Monday, October 16, 2006

shock and awe

i am in ottawa. or as my friend once told me to call it, ottawow to make it sound fascinating and exciting. but truth be told, i actually find ottawa fascinating and exciting and perhaps that is just because i am a western canadian who feels isolated and disillusioned with our federal government. you be the judge.

i have met two new friends that will also be living in nairobi and am feeling a lot better about what it is that i have gotten myself into. it looks like i have found myself a place to live (at least temporarily) and i have the misfortune of having booked my plane ticket so that i arrive in nairobi on the morning of the first day of a long weekend. which means, a rather long and boring weekend for me spent inside reading books as i am not sure i will be brave enough to venture outside through the big, bad streets of nairobi (the african cited rated most dangerous on some polls). or at least only during high noon since i have been warned about going outside after dark.

i have kept pretty quiet about the internship and my next trip to africa on my blog, but prepared to be shocked and awed (oops, wrong international campaign...). or at least hopefully things get a little more interesting around here. and by interesting, i mean interesting cultural and professional experiences, not muggings and robberies.

so far, i have managed to safe on the streets of ottawa. tomorrow i visit the kenyan high commission to convince them to give me a visa (and by convince, i mean pay them the fee) and then more training and conference sessions and then out for dinner with my favourite ottawa resident (besides steve and his ill fitting vests, of course), k!

5 comments:

lu said...

i am a bit concerned as i am afraid my little map has stopped counting the new hits to my website from other places...

which means that i won't get a red dot when i get to kenya.

i also don't know what is wrong with my wireless card, i had it installed, then it seemed to be uninstalled, so i reinstalled it, but now the little picture in the right hand corner of my screen in there but it is all grey and not lit up and can't search to find any networks. anyone who knows anything about this, do you know how to fix it? you can just post anonymously if you like and have an idea how i could fix it.

Anonymous said...

I love making new friends (similarly, I love having a good time). Anywho, I guess you will have time to start on that "project" as Anna suggested, and I concur!

Anonymous said...

oh, and I also investigated your red dot perdicament (seriously, this "receptionist" work thing is really hard and time consuming), so it says the location hits (thats computer lingo for visits) have to increase by a certain amount percenage wise for it to show up. So just log on from a whole bunch of differnet computers in Kenya and it should show up!

lu said...

thanks for the dots advice!!

Anonymous said...

Lara good luck!
And no worries about Nairobi -- I hear that Lagos is actually more dangerous :)
Truly, best of luck - I am envious and excited for you all at the same time!!