My Sister Graduated from College Yesterday!

Adventures can also be had at home, and I had one yesterday with my family; my younger sister graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Minnesota with a B.S. in Biology. So I'm going to take a break from my African posts to talk about our explorations of both the University of Minnesota and downtown St. Paul.

We started off our day by taking family pictures with Sandy in her graduation gown. Being a UW-Madison alum, I had (and still kind of have) little to no interest in the University of Minnesota campus, but I set aside my pure spitting hatred for the Gophers for one special day. Turns out their campus really isn't that bad, it had a lot to offer. Here's a picture of us in front of Northrop, which I believe is an auditorium:

And here is the graduate with her honors medallion :)

As per tradition (aka from my graduation 2 years ago), we included a few jump-in-the-air pictures throughout the day

Sandy's got ups!

At this point, I had to admit that the UMN's campus wasn't as bad as I thought (or maybe even hoped) that it would be. I think my favorites were the old historic buildings that featured what were rather vibrantly green and luscious vines, beautifully and artfully covering just the right amount of the facades of each establishment.

You'll see throughout these pictures that my dad is simply incapable of taking a normal photo

Pretty fantastic view of Minneapolis:

And here we are at Walter Library, where I'm sure Sandy spent 99% of her undergraduate career. I both love and hate going into buildings like this in the US; because of its classic Roman Renaissance architecture, I felt like I should have been overwhelmed by the ingenuity of ancient engineering and totally enraptured by the presence of a deep and unfathomable history, but considering Walter was built in 1922, I obviously was not. Man I miss Europe. Nevertheless, the structure and design of Walter really is beautiful:

Next stop was the Weisman Art Museum, a beautifully designed building by architect Frank Gehry (who might best be known for the Guggenheim Museum in Spain). Pure coincidence that they happened to be featuring Korean art and artifact on that day; my family and I thoroughly enjoyed this.

Bike rack in front of the museum, what did I tell you about my dad?

Throughout the day, my dad kept ranting about how UMN's campus is SO much better than UW-Madison's and how he would've SO much rather gone to a school like UMN than UW-Madison. For example, he made us take a picture at this random spot in the middle of campus because he said it reminded him of Europe.

Really dad? Really?

But I indulged his antics, mostly because I know (along with the rest of the world) that the University of Wisconsin-Madison is a far superior school, at least when it comes to the physical features of its campus. I'm sorry, but once a Badger, always a Badger... We're annoying as hell but we deserve to be.
Anyways. Here's another pretty spot where my sister and I photobombed my mom:

 And here's my dad being goofy as always:

This concludes the UMN portion of our adventure. We then moved on to St. Paul, where we had 5pm reservations for Meritage, where I can safely say I had the best meal of my entire life thus far.
If you're from the Cities and haven't at least had a cocktail at the Meritage ("A little slice of Paris in downtown St. Paul"), I'd highly suggest it; the restaurant is located in the Hamm Building and has a fantastic view of the Landmark Center. Menu's awfully pricey, but it's worth having a beer or two at their outdoor seating. I know this for a fact because we arrived at the Meritage half an hour before our table was ready; here we are thoroughly enjoying ourselves (even without cocktails):

Their music selection was charmingly spot on with the aura of the patio, and for a few moments I really felt like I was in France. It just so happens that the weather for that day was absolutely perfect; just one of those moments you're truly thankful to be alive. [But I'm only human... The entire time I was sitting there, I kept thinking in my head, 'if only I were actually in Paris...']
At 5pm, our table was ready, so we headed indoors to embark on a culinary mindfuck. I'm not going to pretend that I'm a foodie or anything, but holy crap, our meal was seriously out of this world. Absolute food porn. I took some shots of our dishes with my cellphone, doesn't do them justice:

Fresh Maine Lobster Salad
(avocado, ruby red grapefruit, lobster coral sauce, & tarragon)

Geoduck
(For those of you who don't know what geoducks look like, Google it. They look... Well I won't spoil it for you, but they taste so. damn. good.)

We also had Grilled Baby Octopus (black garlic purée, green olive oil, chickpea-charred tomato salad) as our final appetizer, but I didn't get a picture.

