itinerary

itinerary,
originally uploaded by Waldie's World.

here it is, folks. it's official. we're going to africa! this is our itinerary, not that you can read it. but tis for real.

i even got my vaccines on thursday. four shots at one time didn't hurt as much as i anticipated. but i think my body has been mad at me because i've had a low fever for the past 24 hours. but after sleeping all afternoon, i'm feeling a lot better.

my 4 heroes

we went to hamido and hawa's apartment tonight for our regular wednesday night english class. tonight hamido learned to read and spell these words: write, read, say, copy, draw, color, number and name. and she really did learn and recognize these words where at the beginning of the night she did not. cool.

signed, sealed, delivered

mom sent this photo since i couldn't find one.

3 years

tomorrow will be my and chris's wedding anniversary. (and dogwood and ingrid's, too. happy anniversary, guys!) i went looking on snapfish for old stored photos of our wedding and i couldn't find any. suspicious. i thought we had some online. but alas. that was before our digital camera as well so i guess we don't have any on computer files. use your imagination. or stop by and see the pictures and movie we have at home. anyone? anyone?

anyway, back to our anniversary. so, yea. 3 years. good stuff. i got a great guy. to give you all an example of how great he is, i'll share a story. while the 2 of us sat on the couch tonight, chris caught a fly with his hand. one hand. that's skillz.

so here's to a great guy, a great marriage and 3 wonderful years. happy anniversary, scoobs.

my boy be's smart, part 2

chris was awarded the outstanding senior in sociology award today at usc. it was a long, but nice ceremony in the horseshoe and once i moved to the shade i enjoyed being outside for a few hours. afterward we got to go inside the university president's house for a reception. swanky place. anyways, we didn't take the camera into the president's home so we have no pictures of that. but if you want to see a few more of chris and his award, click on the picture above.

pardon our mess. we're under construction

click on the picture to see a set of picts of our new place. it's pretty unimpressive with no pictures on the wall and things just randomly strewn about. but it'll give you an idea. while you're there, check out picts of our trip to charleston during my parent's visit. or you can click here to see them.

our new pad

okay, okay, i said i'd post pictures like 2 days ago and i've still not done it. i'm hoping to take some this morning but just in case i thought i'd write the post first then do the pictures, that way if i don't get to the pictures, well, you all would still know what's up.

so we officially moved saturday, though we spent a good part of the week prior pre-moving-bringing boxes over, cleaning, etc. saturday went well, thanks to several generous friends who lent vehicles and/or time. by the afternoon we had everything moved in and chris and i were arranging and rearranging everything to make it work. by now we have most things unpacked but a lot of that is just sitting around on the floor waiting to find a home, as i'm sure you'll see in the pictures to come.

the place is cute, though. it has a few quirks-leaky fridge and 2-prong outlets only (!!)- but otherwise it's a sweet deal. we've already decided we're having a housewarming/graduation party on may 6th to show the place off. come on over if you're around!

HOLY SMOKES!

we're officially going to africa! for 3 weeks on june. we booked our tickets yesterday. it's the most money we've ever spent in one shot but it'll be totally worth it and, as my sister-in-law said today, we just need to get there.

so we fly out of columbia, into atlanta and then layover in amsterdam and into dar es salam. then we'll travel through tanzania, staying for a few days in mwanza, the 2nd largest town in the country, on the coast of lake victoria. chris's teacher is from this town and he's promised us some friends to stay with and, hopefully, some non-profit organizations to volunteer with or to see. then we'll go to nairobi, kenya and will leave the continent from there.

i'm typing this on our new-to-us computer!

mom and jim have been here since friday night. we've been bus-bus-busy. but not too rushy-rush-rush, which is nice. saturday we trampsed around columbia, going to some our our favorite haunts. sunday was charleston and mepkin abbey. yesterday, though, i came down with some sort of cold. slept all morning while mom and jim revisited our favorite columbia spots to make more purchases. then i drug myself up to go to the congaree national park. i bailed on a work function i was supposed to go to last night because i didn't feel up to it, but opted to go to the movies with everyone to see neil young, a heart of gold at the nickelodeon. it was good but i got sleepy in the end. don't know what's in store today, but this afternoon we finally (and hopefully) sign our lease! woohoo! and we'll take advantage of $.55 slice night at pizza man for a last evening of fun before mom and jim hit the road early early wednesday morning. pictures of the visit to come.

i think i might have a "neatball" sandwich for dinner

well, chris pretty much updated you on our week already. so i don't want to feel redundant. but a few things of note.

we think we've found an apartment to move into. for reals this time. not the places chris mentioned. we looked at 2 on tuesday. apt 1 was just a little too shabby for what we wanted. and apt 2 was just a little too big for what we wanted. but we looked at a place wednesday that seemed just right. so we submitted an application last night and we're the only people to have seen it so i can't really see why we wouldn't get it. hopefully we'll hear from the property manager tomorrow. but here's a brief description to feed your palate just a little bit. 2 bedroom, 1 bath, central heat and air, hardwood floors, little green space out back and "woody-ish" behind, 1 block from a big park. woohoo! ya park!

timero, the grandmom bantu, can now write her name perfectly without looking at another copy of it for guidance. we have 5 woman this week (plus a screaming infant). i'm appreciative that nicole is now helping out, and that chris is taking the noisy (albeit cute) kids outside.

mom and jim come tomorrow. yippee! and they’re bringing a newer computer for us. with os 10! out of the dark ages we come! fun things me might do during the visit: pick strawberries, mepkin abbey and charleston, $.55 slice night at pizza man, oh yea, and move.

thanks for the well-wishes

as most of you who read this know, yesterday was my 28th birthday. it was a lovely day spent mostly with my husband. but i received lost of phone calls, birthday cards and well-wishes. so thanks, everybody for thinking of me!

if you're curious what we did...well, friday night i got together with "the ladies" to watch i robot. enjoyed the movie, but the company was much better. they even made a cake for me and sang happy birthday. then saturday chris and i drove up and down the streets of select neighborhoods looking for houses to rent. it was such a treat to just meander and hang out with my guy. then we went to the columbia international festival, had an awsome lunch (from india, the carribbian, and turkey) and watched the entertainment. then last night we went up to the lake to have a cookout with some friends. all-in-all, a very laid back and relaxed day. perfect!