Kelly and Quang's Global Roam

Hello to any and all Global Roam readers. Thanks for checking in, but my blog is moving.

Since Quang and I are no longer roaming the globe on a full-time basis, I decided the Global Roam blog needed to shift focus.

The Global Roam postings still exist. I haven't deleted them, and I'm not planning to. You can still access them by doing a search on GoNomad's homepage.

From now on, however, if you'd like to keep up-to-date on my doings, you'll need to head on over to my new blog - the er files. I'll be posting about my life as a writer, reader, editor, traveler, teacher and speaker.

The citizens of Argentina just elected a female president.

A female president who is the current first lady. Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is married to President Nestor Kirchner. However, she is a successful politician in her own right. She is a senator and a lawyer and she just beat out all the other candidates without having to take the voters into a run-off election.

As our own election cycle ramps up, Cristina is denying that she is anything like Hillary Clinton and refusing comparisons to Eva Peron. She is her own person, she said in a news story, and there is nothing better than being yourself.

She takes office in December.

Actually, it already sold - for $119,500!

I can't believe nobody told me about the auction of Che-related memorabilia that took place in Dallas yesterday. I sooooooooo would have been there. Not to buy any hair - that's gross and stupidly expensive - but still. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in a room full of Che-crazy bidders!

The winning bid belonged to a bookstore owner from Houston who - lucky duck - managed to walk away with a clipping of Che's hair and a host of other goodies.

Here's the news story....

Every once in a while, I go back over old blog entries. There is one blog topic that consistently has new comments every time I return. Any entry about Punky Junky hair gel draws a crowd.

Quang first bought a bottle of Punky Junky when we were traveling in Mexico because he admired the slick, spiky hair dos of many Mexican men. We called them "The Gel Boys." Once Quang started using Punky Junky, he swore it was the best gel he'd ever used. It was a sad, sad day when it ran out.

But last week, I discovered that I can now order Punky Junky online! I promptly ordered two bottles for Quang with the thought that I would save them for his Christmas present. But I couldn't hold out! As soon as they arrived in the mail today I tore into the padded envelope, then wrapped them, and gave them to Quang when he walked in the door.

And if you've got some time to click on over the the Punky Junky web site, check out the "Gallery." Gel users can submit photos of their super spiked hair!

I am shocked and horrified by the news from Myanmar. Last night, I spent a couple hours online watching news clips, reading current articles and searching for blogs on the issue. I watched a
CNN video about a man named Ko Htike.

Ko is Burmese but living in London. He is blogging furiously about the protests in Myanmar. Friends, family, strangers, journalists are emailing him photos, videos, messages about what is happening there around the clock and he is posting them to his blog.

I am extremely fascinated by this entire situation. Because I was in Myanmar a year ago, I keep searching the images of protesters in Yangon, trying to figure out if I can place where they are with where I was. I've dug out my maps, my photos, and tried to compare. It's shocking to realize I was right there. Right there. I walked that wide avenue. I walked around Sule Pagoda.

I am fascinated by the trail that technology is weaving. I can't believe how up-to-the minute some of these stories and photos are. I am impressed that images are getting out of the country. I am so overwhelmed by the bravery, courage and determination that the people of Myanmar are showing. So overwhelmed that my eyes well up with tears.

Protests aside, for these people to take pictures, to "smuggle" them out of the country by email, is a total act of courage that I don't think most of us in the West can understand.

We snap photos and send them out over the Internet so willy nilly. To friends, to family. Pictures of our dogs, our babies, our new cars, the gathering we had the other night.

The people of Myanmar are taking pictures of soldiers shooting, of their injuries, and emailing them to the world, hoping, hoping, and hoping that some of us will be affected, that some of us will help them, that some of us will be moved, stand up and say this is not right.

To find an Internet connection inside Myanmar, first of all, is daunting. The Internet was not easy to come by when I was there. And now news reports say that the military junta has cut off the Internet. The ruling powers have discovered that the people are getting out the real news and they want to shut it down. This is so scary to me.

If the ruling junta shuts off all communication to the outside world, what are the planning to do to their own people?

Look at these protest pictures closely. Some of protesters aren't even wearing any shoes. Others are wearing flip-flops.

