How to Honeymoon in Turkey on a Budget

To be honest, I didn't keep an exact budget of our costs to honeymoon in Turkey (it was a crazy time of year.) But, I'm fairly certain we had one of the cheaper international honeymoons that a couple can have, so I thought I'd share our tips - some which are more than applicable elsewhere, and some that are particular to Turkey.

Our Budget (by my memory):

Airfare (international and in-country): $1,700

Car in Goreme (and fuel): $175

Accommodations: $860

Admissions/fees: $300

Food: $400

Misc: $100

The Prince's Islands

Why traveling to Turkey may be more reasonable than you think:
When planning our honeymoon, we originally were leaning towards Iceland, but plane tickets went up significantly, and we couldn't justify it with our already stretched budget. So we started looking at other places. We wanted somewhere that neither of us had been before (ruling out Costa Rica and Italy) and we also thought getting a new continent in would be great. Eventually, we just started looking up prices for every single city we could think of. Outside of Central America, Turkey was consistently the cheapest, by far. Turkey had come up a few times when we discussed places, so when the tickets were significantly cheaper than everything else, with some brief research we were settled.

Suleyman Mosque

Secondly, almost every hotel, hostel, pension or what-have-you for accommodations includes breakfast - and a really filing, good one at that. The only time we didn't have breakfast included is in Istanbul when we had a room through AirBnB (and when there, we just bought groceries and made our own breakfast).

Hiking in the valley in Cappadocia

Why Turkey may not be as cheap as you think:
Admission fees, to literally EVERYTHING, are the norm in Turkey. I can only think of one a few places that we visited that didn't have admissions fees. Even tiny, fairly off-the beaten path old cave churches would have a family who was taking care of things, and if not charging straight admission, were asking for a donation.

More hiking in Cappadocia

Most of these fees were quite reasonable, but it is something to keep in mind.

Food also was a cost to keep in mind - it could be quite reasonable (especially in Selcuk and Goreme) but it varied a lot more in Istanbul.

One of the MANY churches we visited. This is Chora Church, I believe

Keeping costs down:
We knew going in that we were fairly simple people as far as lodging goes. As long as it was safe and clean we didn't need much else. We ended up staying at a little "Pension" which is essentially the same as a hostel, by and large. We had a private room and bath, for all of $30 a night in Selcuk. Similar housing can be found pretty much everywhere in Turkey, leaving you with more cash to spend on other things.

Ephesus

Another thing about the Selcuk/Ephesus area - it is very walkable. Yes, we walked to Ephesus - a nice, two mile walk. We did pay for a van ride to the beach, but the cost was reasonable. Additionally we paid about $5 total for the train ride back to the airport.

The walk to Ephesus

We spent a bit more in Cappadocia, but we also had nicer accommodations (and staying in a cave hotel was worth the extra.) The couple that owned the hotel also owned a restaurant, which we ate at two out of three nights - first, it was good and fairly priced, and secondly, they gave hotel guests another 10% off.

Istanbul

One thing we didn't know about and we wished we had: There is a museum pass available for the major sites in Ephesus (and I believe it also covered Cappadocia sites.) There wasn't much advertising or posting about this card, so by the time we visited all the sites it covered (Ephesus, St. John's) we just realized the pass existed and would have saved us money.

We did buy the equivalent card for the Istanbul museums, and it was worth it. We could have spent more than one day at the Archeology Museum!

Not the Grand Bazaar, a market in a small town - so way better.

Also, unless you are incredibly centrally located by everything you want to see in Istanbul, buy a transportation card. They are good for ferries, busses and trams, and we used ours a lot, saving us on transportation costs (and we still walked what felt like FOREVER in Istanbul.) We then left the card for the next guests.

Istanbul at night

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Glacier National Park

Go. If you ever get the chance, go. It's worth every minute.

