Seafood and Siestas!

During my trip to Spain, I was lucky enough to meet up with Linda and Kohei during their round-the-world travels. They’ve been in Europe for the last 3 months and are heading to South America next. This is at Parc Guell, which is filled with sculptures made by Gaudi. You can also visit their blog at travelingseeds.wordpress.com. We hope to meet up with them again in Asia next year.

Brian, Jung, and I had a great time traveling together. Among our more “travel worthy” stories is our attempt to fit 3 people on our King size bed. We weren’t actually planning to keep up the pillow barriers, but Jung and I fell asleep too quickly. Note: Brian’s “pod” is probably 1.5 times bigger than mine. Hilarious!

All of our time in Spain was spent either eating or walking. We had AMAZING food from pinoxtes (Basque tapas), seafood paella, and Spanish wines and beers (for them). This was at a cute restaurant called Quimet Y Quimet. The owner of the restaurant made his own creations in front of us and we enjoyed them right away at the bar.

My favorite dish is Spain is called “Arroz Negro”, which means black rice. I didn’t post a picture of it because it doesn’t look nearly as good as it tastes. It’s made with squid ink and is another version of paella. I also loved eating regular paella and tried many different types of tapas. We adapted to the Spanish schedule easily – lunch around 2, a siesta, and then dinner around 9.

We generally walked a few hours each day to the sites in Spain (museums, parks, churches). In Barcelona, Jung was our elected navigator. We always arrived at the expected destination and the rest of us followed. In Madrid, Brian was promoted to navigator as most know that I am direction-challenged. We had a nice “wandering” experience when it was just the two of us. No matter how hard we tried to stay on course, we seemed to go in circles…literally. On the upside, it was a good way to experience the small streets. This is El Retiro, which is a nice park in Madrid.

I am finally back in the US. I have an overnight visit in Dallas with the parents and then head to Alex/Kristin’s wedding in Hawaii. Jung is picking me up from the airport in our 12 hour time zone difference from Spain! It's been a whirlwind tour and will finish up in Cali before heading home.

Hola ¿Habla Inglés?

Warren and I parted ways in London, so that he could “dissertate” with minimal distractions from me. I flew to Malaga, the southern tip of Spain, and took a bus to Granada. I now start all conversations with hola...habla ingles and expect the answer to be no.













I took a segway tour my first day in Granada. We rode up to the top, which was a picturesque view of the entire city and passed through the Sacramonte gypsy area.










At the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, the city of Granada has lots of streetside restaurants and cafes. It is a very quaint town with beautiful scenery and part of an area in Spain called Andalusia.














This is one of the street performers who provided some entertainment during my late lunch. (I seem to eat around 2 or 3 pm here to match the schedule).

Alhambra Palace is the main attraction in the area. It is an ancient fortress of the Moorish monarchs. The area is beautiful minus the numerous tourists. There are 7800 visitors per day.

Tomorrow I head to Barcelona to meet up with Jung and Brian!

British Bookends

We began our five week journey with a stop-over in Heathrow, and now conclude our trip with three nights in Central London!














Arriving on a Sunday afternoon, we quickly made haste to get to the 6:30pm service at All Soul’s Church – the pulpit of which was occupied for many years by John Stott. It was a simple, solid, Evangelical service with a broad range of racial diversity in the pews.

We took a ride on the “London Eye” which is a newer tourist spot that looks essentially like an oversized ferris wheel granting breathtaking views of the city from thousands of feet in the sky. Below us in this picture are the famous “Big Ben”, Westminster Hall, and Parliament.

Coincidentally, we stayed at the Hilton Metropole, the site of the 2010 European Poker Tour (EPT) – London, which was held during the same time as our stay. I (Warren) was pretty excited to see famous poker superstars wandering around the hotel premises – Chris Moneymaker, Eric Seidel, John Juanda – I even had a short conversation with Greg Raymer in the elevator over his early exit!

Our last day was spent journeying 80 miles north of London to the site of Stonehenge. These large stones were mysteriously put into their places over 5000 years ago for purposes which are still unclear to scientists and archeologists. There’s literally nothing around this site – one wonders who decided to carry these stones from several hundred miles away to this random, grassy field in the middle of England.

Our journey comes to a close. We have so many memories that we are so grateful to have made and shared with each other – and with our friends and family. Looking back, we really have done so much! During the five weeks we took ten flights, en route to visiting five countries, used six different currencies, and bought seven different SIM cards for our iPhone. 

