Friday, May 30, 2008
Three Countries in Under 36 Hours
Time is flying by...since our last blog, we have stayed with a SERVAS host family in Durban, celebrated two Shabbat dinners with Gilli's family in Johannesburg, and ventured into Swaziland with Christian Terrett and Nozizwe. These stories will all make their way onto the blog...as for now though, we are heading off to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. That will mean that, in a period of 36 short hours, we will have been present (and active) in Swaziland, South Africa, and Ethiopia.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Statistics
Inspired by Carolyn's organization, we tried to figure out a few more of our statistics.
The Places We Have Slept:
From January 16 to date, we have each spent the night in
4 different planes
5 different couches
8 different floors
8 different buses
41 different beds
2 different hammocks
1 car
1 train
1 gas station
The Mysterious Disappearances:
1 quick-dry towel
1 pair of chacos
1 pair of teva sandals
2 pairs of socks
1 camera
1 ISIC card
2 camera cases
1 water bottle
2 watches
1 pair of sunglasses
1 set of shampoo and conditioner
1 camera cord
2 jars of paint
1 set of bubbles
The Places We Have Slept:
From January 16 to date, we have each spent the night in
4 different planes
5 different couches
8 different floors
8 different buses
41 different beds
2 different hammocks
1 car
1 train
1 gas station
The Mysterious Disappearances:
1 quick-dry towel
1 pair of chacos
1 pair of teva sandals
2 pairs of socks
1 camera
1 ISIC card
2 camera cases
1 water bottle
2 watches
1 pair of sunglasses
1 set of shampoo and conditioner
1 camera cord
2 jars of paint
1 set of bubbles
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Takin' Care of Business
We simply felt that there was not enough talk about peanut butter on this blog. Our peanut butter survey was not random. It was the product, and then catalyst, of hours of discussion. Many people ask Alisa and me if we ever fight. We do. About peanut butter.
So, way back in El Salvador we were asked to buy peanut butter for the sandwiches of the study abroad students. I picked out 3 creamy and 1 crunchy because, even though I believe crunchy to be the far superior of the two, I thought that the majority of people liked creamy. Alisa then made a bold claim. She told us that she was absolutely certain that most women liked creamy and that most men liked crunchy. She later tempered her prediction to a 60-40 split. She was convinced that 60% of women liked creamy and that 60% of men liked crunchy. I thought this was absurd and so we immediately began asking every person we met how they felt about this great life mystery.
We were both amazed by the results and also by all of the new questions the discussions raised.
It became immediately clear that the majority of men and women liked crunchy, not creamy, leaving Alisa and I both to question our previously understood realities. Alisa, a lover of creamy and a member of a family in which the women like creamy and the man likes crunchy, realized that she had always assumed that what she experienced was the same as what everyone else experienced. I realized that rather than place myself in the majority like Alisa, I liked to put myself in the place of the minority. I was happy to think of myself as one of the few who truly understood how good crunchy peanut butter was. I had to accept that I had been in the majority all along.
Those outside the gender binary was the only group to go for creamy. What could this possibly mean? Those outside the gender binary are by definition an ambiguous group from the start. And did people vote in this category because they personally identify outside the binary or because they believe their peanut butter preference to be non-gendered?
Further questions:
Is a person who likes creamy unwilling to eat crunchy, whereas a person who likes crunchy willing to eat either? Like with orange juice, the pulp person will swing both ways, but the no-pulp person is a purist.
Is peanut butter preference culturally specific? Is age a factor?
Are there trends with these groups? If presented with "left or right," "curvy or straight," and "wheat or white," will the crunchy person go for left, curvy, and wheat?
Feel free to weigh in . . .
So, way back in El Salvador we were asked to buy peanut butter for the sandwiches of the study abroad students. I picked out 3 creamy and 1 crunchy because, even though I believe crunchy to be the far superior of the two, I thought that the majority of people liked creamy. Alisa then made a bold claim. She told us that she was absolutely certain that most women liked creamy and that most men liked crunchy. She later tempered her prediction to a 60-40 split. She was convinced that 60% of women liked creamy and that 60% of men liked crunchy. I thought this was absurd and so we immediately began asking every person we met how they felt about this great life mystery.
We were both amazed by the results and also by all of the new questions the discussions raised.
