line, because the girl who works at the neighborhood Nokia shop just sent me a text message saying that she misses my “cute face!”  (It’s a long story, but don’t worry, her SMS was completely strange and unwarranted.)

So the adventures continue in Kenya.  Speaking of which, I’ll probably be taking a real vacation soon, and heading west to Uganda to raft the Nile, and then down to Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo!  The plans aren’t done, but stay tuned.

Categories
Mombasa

Geotagging Experiment

Here are some pictures I’ve taken around town with my phone, geotagged automatically and placed on a handy little Google Map:

You can also view these same pictures plotted on maps at my Picasa page and my Panoramio page, for a total of THREE Google-owned ways of viewing the same data!  (Oh, and you can launch Google Earth from any of the three sites—making a true total of FOUR!)

Does anyone find this interesting?  Should I try to do one of these methods for future pictures on the blog?

Categories
Lamu Masai Mara Mombasa Nyali Watamu

Family Visit!

Will write more later.  For now, catch up on the photos:

Me, my sister and my mom in Mombasa:

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And in Watamu and Malindi:

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And on safari with the fam and my girlfriend:

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And visiting an officially-sanctioned tourist-friendly Massai village:

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