Kelly and Quang's Global Roam

Making a Move

2007-11-12T08:42:00.000-08:00

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.

Neither Hillary Nor Evita

2007-10-29T07:42:00.001-07:00

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.

Che's Hair For Sale!

2007-10-26T07:37:00.001-07:00

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....

Punky Junky Lives

2007-10-04T15:44:00.000-07:00

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!

Prayers for Myanmar

2007-09-28T07:35:00.000-07:00

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.

Must Travel Abroad Before You Can Graduate

2007-09-26T17:16:00.000-07:00

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.

Don't Leave Home without your Nail Polish

2007-08-29T12:27:00.001-07:00

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."

Honeymoon Registries Can Send You Packing

2007-08-27T07:05:00.001-07:00

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.

Big Blue Marble

2007-08-13T07:31:00.000-07:00

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.

Suspicious Medical Activities

2007-08-08T06:57:00.000-07:00

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

Chillin' With Che

2007-08-06T07:29:00.001-07:00

Sigh.

Here's the closest I'll ever get to Che.

Taken in Havana in a dingy museum built to glorify the Revolution.

Border Line Obsessive?

2007-08-04T07:22:00.001-07:00

I never read gossip mags (except when I'm at the hair salon) and I certainly never buy them (unless I'm getting on an airplane). This week, however, I couldn't help myself. I bought In Touch Weekly at my neighborhood grocery store where someone I know might have seen me!

I quickly stuffed it in a brown paper bag and rushed it home. There was one thing inside that magazine I wanted: an ad for a new, upcoming TV series playing off the face of Che!

The ad reminded me of a picture I'd snapped in Buenos Aires of an artistic graffiti Che-cross-Marilyn Monroe.

Of course I had to google The Fashionista Diaries, which turned out to be a reality show about young fashion grads getting their first jobs in the Big Apple. It's a show on which I will pass. Nevertheless, I had to admire their clever spoof of a global icon.

Once at home in front of google, however, I thought back to a conversation I had over the weekend with a friend of mine. She said, "Who's this Che guy you're always writing about on your blog?"

Che? How could she not know about Che?!?!

"How much do you want to know? This could take a while," I warned.

"Just the basics," she answered.

And of course I proceeded to monopolize the next hour with Che talk.

It's not that I'm Che-obsessed, I heard myself tell her. I'm not a revolutionary. I'm not a communist or a socialist or whatever else people might say he is. It's not even that I admire his Robin Hood mentality, his intellect or his desire to help others, no matter how twisted that desire might have become. In some pictures he is kinda cute, but in others he looks totally grungy and gross. I don't fantasize about Che.

I do feel slightly sorry for him. There are few people in the world that actually deserve to be gunned down and buried in a hidden grave for decades, and I'm not convinced Che was one of them. Not only that, but I can't help but doubt the "friendship" between Fidel and Che. What kind of a person turns his murdered BFF into political propaganda?

Here's my thing about Che: I'm totally smitten with his reach. It's almost as if he is omnipresent. His image is nearly everywhere. In fact, two weekends ago, I drove out of the city to a farmer's raspberry stand I know just to get one of the season's very last pints of hand-picked raspberries. The rural teenage kid who took my money was wearing a Che t-shirt.

If I think about it long enough, I believe my borderline Che obsession can be traced back to something I saw in a tiny Honduran town.

I watched a local man give a gringo tourist a hug. The tourist was shocked. He'd done nothing to invite the hug. He didn't know this sober Honduran guy handing out hugs on a dusty, unpaved street.

After the hug, the local did something even more amazing. He unhooked a chain from around his neck and passed it to the gringo. Then he walked off.

The gringo looked down at the necklace, its medallion was an image of Che.

The connection? The gringo was wearing a Che shirt.

Alive and Well in Minneapolis

2007-08-02T06:43:00.000-07:00

It's not everyday that Matt Lauer comes to town. Sadly, he's here in Minneapolis to cover the collapse of the 35W bridge. At this point, the morning after, it doesn't feel like Lauer and crew are saying anything we didn't already hear last night. As you can imagine, last night all channels were all bridge all the time.

A family member - one of Quang's cousins - was on the bridge in her car when it collapsed. She swam to shore and was treated at a local hospital. Her car's a gonner. She is hurt but will thankfully be fine.

It is quite a scary scenario to imagine. That is a bridge I've crossed countless times. Of course, once you get home and are safe on your own couch watching the coverage you start to recount, "I just drove on that bridge last Thursday."

"I tried to get on that bridge Tuesday night, but the on ramp was closed for construction."

For All Your Revolutionary Needs

2007-07-26T07:01:00.000-07:00

Hurry! Hurry! Sale ends July 30! The Che Store is having a huge sale because it is July 26th.

The 26th of July Movement is what Fidel Castro and Che Guevara called themselves and their comrades who entered Cuba, fought their way to Havana, ousted Batista and took control of the island. The 26th of July Movement led to the Revolution.

