Oooof. Africa strikes again

ok, so initially this was supposed to be a real blog, but what happens after the first week of real, working, fast wireless heaven in Lobatse? The wireless router dies and takes the entirety of the internet with it. You should all be in amazement that I've survived this long on intermittent internet at home (read, maybe once a day for about 5 mins, if I'm lucky) and barely a working connection for a week at work that allowed me only basic html gmail and nothing else. Seriously, I have a husband to try and keep in touch with, this is serious!

ANYWAY - it's been a hell of a month so far, great things and good things and really shitty nights when I missed Tyler and my family so much that I cried myself to sleep (read: what the hell was I thinking signing up for this Africa thing again), and at the moment I think I'm breaking up with Africa for awhile, but then I have half a bag full of African goodies to bring back and I'm probably just in the angry, I only like Americans stage of culture shock. (Thanks Mark Bartels and Dr. Schmidt for educating me about culture shock) (I'm attempting to be Amy Woodrum with the awesomely witty parentheticals here.) I'll probably get over my frustration soon.

I do have a room at the University of Botswana/UB for the next month, so that's good. I'll be hooking back up with Anne Schmidlin and Chatodd Floyd for the rest of our time together and I'll be working for Unity Dow. My time here at the High Court with Justice Newman has been definitely educational, and after I get some steady internet (Ryan and I had to walk down the road to a hotel to get internet at all, and it's freezing out, like 40's, so this isn't happening every night) I'll tell you all about the high profile extra-judicial killing case we've been working on this last little while. Judge asked Ryan and I to write our own sentencing! (He's not even going to pay attention to ours, I don't think, but he still wants it). And I've been on TV a couple of times in the courtroom. Us Whitey's stick out, especially when we're sitting in front for the whole packed courthouse to see.

Anyway, God love my husband for putting up with this crazy whim of mine to ditch him for 10 weeks, and for working so hard at home for us! (seriously, he's working like 86 hours a week, he's a BEAST! And the coolest, most wonderful husband ever)... And anyone who wants to send me email so I remember who you are, or at least remember that I'm in your thoughts, please feel free to email! Even if it's just a "Hi Annie, sorry you miss your husband and it's cold, it's 100 and hell degrees here, so hope you get back in time to sweat a little with me."

On the next adventure... Annie gets a creepy guy kicked out of the whitey hotspot, Bull and Bush, and doesn't get passion killed. WIN!

Mokolodi May 27? (Half a post from a long time ago)

So - we got off of a plane, picked up from the airport, and started the journey on the ground in Botswana on Friday afternoon. Remember, it's winter here (just starting actually) so it was chilly, and dark by 6:00pm. The late 80's Land Rover that was carrying our bags died at the first stoplight, so we went on without them while Noel tried to fix the truck... again, apparently. So the original plan of action was to stay at the University of Botswana (or at least that's what they thought the plan was b/c seriously, none of us knew anything going into this trip), but we got there and they didn't have us rooming together/near each other and that was just not going to fly. We were all about *this close to mental breakdowns after the 48ish hours in transit, so Marilu drove us to Riverwalk Mall to get us cell phones and a bit of food to buy time to find us a place to stay. Riverwalk is a real mall, really. And because it was "month's end" and everyone got paid, it was busy - but also most things were closed by 6pm. Except the phone store, thankfully, and a Woolworths. That's right, like dime store, pennies from heaven, Woolworths. Legitimately. It had clothes and kitchen stuff, and food, and grocery stuff. So we grabbed some sandwiches in plastic boxes - like you can get in the states (but I'll admit my nervousness as I'd never seen ANYTHING like that that was actually safe to eat in my experiences in Africa), some bread, pb&J, and some bottled water (because still no one had told us that the water in the cities is actually safe to DRINK FROM THE TAP) (Read: where the hell are we?? Are you SURE this is Africa??). Marilu took us to the ATM so we could get ourselves some Botswania Pula's (7P to 1USD) and then we headed off trying to figure out where to stay. First it was with Marilu at her house, then a hotel, then an apartment building, then someone else's house, then a hostel, then finally (FINALLY) they decided on Mokolodi Backpacker's. We're driving out of the city (which I still haven't really seen b/c it was dark and we didn't go back in before I left for Lobatse) Marilu is pointing out where hills are (in the dark, not to smart) and then we pull onto a dirt road, then up to a gate and drive into Mokolodi Backpacker's (I'm going to keep mentioning the whole name so that if/when you hit up Botswana, you'll know where to stay, keep reading) where the first sight I see is a group of fluffy, blonde rabbits with fluffy white tails on the driveway. Bunnies.