Melissa now continues on to Spain and Hawaii while Warren returns to Boston to get back to “dissertating”. Hope to see y’all really soon and talk to you about our travels in person! (Stay tuned for more updates from Melissa!)

wrapping up East Africa

Nairobi, Kenya (layover)










We took advantage of a 4 hour layover in Kenya – we ate a huge meal at the famous “Carnivore” restaurant and spent a few moments at this scenic spot overlooking downtown Nairobi…

Kigali, Rwanda (which is actually pronounced: Cha-Gali)









We devoted ourselves to a week of volunteering at Cards for Africa – a socially responsible company co-owned by one of our closest friends, Jimmy Quach. (http://www.cardsfromafrica.com/)

Over 75 employees work in this incredible company devoted to making handmade cards from recyclable materials. The card-making staff (63 folks) comprise largely of orphans who have lost parents due to the Rwandan genocide or HIV. Watching these folks labor over the details of rather intricate cards was a thing of beauty (especially as American hip-hop blasts in the background).

Melissa spent some significant time with Athanasie (pictured) and Aimee, who are in charge of inventory, stock, and materials. Mel spent time with both women, teaching them how to use Excel to manage data. I (Warren) spent the better part of the week troubleshooting blue-screening computers and solving technical issues like a good Asian boy.

We definitely grew in appreciation for the difficulties of running a small business – especially in East Africa where things considered routine in the States (e.g., ordering supplies, reliable internet connection, unbroken electricity).

We have a short stay in Uganda before we head to London for three days. We bid a sad goodbye to East Africa, where we have learned so much and come to appreciate so much of the language, the culture, and the people!

a few days in paradise

We spent a wonderful four days in Zanzibar -- a quiet island off the coast of Tanzania.

We loved spending the better part of one day on the Eastern side of the island where it's secluded, quiet, and beautiful. It was super relaxing and provided me (Warren) some nice rest and relaxation! Finally went for a much needed run and started a new book.

Melissa, on the other hand, spent the day learning to kite-surf (and getting sun-burned!). It's quite a difficult sport but by the end of the day, she had mastered three of the five skills.











During our stay we visited the Jozani Forest in Southeast Zanzibar. This is a red colobus monkey here in the tree staring at us taking pictures of him. They live on leaves and fruit and Jozani is the only place where they exist. There are only 2,300 remaining in the world.

One of the highlights was definitely the famous Zanzibar Spice Tour -- an all-day tour which included an introduction to various spice trees and plants. We learned about, tasted, and smelled cardamum, peppers, coffee, cloves, nim, jackfruit, cinnamon, vanilla, and many others. Melissa is here with a section of a cocoa seed. It's covered with a sticky, squishy, sweet covering. The inside is dark and bitter -- what is generally processed into beloved chocolate!

Here we on our hotel room balcony. (Yes, that is the view from our room). Each morning we had breakfast overlooking the Indian Ocean and truly had an amazing time in Zanzibar. We are sad that our time in East Africa is down to only a week! But for now, we are excited to head to Rwanda to do work with Cards from Africa.

seven days in the bush...

We had an amazing time during our safari. We will post more animal pics on facebook, but here are a few favorites.












This is what Mel likes to call the “Circle of Life” picture. It is next to the Tarangire River, where many animals come for water. While this picture only captures the lions (lying on the ground on the right) and elephants, there were actually zebras, wildebeest, and giraffes in the distance. These lions had killed 2 zebras a few hours before.












The experience of seeing animals in their own setting, yet so close, was very unique. While some of the animals are afraid of vehicles, most in Tanzania have grown accustomed due to the large tourism industry. Later on during the safari, we saw an epic “necking” battle between 2 adolescent giraffes fighting for a female.













This is a picture of black kite in Ngorongoro Crater. These birds are more fierce and skilled than we expected. We were warned that they might snatch our food, so we were taking cover under a tree (hovering over our packed lunch). I (Warren) took one bite of my chicken, and this black kite actually swiped it from my hand!












Mel’s favorite animal sighting was this Mama cheetah with her 2 baby cubs. They are about 6 weeks old. They only have a 1 in 20 chance of living as many predators prey on the babies for easy kills. We had an awesome guide, Christian, who we nicknamed the “Cat Whisperer”. We saw 3 adult cheetahs, 2 leopards, and over 30 lions during our trip. We were very lucky!











Warren wanted to bring home this hyrax. Interestingly, the closest living relative of this animal is the elephant. They were all over the Serengeti Visitor Center.


We are back in Arusha today and leave for the beaches of Zanzibar tomorrow.

Uganda: The Final Chapter

On our final excursion in Uganda, we visited the source of the Nile river! Here is where Lake Victoria begins to flow north and becomes the famed River. It takes water nearly three months to travel the 4000 mile journey from Uganda to the Meditteranean Sea.