And now, for my entrée. I'm not even going to try to describe how my main dish was. I mean I love food, a lot, but this was seriously a complete head-over-heels lustful where-have-you-been-all-my-life kind of love at first sight and taste.

Stuffed Saddle of Lamb. Oh god.

Needless to say, it was a fantastic day/evening. We're so incredibly fortunate that we have the means to celebrate an achievement like a college graduation, and I'm intensely thankful for this and the fact that my family is just pure awesome.

7:30pm was my sister's graduation ceremony. I'm so proud of her; she's accomplished so much in just 4 years time. She has an fantastic and brilliant future ahead of her, and I can't wait to watch her life blossom before our eyes. Congratulations Sandy!

"There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning of it."

5/21/2011. En Route from Nairobi, Kenya to Arusha, Tanzania

Charles Dudley Warner was right, but by no means did I originally perceive this journey to be a pilgrimage. But as is with all things in life, perception constantly shifts according to your evolving past, present, and future.

As I said before, our journey/my pending pilgrimage began at a Jesuit University. I could totally try to think of a philosophical segue to match Jesuit principles with my forthcoming mindset of a pilgrim, but I'm not going to. Here's the entrance to our floor of the building, safety first I guess (until we realized that we were being locked in not out... to keep the bad guys out or the good souls in, I still can't tell):

Pretty bars, I bet if prisons used these the inmates would be in much better moods

I was pretty exhausted at this point, so specific details on how we got on the bus that would take us from Nairobi, Kenya to Arusha, Tanzania are a bit fuzzy, but it happened. Here's a picture of our packs at the bus stop in Nairobi:

I enjoy packing gear and doing inventory of all my travel/survival shit

On the road again, just can't wait to get on the road again... I love bus rides, car rides, boat rides, any sort of ride. The rougher the road, the better. I didn't sleep a wink during the 4 hour ride, but why would I. I had been waiting for this my entire life, a chance to see with my own eyes what Africa has to offer. And god did it deliver. Here's a view of the countryside at one of the stops we made:

Arrow's pointing the wrong way. Paradise Gallery is literally anywhere and everywhere you turn your head.

This particular rest stop was cute and friendly, and if I remember correctly, this is where our group made its first souvenir purchase (my friend Tyler bought a Massai knife). The vegetation here was everything I had hoped it to be... lush, green, novel to my eyes but again strangely familiar.

One of the more beautiful rest stops I've ever been to.

My friend Rajeev and I

My other two friends who happen to be engaged now, Tyler and Annie

Cool paintings on the back of the building, my question is why would you put these in the back?

Back on the bus, heading full speed ahead to Arusha. Here are some quick thoughts I jotted down during our bumpy drive (it was a nightmare to decipher what the hell I actually wrote): "Some of the trees here look like spindly brown fingers that sprang up from the ground to balance fuzzy green dinner plates. Clouds of dusty red smoke rise slowly above the savanna from both the feet of local tribesmen and from the hoofs of the cows they herd. Tribal women walk near the side of the road wearing shiny silver jewelry and vibrant-colored clothing. It's the little things like these that I have to remember, I cannot forget these little things..."

One of the highlights of the drive was when we saw a giraffe just chillin' on the side of the road. But actually, for me, this evoked an opposite reaction to everyone else. We all scrambled on one side of the van to try and get a good look/picture of the beautiful animal (including me), but amidst all the excitement and pointing, I couldn't help but think that this shouldn't be as rare of a sighting as it is. I don't know, I just had a sudden overwhelming sense of sadness after seeing that lone giraffe. Pathetic maybe, but the fact of the matter is biodiversity is decreasing exponentially in Africa thanks to human interference. And I absolutely despise this.

Live on dude, may you never see people again!

 Alright, it's time for me to continue on with my day, so unfortunately I won't be able to finish this post. But I'll update as soon as I have some more time.

