Mini Vacation

Hello friends! This might be the most pathetic post ever because I'm laying on the beach using my phone so there will be no pictures. But I want to make sure you're all enlightened on my life, so here we go!

Over the weekend, we went to my cousin Spencer's (the real one, not the one where Bobby pretends to be Spencer so we get free putt putt) wedding in Georgia. We stayed with my aunt and uncle and they happen to like football too so we had a full day of Big10 sports on Saturday. Like the rest of my family, they support that other school in Michigan so it was a good day for everyone! Go blue! In case anyone didn't see, Harbaugh smashed a buckeye in front of Bo's grave so I think that is some good foreshadowing for next weekend.

So anyways the wedding was nice. We got home from that on Sunday night and got on our plane to Fort Myers the next morning. Our first day we checked into our hotel and headed to the beach. It was a little windy and cloudy but definitely an improvement from Midwest weather. At night, we drove to Naples for dinner. We went to this delicious Italian place that had 2 entrees and a bottle of wine for 29.99! Yay for wine wasted! Afterwards, we walked around a little which was fun because there are lots of cutesy shops and it's all decorated for Christmas!!

Tuesday was another beach day. We walked down the beach and searched for cool shells. The highlight of our walk was definitely when this old lady captured a pelican in a fishing net. I felt a combo of amused and sad for the bird. My dad and I played some cornhole too. I lost all three games but it's a new day and I'm determined to win. I'll keep you posted on the results.  That night we went out for dinner and drinks and then came home and crashed. {this portion of the post has been removed due to viewer complaints}

Now it's Wednesday and almost time for my departure. The rest of the fam is down here for another week still but some of us have gotta work. Luckily I'm going out with a bang. We had the best continental breakfast ever complete with omelets, chocolate chip waffles, biscuits, and mimosas. We'll be spending the day at the beach, having sunset shots, and then closing the vacay with yumyums and cocktails at a rooftop bar.

And of course I will have my awesome fiancé waiting to pick me up bright and early Thanksgiving morning. Enjoy your turkey my friends :)

Memo Week ---> Memo Weak

This gif is all I can really  say about this week. Our first memo is due Friday. But the upside is that if I make it through, then I get a week off. Highlights should include:

• Seeing Zacky for our 6 year anniversary
• Seeing Reba and my mom and my dad
• Seeing Teeners and Taylor
• Not seeing Ashulee and Bobby
• Just kidding
• Eating a lot of carbs and dairy
• Still studying a lot
• Going to a real mall with actual stores
• Going to DC 
• Having bottomless mimosas at brunch
• Not writing this memo anymore

I'll try to write more later, but I don't want Teeners to dominate the blog, so I figured something short was better than nothing. Also, feel free to ask me about joint ventures if you want a noncommittal and very confused answer, which I'm sure is what most people are looking for when they want legal advice.

Half-Master

This is (probably) the last Fall semester I will ever have, which is weird and makes me think I should be more nostalgic and emotional but really I am just ready to finish this up and become a real person finally. My classes are interesting, although sometimes I tell myself I don't need to pay attention/attend them because I'm not getting a PhD so this theory stuff isn't important. This is probably a mistake...

As you've all heard (unless you are not ART and are a stranger reading this...), I have a new favorite class. I still really like public health genetics, but I'm not taking any classes in that field this semester and instead am getting really into social epidemiology. This is where we look at how social inequality generates health inequality. Some of it is super obvious, like low SES being associated with pretty much every disease ever. Other stuff is more surprising, like having greater social stratification in a community being associated with lower average height. Even if you are rich, your health is worse in some areas because of the presence of inequality. CRAZY! So I might need to get on board with Patrick's communist revolution soon.