In our final week of teaching, we had our largest high school classroom to date at Mengo Secondary School -- over 200 students were crammed into this room to hear our lecture and participate in discussions.

Things got crowded enough that questions were written and passed to the front. Here is a picture of two of the more interesting questions ("Do you study about African history" and "OMG u r a cute couple, how many kids to u have?"). Other commonly asked questions throughout our time teaching in Uganda: "Is there dating allowed in school?" (dating is strictly forbidden prior to University here) "Is there caning in the US (it is a widely used punishment tool in Uganda)?" "How can Ugandan students study in the US?"

To conclude our time in Uganda teaching, we were given the opportunity to place a sign for our institution (Boston College) on the site for what will, in the future, be the international academic museum. Some local children gathered for a picture against a beautiful backdrop of the Nile River and the city of Jinja.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our time in Uganda, and are so sad to leave this wonderful country. People have been hospitable and friendly throughout our stay, and we will miss the little things like Stoneys & Krests (Ugandan sodas) and Rolexes (Ugandan breakfast); we will also miss the inspiring headmasters, teachers, and lecturers that will lead the transformation of Ugandan society in the years to come.

Tanzania, here we come!

Mini Safari at Murchison Falls

Our weekend excursion was a mini safari and hike in Murchison Falls National Park. This is a picture of Ugandan kobs, which are the national animal. They were everywhere. We definitely felt like the visitors in their home as they stopped to stare at us.

We also saw quite a few buffalo, one of the Big 5 of Africa.

We spent the first few hours driving through the park seeing elephants, giraffes, kobs, buffalo, and lots of birds.

In the afternoon, we went on a boat ride and saw hippos and crocodiles. (That's an elephant behind Warren)







Seeing Murchison Falls was the definite highlight of the day. We did a 1.5 mile hike to the top.










Here's a picture of us at the top!

We are very sad that there are only a few days left in Uganda. The first week was a bit of an adjustment, but the second week of teaching flew by. We've learned a lot about the culture through meeting students of all ages (the youngest was 11 up through university), talking with the local TATS staff, and lots of driving throughout the country. We leave for Tanzania on Thursday and after a 7-day safari, we'll head to Zanzibar where I'll celebrate my bday this year.

journey into the mist...

Here we are with the Dean of the Islamic University in Kampala. We lectured and discussed the US educational system to an attentive and curious group of students and staff at this modern and thriving institution.

We journeyed to Southwest Uganda for our first set of weekend excursions! After traversing 8+ hours of rocky, sometimes treacherous, dirt roads, we reached the Bwindi impenetrable forest where about half of the world's population of mountain gorillas reside(~350). We woke up to this breathtaking view.


Only a small group (8) is allowed to track a particular "family" of gorillas each day (for conservation purposes). After about 90 minutes of tracking through thick forest vegetation, we found them eating and relaxing near a small group of trees. This one here is the "silverback" or male leader of the family. He was literally about 8 feet away from us. One of the most amazing experiences we've ever had.


Here we are at the center of the universe! (okay, well, maybe just at this touristy equator-spot in South-central Uganda). We have one more week teaching in Uganda before we go to Tanzania for our trip to the Serengeti!

Teaching and Downloading v.2 - Both take a long time

Ironically, our post about downloading didn't successfully post. Here's a second try.


Lecturing at the different universities and high schools has been a rich experience. The gap between resources at the schools is enormous. Some students are completely unfamiliar with the Internet while others are equipped with laptops and wifi.



Some days, we lecture in a tin-roof shed with 30 students (top picture of Bright Angel's college, which is high school). Other days, we have an auditorium of over 300 students (2nd picture of Bugema University). We never know what to expect until we arrive.




We find that we have a lot of time here, but also everything takes a long time. If there's anything that's a reminder of American impatience and multi-tasking, it's trying to download things from the Internet. We are in the 24-hour process of renting our first movie from iTunes...haha. However, we're learning from the slower pace of life.


(Update: We completed the download after 36 hours of timing out and resuming)

Long-Awaited Tilapia

Sunday morning began with a 9am Anglican church service down the street. About 2,000 folks crammed into a medium sized space. Familiar tunes were heard -- "Lord I lift your name on high", "Oh Happy Day".

An afternoon boat ride into Lake Victoria...

...left us marooned on a relatively deserted island with no food and no way to return because rainclouds had covered all of Uganda. (good thing the rain let up)

After missing lunch (and unsuccessfully procuring food on the island), we returned to our original harbor and stopped at a locally renown fish restaurant -- and had two ginormous tilapia for dinner. So worth the wait.

Tomorrow is our first day of teaching at Kampala University and Bugema University... wish us luck!