post date:
tuesday, april 27th - 2:13 PM
current weather:
73 degrees, sunny
here's another small update of what's been going on in namibia. it's definitely been a lot more work and a lot less play as of late, especially all of last week. since last monday we've been collecting surveys at the museum on our touch screens to see what kind of feedback we are getting. so far it's pretty positive, but we also only get about 8 surveys done on average per day...
tuesday, april 13th
- lunch break at in's weiner cafe shop, tried creme soda for the first time, which i did not realize was green.
wednesday, april 14th
- went to cardboard box at night, no clue what we were celebrating but me and dan got 24 shots of jager... it was a good time to say the least.
thursday, april 15th
- jenna's group (NTB) leaves for swakopmund for the weekend.
- got my ice cream sundae (3 of 15) at milky lane! brownie fudge.
- tried to make buffalo chicken wraps without wraps or hot sauce. still turned out okay.
- poker tournament at night, knocked out in 10th when 99 lost to 44. love it when that happens.
friday, april 16th
- dan's group left for maltahohe!
- went out to mugg and bean for lunch with group. amazing food.
- had weekly meeting at poly and all DRFN groups decided to return early, which was nice. makes me jealous that they get to travel so much.
- weekend poker tournament, round 1. me and john survive with one buyback.
saturday, april 17th
- debated going to cake and coffee at the bistro in the morning, but then decided not to go. they didn't have it anyway.
- weekend poker tournamnet, round 2 in the afternoon. made it to 14th place, incredibly frustrating.
- another trip to the box at night with everyone who came back.
sunday, april 18th
- rediscovered mario golf!
- tried making buffalo chicken wraps again, turned out a little better this time.
- went to box again after dinner, didn't stay long though cause it was sunday.
monday, april 19th
- failure of internet. volcano eruption in iceland kills internet in namibia.
- failure of virus. i open mysterious file on my flash drive only to watch my computer malfunction bad. i can't access any of my files.
- failure of getting computer to owela museum. almost walked 15 minutes down a busy street carrying a computer and a monitor but thankfully we got someone to drive us over.
- slumber party at night!
the rest of the week consisted of conducting surveys at work, trying to fix my computer when we got home, eating dinner, and then sleeping. we went out to a braai in katatura on wednesday, i got knocked out early in poker tournament on thursday (AK vs AA, i was screwed to begin with), and then went out to mugg and bean for breakfast on friday.
the end of the term is coming fast... we've been working quite hard on our paper and presentation to prepare for our project to be done. home stretch.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
it's too late to apologize...
post date:
tuesday, april 13th - 2:11 PM
current weather:
81 degrees, sunny
wow guys. okay. i'm a terrible person for not keeping this up to date.
since it's been a really really long time since i've actually updated, i'm just going to keep you up to the notable things that we have been doing these past few weeks. i'm sorry for being so lazy on this, there hasn't been anything too exciting going on lately, really. except for our weekend excursions :)
monday, march 29th
- invited to dinner at nice by the US embassy, met and talked to a lot of government workers and local business people.
- went out to cardboard box at night, had a good time.
tuesday, march 30th
- finally finished reading angels and demons.
- went out to sardinas pizzeria for dinner. absolutely amazing single-serving pizzas with thin crusts. tried castle lager for the first time.
wednesday, march 31st
- went to milky lane ice cream for brunch and an after-work snack. ordered an ice cream waffle... twice. yum.
- took out money in the ATM on my transmission account? didn't know i had an account for that, but i got money anyway.
thursday, april 1st
- dan comes home from maltahohe!
- stopped by bookstore in the morning, debated buying a south africa version of monopoly. costs around $N300.
- wrapped up traditional music display at work, all finished with programming and designing outlines.
- wrote an april fool's post and posted it on my blog.
- bought a cardinals jersey on the way back from work, cost $N350 but it's pujols so i don't care.
