In the time since my last blog post, I took a brief, yet densely intense return trip to America, my second since originally coming to Tanzania in June of 2011. My two-week refresher included attending a cousin’s wedding near Chicago, followed by a baseball-road-trip-inspired tour of Texas. As it was my first taste of ballpark tours in 3 summers, as well as my first chance to watch live baseball in a couple years, I was extremely excited and more than willing to pack in the extra travelling to an already-limited stay home (besides, who can complain about transportation that leaves on-time and gives you a seat all to yourself?).
My Texas tour began in Austin, where I had a day to explore the campus at the University of Texas and splurge on some delicious tex-mex stuffed avocados and sweet tea. After meeting up with the rest of the gang, we drove to Houston to see an Astros-Yankees game, whose meaninglessness in terms of league standings was overshadowed by what I thought to be a really cool stadium in Minute Maid Park. The highlight was getting to see the engineering wonder of the 20-minute retractable roof opening for a post-game fireworks display. The next day we got an early start to Arlington to catch a Rangers-Angels game (this one actually relevant) that got bumped up 7 hours due to imminent storms. Narrowly dodging the rains after the Rangers victory, we sought shelter and killed some time playing 4-way air hockey, complements of Dave and Busters, and then stayed the night at Belle’s family’s house near Plano.
As luck would have it, some of the other recently-returned PCVs from my class (and fellow Njombe-natives) were also in the area and were able to meet up for a very disappointing all-you-can-eat pancakes brunch at Steak ‘n Shake (it’s no IHOP, I shoulda known…). While the baseball group headed back to Austin, I stayed a couple extra days to spend some more time with Belle’s family. They took me to the Texas State Fair in Dallas, which featured the single largest display of unexpectedly deep-fried foods I’ve ever seen, including (of course) the deep-fried thanksgiving dinner. I was also able to try all kinds of home-made and dine-in Thai food (none of which are done justice by the word scrumptrulescent) and also meet a lot of the extended family and friends who live nearby.
The trip home was a great way to rejuvenate myself as I continue now in my one-year extension, but in actuality it was just a snack, as I’ll be coming home once again around Thanksgiving for my month-long home leave granted by Peace Corps. So for everyone I wasn’t able to see this time, I’ll still see you soon!
As for life back in Tanzania, things have been getting really exciting with our Shika na Mikono group, so much so that it warrants its own separate post! And so, submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, I call this blog post…
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