We go to the mountains & do three things: We come back alive, we come back friends, & we go to the top. In that order.
— Roger Baxter-Jones

I Now Have a Use For My Headlamp

{photo from Alex Ristea}

I haven't had much use for my headlamp since I got it this past Christmas, other than to go "Look Ma, no hands!" as I grabbed things and shined light around Christmas morning. But in less than two weeks it will finally find some real use, thanks to some fortuitous timing.

I'll be setting off for The National Outdoor Leadership School in Wyoming for 23 or so days to do an Outdoor Educator Course with Backpacking and Rock Climbing (more here.) I'd originally taken work off for another course, decided not go because of interference with working at the farmer's market, then decided to go, found out the course was cancelled, and then decided to just ask about this course. Since it was barely a month away, I figured the course was full, but it just so happend that someone had dropped out 20 minutes before I called to ask if it was still open. And everything fell into place from there: money, work giving me the extra days off, getting the okay from the farmer's market, not having to actually go to the doctors for the physical (okay, the transportation wasn't a breeze to set up, but that's a whole post in of itself.)


I'm excited. I've been looking at various NOLS courses for almost a year, and since grad school fell through for this fall, it's nice to be moving forward a little bit. Speaking of grad school, I've found a school stateside that I like a lot and in a lot of ways might be even more up my alley (and be much more in my price range.) So three days before my flight to Wyoming, I'll be taking the GRE. 


By all means, if you don't hear from me until after August 7th, don't be surprised. I'm either trying to brush up my horrifically rusty math skills, or evading bears in the wilderness.  

Day 8-9

Day 8-9

La Grande, Or to Portland Or

The drive to Portland was one of the shortest of the entire trip, at about 5 hours I believe. When I awoke in the morning, my tent was most, and covered with little grubbies that took a lot of work to shake off the wet tent.

About half way to Portland, I came around the interstate to what looked like a big blue lake on my right. After driving along side the “lake” for a few minutes and thinking it was an awfully long lake, I realized that it was no lake, it was the Columbia River. I’m used to big, muddy rivers that occasionally look blue if the weather is nice. It was a sunny day out, but that river was the bluest I’ve ever seen. It was also a lot larger than I imagined.

About this point, I called up Lynette, and worked out staying with her and her husband, which was a relief. Getting into Portland, I followed hastily written directions to their apartment, managed to drive about 15 yards from the apartment for some time.

After actually meeting Lynette and Jon, I set off in the city, going to Powell books, and well, not a lot else. I didn’t know what exactly to see in Portland, and I’ve got to admit, it was a little odd staying with people I didn’t know at all. I enjoyed a shower, a good dinner (and dessert at a dessert place,) and I played the wii for the first time. All in all, it was good and relaxing.

Day 7 (or, in the Pines)

So, about those amazing Blue Mountains--

I pulled into Higard Junction State Park, which is a small state park that butts right up to the interstate in the Blue Mountains. I pulled in, there was a slight mist in the air. I chose to stop here for the night, one, because I was getting tired, and the next state park was several hours away still. Secondly, this park was cheap, really cheap to stay at, only 8 dollars for the night. I pulled in, and saw only two other campers in the small campground.

I got out of my car to go use the pay phone, because I had to call my parents and check in. Instantly, I was inundated by the smell of the pines. I still cannot properly describe them, but Pine-sol doesn't do them justice. It was one of the deepest, richest smells I ever had experienced. I would spend the rest of my trip trying to figure out the smell and the trees (those trees are only in that part of the state!)

As I worked on setting up my tent, I realized there only was really one other camper there, as the second camper was the camp ground manager, which was a really nice retiree and his wife. He came out at one point to walk their dog and asked me if I was going back to school (which was a logical question for a college aged girl camping by herself at the end of summer,) and I told him "nope, just taking a trip out west."

Having the camp ground manager talk with me comforted me a little bit, as I was breaking one of the rules I had given myself about campgrounds. My rule was that a campground needed to be at least 50% full or five people near by for me to stay. This way, I was likely to be noticed by someone. But I really liked this campground (the smell! the trees!), there were no bushes dividing spaces like the last campground (this was wide open,) and the manager had spoken with me, so I felt incredibly safe.