It became immediately clear that the majority of men and women liked crunchy, not creamy, leaving Alisa and I both to question our previously understood realities. Alisa, a lover of creamy and a member of a family in which the women like creamy and the man likes crunchy, realized that she had always assumed that what she experienced was the same as what everyone else experienced. I realized that rather than place myself in the majority like Alisa, I liked to put myself in the place of the minority. I was happy to think of myself as one of the few who truly understood how good crunchy peanut butter was. I had to accept that I had been in the majority all along.
Those outside the gender binary was the only group to go for creamy. What could this possibly mean? Those outside the gender binary are by definition an ambiguous group from the start. And did people vote in this category because they personally identify outside the binary or because they believe their peanut butter preference to be non-gendered?
Further questions:
Is a person who likes creamy unwilling to eat crunchy, whereas a person who likes crunchy willing to eat either? Like with orange juice, the pulp person will swing both ways, but the no-pulp person is a purist.
Is peanut butter preference culturally specific? Is age a factor?
Are there trends with these groups? If presented with "left or right," "curvy or straight," and "wheat or white," will the crunchy person go for left, curvy, and wheat?
Feel free to weigh in . . .
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Flashback to Cape Town
We're going through and backing up our photos and discovered these oldies but goodies.
Camps Bay, Cape Town
Short story: Alisa lived in New Orleans and made a friend named Andrew. Andrew is living in London and we met him for a beer on our layover. He gave us the phone number of a South African friend, Dan, who he studied with at Cambridge. We met Dan and Dan's roommate Ari at a bar in Cape Town the first week we arrived. Four weeks later, while we were back in Cape Town, we went to lunch with one of the filmmakers that we met at Tessa's aunt's workshop. Her name is Gilli and she is from Johannesburg. She picked us up and started telling us how she had procured the car from a friend named Ari. Sure enough, it was the same Ari from the first week. Later that day we ended up at his house and strangled him. He is the kind of person who lends himself to being strangled.
Gilli got us on the Invite List to a Sneaker Party. Apparently sneaker culture is huge in the US. . .have you heard of it? Seriously, let us know.
One of our last days with Aunt Judy was spent going to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela and other anti-apartheid activists were incarcerated. On the way, we stopped to dance to street music.
On the boat to Robben Island.
It was windy.
Nelson Mandela's cell.
This is the limestone quarry in which the prisoners worked. The reflection of the limestone was extremely bright and the prisoners were not allowed to wear sunglasses. Now many of the former prisoners have permanent eye damage. The cave in the corner served both as the break room where they ate their lunch and the toilet. It became one of the places where the prisoners could organize and share stories about the struggle. This is part of the reason why Robben Island came to be known as the "university" of the struggle.
Camps Bay, Cape Town
Short story: Alisa lived in New Orleans and made a friend named Andrew. Andrew is living in London and we met him for a beer on our layover. He gave us the phone number of a South African friend, Dan, who he studied with at Cambridge. We met Dan and Dan's roommate Ari at a bar in Cape Town the first week we arrived. Four weeks later, while we were back in Cape Town, we went to lunch with one of the filmmakers that we met at Tessa's aunt's workshop. Her name is Gilli and she is from Johannesburg. She picked us up and started telling us how she had procured the car from a friend named Ari. Sure enough, it was the same Ari from the first week. Later that day we ended up at his house and strangled him. He is the kind of person who lends himself to being strangled. 
Gilli got us on the Invite List to a Sneaker Party. Apparently sneaker culture is huge in the US. . .have you heard of it? Seriously, let us know.
One of our last days with Aunt Judy was spent going to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela and other anti-apartheid activists were incarcerated. On the way, we stopped to dance to street music.
On the boat to Robben Island.
It was windy.
Nelson Mandela's cell.
This is the limestone quarry in which the prisoners worked. The reflection of the limestone was extremely bright and the prisoners were not allowed to wear sunglasses. Now many of the former prisoners have permanent eye damage. The cave in the corner served both as the break room where they ate their lunch and the toilet. It became one of the places where the prisoners could organize and share stories about the struggle. This is part of the reason why Robben Island came to be known as the "university" of the struggle.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Bulungula - a little slice of paradise
We're getting a bit out of date with the blog. Here are photos from the week before last. For this past week we have actually been in Durban and are now on our way to Johannesburg. We leave South Africa on May 31st and are starting to think ahead to our next stop, Ethiopia, so if anyone has any information, ideas, or connections, we would be forever grateful to you!
