around the world in 180 days

I’ve been nearly two weeks in the new job and I’m settling in nicely. I don’t know everything yet, but I know a few things and I get to work on them on my own. I hate the part of starting a new job where you have to sit with somebody and watch them work and it’s been mercifully short and sporadic here at the new place.

I have my own office, with a door, real walls and everything. I haven’t decorated it, but I’ll get to put whatever I want on the walls and whatnot. It’s intimidating to have an office, though, because if there were, say, any strange or foul smells in the room and someone came in with a question or to help me with something, I wouldn’t be able to blame said smells on anyone else. Not that there would be any smells, of course, I’m just speaking hypothetically here.

Anna is way busy. On Wednesdays, she leaves at 6:30 and doesn’t get home until after 10. It’s going to be a hard 2 years for her. Probably me, too.

We’ve found an apartment and have been accepted. It’s in Highland Park, just off 35E on Randolph and Lexington. It’s close to Grand Ave. and all the shops and restaurants there, which is nice. It’s also a lot closer to my job. I certainly won’t miss the 45 minute commute. Anna will be close enough to walk to school and work, if she wants to. We’ve got 2 bedrooms, a little covered parking spot and off-street parking. It’s nice. We move in Oct. 1, or probably sometime shortly after that, as the first is a Monday.

Other than that, life is slipping into an insidious routine all too quickly. I almost feel like I could close my eyes, turn on autopilot and come back to find 20 years gone in the blink of an eye. The long, dark tunnel to oblivion, right?

I don’t think so.

I’ve been away for a while. You see, when we’re not traveling, my life is very boring. Take today, for instance. I woke up early, 7:30, to say goodbye to Anna, fired off a few resumes and sat around talking with my grandma. Nothing much to write about.
There’s a reason, though, that I’m posting here again, and it’s because I’m no longer unemployed. As of Monday, 9/17, I’ll be back amongst the working class, putting in my 40 hours a week with the Sportsmans Guide, a catalog company based in South St. Paul. I’ll be an editor, editing ad copy. I’m starting at $5000 more than I made at Questex and I couldn’t be happier. Ask me how I feel about it after a few weeks. Maybe I won’t be so cheerful then.

Hopefully I will, though. The work is interesting, sort of a combination of what I went to school for and what I did at Questex. I’ve already met the staff I’ll be working with and they’re mostly young and all seem very nice. I’m excited to be joining such a good team and look forward to a great career there.

There. News. Finally. I’ve been feeling pretty frustrated the last few days, because I feel like I look and look and nobody wants me. Not anymore. The Sportsman’s Guide wants me. On to the next step . . .

We’re back in the city where we fell in love. Ah, how sweet.

Our good friend Jen lives out on Park Point now and was kind enough to offer up her living room floor as a place to sleep. She has a balcony and it’s great to sit out there and smell the fresh air rolling off Lake Superior again. We’ve been briged two or three times and, while it’ll always be boring, it was a reminder that we’re once again back in Duluth.

I think it’s going to be strange to leave. We’ve spent the better part of our adult lives here and this is the first time we’ve been in town without a place of our own in 8 years. For Anna’s family, it’s the first time since 1995 they haven’t had someone living in Duluth. It’s a great city and I love the location, the stores, the crazy roads, the music scene and the people. I don’t want to live in the cities.
But we have to. I’m going to get a fabulous job, maybe as a sports reporter in Farmington or Stillwater (working on apps for both). Anna’s going to get her Masters of Social Work and in the meantime, we’ll enjoy the culture, the music and the restuarants. It’ll be nice to be so close to so many friends and family, but it’ll never be Duluth. So it goes.

We’ll visit often. I didn’t get a chance to see the Questex people this time, so we’ll be up again soon so I can talk with the ladies in the classified dept. and show off some of our photos. I’m still working on upgrading the DVD slideshow, but I need the photo CDs we sent home with Patty and Paul’s shipment. We should get it soon, maybe this weekend, but I don’t want to download every photo from prior to Malaysia off flikr, as it would take forever.

Anywho, not much to say, I guess. BWCAW trip is coming up next weekend, which I am looking forward to. It’s been great to come back in the summer and get to do all these summer things, like barbeques, picnics, camping trips and the State Fair.

It’s great to see all of you!