Classes are only a small part of my schedule this semester and it seems like all the other things are making me feel busy. I have a problem where I fill out every google interest form that gets sent to me, and then I just go ahead and sign up for leadership positions that I really wouldn't be good at. I also have been swimming most days, because for one of my classes we have to make a health behavior goal and write a report on it and also because if I get to campus early and swim before class I miss traffic (#commuterlife). I think I've got a grip on things now, though, and hopefully will be a little less crazy.

Here are some pictures of activities so far this semester:

First football game!

Michael's last juggling show before moving to South Sudan:

Bobshley visit!:

The class I am in right now:

Apple picking with mostly people I've never met:

Osaka, Kobe, Taipei!

We've been packing a lot into our days in Japan so I'm just going to give a rundown of everything we've been doing instead of trying to remember each day.

Things we're seeing

This is Meriken Park in Kobe. Kobe might be my favorite city in all of Japan. This park is huge, on the water, has a lot of shopping malls and very pretty. We ate pretty good Indian food here and walked around!

We went to a Hanshin Tigers baseball game! Everyone in my family and in Japan seemed really nervous about us doing this? My grandfather has been a fan for practically forever and has never actually been to a game. Despite the HUGE crowds at the game everyone insisted that no one goes to see the Hanshin Tigers.

We had a great time. The woman next to us lent us balloons so we could participate in the 7th inning stretch activities and the end of game celebration. The couple on the other side of us explained to us who the players were and who was a closer and stuff. It was very nice of all of them. And the Tigers won! They beat the Giants, their biggest rivals! Wooooo!

We went to the Osaka Castle. It was hot as hell that day. Which explains Zack's sweatspot. But, when we went inside the castle, it was air conditioned! So much for keeping things traditional...

Right before we went to the Castle we went to Osaka Kaiyukan Aquarium. It was maybe the most crowded place I've ever been. In retrospect, we probably picked the worst day ever to go--it was the Sunday of a long weekend, so no duh there were a ton of people there! We saw some cool stuff, but kind of agreed that people never enjoy your pictures of aquariums. It never looks that cool in pictures. 

We were going to go to the Umeda Sky building after the Osaka Castle since we were in Osaka that day, but it was way too freaking hot, so we went home. In the end if was the right decision because we were able to go back a few days later and see it. 

So here's some crap. The Sky Building is this huge sky scraper and you're supposed to go up to see the "Floating Garden" as the sign above indicates. BUT when you get there this is all you see:

THERE ARE NO FLOWERS OR NATURE IN THE FLOATING GARDEN. Granted, I did think that we got a particularly bad day because it was raining pretty steadily and was super gray out. But for real. This is not a garden. AND they don't let you carry umbrellas up at the top because they're afraid it will blow away. So you just have to walk around in the rain if it's raining. What crap.

This is in Taiwan. Zack is afraid I won't differentiate enough between Taiwan and Japan. This is the Chiang Kai-Sheck Memorial. Chiang Kai-Sheck is a former Taiwanese president. His memorial included a lot of anti-Japanese propaganda inside. That was kind of cool to look at, but I don't really know enough about Taiwanese or Japanese history to get the significance of their words and descriptions.

It's very pretty, but we also went there in the rain, so I don't think we got the optimal experience. I was also very nervous I was going to slip and re-shatter a kneecap. Also I was a little crabby because we woke up at 4:45am, took a train, a bus, a plane, and another bus before we actually got to Taiwan.

This is the inside of that memorial. Very beautiful! 

This is what you see if you stand of the steps of the memorial and look out. Yes, I did use a filter. 

This is the 228 Peace Park. On 2/28/1947 there was a huge antigovernment uprising that resulted in many deaths, a lot of destruction and the beginning of 50 years of martial law. Taiwan has a very interesting history and we saw a lot of  propaganda and there is certainly a lot of contentious point in history. I don't pretend to know much about it, but if you need someone to go more in depth, tweet at @Zackymatthews.

This is the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial. He was Taiwan's first president and is like the father of the nation. We spent extra time in his memorial because he was a cool guy, but also because it was pouring outside and big dumb Bert didn't bring his umbrella.

