I should be writing more. I keep promising myself to write more, but then I realise all the other things I have to do and neglect this poor little blog and end up writing a huge apologetic post every 2-3 weeks. Sorry. I arrived back in Toronto at the beginning of September. It was a long, long journey.
Classic map shot
Then I promptly spent a week doing sort of nothing but sort of something… I’m not sure how that worked out.
It involved cats for sure
I went to the Ai Wei Wei exhibition at the AGO with my dad, which was fantastic. I like our little tradition – whenever there’s something worth seeing there, we go together. I quite enjoyed it. My favourite pieces were the painted-on ancient vases. The message of it was powerful and totally clear, at least I think so – the Chinese government cares more about the ‘new’ than the old.
In the background you can also see the rubber crabs, some photos of Ai Wei Wei flipping off various monuments, and a cool infinite bicycle sculpture.
I guess it’s not necessarily the actual aesthetic itself, it’s the message that I appreciate the most, though my two favourite works based on aesthetics were the tea-leaf houses and the phases-of-the-moon portals.
What I liked about the exhibition especially is that it made explicit that Ai Wei Wei doesn’t necessarily do all the work himself – in fact, for some pieces, he conceives it, but does not make it with his hands. I think in this case especially it adds another layer of message about appropriation, though it is, as Kate told me, a relatively common practice in modern art, see for example Damien Hirst.
After we finished going around the Ai Wei Wei show, I insisted on showing my dad a painting of a man called Hart Hart-Davis, since we look fairly similar. I think I’m detecting an obsession of mine – finding pictures or sculptures of people long dead that look like me, though I suppose Sir Alfred East is technically a relative so that one is ok.
I made dad take a picture. I can see the remnants of my Tanzanian reddening (or as others call it, a ‘tan’)
After having lunch at the AGO Café in the basement (moderately disappointing for me – the quiche was a bit flavourless, but dad’s sandwich was pretty good), whose prices have definitely gone up since the last time, I met up with my friend Alex who offered to give me a ride on his cargo bike, which I was thinking was some sort of fancy shiny affair, but I later learned was a jerry-rigged home-made affair. The platform was plywood and it was a bit awkward to sit on it…
SMILE EVERYONE IS STARING AT YOU BECAUSE YOU ARE SITTING ON THE FRONT OF A WEIRD LOOKING BIKE
Sweet cat socks and basically how I had to sit for aaages
Later I went to an art show called fART (food + art) which was pretty cool. It was sort of written up in Vice. I had mint flavoured milk, which was pretty good, though to be honest, it was a bit too much about sweet foods for me. Every sensation there struck me as saccharine… I liked some of the concepts but my teeth hurt from all the sugar. To be honest, I do rather like sweets, but I’d say that my general food likes are more about texture than anything else, and I really do genuinely prefer savoury foods to sweet ones.
a sort of meat and two veg affair
After all of this exciting stuff, it was time to return to my apartment in the wilderness. Mum and dad gave me a ride, and generously bought me enough food to carry me through to October (still eating it!). I immediately decided what was in order was a giant roast dinner. So that’s what I did.
Roast chicken with roasted potato, garlic, carrot, sweet potato, and steamed baby kale. Home made gravy as well. The chicken was stuffed with lemon, rosemary, bacon, and cranberries.
I have really not been doing much else other than writing for school, teaching tutorials with my friend Andrea, and going to the gym. I saw my mum out here and she brought one of the parcels I’d sent back from England (though the other two haven’t materialised…). I got some of the Finnish stuff I bought and wanted to read, though my copy of Muumipappa at Sea is still in the post:
I of course have been to Toronto again too to see Kate and generally to faff about… Madeleine had kittens that her cat had had (so many hads in this sentence) while she was away in South Africa and I got to see them. They were adorable. I need a cat.
KITTEN
Hiding kitten!
The reason I went to Toronto was to have lunch with my mum, my brother, and my sister-in-law. We went to ONE restaurant in Yorkville, which was a bit pricey, and moderately disappointing if only because my sandwich was stone cold, and the bread on it was fried bread, and also because the service was glacial and the wait staff spoke in run on sentences (I made that last bit up). I also feel like it was more a place to go to brag about going or to be ‘seen’ rather than a self-respecting restaurant. The redeeming feature was the sorbet, which was fantastic. I had a honeydew melon sorbet which blew me away.
the sorbet in question ($3/scoop)
I hope we get to have lunch/brunch/whatever again soon, though hopefully somewhere a) a bit cheaper and b) with a bit faster service.
Me at the restaurant
In the subsequent day or so I spent some time wandering around:
The person who wrote that is pretty much me whenever talking about any geographic issue
I also went to see Ray, my old landlord, who is an amazing person. We had tea at David’s Tea, though on the way to see him at my old place, through familiar back alleys, I found that one of my many doppelgänger had made her mark:
I’m cool
I had one of the fall teas, which was a pistachio blend that tasted amazing. I want it, but I have to drink through all my other tea first. On my way back to Kate’s I saw this amazing doorway on Bathurst:
It’s just so… decrepit
I’m not sure why but I thought it fascinating. So I took a photo. Because that’s who I am <_<<<<<<<
At Kate’s, I spent some time lazing around with Peaches, probably one of the cutest cats ever. He wouldn’t let me leg go. Later, I went out with Kate to Dufferin Mall, and it “wasn’t far” so we walked from her place (spoiler alert: it was kind of far, but no biggie).
We found this van on the way
We also stopped at this Modern Furniture shop whose name I’ve forgotten but who has fairly reasonable prices, because they specialise in reproductions.
I liked this lamp
One day I will be able to choose my furniture based on aesthetic and not on price. I am excited for that day. I have schemes.
Once we got to Dufferin Mall, we went in Winners, and I fell in love with our matching shoes, which were way too expensive, so we didn’t buy any.
typical shot
After visiting the mall, we headed for Koreatown because I really craved kimchi-something. However, fate was not on my side as I spotted something called “Hogtown Vegan” (fyi, Kate is vegan), and pointed it out to Kate, who had wanted to try it for ages. So we went there. It was pretty good, though I found my Mac and “Cheese” a tiny bit on the salty side. I think if you served their food to someone who didn’t know it was vegan, they couldn’t tell. Kate had a “southern platter” which included some “un-chicken” whose texture was almost perfect.
Vegan Mac and “Cheese”
After getting way too full and having to take some of it home, we headed off through Koreatown, where I bought some cute stationery (I need it to live, and to write). I also bought some kimchi at PAT, the best Korean grocery store. I love PAT. They have a nice variety of products, and are affordable. My tub of kimchi (about 500g?) cost $4.99, and the equivalent one out here is about $9.99 and not nearly as good. Kimchi also lasts forever. I think. So I eat it a bit at a time.
Literally
Eventually it was time to turn home, though we of course had to make a stop to try on silly hats:
My head is small, but not that small
Cabareeeeet
So after the weekend, I was back in town. Again, usual routine, but I also got to walk Zuri with Jenna, in the rain. “I like walking in the rain,” I said. It wasn’t a total lie, but I don’t like walking in once in a lifetime rain storms that soak through all manner of waterproof clothing and cause water to bubble up through the cracks in the sidewalk. Zuri was mad at us.
Zuri was having none of it
Storm water management 0 Rain 1
Zuri actually barked at this water
In any case, it’s time to get back to work and you know, write my Master’s thesis. Because it’s kind of important.
I wanted to show you a few pics I took at the Alfred East Gallery (with permission) of my great-great-great uncle (g-g-g uncs). He looks a lot like my uncle, though I don’t have any comparison shot to put up. He was one of the first Westerners to go around Japan. Since (I believe this is so) all of his work in the Gallery is under public ownership, it is available for viewing on the BBC “Your Paintings” website here, though keep in mind that not all of it is Sir Alfred’s.
Mum took some better pics of me beside his bust in the gallery so you can see that we sort of kind of look alike. Maybe. I don’t know.
