Fear not, I am working on sorting through my photographs from the trip. Jet lag is gone and took an almost imperceptable toll. For now, I thought I'd put up the film Corbin and I made over break, if you've not seen it yet. Nothing too extravagant... just something to occupy idle hands.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
From Right to Left
Fear not, I am safely back in the States. And from the moment we set foot on American soil, it's been nothing but trying situation after irritating situation. The whole ten days abroad went smoothly and wonderfully, but getting back in to our dear country provided me and my traveling companions with the following treasures:
-a frozen luggage hatch and a three hour wait at the baggage claim
-ten degrees below zero, and dropping
-a missed connecting flight to Kansas City
-an insufferably long line to claim accomidation vouchers and new flight reservations
-no pizza places willing to deliver to the O'Hare area hotel
-a worker at the "free" breakfast counter requiring a persuasive speech to prove that we were, in fact, guests at the hotel and we were, in fact, entitled to the "free" breakfast. The convincing of said worker took so long that in order to make the shuttle to the airport (at 5:45 am, mind you) there was no longer time for breakfast.
-the world's slowest line at the ticket counter, almost making us miss our flight
All in all, it's not been too bad. Could have been much worse. Now I'm in Oklahoma, winning the battles against jet lag (which also isn't too bad) and making preparations for Costa Rica. I'll be heading there in about four weeks. Until then, I have to keep up with a whole two and a half classes (Origins and Cadaver Dissection Lab, and Lifetime Wellness, which only qualifies as 0.5 class, to me).
I'll be posting Middle East trip summaries and photographs soon. I have to wade through my hundreds of pictures first.
Until next time--
-a frozen luggage hatch and a three hour wait at the baggage claim
-ten degrees below zero, and dropping
-a missed connecting flight to Kansas City
-an insufferably long line to claim accomidation vouchers and new flight reservations
-no pizza places willing to deliver to the O'Hare area hotel
-a worker at the "free" breakfast counter requiring a persuasive speech to prove that we were, in fact, guests at the hotel and we were, in fact, entitled to the "free" breakfast. The convincing of said worker took so long that in order to make the shuttle to the airport (at 5:45 am, mind you) there was no longer time for breakfast.
-the world's slowest line at the ticket counter, almost making us miss our flight
All in all, it's not been too bad. Could have been much worse. Now I'm in Oklahoma, winning the battles against jet lag (which also isn't too bad) and making preparations for Costa Rica. I'll be heading there in about four weeks. Until then, I have to keep up with a whole two and a half classes (Origins and Cadaver Dissection Lab, and Lifetime Wellness, which only qualifies as 0.5 class, to me).
I'll be posting Middle East trip summaries and photographs soon. I have to wade through my hundreds of pictures first.
Until next time--
Saturday, January 12, 2008
THE THINGS I DID YESTERDAY
I am writing from a very slow internet connection at the Manar Hotel in Amman. It's actually a very strong wireless connection but it's all the way downstairs and I am feeling a little too tired and a little too full to drag my computer down to the lobby. All of that to say-- too slow of a connection for pictures this time.
Tomorrow we leave Jordan and head into Israel, and I don't know if I'll have internet there at all. So I thought I would take a moment, before drifting off to sleep to the sound of endless city traffic, and write a short list of yesterday's activities, which included (but are not limited to):
Waiting in an airport from 11 am to 9:45 pm
Looking at Canada's night lights from several thousand feet up
Watching the sun rise over the United Kingdom, after which I immediately fell asleep and missed France
Waking up to seeing Germany out the window
Eating breakfast over a handful of Eastern European countries
Falling asleep again, briefly, only to be awakened by the sunset over Greece and the Mediterranean (breakfast and sunset were in fact only a few hours apart)
Landing safely in Amman and checking in to a nice hotel downtown
We did a lot today... Saw Jerash, saw a lot of Amman, drank some Turkish coffee, saw the river where Jacob wrestled and was renamed Israel, saw some fantastic Roman ruins, fumbled with/butchered Arabic, etc.
