Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Where the wind comes sweeping down the plains...

Hey Girls!
I miss you guys a ton. Oklahoma is good, its a weird place but pretty much ok. I like school and my classes a lot but I do not think I will ever get used to this strange midwestern/southern blend culture they have going on around here, its crazy. 

I'm thinking about doing a marathon in the spring probably in March or April hopefully in the Southwest or Mountain regions. Eck is helping to find a good one. 

Now for some fun facts about Oklahoma:
1. They do not self identify as a southern state, they believe they are part of the midwest.
2. They have never heard of Culvers, or deep fried cheese curds. : (
3. They firmly believe that all those fossils and remains of ancient humans we have found are actually just Gorilla skulls that the silly scientists think are old. What do scientists know anyway right?
4. I may be the biggest hippy in this state, literally, everyone wheres shoes, showers everyday, there is no tie-die, thrift store or curiously mis-matched clothing. An alternative life style is someone how wears the same outfit twice in two weeks. 
5. Wisconsin has nothing on Oklahoma's obesity rate. There are a lot of large people here. I would estimate 1 in 3 are very very large. Another one of those three is a blond, starving sorostitute.
6. Sororities and Fraternities in the south are exactly like what you read in Pledged or saw in a teen movie, not the way they are in Beloit.
7. The farther south you go the better the Mexican food gets. It puts Casa Grande to shame!

Nothing else to report, I'm going to try and get out to Beloit sometime this year to see you girls. 

Love you tons!
Heather

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Haven't died of malaria yet.

Howdy again. I thought I ought to write a little considering I'm about to begin phase two of the African saga of which I've chosen to be a part. I just wrapping up a one-week break which involved some luxuriously lazy days in Zanzibar, seeing dolphins, napping, buying scarves, napping, eating, meeting a rapper who also sells seafood during Ramadan, meeting a guy with a monkey named Cobra (never did figure out what the guy's name was), napping, and throwing up in public three times in one day (a word of advice--avoid the lethal combination of too much fresh pineapple and choppy ferry rides after five hours of sleep). Tomorrow I go to Arusha, and soon I will start interviewing Maasai about breastfeeding.

Sadly, now that we've moved from the campus dorms to host families and my host family live off campus, it's a lot more difficult finding times to run when I won't either get mugged or get hyperthermia from the heat. But I keep trucking--hopefully things will improve in the field.

As Karen mentioned, I am sending out periodic emails--if interested, let me know and I can shoot some your way. I hope the season is going well for all of you and I can't wait to meet the new folks in the spring.

Take care,
Katie

Thursday, September 18, 2008

New addition from abroad

I just added the link to Katharine's Paris blog to that list over on the right, which you guys may or may not know exists, so go read it. Singleton's been keeping in touch via email and posting here (thanks Katie!) and the Popester just may have disappeared off the face of the earth.

Ok naptime.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

It's not about the lyrics...

... it's about Jackie Chan!

On an unrelated note, good workout today.
Firsties are half-done with the morning business.
If you're not here, we miss you.