Other things I wanted to write about – or rather show off are some pictures mum took at the castles and when we went to Milton Keynes with Nan…
Nan has swag
Mum also took two particularly ridiculous photos of me at Kenilworth Castle:’
My head as a crenelation
ugh. at least mum’s in it too, in the top right
The photo above actually has a story behind it. Mum, Nan, and I were leaving Kenilworth Castle, and she spied this little horse standee and said that I should take a photo behind it, neglecting to realise its comical smallness in comparison with my relative bulk, and that there is a large, steep, wet-grass slope behind it leading to my ultimate doom in a field full of cows (and cow shit). However I prevailed, and in fact, our actions encouraged a retinue of German tourists to be tempted to do the same.
p much my reaction, re: ze Germans
I took the train to London from Northampton (and not Wellingborough because it was cheaper or easier or something that I can’t remember). Mum told me she used to drive to the very same station and take the train into London when she was on her course after she and Dad moved out of London – more on this later. I initially had planned on lugging all my stuff to St. Pancras underground (which is a pretty long walk from the East Midlands platforms), and taking the tube about 8-9 stops to Earl’s Court, where I was staying. Then I’d have to walk about 4-5 blocks (maybe about 5 minutes unencumbered, as I discovered). This is why I took a black cab:
Oh man
Also it may shock you to know that the red case weighs approximately 32kg and the blue about 27kg. I was away since April! <_< Technically I’m only over by… 13kg. <_<
Since I ended up spending loads of time with mum on the day I left (which was much needed – we went to Waitroses and I bought some magazines, and then we saw her friend Rachel who lived around Northampton), a lot of the restaurants were closed by the time I thought to venture out to eat. It weirded me out, since for some reason I have the impression restaurants in Toronto are open later. I went to a place called Dragon Palace and ordered a starter and a main, but only had the starter as they were closing and it was massive. It was a sort of crispy sweet duck, that was on the bone – the waitress stripped it all off for me. It came with little pancakes, some sauce, and mixed veg (spring onion and cucumber). They were really good and cost around £6.90 ($11.35).
I spent much of the next three days at the RGS/IBG conference, though I did enjoy most of the talks, the opportunity presented by some of the presenters not being at one of the sessions allowed me to go to the V&A which I enjoyed, though I rushed a little bit so I wouldn’t miss the next session.
Globes at the RGS
A dress at the V&A
Statue at the V&A
Staircase at the V&A
I really loved the staircase – it’s by the café (where I had a delicious ham and emmenthal sandwich – £4.75 ($7.80)). I scurried back for the next session. On another day, I couldn’t find a session that I felt truly passionate (or even weakly) about, so I decided to go to Harrods to buy some tea (I love their first flush Darjeeling and English Afternoon teas). I wandered the Food Hall, which is probably the best part about Harrods (as I can’t afford anything else there). A nice gentleman at the charcuterie counter allowed me to sample as many meats as I’d like. I had three or four types of salami – one fennel salami struck me as particularly nice, and I’d have bought some were I not deathly afraid of the hostel’s shared refrigerator(s). I wandered around and came across a counter with sushi and dim sum, so I tried a single piece of tuna sushi for about £1.50 ($2.50). Verdict: the fridge was too cold so the rice had that weird dry taste that happens when you keep it in the fridge for any length of time. The fish was good though.
The dim sum at Harrods
I also bought a pistachio meringue which was about as big as my face for £2.50 ($4.10).
The inside was soft but pretty nice. It was way too big to eat more than about a quarter of it though. (on the RGS lawn)
After my successful meeting with one of my biggest heroes ever who may want to work with me for my PhD (not naming names) I went and celebrated by eating at Mai Food, probably the nicest Japanese place I’ve been to in a while. I sat at the counter and ate probably way too much.
Entertaining fact: all of these sauces go with different things I ordered, and they’re all mine.
Spicy tuna maki
A duck, a squid, and a pork skewer
Gyoza (pork dumplings)
Green salad – you won’t understand why I got this unless you spent time in a country where eating salad is a pain in the ass because you have to bleach or iodine or acidify your vegetables so you don’t get a horrible gastrointestinal disease causing you to go to the toilet way too much
Takoyaki – pretty good, though to be honest, I like the ones at Manpuku better- they have a special machine imported from Japan, though, so it’s not a fair comparison.
Perhaps Japanese food (of some varieties?) hasn’t become as ubiquitous in London as it is in Toronto, since the owner asked me if I lived in Japan due to my apparently excellent knowledge of Japanese cuisine – I just told her no, I hadn’t, but I really loved their food. I enjoyed eating at Mai Food very much, though I think if you want a table or to ensure you can eat there, you have to get there early, or make a reservation, because it was packed.
The next day I was meeting my Mum at London Bridge station (which I won’t forget also because of Orwell’s writing of it in his hop-picking diary [I’m reading his Diaries right now]), so I thought I’d cycle over using the Boris bikes from Earl’s Court. I made it to Kensington and realised that the stupid machine made you wait 5 minutes between rentals, so I cabbed it to the closest Underground station and bought two day passes (which was useless in the end because Mum wanted to take cabs everywhere because of her hip). Boris bikes also aren’t very fast – I have amazing quads (no brag, I swear), so I get up to speed pretty quickly, but since they only have three gears, you can’t get up to ridiculous speeds very easily.
My feelings on that weird race that happens when approaching stop lights on a bicycle which makes you appear to be a slow, inexperienced cyclist
London Bridge station is really confusing and so Mum and I had some trouble meeting – I got frustrated too quickly and felt bad because Mum got a bit annoyed with me, so I apologised. We took a black cab to the Tate Britain in order to see the Lowry show (we are big fans of Lowry probably due to the Mancunian nature of his work, and I’ve liked his work especially ever since Mum took me to the Salford Centre when I was a youngish teenager). We decided to have a drink before we went in at the charming garden café – we each had tea and a Pimm’s Cup. I found out my brother had gotten married and was very happy for him – I will always associate that café with that event, even if it is thousands of kilometres away. We went inside and bought tickets for both exhibitions which were on – Lowry and another two artists of the 20th century who did modern things, whose names I’ve forgotten because I’m a terrible person. We really enjoyed the Lowry exhibition, though it was a bit crowded and relatively chairless (important for my Mum as she has to sit down every so often because of her hip). I managed to ask a security man for a portable folding stool, which he thankfully found quickly. He was very friendly.
part of London Bridge station
The only time I saw the Houses of Parliament since I didn’t venture there after. (on the way to the Tate Britain)
A hall leading to the Lowry exhibition
A little sketch I liked at the Lowry exhibit (no photos : < )
After the Tate Britain, Mum and I went to the Marks and Spencers at Marble Arch at the end of Oxford Street. We had lunch first, as the cabbie dropped us off around the corner, at a pub. I had a venison and blueberry burger, which wasn’t how I had expected it to be, and Mum had fish and chips. Marks and Spencers was OK, though Mum didn’t quite find anything as perfect as last time she’d be in. We had toasties in the café and went to Primark, since Mum was looking for a carry-on bag, which she didn’t find, though I got a nice huge carry-all purse of holding + 7 (which can hold a ridiculous amount of stuff).
Trying on a ring at Marks and Spencers and generally being a bit ridiculous
The next day, after I went with Mum all the way to Gatwick to drop her off (and back to Earls Court), I did a morning of Sherlock Holmesery. The excitement started at Baker Street Station, which is decorated with Sherlock Holmes themed tiles and ‘advertisements’.
One of the creepier Holmes tales, The Solitary Cyclist (full story). The tiles had the same pattern as the silhoutte
I went to the Sherlock Holmes Museum which is actually at 221B Baker Street, which was moderately disappointing for the price (£8/$13.15). There’s a queue outside but what they don’t tell you (well I was told but saw several others who weren’t) is that you need to first queue inside the shop to buy a ticket. Then you queue outside to be let into the house. The first floor was pretty cool. The house is like a post two up two down – nothing on the ground floor, two on the first, two on the second, two on the third, and a half fourth floor with a pretty interesting looking toilet. The first floor has the Persian slipper, one of my favourite features of the stories (where Holmes keeps tobacco):
The Slipper
Also there is a fireplace and two chairs where you (and a friend though I was alone…) can pretend to be Holmes and Watson with the aid of… hats.
One awkward “canyoupleasetakeaphotoofme?” later, and here I am. Note that the hat wasn’t comically small, just that I had my hair piled on my head in a clip.
The second floor was items from specific cases and little informational items, such as this:
Co-caine
The third floor really freaked me out because it was all terrifying wax figures (hold this thought for a little bit later at the Transport Museum). I did mention a little half floor at the top which I was quite enamoured with,
It had the toilet, and a nice(ish) view. I imagined living there. It would be expensive.
The coolest toilet ever
The view
I went back to Baker Street Station and took the Metropolitan line (the oldest line) to Euston Square to see the house they use to film the Sherlock television series (BBC version). I like the Metropolitan line stations; they’re monumental in some abstract sense, probably due to their age.
The platform at Baker Street Station (Metropolitan line)
So I did end up finding the Sherlock house, as it is literally around the corner from the Underground exit. It’s a weird street, rather quiet for being around the corner from Euston Station.
No awkward asking to have my photograph taken here
Here is a series of silly Sherlock gifs for your entertainment:
I can’t wait for Series 3, but there’s no air date yet. Kate is the best for introducing me to it.
After that, I thought about eating lunch and looking for a cafe, so I biked over to St. Pancras, realising that I was really close to the British Library. I don’t recall ever having been, so I went there first (after spending a decade looking for a bike return station). So I went through into the courtyard, which was nice, and had a café (which was closed). So I found the café in the library and had a sandwich and some tea. I noticed on the way in that they had a Propaganda exhibition on, so I decided to go. I enjoyed it, though it was a bit big. There was so much material, and I spent maybe 2 hours in the exhibition hall.
