Its all the same moon, right?

Wrong. First of all, one side of the earth sees a totally different side of the moon than another. So if you've ever been comforted about looking up at the same moon as your lover/significant other/whoever is on the other side of the world its kind of a false hope. Yes, technically it IS in fact the same rock, but if someone is on the other side of the world, I'll tell ya one thing... different time zones. And you're not looking at it at the same time. But I'm not here to dispel that myth and rain on everybodys parade. I'm actually here to tell you about a celestial body. Mine in fact.

While I was in Lailibella, Ethiopia, we were able to see a bright sky that was lacking in something that we have in a huge abundance in the states. Light pollution. Now during certain seasons you can in fact get a glimpse of your favorite astrological sign or greek myth in the sky, but this one for me has kind of been a life long attempt. It only took until I was on the other side of the planet... So which one am I referring to? What do I keep alluding to? Will I ever just shut up and tell you? Of course.

I got to see Scorpio. Blazing bright in the sky. The sign I was barely born under and "rules" my actions. Pluto, which is no longer a planet, guides my emotions and water is my element. Here in North America the few times that Scorpio does pop up into the sky its usually at the horizon level and during dawn or dusk so basically there is no chance of me ever seeing it. I've tried. Many times. And failed every single one. So finally getting to see it high in the sky and straight on in front of me was really quite amazing. I'm so happy that I got to experience it because I feel like  no matter how much I believe or disbelieve in astrology that's a part of the sky I can call my own. That's my chunk of space way out there, where no man or woman has gone before. In that place probably lies paradise.

But when I was in Ethiopia the sky was clear and I wasn't looking up. My friend had to point it out to me. Which was odd that I wasn't looking up. Usually that's all I do. I can't help but look up because the sky and the heavens above me give me hope. I don't know in what, but it always makes me feel better and my life isn't that bad. It's actually quite nice.

So I might as well round up my "final" thoughts on the trip to Ethiopia now. As I've been home for a week I've given myself enough time to come back to reality and put my memories and experiences behind me. I'm back in the states.

The ride back here was fairly uneventful and the steward called me out on my fear of turbulance. I really didn't want to come all the way back to Texas as I feel I have the world left to explore. But there is still so much left for me to see! Even in my own backyard. Of all my friends I rank pretty low on the Explore Austin knowledge so while I can't travel outside of the city/state most of the time I will do my best to entertain you with my Adventures domestically.

Until we meet again my friends, do yourself a favor and go on an adventure.

I bet you think this blog is about you... don't you...

Well, no its not. Why you might ask? Cause it's about me sillys!  I am uploading some photos since I have a little bit of free time between my writing and procrastinating. So by the time you wake up and check the interwebs I have something nice and fresh for you to read! Since its 6amish Austin, TX time. So, here we go!

Chickens just roam wild here. They don't fear people either.

Yoli got an AWESOME care package from her dad. Filled with nothing but delicious goodies and snacks. Reeces, Doritos, PB&J and Ritz Crackers.... Oh! Be still my beating heart. She so kindly shared with all of us and it was an instant mood booster! Twas a happy moment for all! Not just her.

My new Ethiopian sisters. H1 and H2. They told me to call them that cause their names were HARD. I don't really know what they are actually called.

I contributed to the first night this girl was drunk. Ever. I feel very privilaged as we have bonded quite a bit this month. 

The party host! He was trying to make fun of Americans, so of course being who I am, interrupted him... then corrected him on how to make fun of Americans. If you're gonna make fun of me, DO IT RIGHT.

Biggest ripoff ever. How much you wanna bet that the coffee here is a million times better than real Starbucks?

At the spice market in Harar! 

Ginger and Garlic. My grandpa would be a kid in a candy store here.

Why yes, that is a guy with a baton, and right next to me a guy with an AK-47. Just sittin there protecting and serving. 

Tis the season. Its pomegranate time!

Henna on my palm! Its not lasting as long as I would like cause of that whole gross sweaty palm problem I've got... haha.

This is the one that will last a while. Its so perdy.

"I promise I won't eat you!"

Go go gadget Hyena time!

 

 

 

 

This is the stupid hyena not eating my professor.

So there it all is!! My last uploads from Africa! I'll write an overview blog when I get back to the states, and I'll notify you all when I get back into chicago! I realize I finished this at 11:45pm Y'alls time. Keep sending your entertaining emails. Catch me up on the American shenanigans happening without me.

