http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Tyrone/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Tyrone en-us Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:38:01 +0000 Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:38:01 +0000 I get complimented on my complete and utter dominance of chopsticks a lot over here and I have to give a shout out to Teh Yu Sun and our 2nd grade field trip to her familyrsquos restaurant The Mandarin. The ultimate maneuvers are creating a sushi roll without your hands and eating fish while removing the bones from your mouth with the chopsticks. Speaking of chopsticks I broke my one day Asia http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/DMZ/blog-458812.html Saw my first set of Korean balls. And my second set. And my third. I gotta change gyms. Itrsquos like watching Train Spotting every afternoon. Irsquom not sure how nature gets idealized as being this pure innocent system wersquore destroying. I saw two cats play with and then brutally slaughter a mouse the other day. Vicious. In Colombia you couldnrsquot get on a bus without there http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/DMZ/blog-453804.html I hugged my first Korean man. Irsquom not sure he appreciated it. I had just been badgering him to let a friend and I spend the night at his house or at least eat dinner with him and his family. It was a no go but he took it all in good spirits. Chicken soup for the Korean soul. They have the highest suicide rate in the world by a pretty large margin so I probably saved his life. I climb http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/DMZ/blog-441124.html Things have been pretty tough thus far mostly due to my poor language skills and the fact that I still haven't forgiven them for Pearl Harbor. I arrived alive and well obviously. Korean Air is crazy nice I watched four movies and the stewardesses were geishas who could've been air hostesses in the 60's. Plus I was in the middle of the middle aisle so I could pick what side I wanted to get my http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/DMZ/blog-433206.html FedEx Clerk We donrsquot accept cash for prepay items. Me You mean you donrsquot accept cash for post pay FedEx Clerk No prepay you need a credit card or we canrsquot send your package. Oh or a fedex account. Me Can I set one of those up without a credit card FedEx Clerk No. I used to believe that credit cards represented an amount of actual moneycashlegal tender that we ha http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Missouri/Kansas-City/blog-419002.html Irsquove been kind of scared that salmonella peanut butter might have made itrsquos way down to Colombia and due to a gross deficiency in health standards organization and concern for human life might not have been properly recalled. Then after extensive research Wikipedia search I find out all salmonella does is cause typhoid fever which Irsquom super immune to. Do you think people http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Santa-Marta/blog-391115.html It became quickly apparent my father hasnrsquot forgotten his days as a Nixon staffer as he dropped peace signs on about 4500 people while he was here. He reminded me of that old guy in Lawrence who just walks around throwing peace signs at passerbyes paying it forward. I got to know both him my father not the Lawrence guy and my little sister much better. I donrsquot think Irsquove s http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Santa-Marta/blog-369794.html I sometimes forget the awesome power of Bon Jovirsquos Living on a Prayer. I played it for my students and theyrsquove been since testing my enduring love for the tune by requesting I put it on repeat for entire hours at a time. Therersquos not even a dissenting voice who agrees with me that we should occasionally change the song. Welcome to 2009. I spent Christmas like I imagine most of http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Santa-Marta/blog-360729.html Irsquom not sure exactly why but at times I still feel like Irsquom in college. On Saturday loathe to leave the apartment due to pure unadulterated laziness I was searching for a mulled wine recipe in order to prep for the holiday season that is upon us. Unlike the higher latitudes the holiday season here rides in on gale force winds that blow the non holiday gloom out of the abjectly poor http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Santa-Marta/blog-352468.html Irsquom not exactly sure what being intimate with someone who has children has to do with precipitation but in the parlance of our time itrsquos raining like a mother f here. Something to do with being caught in some late hurricane business. Good news though they cancelled an after school meeting to accommodate driving home earlier in the mad watered roadways. Two weeks ago Adam Josh http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Santa-Marta/blog-348623.html First let me say that I havenrsquot been this proud of my country since the first time I saw Rocky IV. I know some of you hate me to espousing my personal politics on here but whatrsquos awesome is that none of you can stop me. I feel bad for McCain Bush screwed him in 2000 and managed to do it again this year. Besides getting a black man in the top office in the nation Irsquod say the s http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Santa-Marta/blog-342402.html So Irsquom home overlooking Jesus once again. Operation lsquoDonrsquot Die in a Fiery Plane Crashrsquo was a success. Only in Latin America have I heard the passengers clap when the plane lands. The trip home was a mixture of awesomeness best exemplified by having my arm around a black man while singing Dixieland Delight at Bobrsquos wedding and the not quite so awesome inability t http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Santa-Marta/blog-330252.html So after the trip Scott and Megan came back here and we all hung out in the traditional Caribbean garb the linen suit. These are acceptable as both pajamas or attending your own wedding which is more than I can say for the tux. Sadly they donrsquot include a tie which can be tied around onersquos head at the reception marking oneself as a. drunk and b. retarded. It seems like forever ago http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Barranquilla/blog-321793.html While in La Paz we stayed with Adamrsquos aunts in laws sisterrsquos husbandrsquos aunts. Two 5060ish ladies named Marta and Lily. I never really did figure out which was which. They spoiled us like our own grandmothers feeding us constantly and taking great care of Meghan who picked the right spot to get a little sick. Bolivia is super cheap full of crazy markets and the city looks http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/blog-315456.html Irsquoll begin with some general thoughts First as yoursquoll notice I have a problem with llamas. They started it. Think Conan the Barbarian and camels. Adam is borderline narcoleptic with an uncanny ability to sleep anywhere although he lost several sleep offs to homeless men shameful. Colombian women are the most beautiful on the continent. Hands down no contest. Argentine l http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/blog-308373.html Life is ridiculous struggle for an extremely large part of the earths population. Not a struggle against boredom or to find ones purpose but to survive put food on the table keep their kids healthy since they cant afford health care. I see it in Santa Marta of course but theres something about seeing it elsewhere that really drives it home. Started the trip with a long day at the pool th http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/North/Quito/blog-291953.html Last weekend we went to Barranquilla to bid farewell to the saintly Chris Davies. He will be missed and not just by the under aged underprivileged youth of the BQ. Saturday I went to pick up the esteemed Timothy Healy from the airport I was of course late transportation strike or something and had failed to give Tim any information such as local address phone number etc. This gave him ampl http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Santa-Marta/blog-287425.html Almost all of the cell phones here including my own are prepay. Meaning that when your money runs out and it does frequently you hang up on who you are talking to. It makes for a quick easy exit from a conversation. Plus hanging up and claiming you ran out of money is oh so believable. The best is when you know they donrsquot have money to call you back. Great. Time and time again my http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Santa-Marta/blog-282222.html The guy who does Jean Lucrsquos spanish voice dub is a poor replacement for the sonorous manliness of Patrick Stewart. I think facebook status updates are not the most appropriate place to express personal anguish over someone dying. Maybe Irsquom just old and out of touch. One thing I love about Spanish is than instead of paying attention you lend prestar your attention to someone. I do http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Santa-Marta/blog-274310.html Adam and I bought a couch because to be perfectly honest we needed someplace to sit. Irsquom pretty sure the slipping pass to Chalmers for the game tying three only happened because Jors Adam and I were flapping our arms like Angels in the Outfield. Jerry THE HEAT. It has arrived in full force. To escape it we went to San Lorenzo this weekend a nearby mountain town that I visited once a http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Santa-Marta/blog-268442.html