Thinking about exhibitions and trying to look intellectual eyebrows
After that, I realised it was too late to go to Covent Garden Market and the Transport Museum, so I headed back and hung out with the Scottish guy I’d met at the hostel, Davey, who makes skateparks and also skateboards himself. I forgot his instagram, otherwise I’d share some of his pics. We ate and then were going to go to this afterparty for this skateboarding conference, but we got there too late, and therefore had to go across the street to the pub to meet up with a crowd of entertaining skateboarding people. One of them was already wasted, and he fell asleep and it was hard to wake him up. The lady at the pub did not like our group. We had to leave as it was closing time, and the lady was shooing us out. Ian, one of the other Scottish guys in the hostel, was a bit drunk, and didn’t believe me that I could give him a piggy-back to the hostel. I did, for about 400-500 metres. It was fun walking back to the hostel – I got to ride Ian’s skateboard, and then Davey did some sweet tricks on the road (causing cars to slow down or swerve around). Ian bought me a Daim chocolate bar due to his belief I’d never tried one – after opening it, I’d realised I had, since they sell them at IKEA here. I felt a bit bad because I realised that I was always the last to bed in my hostel room (of four women). I was very quiet and didn’t turn on the light, but I still felt awkward.
The next day I went to Picadilly Circus and walked through Leicester Square to Covent Garden Market. There I bought a proper butter knife and an old Soviet pin for “hard work” – the translation netted me a discount, so I only paid £4 ($6.60) for it. I wandered around and decided to eat lunch before I went to the Transport Museum, which is on one corner of the square. I went to a decidedly overpriced and crap restaurant with pretensions, whose name I’ve even forgotten, by virtue of its “half price” special. I had a Caesar salad with chicken that tasted burnt, paid my £6 ($9.90) and left. The tone was set for the afternoon. The Transport Museum refused to honour my English Heritage membership, because I apparently needed an additional person to save 50% off the price. The entry for students was £11.50 ($18.95), the most expensive museum entry I’d paid in England.
Luckily, I learned the cost of an annual pass to the Transport Museum was the same price. So I insisted. And got it. This is a museum that you probably only want to go to once. Maybe it’s better with other people, since it does contain terrifying wax figures.
oh god why
Though it did have a cool posters exhibition, it cost extra, so I didn’t go. I just stared longingly at the tantalising “sneak peek”
old deck
It was a bit weird too seeing the old buses and trains and that because I imagined (again) my parents riding on them when they were still in service.
After spending a bit too much time in the museum, I headed towards Trafalgar Square, where one of the super helpful London tourism officials took a photo and reminded me of my Mum, mostly because of the thumb in the top left:
It was nice because I got to reminisce about being on the Square as a child – you used to be able to feed the pigeons, and my new friend hilariously said that I must be older than he thought, as it was banned a long time ago. He suggested I go see Soho and Chinatown by taking a detour through the National Gallery (behind me in the photograph). So I did. The National Gallery is the best. I bought a guidebook which had ten tours in it, so I did one or two of them. I left through a weird untrafficked exit and found Chinatown. I had bubble tea (my first in ages) that was only okay (and twice the price as it is in Toronto). I also bought Chinese buns and ate them later for supper.
Soho was pretty cool – I found the best alcohol shop that had everything I ever dreamed of:
I bought some Sloe Gin (gin made with sloe berries which you can’t really find in Canada) and some violet liqueur. I will use these with all the tonic I have left from buying a 12 pack. I seriously don’t know how I have this much tonic in my apartment.
After my fun and entertaining day, I slept, woke up at 6, and went to the airport. I had issues. Issues of weight. Mainly that both my bags were overweight. But also that my carry-on, which was until now perfectly fine, was too big for the cabin. I argued my case, was told to stick it in the “sizer” and was told it was too long. I was also told that I couldn’t have my blanket tied to the outside, or my bottle on the ring on the outside either, so I took those off and put them in a tote bag. Then my bag was weighed as 4kg too heavy, so I took out a bunch of stuff, and put it in the tote bag, asking where the Post Office was. The lady was surprised that I was going to post it, but approved my carry on on that factor (after having scrutinised the size of my purse), after only charging me one excess baggage fee of £65 ($108). Tired and feeling crap, I went upstairs to the only place open (The Post Office was closed, though had it been open, I’d have thought for a second about posting my excess stuff), which was Krispy Kreme. I had a doughnut and a tea, and began repacking my rucksack with the things I’d just taken out. It’s a farce, it really is. Soviet Britain – though I didn’t have the same problem on Finnair when I went to Helsinki. Then when I tried to go through security I was told I could only take two bags – my tote bag apparently counting as one item too many. So I stuffed my purse into my tote bag, and went through. Then when I got to the x-ray conveyor, I took my purse out, and then put it on the belt. Again, it’s a farce.
At the airport
Finally through security, I wandered around aimlessly. I didn’t buy any duty free, as I did buy what I wanted when going to Finland (an Yves St. Laurent Touche éclat pen). I faffed about online for a while, but my 45 minutes ran out. I eventually got onto the plane and we all were sitting one row too far back on the ancient fairly crap Air Canada plane, since the labels were in the wrong places. I got into the right seat, and off we went. I watched a few movies: Oblivion (ok, but drags on a bit), The Bling Ring (couldn’t finish, utter shite), and the first hour of Star Trek: Into Darkness (I shouldn’t have watched the Bling Ring!!!). I guess I can rent it, though.
I was glad to see Dad when I got to the airport. My bags didn’t take long at all. Then we drove home. And I played with the cats. It was awesome.
Today has been a pretty lazy Sunday. I woke up and lay in my giant bed all morning playing Animal Crossing. I finally have planted palm trees all along my seashore, and have finished financing my first public works project (a bridge). I have screenshots, but I’m lazy and didn’t bring the cable to upload them with. An-y-ways, the sun is starting to set so I should get to the point.
Getting to the poiiiiiiiint is haaaaard
On Friday, I went out with David and Tim. We started at a place called “Coconut Bar” which was practically empty except for some older Tanzanian men sitting at the bar, and scattered amongst the tables. They had already started on a (small) bottle of vodka mixed with bitter lemon. I had a glass, and then we ordered one more bottle, which was one more glass each for us. The total for that and the four bottles of bitter lemon we used was fairly inexpensive: 18,000tsh ($11.70), at least by Canadian standards. Afterwards, we went to the Lake Hotel, at which David ordered us some beer called “The Kick” which was footie themed and had a ball on it. It was really gross, so I gave mine to David after only having a little bit. Then we left to meet some people I knew at the Tilapia Hotel, and the drinks there were really expensive by Tanzanian standards, so I had only one gin and tonic, which cost 7,500tsh ($4.89) – 1,500 of that ($1.00) was for the tonic, which they gave to me in the bottle. It was a bit weird. We decided to leave, so we took a taxi to Club Fusion, paid entry (10,000tsh/$6.50) and danced for several hours. It was really fun, though it was a bit crowded. I drank mostly water, and then we ended up leaving the club at around 4. Rather than disturbing Mama Mary (our landlady), I stayed at Mama Kilala’s house, where David and Tim are staying, since they had a spare bedroom. Unfortunately, I forgot about the mosquito net, so I am literally covered in mosquito bites.
Me but in reverse
Saturday I spent feeling sorry for myself in Mama Kilala’s house and eating tasty eggs which David made (scrambled with spinach and onion and other things). It was ok. Then I went home on a pikipiki and felt better. However, I started to feel worse, so I had to lie down for a while. Eventually I just kind of passed out. Caren made pasta with butter, which I do quite like, so I ate a bit of it, only so I could take my Malarone pill and then sleep. Sleeping seems to have helped it a lot, though I do have waves of stomachache right now, that come and go every twenty to thirty minutes.
This morning I felt much better and made pancakes for Caren and I – apparently she didn’t know how to make them. I like how she is a different sort of cook than me – she measures everything exactly, so there’s very rarely any waste. Me, I do things more by feel, and sometimes I make far too much. The pancakes were pretty good, and I am glad I bought lemons (3 for 100tsh/$0.07) so I could have lemon and sugar. Then we lazed around until about one, when we visited Mama Mary for lunch, and sat with her relatives. It was interesting, though a bit awkward, since one of them was using What’s App and sending photos of us talking to people to others we didn’t know. To be honest though, I’m sure there’s tonnes of random photos of me around, so I don’t really care that much. It turned out that the lunch was still being made and so we began to make our excuses since we had to come to Gold Crest to Skype with our families. Mama Mary insisted we take some food, so we ate it before we left and only were about fifteen minutes late. She made pilau (spiced rice with some small vegetables and whole potatoes), fresh chicken (I heard it being slaughtered in the morning), watermelon, and chapati. She also gave us some samosas that she made, which were fresh and very nice. After we called Moodie and he was, of course, late. Then he tried to rip us off for the taxi price, which is starting to irritate me, so I feel like we need to find more taxi drivers. I explained to Moodie that my friends and I had taken a taxi from Gold Crest up Bugando Hill (which is pretty far) for 4,000tsh ($2.60) so it wasn’t fair for him to ask us for 5,000tsh ($3.25) just from Isamilo to town. So we paid him 3,000tsh ($1.95) and he was fine with it. I’m impressed by Caren’s unimpressed face. It’s pretty epic, and it helped us bargain.
