Stuff's good.
Happy Birthday, Dave Chappelle,
So we're back in Jersey.
Besides that, lots of great news.
First and certainly most importantly, the new season of Venture Bros. is on the horizon. I am nothing less than what one might call "stoked". Venture Bros. is arguably the greatest animation, nay, programme of any genre to come from the folks at adult swim since ATHF.
Moving on, Bill and I bought our tickets to Tanzania a couple of days ago. That was a long and painful process. We spent entire 3- to 6-hour blocks searching for possible flight options on three separate days. We'd find something good, then realize some awful uncertainty popped up, rendering our research useless. The first time, we realized we hadn't received our official confirmation email from the volunteer coordinator, only a casual email saying something to the tune of "I have you in my calendar for February 1st to July 1st." The last time, it was because last we heard, the Fund was going to charge us the short-term volunteer rate, which is much more than the long-term rate, because we're staying just short of six months. This added up to nearly double our projected costs, which would mean we simply couldn't afford to volunteer. We didn't realize this until a five- or so hour stint in front of kayak.com's search engine. I was livid.
Of course, all of that was cleared up. They're charging is the much more affordable long-term rate because (A) that's what we signed up for, (B) we're staying for well over the short-term time limit, and (C) it's not our fault we can't stay longer (we were willing to go for a year if they'd have us, but they simply didn't have enough beds). We cleared.
So we bought our tickets. As mentioned in my last entry from Maine, we're flying into Amsterdam and spending a week there, doing, oh, I don't know what.... then we ferry over to England and fly out of Heathrow Airport to Kenya and Tanzania. On our way back, we'll be flying back to London for another week. Neither of us have been anywhere in the UK, and it'll be Bill's first time to Africa and Europe.
It all sounds very expensive, but Bill and I actually saved about $1,200 off our travel costs by booking our flights independently of each other. Traveling from Philadelphia or NYC straight to Kilimanjaro was nearly prohibitively expensive. Combine our flight savings with the fact that we plan on Couch Surfing during our stays in 'Dam and the UK, and we've got a nearly free good time sandwiching our volunteer work. On top of that, we're going to be arriving in and departing from Tanzania a few days apart from when they need us, so we'll have time to check out Arusha, the nearest city, and make some friends there. A Bed & Breakfast in Arusha is about USD $12 a night, which is pretty sweet for us, but we're likely just going to couch surf there, too.
So, that's pretty good. My most beloved Matic will be joining us in our UK/EU extravaganza, and my friend Ishfaq lives right in London.
Matic, whom I love dearly. Ish. Isn't he dashing?
So now the next step is to make my second attempt at the dreaded task that is getting through to the Trinidad & Tobago Consulate on Monday because my passport expires in June, a month before we re-enter the US. Last week, my mom and I stood in line for about two hours before some employee just showed up and said "Sorry, it looks like we can't help anyone else today. Come back tomorrow!" This was hours before they were supposed to close. We got there pretty early in the business day after taking the train into the city from Metropark. No dice. I think next time, we'll just couch surf or stay in a hostel in the city the night before so we can just take the subway at dawn. Traveling into Manhattan during rush hour is not something I'd like to do ever again, and I want to be first in line.
Bill and I are going to be rounding 3 years on Thursday since our first kiss (we just decided on that as our marker). That's fantastic. I'm pretty fucking lucky.
PS my phone's been dead for a while because my aunt's puppy chewed up the charger (WHILE IT WAS STILL PLUGGED IN) and it doesn't fit anymore.
So we're back in Jersey.
Besides that, lots of great news.
First and certainly most importantly, the new season of Venture Bros. is on the horizon. I am nothing less than what one might call "stoked". Venture Bros. is arguably the greatest animation, nay, programme of any genre to come from the folks at adult swim since ATHF.
Moving on, Bill and I bought our tickets to Tanzania a couple of days ago. That was a long and painful process. We spent entire 3- to 6-hour blocks searching for possible flight options on three separate days. We'd find something good, then realize some awful uncertainty popped up, rendering our research useless. The first time, we realized we hadn't received our official confirmation email from the volunteer coordinator, only a casual email saying something to the tune of "I have you in my calendar for February 1st to July 1st." The last time, it was because last we heard, the Fund was going to charge us the short-term volunteer rate, which is much more than the long-term rate, because we're staying just short of six months. This added up to nearly double our projected costs, which would mean we simply couldn't afford to volunteer. We didn't realize this until a five- or so hour stint in front of kayak.com's search engine. I was livid.
Of course, all of that was cleared up. They're charging is the much more affordable long-term rate because (A) that's what we signed up for, (B) we're staying for well over the short-term time limit, and (C) it's not our fault we can't stay longer (we were willing to go for a year if they'd have us, but they simply didn't have enough beds). We cleared.
So we bought our tickets. As mentioned in my last entry from Maine, we're flying into Amsterdam and spending a week there, doing, oh, I don't know what.... then we ferry over to England and fly out of Heathrow Airport to Kenya and Tanzania. On our way back, we'll be flying back to London for another week. Neither of us have been anywhere in the UK, and it'll be Bill's first time to Africa and Europe.
It all sounds very expensive, but Bill and I actually saved about $1,200 off our travel costs by booking our flights independently of each other. Traveling from Philadelphia or NYC straight to Kilimanjaro was nearly prohibitively expensive. Combine our flight savings with the fact that we plan on Couch Surfing during our stays in 'Dam and the UK, and we've got a nearly free good time sandwiching our volunteer work. On top of that, we're going to be arriving in and departing from Tanzania a few days apart from when they need us, so we'll have time to check out Arusha, the nearest city, and make some friends there. A Bed & Breakfast in Arusha is about USD $12 a night, which is pretty sweet for us, but we're likely just going to couch surf there, too.
So, that's pretty good. My most beloved Matic will be joining us in our UK/EU extravaganza, and my friend Ishfaq lives right in London.
Matic, whom I love dearly. Ish. Isn't he dashing?
So now the next step is to make my second attempt at the dreaded task that is getting through to the Trinidad & Tobago Consulate on Monday because my passport expires in June, a month before we re-enter the US. Last week, my mom and I stood in line for about two hours before some employee just showed up and said "Sorry, it looks like we can't help anyone else today. Come back tomorrow!" This was hours before they were supposed to close. We got there pretty early in the business day after taking the train into the city from Metropark. No dice. I think next time, we'll just couch surf or stay in a hostel in the city the night before so we can just take the subway at dawn. Traveling into Manhattan during rush hour is not something I'd like to do ever again, and I want to be first in line.
Bill and I are going to be rounding 3 years on Thursday since our first kiss (we just decided on that as our marker). That's fantastic. I'm pretty fucking lucky.
PS my phone's been dead for a while because my aunt's puppy chewed up the charger (WHILE IT WAS STILL PLUGGED IN) and it doesn't fit anymore.