My battery has only a few minutes left. It will probably be a few days before I write again.
Ma'a salama
Tomorrow we leave Jordan and head into Israel, and I don't know if I'll have internet there at all. So I thought I would take a moment, before drifting off to sleep to the sound of endless city traffic, and write a short list of yesterday's activities, which included (but are not limited to):
Waiting in an airport from 11 am to 9:45 pm
Looking at Canada's night lights from several thousand feet up
Watching the sun rise over the United Kingdom, after which I immediately fell asleep and missed France
Waking up to seeing Germany out the window
Eating breakfast over a handful of Eastern European countries
Falling asleep again, briefly, only to be awakened by the sunset over Greece and the Mediterranean (breakfast and sunset were in fact only a few hours apart)
Landing safely in Amman and checking in to a nice hotel downtown
We did a lot today... Saw Jerash, saw a lot of Amman, drank some Turkish coffee, saw the river where Jacob wrestled and was renamed Israel, saw some fantastic Roman ruins, fumbled with/butchered Arabic, etc.
My battery has only a few minutes left. It will probably be a few days before I write again.
Ma'a salama
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
in chicago
Even though my days in Chicago aren't really worth writing about... I have some time to kill and some pictures from our grand day out.
We were dropped off at Union Station yesterday afternoon and spent the rest of the day trying to master the public transit system so we could use it with ease. Then we checked in to our hotel, ordered pizza, and had a fat, junky night.
Today we were good little tourists and I used my training in subway usage (thanks to parental lessons from San Diego, Washington DC, Los Angeles, and Toronto) and we got around just fine.
We went to Shedd Aquarium, glanced at the bean in Millenium Park, wandered around the Magnificent Mile, ate sushi on said Mile, then slowly walked around and found our way back to the hotel.
It's been good, here. I like this city.
This is Jay and Jessica, two of my three current companions. Dear, dear Chicago.
These three pictures are from the aquarium, our big event of the day. I was the nerdy science kid who kept getting excited and rambling about my limited knowledge of the physiology of a few species. See? That's an adolescent male dogfish, because look at the size of his ventral claspers. And His external gills look like that so he can do countercurrent exchange and get enough oxygen, since he has a single circuit circulatory system. Not to mention my long and jumbled lesson about the lamprey and three or four outbursts of I'VE DISSECTED THAT or THAT'S CALLED ITS OPERCULUM. I shouldn't have, I know. But it's exciting to know things. Or, rather, to know that I knew things at one point during the last semester and that they are still partially intact.
Anyway, here. I took them through glass, obviously. It was good. Tomorrow we go to OHare and do the international part of the trip. To Amman--
We were dropped off at Union Station yesterday afternoon and spent the rest of the day trying to master the public transit system so we could use it with ease. Then we checked in to our hotel, ordered pizza, and had a fat, junky night.
Today we were good little tourists and I used my training in subway usage (thanks to parental lessons from San Diego, Washington DC, Los Angeles, and Toronto) and we got around just fine.
We went to Shedd Aquarium, glanced at the bean in Millenium Park, wandered around the Magnificent Mile, ate sushi on said Mile, then slowly walked around and found our way back to the hotel.
It's been good, here. I like this city.
This is Jay and Jessica, two of my three current companions. Dear, dear Chicago.
These three pictures are from the aquarium, our big event of the day. I was the nerdy science kid who kept getting excited and rambling about my limited knowledge of the physiology of a few species. See? That's an adolescent male dogfish, because look at the size of his ventral claspers. And His external gills look like that so he can do countercurrent exchange and get enough oxygen, since he has a single circuit circulatory system. Not to mention my long and jumbled lesson about the lamprey and three or four outbursts of I'VE DISSECTED THAT or THAT'S CALLED ITS OPERCULUM. I shouldn't have, I know. But it's exciting to know things. Or, rather, to know that I knew things at one point during the last semester and that they are still partially intact.
Anyway, here. I took them through glass, obviously. It was good. Tomorrow we go to OHare and do the international part of the trip. To Amman--
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