Saturday, March 28, 2009
Friday, August 17, 2007
emLog Namibia #13 Visual Proof - 07.11.07
Here are some photos of Namibia. Here's the thing, I could say the pictures are from "Namibia", but they can very well just be from southern Utah.
The first is me attempting to be a photographer. Chad was our resident photographer in Namibia. We were in Namibia and I saw this giraffe way out there and birds happened to fly by at the exact time I snapped the photo.
The next is me in the Katatura informal settlement. I had the camcorder viewfinder flipped around so they could see themselves. Susan and Lynn are in the background too.
Dune 7 or the sand dune that sits tall at 1,256ft, proved to be a tall sand dune err, tallest sand dune. This is us climbing up it. It can be like a where's Waldo deal... where's Emily?
Last one is me quading in the Namib. That day was one of the best days in my life. It was a good day! For being a desert, it cools down pretty quickly, especially being on a quad.
As for me right now, the jet lag I think has gone away. Life is good. Terhi the Finn and I have been talking about working on our senior projects together. It's a done deal, we are so going to work on a project together! We are wanting to do something where she comes to the U.S. and I could go to Finland. As Mike told me, "the sky is the limit". I believe that to be true.
These coming semesters I will still be working with the archive. We are set up to do video conferencing and will continue to work together in the next coming months.
I know these emails are relatively short (some of them), but if anyone has any questions about anything, I can try and answer them as best I can to my knowledge. I sort of gave a brief overview of more of the Emily-meets-Africa aspect, but the culture and the people are just amazing. That right there is my best description of Namibia-- amazing!
Enjoy the photos.
Em
The first is me attempting to be a photographer. Chad was our resident photographer in Namibia. We were in Namibia and I saw this giraffe way out there and birds happened to fly by at the exact time I snapped the photo.
The next is me in the Katatura informal settlement. I had the camcorder viewfinder flipped around so they could see themselves. Susan and Lynn are in the background too.
Dune 7 or the sand dune that sits tall at 1,256ft, proved to be a tall sand dune err, tallest sand dune. This is us climbing up it. It can be like a where's Waldo deal... where's Emily?
Last one is me quading in the Namib. That day was one of the best days in my life. It was a good day! For being a desert, it cools down pretty quickly, especially being on a quad.
As for me right now, the jet lag I think has gone away. Life is good. Terhi the Finn and I have been talking about working on our senior projects together. It's a done deal, we are so going to work on a project together! We are wanting to do something where she comes to the U.S. and I could go to Finland. As Mike told me, "the sky is the limit". I believe that to be true.
These coming semesters I will still be working with the archive. We are set up to do video conferencing and will continue to work together in the next coming months.
I know these emails are relatively short (some of them), but if anyone has any questions about anything, I can try and answer them as best I can to my knowledge. I sort of gave a brief overview of more of the Emily-meets-Africa aspect, but the culture and the people are just amazing. That right there is my best description of Namibia-- amazing!
Enjoy the photos.
Em
emLogs Namibia #12 Jet Lagged but with Clean Laundry - 08.05.07
By all accounts, I do believe I made it back to the U.S. in one piece. We err-- I didn't have any problems at any of the airports. Mike lost one of his pieces of luggage from Windhoek to London. Brandon seemed to red flag every security guard at all the airports.
The layovers were a lot shorter coming back then going there. In true Namibian fashion, they served us yet another bizarre breakfast of potatoes, baked beans, green scrambled eggs and a roll. The roll was tastey.
I did finish Harry Potter 7 and actually finished it as we flew over Provo. Yep, five minutes to spare! Good stuff there. But I won't say anymore than that.
As for my future endeavors, Mike told me, "the sky is the limit". Whether I go back to Namibia, I'm not sure. The Digital Media department requires two senior projects. The DNA Project is one and as for the other, I can safely say a Finn may be involved...
As for this monster jet lag, I am so messed up when it comes to time, it's laughable. I woke up at 5:30am and I am wide awake. But hey, I have clean laundry that smells nice and is soft. I am in a good place right now.
I hope everyone enjoyed these emLogs, because I sure enjoyed writing them and sharing of some of my random adventures. I hope to have more in the future.
Love always,
Em
The layovers were a lot shorter coming back then going there. In true Namibian fashion, they served us yet another bizarre breakfast of potatoes, baked beans, green scrambled eggs and a roll. The roll was tastey.
I did finish Harry Potter 7 and actually finished it as we flew over Provo. Yep, five minutes to spare! Good stuff there. But I won't say anymore than that.