The night before I called my friend who had an old roommate living in Portland. I wasn't feeling confidant in finding the hostel, or there being space, so I had her call her old roommate and see if I could spend at least one night. That was my tentative plan for the next day, I still had to call Lynette in the morning. I knew I had a relatively short drive, and I would be up early, because there was construction on the interstate (which was right next to the park remember.)

Better late than never!

I know, I know, it’s been several weeks (at this time last year, I was finishing up my trip.) I’ve…well, been a slacker (long story.) So here is a bit more on last years journey. I promise, I will eventually finish writing it all up.

Day 6-7 Moab to Layton, UT to La Grande, OR

I end up in a very northern suburb of Salt Lake City, as I kept on procrastinating on where to get off of the interstate at. I finally found an exit, that a) didn’t look dodgy, b) looked like a car place may be near and c) intersection didn’t look confusing. I rented a hotel room, the first one ever. It was really exciting. I made use of everything I could—Ice, the shower, swimming, breakfast, the tv. I wanted to get my monies worth. And I did. It wasn't too expensive at all. Points for random suburb hotel. AND! There was an oil place nearby. They just ended up giving me an oil change. This seemed to fix everything.

So I set on the road again, going northwest to Oregon. And I passed through southern Idaho, which was unbelievably disappointing (Idaho also produces an amazingly deceptive state map--Warning: the bottom is much wider than the map is telling you, and the top is much narrower than that map is telling you, really.) It really made me think about my own home, where every few miles there is an exit, which some sort of town within a manageable distance. In northern Utah/Southern Idaho, it was all “ranch exits,” 50 miles apart from each other. Very different.

Eventually the land got less dry mountain like when I crossed into Oregon (I had to stop at the first exit, and saw the first of many Oregon trail related things. This was very exciting to me. Pioneers!) The night before I marked out several state parks I could stop at along the way, but zoomed past several of them before stopping at what was one of my favorite stops the whole trip (which I will go into detail in my next post): the Blue Mountains!

Day 4: Colorado Springs

Got to know Allison. Decided she was really cool. Before staying with her, I had literally met her once for about a half an hour. While hanging out with Allison learned about the AIGA conference and volunteering, which lead me back to Colorado two months later to hang out with Allison some more.

Day 5: Colorado Springs to Moab, UT

I took the scenic route out of town along Highway 24. Allison confirmed that this was the good way to go. And it was good. I stopped at Wilkinson (?) Pass to eat breakfast and write a little, before the troopers station even opened. I did a little walking around, and saw the other side of Pike’s Peak way off to the east. I was the first person to sign the guest book that day!

At the Pass

Later on the road, the oil light starter to flicker on and off. Strange. Driving on I70 was crazy, all I wanted to do was look around at the mountains, not zoom along at 70 miles an hour.

Best scenic area in the state—Glenwood Canyon. Sweet goodness.

Second best—The northern part of Hwy 24 is completely surrounded by 14er’s. Really beautiful.

As soon as I got into Utah, the oil light started flickering again. I stopped at the first rest stop to put more oil in. Managed to drop lid in the engine. Great. After about ten minutes of digging my arm in an engine in the heat, some man with long arms finally offered to get it out.

Made it to Moab eventually. Camping was full, which I wasn’t too surmised by. And actually the camping along the Colorado River was probably closer to the entrance of the park than the campgrounds in the park. And way, way cheaper. It was crazy camping in the canyon, because all I could think was how big it was, but then I would think about how this goes on to become the Grand Canyon. I couldn’t really fathom it, it was that large already.


CD for this portion: Live Coldplay. I was repeating this one so much at this point of the journey, that when it comes on now, all I can see are red mountains and cliffs. And I get a little nostalgic.

Part 2

Day 1-2: Des Moines to Lawrence, KS

I got started later than I had hoped, because I was still waiting for stuff to come in the mail. Lawrence was a little on the drama side because of Tim’s girlfriend. Let’s just say by the end of my visit she was no longer his girlfriend. That was more drama than I ever care to relive. It’s times like that in Lawrence that make me regret having a really close guy friend.