Their invasion and march toward the capital didn't actually start on July 26. It started in December. The movement was named after July 26 because on July 26 a few years prior, Fidel Castro and his buds attacked an army barracks. The attack ended badly for Castro and the gang, but many consider this barracks attack to be Castro's first attempt at a revolution. Thus it became the namesake of his successful revolutionary push. He was finishing what he'd started.

But anyway, all this detracts from the fact that the Che Store is having a sale. If you've ever wanted Che paraphernalia, this may be your chance.

Love Poem to the World?

2007-07-23T14:12:00.000-07:00

A friend forwarded me a link to an online magazine called Words without Borders. The magazine strives to "...introduce exciting international writing to the general public..." It does this by posting recent works translated into English, which is necessary, it says because "... 50% of all the books in translation now published worldwide are translated from English, but only 6% are translated into English."

Here is a poem I ran across on the site. It was written by Raquel Garzon, an Argentine, and translated by Louis B. Popkin.

To kiss you
at the foot of every streetlamp
on every corner
of every city
in every language
with kisses of melon, orange and rain
and light of noon in my gaze

as if nothing but mistletoe
ran in our blood...
that's what I wish for.

The poem is titled "Naive," which caused me pause. My gut reaction upon reading the poem was that it was a love poem ... but to whom? To a lover or to the world? And why naive? Does she think it is naive of her to dream of traveling the world with her lover? Or does she think it is naive of her to think the lover will love her back? Or does she think it is naive of her to hope that life will hold little more than travel and love?

I don't know.

The Compulsion to Go

2007-07-16T08:21:00.000-07:00

I like to read the Rake. It's a free magazine circulated in the Twin Cities area. I'm always impressed that it's free. It's printed on glossy paper, not newsprint, and has nice design elements.

The July issue has a book review in it titled Holiday in Cambodia. It was written by Brad Zellar and is more about his musing on the state of modern-day travel writing than it is a book review. He wrote the piece after reading, he explained, six issues of The Best American Travel Writing over a couple months' time. He was struck by the fact that many of the essays were "...perilous and disheartening dispatches that go well beyond the merely exotic to the truly terrifying."

Zellar wonders about this. Newstand travel magazines are selling issues chock full of the "ten newest Caribbean hot spots" to work-weary Americans, yet a whole other genre of travel writing exists. These travel writers are trekking off to Uganda and witnessing genocide. Why witness genocide when you could be tanning on the beach?

Here are some of Zellar's conclusions:

"The newest generation of travel writers (and some are already old hands) is up to something else entirely."

"...a writer has to be willing to suffer, not only to risk life and limb, but also to venture to far-flung places most of us will never feel inclined to visit, and are unlikely otherwise to think about."

"It is a compulsion that can no longer be explained as the simple desire to go where few Western people have been, or to challenge the limits of human endurance; rather it signals a willingness - and in many cases, an apparent need - to go where few Americans in their right minds would voluntarily go, and to stare hard at things the majority of us expend a great deal of psychic energy trying to ignore: forsaken cities, war zones, ruined and obliterated landscapes, sites of natural, ecological or economic disasters and/or inconceivable poverty and squalor. If the things these writers have to show and tell us are a jolting departure from the vacation fare we’re subjected to by friends and co-workers, maybe it’s precisely that jolt that makes those things worth looking at, and into. Maybe they’re worth a visit, however discomfiting, from the comfort of our easy chairs."

Go Jed Go!

2007-07-14T07:41:00.000-07:00

My friend, Jed Sheldon, just released his first album! Go Jed Go!

I met Jed my first weekend at college and we became close friends over the next four years. His gang and my gang accompanied each other to entirely too many keggars during that time, especially our freshman year. Here we are at the ripe age of 18 at one such party. That's him in the red hat, and me just to his left.

As luck would have it, Jed and I ended up in a freshman comp class together and were paired as an editing team. Each editing team had to have a name and we called ourselves the "Gumballs" for a reason that totally escapes me now. Anyway, we used to mark up each other's essays and argue over whose way of wording a thought made the most sense. We were really proud of ourselves, too. We consistently earned top grades in the class and just knew we were each destined for creative greatness.

After college he moved to southern California, determined to make it big. Now he's finally caught part of the dream he's been chasing. Check out his tunes.

Rebuild a Virtual Island

2007-07-03T09:15:00.000-07:00

I am anything but a whiz when it comes to video games, yet I've stumbled across another free, online, educational game with an international outlook. It's called Sayansi and it's posted on the Montreal Center of Science's web site. Here's the situation: a horrible storm has devastated an island and its up to you to help rebuild it. You must organize health and education initiatives, increase crop production and ensure a ready supply of potable water.

You do have to register in order to play the game, and I'll readily admit that I did not do so well - although I think this had more to do with my inability to figure out all the bells and whistles and clickable icons than it did with my ability to organize a humanitarian crisis. Or maybe it's just awfully hard to organize a humanitarian crisis.

Give it a whirl right here.

The Trail to Epulu

2007-06-27T08:01:00.000-07:00

Can you make it to Epulu?

