Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Watching Videos

I've been camping out on YouTube for the past few hours watching video after video about Ethiopoia. This video-view includes shoulder popping Ethiopian-pop, Italian-Ethiopian 'reconciliation' videos, press interviews with Meles Zenawi (Prime Minister), and most interestingly food videos featuring the star of Ethiopian cuisine, Injera (pronounced injara). Injera is a type of bread and because I am the curious type, I ended up google(ing) it. I was pleased to discover that because the grain has several benefits farmers in Kansas are beginning to grow Teff, the grain used to make injera. The farmers there have found that Teff cut for hay without harvesting the seed is like, and I quote, "cotton candy for horses."

I was rather amused by that so I thought I'd share. Maybe I will be able to mail some Teff to the Kressin household as a gift. I think that's exactly what horses are missing, horse catnip.

oh! on an unrelated note I still haven't packed and everything is piling ever higher in my living room. I was so confident that I would easily slide under the 80 pound rule when I first got my assignment, but now I am not so sure. I keep getting advice like: "bring a hobby." and "if you have a skill you've always wanted to learn, bring the required texts/materials" and I keep taking things on like a harmonica; yeah, I said harmonica.

T-minus 4 days! ARE YOU PUMPED?????

Monday, September 28, 2009

Skype is illegal in Ethiopia

So, I found out today that Skype is illegal in Ethiopia. This is kind of a bummer because I had planned to use my laptop to not only e-mail, but call mom and dad in the states. Now I'll be lucky to call them at all. Its kind of a bummer, I am going to hope I can use Teamspeak. If I can, I'll have to very carefully, teach mom and dad.

By the way, I only have 6 more days left until lift off! I am so excited.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Reading List

I have stopped trying to prepare for Ethiopia. This is not to say that I am ready, unafraid, or confident, but I am resigned to the idea that Ethiopia will be there when I land. I am busy spending time with relatives, friends, and the dog.

I finished work yesterday and I now have recaptured around 50-60 hours a week. I have been putting around the house thinking of things I want to take. My mental packing list is comical, books and books and books are all I seem to want packed. I am reasonably confident that my fluctuating weight will render all clothes unnecessary. I think of things like: "I bet they don't have harmonicas..." or "What if I end up in a philosophical conversation without the resource of the internet..." and "I wonder if my host family would like basketball, I should probably pack my baseball gloves."

Here are the books I plan to pack. They mostly consist of all the material I avoided reading in philosophy classes and a few needed emotional strengths.

Philosophical Essays - G.W. Leibniz
Capital Vol. 1 - Karl Marx
The initial Dragonlance trilogy - Margret Weis and Tracy Hickman
Redwall - Brian Jacques
Where The Wild Things Are - Maurice Senedak
Meditations - Descartes
Sartre - David Drake
Cunning - Don Herzog

From what I have read, I wont really have any downtime to read until I am at my assignment, because mostly at night, when work is done, things can be a little lonely. I am unsure if I'll ever get to that point, but I figure at least I'll have books nearby which will comfort me all the same.

I am off to play a rousing game of lickface with Josie (the name of our dog, in case you are worried and maybe you still are)