where in the world is steph....

the language of hola

stephhef — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 03:14:00 GMT

I would hazard to guess that the first word I learned in Spanish was “hola”. Once I thought of it as simple word, a replacement for “hello” in my familiar tongue. I had put relatively little thought into it. However, I've come to recognize some of the many meanings of “hola” being said around me. Mostly I hear the friendly hola's of my host family, teachers, and others around town. There is no meaning other than, hello and it's good to see you. This hola is the way I prefer it.

There are the school children's hola's that come out nervously as if on a dare to talk to the foreigner, guessing wether or not I'll respond. Almost always followed by rolls of laughter. There are the eternally hopeful holas of shop owners and restaurant workers, who wish for me to come in and spend my money. Then there is the hola of my neighbors, these come in two forms. The hola of people begrudgingly saying hello because they see you every day, and quiet holas so that if I don't respond it was if they haven't even said it at all.

And then there is my least favorite hola of all, the kind that can make one feel like they are standing naked on a street corner if they put to much thought into it.

Just goes to show you, language isn't so much about what you say, but rather how you say it.

For more on my adventures in Nicaragua, visit http://ketoleavesthesea.wordpress.com/

Birthday Wishes The Power of 10

stephhef — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 06:55:00 GMT

31 years! Wahoo! Being here reminds me that I have so much more than I ever could really need. So this year for my Birthday I'm asking my friends and family to join me in joining "The Power of 10".

To learn more about The Power of 10, Cambodian, and education watch this short video. http://jointhepowerof10.org/

Multitasking

stephhef — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 06:46:00 GMT

There was no shame when our taxi driver whipped out a paper and proceeded to read it while driving...http://ketoleavesthesea.wordpress.com/2010/10/16/multitasking/

Monkey Business

stephhef — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 06:40:00 GMT

...That was until I looked out the window to see two very hairy arms swinging on the fence across the street. I kept leaning to get a better view, but those arms were way too quick for me, quickly disappearing behind the truck. Now I’m not going to say it was a monkey, but as it is a very real possibility-with that I remembered I’m in Nicaragua... Read the rest of this post and stories from my new travels at http://ketoleavesthesea.wordpress.com/2010/10/09/monkey-business/

Chickens Make Good Housepets?

stephhef — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 06:38:00 GMT

I’ve recently (as in 2 am two nights ago) come to question the wisdom of my mother, “Chickens make good house pets”. While often the tagline for many family jokes, I have no doubt that my mother believes this phrase to be true. And over the years, I think I’ve slowly become a convert as well, that is until I came to Nicaragua...http://ketoleavesthesea.wordpress.com/2010/10/07/chickens-make-good-house-pets/

Beachy Behaviors

stephhef — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 06:29:00 GMT

The outfielders were shoeless, centerfield in the surf, and the infield was full of young boys hopeful to be part of the action. As I walked towards the game the teams swelled and the outfield expanded, until it was clear that the one set of sunbathers left of the beach were now in the middle of the baseball game. I thought for sure that the bikini clad girls would realize the impending down pour ... http://ketoleavesthesea.wordpress.com/2010/10/04/beachy-behavoirs/

Nicaragua

stephhef — Sun, 3 Oct 2010 04:16:00 GMT

The newest adventures and photos can be found at:

http://ketoleavesthesea.wordpress.com/

The top 20 of my 20's

stephhef — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 02:30:00 GMT

Someone asked me this week what the best moment of my 20's was. I was for one of the few times in my life- unable to speak. How does one sort through a decade of memories and pick one on the spot. I did, but I felt like I was betraying all the other really great moments. I've been mulling the question over for the past couple days, trying to come up with my top 5, top 10, and finally settled on top 20. So here they are in no particular order or preference, the top 20 moments of my 20's.

1. herding goat's in my grandfather's village in Crete on my 25 birthday.

2. the incomparable, award winning trip to Scotland with my mom

3. Greece, Island-power outage-laying on the seawall-warm Mediterranean waves lapping at my side-stars surrounding me

4. Maejo, Thailand- Loy Krathong

5. bathing a blind elephant

6. Athens Olympic's opening ceremonies

7. Torino Olympic's closing ceremonies

8. dog sledding on a glacier

9. my last day working on the boat-bubblenet feeding humpback whales that swam so close to the boat I could have touched them

10. kayaking in Burner's Bay with two of my favorite Libra's

11. doing the chicken dance with a lady in Kimono at Lizzie's wedding

12. learning i was the inspiration for a friend deciding to leave Burma, to go to school in Thailand- to learn to teach- like me

