Coming on autumn in London

I put my partner-in-crime on the tube to Heathrow today, and will be home soon myself. London, and England more generally, has been much more about visiting friends and family than ticking off the sights or taking lots of photos. I feel this strange mixture of jaded - but not in a snobby way - and amazed. The summer has gone so fast, and I am slowly realizing that I can't possibly process all of the information I've gathered. If it is possible to be overloaded by the new, I feel that way. And then again, London is a comfortable place - nearly the same language, some familiar sights, uncomplicatedly friendly people. So perhaps it's less about not being able to process things than being comfortable and a little bit careless about absorbing every bit of information I can. I've got a head cold, in any case, so I'll ask for a bit of leeway.

Kolz and I took a quick train trip to York on Saturday, visited with my old professors (finally met their families!) and said hello to the Minster. I have been so wistful about hearing the particular way that the bells there chime the hour, and having cream tea at Betty's. Just riding the train up from London was nice. It was strange to be back, with some distance -- the uni really is far from everything, and it was a lonely time back then, but the city is still beautiful and a comfort to me. Kolz hadn't been there since he was a wee lad (he he) and was stoked to visit the Jorvik Viking Centre, home of animatronic Vikings telling the medieval history of York. Complete with authentic smells and sounds of the Middle Ages. Thankfully he was mostly kidding, and willing to indulge my need for cream tea above his interest in the new and improved animatronic Vikings. Whew. We had a nice walk around the Minster, looked at the bosses (decorative plasterwork on the cathedral ceiling that hides where the Gothic arches don't quite meet perfectly), and then tromped around the oldest section of the city wall. I started to remember all of the other things you can do in Yorkshire, but hopefully I'll be back again soon, and with more time.

In any case, it was lovely, but we realized in talking then that we hadn't posted anything about England or London -- we're still catching up on Berlin. I agree mostly with Kolz's posts about the city, though my comment on the complexities of Berlin history would doubtless be more long-winded. It was great to get to run around together, and the last blast of summer heat there certainly made the cool of Oxford and London a welcome change. I remain excited about the possibilities of going back to Germany to do work.

It really does feel like autumn here - and I left my jacket in Berlin (doh). England is always a bit cool and unpredictable, weather-wise, in my mind and memory, so this fits. As different as it is here from New York, it does seem like a way to ease back into life there.

I've had to set this aside and pick back up again, after spending literally the whole afternoon watching the 3rd season of 'Alias' with Kolz's cousin (we're both under the weather, and so I am unapologetic about my poor use of time in London). Such an odd end to our big trip, and strange to be ending it separately and at different times. Safe travels for all.

Oh, and I'm sure he's still got something in the works on the rest of Berlin, and if you haven't looked in a while, scroll around...we've loaded lots of photos!

Post-Cup Berlin

It was odd to visit Berlin just after it hosted the international spectacle that is the World Cup. While I missed all the excitement, there were reminders of it everywhere, adding an interesting gloss to the sights of the city.

The Ampelmann - the vaguely jolly East Berlin "walk" symbol (you know: the fellow on the signal post who, when green, tells you to proceed across the street and when red tells you not to walk) - has become an iconic symbol of nostalgia for the East (particularly after the city began a short-lived effort to replace Ampelmann with his staid West Berlin counterpart).


As such, his cheery profile can now be found on everything from t-shirts to tote bags. But these days his image can also be found kicking a football on a t-shirt.


Meanwhile, at the Pergamon, a museum famous for its (largely stolen) antiquities, there is a massive exhibit (romantically titled The Ball is Round: Circle Sphere, Cosmos) on the role of the ball in society. The importance of the circle in everything from mathematical equations to religious imagery is on display, though everyone knows that the only ball that really mattered as the shiny one in the opening gallery (a FIFA ball that Jeff Koons creatively bronzed).


In addition to these more obvious reflections of the Cup's recent presence in Berlin, there was the World Cup dry cleaning deal, the footballs above public phones (does anyone ever still use these phones in mobile phone Europe?), and the photo exhibit "Planet Football" at the Goethe Institute (where Wabes took language classes). And in the sky, the Fersehturm ("TV tower"), a 1960s symbol of East Germany's engineering prowess, was reimagined. I arrived in Berlin just as the city began removing the gigantic pink panels that temporarily turned the otherwise boring metallic sphere into a giant football (click here for a photo of the everyday Fersehturm).