Would you ever do that? Would you ever attend a massive outdoor protest in your country's biggest city against a trigger-happy military and do so wearing flimsy flip flops?

I pray for the people of Myanmar. They deserve freedom and peace and happiness and education and access to the Internet.

I wonder sometimes, just what it would take for Americans to ban together, care enough about one issue and rise up together.

After all, American do share something with the Burmese.

Their democratically elected president has been denied the presidency.

Hmmm. Sounds vaguely familiar.

The protest and crackdowns in Myanmar have weighed heavy on my mind this week. While devouring the Myanmar news in yesterday's Star Tribune, I also ran across this article:

U's Carlson School to require students to travel abroad

The University of Minnesota Carlson School of Business is requiring all incoming freshmen to have a valid passport. Before they can graduate from the program, they have to have put that passport to use. The university is requiring all undergraduate business students to have some type of international experience before they can get out.

About time.

I like to paint my nails and I get a kick out of the polish names that OPI comes up with. For example, I recently bought one called Nomad's Dream. It makes my nails blend in with my skin. I think if my toenails were buried in sand at the beach, they would be hard to find. I wonder if that's how OPI came up with the name. Nomad's wandering across the Sahara on camel kind of blend into the scenery, too.

But Nomad's Dream is a pretty tame name compared to the other names OPI comes up with. Every so often, the company comes out with a new color collection and some of those collections are based on place names. Someone in OPI's creative department is obviously a traveler.

From the Japanese collection, my favorite name is "Osaka-To-Me Orange."

From the South American collection, I like "La Paz-itively Hot."

From the European collection, I like (and this may very well be my favorite) "Would You Like a Lick-Tenstein?"

From the Mexican collection, I like "Tijuana Dance?"

From the Australian collection, I like "Canberra't Without You."

From the Russian collection, I like "St. Petersburgundy."

The Canadian collection has a bunch of great names, like "At Your Quebec & Call," "You Ottaware Purple," "Don't Wine... Yukon Do It!," "Paint Your Toron-Toes Rose."

At long last, my story about how to register for a honeymoon is out. Since Minnesota Bride is first and foremost a print publication, my story didn't end up on the web site, however, I've scanned a portion of it into my web site. What I've included should give any reader a clear overview of how a honeymoon registry works. Plus, I've included the nifty sidebar, which lists various places and ways to register for a honeymoon.

My brother and I used to get up early on Saturday mornings and watch cartoons. One of our favorite shows was called Big Blue Marble. The show was about kids living in different parts of the world. It also had a globe mascot that used to dance around at the end of the show and tell viewers to send in their names and addresses and they would get paired with a pen pal. My brother and I were so taken with the idea that we sent in our names more than once.

I had two pen pals - one from New Jersey and one from Zimbabwe. I remember getting letters from the girl in Zimbabwe. It was so exciting to look at the globe and think about how far that letter had come. I don't remember anything about her - not even her name - just simply than I was totally enchanted with the idea of Zimbabwe. We didn't communicate for very long. Only four or five letters were exchanged. Nonetheless, it put her country on my radar.

My other pen pal was named Lauren. She was from New Jersey. We wrote letters for years, exchanged school photos and even met. She came to stay with my family for a week one summer. I'd just finished 9th grade. At that point, we'd been writing to each other for five years. We've met several times since then. Now we send emails.

I think about the Big Blue Marble from time to time. I wonder if this childhood show is at all responsible for my adult wanderlust. Whenever I think about the pen pal aspect of the show, I am astonished. What parent in their right mind these days would let their child send a postcard to a TV show with their complete name and street address written on it? I guess the late 70s and early 80s were a simpler time.

For some reason, the Big Blue Marble was back in the forefront of my mind this weekend. I googled the phrase and actually found a YouTube video of the opening song, the dancing globe and the end credits. Now I know for sure that the late 70s and early 80s were a simpler time. The opening song is really quite dorky and would hardly fly with today's kids. But stick it out and you can see the dancing globe that put me in contact with the world.

This article appeared in yesterday's Star Tribune and is just too hilarious not to pass along to the world. Click quickly. The article gets archived after 13 days...

Headline:
Police seek "professionals" who removed St. Paul man's testicles