My one goal, other than breaking up Tim and his girlfriend (JUST KIDDING. It wasn’t my goal) was to have some good barbecue. I did. It was more meat than I’ve probably ever had. I left most in Tim’s fridge.

Tim and His Banjo

Day 3: Lawrence to Colorado Springs

This is where the real adventure begins. Going to Lawrence to hang out with Tim just felt like a weekend trip. Leaving there meant I was really doing this. And it didn’t really start off good.

When I went out to the car in the morning, the car was dead. Which was weird, I didn’t think I left the lights on. I called Tim, he came back to jump it, and it started. I didn’t think too much of it because it was my sister’s car, and her dome light was out. I thought perhaps I left it “on” but didn’t know it.

I stopped at a rest stop outside of Topeka to have my breakfast and do a little writing. Saw a convict! Cool! Saw some nice rolling hills with a train off in the distance! Cool! Thought it was weird that the doors weren’t locking (again, sister’s fancy car has electronic locks.) Uh-oh. I thought maybe the earlier jump had just thrown off the locks. I quickly realized that wasn’t the case when the car wouldn’t start again.

I ended up calling AAA. An hour and half later the poor tow guy arrived after calling me and having me explain where I was at. Apparently AAA is very bad at directions. I can’t imagine what it would have been like if I had been in a hard place to find. Seriously, there aren’t that many rest stops right past Topeka. I even knew what mile marker I was at, since I was at a rest stop. Oh well, I got to talk to the cleaning staff. They were very nice.

Guess who was even nicer? The towing people. I ended up in Alma KS. As I was riding with the towing guy, he was telling me what he thought it might be—battery or the alternator. If was the battery, quick fix and I’d be out (he told me which roads to take.) If it was the alternator…well, I guess that’s how people come to live in Alma Kansas.

Anyway, this was totally a Mom and Pop garage. And luckily, it was just the battery. Three hours later, on the road again! I was going to try to stop by the Colorado Dunes, but I was now at least four hours behind, so I decided that would have to be passed.

I miraculously found Allison’s place from texted directions and in the dark. Actually, I got really close, I couldn’t figure out which house was here—the street went along the back. But I made it.

One Year Later

One year ago to the day, I worked my last day at Wells Fargo, packed up my stuff, spent one more weekend in Des Moines (I mean, I had to make it to the fair) and then set off for more than three weeks driving around the country. I was asked shortly afterwards what I learned, and all those sort of inner reflection questions. I didn’t really have many answers to share. In honor of that time (because, in all honesty, it’s up there on my list of favorite things I’ve ever done,) here is a post all about the trip, and some one year later thoughts.

So while my goal was to remain flexible, I did have a rough plan, and a few points of contact to give to my parents. Since I was traveling alone, I gave my parents as much information as I had laid out, phone numbers of probable stops and promised to call every day. I also always left a note in the glove compartment of where I was going, who I was with and when I thought I may return. I’m sure this did little to alleviate concerns.

This was the general plans that I gave the parents:

Lawrence-2 days with Tim
Colorado Springs-2 days with Allison Jackson
Gunnison-1 day maybe?
Arches NP/Canyonlands NP-3 days
Great Basin NP-1 Day
Somewhere in California-Camp
Redwoods-Hostel
Oregon Coast-1 Nights
Portland-1 or 2 Nights, hostel
Seattle-2 or 3 days with Katie Shaw
Somewhere between Seattle & Yellowstone-Camp for the night
Yellowstone-1 or 2 Nights
Badlands NP-1 Night
1 Camping Day between Badlands and Des Moines?
Few days in Des Moines
Home

There also were a few stops hoped for between areas, but this was the basic plan. I also made (for me) a pretty intense budget. Unfortunately, it could have been better. Or I could have been better at keeping track of things. Whichever. However, I had budgeted to spend 1550 on the trip. I’m not sure exactly how much I was under. I know I was under, but I didn’t keep that good track. I did end up spending WAY more than planned on car stuff.