Forgotten First Impressions

"Initial thoughts on Africa (Nairobi, Kenya): Reminds me a lot of San Juan, Costa Rica (I'm not much of a world traveler yet, so I can't compare what I see to what's beyond my breadth of current knowledge and understanding). Streets are well-paved, signs are bright and clean, but there is something about my surroundings that continuously reminded me that I am far from home. My first "wow I'm in Africa" moment came when I saw the color of the dirt. Weird, I know, but it's true. The color of the earth here is more reddish than any other country I've been to, rawer and more familiar in a way.

More things to observe... They drive on the wrong (beg pardon, I mean "wrong") side of the street. Our driver listens to Lady Gaga and Kanye. Remnants of smog are visible under the street lights. Urbanization comes with a price; this is unbelievably selfish for me to say, but I hope there will always be parts of Africa that remain close to mother earth."

Shall I Recommence?

5/21/2011. 12:15am. Nairobi, Kenya.

"Well, we made it. I'm sitting at a desk in my own private room on the top floor of a Jesuit University (yep, we spent our first night in Africa at a Jesuit University). It's been an incredible journey so far, and we've only just embarked."

A little figurine my dad got me from Singapore before I left for Africa. Our family's big into traveling.

Where did I leave off? Ah yes, we had just finished proving our pompous independence and Americanized youth by desecrating London's most prized landmarks. I'm still not quite sure how we managed to catch our 5:30am train back to Heathrow, but we did. And a good thing too, because I'm about to recount to you the most tantalizingly liberating and ethereally invigorating experiences of my life. And I'm not just talking about summiting Kilimanjaro.

British Airways took us the rest of the way from London to Nairobi. Not much to recollect here, I slept through 99% of the 8hr 15min flight again, and again I became cranky upon the realization that I had missed the Cajun Chicken dinner.
I somehow always manage to wake up whenever the captain (supposedly) announces their initial descent (I can NEVER understand what the damn pilots are saying; ENUNCIATE for crying out loud, the speaker systems are bad enough as it is without you people forcibly commanding your lips to move as little as audibly possible). So I was lucky enough to be awake for my own personal descent into Africa. It was a monumental moment for me; I had dreamed about coming to Africa for years, and it was finally happening. [Unfortunately we arrived in Nairobi at 9pm, so strictly visually speaking this touchdown was not dissimilar to any of my other evening flights. But the skidding tension of wheels against an airport runway had never elicited such raw emotions than that night, such overwhelming... overwhelming... something. A convoluted array of excitement, precursory fulfillment, a somewhat dispersed sense of anticipation, joy... I suppose the best way to describe it is to simply say that it was personal. Complexly personal.]

Moving on, how was Nairobi International Airport? I think it was exactly what I expected it to be; not unpleasant, but no overtly welcoming either. I didn't feel particularly vulnerable, but considering Nairobbery's infamous reputation (Nairobi+Robbery=Nairobbery for those of you who don't follow), we were very glad that Solomon's friend Paul (who very quickly became our friend Paul) was kind enough to meet us at the airport. The 6 of us clambered into a sizable van that was relatively small when you consider how much gear we had per person. After Tetris-ing our bags and bodies to just barely fit inside the van, our openly friendly and talkative driver Alex took us to grab a small dinner before retiring to our Jesuit home-away-from-home. This quick bite was our first meal in Africa, and I must say it was both anticlimactic and disappointingly ironic: first drink I had in Africa = orange Fanta; first meal I had in Africa = fried chicken and fries. There appears to be no escaping Westernization.

"It is now 1:53am, and I must sleep. Tomorrow we meet Paul at 8am then venture off to Arusha, Tanzania at 1pm. It's surreal, I'm writing in my journal in Africa. S-u-r-r-e-a-l."

Buen Camino

I watched The Way tonight. Watching it again right now. Something about this film has completely captivated me, in the most sincere sense of the word. I want to be able to fit my entire world in a backpack. I want a portable life.

I should finish recounting my African journey before I reach its anniversary. Perhaps I will work on this tomorrow. But for now, I continue to take in The Way as a possessed and slightly despondent observer, nostalgic of memories I have not actually experienced. Oh to walk this world, without boundaries or obligations. Just to simply walk.