Oh... Ive been watching a lot of BBC, and turns out I like being unawares in the states. But now I have knowledge of world goings on... So much for sheltering myself anymore. BBC is tha bomb.

Captains log... Somali Coast.

I bet you thought I would become a silly American captured by the Somalis and held for ransom at the tip of Africa off the coast of South Africa. Silly people!! They snatched me after my Henna was complete and they obviously gave me the captains design. They declared me their leader and now I am leading their cause...

Hahaha! Just kidding. I did go to Harar, and I did get henna, but no Somalis actually snatched me. In fact there were a few people who actually hissed at our group. Those damned dirty americans!

We actually got to see some Hyenas and my professor got to feed one with a stick in his mouth. I desperately wished that the beast was going to eat my professor, but alas...No luck there.

So tonight we wound down our final night all together by going back to the goat roasting place and they provided us with a buffet that was pretty delicious. They had something that slightly resembled brisket which was very tough but it was still yummy nonetheless.

There was drinking and dancing and I taught the local ladies how to "get low" and I was taught how to do the local shoulder dance. They said I was pretty good, and those ladies could get low... I was amazed. I embarrassed my professor by knowing and singing all the words to Baby Got Back and then more and more people were like "WTF Alyssa, any song you don't know?!" Which is close to no, but I know millions of lyrics just rusty on the artist/song title. My day is yet to come. I am so super excited to shine my musical knowledge at trivia again, but I must wait til July 11th as the GWD squad are nice enough to give their QM's a day off in the name of America.

So if the fireworks aren't cancelled, WHO'S IN?!

Pics when I get back to the USA. Sorry peeps.

The Others!

I haven't spoken much about my fellow students, but for the most part they are pretty cool.  My first instincts about them were thankfully WRONG! How often do you get to hear me say that? Not very... But one thing that I happened to notice was utterly hilarious.

The girls here are pretty cool, there is more than one "know it all" other than myself of course, and she occasionally gets on my nerves but nothing extreme. Another girl makes hilarious noises when she talks which actually reminds me of myself when I get excited about things. I think the most fortunate thing about this stay here is that I'm in a room all by myself. If I had a roomie here I no doubt would be plotting her death from day 2. A couple of the other girls are "party" types and they used a lot of my shampoo and conditioner, but other than that one thing they are pretty cool. The girls staying in the room across from me are pretty awesome too. One of those girls I was trapped in Jordan with and the other one is a very quiet at first type girl, but if you get her alone she will talk your ear off. Oh me oh my...

Now on to the two dudes. Ones name is Harlan. Which is pretty cool cause I have a family friend named Harlan as well! Now I know two Harlans! Its pretty nifty. He's a good guy and gets my stupid corny jokes. Like the one I made about my laptop being such a ho cause its so slotty.

The other dude was the one I predetermined to be my BFF on this trip. He was the only person I really talked to before we all left, and it was minimal chatter mainly due to the fact that our flights were both cancelled. But the more I learned about this one the more chummy we became. We was like peas and carrots. Then one day we were talking about stuff, and he was mentioning a lot of Anime, and then he mentioned some stupid game called the Settlers of Catan or something. I don't know how to spell it, I don't care to ever play it either. Then something clicked in my head. Oh snap. I asked him immediately after "Are you a D&Der?" and he got all excited and said "YES!" Damnit. That cursed game strikes again! So across the globe I find myself with another Dungeon and Dragon fiend. I think the universe is telling me something by sending me all these great friends with a sketchy D&D past present and future. I will continue my resistance and will not succumb to the game! I will not! Some of my friends have threatened me with putting me in a game but I will not fail in my mission to be D&D free. I will not curse those who play it...anymore. I accept the fact that my lovely lover roomie plays it however most infrequently... and I will just live and let live. Honestly I'm interested in watching people play as to perhaps do some kind of thesis paper on gamer types. But that's something that is far off in the distance.

No matter where I go, there it is.

You should check out the link I added at the end of the blog. Its completely satirical, but it seems that my Textbook follows this model in many instances. My textbook is written by someone born in Kenya. In Africa... Way to perpetuate the stereotype bro.

How to write about Africa

Beast of Burden

So at our first pit-stop we were swarmed with children selling little baskets and trinkets.

The first thing that came out of my mouth was politically incorrect. "Where are we? Mexico?"

This guy had a buddy right next to the bus, which scared the living daylights out of me. I screamed then promptly slammed the window shut.

