In the land of typogracphical errors.

Okay, so here's the deal. On December 28th, my friend Kirsty and I went to Tanga!! Which is on the coast. It's a bit smaller then Arusha (the city close to me) and it's mostly a Muslim community. And everyone there rides their bikes around. Anyways! Indian Ocean, people!! I was soooo stoked so see the ocean, having lived by it for 18 years, and now being separated from it for 4 months. It was incredibly warm in comparison to the Pacific, and Tanga was hot too. So much happened while I was on that trip, but I'll give you the general idea! So Kirsty drove her parents car, with me being in charge of music, to Tanga, and we made it in 5 hours. Which is quite good time. Davin had been in Tanga for a while, with his family, and he was taking care of a friends beach house, so that's where we stayed for the duration of our trip. And there was an air conditioned room, praise the Lord!!! So anyways, there was a ton of just relaxing time for Kirsty and myself, and we would go swimming in the ocean, and she would ride the horses... Which I didn't do. Because... They kinda sorta freak me out to be honest. Yup! And we brought Kirsty back four days before we were supposed to because she got an ear infection and her immune system is already crappy because she is just getting better, so at 4:30 she woke me up and we headed back to Arusha at 6. And Davin drove. And then we stayed the night at her house and I decided to just bus back to Tanga with Davin, since I liked it there, and the Pamoja folk weren't expecting me back until the 9th. Sooo back we went, which was an adventure in itself, what with the guy on the bus that kept touching my leg (Don't worry, I had a bodyguard) .... And taking a daladala and walking 2 km in the flipperin' hot heat. Uh huh. Aaaaaand oh yeah! We went on a tuktuk, one of those 3-wheeled bike deals and walked around some caves. And I crashed a random Indian girls birthday party. But not really, because the Korda family was invited so I just tagged along. OH and I played volleyball, which has me all psyched 'cause I didn't suck at it. Chyeah. Some rad stuff went down, anyways. But now I'm back at Pamoja!

Okay so I wrote all that hours ago. And now it's almost midnight and I had a huge cup of coffee, which was stupid, and now I'm all awake and twitchy and stuff. So I'm just gonna keep going with this and see what happens. I've decided to not backspace anything from here on out. JLet's see how coogod my typing is at this hour. Hm. Not gerverygood so far I see. That sucks. ik inda pride myself in my typingm but now I' think I'm overthinkign it, y'know!::?? Yeah. Totally am. Darn. Okay well FI'm going to insert a picture now, see you in a sec.

THAT. Is the beach in fron t of the house we were at. There are stairs up that cliff onto the lawn of the house. 

Check ist outtttttt, that's a tuktuk. Which could be the wrong spelling of the world. Word I mean. But who cares?! They're kinda scary actually.

Alrighty. Well there are some pictures for you,. My internet seems to be going kinda speedy so I'm just gonna throw in another one for your viewing pleasure. No need to thank me.

My dearest friends, that is the lovely and majecstive and by that i mean majestic, Mount Kilimanjaro! Super rad, right>?? Seriious, you never realize how humungous that sucker is until you wee.. Man this is hard. UI meant SEE her in real life. Iiiiiinnnncredible!

Alright. Well seeing as I'm so hardcore and stuff, i scraped my knee playeing volleyball, on SAND which iws quite a skill-taking.. Thing. I guess. I used the wrong word thataere. There. And then tried to make that sentence work and it tdidn't. Ugh. ANYWAYS. Then I played MORE voleleyball and my knee got worse, and then i sat on a bus for like 7 hours and people kept walking by and rubbing against it and now it's all infected and gross. Cool strory, right? Uh huh. Well. It gets better. Because I have a Scooby Doo bandaid on it!! Wheeee!! So yeah. Literally. Better. Scooby is so cute, I like him. I wish wer were better friends. But he's so famous, we hardly would be able to find the time to hang out, y'know?!

... I just realized what i wrote up there. And methinks it's time for me to shut this baby down. So i'm gonna.

And this is just getting more and more awkward. I still haven't backspaced anything and my typing has marginally improved in the past little while. I mean.. I just typed 'marginally' without making a mystkate. TWICE. But then i screwed up while typing mistake which is slightly comical. And now... I'm crashing.

Your mom goes to college.

Iiiii love technologyyyy, but not as much as you, you seeeee... But I stiiiiill love technologyyyy, always and foreverrr.

Do the chickens have large talons? Why yes! They do indeed have large talons! You should always watch out for animals with large talons. They can be daaaangerous. But then again, sloths have pretty large talons, and I have yet to be notified of rampaging sloths dismembering innocent civilians. If anyone has news on any sloth attacks, let me know. OH and I would like to concede my ignorance in the case of my "Hot Springs" post. Vanessa F graciously pointed out that sea cucumbers are, in fact, the only echinoderms that can swim, whereas the rest of those suckers just walk ridiculously slow. Soooo technically sea cucumbers should be thought of as some of the most graceful echinoderms out in the big ol' blue. But as Vanessa also pointed out, I added the part about their grace comparing to that of a dead sea cucumber, thus verifying my analogy as accurate. Yup. So, uhmmm.. I was right. And now you should all reconsider your thoughts on the sea cucumber's place in its echinodermy crew. Give 'em some respect, maaaaan! They deserve it.