Not taking that, Moodie. 5,000tsh ($3.25) within town? It’s 3,000tsh ($1.95)
I am not certain what we’ll eat for dinner, but I hope it will be tasty. We still have samosas left and some of the chicken from today. Maybe I’ll make egg noodles and onion and green pepper to go with it.
And since I didn’t take any photos in the intervening days, here’s a photo of me looking ridiculous with my favourite phone case:
I miss you phone case and late night dim sum and long nails
Isamilo (Ee-sa-me-low) is our new neighbourhood. It’s pretty awesome. We have animals of all sorts in our yard. I really like it here… I also have a giant bed.
My extra large bed-cave (half)
I’m getting used to the roosters which crow every so often, especially in the morning. It’s much better than the noise at Mlango Mmoja (the apartment). The only other thing that makes a lot of noise is the fridge, which occasionally sounds like it’s going to explode. We also felt an earthquake the other night, which Caren said was from a 5.7 earthquake in Uganda. I was lying in bed and felt the shaking and somehow I knew it was an earthquake from the last one, which I felt in Toronto some months ago.
Mama Mary, our landlady, showed us her animals yesterday and I took a few little videos:
I’ve also been finishing up interviews. I’m mostly talking to customers now, but the mamas still ask me to help them out. One of them asked for my shoes, and I promised them to her once I’ve left (I did not really intend to bring them to Britain with me anyways). Another tried to teach me how to carry things on my head, which I failed at … miserably. POSTURE UP.
I was only allowed one hand. Also, new kanga
I also got dressed up in the apron again, and got to look like a giant yet again – Caren told me I should stand behind in photos so I don’t look so ridiculous…
giant. this kitchen mama always likes to dress me up
I’ve also been taking many more daladalas. The other day I took one on my own and conducted – I hung out the window and pointed at people and shouted the destination (NYEGEZI! NYEGEZI! BUHONGWA! MJINI!). I still had to pay, but it was good fun. I took a really short video inside of one, but it isn’t very good:
I also collected two more daladalas (click to enlarge):
Kissing fire
Mr. Peace/Robin van Persie?
I also ate chipsi mayai way too many times this week. My favourite time was after I did interviews at one kitchen. We asked for two Fanta Passionfruit. We got a Fanta Orange and a Sprite. And then nobody had change. Classic Tanzania.
How street chipsi mayai comes. In a black plastic bag without any carcinogens. And chilli sauce.
Yesterday Liza had a Fourth of July party, which was really great. I made these little cashew-tea masala-honey pastries and everyone really enjoyed them. Liza made these amazing cheeseburgers, which probably were the best hamburger I’ve ever had. We also had some other snacks and such, and talked with lots of nice people. Liza even found some little fountain-fireworks, which we lit. While the fireworks were going, I felt something weird on my shoulder, so I turned to look and it was was what I thought was a giant beetle, but Liza realised it was a GIGANTIC COCKROACH. Quite literally the largest cockroach I’ve ever seen. It was at least 6 or 7 centimetres long. AT LEAST. I WAS HORRIFIED ON SO MANY LEVELS. Liza acted quickly, knocking it off of my body and then squashing it relentlessly into the dirt until it was dead. I then felt really, really grossed out. I still do feel a little disgusted, but luckily, in some respects, it was just a garden-cockroach rather than an indoors one.
Initial reaction to a giant cockroach on my shoulder
All my feels
Oh god why
The cockroach
My feels about walking outside
Feelings continued
All I wanted to do after
After I got home I made a cuppa and cried a little.
Anyways, just want to let you all know I’m doing really well apart from what will thusforth be termed the “giant cockroach crawling all over my body unbeknownst to me until I felt it on my shoulder” Incident.
Tilapia elephant butt. also my trousers are way too short.
So the post title is kind of a lie. I’m going to go through some photos Caren just gave me. There’s me on the morning after her arrival after a delicious and tasty breakfast wherein I ate entirely too much breakfast food.
There’s also a series of photographs of me squinting at my laptop at Gold Crest
On multiple days. Though this one is more so my “I’m right” face.
And here we are on the roof. Again. SELFIE.
Remember how disappointed Caren was about her ‘egg roll’?
I was actually really happy about my pizza.
Caren also captured the four step pikipiki process.
One: Negotiate price and put on helmet. Get stared at.
Two: Mount pikipiki from the left side, since the exhaust is on the right side and that is not good for your legs if you touch it
Three: Put your stuff in front of you so it doesn’t fall off/get stolen when you’re riding
Four: Ride away with fantasies of being Lady Gaga in the Judas music video
So there it is. There’s nothing to it. Rides in town cost 1,000tsh ($0.65) but rides further away but still within Mwanza (like to La Kairo, a really nice Indian restaurant we went to for David’s birthday on Saturday) cost 2,000tsh($1.28). Saturday was really nice. I had a really amazing palak paneer (7500/$4.80) and garlic naan. Next time I’ll get the cashew-paneer which was really nice – the others let me try some of theirs. After we went to La Kairo, we went to the Yacht Club, where I hadn’t been before. It too was nice, but I think we were only let in since we knew someone who was a member. We met Inga there, and then about half of us went by boat, and the other half went by car to a party called the “Full Moon” party. The place was quite far out of town, and though I’d been there two weeks ago, it looked almost completely different. They’d put in basically a full beach nightclub, complete with thatched umbrella pavilion things, a bar, and two fire pits – one with a chimney. It was ‘bring your own drinks’, which would have been nice to know beforehand, but the others were more than willing to share, and the bar was giving out free alcohol, but no mixer. I brought some water, so I drank mostly that, and a little Konyagi. I also met a really nice man named Joseph, who has lived in Tanzania for almost 5 years – his 5 year Tanzania anniversary is one day before my birthday. I was tired and was tempted to leave with him and his friends since they were taking a boat (much faster) back, but I didn’t want to take someone else’s place. So I stayed and then stared at the stars on the beach for a long time, danced a little bit, and then sat around before we finally left at about 3:30. I snuck inside the apartment at about 4:30, and noticed a man sleeping on the ground floor under the stairwell. Luckily, he didn’t wake up. I was very sneaky.
Like a little bird
On Sunday we went to where David and Kim are staying for a little birthday barbecue. I like going up on Bugando hill, the views are nice and it’s fairly quiet.
On the way there with Ajit and David (who is hiding). No, my arm isn’t in a sling.
I actually, after all the food and cake, staged an impromptu dance lesson, since the Germans are always asking for repeat performances of my contemporary moves (they’re pretty sweet). There’s the last performance I did just below:
I can’t find any of the folk dance, since that’s what I was teaching (mostly) to the others.
So the feet go like this
Body straight, annoyed dance face full on
They almost got it (left to right) Kim got the jump, David got the pointed foot, and Christoph got the straight leg (almost). Combine them and you might have a decent folk dance.
Then they wanted to learn fancy contemporary moves, so I taught them the roll, but the adorable dogs that Mama Kilaulau (sp?) kept were getting in the way… not always unwanted, though.
Dags
Anyways, we tried to get home early since we were moving the next day into a little cottage of our own, since we want to give the other girls some breathing room (though I have to return tomorrow since I forgot the most important thing: the cards my parents gave me before I left… and my skipping rope). It was also Canada Day today, so we wore festive tattoos.
Feel the Canada
It also meant that everyone in the market today shouted CANADA at us rather than MZUNGU. It seems a fair strategy in the end.
Carrying down the fan with all my muscles
I called the taxi driver but he was taking a while. “WHERE IS HE?!”
Then we all piled in a taxi and got the key copies made and repaired by hand this time so everyone can get into the apartment who is there now. We also bought a padlock for our little cottage and grossly overpaid (48,000tsh/$30). Our driver, Zagaluu, told us that he could have gone in and bargained for us. It would have been helpful to know… :\\\\
Once we arrived we had to leave almost right away since we were meeting with the professor at NIMR, and that meeting was productive – I found a transcriptionist and a translator, but it will cost about 3,250tsh/page ($2.09) in total, which is a bit more than I wanted to pay, but the best we could do with the time and who was available, though I actually bargained the transcription to 1,250tsh/page ($0.80, included in above) so I felt ok about it. Then when we got back home, Mama Mary, our landlady, fed us ugali, beans, and cooked greens, and gave us a whole papaya to eat.