As for my future endeavors, Mike told me, "the sky is the limit". Whether I go back to Namibia, I'm not sure. The Digital Media department requires two senior projects. The DNA Project is one and as for the other, I can safely say a Finn may be involved...
As for this monster jet lag, I am so messed up when it comes to time, it's laughable. I woke up at 5:30am and I am wide awake. But hey, I have clean laundry that smells nice and is soft. I am in a good place right now.
I hope everyone enjoyed these emLogs, because I sure enjoyed writing them and sharing of some of my random adventures. I hope to have more in the future.
Love always,
Em
emLog Namibia #11 Next Stop: Home - 08.02.07
I am still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I head back to the United States in five hours. I know I did stuff while I was here, but where did the time go?
Last night we had our American braai. Not just some hamburgers and hot dogs, I am talking BBQ ribs and garlic potato wedges. Nothing but the finest! It was so much fun just to have all the students that we had been working with so closely, to just cut loose and have fun.
It was hard to say 'goodbye' to some of the students that we've been working with. The rest of them we will have to do the same later today. Ugh, it's never fun to say 'goodbye', that's why it will just be easier to just give a little, 'see ya later'.
The sleep deprivation is slowly catching up to us. But I did offset that with a long, looooong nap yesterday. At lunch-- which by the way was livers and onions. I cut the liver, I even put a little cooked onion on there for flavor and got it in my mouth. It got chewed half way and then I had to abort that plan. I don't know if it is liver in general or that it was African liver, but ugh, I had just shovel down mashed potatoes to get the taste out of my mouth! Not a fan of liver and onions, give me kudu any day.
Well, Chad and I were pretty dead, so we crashed in the spare room (spare 'oom) for the afternoon. I think all of us, with the exception of Jon, have been running entirely on fumes. All of us I think are ready to get home. I am looking forward to eating ketchup and not tomato sauce. I am also looking forward to saying 'napkin' without getting looked at funny by people. Seriously, I don't know how many embarrassing moments I've had because of that.
The plan for today is do whatever we want, just be back by 4pm. We will be saying our last goodbyes and then head to the airport. After that, it's back tracking to Gatwick in London then to JFK in NYC. We will be dropping off Susan there and then we all head to Salt Lake City.
I think we've all become a lot closer this trip. This was life changing to say the least. I definitely think we will all remain friends when we get back to the states (some more than others *ahem* not saying any more about that).
Well, this is me, signing off until I get stateside. I will do one last email for those who wondered whether I made it back or not. There is an off chance that I will change my ticket to some other spot in the world. I make no guarantees about me making it back to Salt Lake this weekend.
One's thing for sure, I've got this itch to go see the world. Perhaps, Espana...
Walalapa!
Em
Last night we had our American braai. Not just some hamburgers and hot dogs, I am talking BBQ ribs and garlic potato wedges. Nothing but the finest! It was so much fun just to have all the students that we had been working with so closely, to just cut loose and have fun.
It was hard to say 'goodbye' to some of the students that we've been working with. The rest of them we will have to do the same later today. Ugh, it's never fun to say 'goodbye', that's why it will just be easier to just give a little, 'see ya later'.
The sleep deprivation is slowly catching up to us. But I did offset that with a long, looooong nap yesterday. At lunch-- which by the way was livers and onions. I cut the liver, I even put a little cooked onion on there for flavor and got it in my mouth. It got chewed half way and then I had to abort that plan. I don't know if it is liver in general or that it was African liver, but ugh, I had just shovel down mashed potatoes to get the taste out of my mouth! Not a fan of liver and onions, give me kudu any day.
Well, Chad and I were pretty dead, so we crashed in the spare room (spare 'oom) for the afternoon. I think all of us, with the exception of Jon, have been running entirely on fumes. All of us I think are ready to get home. I am looking forward to eating ketchup and not tomato sauce. I am also looking forward to saying 'napkin' without getting looked at funny by people. Seriously, I don't know how many embarrassing moments I've had because of that.
The plan for today is do whatever we want, just be back by 4pm. We will be saying our last goodbyes and then head to the airport. After that, it's back tracking to Gatwick in London then to JFK in NYC. We will be dropping off Susan there and then we all head to Salt Lake City.
I think we've all become a lot closer this trip. This was life changing to say the least. I definitely think we will all remain friends when we get back to the states (some more than others *ahem* not saying any more about that).
