Briana's Travels

Well it didn't take long... I don't usually get sick in Kenya, but I have been having a little tummy trouble for the last day and a half or so. I must have eaten something iffy. Or maybe it was accidentally brushing my teeth with the tap water on my first day. Regardless, it knocked me out for Friday night and most of yesterday, but I'm beginning to feel better. All I ate yesterday was an avocado (they are so inexpensive and delicious here, along with the juicy mangoes!), some banana flavored yogurt, loads of soup and herbal tea, and one actual meal - the fish fillet from Dorman's Cafe in the Sarit Center for an early dinner. I finally did some foodshopping, figuring I'd prefer cooking in to eating out especially when I wasn't feeling well. I was impressed to see a slightly larger variety of food than last year, and even a few organic labels. I bought some bok choy, feeling adventurous, and having had a yummy bok choy and mushroom dish at a Chinese restaurant in...

Yes, I'm finally here! Actually I've been here for nearly 48 hours now. I just haven't had a chance to write yet... My flight over was uneventful. Peter dropped me off at the airport, and even waited on the line for security as long as he could with me. Both of my flights were full, and I had the pleasure of having not one, but two crying babies within three rows of me on my Amsterdam-Nairobi flight! Thankfully, I was so tired from not having slept a wink on the first flight that I slept a lot on the second one. I watched the Golden Compass too, which I enjoyed. Stepping off the airplane into the airport in Nairobi, and I felt right at home. It was great! I sailed through the immigration line since I already had my visa, and got a good spot with my cart at the baggage claim. There was a really friendly airport attendant helping an elderly Kenyan woman in a wheelchair, she was positioned next to me. I realized with a smile that I understood a lot of the Swahili they were spe...

This bridge is on the University of Minnesota campus. It's pretty cool - well, it was actually pretty hot, since it's enclosed and it was hot out! But it's cool because lots of student organizations from the university paint advertisements on the bridge walls, beneath the windows. I found myself musing about the different experiences of going to a small college, like I did, and a huge university, like this one. I loved going to college at Bryn Mawr, and I wouldn't trade my experiences there for the world, but there are likely more, and different, clubs and organizations at a big school. Like the opportunity for weekly torch juggling. Lots of activist and political societies; the "swingers" club (for tennis players); the hurling club (no, not for people getting sick after frat parties!); and clubs for students from various countries around the world, like Cambodia, Sudan, and Peru. I don't even know if there was one student from any one of those countries i...

I took this kinda washed-out picture of the Metrodome, which is where the name the neighborhood my hotel is in comes from. Across a bridge, though -- the bridge from which I took this picture -- in Kilimajaro Cafe country, is a whole different neighborhood with tons of Ethiopians and other darker-skinned Africans. I went for a run when I got to my hotel - well, after it had cooled off a little - which is one of the ways I like to get to know a city. And I saw a lot of Ethiopians! I'm pretty sure Ethiopian women are the most beautiful women in the world.

The Kilimanjaro Cafe is across the street from a store with colorful kayaks in the window, which caught my eye.

Now I have a chance to catch up on my blogging... After walking to the metro, to a bus to Dulles airport, changing planes in Detroit, I arrived in Minneapolis. I took the light rail into the city, since there was a stop about half a mile from my hotel - cheaper and greener than taking a taxi. As I was walking from the light rail station to the hotel, I passed a restaurant called Kilimanjaro Cafe (see photo). Cool! Of course, I ended up eating there. It said it was East African food, but it was Ethiopian, specifically. Don't get me wrong, I love me some injera and deliciously-spiced goodness, and having a veggie combo for one for under $10 was pretty rocking. But I was hoping for Kenyan or Tanzanian food, since, uh, last time I checked, Kilimanjaro is in Tanzania. But I'll be getting enough of that soon...enough. (Sorry - had an Austin Powers moment there. As in, allow myself to introduce...myself. That line never fails to crack me up).

No, I'm not really going to Nairobi via Minneapolis (that would be a bit out of the way, wouldn't it??), but before I embark on my trip to Kenya, I'm now on a 2-day trip to Minneapolis. I'm attending an all-day workshop on teaching evolution tomorrow, and I'm excited. Anyway, before I get to Minneapolis, this is what I did in the past few days: - I did a lot of work fact-checking scientific content for a big project I'm working on, as we had a big deadline yesterday. Want to know what percentage of our genes we share with a banana? How about how old several more well-known fossil Neanderthal kids were when they died? If Homo erectus was carrying a carcass of a kill back to it's social group to share and eat, what would that carcass look like and how would it be carried? Want to see a map of all the fossil and archaeological sites where modern humans have been found between 200,000 and 100,000 years ago in Africa, which is the span of time during which our sp...

I'm leaving for my annual migration to Kenya soon, just like the wildebeest.... well, only there's a few million less of me than there are of them. Also, I'd like to think I run in a few less circles than they do, given that they spend their year basically making a big circle between Kenya and Tanzania in the Serengeti/Mara ecosystem (though that's debatable!). I'm going through my usual 'I'm leaving soon' routine: getting together with friends who want to spend a little time before I leave for a few months; making sure I can take care of all my (as my fab friend Fire calls it) "personal admin" online while I'm gone - banking, paying utilities, etc.; adding things to the duffel bag I keep stocked during the rest of the year with my 'going to Kenya' things. It's always hectic, and no matter how well I plan - and those of you who know me know I plan! - there's always a lot to do at the last minute. So it's D (departure) mi...