Also there was a mini sculpture exhibit inside and a bunch of dancers outside. So we chilled there.

After it stopped raining we met Zack's friend Gino at a night market! Taiwan is famous for night markets. It's like if a farmers market, flea market, and a carnival all met up and joined forces every night. Lots of food, games, and trinkets for sale everywhere. 

This is a wind damper at the 101. I didn't know what one was until I went to the 101. I still don't super get what it does, other than help buildings not collapse during earthquakes, but you should know, this is a huge wind damper. So I've been told.

This is the 101 from afar. We went up to the top if it. This is the world's second tallest building, but still has the world's fastest elevators! It was a beautiful view from up there. It was a little crowded and kind of expensive, but I'd say worth it! Also you get to walk through a bonus coral museum no one tells you about until you there.

This is the ticket for the metro! It's a plastic coin! Weird.

This is the National Palace Museum! It's HUGE and has a ton of artifacts, that some people would argue are stolen from China. We saw a lot of cool pottery, weapons, jade, and historical documents. We did not look at the Jade that is shaped like a cabbage though. Because there was like an hour long line to do that. We were not feeling it.

This is Chiang Kai-Sheck's presidential residence.

This is also the presidential residence. It was also HUGE and very elaborate. Definitely did not feel like it belonged to a single person, even if that person was the president.

Zack's other friend, Laurent, paid for us to get 45 minute massages. We were kind of nervous since that's kind of a long time to have a stranger you can't really talk to touch you. My massage was kind of rough and was definitely sore the next day. I do think my feet hurt less though. For reference, in the past week we've walked 59.5 miles. So I guess we earned a massage.

We went to Tamsui, which is at the end of the metro line in Taipei. It was beautiful but so freaking hot. There was a British fort there. That was surprising.

After going to Tamsui, we went to the a Beitou Hot Springs. Remember how I said it was hot? It was even hotter at the hot spring.

People we're meeting

This and the picture below it are of my cousin Karin. She's 12, and was born in America. She's been going to "English camp" with us. She's pretty shy, but I definitely think she's understanding more and more English. She's very sweet and is very excited to go to Universal Studios Japan with us.

So I didn't actually meet this guy--I just made him take a picture with me because he's wearing a Princeton football shirt and I used to work with a guy that played football at Princeton. He was uncomfortable.

This is Laurent. He used to work with Zack's organization in DC. Now he lives in Taiwan again. He was very nice to us. He bought our tickets to the National Palace Museum, our lunch, our massages, and our dinner! He got us very drunk and took us to places we wouldn't have seen otherwise! 

This is Gino. He's hilarious. He speaks amazingly good English for someone who has never been to the US. He's sort of YouTube star in Taiwan and apparently had a small role in a movie! There was a billboard for his movie in our metro station so we took a picture of him with his billboard self! He also took us around, helped us order food and made sure we had a good time.

We're also obviously seeing my grandparents, aunt and uncle a lot. They aren't so much into pictures though. They never want to take selfies. Rude.

Things we're eating

 Most of this does not need an explanation. It's all delicious.

There was $5 beer at the tigers game! Too good! Also, it said you weren't allowed to bring cans or bottles into the stadium. Which we took to mean, you can't bring beer. NOPE. There was a line where they took your bottles or cans of beer and poured it into paper cups and you're allowed to have that! Can you imagine how insane that would be in the US?

My grandmother was super worried that we wouldn't have enough to eat so she packed us hard boiled eggs. As we were leaving she told us "It's hot, so be careful!" "There are crazy people so be careful!" "You're cute, so be careful!" And then "Sometimes eggs make you cough! So be careful!" What? So I ran that by my mom. And she was like "yeah! eggs do make you cough! You should be careful!" Is that a thing?

We didn't actually eat this. But it's very realistic penis ice cream in Taiwan. Why. 