They’ve been a bit slow in coming, and I suspect there aren’t many checking back regularly, but I thought it was time to make good on my word.

Minnesota has been good to us, as usual. The weather’s been nice, if a mite hot, and we’ve made a tour of most of the state, visiting family and friends and in general avoiding as much of the reality that we can feel setting in. Last Monday, we went to Rochester and spent some time with my family. Anna and I practiced our Thai cooking skills, making some very spicy green curry and some not so spicy cashew chicken. They both turned out very well. Justin joined us for dinner and we saw his (and Andrea’s) new home afterwards. Very nice. We should all be so fortunate.

On Thursday, we drove to Grand Rapids and spent an evening on Trout Lake with JD, Joe, Beth, Maddie and Donovan. The weather was beautiful. It was nice to be in the woods again and nice to wet a line, although we need to remember to pick up fishing licenses before we go again. We didn’t catch anything, so I didn’t feel too guilty, but it’s still something we need to take care of.

The rest of the weekend we spent in Cass Lake, visiting with Anna’s family. It was a great weekend. Friday night, Mike cooked us walleye and wild rice, a real MN dinner if there ever was one, and the next day, we had a picnic out at Norway Beach. That night, Mary cooked a fine meal and we continued visiting with friends and relatives. All in all, I couldn’t have asked for a better weekend.

Now we’re in Shoreview, staying at my Grandparent’s apartment while they’re at Mille Lacs for the summer. It was very nice of them to let us stay here, as it gives us a chance to get jobs and find an apartment without worrying so much about money.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped make this trip possible for us. It’s been the experience of a lifetime, something we’ll think back on fondly for the rest of our lives, and so many of you have been extremely generous with your time, your knowledge, your homes and many other things. Without such wonderful family and friends, such an ambitious trip would have been impossible. I’d list everyone here, but I’d just forget someone and you all know who you are and how you’ve helped. Besides, a thank you is best delivered in person, not writing.

I’m going to keep writing here as I look for jobs and as Anna starts looking for school, but the traveling is mostly over and life is going to slip back into the same routine it was in before. I don’t think the stories will be as interesting, but I like to write and this keeps me fresh. Talk to you again soon!

details to follow . . .

It looks like we’ll be home a couple of days early. After emailing Steve about a dozen times, it looks like our best shot at getting home this weekend is flying from AMS to BDL (Hartford, CT) tomorrow, 7/13 and then to MSP from there. We’ll arrive at MSP around 8 pm, as long as everything goes as planned.

We’re taking a train to Amsterdam tonight and will arrive after 11. From the train station, it’s a 25 minute train ride/drive to our place and the last train leaves at midnight. Our flight leaves Amsterdam at 1:10 pm, so we’ll be there overnight and nothing more. It’ll make today and tomorrow pretty hectic, but the rest of the flights for the weekend were pretty full, with these ones being the only flights with 20+ seats open. The rest were fully booked (not including the pad, which means–ahem, which isn’t important here)

We’re still planning on a little get-together on Sunday at Jamie’s place in the cities–I’ll still send out directions to anyone interested.
So. 24 hours from now, we won’t be home, but we’ll be on our way.

Marrakesh is hot. It’s not in the Sahara proper (I don’t think), amidst the oceans of sand dunes that the name Sahara evokes, but it is definitely an oasis in the midst of a desert. During the hottest part of the day (noon to about 4) Anna and I took to holing up in our airconditioned hotel room and playing cards until the heat subsided a bit. The temperatures peaked over 100 every single day we were there and it’s still only July. I get bonus points for going to the desert twice with Anna, heat lover that she is.

Anyway, the point is that we aren’t in Marrakesh anymore, we’re in Essaouira, a town three hours away on the Atlantic coast and Essaouira isn’t hot at all with temps peaking around 80. In fact, in the evening, it gets almost chilly, cooling off into the lower 60’s.

It isn’t just the weather that’s nice in Essaouira, the whole town is very pleasant. It’s a small fishing village that’s slowly turning to tourism. There’s a wide beach to the south and a picturesque Portugese-era wall surrounding the main part of the town. To the north, the Atlantic breaks on a rocky shoreline of rugged beauty. It lacks the rush and bustle of Marrakesh, and after a few days there, it’s nice to relax a bit. The only downside of the town is the wind, which blows off the ocean, rising to what seems like gale force in the afternoon. It makes the beach a little unpleasant, because the wind picks up sand and drives it everywhere. We sat out for about 2 hours today before getting our fill, brushing off and heading back to the hotel to shower up.