Well, this is me, signing off until I get stateside. I will do one last email for those who wondered whether I made it back or not. There is an off chance that I will change my ticket to some other spot in the world. I make no guarantees about me making it back to Salt Lake this weekend.
One's thing for sure, I've got this itch to go see the world. Perhaps, Espana...
Walalapa!
Em
emLog Namibia #10 Final Days - 08.01.07
I can't believe I will be leaving for the U.S. tomorrow. This has been one of the fastest months of my life! What's strange about it, is I feel like I've been gone longer, just because we've been doing so much every day and we've accomplished so much while here.
Monday we had the press conference. We had a member of Parliament attend and he gave the keynote speech. It was quite cool to be involved with that. We did make it into one of the newspapers here, unfortunately they called our school "Utah Village State College" instead of Utah Valley University... only in Namibia!
Yesterday (Tuesday), my group went to meet with Werner the director of the Namibian archives to go over our cataloging system. We had no training wheels this time i.e. Mike. We found that our job isn't over just yet. We still need to refine the archivist process a little bit. This is great, because it means our group will continue working on it through this coming semester. We will be talking with Werner too. I'm hassling Mike to get a field trip to the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress!
The other night we also had dinner with Dr Tjevekua and his right hand lady, Dr Neavera. It was fun to see the President of the college in such an informal setting. Dr Neavera cooked springbok for dinner-- yum, oh so game-y!
Last night, Chad, Rodayne, Susan, Mike and me went to Joe's Beer House. It's this game restaurant and yes, bar too. I ate zebra, crocodile, ostrich, kudu and unfortunately chicken. My favorite would have to be the kudu. The croc tasted fishy and the zebra just tasted too gamey. Good times last night! We had a blast just going and kicking back at the ole beer house.
I swung by the Finn's apartment and Teppo named me to help him with his outline for his article. In fact, I had helped Terhi earlier with hers too. I've become a news editor while here.
Today we are going back to the kindergarten in Katatura. We will be doing service work and bringing them some of the supplies that we brought over from the states. I'm going to see if we can't get a soccer game going or something too.
It really is strange that this is our last full day. We kicked off our stay with a Namibian braai (bbq), it's only fitting that we leave with one last braai with the students tonight too. The party starts at 1pm and it will go on until... who knows when! It will be a good night that's for sure.
Good times indeed,
Em
Monday we had the press conference. We had a member of Parliament attend and he gave the keynote speech. It was quite cool to be involved with that. We did make it into one of the newspapers here, unfortunately they called our school "Utah Village State College" instead of Utah Valley University... only in Namibia!
Yesterday (Tuesday), my group went to meet with Werner the director of the Namibian archives to go over our cataloging system. We had no training wheels this time i.e. Mike. We found that our job isn't over just yet. We still need to refine the archivist process a little bit. This is great, because it means our group will continue working on it through this coming semester. We will be talking with Werner too. I'm hassling Mike to get a field trip to the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress!
The other night we also had dinner with Dr Tjevekua and his right hand lady, Dr Neavera. It was fun to see the President of the college in such an informal setting. Dr Neavera cooked springbok for dinner-- yum, oh so game-y!
Last night, Chad, Rodayne, Susan, Mike and me went to Joe's Beer House. It's this game restaurant and yes, bar too. I ate zebra, crocodile, ostrich, kudu and unfortunately chicken. My favorite would have to be the kudu. The croc tasted fishy and the zebra just tasted too gamey. Good times last night! We had a blast just going and kicking back at the ole beer house.
I swung by the Finn's apartment and Teppo named me to help him with his outline for his article. In fact, I had helped Terhi earlier with hers too. I've become a news editor while here.
Today we are going back to the kindergarten in Katatura. We will be doing service work and bringing them some of the supplies that we brought over from the states. I'm going to see if we can't get a soccer game going or something too.
It really is strange that this is our last full day. We kicked off our stay with a Namibian braai (bbq), it's only fitting that we leave with one last braai with the students tonight too. The party starts at 1pm and it will go on until... who knows when! It will be a good night that's for sure.
Good times indeed,
Em
emLog Namibia #9 Down and Dirty With Wildlife - 07.29.07
We got back from Etosha late last night. What is Etosha? It is a HUGE wildlife preserve that we went on safari to. We drove quite a bit in the north west-ish area to get there. The first thing to greet us in to the park was a beautiful giraffe. We then headed around the park and saw herds of zebra, springbok, oryx and silly ostrich.