Why I Like Berlin

I am a sucker for any city with history, and Berlin certaintly has its share. For better or worse, however, much of it is in a state of confusion. From its struggles to conceptualize and understand the wall to its Nazi past, there is a certain schizophrenia about what Berlin's history means. The Museum at Checkpoint Charlie. (a private project that appears to have been funded by westerners, though I have not checked into this) presents the history of the wall as if it were still standing two blocks away (though the exhibit is undergoing some changes). Meanwhile, Hitler's bunker lies unmarked beneath a parking lot a few steps away from the abstract Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. And in an odd parallel, one of the best museums is still one of the most confusing: the Jewish Museum is a great effort, but the space is so controlled by Daniel Libeskind's creative architecture that the maze of exhibits constantly sends vistors down the wrong halls, leading to gaps and jumps in the story of Europe's Jews.



An exhibit room at Berlin's Jewish Museum. The exterior of the building can be seen in the photo above left.


But the challenges Berlin faces in understanding its history make that history all the more interesting and serve as a fascinating reminder of just how recent some of that history is (for example, the explanations of the wall at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum cause some confusion, but also provide and window on how the wall was perceived in the west before its fall). Like Paris and London, Berlin is a city with a Medieval European past. But it also has historic events that occurred so recently that they're still fresh.

On my second night in the city, Wabes and I went out with the mother and daughter who hosted Wabes during the first half of the summer. They lived in the East before the wall came down and continue to live in the Former East. The Mom had great stories that she was happy to share about the iron curtain days: what things were like in the East; why she was ambivalent about the fall of the wall; and how the amazing changes in the city have manifested in her life. It was a truly fascinating dinner.

Later in the week, we visited with Wabes old friends, H&S. They came in from Hamburg on our last day and wandered about the city with us as a got some last minute pictures of the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, and the Wall (or the pieces that remain), and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. H&S both grew up in the Former West, but still had interesting memories of Germany's reunification and strong feeling about its politics today.

The Reichstag on our last day in Berlin

Travelling in Style

So we’ve finally arrived in England. And, thanks to the air sickness of a small boy on the flight that brought our plane to Berlin, we arrived in style; British Air was apparently unable to completely clean up our seats so they upgraded us to first class.

We’re now in Oxford but will head to London later today. As Wabes said, the wedding was wonderful and provided a memorable Oxford weekend. Besides provided a beautiful backdrop for the event it was a great place for a reunion of Wabes old college friends.

More to come on Berlin and London.

The Spice Islands - Part I

Kolz and I are now in Blighty, getting back down to business (me) and relaxing (him) after L & J's wonderful wedding. Since leaving Berlin, and then Dar, access has again been a bit difficult, but we've got a wireless hotspot to the tune of 2 coffee drinks, and can hopefully catch up a bit.

I sort of fell in love with Stone Town, like I fell in love with Berlin. It's an amazing, multi-layered city...just looking up gives you another view of life and the rhythm of things. Storefronts and shops on the ground floor and apartments on the upper floors, with ornate grates and balconies. Surprising little splashes of pastel colors among very weathered old buildings, unexpected passageways.

The markets in Zanzibar were also amazing - fruit we'd never seen before and spices and fish. Since I completely geeked out over the spices and fruit and fish, I'll start off with those photos.

The central market in Zanzibar is an amazing complex of rooms and stalls, packed in under a low, gabled roof. To one side is fish, and a fish auction, and the other side is meat. Walking past those two wings, you come to the fruit and vegetable sellers - much nicer to breathe out there, and what exotics! We tried a mangostine, which apparently grows only on Zanzibar, and saw the biggest grapefruits EVER. As well as piles of spices, beans and lentils, melons, hot peppers, sweet peppers, everything. Our guide hadn't asked we were foodies, or cared to see the market, but we spent an amazing hour just wandering around.

After my experience in Germany with food poisoning, I was at first pretty wary of eating anything too exotic (or, unfortunately, fresh). Zanzibar and Stone Town made both Kolz and I forget about that. Everything was so fresh and well-cared-for, we worried much less. When you see the octopus being pulled off of a boat, and then being sold quickly at the market, you worry a lot less about whether you should eat it at the open-air night market down by the water...