Alright, so I love meeting new people! And I met new people today! It was great!! The Wild Hope International crew was having their staff Christmas party today, and I was at Liz & Shannon's in town, so I went with! Yay! It was pretty sweet, they butchered a goat for it, and roasted it, and made ice cream that awesome, and we all hung out aaaaaand... I took their group photo! Because I'm not part of Wild Hope! So.. I was useful! Exclamation mark x 34234879!!!!!!!

I can't really think of much to add to that.. I got to talk to a bunch of people on Skype this morning, and say happy birthday to my mum! But.. Now that I think of it.. I don't know if I aaaactually said the words, "Happy birthday, mum!" I might've just.. Thought them. That happens a lot. And I talked to Vera & Christine! Which made me super happy! And Hayden! Which kind of.. Made me shake my head. Anyways. Good stuff.

It is now 11 PM and I'm kinda tired. Going to watch a movie tomorrow. And going for hang out/ caroling at the Russell's the day after. And our Pamoja staff party the day after that (Christmas Eve) and I'm going to Kirsty's for supper that niiiiiight and the day after is Christmas! Which means we'll most likely go swimming. And a couple days laterrrrrr, off to Tanga!! Yayyy!! I get my ocean fix, and some sunburnin' and snorkelling and sailing and possibly horseback riding on the beach and I don't know if I've already mentioned all this stuff but I'm stoked so I don't mind saying it all again. :) I might not post for a while, maybe when I get back from the coast. Sooooo Merry Christmas!! And Happy New Year! And I love you all, and I miss most of you, and some of you might get a Christmas present when I get home. Heh. God bless!

Blogalogalog

Did anyone ever read the Redwall series? Yeah? So you know "Logalogalogalog!" Right? Right. That's what I thought. I remember doing a book report on one of those once. The Pearls of Lutra! (I drew some pretty sweet pictures for that report, let me tell ya. My artistic peak was during my grade 6 year for sure.) And I loved them! And read every single one! Until one day it was pointed out to me, that every single book is the same. Not just similar, but THE SAME. It rocked my world, and internal grievous weeping ensued. Not really, but I stopped reading them very shortly after that. Hmm. Maybe I shouldn't have let myself be so influenced by that one person who, let it be known, did NOT have to ruin my fun like that. I suppose eleven is not an age where I felt particularly individualistic. My ideals then were not as they are now. Obviously. I like the fact that the driving force behind this post thus far, has been Redwall. That makes me happy. Now, I'm just speculating here, buuuuut I think that everyone who has read the series will also enjoy that. While everyone who hasn't will hang their heads in shame, and be saddened by the previously unknown bits missing out of  their childhood. It feels good to have the power to make someone sad. WAIT. No, I didn't mean that. It feels good to.. Not make people sad. Yeah. That's better. Completely and utterly disconnected from the former statement, yes.. Moot point. I want breakfast.

But I suppose breakfast can wait, while I actually fill you in on my days lately. WELL. Finished the financial upgrade <inserthappydance> aaaaaand now Jeremy has to find me something new and exciting to do! Though I was informed my next task may not be as 'glamorous' as a financial upgrade. I was all, "HEY NOW. When was the financial upgrade glamorous?!" I didn't.. Say that out loud.. But I projected it with great volume from my miiiiiind. My point must've been heard (I have telepathic powers, WHO KNEW?!) as Jeremy conceded, financial upgrades are not necessarily glamorous, though they do hold great value for the people it's been done for! Which makes it aaaaaalllll goooooood. I drove to Jacob's school and back the other day, I think I'm getting the hang of right-hand drive vehicles now! And the left side of the road! Methinks it helps that I've begun to dream in that fashion. All vehicles drive on the left. But let me tell you something that I still cannot get the hang of, and probably won't be able to until I leave: lightswitches. Those suckers mess with me EVERY TIME. The reason is that they're all different. All of 'em. Some flick one way for on, others flick the opposite, and I never know which ones are which. Drives me craaazy! I can deal though, because heck! I'm in Africa, and sometimes that's just how it goes.

As a friendly reminder.. My address here is:

Kirsten Hitchcock
PO Box 1966
Arusha, Tanzania
East Africa

I would LOVE to get letters from you! And I would LOVE to write in return! But I don't have all of your addresses, so it's up to you to send the first letter, bwahahaha. Or you can just comment with your address, and I'll send one to you. PS; thanks Vanessa :) You're the best!