PA-PAY-A
Then we went out and spent a stupid amount on taxis, groceries, and other stuff (I bought another kanga, will take photos another time…). We are stocked up now and probably don’t need to leave our tiny fortress until three weeks from now, though I have to interview tomorrow. Mama Mary also brought us dinner though – pilau, beans, and soup with beef in it. It was amazing. I haven’t had such good pilau and beans for a long time – the flavours were perfect.
What she brought plus the plate
Plate close-up. So good.
I’ve just been unpacking and sorting out my massive bed – it’s seriously huge. I don’t even know what to do. It’s a cave-upgrade.
Previous/perilous cave of two months and some days
The dogs are barking outside like crazy and playing with each other. It’s cute but a bit scary to be honest… Two of them look a bit like hyenas. One was playing with (well, chewing on) a rock, and then the other wanted to, so they had a huge fight over who could chew on the rock. It was a bit weird. But now they’ve quieted down a little bit, it’s ok. I feel safe because we have them, though I’m a bit worried about coming home after dark…
So Caren and our advisor came to Mwanza yesterday. Our advisor has already left back to Dar in order to go to Lilongwe to see our other colleague there. I was pretty excited to see them. I think it’s actually the fifth time I’ve been to the airport, not including trips out to Igombe… Before I met them I decided enough was enough and I needed some sandals that were easy to slip on and off. So I bought some Masai sandals and learned how bad I am at bargaining (Caren has promised to help). I ended up paying 23,000tsh($14.70) so I saved only 2,000tsh ($1.28) off of the outrageous 25,000tsh($15.98) he asked for initially. It’s as if the market men know somehow that I’m really really terrible at bargaining and exploit it. I tried my best, countering with ten, then twelve, then fourteen, then fifteen, then seventeen, then twenty… It didn’t work. I should have just left but I decided to grab them anyways:
And I wore my fabulous new Masai sandals
We ended up meeting a local professor at Tilapia for dinner, which was, as usual, very nice, though the service there is always a bit squiffy. My chai masala (7000tsh!/$4.47) took far too long for them to make – everyone else had finished their tea and coffee. I understand it takes a little extra time to heat the milk and add spice, but at the same time, it shouldn’t take that much longer… I had the vegetable jalfrezi again, which had extra paneer this time, which was extra delicious. It came in a little holy candle pot affair:
Holy pot
We also breakfasted at the Tilapia. I love breakfast. I especially love the types of breakfasts we have in the West. I don’t know what it is. I’m just a breakfast person. I ate so much breakfast. It was ridiculous. I had bacon, sausages, a Spanish omelette, toast, a “croissant” (croissant-shaped roll more like), fruit, baked beans, rice krispies… so much breakfast. All for me. It was amaaazing.
Breakfast Kingdom
After breakfast, our advisor showed us the room, the photos of which I am posting here mostly for the benefit of my mum.
That’s right mum, you don’t need to pack a kettle
It was a really nice room. Huge in fact.
Giant comfy looking bed
And the view was phenomenal:
Window view (bars are de rigueur for Tanzania.)
Outdoors view
Caren and I are now lurking at our (well my) usual spot: Gold Crest cafe. I’ve had an iced rooibos (my new crack), a cup of black tea, and black forest gateau. So creamy. I would almost rather have the swiss roll from Victoria Fast Food, but it’s too much work to walk all the way back there, plus they don’t have wifi (#thirdworldproblems). It’s all pretty good. Today was a Sunday food day. No fast day for me.
Lurking. Charmingly.
Also I’m planning to take her to the roof to see the sunset, since she hasn’t done it yet. I will probably take more photos, even though I must have about thirty or forty of that one sunset view. It’s just so nice. I love the sunset.
In totally weird and unrelated news, Caren brought me some things from my parents: a copy of Animal Crossing: New Leaf because I’m an obsessive child in an adult body, and the book that has all the fish timings (can’t always check online!)
So I already started but I wish my hair was more funky:
I just want funkier hair damn it! *stew, fester*
I also have been busy spending money on house stuff rather than saving the down payment (10,000 bells/$?) to actually have a proper house rather than a tent.
The tent (and a town map!)
In any case, I’m really excited and am probably addicted too soon. I’ve always loved Animal Crossing, ever since it was the only thing I wanted for my 11th or 12th birthday. The first one was amazing since it had these NES games you could play – very nostalgic. That’s why I like the 3DS – you can even have these NES games and even the GBA games from childhood right there on one system, without having to carry a lot with you. It’s really perfect. I guess right now I’m the major nostalgia market for these video game manufacturers, but in a way, I don’t really care, since everything seems quite well.
Nostalgia! Moomin style!
I also Skyped with mum and dad, and since the Internet is better here, I did turn on the video at the end. I’m pretty happy actually to see them, since I haven’t for almost two months. Also, I’m happy that my brother and Michelle are taking him out for a belated Father’s Day. And my mum showed me Brutus, my beloved Brutus Mc Bruts etc etc (the pet name is too long and embarrassing..):
Brutus plus our reactions to mum waving his paw (Mum blurred out since she said she just woke up <_<)
Anyways, my laptop battery is almost dead, so I have to wrap this up..
The other day we went on sort of a ‘road trip’ to observe processes at the kitchen. In usual Tanzanian fashion, we didn’t actually watch them make yoghurt, but instead, we asked them about how they did it, though at one of the kitchens, I instead sat outside and washed dishes for a bit, then I listened to the Mamas and tried to understand what they were saying, though sometimes it’s hard and feels awkward when they start to laugh and you have no idea what they’re laughing about. I also scheduled two sets of interviews (which I’ve done – more on this later) for the same day, and I hope that it won’t be too difficult to do it all.
Goats at one of the kitchens
I also added some daladalas to my collection (click to make bigger):
Finally got “THE TALENT”, though it changed a bit and has the Whitedent ad on it.
Another “Hunting Dog” daladala- there are many of these, and the crowning jewel is the one that says “DOGGY STYLE” on the side. I must capture it.
After we finished, we saw the puppies and worried a little that one was missing. I finally took a photo of them. The mother started to wake up, so we dashed back inside. I cleaned my room for a bit and finally found my 3DS charger, so I can charge it and play games, though I was advised against using a voltage adapter, I have been craving a Fire Emblem session for a while.
We went to the gym again and I did intervals, since I didn’t see Daoda. My intervals were as follows:
20 jump squats, 25 press ups, 20 doubled up knee to chest, 40 elbow-sit-ups
5 minutes shadow-boxing
1 minute plank, 30 seconds side plank (left), 30 seconds side plank (right), 20 regular sit-ups, 10 side crunches (left), 10 side crunches (right)
5 minutes bag work
1 minute plank, 30 seconds side plank (left), 30 seconds side plank (right), 40 elbow-sit-ups, 20 side crunches (left), 20 side crunches (right), 40 “rowing” exercises (feet up in crunch position, hands moving from floor on left side to floor on right side), 20 Superman, 20 sit ups
Stretch out
The only thing I forgot to do was jumping lunges, but today I’ll do them. If I don’t see Daoda I’ll do a similar plan; though I did end up seeing him and we had a good time doing padwork and practising elbows, which Daoda is much better at than me.
In September
As for an update on my 12 before 24, since this post seems to be made of lists:
Swimming here is a bit expensive (10,000tsh/$6.20 each time) but after doing more laps I feel a bit more confident. I had a really vivid dream the other night about exploring a vast, clear ocean, wearing only some sort of ‘breathing suit’. The water was so clear, and the plant life and corals so beautiful, but like all dreams before I wake up, I became a bit afraid. There was something sinister as I went further in the ocean. The plant life diminished and the bottom was a dark, rich sand. Then somehow the bottom started to drop out, and then I went deeper into the darker parts of the ocean, until after going through some sort of cave, I emerged in another area of clear, bright water. Then I woke up. This sort of dream makes me want to try scuba-diving so I can explore the ocean, but I hear it’s quite dangerous and fairly expensive.
Daily skin/body regimen: wash face with just hot water on a cloth, use thicker moisturiser for face. Use moisturiser on arms and feet (put on socks). Suncream on all exposed areas, face suncream for face. At night, shower and wash face with face-wash, then repeat morning routine but with lighter moisturiser for face at night.
I’ve been trying to French braid, but it’s hard. I need to find a good tutorial online.
Haven’t baked any bread here yet, due to lack of pan and inconsistency of oven temperature. May give it a go if I find a decent bread pan for a decent price.
Working on my literature review for my thesis even more so. Hopefully going to get it done.
Have pursued some avenues for PhD work, but haven’t scheduled any appointments for August.
I only take out a certain amount of money (20,000tsh/$12.40) every day unless I plan to make a larger purchase. It also means that if someone tries to rob me, I won’t give them everything I have.