- went to chinese restaurant at the country club with a large-ish group of people. got 9th out of 19 in our poker tournament.
friday, april 2nd to monday, april 5th
- weekend trip to etosha national park!
our trip to etosha was tons of fun. we left puccini at around 7 on friday morning and boarded/packed the bus. we literally took up every square inch of the bus - it had a capacity of 28 and we had 29 people, including the driver. combining that with all of our small suitcases was like playing tetris with bags and bodies. needless to say, it was a pretty interesting ride over. quite comparable to our 30 hour trek down to florida... and back. we made a few stops along the way to gas up and buy groceries, most of which was juice and meat. and some chocolate cake. but during our shopping spree we found this huge plastic bag (1kg!) of large fruity loop things. it stood about three feet tall and looked quite intimidating. so we bought it and vowed to eat the entire bag before we left the park. talk about a sugar rush.
for the rest of the trip me, heidi, and dan passed our chocolate cake around as a dessert. it didn't take long before the entire cake was gone, once everyone else who was sleeping decided they also wanted to try a piece... it was still incredibly delicious. after a bit more driving we finally entered the park at around 3 in the afternoon. our campsite, however, was a bit further into the park so we didn't actually unload until around 5, when the sun was starting to set. thankfully we weren’t late because the campsite opens and closes according to the sunrise and sunset, they don't want guests and visitors disturbing the animals once it's dark out. we also wouldn't want to accidentally run any poor animals over in the dark :(
the campsite was really nice, it definitely surpassed my expectations. it had a convenience store, pool, restaurant, and relatively nice facilities in general for a campsite. it makes sense because it's quite the toursity area. but the ground was also all dirt, sand, and rocks, with no grass at all. we slept in a 4-person tent that fit 4 guys perfectly without much room for anything else haha. if you wanna look up our campsite, it’s called halali camp. i'd definitely recommend it as a place to stay if any of you ever plan on taking a trip to africa.
me, dan, and ally decided to hop in the pool once we finished setting up the tents and unpacking, but after only about 2 minutes we started talking to this girl sitting in one of those poolside lounge chairs. that girl then asked us if we were from the US and asked us a bunch of questions... apparently she was from minnesota and doing a research project on tourism accommodations, so we basically got interviewed while wading in a pool. now i know what it feels like to be on the other side of an IQP haha. we ended up having a massive cookout after pool time, our group of 8 made a bunch of homemade burgers and grilled cheese. mmm.
the next day (saturday) we woke up at 5 to start a fire and cook some eggs. since we didn't have any pots or pans we got kinda creative and made little boats out of tin foil to cook scrambled eggs. i'm surprised at how well they actually worked haha, i think after playing with fire those few days we all became masters of the grill. we boarded the bus at 6 but got stuck at the gate because the sun didn't actually rise until around 7. i think i passed out before we even went anywhere. but once the gate opened, we were off!
the next two days were pretty much spent on the bus, doing game drives from sunrise to sunset. we drove around the entire park, which is absolutely gigantic. i saw springbok, zebras, giraffes, impalas, vultures, kudu, wildebeest, everything. didn't see any rhinos or elephants on the first day though, but we did watch an elephant cross the road right in front of the bus. on the second night me and dan found a black rhino at night drinking from the watering hole back at our campsite. it was really late, and we were just sitting there chatting and watching two springbok wander around the lake, and then all of a sudden we see them running away because a black rhino was charging at them through the grass. oh man, it was really intense. and then the rhino walked towards us so we sang to it, but it got bored kinda quickly and walked away. the one time i forget to bring my camera... sigh.
we also got stuck in knee-deep mud during one of our travels haha. it had rained for a few hours and we were driving back in the afternoon to try to beat out the sunset, but then we just drove smack into a puddle that was much much deeper than it looked... the wheel was more than half submerged and the exhaust pipe was inches from the surface of the mud. all of us had to get out of the bus and help push, it took about half an hour of rocking the bus but we finally got it out. now that was one experience I’ll never forget. it followed with some brief mud wrestling afterwards.
on sunday night we celebrated easter and john's birthday by going to the restaurant. it honestly wasn't that great, a bunch of us ordered a kudu steak for dinner but when we got our plates we quickly realized that not everyone got kudu. heidi was convinced that her steak was actually a piece of pork that was burned enough to look like kudu. and it was a bit on the expensive side, but of course it is since it's a tourist area. later that night we brought out a cake and lit some candles, sang a song, and then devoured the cake in about 10 minutes.