Our campground was in the middle of the preserve and it was surrounded by a gate. Which was good because about 100 yards from our tent were the lions. We could hear them all night long on Saturday. I wasn't too worried, I figure if they tried to attack us, all I really need to do is out run at least one person.
The facilities aren't bad, there are showers and stuff. At one section of the camp area you can see a waterhole. We sat there for hours watching elephants, zebras and all that come and drink. It was so awesome to see the dynamic between all the animals. Elephants seem to rule the roost there. I saw about 15 elephants there drinking up everything. Two jackals were playing a little bit and that was fun.
One night sixteen giraffes came and drank too. That was pretty cool to see, just because they are so tall and lurpy. What we wanted to see more than all of those animals were the lions. We could hear them want to come to the waterhole, which got the giraffes really spooked. But the lions were late night drinkers, coming in around midnight to 2am any given night. We sat their with blankets and bunkered down waiting for them.
I had my camera out on my monopod waiting for a glimpse of them. Sleep decided to set in and I never was able to see them. Just for the record though, I was up really early and slept lousy, so I was already running off of very little sleep! I know, I know, what would National Geographic say to that?
On Saturday we drove around the park some more and we came across this enormous elephant. He saw us and started to flap his ears and looked like he was going to possibly charge our car. Needless to say, we didn't stay long. Etosha was incredibly flat. At night you can look from horizon to horizon with endless stars. It blew me away at the vastness of this place.
In fact, I thought I've been staring at the southern cross for the last few weeks, then Sam showed me where it was and I really looked at the southern cross for the first time. I hummed the Crosby, Stills and Nash song. But that was yet another thing I can check off of my Emily's Life To Do List.
The ride back was something else. Twelve hours of it were spent on bumpy dirt roads. Too bumpy to read 'Arry Potter and to bumpy to sleep. If I showed anyone pictures of where we were the reaction would be, "You went to southern Utah not Africa!" Seriously though, it looks like southern Utah.
Well, there is much more to tell and it's just too hard to write about. I'll have to do it in interpretive dance, just to do justice to it. Kidding, I figure some Etosha footage will be fun. We have a press conference in about an hour, so I will have to finish more about Etosha later. Ooh, something to peak your interest from my video footage... giraffes fighting!
Much love.
E
P.S. I now believe that zebras are white with black stripes.
Our campground was in the middle of the preserve and it was surrounded by a gate. Which was good because about 100 yards from our tent were the lions. We could hear them all night long on Saturday. I wasn't too worried, I figure if they tried to attack us, all I really need to do is out run at least one person.
The facilities aren't bad, there are showers and stuff. At one section of the camp area you can see a waterhole. We sat there for hours watching elephants, zebras and all that come and drink. It was so awesome to see the dynamic between all the animals. Elephants seem to rule the roost there. I saw about 15 elephants there drinking up everything. Two jackals were playing a little bit and that was fun.
One night sixteen giraffes came and drank too. That was pretty cool to see, just because they are so tall and lurpy. What we wanted to see more than all of those animals were the lions. We could hear them want to come to the waterhole, which got the giraffes really spooked. But the lions were late night drinkers, coming in around midnight to 2am any given night. We sat their with blankets and bunkered down waiting for them.
I had my camera out on my monopod waiting for a glimpse of them. Sleep decided to set in and I never was able to see them. Just for the record though, I was up really early and slept lousy, so I was already running off of very little sleep! I know, I know, what would National Geographic say to that?
On Saturday we drove around the park some more and we came across this enormous elephant. He saw us and started to flap his ears and looked like he was going to possibly charge our car. Needless to say, we didn't stay long. Etosha was incredibly flat. At night you can look from horizon to horizon with endless stars. It blew me away at the vastness of this place.
In fact, I thought I've been staring at the southern cross for the last few weeks, then Sam showed me where it was and I really looked at the southern cross for the first time. I hummed the Crosby, Stills and Nash song. But that was yet another thing I can check off of my Emily's Life To Do List.
The ride back was something else. Twelve hours of it were spent on bumpy dirt roads. Too bumpy to read 'Arry Potter and to bumpy to sleep. If I showed anyone pictures of where we were the reaction would be, "You went to southern Utah not Africa!" Seriously though, it looks like southern Utah.
Well, there is much more to tell and it's just too hard to write about. I'll have to do it in interpretive dance, just to do justice to it. Kidding, I figure some Etosha footage will be fun. We have a press conference in about an hour, so I will have to finish more about Etosha later. Ooh, something to peak your interest from my video footage... giraffes fighting!