You're killing me, Wyoming.

There are several things that happen when you spend three weeks more or less by yourself...one of them is talking to/at everything. Animate object, people, inanimate objects...And thus, during my incredlibly long journey across wyoming today, I found myself shouting at a state.

Wyoming may be a nice state, and have some lovely things to see, but oh my, if you need to get through it in a hurry, it's a killer. It took me about 8 hours, roughly, with a few stops, and a decent amount of construction. And it made the car act weird. Well, Wyoming probably didn't, but I need a scapegoat, and Wyoming works well for that.

On other news, I am back in the midwest...woohoo for south dakota. Now only if I can get the car working, I will make it back to dsm/quad cities eventually.

Also, now that I have internet, I just found out I was accepted to volunteer for the AIGA design conference in early October. So I'm coming back to mountains soon! This is really awesome, because there is no way on earth I could afford this conference normally, so now I can go on another "vacation" for pretty darn cheap again. Now to find some form of employment...or I could just take a super extended vacation.

Well, it has been a long day, so I'm going to finish a few things up while I have the internet. Sorry to all those who have been trying to call, I haven't had cell phone reception since Montana. I promise I will call when I have reception again.

Peace, yo!

PICTURES!

It's so exciting, it deserves caps lock.

flickr

And there you shall see my pictures from the trip thus far.

Sleepless in Seattle

It's about midnight here. I actually am tired, but thought I should make some sort of update because apparently a few people have been keeping tabs on me...awwww...

Anyways, Seattle has been pretty great. Today we went a whole bunch of places, several of which are recognizable if you've ever seen "10 things I hate about you."--namely a park and the random troll under the bridge. I barely remembered the troll, but anyway, it was really random. Apparently, that area didn't feel like it had any sort of community, and had a contest for an art piece to bring the community together. And the troll under the bridge won. Whatever...not what I would have chosen, but I don't live there. I have pictures, but I haven't uploaded them. But I will.

When it got a little warmer out we went kayaking, which I must say, is probably one of the cooler things I've done on this trip. And for a double boat, how long we went, and with a "student" discount, it cost somewhere around 24 dollars I think, which isn't bad at all. And it was a lot of fun.

I like the pac northwest. But it is a very strange area. Sometimes I think I like it, and then sometimes I am just in awe in it's weirdness. I love all the things to do here, places to go, things to see, but at the same time, I like smaller towns, a little less in the way of crowds. Plus, in bigger cities there is more of a homeless "problem." It is harder to ignore here, even though that's probably what people end up doing more. We saw so many just walking around last night. And I really wanted to give one of them the left over food I had from the restaurant we went to, it just felt wrong walking around with more food than I could eat that night when they had nothing. But it was an expensive meal, and Katie paid for it...and for unlimited excuses, I didn't.

Which leads me to jobs. I have finally started searching. Sort of. I joined AIGA today, which was expensive, but even within the day, their job database has been really helpful. I have saved I think about six jobs that I could apply for. A few in the pac northwest, one near Chicago and the other two in Minneapolis. I have to do some work before I can apply, but it is some sort of start. I am going to try to volunteer for the AIGA conference, which turns out is in october...but it is a really good opportunity, and it isn't too hard for me to get to Denver. And with some help from Allison (wink wink) I could probably land a place to stay. But I need to get on that one.

Okay, I think that is all for now. I'll update with some pictures in the next few days perhaps. We'll see.

I miss folks in Dsm. I wish I was going back to school.

Oregon makes em louder...

The crows, that is. Seriously, I have never heard crows so loud in my life as the ones I heard this morning.

I spent the day along the central coast, and shortly I will be leaving to go back up the northern coast. Hopefully they don't have crows. But I will be stopping at a cheese factory, I am feeling a little calcium deprived...I'm not one for random tours, but I am one for free cheese.

I am trying to figure out the last portion of my trip, because I realized the last few days tentatively are on labor day weekend. Which could lead to some trouble for me trying to find a place to camp for the night. So we'll see how much longer the trip is after Seattle.