on our way back from the park we stopped by a cheetah conservation. we took a tour of the entire area and visited the small museum. just watching all the trainers walk around with the cheetahs in the field and feed them... i would be kinda scared to be standing right next to a cheetah if it was wild but all of them seemed incredibly friendly towards visitors. granted they were also caged in by an electric fence, but no matter. i came really close to petting one haha, just stuck my hand through the fence but the cheetah walked away. then we took tons of silly pictures while waiting for the bus to leave.
finally we got back to puccini at around 6 at night, after we almost died twice on the drive back to the city. our bus was pretty beaten up and the breaks weren't working properly... we hit really heavy traffic at one point and almost ran into two cars. thankfully our driver was pretty damn good, he swerved off road and almost tipped the bus twice but i'm still sitting here writing this post so obviously i didn't die.
tuesday, april 6th
- woke up a little sick with a fever, minor headache, and some stomach pains.
- DRFN groups leave for their projects, won't be back for two weeks. only about half the crew remains :(
- went shopping at the mall after work, bought another stockpile of groceries.
wednesday, april 7th
- more sick, lots of resting.
- some people went to the cardboard box, i just stayed in and watched glory road.
thursday
- slept in a couple hours before going to work.
- stood out in the downpour for about half an hour with a measly umbrella while waiting for a taxi to the country club. needless to say, i got soaked.
- got 7th out of 24 in our poker tournament. made a stupid decision and folded KJ with a short stack... why?
friday
- went to cardboard box, played ratscrew until 1 in the morning.
- took a taxi to cheers, a small and local club. stayed until 4 in the morning.
saturday
- went shopping at the mall with a couple peeps. stores were closing early so we didn't stay long...
- got invited to a dinner buffet / dance party event at a nearby hotel. dressed up like a fool.
sunday
- tried to go to the public pool but failed. maybe next week.
- watched dude where's my car? realized it was the 90s version of the hangover.
monday
- made some delicious pizza! pizza crust with ground beef, homemade sauce, and lots of cheese.
wow, hope that all makes sense. i promise the next post will be some time before friday, and not as short-texted as this one was. wouldn't want to keep you guys from knowing what's going on over here :P
tuesday, april 13th - 2:11 PM
current weather:
81 degrees, sunny
wow guys. okay. i'm a terrible person for not keeping this up to date.
since it's been a really really long time since i've actually updated, i'm just going to keep you up to the notable things that we have been doing these past few weeks. i'm sorry for being so lazy on this, there hasn't been anything too exciting going on lately, really. except for our weekend excursions :)
monday, march 29th
- invited to dinner at nice by the US embassy, met and talked to a lot of government workers and local business people.
- went out to cardboard box at night, had a good time.
tuesday, march 30th
- finally finished reading angels and demons.
- went out to sardinas pizzeria for dinner. absolutely amazing single-serving pizzas with thin crusts. tried castle lager for the first time.
wednesday, march 31st
- went to milky lane ice cream for brunch and an after-work snack. ordered an ice cream waffle... twice. yum.
- took out money in the ATM on my transmission account? didn't know i had an account for that, but i got money anyway.
thursday, april 1st
- dan comes home from maltahohe!
- stopped by bookstore in the morning, debated buying a south africa version of monopoly. costs around $N300.
- wrapped up traditional music display at work, all finished with programming and designing outlines.
- wrote an april fool's post and posted it on my blog.
- bought a cardinals jersey on the way back from work, cost $N350 but it's pujols so i don't care.
- went to chinese restaurant at the country club with a large-ish group of people. got 9th out of 19 in our poker tournament.
friday, april 2nd to monday, april 5th
- weekend trip to etosha national park!
our trip to etosha was tons of fun. we left puccini at around 7 on friday morning and boarded/packed the bus. we literally took up every square inch of the bus - it had a capacity of 28 and we had 29 people, including the driver. combining that with all of our small suitcases was like playing tetris with bags and bodies. needless to say, it was a pretty interesting ride over. quite comparable to our 30 hour trek down to florida... and back. we made a few stops along the way to gas up and buy groceries, most of which was juice and meat. and some chocolate cake. but during our shopping spree we found this huge plastic bag (1kg!) of large fruity loop things. it stood about three feet tall and looked quite intimidating. so we bought it and vowed to eat the entire bag before we left the park. talk about a sugar rush.