Whirlwind

There may be people out there who will constantly jump from the train of life and hit the ground running. For me - I'm doing a few somersaults and acquiring a couple scrapes and bruises before I'll be up and going again.

Last Friday we moved into a new apartment in downtown Cincinnati in the Over-the-Rhine section of the city. This part of Cincinnati has been notorious for crime, race riots, murder, and homeless people. However, over the past recent years there has been a major redevelopment in a part of the city that was known for deep German roots with gorgeous Catholic churches and community biergartens. We have a (brand new) loft in a building that was built in the 1860s and renovated to attract the young professionals in Annie and I.

Annie's mom (Nancy) and sister (Mollie) drove out to help us move. We also had a huge hand from good friends Ryan Walker and Mark DeYoung. We definitely could not have made this happen without their help.

After just a few days of living in our new place together, Annie left on Wednesday for a 10 week legal internship in Botswana. It's amazing how someone who is only 5'2 could really fill a space with her energy and warmth and how different it can be when she's not around. This is going to be a challenging time of learning how to function alone after learning to lean a bit on her for things as little as fixing oatmeal or getting the mail.

Through all of these difficulties and adventures and ups and downs I will always remember the words of our friend and one who presided over our wedding Ruth Huston - "This is your story." That has stayed with me through this. It may not be how someone else would do it or has done it or will do it.

This is our story and we'll tell it how we damn well please.

48+ hours

Now, when you're heading to a different country, halfway 'round the world, you expect to be traveling for awhile... but not 48 hours awhile. Here's the rundown:

9am 5/25/11 - leave house for CVG airport

10am - say goodbye to husband for 70 days

11am - drink too much before the flight

12am - leave CVG en route to Atlanta

1:30pm - arrive in Atlanta, swiftly leave the airport for lunch in midtown Atlanta at Vortex (HIGHLY recommended - especially the fried zucchini) because travel-buddy Chatodd has friends for us to hang with

5pm-ish head back to the airport with other travel-buddy Anne because we're lame and tired and just want to chill at the airport. (ride Atlanta's train back to the airport and grab some fantastic fruit smoothies to hold us over until plane-ride dinner)

11:15pm - flight leaves Atlanta

somewhere in between I attempted to watch Love and Other Drugs (blah), whatever that movie is with Katherine Heigl, and Tangled - but fell asleep in the middle of all of them. "Chicken" dinner was unrecognizable therefore uneaten.

1:50pm 5/26/11 - Landed in Paris - left my Camelback on the plane and attempted to retrieve, but to no avail.

2:30ish - hopped on the rail line and headed into Paris! :D Walked around the outside of Notre Dame - completely surreal climbing the stairs out of the train station and seeing the bells! Walked to see the Palace of Justice - (everything from the outside) and then to the Louvre! We walked around the outside a bit and took pictures of the Seine and then found the famous glass triangles above the Louvre - and the fake Arc de Triumph there (fooled us for a bit) - got covered in sand and dust b/c apparently its the french way to put that down instead of grass - met Anne's boyfriend's brother in law - went to a little cafe and had a great sandwich and then took a few trains to the Eiffel Tower! We had seen it from a few angles earlier, and it looked so small - but we had no idea how far away it was! it's HUGE!! We didn't get too close, as we still had trains to catch back to the airport, but we think it was a pretty successful outing in Paris! I have a 10.5 hour layover on the way back in August - so I may have to hit the louvre inside and then post up at a street cafe for the afternoon! :D