Much love.
E
P.S. I now believe that zebras are white with black stripes.
emLog Namibia #8 No More Chicken - 07.24.07
Remember how we went swimming in the Atlantic Ocean this past weekend? What I didn't realize is that we were not alone there in the bay. Susan and Charmaine were on the other side of pier and then Susan noticed that there was a shark the size of a dolphin swimming in our direction. It must have smelled the bait the fisherman were throwing. Anyway, she didn't know we were swimming there in the ocean, it was pretty cold, so who would want to? Apparently there was a shark in that bay sometime that month already eating people (hehe). I didn't find out till after the fact, ah well, it made for a good laugh!
These last few days have been non-stop work. Well, that's not entirely true, we've played some too. Monday we went to the national archives to speak with Warner about their archiving/cataloging process. By the end of that session I think my brain completely shutdown. In fact, every time we sit down to work on the naming conventions, it becomes incredibly hard to focus. Maybe it's because it tends to be a boring part of the project. In fact, I'm bored just writing about it.
We have been discussing possibilities of how to properly name and organize a digital national archive. Today we will be writing up a proposal on all that. Now that it's almost the end we have something to do every evening. Next week is the press conference and then Mike will be on "Good Morning Namibia" that same day.
Speaking of press. Deseret News did a little story on us from July 19th I think. Anyway, here is the link for that:
http://www.deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,695192542,00.html
As for the pop culture side of things, last night Susan, Ella and me went to a dinner and a movie. We decided to pick the perfect movie for a girl's night out--- Die Hard 4! I admit, I liked it.
Before hand, I was really wanting to buy Harry Potter 7. I haven't had time to go look for it and so we swung by the book store and there it was. Unfortunately it is the kid's version, so the cover is kind of stupid. What's most important is the story is the same. This will be my reading material for the plane trip home. The reality is, I will probably be dead asleep the whole 36 hours back.
After the movie we went to the Cattle Baron again. I don't know what I was thinking, chicken?! Why did I order chicken?! I swear, we eat chicken at least for two meals every day. Once I get home, I do not want to see another chicken for a long, long time!
This morning for breakfast we were served cream of wheat and fish sticks. Meal combinations seem to be getting progressively weirder. Ah well, what can you do? I tend to eat more bananas anyway. I probably have twenty pounds of potassium floating around in my body by now.
The rest of the week will be spent working on the project and then we will top it off with our jaunt to Etosha wildlife preserve. I've had a taste of the danger, so now I have this deep desire to see if I can touch a hippo...
Happy hunting.
Em
These last few days have been non-stop work. Well, that's not entirely true, we've played some too. Monday we went to the national archives to speak with Warner about their archiving/cataloging process. By the end of that session I think my brain completely shutdown. In fact, every time we sit down to work on the naming conventions, it becomes incredibly hard to focus. Maybe it's because it tends to be a boring part of the project. In fact, I'm bored just writing about it.
We have been discussing possibilities of how to properly name and organize a digital national archive. Today we will be writing up a proposal on all that. Now that it's almost the end we have something to do every evening. Next week is the press conference and then Mike will be on "Good Morning Namibia" that same day.
Speaking of press. Deseret News did a little story on us from July 19th I think. Anyway, here is the link for that:
http://www.deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,695192542,00.html
As for the pop culture side of things, last night Susan, Ella and me went to a dinner and a movie. We decided to pick the perfect movie for a girl's night out--- Die Hard 4! I admit, I liked it.
Before hand, I was really wanting to buy Harry Potter 7. I haven't had time to go look for it and so we swung by the book store and there it was. Unfortunately it is the kid's version, so the cover is kind of stupid. What's most important is the story is the same. This will be my reading material for the plane trip home. The reality is, I will probably be dead asleep the whole 36 hours back.
After the movie we went to the Cattle Baron again. I don't know what I was thinking, chicken?! Why did I order chicken?! I swear, we eat chicken at least for two meals every day. Once I get home, I do not want to see another chicken for a long, long time!
This morning for breakfast we were served cream of wheat and fish sticks. Meal combinations seem to be getting progressively weirder. Ah well, what can you do? I tend to eat more bananas anyway. I probably have twenty pounds of potassium floating around in my body by now.
The rest of the week will be spent working on the project and then we will top it off with our jaunt to Etosha wildlife preserve. I've had a taste of the danger, so now I have this deep desire to see if I can touch a hippo...
Happy hunting.
Em
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