Cute wild monkey with its wild monkey baby!

Eat your heart out Michael J. Fox. I went back in time to 2004 while simultaneously traveling 8 hours into the future.

SNOW! In Africa?

I'M ON A BOAT.

Papyrus salesman.

Papyrus bracelet I made.

The devil is portrayed in blue here and I have no clue why.

This Saint rides Giant Chickens. Or he is really small, I'm not sure which.

The Blue Nile, Hungry Hungry Hippo.

My theory on why Ethiopia LOVES Obama is purely because he is black.

"Oh? Whats that? You don't have a castle?"

Prisoner. I can haz amnesty?

Vato Jesus. I know he is supposed to be black and savior-y but he looks like a man from the hood ready to pop a cap.

The sickeningly sweet Tej

I'm totally a drummer in a band.

Hitler ruins EVERYTHING!

Got to watch a chant session.

I didn't actually take this photo. Women arent' allowed in this room. The deacon took my camera and snapped some photos for me though. What a nice guy.

This was done in three years.

Hard to believe...

Girl says, "Who is that?" My reply, "Duh, Gandalf."

More real version of Jesus VS Hollywood Jesus... WHO WILL WIN?!

Don't spit on me!!!

Arabic Coke.

So there you are. All the photos I promised! Enjoy! And if you have any questions on anything feel free to ask, cause I will give you the entire backstory.

To the pain...

Well actually I'm feeling much better today. At least as far as the stresses of my day to day life in Ethiopia are going. My original response paper I turned in that was one page written, got a C-. You may ask yourself, "WHAT?! THATS IT?!" Well actually I'm quite proud of that C-. A lot of other students typed out several page papers with no spacing at 12pt font and got a C+. So considering the amount of effort I put (10 minutes and one book read) VS the effort that other people put in (a few hours plus one book read) I did exponentially better than they did.  Had I known that my work was actually noteworthy I would have put in an extra 10 or 20 minutes of writing for that B or possible A, however by the way this professor grades (like a hard ass) I was under the assumption that whatever I did wouldn't be good enough and I was going to fail these classes miserably. Now it seems I stand a chance.

So instead of battling to the death, I will battle to the pain, and create papers that make small children scream and run away in the streets. Something so amazingly grotesquely perfect that I will at least get a B in this stupid class. I still have to lead a discussion (I'm the last person presenting) and write one more summary, a term paper and a test for the linguistics class.

For the culture class I still have to read a book (due thursday), write a response on said book (which will get me at least a B+), make some kind of cultural presentation, and take a test.

The only tricky part of all of this stuff is finding the time to read that book. I'll be doing a lot of reading tonight for my class presentation and the final summary I'm doing over age and language, and yes I'm taking precious study/reading time away to dilly dally on the interwebs, but honestly if I don't get the procrastination out of my system now I'm going to go bonkers.

In brighter news my computer is finally doing what I want it to do and is attempting to upload my photos from my card to my comp. I'd given up on plugging in the camera, so the card slot will just have to do. My computer is just super slotty. Has all kinds of ports and drives and slots to mess with. Just so slotty...  Anyways, once everything is done going to my computer you will get a double dose of dis blog today that will inclue PHOTOS!!!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!

In the meantime let me tell you how I've been holding up:
Yesterday I nearly lost my sanity what with all the stupid going on. My professor is still expecting unreasonable amounts of work but now it just seems a little more doable as I have been able to turn in 6 pages of work, and only need to turn in three pages of work tomorrow and lead a discussion. So while I was super frustrated some of the others dragged me down for dinner and I had the worst tomato soup ever, it tasted more like watered down prego or ragu more than tomato soup. But maybe I'm just accustomed to stuff thats from a can. I'm not sure if thats the case but who knows. It was terrible.

I got to talk to my loviest of lovers Alexha, and plans have been made for my glorious return to Texas. I can't wait to see all of you again as its probably going to be a stupid emotional teary return cause underneath my hard shell I'm a squishy emotional girl. I'm mostly curious as to what kind of sign I will get at the airport! Last year my darling lover held up a sign that said "Lover#1"  It was quite hilarious and I couldnt have been happier to see her! We've decided to get matchy rings and Maybe our secret thing tattood :-p The day that girl gets a tattoo hell might freeze over and cotton candy will rain from the skies...

So I think I didn't really mention what was going on while I was away so now you can have that little rundown as I will summarize an email in super shorthand type.