11:30pm (after 9 hour layover) depart Paris for Johannesburg on an Airbus 380! Double-decker airplane, baby!! It was partially empty - so we spread out a bit - 2 seats a person so enough room to stretch the legs. i kept wanting to sneak upstairs at the back of the plane to see the upstairs, but I think I like the idea of it being a mystery. So - I slept for about 4 hours maybe, and then realized my legs were swelling - so I tried to stay up and keep moving - drink a lot of water and such. I hate having ogre feet, and I know it's dangerous to my health, so I did my best. I watched Burlesque (liked it!) and some more of tangled, and... Red. that was fun, but they tried to make Bruce Willis interested in someone way too young for him. Anyway - so the last 4 hours were uncomfortable, but the food was good this time around, and we landed in Johannesburg about 10am. (10.5 hour flight).

10am 5/27/11 - Johannesburg - we got through the airport ok, and if it weren't for our bags we could have switched to an earlier flight, but couldn't get the bags switched. So I slept on the airport chairs for about 2 1/2 hours and then we got some coffee and waited for our plane

3:50pm - flight to Gaborone left and South African gave us sandwiches on a 35 minute flight! amazing!

4:30ish - landed in Gabs. Crazy long story about where to sleep - but we ended up at a backpacker's hostel/lodge thing in a little hut and it was freezing!! like slept in wool socks, sweat pants, t-shirt, fleece and sweatshirt, gloves and a fleece headband with a hot water bottle. but woke up to fun animals in our yard area - cat, dogs, chickens, huge pig, and bunnies!

11:00pm 5/27/11 - crazy journey here ended with a very easy time getting to sleep!

So - tomorrow we're doing a game drive early, and then petting cheetahs and then i'm heading to Lobotse to work for Judge Newman for 4 weeks. I'll try to update this as much as I can - internet is much more available than it was 5 years ago in Uganda (goodness gracious I can't believe it's been that long) but I'll talk to you all soon!

Annie

Updates coming!

Well - so we fail at blogging, considering we just celebrated our 1 year anniversary. Goodness. But I'm going to try and be awesome at it for the next 10 weeks because I'm going to be in Botswana (while my wonderful hubby works his bum off at work). I'm doing a legal internship, really have no idea what I'm getting myself into, and I leave tomorrow. Many, Many tears will be shed between now and then (what the heck was I thinking, leaving my husband for 10 weeks??) and I'm going to have an immensely difficult time getting on the plane (and will probably be up all night packing) so prayers for peace for both of us are appreciated, and while you're at it, if you're the praying kind, just coverage for the whole trip seeing as how its just this big ball of chaos in my mind right now. So - after just moving to a completely new and slightly uncomfortable (but fantastically awesome) new apartment on Friday, here goes nothing...

Mini-major Update

So, since the last time we've talked...
I have my dress and some flowers, bridesmaids dresses picked out and Tyler has an idea for his tux (just not ordered yet).
We decided on Cincinnati - so I'll be starting University of Cincinnati Law School on August 16th - 9 days after the wedding.
Tyler accepted a job at Fleet Feet in Cincy.
I ran the Toyota 10k in downtown Cincinnati in 1:11:17.
We signed a lease and our new address will be 41 Towne Commons Way, Apt 22, Cincinnati, OH (can't remember the zip).
Tyler's job and our lease (plus a wedding certificate) mean that I get to be an Ohio resident and save about $17,000 a year on tuition = WIN!
Tyler graduates on May 23rd and we're moving him out to Cincinnati the week after (anyone want to help? or have a covered trailer??) and I'm moving in with Sandi from work until the wedding in August.
Tyler starts work June 1.

Maybe I'll get around to details sometime... but no promises! ;)
<3 Annie

Photo Shoot!