So after the bungee jumping, pool playing and gas station sleeping, we eventually made to a backpackers lodge called Bulungula. We took the bus as far as we could and then the lodge picked us up in a 4 by 4 to take us another 2 1/2 hours over the bumpiest road Carolyn, Alisa, and I had ever experienced.
This is actually a photo of a smooth part of the road, but it shows them changing a second flat tire due to the rough terrain. The ride through the countryside was made especially beautiful by the setting sun.
We arrived at Bulungula after dark, ate a wonderfully warm dinner, sat next to a fire in the candle light, and then went to sleep early in the little hut we would share for the next 7 nights. We woke up with the sun and opened our hut door to discover that the ocean was just in front of us. A glorious surprise.
Our hut was the fourth one in from the right.
The ocean at our doorstep.
The view from our door looking the other way.
Bulungula is a unique backpackers lodge because it is 40% owned by the local village, fair trade certified, and working toward eliminating the community's cycle of poverty. Many members of the village work for the lodge doing cleaning, maintenance, management, and cooking (delicious traditional meals!) and there are also a number of community members starting their own tourist businesses. These businesses, including horseback riding, canoeing, village tours, and massage, enable the tourist to explore the area and learn about Khosa culture.
The lodge is also unique because it runs almost entirely on solar and wind energy. After sunset they use candle light and they have organic composting toilets. The showers are called "rocket showers" and entail pouring paraffin into the base of the shower head and lighting it on fire. It roars and spurts flames!
We spent the week waking up with sun, going for long walks on the beach, and exploring the community through the various community-run tours.
One of the tours we did was called "Woman Power" and we spent a day learning some of the activities a typical local woman does in a day. Here is Alisa on her way to learn how to make the mud bricks for building houses. She had to smear wet cow dung over the bricks to help them solidify.
Our faces are covered with kolin, a naturally occurring clay, that is used as sunscreen.
The village has one single restaurant that they have set up for tourists. It is a one room hut with a set of shelves, a couple stoves, and a bench. We ate delicious crepes and then had a long walk home over the hills. We reached the ocean as the sun began to set. (Photo by Carolyn)
On our tour of the village, we met a lot of great people including this little girl who stood like a queen looking over her domain and would copy every face we made. On the tour we also learned that in order to build a new field you must give the chief a box of beer, wine, and one sheep. If you want to build a hut, you must give the headman (who is subordinate to the chief) a box of beer and wine (no sheep). (Photo by Carolyn)
We spent one afternoon canoeing! Carolyn (the only one with serious canoeing experience) took the canoe with the guide, leaving Alisa and Tessa to fend for themselves. This may surprise you, but we are not exactly the most proficient canoers. Despite our struggles to coordinate and inability to keep up with the other canoe, we couldn't help but feel at peace as we kept accidently hitting the shore of the mangrove-lined river.
It is typically the children's responsibility to keep the cows out of the fields and so the government built these fences so that the children could go to school. Unfortunately, it seems that school attendance is still low. The lodge's current project is to build a proper school building so that the children of the village can have quality teachers and materials. The current school operates in the shade of a tree.
We spent one day with the local herbalist learning about various roots, barks, and leaves. There were medical remedies for everything from an upset stomach to lack of breast milk to madness. There were also other types of potions for attracting lovers, making friends, and getting people out of jail. He told us sadly that he has no herb for curing AIDS (which affects a serious percentage of the community), but is hoping one will be found soon. And isn't his outfit awesome?
Alisa and Carolyn trying a root. Villagers use this as a way to stave off hunger.
This photo is pretty much self-explanatory . . .
Alisa was walking down the beach one morning and encountered a fisherman who had just caught a shark. He struggled to reel it in. He then unhooked it and left it on the beach to die. After about half an hour, the shark died. Alisa went over with the fisherman, Samuel, and slitted open the stomach of the shark. Samuel then ripped it open and grabbed out two huge clumps of fat lard for the dogs. As they explored the shark's carcass, Samuel remarked, "I think it might be pregnant. What a shame!" Alisa then ran up to the lodge and tried to recruit as many people as she could to go and see the shark. In this photo, Alisa is trying to engage some of the locals in shark games. Let's just say they weren't quite as enthused as Alisa. (We later found out that shark catching is actually quite common. Wa wa wa.)
Priceless. A musical adventure at Bulungula. On the right we have a little boy from the village playing sophisticated African beats. On the left we have a little boy from the United States making fart noises with his armpit.