Hello World...

I have made it to portland. The scenery alone has been amazing. Wooohoo for greeness.

Don't worry I am alive

Because I am certain that everyone was worrying.

Let's just say that the trip thus far has been interesting: To summarize, because I don't feel like going into half of it in tons of detail:

Des Moines to KC:

A good short drive. Tim and I didn't do much, but it still was good. My one goal for the time there was to get some kc barbecue, which we did. It was a lot of meat, but good.

KC to colorado springs:

This is where the fun starts. The car was dead when I got ready to leave Lawrence, I call Tim, we eventually get it jumped. Worried me a little, but I just assumed that I left the broken dome light on, and it drained just enough over two days.

I decided to have my breakfast right after Topeka, at a rest stop. I eat, see some trains, some escorted criminals, and then go back to my car. I know something is wrong when I can't lock the doors, but just hope that it is because of the earlier jump. It wasn't. The car wouldn't start. I made some phone calls, and eventually, call AAA, who sends someone. Long story short, I ended up in Alma, KS, at probably the nicest auto shop owners place ever. So if you ever need a tow in that area, there you go. Fortunately, it wasn't the alternator, it needed a new battery (still not cheap, but not nearly as bad as it could have been.)

So, I eventually make it to Colorado Springs, skipping the sand dunes because I am now running almost three hours later than planned. It was raining when I came in, but I found Allison's with no problem.

Colorado Springs:

I didn't do too much, ran some errands, figured out why my debit card wasn't working, you know, the usual. We went up into the mountains and into the garden of the gods. Made some food, I went to Allison's yoga class, which reaffirmed the knowledge that I am not coordinated nor flexible, but I have a great sense of balance.

Colorado Springs to Moab, UT:

I decided to take Highway 24 part of the way so I could avoid Denver. The best view definitely was at Dickensen Pass, the fog was still holding on to the mountains. Then at about the end of the drive, the oil light flickered on, and then off again. I got on the interstate for the rest of the drive, and it did it again. I had planned to go to the colorado national monument if I got there before three, but I decided not too anyways, just to give me plenty of time to find some sort of campsite.

I finally called my dad when the light started flickering more and staying on. I stopped at the first rest stop in Utah (mind you, this is almost 50 miles in) and put more oil in. While placing the cap back on, I managed to drop the cap into the engine. After sticking my arm in there up past my elbow, I finally felt the cap. But then I nudged it out of my sight and reach. Some nice man finally helped me get it out.

Finally arriving at arches, as I figured it would be, the campground was full. I am actually staying closer to arches entrance then I would be if I was at the park campground. It is along the Colorado, and you can't beat 10$ a night. The view makes me think of the grand canyon. Obviously the Colorado made both, but man, I think this place is huge. I can barely imagine the enormity of the grand canyon.

Today I attempted to wake up early to hike at arches, but it was cloudy, so I was a little slow going. Eventually I got there and I did about a four mile hike in the northern portion. I am planning on going back this evening to do another hike, but I've had to kill time in between, preferably where it is cooler. So I spent a good amount of time at the information center, and charged my cell phone, had lunch, and all that stuff. Now I found the one wireless place in town that isn't a hotel. And there is ac. Wonderful.

Tomorrow I plan to drive to Canyonlands for about half the day, and then come back to arches in the evening. And then I am off to somewhere else. I am thinking of changing my plans, because in all honesty, the car has started to scare me, and while I wasn't worried before about driving on highway 50 in Utah and Nevada, now I am getting a little concerned, so I may alter my tentative course. I shall decide for sure tomorrow.

I am trying to upload pictures, but it is being slow. I will try to upload to flickr. keep in mind, I am still getting used to the new camera. I keep on getting my pictures just ever so slightly blurry. Sigh.

Word.
Liz

Now that's what I call a warning.

Despite the fact that every Dutch person* I know is a smoker, they sure don't mess around with their warning labels.

*I only know one Dutch person.