6 days and we’ll be home, if things go well. Steve sent me flight updates today, and things are starting to fill up, but it still looks pretty good for us. We’ll see on Friday/Saturday. There’s 3 non-stops to MSP and like 8 more to somewhere in the states, so we’ll make it on something. We’ll try to update everyone on exact times when we get closer, but we won’t really know which flight we’re on until we’re in the air. It’ll probably be something like “we’ll be on this flight, unless you hear different.”

As far as plans go once we get back, we haven’t firmed much up yet. Anna’s cousin Jamie is hosting something at her place in Roseville on the day we fly in. Anyone is welcome–if there are a lot of people interested who don’t know where she lives, post in the comments and I’ll put directions up.

I think we’re going to head down to Rochester on Monday and visit people down there for a couple of days, then head for Cass Lake on Thursday or Friday. This is subject to change, though, because Anna needs to schedule some meetings with St. Thomas and, with luck, I’ll have an interview to schedule. After that first weekend, we haven’t figured anything out. We will be making a trip to Duluth as soon as possible to see the town and all the friends we somehow decided to leave and I want very much to visit Mille Lacs quite soon as well. After we make the rounds, we will probably be spending the bulk of our time in Mpls. After the 15th or thereabouts, we’ll both have our cell phones again, so you can call us and we can call you.
Anyway, that’s how things look at the moment. 6 days is a long time, so things could change. I’ll try to keep things updated here, but we’ve got a lot of travel time in the next 6 days so internet access will be limited.

Edit: Now that I think about it, Jamie might not want directions to her house posted on the internet. Anyone who wants directions, let me know and I’ll email directions to you. (Already got you on the list, Tony).

Yesterday, I couldn’t switch to an English keyboard layout and today Anna can’t. Lucky me, I guess.

Anyway, Morocco and Marrakesh are a great place to end our trip. We are staying in the Medina, a huge, walled area of the old town that is centered on the Place Djemaâ el Fna, which is the largest square on the African continent and is filled with henna tatooers, snake charmers, monkey tamers, orange juice salesmen and spice sellers during the day. At night, it comes alive, flooding with locals who come to see the jugglers and other artists and listen to the storytellers, drummers and singers. There are also tons of street stalls that serve food that smells wonderful but that we haven’t yet tried.

Behind the square is an enourmous labyrinthine marketplace, the largest we’ve ever seen, called the “souqs,” which means shops. The vendors are aggressive, but not like India and it’s almost amusing to once again see the same tactics deployed in yet another part of the world. It’s as if all the small time vendors, people who work in markets around the world, have an annual convention where they exchange tips and advice on what works and what doesn’t. “Hello, friend! Have a look! Looking is free, looking is free. I give you cheap price!”

Still, the vendors here are just a bit more remarkable. As a sort of crossroads for southern Europe, albeit dominated by France, Morocco has a large blend of languages. Most vendors speak their native Moroccan Arabic (distinct from the Arabic spoken in the Gulf and elsewhere), their colonial French, perhaps a dialect of Berber, and a smattering of English, German and Dutch. I’m wearing a hat of the FC Bayern Munchen, so a lot of vendors think we’re German. I get a lot of “Enshuldigung,” which I just ignore, same as if they speak in English. I just find it amazing that so many street vendors, who probably haven’t had as much in the way of schooling as the average American, can speak 4, 5 or 6 languages fluently.

Morocco, or at least Marrakesh, is also a great place for oranges. The trees that line the streets are orange trees, with ripening fruit hanging on them, and you can’t throw a stone without hitting an orange vendor. The oranges are some of the best I’ve ever tasted, juicy and ripe and delicious and the juice they make out of them is phenomenal as well. I want to go eat another one right now . . .

We’ve got another day in Marrakesh before we go to Essouira, a smallish resort/fishing village on the Atlantic coast, 2.5 hours by bus from here. We’ll spend 3 nights there, returning to Marrakesh on Wednesday, before our flight to Frankfurt and the end of our vacation. We have 9 days left (maybe less, if we get on an earlier flight to MSP, which is possible) and we’re both happy to be in Morocco and happy to be going home.

