Of Planes, Trains and Automobiles...

Okay, so I did not take any trains but 2 weeks travelling sadly came to an end this weekend. While I'm still adjusting to post trip jet-lag and inexplicable waves of sleepiness at work, I've been contemplating a couple of stats I racked up on my travels:

• Number of planes travelled on in 2 weeks: 12
  
• Number of mind-numbing hours in transit: 24 (what? a full day in transit?)
• Number of gambling slot machines played while in transit at Reno Airport, Nevada: 2

• 
• Amount of dollars won gambling at Reno airport: -3.00
  
• Number of really nice, posh hotels stayed in on trip: 1
• Number of really shady/dodgy motels stayed in (i.e. home to escaped cons and drug dealers): 1
• Number of trips made to San Francisco: 3
  
• Number of times I saw the Golden Gate Bridge while in San Francisco: 0
• Number of times I went to Chinatown, San Francisco while in San Francisco: 0
• Number of times I saw Alcatraz Island while in San Francisco: 0
• Number of tourist attractions visited in San Francisco: 0
  
• Number of ATMs in the whole of Tahoe City, Lake Tahoe: 3
  
• Number of Conference buffet meals consumed: 10
• Amount of kilos gained in 2 weeks: 5 (yikes!)
• Number of high-brow presentations/lectures listened to: 25
• Number of high-brow presentations slept through: 7
  
• Number of cups of coffee consumed: 45
• Number of hours "incarcerated" while in transit in Cancun, Mexico without a visa: 4
  

• Number of (really polite) Cancun airport officials on the case: 5

• Number of Mexican Quesadillas consumed in the US: 5

• Number of Mexican Quesadillas consumed while in Mexico: 0
• Number of times conned by airport porters in Ghana and Mexico: 2 (what happened to once-bitten?)
  
• Number of times camera failed when Presidents of countries randomly passed by : 2
• Number of life-altering minutes spent at the Che Guevara memorial in Santa Clara: 30
  
• Number of caves visited: 2
• Number of rides by boat across a river: 2
  
• Number of hours travelling by car sightseeing: 15
  
• Number of divine Starbucks Frappuccinos consumed: 1
  

• Total amount of money spent on credit card: unthinkable

This really sums up my trip; sad it is all over, glad to be back and not on another plane and enriched by new experiences!

Aint that America...

I will not deny that unlike some people, I love America. After a 3 year hiatus it is actually good to be back in the land of the free. It is great to watch weird, voyeuristic reality tv and my new favorite is the absolutely tacky but interesting Real Housewives of Orange County (see picture above). Alas, due to the credit crunch, there are fewer ads on TV for free credit cards and car loans. Some things still remain the same on American TV, Fox News is still skewering all liberals (poor President Obama) while CNN and MSNBC are still flying the left of center media beacon. One other thing I love about America is that customer service is amazing and strangers will strike up a conversation with you on the bus and share their life-story. Usually in Ghana when a stranger strikes up a conversation with me it is a barrage of one-sided questions to satisfy their curiosity about the oddity that is me. In Europe I find most people keep to themselves. America on the other hand is bursting with smiles and friendliness. I must admit, my beloved New York is not quite Friendliness Central especially on first encounter but it still has an undeniable vibe to it.

As I type, I'm in a surreal Norwegian-style ski resort called Granlibakken on Lake Tahoe. Apparently Lake Tahoe is on the border between California and Nevada. The altitude is high, my knuckles are frozen and I'm suffering from jetlag even after 4 days or so away from Ghana. Maybe it is because this is my first visit to the West Coast and so the time difference is killing me. It is 9:30am here but in Ghana it is time to get off work for most people already.

Despite being severely over-fed with delicious culinary delights, the hardest part about this trip is that I'm not here on holiday. I'm attending a high-brow conference all about worm infections. It is a privilege to mingle with people you have only read about but it is excruciatingly difficult to stay awake for some of the evening sessions. Last night, the words used by the speaker in the last presentation were all in English but strung together in sentences, they sounded like Greek to me. Fortunately, I was not the only one who heard the Greek. My fellow jet-lag crew felt the same way!