for the rest of the trip me, heidi, and dan passed our chocolate cake around as a dessert. it didn't take long before the entire cake was gone, once everyone else who was sleeping decided they also wanted to try a piece... it was still incredibly delicious. after a bit more driving we finally entered the park at around 3 in the afternoon. our campsite, however, was a bit further into the park so we didn't actually unload until around 5, when the sun was starting to set. thankfully we weren’t late because the campsite opens and closes according to the sunrise and sunset, they don't want guests and visitors disturbing the animals once it's dark out. we also wouldn't want to accidentally run any poor animals over in the dark :(
the campsite was really nice, it definitely surpassed my expectations. it had a convenience store, pool, restaurant, and relatively nice facilities in general for a campsite. it makes sense because it's quite the toursity area. but the ground was also all dirt, sand, and rocks, with no grass at all. we slept in a 4-person tent that fit 4 guys perfectly without much room for anything else haha. if you wanna look up our campsite, it’s called halali camp. i'd definitely recommend it as a place to stay if any of you ever plan on taking a trip to africa.
me, dan, and ally decided to hop in the pool once we finished setting up the tents and unpacking, but after only about 2 minutes we started talking to this girl sitting in one of those poolside lounge chairs. that girl then asked us if we were from the US and asked us a bunch of questions... apparently she was from minnesota and doing a research project on tourism accommodations, so we basically got interviewed while wading in a pool. now i know what it feels like to be on the other side of an IQP haha. we ended up having a massive cookout after pool time, our group of 8 made a bunch of homemade burgers and grilled cheese. mmm.
the next day (saturday) we woke up at 5 to start a fire and cook some eggs. since we didn't have any pots or pans we got kinda creative and made little boats out of tin foil to cook scrambled eggs. i'm surprised at how well they actually worked haha, i think after playing with fire those few days we all became masters of the grill. we boarded the bus at 6 but got stuck at the gate because the sun didn't actually rise until around 7. i think i passed out before we even went anywhere. but once the gate opened, we were off!
the next two days were pretty much spent on the bus, doing game drives from sunrise to sunset. we drove around the entire park, which is absolutely gigantic. i saw springbok, zebras, giraffes, impalas, vultures, kudu, wildebeest, everything. didn't see any rhinos or elephants on the first day though, but we did watch an elephant cross the road right in front of the bus. on the second night me and dan found a black rhino at night drinking from the watering hole back at our campsite. it was really late, and we were just sitting there chatting and watching two springbok wander around the lake, and then all of a sudden we see them running away because a black rhino was charging at them through the grass. oh man, it was really intense. and then the rhino walked towards us so we sang to it, but it got bored kinda quickly and walked away. the one time i forget to bring my camera... sigh.
we also got stuck in knee-deep mud during one of our travels haha. it had rained for a few hours and we were driving back in the afternoon to try to beat out the sunset, but then we just drove smack into a puddle that was much much deeper than it looked... the wheel was more than half submerged and the exhaust pipe was inches from the surface of the mud. all of us had to get out of the bus and help push, it took about half an hour of rocking the bus but we finally got it out. now that was one experience I’ll never forget. it followed with some brief mud wrestling afterwards.
on sunday night we celebrated easter and john's birthday by going to the restaurant. it honestly wasn't that great, a bunch of us ordered a kudu steak for dinner but when we got our plates we quickly realized that not everyone got kudu. heidi was convinced that her steak was actually a piece of pork that was burned enough to look like kudu. and it was a bit on the expensive side, but of course it is since it's a tourist area. later that night we brought out a cake and lit some candles, sang a song, and then devoured the cake in about 10 minutes.
on our way back from the park we stopped by a cheetah conservation. we took a tour of the entire area and visited the small museum. just watching all the trainers walk around with the cheetahs in the field and feed them... i would be kinda scared to be standing right next to a cheetah if it was wild but all of them seemed incredibly friendly towards visitors. granted they were also caged in by an electric fence, but no matter. i came really close to petting one haha, just stuck my hand through the fence but the cheetah walked away. then we took tons of silly pictures while waiting for the bus to leave.
finally we got back to puccini at around 6 at night, after we almost died twice on the drive back to the city. our bus was pretty beaten up and the breaks weren't working properly... we hit really heavy traffic at one point and almost ran into two cars. thankfully our driver was pretty damn good, he swerved off road and almost tipped the bus twice but i'm still sitting here writing this post so obviously i didn't die.
tuesday, april 6th
- woke up a little sick with a fever, minor headache, and some stomach pains.