Totally unrelated to Bulungula: the next World Cup. It will be held in South Africa in 2010 and they are EXCITED. We loved that this huge countdown sign had already started. Just 768 short days away.
So after the bungee jumping, pool playing and gas station sleeping, we eventually made to a backpackers lodge called Bulungula. We took the bus as far as we could and then the lodge picked us up in a 4 by 4 to take us another 2 1/2 hours over the bumpiest road Carolyn, Alisa, and I had ever experienced.
This is actually a photo of a smooth part of the road, but it shows them changing a second flat tire due to the rough terrain. The ride through the countryside was made especially beautiful by the setting sun.
We arrived at Bulungula after dark, ate a wonderfully warm dinner, sat next to a fire in the candle light, and then went to sleep early in the little hut we would share for the next 7 nights. We woke up with the sun and opened our hut door to discover that the ocean was just in front of us. A glorious surprise.
Our hut was the fourth one in from the right.
The ocean at our doorstep.
The view from our door looking the other way. Bulungula is a unique backpackers lodge because it is 40% owned by the local village, fair trade certified, and working toward eliminating the community's cycle of poverty. Many members of the village work for the lodge doing cleaning, maintenance, management, and cooking (delicious traditional meals!) and there are also a number of community members starting their own tourist businesses. These businesses, including horseback riding, canoeing, village tours, and massage, enable the tourist to explore the area and learn about Khosa culture.
The lodge is also unique because it runs almost entirely on solar and wind energy. After sunset they use candle light and they have organic composting toilets. The showers are called "rocket showers" and entail pouring paraffin into the base of the shower head and lighting it on fire. It roars and spurts flames!
We spent the week waking up with sun, going for long walks on the beach, and exploring the community through the various community-run tours.
One of the tours we did was called "Woman Power" and we spent a day learning some of the activities a typical local woman does in a day. Here is Alisa on her way to learn how to make the mud bricks for building houses. She had to smear wet cow dung over the bricks to help them solidify.
Our faces are covered with kolin, a naturally occurring clay, that is used as sunscreen.
The village has one single restaurant that they have set up for tourists. It is a one room hut with a set of shelves, a couple stoves, and a bench. We ate delicious crepes and then had a long walk home over the hills. We reached the ocean as the sun began to set. (Photo by Carolyn)
On our tour of the village, we met a lot of great people including this little girl who stood like a queen looking over her domain and would copy every face we made. On the tour we also learned that in order to build a new field you must give the chief a box of beer, wine, and one sheep. If you want to build a hut, you must give the headman (who is subordinate to the chief) a box of beer and wine (no sheep). (Photo by Carolyn)
We spent one afternoon canoeing! Carolyn (the only one with serious canoeing experience) took the canoe with the guide, leaving Alisa and Tessa to fend for themselves. This may surprise you, but we are not exactly the most proficient canoers. Despite our struggles to coordinate and inability to keep up with the other canoe, we couldn't help but feel at peace as we kept accidently hitting the shore of the mangrove-lined river.
It is typically the children's responsibility to keep the cows out of the fields and so the government built these fences so that the children could go to school. Unfortunately, it seems that school attendance is still low. The lodge's current project is to build a proper school building so that the children of the village can have quality teachers and materials. The current school operates in the shade of a tree.
We spent one day with the local herbalist learning about various roots, barks, and leaves. There were medical remedies for everything from an upset stomach to lack of breast milk to madness. There were also other types of potions for attracting lovers, making friends, and getting people out of jail. He told us sadly that he has no herb for curing AIDS (which affects a serious percentage of the community), but is hoping one will be found soon. And isn't his outfit awesome?
Alisa and Carolyn trying a root. Villagers use this as a way to stave off hunger.
This photo is pretty much self-explanatory . . .
Alisa was walking down the beach one morning and encountered a fisherman who had just caught a shark. He struggled to reel it in. He then unhooked it and left it on the beach to die. After about half an hour, the shark died. Alisa went over with the fisherman, Samuel, and slitted open the stomach of the shark. Samuel then ripped it open and grabbed out two huge clumps of fat lard for the dogs. As they explored the shark's carcass, Samuel remarked, "I think it might be pregnant. What a shame!" Alisa then ran up to the lodge and tried to recruit as many people as she could to go and see the shark. In this photo, Alisa is trying to engage some of the locals in shark games. Let's just say they weren't quite as enthused as Alisa. (We later found out that shark catching is actually quite common. Wa wa wa.)