So, here, a mangostine. You just eat the white pulp from around the seeds, and it's very sweet and light.



Another odd fruit that we can't remember the name of, monster lychees, and bananas.



The spice market, which we got to through a tiny passageway from the fruit market where only one person at a time could walk. The pile in the middle is fresh cinnamon bark.



We also went on a spice tour, to a government-owned plantation 15 miles outside of Stone Town. Our guides gave us a banana-leave cup to put all of the spice cuttings and pieces into. Here, the packet has a ylang-ylang flower and some crushed leaves from clove and cinnamon trees. We bought some spices here, and my suitcase smells amazing...

Photos

Now that we're settled in Germany and have Wabes' computer, we will begin uploading photos to illustrate previous posts. Be sure to click on them for enlarged images.

So if you've been requesting pictures (that's you Upstate Mom) scroll down or click on previous posts in the sidebar on the right. We'll be doing this over the next few days, so continue to look for new pictures.

Animals: Kind and Cruel

We've already covered many of the animals we saw while on Safari in Tarangire and Lake Manyara, but we also saw a few animals in Zanzibar. After reading a paragraph in the Rough Guide about Changuu Island (also known as Prisoner Island) and the family of giant tortoises that live there, Wabes and I made it a mission to get to the island. So on our second day in Zanzibar we arranged for a fishing boat to take us out to Changuu and then out to the reef for some snorkelling.

After traveling about a mile from Stone Town's shore (through very choppy waters) we hopped off the boar at Changuu and ran up to the tortoise preserve. At first it appeared that the tortoises were in enclosures and that we could only look at them from marked paths. But it became clear that the paths were merely for our convenience when the tortoise keeper handed us a handful of spinach and told us there was no danger of being bitten (tortoises apparently have no teeth). So we wandered off the path into the enclosures and later into the woods where the less social tortoises overcame their shyness in order to eat spinach from our hands. The eldest tortoise (the baba kubwa, "big grandpa"), is supposedly 175 years old. He hung out near the entrance to the preserve and was clearly use to humans. He must have been one of the first tortoises to arrive in Zanzibar, when someone from the Seychelles gifted four of the animals to the British Consulate in Zanzibar. Now there are literally scores of tortoises on the island.

It's hard to describe why this was so cool so we'll let the pictures speak for themselves. In any case, tortoises have always be one of my (Kolz) favorite animals and this experienced pretty much confirmed that status.


We left Changuu for the reef at about 10:45 to get some snorkeling in before high sun. The reef and the fish were amazing but I somehow managed to catch my toes (the centimeter or so that remained exposed by the flippers) on a sea urchin. And unfortunately, sea urchins here are huge. It left a handful spine tips in my toes, but after getting out and being told it would be fine and that the pain would subside, I got back in with Wabes for a little more snorkeling. We then returned to Changuu where Wabes asked at the fancy island resort whether they could provide anything for the pain. A hotel employee cut off a branch of papaya tee and told her to apply the sap to the wounds. Not sure it worked, but it was interesting nonetheless. The epilogue is that the pain was gone by the evening but the tiny dots of purple spine remain in my toes. Another souvenir I guess...

Long Journey to Berlin

After riding in a cab, two planes, a train, and a subway, we've finally found our way to Berlin. Wabes has three days to sell me on the virtues of the city in which she spent the first half of the summer. I'm always jokingly skeptical about Germany, but thus far Berlin has proven to be a lively and interesting town. Wabes also arranged for us to stay in a sleek hotel in contrast to the hostels to which we'd grown accustomed in Tanzania.

Since there have been a few questions: a point of clarification on Wabes and I being "husband" and "wife." The Swahili ceremony was really nice and all our African friends were in attendance. We'll post some photos of the reception soon. And feel free to send gifts to our apartment in New York.

Just kidding - see this post at "with-an-i" for an explanation (read the fifth paragraph).

Zanzibar's Stone Town

So, I've slept a relatively peaceful night in the Dubai airport lounge while Kolz blogged and caught you all up on Dubai. We've still got to cover Zanzibar, which was probably one of the places I have liked the most of anywhere I've traveled. We packed a lot into three days, and stayed in Stone Town with the exception of an interesting journey out to an island just off the coast and a visit to a spice farm.