I’m working on maintaining my strength here, but I won’t have a proper place to train at least until August. I’ve found a gym about 8 miles from my Nan’s house, but I need to see about getting a bicycle there in order to travel. Must inquire with cousins.
I will try to start the knitting thing when I get to the UK, since people here don’t seem to knit as much as they make their own clothes through sewing. It’s a bit hot for wool clothing.
I’ve been doodling every day, but I don’t have anything worth showing off yet. I have to make more of an effort to put these drawings in my sketchbook. I’m also trying to write one page of creative writing every day, but I can’t find my notebook for that currently, so I’m doing that on the computer.
There isn’t any saltwater fish around here, since it’s a lake, and I’m too scared of parasites to make sushi here. Reserving it until August or September.
I’m trying to keep my photographs well organised on my computer so mum and I can make this album come September when we’re back home.
My utter surprise at how productive I’m being
As for the interviews I did two, both out by Nyakato, which is a fairly large area in Mwanza – there’s Nyakato Gedeli, Nyakato National (where all the daladalas stop), Nyakato Mecco, and so on. The first kitchen we went to wasn’t very far from National, so we just walked. Then we had to wait, since one of the people wasn’t there, and they didn’t want to talk without him. So we waited for him, and the delivery van for the probiotic came, and if we’d started on time, we could have had a ride to the next kitchen, but we didn’t, but it didn’t turn out to be so bad in the end. After that interview finished, we walked back to National and had a phenomenal chipsi mayai by the Buswelu stand. They cut the vegetables fresh in front of us – carrots, peppers, and onions. In order to get out to Buswelu for the next interview, we took a bajaji, or a sort of weird three-wheeled motorcycle thing. It costs 500tsh/person ($0.30), compared with about 400tsh ($0.25) for a daladala (though that’s for distances under 10km). It doesn’t take that long, and it’s fairly comfortable, though each bajaji takes four passengers. The bajaji on the way back didn’t have doors on the back though, so I asked him to drive more slowly, to little effect.
Bajaji driving
I’ve been looking at all my photos and videos I have on my computer and missing everyone terribly. This is the part where I write about everything I’m missing, and it sounds a bit like I’m complaining, but It’s nice to reminisce though…
Like this video of Brutus who I miss so much (and Artie too!). I miss having a cat around. And I haven’t seen the cat at Protas Shop for weeks…
the pair
Cat in a jean jacket! (the older, wiser Emily’s cat)
I miss seeing my friends on short notice and having a good time playing games or going out or harassing their cats… I’m glad I’ll see them again in the autumn, though I’m going to miss seeing them in the summer. Summer times are the best. I mean how can I take bad instagrams of flowers in mum and dad’s garden if I’m here??
I also miss hanging out with my friend Kate and all of our weird and fun and amazing adventures. I miss cooking with her and nearly burning her apartment down because her oven is a death trap and going out on long walks and watching TV shows together and playing with her cats.. I found this video we made during Nuit Blanche:
Or of playing with Aggie, one of her beautiful and amazing cats
I miss doing MMA or kickboxing or Muay Thai with my bffs in Toronto and at my new gym. I miss going for hangover dim sum with them and spending the whole day faffing about downtown and generally not getting a whole lot done, just wandering about.
The best part of hangover dim sum – tapioca pearls with melon and strawberry, with condensed milk and sweet syrup poured over. The grass jelly version is also good.
One of the buddies in question
I miss the skyline too:
I’m also missing going to art galleries and spending a large part of the day staring at paintings or chairs or sculptures or whatever and even just looking at buildings and architecture and stuff (all below from Chicago).
Speaking of Chicago, I miss these pastries:
Pastry pile from Sofitel
Or even just this ridiculous macaron thing from Nadège in Toronto:
I suppose I could try making them myself but the oven temperature is irregular even though I have attempted to fix it…
I guess one of the last things I miss the most doing is cycling and fixing bikes. Since I only have about a month left, it’s not worth spending over a hundred thousand shillings on buying a bicycle, but I miss riding so much. The ride on Ukerwere was nice but I just miss riding every day. “A bicycle is freedom” – Ray, my old landlord said that to me once, and it’s stuck with me ever since.
Fixin’ bikes. I also miss having really long nails, but I had to cut them really short for MMA. The item in the photo is a brake pad so badly worn down it’s basically metal.
One of my babies
Anyways I should get back to work – I’m at the hotel using their wifi, which is much better.
Last weekend I and some others went to Ukerewe (U-key-rey-wey), an island about 45km from Mwanza. It’s actually the largest island in Lake Victoria (and the largest inland island in Africa). We got to the ferry dock (there are several) early and I decided to buy the tickets for everyone since the queueing system here consists of shove in and squeeze up to the front. I let another mzungu go ahead of me since he was technically ‘before’ me, and we actually ended up spending our time on the island with him, his girlfriend, and the German couple who were with them. After a harrowing transaction (they didn’t spell anyone’s names right and thought Steph was a man), we got onto the boat. The tickets cost 6,000tsh per way ($3.80).
The docks
An Ibis (? must check bird book) chilling out on some reeds – it kept getting blown around by the wind, but it had its eye on an orange floating in the water
Looking explorer-ey
The ferry is incredibly slow, so it takes about three and a half to four hours to get to Ukerewe. We sat inside the cabin at first (there’s two levels, the ‘second class’ where it’s more crowded and there is also cargo, and ‘first class’ which is a room with a tv and the same seats, but more space). Steph stayed outside for the entire trip, though I tried to read a bit on my e-reader. I finished reading a short Icelandic Saga (The Story of Gunnlaug Worm-Tongue and Raven the Skald (ebook link)) and started on the Prisoner of Zenda (ebook link), which is a fairly gripping read. I also had breakfast, which was two sort of moist/fatty ‘cakes’ whose texture reminded me of crumpets, and really hot, really strong, sweet black tea (800tsh/$0.50). After reading some more for a while I had a bit of a headache, so I headed out onto the deck (a narrow passage really) and sat with Steph for a little while, then returned inside to read.
Boat breakfast
Faffing about outside – Icelandic Saga look
We finally arrived at Ukerewe and we filtered off the ferry, forming a group with the other mzungus (wazungu is the proper plural, fyi), and walking to the hotel we stayed in (25,000tsh/night, but we divided it by three people – $15.85). It was called the Monarch Resort and it was pretty good. The room was probably about of the same standard as the Survey Motel in Dar, where I stayed in April.
Ukerewe (in Nansio, by the docks)
Then, before we went around the island, we decided to stop for lunch and had the usual wali na maharage (rice and beans), though we also had chapati (all in all, 2000tsh/$1.27). It was ok, but I feel like we were overcharged as a group of nine mzungu, since the price on the board on the wall was different. After lunch, we went and chose our bicycles to go on a massive Tour D’Ukerewe, and we ended up hiring the guide, despite our initial reluctance to (5000tsh/person for two days – ). We road out of Nansio, the town, and into the countryside, as we decided to visit the old chief’s palace, which was about an hour’s ride away. The paved roads are not bad to ride on, though the bicycles we did have were very old, single-speed city style bikes with terrible brakes. Mine definitely needed its tyres inflated.
It was a beautiful ride, though rather hilly, and I alternated between enjoying the beautiful scenery and drinking in the pleasure of a countryside ride to worrying about hitting sandy or bumpy spots in the dusty dirt roads. We stopped several times to allow others to catch up, and once to have the tube changed in a bicycle. We were all very hot – we had to buy more water, but it wasn’t terribly expensive (1000tsh/1.5L- $0.63). After a little bit longer, we finally arrived at the old chief’s palace, which hadn’t been inhabited since the eighties, though it seemed that the caretakers, despite what our guide said, still lived in one or two rooms on the ground floor. There was one room which had the drums and the chief’s seat. The guide described to us the culture and governance on Ukerewe before 1961 (when Tanzania became a country) – the chief had absolute power and could take whatever he wanted. Each drum had a different meaning – the biggest drum was a call to assembly, another was to say the chief was poorly so that the populace should come and wish him well, and yet another was a call to war. There were even two which represented that the population should honour the chief’s mother’s family (one drum) or the chief’s father’s family (another drum). He invited us to sit on the chief’s stool, and only I and Jenny did. I tried to look serious.
Chief’s palace
The first mango tree on the island
The chief’s stool
Some of the drums
After that, we went upstairs, which only seemed to be inhabited by bats. The smell was atrocious, and a bat flew into Achsah’s hair. There was some old furniture and other household items piled on the balcony as well. We all preferred to do this bit rather quickly given the guano-smell and general unpleasantness of the upper floor. We were also told that the house was designed and built by an Italian architect in the 1920s though we were not really certain as to how much of the original was left. Also the caretaker asked us all for some money for the house (I doubt they’re spending it on bat control…), so we each gave 500-1000tsh ($0.32-$0.68)
Some mattresses and other ephemera upstairs
The ride home was a bit better, though parts were also difficult, due to the fragmented nature of the dirt roads. Some parts had massive holes in and would have been impassable by car – though we saw very few cars on the island. We stopped about halfway home at the oldest church on Ukerewe, one built in the 1880s by German missionaries. It was very nice, and had that reverent feeling that older churches have inside, a sort of heaviness in the air.
