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dez2453
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Name: Tanya
Birthday: 10/15/1985
Gender: Female
Interests: corrupting ppl, playing cards half way across campus in the middle of the night, arabic ^_^
Expertise: making people believe i'm a competent individual, procrastination, plotting, not sleeping, not killing a certain co-worker....
Occupation: Legal
Industry: Government
Message: message me
Member Since:
2/23/2004
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| I think that it's rather interesting that I don't usually get culture shock when I go to another country but I do get it when I come back to America. This first hit me when I was standing in the early vote line at the local mall and I saw all these obese people. Now it is considered beautiful for women to be fat in Mauritania, as it is considered a sign of wealth, but I don't believe that there is enough food in Mauritania for anyone to weigh that much. I have also come to a realization that there are other things about America that are really strange.
People in America as also so picky. Where does my water come from? Is it safe to drink? What's that weird taste? I should probably filter this just in case. While in Mauritania, most people don't even strain their water through a cloth to get rid of guinea worm. I now have no problem going on a hike, running out of water, finding a ditch, straining the water through my tee-shirt, putting some bleach in it to purify it and drinking it. It doesn't matter if the water looks questionable, I'll still drink it. I'm sure if my mother saw me doing this, she'd definitely freak out. I'm not saying that I will do this if I can have drinkable water from a faucet, but if I need to find alternative water sources, it's not such a big deal. I guess that's one of the benefits of Peace Corps, you realize that you have all this bullshit in your life that you don't really need.
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| i really think that people should start calling tb consumption once more. i think it sounds better. anyway, so i was wrapping up my medical stuff today and it my tb test bump didn't go away so i had to go and get a chest x-ray which involved my going to a lab where the xray technician spoken to me in fast french that i didn't understand. in the end though, i got the xray done and brought it back to the pcmo and after she took a look at it and told me that i probably don't have tb but jsut in case i probably should go to a doctor in the states when i get back and get tested again. anyway, i've been thinking about things i want to do when i get back to america and i've decided that the first thing that i'll do once i land in jfk, i'll buy myself a soy chai latte and a fitness magazine and read it from cover to cover. but other than that, i already ahve plans for myself. I need to apply for every job under the sun and pray that someone decides to hire me. there are also grad school applications that await me but before that, i need to go visit bahar at duke to try and get on her good side so that i can get another recommendation for grad school (daouda has agree to give me one already), actually now that i think about it, i will probably need three.....so i'll just get the one from medvedev again. that being said, i also plan on baking a lot of cheesecake and other pasteries. maybe i should work in a pastery shop. i really want to bake but i really don't want all these baked goods hanging around the house. i was actually talking to damien about my retirement plans and i would really like to open up a pastry/coffee house (and get dread locks and lot of tattoos, but that's neither here nor there) and i thjink i might actually want to do that sooner than i originally planned. before i was thinking of waiting until i was in my 70s but now i think i might actually start this in my 40s assuming that i can get a decent job so that i can start saving for this enterprise. another plan i have is to actualy eat a kashi frozen pizza. i have been craving one for over a year and i think that's about time that i actually went out and bought one. so that might be my first meal at home. well that and halloween candy. | | |
| after much deliberation and about 3 hours of crying in front of the hakim's office in kankossa i have decided to come home. this is course means that i will have to reorganize my life, maybe look for a job, apply to graduate school but you know what, that's ok. and in the mean time, i'm just going to go running in the mornings and walk my dog and cook for my parents while they are at work. i also think that i found the school that i want to go to. after much thought on this subject i don't think i want to have a degree in arabic. don't get me wrong, i think that arabic is a very valuable skill to have and i defintely want to study it some more, but i believe that having a degree in arabic is not really what i want. i want to study international relations and learn about development economics instead of sitting in a linguistics class scratching my eyes out due to boredom. i want to apply to the geneva school of diplomacy, since i plan on studying international politics i might as well do it outside of teh united states. plus since there are about 5 sillion ngos located in geneva in addition to the un, i think that with some legwork, i'd be able to find myself a job to finance my degree, in sha allah. and if not, i'll just take out a loan becuase i really shouldn't beat around the bush anymore than i already have. however for the time being, i'll be in north carolina running and learning how to play the guitar. | | |
| so i leave for mauritania in about a week and i'm not quite sure about how it's going to pan out. despite my determination to only have one bag, i have ended up with a small duffel bag in addition to my large internal frame backpack. in this mini duffel bag, i have, among other things, a ridiculous amount of cliff bars and oatmeal in addition to a costco sized fudge brownie betty crocker mix. once i got home from the store, i thought that maybe the brownie mix might have been over the top, but then i thought about it some more and realized that my birthday cake will most likely be this brownie mix. i also have really cute candles for this cake, i hope they don't melt in the 50 degree weather. one of the best things i've bought, in addition to my mosquito net of course, is the west africa lonely planet which i have been reading for the past couple of days.
to my surprise there are actually things to see in mauritania. it lays on the migratory path of millions of birds that migrate form europe in the winter and have their breeding season in december and january in a national park near the moroccan boarder. mauritania also has the 7th most holiest city in islam within it's boarders. this city also used to be a major trading post when the salt trade was still active. but mauritania hasn't really been what i've been focusing my reading on, i've been reading about senegal. i cannot wait to spend a weekend in dakar, where i will eat glorious thai food (imperialism was good for something in the end) and eat amazing pastries at the best patisserie this side of paris. i'm also planning an excursion to st. louis (senegal not usa ^_^) to tan to my hearts content and to also go see the jazz festival (one of the best in the world) in may. maybe i can plan my russia trip around going to the jazz festival first and then catching a flight to paris from dakar. i think these are going to be the best two years ever ^_^.
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| ok so my title has absolutely nothing to do with the subject of this entry, i just enjoy having quirky titles. so i've made it to south korea finally. it took me a while and i enjoyed the trip but all in all, i'm glad it's coming to a close. i just think that after a while traveling by yourself isn't all that fun and while staying in hostels does allow you to meet some interesting characters, it usualyl won't provide you with a permanent travel buddy.
i had an ineteresting experience in china though. i ended up having to fly into china and met this kazakh woman on the plane. in the end, i ended up staying with her, which turned out a bit strange for me. now i'm used to strange characters because i've seen a few, but this one was definitely special. it's a bit late right now, so i don't think i'll write out the various incidents that occured, that will have to be another entry all together.
seoul is interesting although the weather is pretty crappy. i'm going to be going down south next weekend with nick and maybe a coupleof his friends. speaking of friends apparently two of my high school frineds are in korea teaching english, which is pretty awesome. xioa and i should be meeting up on wednesday, which'll be pretty awesome because i haven't seen her in about 2 years. it's actually kind of funny that we're meeting up in seoul. i guess it really is a small world. oh and i ahev yet to run into creepy korean man, score ^_^
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