Danny: Thank you so much for your letter from Senegal!! It made my day, as well as the Senegalese coin you put in. How much is this worth in dollars? Well, I hope it didn't make too big of a "dent" in your Peace Corps salary! :P ( Read more... )

There was a pleasant surprise in my mailbox today:  a handwritten letter!

Usually the most exciting pieces of mail I get nowadays are Entertainment Weekly and People magazine, and the occasional postcard.  Yes, I know it's a dorky thing to appreciate, but who knew these things are still sent...or that people still prefer to write them.   It's weird ( Read more... )

If, by the end of this trip, I don't have thighs of steel from hiking all the steep hills and mountains and extinct volcanoes in this city, I honestly don't know what to do ( Read more... )

My weekend was...unpredictable, to say the least. Trying to find the New Zealand embassy an hour before it closed was just awful. It also made me seriously rethink all my previous ambitions to be on The Amazing Race: the whole time I was panting; then running; then walking; then asking strangers; then taking the bus; then saying, screw it, I'll ( Read more... )

I ran through my stack of postcards today, and I realize I've amassed quite a bit. Only a handful are regular penpals; more and more are friends with whom I've lost touch or only do so once in a while. Still, I hope to repay the favor for each and every one, whether it's in New Zealand or any other place I'm fortunate enough to go to in the ( Read more... )