The road
Church
Interior
Pews
After that we headed home – the last stretches of dirt road were awful, and the axle within the crank-pedal-structure of my bicycle snapped or cracked, so my top speed was limited even more than before. We finally made it to the paved road, and I sped down a hill ahead of everyone else and almost made it to the top of the next hill but decided to wait since the others were walking. We made it into town just as the sun was setting, returned the bicycles, and went for dinner (which we had to order when we arrived in the morning – it takes a long time to cook). I had roasted chicken and ugali, whereas the others had grilled tilapia which was quite nice. We also had some Konyagi with bitter lemon, which was nice, but I only wanted one. I met a French woman, Adele, who was travelling around on her own. She reminded me of my aunt, Andrée, not just because she was French-speaking, but because of her spirit – there was something similar in her character. It made me think that once I return to Canada, that I must go and visit, and I know that I will likely have time. We ate and drank under the stars, which were incredibly clear. Jack (the man I met at the ferry docks) saw a shooting star. I hoped that I would see one soon too.
We all went to bed, which was interesting, since I was sharing with Steph and Shannan. We had one big bed, and we all sort of squeezed in. I slept by the wall, Steph in the middle, and Shannan on the edge, since she gets up fairly often in the night. Every time she got up, Steph and I would wake up, adjust position, and fall back asleep. Steph doesn’t remember all of the times, but I do. We woke up early in the morning, having decided the night before it would be better to take a hike and see the tall rocks rather than take the morning ferry.
Breakfast
We had breakfast, which was pretty good, and I walked to the shore where we’d eaten before to take a few photographs.
The lake coming in
Palm trees and flowers
We all paid up at the hotel, since they wouldn’t let us check out after returning. We also paid 3000tsh ($1.90) for the daily bike rental, which wasn’t so bad. We set off, carrying all of our things (I only have a big rucksack, so I looked extra ridiculous).
Scenic!
It was a very nice walk, though children kept following us. We had an escort, I suppose, for most of the way. Sometimes it would be a bit unpleasant, because the children would ask for money, and it seemed like it was the only thing in English they knew. They grabbed at some of our bags, and I had to push one off. However, the rest of the walk was nice. We walked through a rural area, and saw many people getting ready for church (it was Sunday). There were also, interestingly enough, more cows than goats here, a definite difference from Mwanza, where I generally see more goats than cows.
Moo
We made it up to the rocks, escorted by many, many children and even some adults. We took a lot of photographs and enjoyed the view and the wind. The sun was in my eyes so in most photos I’m kind of squinting and look a bit grumpy… I tried to smile. Some of the others took some photos of the children (I took one but felt a little weird about it) and we showed them. My favourite ones were a group of older boys, who tried to look really tough in the photos, but when the photo was taken, they smiled and rushed to look at it. After spending some time up on the rocks, we started to descend with our (massive) escort of children and adults. They were all dressed rather smartly, since after we parted from them on the road, they headed for church (to which we were invited, but we had to make the 2 o’clock ferry). There are way too many photos of me.. I should have brought my DSLR to take better photos.
Sun in my eyes
The views
NOT DISSHELVELELED
Our child escort
The cross at the top
More view
Maybe smiling?
We took a slightly different way back, and ran into some men harvesting oranges, who gave us loads of oranges for very little money. They were very sweet and juicy. I ate mine as we were walking and my hands and face got really sticky, but luckily we’d stopped by then, so I could get some wipes out of my bag and distribute them. We stopped actually, since the path ahead of us was flooded, so we had to make our way back to the main road (still dirt!) by walking on the top edges of rice paddies and then eventually through a dried out rice paddy itself. I got a bunch of scratches on my legs from brambles but otherwise it was ok. After arriving back at the hotel (where we could have apparently left our bags…), we had some Fanta passion (passion fruit flavour, which is amazing on a hot day).
Jenny, Jack, and I.
Since the cooks at the hotel were a bit slow, we decided to have lunch elsewhere. We walked towards the docks and came across a place selling chipsi mayai, which is sort of an omelette with chips and vegetables in it, and went in. We ordered nine – one each – which I think was a bit overwhelming for them, since they had to send someone out for more eggs. Our waitress was drunk and smelled it. I bought two big bottles of water for 3000tsh ($1.90) but she didn’t come back with my change for ages. I kept asking for it and eventually she gave it me, though to be honest, I didn’t really want to take the slightly wet, smelly bills that she pulled out of her shirt. I used them almost right away to pay for the chipsi mayai. We ended up taking some away, though I had to use some bags I’d brought with me, since they didn’t understand. The worst part of it really was that I’d asked before how much each chipsi mayai was, and the waitress told me 1000tsh ($0.68) but when we paid her and went to leave, she said we each owed her 2000tsh ($1.27). We just gave her an extra 10000tsh ($6.34), which wasn’t quite another 1000 each, and left. We made it to the ferry just about on time.
Struttin’ to the boat
The cabin was very, very hot. I thought it was just me. I tried to read, but I felt sleepy. I tried to sleep, but it was too hot. Some other people had sat in our row, so it was very crowded. I decided to buy a cola and some biscuits from one of the hawkers who come constantly through the cabin (800tsh/$0.50). Then I saw the others getting up to leave, so I decided to do the same and sit outside. However, I left my rucksack. I went back inside when someone mentioned seeing a child peeing on the floor of the cabin, but luckily my bag was dry, and I carried it outside and squeezed in by the Germans (Rainer and Dennis) and Achsah and Ashley. We had very little space, but at least we could sit outside. I read a bit, then had a really interesting conversation with Dennis. Then I read some more. I finished the Prisoner of Zenda ages ago, but I can’t remember now what I read afterwards.
My thoughts on the cabin
We arrived in Mwanza and agreed to meet later for supper at Ryan’s Bay. Shannan decided to stay in to finish her assignments, and the power went out. I felt bad for her. Steph and I headed for Ryan’s Bay, and I met there many new people. I spoke most of time with Tom, who was a doctor training at one of the hospitals here. He was going back to the UK very soon. I had a burger with guacamole and bacon. It was pretty good, and exactly what I wanted. Many of the others had curries, but I am growing very tired of Indian food. Steph and I made our way home and fell right asleep.
I’ll write more about what we did this past week later, since this post took several hours to write and put together, since my Internet, while ‘fixed’ (more on that later), is still incredibly slow.
Living in Tanzania is a lot like my experiences when I’ve worked in GIS. Sometimes you’re sitting around reading and trying to improve your GIS skills for wont of something to do but with desire to be doing something practical for the job, and then, all of a sudden, your boss comes in with some insane request that you have to finish in exactly two seconds otherwise something horrible will happen. Total foreshadowing by the by.
Basically, this:
Followed by this:
So after a relatively staid morning of speed walking to Airtel to get my modem sorted out (the modems here are mobile ‘broadband’). I paid 30000tsh (18.95$) for an “unlimited” plan yesterday. However, the woman who registered it (and gave me a new SIM so I now have a phone when I’m online! Yay!) forgot to put it as a ‘bundle’ which meant that while I got better speeds, they were charging me at a high tariff per megabyte, so I used it mostly up by the morning. So I went and argued with them a little bit and then they agreed to fix it – so they had to go outside, buy almost 30,000 ($18) in credits, charge the credits to the SIM card, and then make the bundle. So it cost them to make the mistake, but they claim to have fixed it. Though now after an initial surge in speeds, mine have dropped precipitously.
Pre-cip-it-ous-ly
“Modem” plus two airtime cards
I walked all the way from Airtel to the office, lurked around for a bit, and then met for lunch at NIMR. I had mishikaki (meat grilled on a stick – everything is better on a stick), rice, beans and greens. So good. I also obviously had a fruit plate. There was some confusion at the end about payment and I ended up overpaying by about 300tsh (0.20$) but I was so full that I didn’t want to argue. So we walked home and ran into a woman who was selling the most orange and beautiful of carrots, which we plan to eat like rabbits but only after we have a ridiculous photoshoot with them tomorrow. How’s that for a slice of fried gold?
Lunch at NIMR – Fruit plate (1000tsh/$0.63), Mishikaki (kebab), rice and beans plate (1900tsh/$1.20)
BEING A SCIENTIST.