Monkeys and waterfalls

On Friday, we took a day trip to the Volta Region. Lake Volta is the largest man-made lake on Earth (oooh, ahhh!) Shortly outside of Accra, we stopped the Shai (pronounced shy) Hills, where our driver Joseph called out to the baboons and we fed them some bread. Nana wanted to climb the hill (aka, a gaint cliff) but we had other stuff to do for the day.

We then continued on, stopping in a small town to get some shrimp for Nana, Kwesi, and Kurt. I had one, but didn't really care for it. Kukoa (Nana's littlest sister) is shocked that I didn't care for the shrimp and wants some of her own. (There was something about eating the shell too that didn't really do it for me.)

Then we stopped at a monkey sanctuary and fed monkey's banana's, which they really do like. A lot. It was a nice hike through the forest.

We then drove on to the Wli waterfalls (I believe that is how it was spelled, Nana isn't here for me to ask.) We had a guide take us there, it was about a 45 minute hike through the forest to get to it. I have pictures of the mountains all around us, I may post later. Just over the mountains is Togo, the next country over. The waterfall comes from a river in the mountains. When we got there, there was a school group of ex-pat girls there, but no one else (they all had brought their swimsuits, and were getting out just as we arrived.) I had considered this, but for some reason taken my suit out of my bag before we left, but Tiff, Kurt, and I still got in. It was freezing, but we figured there aren't a lot of massive waterfalls in the Midwest, so we might as well get in while we could.

Yesterday we drove up into the mountains close to Accra again to go shopping for gifts in Aburi. Tiffany bought enough to feed the village for a month. (I'm not really even exaggerating on that one.) We thought about going out last night, but everyone is pretty broke now, so we didn't. (I've only spent around 100 dollars, but I don't want to go to the atm to get more money unless I have to. Everyone else has spent more. But that happens when you buy a Magnum bar almost every day, like Tiff has, or you pay 100,000 cedis [$1 us dollar=9000 cedis] to get into a club for a half an hour, like Kwesi has.)

So, we have basically four days left. It's gone fast, yet somehow I feel like I've been here forever. The driving no longer freaks me out (gasp!) And, while I thought the first night that I would see a billion accidents, I have yet to see one. Several broken down cars, but no accidents. (Oh, and Dad, I've only seen 12 American cars my entire time here. 12. I asked Nana, I had my theory, but he said "American cars are crap. They break." So there you go.)

Summer greetings

Summer greetings from Ghana. Because there is no other season. Just wetter summer and drier summer (or the Hammatan, which is probably not the spelling, is the dry season, meaning everything is dusty from winds from the Sahra.)

But the beach is still lovely. Hopefully we will get to go again today (our plans were uprooted a little by a dentist appointment.)

Yesterday we spent most of the day shopping in Osu. It was strange, because it was with all Drake students, except for Kwesi's cousin. So there are six of us in total. I didn't buy much, a few gifts for people, but we sure were a nice target for begging children, which I don't mind too much until they get grabby. I was digging around my bad for something, and in about two seconds I had about five boys around me, pulling on my. Kwesi was kind enough to get them off of me. (That was the only time it was really bad.)

I love how the previous post, since I started it three days ago, gets posted before the new year. It was in fact posted on the second of January.

Yes, Ma, I'm alive!

Not much of an update. It actually has taken me about three days to make this post, as everytime I finally get a hold of a computer, it seems we are leaving to go somewhere.

Today we went to a party, and it was finally the first time going out that I enjoyed myself for the most part. The music wasn't so loud that you couldn't hold a conversation, and we had a good conversation because of that. It also wasn't too dressy like a lot of things end up being. So woot for that!

Later this week we are going up to Mole Park. While the country is only about as big as Oregon, the drive will take us 12 or so hours (including stopping times.) And Mole isn't even all the way to the north of the country. There are a lot of elephants and other wildlife there, but it will be a very long trip. But I'm sure it will be worth it.

I meant to post pictures, but I loaded them on a different computer, and it is late, and I just don't feel like putting forth the effort.

Happy New Years from Ghana!