New Year's Letter 2011

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Merry Christma-Hanna-Kwanzikah and Happy New Year!

It has been quite an exciting year for us!

JANUARY saw Adam find a new job working for American University in the Office of Alumni Affairs in the Records Research Division after finishing 9 years in the Air Force and start his last semester of work on his mathematics degree from the University of Maryland. Laura continued to work at the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety doing vehicle safety related research. Adam and friends also plunged into 32 degree water in the Chesapeake Bay as part of the Polar Plunge, narrowly avoiding hypothermia.

FEBRUARY started with a trip to Punxatawney, Pennsylvania for the annual Groundhog's day celebrations. Adam booked the hotel nearly 3 years ago. It was around 5 degrees Fahrenheit when we trekked up to Gobbler's Knob at 4am to watch the Groundhog be pulled from his heated stump. DC also saw 3 major snowstorms this month causing at least 7 or 8 snow days off from work. The first day the snow cleared we took a flight to Rio de Janeiro and spent a week celebrating Carnival there and sunbathing on Copacabana. It was a very colorful time.

MARCH saw us give up our beloved apartment in Crystal City, Virginia where Adam had been for 4 years and put most of our stuff in storage in the basement of Laura's parent's house in Roanoke, Virginia. Preparations for our around the world trip were in full swing. Spring break was especially nice as the Math and Chinese classes were beginning to take their toll on Adam.

APRIL was not especially exciting. We continued to work in the DC area from a rented room in the Petworth area of DC and Adam finished his last semester at University of Maryland.

MAY saw us move in with our friend Eric in Arlington. Adam's birthday was celebrated with 40 friends eating a 15 pound burger including 2 heads of lettuce, 8 tomatoes, and a pound of cheese. It was actually really good! By mid May we had packed up our remaining things to leave in storage with the rest of our things in Roanoke. We visited Laura's family in Roanoke and Adam's in Buffalo, and departed for Johannesburg, South Africa.

By JUNE our trip was in full swing. Laura began her new travelingjob as a blogger for the Association for Safe International Road Safety (www.asirt.org) and we went to three World Cup soccar games that month including an Austrailia-US friendly, a Brazilian 2-1 victory over Korea KPR, and the come from behind US-Slovenia 3-3 tie. We also volunteered for a week in Botswana at the Mokolodi Nature reserve and got to hand feed cheetahs and hyenas. We spent a week in Mozambique in the capital city for some rest and relaxing to get away from the South African football fever as well as the expensive prices.

JULY saw us return to South Africa by way of Swaziland, where we spent nearly a week in a nature reserve. The hippos were a highlight as was a hike up to execution rock where they used to throw the criminals from. Its a long way down! We also spent a day going up the Sani Pass to Lesotho at about 2 miles per hour! Towards the end we boarded a truck/bus that would be our home for the next 8 countries and 48 days.

AUGUST saw the tour continue. There are too many highlights to mention but in the trek that took us from South Africa to Namibia to Botswana to Malawi to Zimbabwe to Zambia to Tanzania and Zanzibar to Kenya. We really liked Namibia the best. Adam went dune bashing on a 4 wheeler and Laura and Adam tried sandboarding down a giant dune. Its supposed to be easier than snowboarding on snow, but neither one of us was very good at it. Of our 10 safaris we both really liked Chobe National Park in Botswana where we saw all of the important animals like lions, hippos, elephant, monkeys, cheetahs, giraffe, zebra and many other exciting animals.

By SEPTEMBER we said good bye to our trekking friends and reached Kenya where we remained about 10 days. We went to the Masai Mara and spent some time in Nairobi. We also took a 10 day trip to Ethiopia exploring Addis Ababa, the rock hewn churches from half a millenia ago in Lalibela, and the island monasteries in Bahir Dar from the same time period. Rumor has it the ark of the covenant was once there, but we could not find it. The end of September saw us spend a few days in the United Arab Emirates going to the top of the world's highest building and skiing in the Mid east's first indoor ski center. We rest of the time in Sri Lanka in Unawatuna, Kandy, and Dambulla.

We spent the whole month of OCTOBER in Delhi where we explored the city and Laura began to work in earnest on her PhD applications. The school locations range from the east to the west coast. I can do my Actuarial Science program anywhere. I am also hoping to be near a Civil Air Patrol Unit as I miss flying!

NOVEMBER we spent in Nepal. Adam went on a 10 day trek in the Annapurna Mountain Range while Laura continued working on applications and explored Kathmandu. The city turned out to be charming and we even extended our stay by a week to relax there.

DECEMBER started out with a trip to Goa where Adam baked in the sun and frolicked in the ocean. Laura continued working on her applications, interspersing her time on the computer with frolics and excursions. We are writing from Thailand where we are visiting Laura's parents. It has been a busy and exciting year!

2011 sees us visiting another 5 or 6 Asian countries before returning to the States in the summer. We will be teaching English in China the spring semester, which runs from after Chinese New Year's in February until mid June. After that we may or may not stop a few more places on our way home to collect our stuff and set up our apartment in a new yet to be determined city. Most importantly the “Welcome back to America Adam and Laura party” will be in July in DC somewhere! Looking forward to seeing everyone soon!

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