When we got home, we found out that the electric and water bills had to be paid by tomorrow or they’re going to come shut off the power. I feel like I’ve been fairly diplomatic about the whole apartment-being-left-in-a-mess-with-plumbing-issues-and-rotting-food thing (though I haven’t talked with the one responsible), but leaving us with bills of approximately 120,000tsh ($76.50) is not acceptable. It just isn’t. And not telling the people who are moving in, never apologising in person (email or on the phone), and then leading us to this situation or “burst of activity” of the afternoon, where after talking with our neighbour about what to do, I ran outside, hopped on a pikipiki, and drove furiously to Tanesco to pay the electric. Unfortunately the queue was stupidly long and it took forever, but the driver still waited outside. We drove really way too quickly to the water place (in fact we raced another pikipiki on the way), but it was too late. It was closed. I did receive information that you-know-who (i.e. the person who lived here before) has been contacted about the electric and water issue, and I was told not to pay the bills, but obviously I had to, otherwise we would be stuck without electricity or water. I know it would be fine for a few days (candles and bottled water), but it’s also expensive to pay them to reconnect the services as well.
So the next day. I had to wake up really, really early, hop on another pikipiki (I had asked the one from the day before but he wasn’t there early in the morning), and speed like a maniac to the water office before they sent a technician to shut off the water. Other exciting moments on the pikipiki (I found one with a helmet by the way, mum, if you’re reading this) include the moment when we decided driving along the sidewalk to the roundabout was more efficient than turning left, or when we gunned it through some huge bumps in the dirt parking lot, or when the driver was really nice and helped me put on the helmet. Another exciting part was when the pikipiki driver decided to have a race. The water was paid, and after I spent some time at NIMR faffing about, but then on my way home, we got a call that our power was out, but the neighbourhood’s wasn’t. I also received an email from the person who didn’t pay some of the bills instructing me on how to pay the bills. That made me feel a little irritated because the point of my writing and phoning to the administrators was to get this money back, not to know how to pay it.
On reading the email – Repeating gifs since my internet’s terrible, obvs
Tanesco accidentally shut off our electric even though I’d gone and paid it the day before. So, as per my (now usual) routine, I hopped on another pikipiki and drove over there, queued up, went to about 8 different desks before meeting a man who said he’d come with us (though I’d have to pay the taxi – he was very surprised when I told him I had to pay and send away the pikipiki man (1000tsh/$0.63). Then we took a taxi (5000tsh/$3.20 return) and he looked at some stuff and then in the end the building’s fundi, Hamisi, fixed it by just sticking a fuse by our electric meter. I kept the Tanesco man’s number, though, in case I have to complain about something or other in the future.
After the Tanesco saga, we got ready and went out to Villa Park, a sort of restaurant/nightclub/entertainment complex which was a bit far out (I say it because it cost us about 5000tsh/$3.20 to get there). There we met some Germans: Sylvia, Loraine, and Jonas, who were all very nice. They were all studying to be doctors and were working at one of the hospitals here as part of their final studies. I thought it was pretty interesting that German medical students have to go abroad for around one year before returning to practice in Germany. We all ate sort of ‘barbeque food – I had a whole Tilapia, cooked in foil with vegetables (10,000tsh/$6.36) which was pretty nice but way too much food for one person. With it I ate ugali, which is a sort of weird porridgey thing, and a staple food here. Afterwards, we sat around for ages talking and drinking. Then at around 11, we all decided to go home, so we squeezed into a taxi (7 of us) and sped off into the night. Steph and I arrived home first, since we were on the way, and immediately went to sleep, because on Saturday morning, we were going to take the ferry to Ukerwere. I want to write about Ukerwere and show off some of my photos, but I feel like this post is already getting too long, so hopefully I’ll be able to post it tomorrow.
Villa Park vanity featuring Ashley et al
A marabou stork shouting at a hawk at Villa Park
The day before yesterday, Shannan and I went shopping and I exercised my expert market skills and got most everything for under 300tsh ($0.20). For example, for that price I bought four decent sized tomatoes. I got 5-6 okra and 4 small aubergines for 200tsh ( for both! It went fairly well. Then at Protas Shop I used my perfect Swahili to ask where the cat was today (Wapi paka leo?), but it wasn’t there (Protas Shop has a shop-cat). Then yesterday, I did some of my interviews and took a daladala for the first time in Mwanza, which went surprisingly well (400tsh per leg/$0.25). I got some good data and I have those weird tremors you get when after interviews you see potential conflicts, because that makes for interesting analysis, then you feel kind of bad because it’s someone’s life you’re thinking about, and then you just think “As long as I get some data, I’m happy.”
In any case, on to part two of what I wanted to write about tonight. I wanted to write about habit changes. I find as I am here my habits are changing a little, but if I want to really get something done, I do have to push myself. We did end up joining the gym, yes, but with the heat and all of the walking, it becomes more difficult to motivate oneself to walk those two kilometres or so to the gym. But I do it, even though it hurts (though today I couldn’t due to the aforementioned activity burst wherein if I didn’t act, we’d be in the dark and waterless). I want to improve my Swahili so I put myself out there, even if I get some things wrong; I practice for at least an hour every night by doing exercises in the book and listening to the audio. I want to get better at writing, so I’ve started to write one page every day in a journal. I came here not just hoping to do my research and to help on the ground, but as well as a geographical exercise. I’m very fond of the idea of disruption in geography. I think that it’s necessary for any sort of change to be effected, at all scales of space and place. I am drafting a post on this very idea and hopefully some of you will find it interesting (if not I suppose you can skip it).
Emily
PS Since I haven’t posted for a while, an explanation: my Internet has become almost unusable so I have to go and shout at some people in bad Swahilenglish and cry a little bit inside. I’ve been trying to post this since last Wednesday or Thursday? #thirdworldproblems
Last night was a first for me, one of many firsts since I’m here. I made hamburgers. It was pretty awesome. I think they turned out OK. I made mine into a cheeseburger with my ‘aged’ cheddar (I have been ageing it by leaving it in the fridge forever; the word cheddar should probably also be in single quotes).
Sizzle?
Cheeseburger!
It was exactly what I’d been craving: pure, unadulterated white people food. Just the concept. Bread, meat, cheese. Perfect. Then I made the excess ground meat into meatballs and we made a sort of weird bolognese. The pasta here is pretty crap, to be honest. I don’t know what it is, it was simple dried rotini, but it just had the wrong texture. But since the sauce/meat was good, it went okay. I’m going to try to make pasta next.
For breakfast I did have some toast that Steph gave me since her bread was going stale, but I also ate this weird Kit Kat ripoff (?) called Kat Kat Tat:
Kat Kat Tat (700tsh/45 cents)
It looked nothing like chocolate, but it was actually quite nice:
Quite nice indeed
Today was nice because I managed to get out to two of the kitchens I hadn’t been to before. I like going to them because the road to them is mostly paved, and secondly there is very little unpaved road to go along. Maybe about 50-100 metres from the main road. It’s pretty awesome. Also there was loads of room in the car, since the others went to the other 8 kitchens. Anyways.
Tumaini
I was going firstly to finish collecting some cartographic data (now I can map all of the kitchens, only 3 weeks after I planned to be done… Tanzanian speed). Secondly I went to help Kate, my invisible bbbbbfffff, since she didn’t have the time to ask all of her follow-up questions. I still have a few more to go, but I will finish (hopefully) next week – the information she needs and has been collecting is also directly pertinent to what I hope to do. I’m glad that in academia we foster an environment for sharing information amongst ourselves. 🙂
Tumaini hills
I was also braver with taking photographs today, since I was in a less crowded car, and also it somehow felt more right? I’m not sure why. Maybe I’m just getting more comfortable… These photos are of a neighbourhood called Tumaini, and it’s a fairly typical one, though probably a bit quieter than some of the others.
The Lake
What I also liked about these other kitchens is that visiting them takes one along the lake, and it’s quite scenic. I really like the Lake and I hope to maybe hire a boat or something to go a bit further into it.
Mwanza hills
Mwanza itself is also very hilly – it’s an interesting contrast between the rocky hills (Mwanza is known as the “City of Rocks”) and the cool blue lake. The other kitchen we went to is a bit farther, and didn’t seem to have any yogurt available (my major mistake – not having yogurt at the first kitchen).
The area of the second kitchen
The drive was also the perfect time for daladala spotting. I saw the Hunting Dog one but I couldn’t take a photo, but I managed to find a few good ones (click to make them bigger):
“CHOCOLATE” WITH BONUS GADDAFI ON THE BUMPER (pointed out by a friend)
JESUS IS ANSWER
KING OF PEACE
CHICAGO
GOD IS MY HERO
I think I made a good impression on the kitchen staff, but I don’t really know. They were a bit less talkative than usual, but it could have been because they were being told they had to do some things that may have been a bit inconvenient.
My face for today. Serious but also a little bit kind?
Anyways, it’s time to get back to a productive evening of reading e-books and wanting to go outside, but being unable to, since it’s dark, and I will probably be run over by a piki or mugged.