Zanzibar is a really interesting mix of Arabian, Indian, and Swahili African influences, and Stone Town, the old city center, is a UNESCO world heritage site. Which means it's pretty full of tourists, has good infrastructure - and to me, the tag is completely justified. It's full of amazing winding streets, tiny little alleys, high balconies with carved wood, and the famous doors, with carvings that indicate the religion and social status of the owner of the house. We started off with a wonderful walking tour and got to explore the market (which for foodies like us was really awesome - so many different fruits that don't exist at home!) and managed to orient ourselves alright. It is much like a Middle Eastern city, according to Kolz, but it was my first time seeing anything like it.

Weird little bits of the colonial era here and there, too - all of the elite clubs from a hundred years ago are now absolutely gorgeous hotels with rooftop bars overlooking the Indian Ocean. You can watch the dhows (wooden sailboats) going by, drink a gin & tonic if you can find a place that serves alcohol (because Zanzibar is largely Muslim), and soak in the sunset. Highlights of our walking tour included the House of Wonders, passageways for women from the royal household to go from palace to mosque without being seen by men, and the Freddie Mercury birthplace (though we later heard - from a couple who seemed to have chosen to Zanzibar for their honeymoon because of Queen - that his birthplace was actually another house in Stone Town). But that added an interesting element of pop culture to things.

Zanzibar was also safer and friendlier than Dar, and just easy...hard to leave, really. We've got more to say just about the food, and also about our day trips, but right now we have to catch our Flight 45 to Frankfurt!

Similarities Between Dubai International Airport and Vegas...

Posting from Dubai International Airport in UAE. Samsung is kind enough to set up an email station from which we can access the internet for free! Anyway, while there's much to catch up on regarding the Tanzania leg of the trip, I thought I'd write a quick post on the bizarreness of this airport in the middle of the desert.

In some ways it's like Vegas but (unfortunately) without the gambling or the sex (more on the latter below). It has that 'up all night no idea what time it is' feeling and the 'tacky kitsch mixed with wealthy glamour' appeal. At 1:00 am it was crowded with couples and families wandering the fancy duty free shopping. Palm trees line the center of the terminal and Arabian motifs abound. The shopping ranges from high class (fancy chocolates, cigars, etc.) to kitschy (giant gold hookahs, teddy bears dressed in traditional Muslim garb). When Wabes tried to obtain an update on American pop culture by flipping through magazines in the bookstore we noticed an interesting practice here in UAE; several people must spend several hours removing offensive content from western publications, as they all have dark marker lines over revealing photos of cleavage.

Anyway, I feel I've taken up my share of free time here at the Samsung station. But I'll try to post again before our flight takes off for Frankfurt.

Wabes' Mad Language Skills

I thought I'd post a brief comment on something Wabes would never write about either at this site or at "world-with-and-i." Her Swahili is really good and she's become quite the savvy local in the couple of weeks she's been here in Dar. It's funny to watch as people on the street say "hey mzungu" ("hey white woman") and she replies in Swahili. Usually a short exchange follows as the locals test whether she actually knows Swahili or (like me) only knows what to say in reply. Everyone is also intrigued by how she obtained her language skills and asks where she learned ("New York? Really?"). Our safari guide Lazarro said she was the first American he ever guided who knew the language.

This skill also provides me with some Tanzanian cred by proxy (though much of it evaporates when people turn to me and start speaking in Swahili and I have to politely tell them that only my "wife" speaks the language) and gives us a nice means of bargaining. I play the penny pinching husband who shakes his head in the negative when Wabes reports the most recent price. She then shifts back to Swahili and says I won't let her pay that much...

Safaris - Part I

Since Wabes is writing about Moshi and our adventures in urban areas, I thought I'd write about the wild side of Tanzania. Since we wanted to do both a Safari and visit Zanzibar we crammed a lot into the past few days. But overall we think it all worked out. It's always best to leave wanting more.

The safari portion of our trip left from Arusha (see past posts created from the safari office before Wabes and I jumped into the safari vehicle and took off). Because we arranged such a short safari we were unexpectedly alone on the trek. Driving to and from parks it was just the two of us, our guide/driver Lazaro, and our cook Emmanuel. Around the parks it was just Wabes, Lazaro, and I.

