Travels

Rabat, Morocco January 11, 2007 Despite what all northern Europeans say, I’ve never really been a fan of saunas. I went to my first one when my parents took me to Finland at the age of six. While it sounds romantic, perched on the edge of a lakeside cabin somewhere in northern Finland, honestly, I just found the whole idea of soaking oneself in heavy steam and then jumping in a freezing cold lake to be just downright crazy. It…

Ok, so I found my host family in Yoff. Well, they’re not exactly a family quite yet. It’s a young couple, in their 30s probably. The guy, Dominique, is from Montreal and the girl, Fatou, is from Yoff, a northern suburb of Dakar, where the airport is. They both work at CRESP and are slated to be married in September of this year. They have a pretty nice and new apartment by local standards, including a real oven, which I’ve…

It’s almost 4 am, but I really wanted to get these photos and text out. I arrived at Casablanca airport with no problem. The train station is downstairs from the main baggage claim/terminal area. A ticket to Rabat is 65 dirhams ($7.50) for about an hour and 40 minute ride. Train was on-time and clean and easy to navigate. I chatted up a guy on the train who was going to Oujda (way northeastern Morocco, on the Algerian border), who…

It’s been awhile since I’ve been in Paris with a laptop and I’m happy to report that you can buy Net access for six euros for 30 minutes (or 10 euros for one hour, or 15 euros for two hours). The nice thing about this is that the credit lasts for a whole week and doesn’t count when you’re not using it. So I bought it just to use it for two min in Charles de Gaulle but can still…

I’ll be on the road (West Africa, Europe) until February 14. Until then, I’m best reached by email or Skype (cfarivar ; 510.931.5564). I’ll be getting a Senegalese number and an Estonian number as well. Ask me if you need it. See you guys soon!

So due to the magic of EasyJet, I have a $50 flight from London to Tallinn in exactly a month. One problem though, is that the flight is from Stansted Airport, which is basically not near anything — meaning, it’s about 30 miles northeast of London. That’s basically like living in Oakland and flying out of San Jose: doable, but not ideal. Now, normally this wouldn’t be a problem as there’s a convenient train that leaves every 30 minutes from…

It’s been a long-standing tradition in our family to have my grandfather read “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” on Christmas Eve. This year, I’ve recorded it for posterity and will release it as my Christmas present to everyone! “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” by Dylan Thomas, as read by John Hadsell [MP3 – 20:31 – 9.6MB]

I have a way-the-hell-too-early flight (read: 07h15) to Baltimore tomorrow. I spend about 24 hours in the DC area before hopping on a train to New York with my parents on Dec. 20. I’ll be busy nearly every minute, either working or visiting with friends, and then I’ll have an encore ride of the Hartford Chinatown bus (featured in my Master’s thesis) on Dec. 23, where I’ll be spending Christmas vacation with my assembled family. A Happy Chrismahanukwanzakah, Solstice and…

A New York friend is coming to San Francisco for a weekend to attend a wedding. She’s staying in Union Square and only has one full day to tour the city on her own, and this is what I recommended: 1) Get up whenever, stroll around Union Square/Market St. 2) Optionally check out Yerba Buena Gardens and the Museum of Modern Art, or the California Historical Society Museum, or the Cartoon Art Museum. 3) Around lunchtime, make your way to…

This past weekend, my grandparents moved out of their home in the Berkeley Hills of nearly half a century. As many of you know, that house is very near and dear to my heart. As I told them, if they were selling it (they’re not), I would sell everything that I owned to be able to keep that house in our family. On Monday evening, I took a tour of the house, in its empty and soon-to-be-rented state, and went…