Priceless. A musical adventure at Bulungula. On the right we have a little boy from the village playing sophisticated African beats. On the left we have a little boy from the United States making fart noises with his armpit.
Totally unrelated to Bulungula: the next World Cup. It will be held in South Africa in 2010 and they are EXCITED. We loved that this huge countdown sign had already started. Just 768 short days away.
Monday, May 12, 2008
The World's Highest Bungy Jump
Special Addition:
Here are two more photos that Carolyn took and sent to us. The first was taken right after we jumped. You can't see it, but the bridge we jumped off of is in the blackness behind us. Just imagine how high it was . . . really high :) Carolyn took the second photo at the pool hall.
A week and a half ago we decided to take the Garden Route out of Cape Town and head toward one of the top-rated, most sustainable backpacking lodges in the world (the local community owns forty percent of the lodge, it is fair trade certified and complete with solar panels, composting toilets, wind power, lots of candle light, and paraffin rocket showers...you get the drift).
We met up with Tessa's friend from Thailand, Carolyn, and she, thankfully, organized our whole adventure together (this may have been the first time we actually had a plan and had purchased tickets more than a day in advance). We mentioned to Carolyn that we would love to try and hit up Storm's River, a hamlet boasting the highest bungy jumping bridge in the world, and so Carolyn booked our bus tickets in an effort to ensure that we would make it to the bungy jumping bridge before they closed. Our plan was to arrive at Storm's River around 3 pm, catch a ride to the bungy jumping bridge, jump, spend a partial night at the hostel, and then leave early in the morning so that we could catch our 3:45 am bus out of Storm's River.
As you might have been able to guess, our bus was running a bit late. We arrived in Storm's River at 4:10 pm (the bungy place closes at 5 pm and was a 35-40 min drive and we had no transportation!). I (Alisa) started running (which is rare; you can tell that I was desperate) frantically through the parking lot asking each and every car if they were driving near the bungy place and could drop us off. Everyone was so incredibly supportive but no one was driving in that direction (or had enough room for three of us and our massive backpacks). Right as a little red car offered to take me (alone due to lack of space), a woman named Michelle from Dijembe Backpacker's drove up. We hurled our backpacks into the back of the truck and took off toward Bloukran's Bungy. The clock was ticking. She was a mad driver, originally from Johannesburg and we made it to the jump site. We were the last group to suit up.
To get to the jumping off point we had to walk along narrow pathway suspended beneath the bridge. This in itself was already intimidating! Once to the jumping point, there was loud dance music blaring and lots of energy to get everyone pumped up. They strapped us in and didn't give any instructions besides stick your arms out and jump. Alisa screamed the entire time leading up to her jump and had to be pushed off the bridge. Tessa didn't decide to jump until on the platform and then decided and jumped 5 minutes later.
It was actually a very magical experience to be flying toward the earth seeing the world from an entirely new viewpoint. Absolutely surreal.
After the jump Tessa, Carolyn, and I decided (in an effort to save a few dollars) that it would be wise to camp out at the gas station. Our next bus was coming to pick us up at 4 am and we thought that it would be quite ludicrous to pay for a night's stay when you are really only staying there for a partial night (10 hours is nothing!). As we were waving goodbye to the bungy crew we mentioned that we were going to be staying at the gas station and that we were going to start a little party there...they told us that they might drop by.
We drove back into town with Michelle, from the backpacker's lodge. She asked if she could stop off at the backpacker's lodge to serve dinner. We gladly obliged and warmed ourselves up by the fire. Eventually Michelle motioned us to the truck and drove us back to our soon to be home.
Back at the gas station, we unloaded our backpacks and went to crash in what we thought was the all-nite fast food restaurant, Steers. Little did we know that they were actually closing at 10 pm! We started brainstorming our options. 1. Sleep on the cold benches outside 2. Try and bring our backpacks into the convenient store and nestle ourselves in a corner in there 3. Call the backpacker's and tell them that we really did need a room The cashier overheard our predicament and menioned that she would try and help us out. Eventually she ended up securing a place for us-the break/locker room of the gas attendants! Right as the clock struck 10 pm and we were being kicked out of Steers, Conden and Charles (two guys from the bungy jumping crew) arrived and offered to take us out to play pool.
As you may have been able to guess, we took them up on their offer and went to a local bar to play pool. The time flew by and we didnt return to the gas station until 2 am.