At first we though it might be more fun to have some other tourists along but we quickly realized how spoiled we would be having the vehicle to ourselves. For much of the first day at Tarangire, we stood in the van with our head's sticking out of the roof hatch, stopping and starting whenever we pleased. This meant that we decided it was worth going down one path rather than another in order to try to find a leopard (spotted earlier in the day by another group) but we were not willing to wait around for it. We decided to be happy with what we could find rather than spending all our times searching for the hidden lions and cheetahs. This meant we spent a long time along a river bank watch a herd of elephants (with several babies and a mother who stared us down and made serious noise any time the little ones stumbled off and got between us and the adults) roaming and playing around our vehicle. And it meant we could stop amongst a family of baboons for as long as we pleased, watching them circle the van (also with babies, only this time clinging to their mother's backs) and listening to them hoot at us. Sometimes we'd just watch giraffes along the side of the road until they crossed right in front of our vehicle giving us the perfect picture. We were even interested in the numerous birds - and Lazarro was more than happy to tell us what most of them were (we got the feeling he usually has westerners who only interested in seeing lions and leopards - he seemed to appreciate the fact that we were perfectly happy with the warthogs and water buffalo).We camped just outside the park and stayed in small but comfortable tent set up by the Masai man who maintained the site. Emmanuel cooked us a mix of Tanzanian food for dinner (curried chicken, pilau) and the next morning we had tea with omelettes for breakfast.

We spent day two at Lake Manyara National Park, notable for the diverstiy of ecosystems (rainforrest shifted to savannah shifted lakshore). We saw many of the same animals (though its always exciting to turn left and be faced by a giraffe) but the new animals for the day were the hippos lazing about by the park's "hipppo pool." We tried to capture the amazing view: pelicans and hippos in the foreground, wildebeests and zebras not far behind, and giraffes in the distance. The photos don't do the moment justice, but I've posted one below, anyway.

The end of our safari left us tired but not burned out. Though short, the trek proved to be the ideal length. And a few days in Zanzibar would follow, so we were excited about the next leg of the trip...

Different cities

We arrived at Kili airport last Wednesday after a very short night of sleep, but it was a beautiful flight (prop plane and all, no worries) and a great arrival. We got off the plane and it was cool, wet, and smelled amazing and grassy and clean. Dar gets pretty dusty, though there's nothing offensive about it. But the northern highlands are, and have been, coveted land for good reason.

We got a free shuttle to Moshi, a town at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro about 50 km from the airport. [I have to say km because that's what everyone told me, sorry.] It's prosperous from coffee planting, and also a heavily religious area, says the guidebook and historians, but my first impression was that it was relaxed, friendly, cleaner than Dar. And cool, finally. We found the tourist coffee shop and had a great lunch, and then I took off for my meeting at the KCMC. I thought that this hospital was a long-running medical center with strong connections to Germany, but it turns out it was founded in the 1970s and sure, German doctors work there, too, but...not so great for the history research. It was a good experience, and I'm very glad that I got out of the city and did some work, but a bit disheartening. Every institution has a different imprint, and way of doing things, and this one was very rigid.

Luckily, Moshi was so nice. And I gave it a good try, so I could feel less guilty about vacation. Kolz managed to meet everyone in the market and make lots of friends & helpers, so by the time I got back to town, he had the shops figured out and knew where to try for soccer jerseys, everything. And this with minimal Swahili, it was awesome. We had a great time choosing cloth for a dress for me, and looking at jerseys, walking around and taking pictures. Moshi is so small compared to Dar, it was comfortable just to wander. We had a nice dinner with a group of grad students & researchers, and it was good to show Kolz the sort of interaction which has made my time here so valuable and productive. Such nice folks, and one lives literally caddy-corner to us in NY!

Moshi was also memorable because of our hostel (again, Lutheran lodgings - they were everywhere!). It was at first glance palatial and awesome - we had a sitting room! - but then ended up being a bit crazy. VERY cold water and skeeters, but still nice. At 4:30 am, we were awakened by the call to prayer, a very deep-voiced muezzin that made for a disorienting alarm-clock. I hadn't known there was a mosque nearby...but it was actually sort of soothing, in the pre-dawn. I liked that it must happen most days, it gave a sense of rhythm to things for me. We've been traveling so much that in retrospect, those little things are very nice. We decided to give up trying for more sleep after call to prayer #2, and the nearby rooster. But the safari company was coming to fetch us very early - 7:30 - so it was no problem.