Please forgive me, but this post will be short and error strewn. The keyboard on this computer is significantly different, yet similar enough to really mess with me. In most places, you can change it to an English keyboard and ignore the letters on the keys; but that won’t work here. It’s frustrating being reduced to hunt and peck after years of touch typing.

So. We’ve made it to Marrakesh in one, albiet very tired, piece. We left Prague 2 days ago on another wonderful night train and arrived in Frankfurt at 6 in the morning. Each of our 3 night trains has sucked in its own special way; the first time with the all night passport checks, the second with the dreaded stinky roommate and this last journey because of the 2 middle aged drunks that were in our compartment. It was actually pretty entertaining: they were funny drunks and they were more interested in laughing than anything else, we were just ready for them to quiet down around midnight or so.

So we had a short night of sleep on the train. We wandered blearily around Frankfurt’s (closed) red-light district and the “old town” (almost everything was destroyed in WWII and subseauently rebuilt) before taking a bus out to Hahn airport, which is where Ryanair flies out of. The airport is called Frankfurt-Hahn; but that’s something like calling Duluth’s airport Minneapolis-Duluth, because Hahn and Frankfurt aren’t even close to each other. We’d done our research and knew this, so we booked a night at a hotel by the airport and did the 2 hour bus ride yesterday instead of at 2 this morning.

Marrakesh strikes both of us as a sort of India-lite: there is some of the same flexibility in traffic rules, there is some of the same madness, and the people are somewhat similar in their approach to life, from what we can gather. Still, it has none of the intensity of India, its not so overwhelming and intimidating. Most of the smells (and there are many) are pleasant instead of foul. Our hotel is centrally located, not insanely expensive and is nice. All of these things would be different in the big I. It seems a great place to end our trip: some of the madness of South Asia, but in a more managable form.

I’m surprised I made it this far, but I’m sick of typing. I’ll find another internet shop and post again once we’ve had a full day here and explored a bit more.

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There are so many things that happen to you or around you when you’re traveling that just would not happen in the US. Some things are pretty prosaic, like in NZ, there were trampolines in public campgounds, which, because of insurance, would never happen in the US. Others, like people riding on the roof of the bus for long distances as in Nepal, are a bit more strange. In the Prague, we’ve had a few more.

For instance: in the US, you’ll never be scalded by water from a tap in a hotel. If anything like that happened, it’d be a bright, shiny invitation to a lawsuit and a ticket to a bunch of money for whoever was burned. Unlucky for me, I’m not in the US. Last night I took a shower. My sandals have been pretty stinky, so I brought them in with me to clean them up. After I was all done, I turned the water on as hot as it would go and sprayed down my sandals for a minute or to, just to get rid of any extra stink. The shower was hand-held, if you know what I mean, and when I was done, I propped it behind the faucet and started to dry off. As I was getting out, I accidentally bumped the faucet and it sprayed me in the side of the chest, with the water as hot as it will go. In the US, this would have been a shock, maybe, but it wouldn’t have scalded me. In Prague, they run their water heaters pretty damn hot, I guess.

I went back to the room and showed Anna, whose first response was (and I quote exactly) “Your skin is coming off!” It wasn’t. Not really. I did have a blister about the size of my thumb that had burst, so I can see what she meant, but it’s not as bad as she made it sound. Initially I had a red, extremely painful area about the size or my head on the side of my chest. Now, I’ve got the burst blister and an area about the size of a silver dollar around it that hurts.

Also: in the US, if there is a tourist information stand in a train station (or bus station or airport). it will have train information. In Prague, this is not the case. I can’t imagine why not.

Prague, aside from not being the USA, is very beautiful. It’s one of only a few cities that were spared in WWII, so the architecture is original and amazing. Prague is in Bohemia, so everything that your mind associates with gothic and the brothers Grimm is made manifest here. The churches are some of the most ornate I’ve ever seen and the castles, well, the castles are what you think of when you hear the word castle. They’re unbelieveable and almost unreal. We’ve been wandering around town for a couple of days and even the hordes of tourists can’t ruin such a beautiful city.

There’s more, I’m sure, there’s always more, but a blog is a blog and I can’t put it all here. We’ll be home in 2 weeks to start to dole out the stories and show the pictures and talk to people in person. We’re both looking forward to seeing all of you!