- DRFN groups leave for their projects, won't be back for two weeks. only about half the crew remains :(
- went shopping at the mall after work, bought another stockpile of groceries.
wednesday, april 7th
- more sick, lots of resting.
- some people went to the cardboard box, i just stayed in and watched glory road.
thursday
- slept in a couple hours before going to work.
- stood out in the downpour for about half an hour with a measly umbrella while waiting for a taxi to the country club. needless to say, i got soaked.
- got 7th out of 24 in our poker tournament. made a stupid decision and folded KJ with a short stack... why?
friday
- went to cardboard box, played ratscrew until 1 in the morning.
- took a taxi to cheers, a small and local club. stayed until 4 in the morning.
saturday
- went shopping at the mall with a couple peeps. stores were closing early so we didn't stay long...
- got invited to a dinner buffet / dance party event at a nearby hotel. dressed up like a fool.
sunday
- tried to go to the public pool but failed. maybe next week.
- watched dude where's my car? realized it was the 90s version of the hangover.
monday
- made some delicious pizza! pizza crust with ground beef, homemade sauce, and lots of cheese.
wow, hope that all makes sense. i promise the next post will be some time before friday, and not as short-texted as this one was. wouldn't want to keep you guys from knowing what's going on over here :P
Thursday, April 1, 2010
ending on a serious note
hey everyone,
there is something that i've been wanting to share with all of you for a long time now. i know this might seem like it is coming out of the blue, but i have been thinking about it a lot for the past couple of weeks, and even more since i arrived here in namibia.
i know i don't usually write much about swimming in my blog. but for those of you who are reading this and were not on the wpi team, i'd like to fill you in on what happened this year.
last summer, i dedicated a majority of my free time preparing for this year's long and strenuous season. i ended my sophomore year on a really high note, setting personal bests that i thought i would never achieve in all of my events and feeling like all my hard work throughout the year had paid off. knowing this, i faced the offseason with a strong desire to work even harder. i went to the gym every day for about 9 weeks and lifted with steve rose. i swam twice a week just to keep the feel of the water. and when i came in the beginning of this season, i felt stronger. faster. prepared. ready.
i was positive that all the work i had put into my offseason would greatly improve my season results. but as the meets wore on, i noticed that a lot of my times were the same as last year's in season times. nevertheless, i remained confident, repeatedly telling myself that the season is just a journey to our final destination, the NEWMAC championships. in season results are not a direct correlation of how fast one can swim when one is rested and tapered.
but as those of you who were on the team this year noticed, championships did not go according to plan. i didn't achieve a single best time throughout the year. i failed to make it back to finals in all of my events. and i saw the same disappointment in the eyes of my fellow teammates as well. there are many possible reasons as to why our team did not perform as well as we had anticipated, but i'm not here to point fingers at anything. i'm just writing this to say that as much as i didn't want to show it, i became incredibly frustrated at how all the time i spent in the pool didn't even come close to paying off at the end of the season. what hurt more was watching freshmen come in and go through the same process as all of us, and still drop incredible amounts of time. and i think the dagger to me was seeing nick and mason train for only one term and still manage to achieve times close to or better than their previous bests.
when i came to wpi, i didn't imagine i would make it through two years of swimming, and certainly not three. i was sick and tired of the double practices, the constant odor of chlorine, and the body aches. i wanted to live and be free, go out and explore things that i couldn't see because i had to go to practice instead. somehow i managed to change my attitude towards this, but now i think it was only temporary. my mind know that it would only be one more year of hard work, training, and dedication. but my heart tells me that my body is now longing for something else.
my reasons are all personal. i did not use the influence of anyone to make my decisions.
i think it's time to bring my career to an end.
