I'm home and I must say I am experiencing a strange period in my life.
I have been soaking up the luxuries of home, yet I am left unsatisified, because I suffer from an addiction
Some people are addicted to alcohol, caffeine, but my problem is slightly different. I have become addicted to adventure. I love seeing new places, doing new things, meeting new people, and learning, and the amazing thing about traveling is that you end up doing all these things every single day. Every walk brings new territory, every friend is a new one. Now I am in the town I have spent my whole life, in the house I have spent my whole life, and while I am happy, I am restless. I just want to grab my backpack and hop on a train to wherever, but I am stuck. My other problem is that all my friends are leaving for college, and I feel really excluded. Every "welcome back" dinner is also a goodbye dinner, which is yea, pretty depressing.
Don't get me wrong though, this time is definitely not wasted, because I haven't forgotten my first post. The one thing that keeps everyday an adventure is keeping so close to the city I love. I have never been so sure that New York is the place for me. While I crave change, New York is a place that manages to change on its own, every single day. It is a place that you don't have to leave to have an adventure, and in fact new experiences are rather unavoidable. Since I came home I started going to the Rocky Horror Picture show which is just wild, and I am even considering trying to join the cast when I return! I went to a full moon party and danced to tribal drums (of course it wasn't my first time). I discovered this amazing Latin music (Bajofondo, Lula Cruza, Rakim y Ken-y). I traded stories with travelers from India and Tanzania. I cried and screamed and laughed. Of course, I keep smiling, because I just have so much to smile about.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Monday, August 4, 2008
Damn.
Wow so much has happened, but I have no energy to blog about it in the usual detail
Mole and Larabanga were really fun. Not so much because I saw elephants and these really fly mosques but mostly because I made so many nice friends on the way. There was this really nice couple from the UK and this Philippino guy who I later found out was 35, and these really sweet British girls... Somehow traveling makes it really easy to bond with people, and I had such a nice time just chilling in the pool and watching warthogs and elephants with my new companions. It was also really funny because Charlie and I ended up in a dormitory with a bunch of people we didn't know, including this crazy Ghanaian man who insisted on blasting music and smoking marijuana cigarettes while we were all trying to sleep. I felt like I was in summer camp again! After Mole, me, Charlie, Jenny and Alex stayed in mud huts in Larabanga, was definitely rustic, but worth the experience. After Larabanga me and Charlie headed to Wa. The bus ride there was horrid and I had to stand for 3 hours with this woman just pressing her sweaty forehead all over my arm...yum
Wa is wayy to the west of the country and there are almost no tourists there. I did get to see a group of muslims pray, which was really cool, and I also learned about the facial scarring that characterizes the different tribes there. As far as I could tell everyone was really friendly there and not pushy at all. There is really nothing to do in Wa so the two of us spent our time at the hippo sanctuary. The trotro ride there was nice as it was basically the back of a pickup truck. While the open air was nice and the ride was beautiful, I arrived in Wechiau with a handful of dirt in my hair, on my clothes and up my nose. We slept at some guy's house on a mattress, and I woke up at 4:30 in the morning because these flies had bit my leg and my entire body was burning. Yea, it was really pleasant.
The sanctuary was nice though. We rode our bikes the the black volta in the morning, then took a canoe ride to look for hippos. Then we went back to Wa and decided to take a tro to TUMU. This is where the trouble began. The tro tro broke down and we were waiting on the side of the rode listening to frantic Ghanaians for 3 hours. I was sure we were going to have to spend the night in that crappy van. Finally, he came and we were off on the worst rode I have ever been on. The tire punctured twice more and we had to keep stopping and I had no room to breathe because I was in between to fat women. 10 hours later, one of those fat women let us crash at her house, because it was 2 AM. She kindly woke up her topless sister in the middle of the night and the two of us crashed.
The next morning on the way to the bus, Charlie got sick. We took her to the hospital and she had to do an IV drip, so we spent another day in Tumu. I spent my time exploring the little village and eating while Charlie napped. The boy I bought a newspaper from even dropped by and brought her a get well card. Tumu was ok, just a bit on the empty side. Now I'm in Bolga and tired because I spent the night curled in a ball at the foot of Charlie's hospital bed.
Fun Fun Fun
Mole and Larabanga were really fun. Not so much because I saw elephants and these really fly mosques but mostly because I made so many nice friends on the way. There was this really nice couple from the UK and this Philippino guy who I later found out was 35, and these really sweet British girls... Somehow traveling makes it really easy to bond with people, and I had such a nice time just chilling in the pool and watching warthogs and elephants with my new companions. It was also really funny because Charlie and I ended up in a dormitory with a bunch of people we didn't know, including this crazy Ghanaian man who insisted on blasting music and smoking marijuana cigarettes while we were all trying to sleep. I felt like I was in summer camp again! After Mole, me, Charlie, Jenny and Alex stayed in mud huts in Larabanga, was definitely rustic, but worth the experience. After Larabanga me and Charlie headed to Wa. The bus ride there was horrid and I had to stand for 3 hours with this woman just pressing her sweaty forehead all over my arm...yum
Wa is wayy to the west of the country and there are almost no tourists there. I did get to see a group of muslims pray, which was really cool, and I also learned about the facial scarring that characterizes the different tribes there. As far as I could tell everyone was really friendly there and not pushy at all. There is really nothing to do in Wa so the two of us spent our time at the hippo sanctuary. The trotro ride there was nice as it was basically the back of a pickup truck. While the open air was nice and the ride was beautiful, I arrived in Wechiau with a handful of dirt in my hair, on my clothes and up my nose. We slept at some guy's house on a mattress, and I woke up at 4:30 in the morning because these flies had bit my leg and my entire body was burning. Yea, it was really pleasant.
The sanctuary was nice though. We rode our bikes the the black volta in the morning, then took a canoe ride to look for hippos. Then we went back to Wa and decided to take a tro to TUMU. This is where the trouble began. The tro tro broke down and we were waiting on the side of the rode listening to frantic Ghanaians for 3 hours. I was sure we were going to have to spend the night in that crappy van. Finally, he came and we were off on the worst rode I have ever been on. The tire punctured twice more and we had to keep stopping and I had no room to breathe because I was in between to fat women. 10 hours later, one of those fat women let us crash at her house, because it was 2 AM. She kindly woke up her topless sister in the middle of the night and the two of us crashed.
The next morning on the way to the bus, Charlie got sick. We took her to the hospital and she had to do an IV drip, so we spent another day in Tumu. I spent my time exploring the little village and eating while Charlie napped. The boy I bought a newspaper from even dropped by and brought her a get well card. Tumu was ok, just a bit on the empty side. Now I'm in Bolga and tired because I spent the night curled in a ball at the foot of Charlie's hospital bed.
Fun Fun Fun
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