The Rules of Upstate/Downstate

Now that people are actually visiting this site, we though we should set out the ground rules. Actually, for now there's only one. You'll notice this blog uses pseudonyms. Given the fact that enough stuff comes up when you google the people who write here (undergraduate projects, college newspaper columns, etc.) we thought it would be best if Upstate/Downstate did not. So while we don't aim for complete anonymity (googlenonomous is more like it) we do hope to keep this page clear of any references to us or our friends that directly identifies. On the latter point, we might have given you a pseudonym too...

Why "Upstate/Downstate"?

I named this site Upstate/Downstate because it's vaguely related to travel (the initial incentive for creating it) and also serves as a shorthand distinction between rural and urban, the small town and the city, and the city and the big city. Despite their differences, Wabes and I like visiting them all. Also, while we both currently live in a "downstate," we grew up in other regions of the country known as "upstate" and "downstate" and as such are both a little defined by such labels and everything they mean. So we embrace them.

I'll stick to things medical, since we're just starting out.

An update: adding to the antibodies you're currently brewing, Kolz, Papa Wabes has informed me that he will be providing us with an arsenal of medications to combat the straightforward stuff that the travel docs recommend and the bad bugs that come to his mind. This via air mail, in addition to Live! Oral! Typhoid!, that $200-some of shots (x 2), and the ever-present Cipro. I have to think we'll be pleased about all this, in the end.

It really is an industry, travel medicine, and quite an interesting one. After surviving The Bug here in Germany, I'll try to see myself as the advance guard for our trip, testing the mettle of the bio-landscape or, really, just taking one for the team. But tonight at least, it leaves me with the feeling that all those vaccinations and a veritable traveling medicine chest gives us a false sense of security outside of the "developing world." We'll decide whether and how to drink the water wherever we are, it will all be fine, but you still just shouldn't eat the potato salad from the buffet.

Now, to plan for all the critters people keep mentioning to Kolzman & I. This must be alarmist. Just something you get used to after a day and don't remember? Certainly less significant for us than, say, giraffes/lions or the beaches on Zanzibar or the treasure trove of documents that awaits me. I can take things with legs. Totally. Mostly. Things without legs...yeah. Figure out how to vaccinate me against THAT.

This trip was already pretty pricey, but I just got a shot in each arm and a box full of pills labeled "biohazard" for $265.00.

Per Wabes instructions, I final did my "travel consultation" for Tanzania. The doctor threw around lots of scary diseases and warnings (malaria, hepatitis, typhoid, yellow fever, meningitis, polio, tetanus, ebola... that last one actually gave me pause). Yellow fever is required and a tetanus booster seems like a good idea (no worries about all those scratches caused by rusty nails for another 10 years!). Wabes also told me the hepatitis and typhoid would be highly recommended and that malaria pills were also a must. But the meningitis recommendation comes out of nowhere, so I'm wary. After all, I already ignored the scary information distributed by the University when I enrolled in Law School and opted to sign a waiver rather than get vaccinated. The doctor tells me it's dry season and that Tanzania is in the "meningitis belt." I look skeptical. Upon further investigation, we discover that Tanzania is in fact just outside the "meningitis belt" and is only "epidemic prone." I beg off. When I move on to the polio vaccine, I'm told I'd "be an idiot" not to get it. Strong words from a doctor, so I acquiesce.

Two more shots next week!

I created this site as a travel blog. It's primary purpose is to allow Wabes (from downstate) and I (from upstate) to keep in touch with friends and family while we're travelling this summer. Wabes is currently studying and researching Berlin and will be heading to Tanzania to continue her work in mid-July. I will join her there in August after I take the bar exam.

Until now, both of us have largely resisted the blog phenomenon (though Kolzman wrote a few essays here and a good friend of Wabe's has a funny blog here) but we thought this medium might provide an easy means of updating people while we're in Africa. Hopefully, it will work well as a travel journal/website/mass postcard. Then we'll see whether I maintain it when we get home or pick it up again on another trip.