as much as it hurts me to say it, i feel like this decision is long overdue. i have been frustrated for so many years in this sport, hitting a wall that i have not been able to break. there were so many times where i felt like i was not being rewarded with my efforts. the feeling of being let down and coming up short was one that i learned to accept and expect over the years. i understand it isn't always about the achievements in the pool that makes being on a swim team memorable. the past three years of my college swimming career have been great. i've made so many incredible friends, traveled all around new england, and even caught a small glimpse of greatness. but at the same time, i feel like i am making this decision for my well-being. i know there is the possibility that my senior year could very well be that year where i achieve that greatness, but not even giving it a chance is a sacrifice i'm willing to take. and that's simply because there is also a possibility that i might have one last year of frustration and end my career with even more regrets.
i think it's time to move on. it's time to experience college as a student, and not as an athlete.
thank you all for making this experience so valuable and memorable to me throughout my years. it was an incredibly tough decision on my part, but i promise i will still keep in touch with the team and support you all. there are so many things that i still have left to say, but i just don't have the words for them...
there is something that i've been wanting to share with all of you for a long time now. i know this might seem like it is coming out of the blue, but i have been thinking about it a lot for the past couple of weeks, and even more since i arrived here in namibia.
i know i don't usually write much about swimming in my blog. but for those of you who are reading this and were not on the wpi team, i'd like to fill you in on what happened this year.
last summer, i dedicated a majority of my free time preparing for this year's long and strenuous season. i ended my sophomore year on a really high note, setting personal bests that i thought i would never achieve in all of my events and feeling like all my hard work throughout the year had paid off. knowing this, i faced the offseason with a strong desire to work even harder. i went to the gym every day for about 9 weeks and lifted with steve rose. i swam twice a week just to keep the feel of the water. and when i came in the beginning of this season, i felt stronger. faster. prepared. ready.
i was positive that all the work i had put into my offseason would greatly improve my season results. but as the meets wore on, i noticed that a lot of my times were the same as last year's in season times. nevertheless, i remained confident, repeatedly telling myself that the season is just a journey to our final destination, the NEWMAC championships. in season results are not a direct correlation of how fast one can swim when one is rested and tapered.
but as those of you who were on the team this year noticed, championships did not go according to plan. i didn't achieve a single best time throughout the year. i failed to make it back to finals in all of my events. and i saw the same disappointment in the eyes of my fellow teammates as well. there are many possible reasons as to why our team did not perform as well as we had anticipated, but i'm not here to point fingers at anything. i'm just writing this to say that as much as i didn't want to show it, i became incredibly frustrated at how all the time i spent in the pool didn't even come close to paying off at the end of the season. what hurt more was watching freshmen come in and go through the same process as all of us, and still drop incredible amounts of time. and i think the dagger to me was seeing nick and mason train for only one term and still manage to achieve times close to or better than their previous bests.
when i came to wpi, i didn't imagine i would make it through two years of swimming, and certainly not three. i was sick and tired of the double practices, the constant odor of chlorine, and the body aches. i wanted to live and be free, go out and explore things that i couldn't see because i had to go to practice instead. somehow i managed to change my attitude towards this, but now i think it was only temporary. my mind know that it would only be one more year of hard work, training, and dedication. but my heart tells me that my body is now longing for something else.
my reasons are all personal. i did not use the influence of anyone to make my decisions.
i think it's time to bring my career to an end.
as much as it hurts me to say it, i feel like this decision is long overdue. i have been frustrated for so many years in this sport, hitting a wall that i have not been able to break. there were so many times where i felt like i was not being rewarded with my efforts. the feeling of being let down and coming up short was one that i learned to accept and expect over the years. i understand it isn't always about the achievements in the pool that makes being on a swim team memorable. the past three years of my college swimming career have been great. i've made so many incredible friends, traveled all around new england, and even caught a small glimpse of greatness. but at the same time, i feel like i am making this decision for my well-being. i know there is the possibility that my senior year could very well be that year where i achieve that greatness, but not even giving it a chance is a sacrifice i'm willing to take. and that's simply because there is also a possibility that i might have one last year of frustration and end my career with even more regrets.
i think it's time to move on. it's time to experience college as a student, and not as an athlete.
thank you all for making this experience so valuable and memorable to me throughout my years. it was an incredibly tough decision on my part, but i promise i will still keep in touch with the team and support you all. there are so many things that i still have left to say, but i just don't have the words for them...
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