Day1: drove 12 hours, saw a TON of donkeys. Little burros and burritos! It started raining cats and dogs, and then as we closed in on our destination we encountered some SNOW! I know right?! SNOW IN AFRICA!!!! Yeah we were kinda high up, but we were still lower than Addis Ababa. I stayed in the ghettoest hotel in Bahadir and even with my mosquito net I still got some bites.

Day 2: toured some monasteries that were exactly the same. I saw some HIPPOS on the mouth of the Blue Nile. Yeah, thats right. De Nile is not just a river in Egypt ;) And hippos are SUPER dangerous and super territorial. After this place we drove to Gondar and toured a 16th century castle/palacial place. A pigeon scared me and I jumped across the ancient banquet hall in one fail swoop.

Day 3: Drove 14 hours to Lailibela and saw lots of donkeys and goats. Many photos of the countryside/mountains/grassland/mudhuts. Arrive in Lailibela and get to try Tej. Its about the sweetest stickiest stuff ever. When we cheers-ed My glass shattered. Hulk/Alyssa smash!

Day 4: Tour 10 different churches. Badass churches carved out of rocks and cliffs and are historically preserved now. Someone said that Jesus helped them build it. We interpreted that as the spirit of Jesus helped them carry on. Changed hotels. Power went out, we had a hotel party and the staff told us to shut up. Stupid loud americans sitting in a room talking. SO LOUD. We must promote stereotypes.

Day 5: VOMIT CITY! I woke up, drank water, and threw up. A lot. More than I drank. I didn't think I had it in me. Litterally. So I get on the bus and I get some Zofran from a friend and it keeps me calm enough that i don't puke all over the bus. can't eat, drink or think. first pit stop they trick me into drinking a coke and eating a tiny cookie. nearly threw it up.  second pit stop bus driver gets me some phenergan. Sweet dreams on the bus from then on. stop at new hotel and sleep nearly the whole time I'm there.

Day 6: 12 more hours of driving. make it home to the Ras Hotel and I can drink reasonable amounts of liquid and eat tiny amounts of food.

I've relapsed a little bit here and there, but nothing I didn't expect already. Next blog: photo time!
 

When it rains it pours

So here I am in Africa... Ethiopia to be more specific. The rainy season has just started and the following things are becoming considerably irksome:

1. Financial Aid got all jumbled
2. Professor expects to cram a whole semester into one week
3. I seem to be cracking under the pressure and I really need to get the stress out
4. too polluted to go running and get stress out.

So here I am, venting my frustration to you my friends on the wide wonderful public land known as the internet. I'm so fortunate that in my life everything seems to crumble in upon itself all at once. No matter where I am located on the globe it all seems to happen at once. I guess this is just a part of that globalization everybody keeps mentioning. Everything is linked no matter where you are, so if America fails, Everything starts failing with it.

So as far as the work I am expected to miraculously pull out of my ass, which I usually do, I have about 10 pages of writing to do tonight, and a research paper due at the end of next Tuesday, a practical project due on Monday, and another book to be completely read and responded on by Thursday. I am going to lose my mind here and I only have 11 days left. The 29th can't get here soon enough. Tomorrow we are supposed to be excursioning to the biggest market place in the world. Our bus driver (the one that drove us for a week straight) advised against it. As we are white foreigners the merchants will want nothing more than to rip us off. Since our professor wants to cram 6 hours of class in per day til Friday when we take a three day trip to Harar, he is just shoving everything down our throats and expecting us all to shit out golden bricks of the purest quality. Did I mention that it was nearly impossible to find the book I need for class? Yeah, I only have one of the required textbooks. I borrowed my profs book for tonight but it must be returned by breakfast tomorrow morning. I'm skipping the jaunt to the market because I have zero interest in getting further ripped off because of being white, and I honestly just don't have the time. I need to finish reading that stupid Lions gaze book. I was able to power though the one about the Hyenas Belly, but I can only handle so much. I doubt I even absorbed half of what the book was saying. Mostly war and death and famine and how Ethiopia went through a ton of gov't changes. This book about the Lions Gaze is very similar except its just fictional writing and nothing true like the Hyena book.

I think I'm done with study abroad for good now. This is completely ridiculous. Is it time to come home yet? I need my sanity back. I much prefer the silly chaos of home life to this trivial one semester for two classes in one week business.

/rant over

Alyssa