This is the dinner Laurent got us. It was SO good.

We both super liked octopus mouth. I guess I'm more surprised octopus mouth is a thing you can eat that I am that I like it? How do you even get the mouth like separated? 

Mos Burger! Instead of a bread bun, it's rice!

That's it for now! We leave Saturday so we're wrapping up now, but I'm sure I'll have another absurdly long blog post to share!

Uganda Be Kidding Me: 10 things I learned this summer

I'm thinking "BuzzFeed Editor" would be a good fallback career if we run out of public and health in the world, so here is a summary of my summer in listicle form. Also CAN'T WAIT TO REUNITE WITH YOU ALL SO SOON!

1. "African" souvenirs are usually made in China or India, just like everything else in the world. All the colorful fabrics and crazy pants that white people on safari like to buy are about as Ugandan as French fries. Still, they are awesome fabrics/pants so can you really blame us for buying them and acting all cultured when we get back?

2. Peeing in a whole in the ground is something you can get used to. It's not really pleasant, but it gets the job done. I only had to use a latrine on days that we worked in the field, so I can't pretend to have had an authentic village experience. At night, I got a hot shower and a flushing toilet. So really we should all just appreciate indoor plumbing. 

3. On long layovers, you can totally leave the airport and get a bonus vacation! We did this in Amsterdam because we had 6 hours between flights so I'm pretty much an expert. We saw the outside of the Ann Frank house, ate frites, walked around the museum quarter, and wished we were as adorable as all the Dutch bikers. 

4. Knowing other languages is really cool. So I guess I am not that cool. Everyone I met in Uganda speaks like 5 languages and I could barely remember any words in Runyankore. I did meet a Burundian man, though, and exchanged like 2 sentences of French with him!!

5. Sexism. I just learned about sexism. Obvi I have seen this my whole life but it was different to observe as a foreigner. My first day working in the field, one of the health workers we partner with invited me to spend the night with him and it became pretty regular for men to ask if I was single or tell me they wanted an American wife, which is awkward. But the real sad thing was hearing from women about sexual abuse and domestic violence and just the general experience of being expected to garden, cook, clean, raise babies, make money, etc. sometimes with no help. And then it was sad to hear men talk about how they were expected to pay for everything but if you're poor you just feel disported and become an alcoholic and OK clearly not everyone does this but just for real why can't we all just work together and not force people to live and work and be a certain way just because of their sex??

6. Electricity is dangerous. My laptop charger taught me this lesson when it exploded and nearly took my head with it. Which reminds me that I need to check amazon for a new one...

7. I talk really loud and might be hearing impaired. Or Ugandans are just really soft spoken? I don't know if it's a consequence of having lots of cousins or something but I have discovered that I shout when people don't understand or acknowledge me speaking and it's super annoying and why do I have any friends? But then also I can never hear anything the first time so probably you should be nice to me I might be deaf. 

8. I always thought I was kind of low-maintenance, but it turns out I am super spoiled. I really struggled with the unreliable electricity and internet connection in Mbarara. One time I spent a whole work day reading Mockingjay and waiting for the power to come back on so I could use my laptop that can't hold a battery charge, and it was the worst thing ever. Also I'm bad at flies. I just don't like them, especially when I'm eating, and one time I even skipped lunch because I couldn't handle the flies in the village which is super weird for me because I LOVE eating.

9. At airports it really is important to get there early for your flight. And then once you are there, you should probably stay close to your gate so they don't close it while you are on the other side of the terminal being an idiot. I learned this lesson in Miami, but it all turned out OK because I got on a new flight and Marco Rubio was there which is basically a celebrity siting and I made friends by having a tide-to-go in my purse.

10.I really like travelling, but it is so great coming home. I am already planning my future trips: Paris to see Rachael, Poland to see the Pope, Uganda again to see my frands. But I definitely realized that I can never live anywhere but Michigan, at least not long term. I just missed everything too much!