The Brookfield Zoo, which is in Chicago, has an interactive computer game on its web site. Here's the premise:

You arrive in Africa determined to make your way to the village of Epulu to discover secrets promised in a letter from your grandfather. You fly in, then transfer to a Jeep with four local kids who will serve as your guides. Along the way, however, the Jeep breaks down and you must decide how to go the rest of the way - follow the dusty dirt road or trek through the jungle. You solicit advice from your guides but quickly figure out that either way, it's bound to be an adventure.

Play the Ways of Knowing Trail!

A Strange Obsession

2007-06-26T18:44:00.000-07:00

I have a strange obsession. I collect banana stickers. This has been going on for years.

It started after I spent 6 summer weeks in Guatemala. While there, I ate a banana a day. They were cheap, filling, healthy and plentiful. As a budget backpacker, what wasn't to love?

When I came home, I continued the trend and took particular pleasure in my banana purchases when the sticker on the bunch read Guatemala. In a way, those Guatemalan bananas kept my Guatemalan travels fresh and alive. They still do. When I'm standing in the produce aisle, if I have a choice between Guatemalan bananas and Costa Rican bananas, I always pick the Guatemalan.

I started collecting the stickers when I was teaching 8th grade world geography. I envisioned an entire geography lesson involving banana stickers, maps of Latin America and a work sheet titled, "The Banana Republic: So Much More Than a Store."

I saved banana stickers for a year and diligently worked to amass an impressive collection. I shopped for bananas in California, New York and Arizona. I found banana stickers in those states that I never found in Minnesota. For example, I remember a Jamaican banana sticker I picked up in Orange County. To this day, I've never seen a Jamaican banana here at home.

I did teach my banana sticker lesson. My students were convinced I was rather mad when I unveiled page after page of banana stickers. They were never as excited about them as I was, but I do think they learned a thing or two.

Even though I'm no longer teaching 8th grade world geography, I can't quite shake my banana sticker habit. I peel them off bananas and stick them on the side of the refrigerator. It drives Quang batty. They're ugly, he complains. I eventually throw them out, but not until I have a diverse little collection. These stickers pictured here are on their way out...but sooner or later I'll have to go back to the grocery store.

A New Spin on Advertizing

2007-06-17T08:01:00.000-07:00

A few years back Quang and I stumbled across this shoe store in New York City. It was just a block or so from Wall Street. How could we not stop for a picture?

Fresh Water for Haiti

2007-06-13T07:28:00.000-07:00

Way back in March, I interviewed a local couple about volunteer efforts they'd undertaken to bring fresh water wells and sanitary latrine systems to the Central Plateau region of Haiti. The article finally came out at the start of June and now I've got a portion of it posted on my site.

The interview was highly engaging for me. The couple, Ron and Donna, were travelers with a mission that was near to my heart, too. While I've never been to Haiti, I have seen shocking water conditions in other parts of the world. In fact, this past holiday season, Quang and I talked my family into donating collective funds to World Vision earmarked for well construction.

After speaking with Ron and Donna, I wished I had known about them and their organization when my family was searching for a way to make a donation to further fresh water efforts. Ron has gotten so involved in the issue through his Rotary group that he's created Safe Water Plus, with the purpose of teaching other organizations how to get involved with and support fresh water efforts of their own.

They also told me about Haiti Outreach, another nonprofit organization based just down the road from me. It is so nearby, I couldn't believe I'd never heard of them before. Haiti Outreach works in many ways to bring positive changes to Haitians.

Monster Cieba Tree Take Two

2007-06-09T08:29:00.000-07:00

Perhaps the freakier thing about the monster in the Cieba tree is that it showed up in two different pictures, which made me think it was more than just a momentary, odd trick of jungle lighting. Here is my friend Michelle posing with the same tree. I've tried to go as close as I can without getting overly grainy.

Monster Cieba Tree

2007-06-07T07:48:00.000-07:00

Years ago, in Guatemala, my friend Michelle and I took a row boat down the jungle-choked Rio de la Pasion to reach the Mayan ruins of Ceibal. Once there, we hiked through the foliage and came upon some massive cieba trees, for which it seemed the ruins were named. This one was so hugely impressive that we just had to stop and take some pictures. That's me tucked back there behind a root.

After I got home and got my pictures developed, this photo freaked me out. There is a monster hidden within the bark of the tree.

Can you see it?

Inclusive Junk Mail: Take 3

2007-06-05T09:18:00.000-07:00

Last fall, we got a strange envelope in our mailbox. It was a mass mailer from Dish Network written in Chinese and addressed to Quang. Then, a few months later, we got another one, this time in Korean. At the time, I predicted that a few more months would pass and the we'd get a third in yet a third Asian language.

I was right, sort of. A third Dish Network mass mailer did arrive in our mailbox over the weekend. Instead of coming in Vietnamese or Japanese or Thai, it is in Korean again.

If you missed my first two rants on the inclusive junk mail, here is a link to the first, and here is a link to the second.