We then moved our backpacks into the gas attendant station's locker room and enjoyed an hour and a half of shut-eye.
Right above me, on the wall, a little wall posting reads: "The PATH to YOUR Future"...you decide!
Here are two more photos that Carolyn took and sent to us. The first was taken right after we jumped. You can't see it, but the bridge we jumped off of is in the blackness behind us. Just imagine how high it was . . . really high :) Carolyn took the second photo at the pool hall.
A week and a half ago we decided to take the Garden Route out of Cape Town and head toward one of the top-rated, most sustainable backpacking lodges in the world (the local community owns forty percent of the lodge, it is fair trade certified and complete with solar panels, composting toilets, wind power, lots of candle light, and paraffin rocket showers...you get the drift).
We met up with Tessa's friend from Thailand, Carolyn, and she, thankfully, organized our whole adventure together (this may have been the first time we actually had a plan and had purchased tickets more than a day in advance). We mentioned to Carolyn that we would love to try and hit up Storm's River, a hamlet boasting the highest bungy jumping bridge in the world, and so Carolyn booked our bus tickets in an effort to ensure that we would make it to the bungy jumping bridge before they closed. Our plan was to arrive at Storm's River around 3 pm, catch a ride to the bungy jumping bridge, jump, spend a partial night at the hostel, and then leave early in the morning so that we could catch our 3:45 am bus out of Storm's River.
As you might have been able to guess, our bus was running a bit late. We arrived in Storm's River at 4:10 pm (the bungy place closes at 5 pm and was a 35-40 min drive and we had no transportation!). I (Alisa) started running (which is rare; you can tell that I was desperate) frantically through the parking lot asking each and every car if they were driving near the bungy place and could drop us off. Everyone was so incredibly supportive but no one was driving in that direction (or had enough room for three of us and our massive backpacks). Right as a little red car offered to take me (alone due to lack of space), a woman named Michelle from Dijembe Backpacker's drove up. We hurled our backpacks into the back of the truck and took off toward Bloukran's Bungy. The clock was ticking. She was a mad driver, originally from Johannesburg and we made it to the jump site. We were the last group to suit up.
To get to the jumping off point we had to walk along narrow pathway suspended beneath the bridge. This in itself was already intimidating! Once to the jumping point, there was loud dance music blaring and lots of energy to get everyone pumped up. They strapped us in and didn't give any instructions besides stick your arms out and jump. Alisa screamed the entire time leading up to her jump and had to be pushed off the bridge. Tessa didn't decide to jump until on the platform and then decided and jumped 5 minutes later.
It was actually a very magical experience to be flying toward the earth seeing the world from an entirely new viewpoint. Absolutely surreal.
After the jump Tessa, Carolyn, and I decided (in an effort to save a few dollars) that it would be wise to camp out at the gas station. Our next bus was coming to pick us up at 4 am and we thought that it would be quite ludicrous to pay for a night's stay when you are really only staying there for a partial night (10 hours is nothing!). As we were waving goodbye to the bungy crew we mentioned that we were going to be staying at the gas station and that we were going to start a little party there...they told us that they might drop by.
We drove back into town with Michelle, from the backpacker's lodge. She asked if she could stop off at the backpacker's lodge to serve dinner. We gladly obliged and warmed ourselves up by the fire. Eventually Michelle motioned us to the truck and drove us back to our soon to be home.
Back at the gas station, we unloaded our backpacks and went to crash in what we thought was the all-nite fast food restaurant, Steers. Little did we know that they were actually closing at 10 pm! We started brainstorming our options. 1. Sleep on the cold benches outside 2. Try and bring our backpacks into the convenient store and nestle ourselves in a corner in there 3. Call the backpacker's and tell them that we really did need a room The cashier overheard our predicament and menioned that she would try and help us out. Eventually she ended up securing a place for us-the break/locker room of the gas attendants! Right as the clock struck 10 pm and we were being kicked out of Steers, Conden and Charles (two guys from the bungy jumping crew) arrived and offered to take us out to play pool.
As you may have been able to guess, we took them up on their offer and went to a local bar to play pool. The time flew by and we didnt return to the gas station until 2 am.
We then moved our backpacks into the gas attendant station's locker room and enjoyed an hour and a half of shut-eye.
Right above me, on the wall, a little wall posting reads: "The PATH to YOUR Future"...you decide!
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