That takes us up to Kolz's post about the safari which was totally incredible...and we'll catch up with Zanzibar, too...

Sorry our posts have been rather infrequent lately. On the evenings we've had internet access, we've only had enough energy to drop our bed nets and fall asleep. And the rare times we've been ready to dedicating some time to blogging, there have been server outages (or something) in Zanzibar.

Needless to say, we've only got a few minutes before the Internet cafe here in Dar closes but some highlights from the past few days include:
- Riding through a herd of elephant in Tarangire Park
- Exploring Stone Town in Zanzibar
- A brief mishap with a sea urchin
- Friendly interactions with a family of giant tortoises on Changuu Island near Zanzibar
- Visiting my (Wabes) lovely Zanzibari mama's family home (who I met on my plane ride to Dar) eating homemade chapatis and chatting
- Waking up unexpectedly to the call to prayer at 4:30 am in Moshi

More to come tomorrow!

After I signed off yesterday afternoon, Wabes and I jumped in a safari van and left Tanzania's cities for the safari side of the trip. But before getting into that, I should finish explaining our urban experience.
My first few days in Tanzania were spent in cities. Most people who come to Tanzania seem to head straight to the national parks for safaris. But Wabes and I both like cities and I wanted to see where Wabes had been spending the past few weeks.
Hence the first day in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania's largest city and a port on the Indian Ocean. After wandering its neighborhoods with Wabes as a guide (see previous post), I met two of her friends at dinner: Bea, a grad student studying history in the Midwest (and currently doing research in Dar) and her boyfriend, Reger, a native of Zanzibar. Reger spoke limited English, but with Bea and Wabes assistance I could communicate with him about everything from music to football. He supports a Dar team named Simba (lion in swahili), that tends to affiliate with opposition politics (in contrast, our waiter supported the pro-government team, Yanga). Jet lag began to catch up with me over our Indian/Tanzanian fusion meal, but I wanted to stay out a little later after Reger promised us some live music. So rarely can one find a random thing in a guide (in this case a mention of the Kariakoo Social Hall in the Rough Guide to Tanzania) and have it work this well - I mentioned the music hall, Reger called a friend, and when he got of the phone he told us that there was a taarab concert that very evening...
Taarab is a music genre unique to East Africa. The show was great, though it was odd to be the only white people in a very large room. Entry came with a free apple-flavored beer, though I was too tired to enjoy it. I made it through the intro jam and first two performances before Wabes said I should really get to bed. (I was fading in and out at a rather loud concert...) And there ended my first day in East Africa.

Posting from Arusha in Northern Tanzania. After a grueling trip (see the previous post on what to do with twelve hours in Heathrow - I primarily just struggled to get some sleep) I arrived in Dar es Salaam early Tuesday morning. Wabes picked me up at the airport we went back to her hostel before transfering to the upscale hotel down the street so that I could take a hot shower. Because Wabes told the manager that her stay was a surprise for her "husband," who was finally coming to visit, the hotel gave us an extra fancy suite with a fabulous views of the city.

We spent the afternoon wandering Dar: eating fresh coconuts and oranges; admiring the buildings, temples, and crafts; getting Indian food snacks in the Asian quarter (in a remnant of colonialism, the city is still marginally broken into three quarters: local Africans, Asians, and the section in which colonial leaders previously lived - you can guess which section has paved streets).

... About to leave for our safari - the guide just said the truck is ready. (I'm typing this from the safari agency. The power goes out constantly - as it does everywhere in TZ - but here they have generator that kick in right away so that I don't lose my work). Stayed tuned for future posts on African music, soccer and politics, and Moshi. Hopefully we'll have much to report when we return from our game drive.

Things to do in Heathrow Airport when you are there for a 12-hour layover (for Kolz):

- find the "quiet room" and arrange lounge chair/chair to make bed, catch up on sleep lost on red-eye flight.

- browse through Boots and the remarkable selection of differently-named British health care and cosmetic products.

- calculate the exchange rate from dollars to Tanzanian shillings in your head (practice that long division).

- make up names for the babies you see.

- study wildlife in guidebook so you are an expert spotter when you get out on safari.

- re-acquaint yourself with Premier League football and recent performance of Tottenham Hotspur.

- choose club to go to upon arrival in Dar-es-Salaam with ecstatic-to-see-you girlfriend and her cool friends.