13. my time in Gugulethu, South Africa

14. standing on the great wall (and hearing an Alaskan reference)

15. PEPY- Chanleas Dai, Cambodia

16. seeing the Mona Lisa

17. Being the officiant at my mom & bill's wedding

18. being at Obama's Inauguration

19. seeing some of my students from South Africa at my UW graduation

20. Velencia, Spain- Las Fallas-fireworks at noon

Yellow Flag Morning, Kayakers Take Warning

stephhef — Thu, 9 Apr 2009 09:20:00 GMT

After days of watching the palm trees flaying around in the wind, and red flag after red flag being hoisted in the breeze...today we had a yellow flag on the beach. The ocean looked calm from the condo window a 7am, the cold snap had ended, and we were determined that today was the day we were going to take the kayak out. After slathering on the sunscreen and loading our stuff and the dog into the car, we drove over to Elizabeth's dad's house to get the kayak. 80 pounds of bright orange fiberglass only took us 45 minutes to drag, carry, push, pull, and kick down to the ocean. The white sand beach was filled with mostly empty beach chairs, though a few kids were playing in the surf, teenagers attempting to break limbs on skim boards, and toddlers remaking medieval kingdoms.

We grabbed the kayak and stomped off into the surf, slightly angling ourselves towards an area were the surf seemed a bit flatter. I paused, and Elizabeth asked me if something was wrong. I responded “no, no. I'm just waiting for .....something.” Something.

After a few more waves, I jumped in the front of the kayak, and Elizabeth quickly followed suit. We were off and paddling. Over the first few waves. I then made the mistake of looking first down into the quickly filling void, then up to the impending wall of green. I took a big breath before disappearing into the wave. Glasses, hats, paddles, kayak were knocked around. I looked down to watch the nose of the kayak dip down, and realized the kayak was filled with water and I should get out before it sinks as in theory a floating kayak would be easier to get back to the beach. I bailed out of the boat, quickly getting hit by another wave and the ocean floor. When upon standing, I realized I was not that far from the surface of the ocean, as the water was not even to my waist.

I looked back at Elizabeth, then back at the ocean. Unable to breath because of the salt water I had just inhaled, and not so happy that I had just lost my sunglasses. A very lovely woman came to our rescue telling us how brave were were, I'm sure she meant crazy but in our battered shape was trying to be nice. She helped us pull the kayak to shore and flip the filled kayak over to attempt to get the water out. 45 minutes to get to the water, 5 minutes in the water. Somehow those were not very satisfying statistics. She announced that there were people on the beach rooting for us, placing bets. We figure there'll be a youtube video out later this week. Soaking wet and sandy, laughing like idiots, we pulled the kayak back up the beach. This time we were going to a pond, were we knew there would be no flag and no surf danger for the day. Several hours later back at the condo washing the sand from the numerous crevasses, I looked out to see the flag had been changed to red. The weather conditions being the same as they had been in the morning, I wondered what idiot did something stupid in the surf and got the warning leveled changed, maybe like sink a kayak.

Gallery: random beijing

stephhef — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:41:00 GMT

Beijing

Gallery: I'm feeling very Olympic today

stephhef — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:29:00 GMT

Beijing

Gallery: Forbidden City

stephhef — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:28:00 GMT

Beijing

Gallery: Temple of Heaven

stephhef — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:28:00 GMT

Beijing

Beijing the Begining

stephhef — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:00:00 GMT

Nee how....

I have arrived in Beijing, and believe it or not, so did my luggage. Already things are off to a great start!

Staying in Media Village, much more comfortable than Torino. Things are moving along, jumped into work the day after I arrived, though haven't seemed to suffer much from jet lag.

Yes, it is hot. But really hasn't seemed so bad, though I would really like the air conditioning in my venue to work properly. Today it rained most of the day. That's almost worse than the heat, as it's the humidity than kills me.

I haven't had a chance to do much other than work so far. But (fingers crossed), it looks like i might get out to the wall tomorrow! So excited.

They may say that Thailand is the "land of smiles", but I have to say, so far China has them beat. The Chinese I am working with are great, they actually ask "how can I help"...The first day Sally (the other manager at my venue) and I kept hugging each other and asking if it could be real, staff who not only worked, but where eager! My venue is actually for three different venues; gymnastics, swimming, and diving all come to me for food. Its going to be a lot of work, but we have lots of staff this time. So far no hives, though a few blisters on the feet.....definitely minor!!!!!!

I went to Tesco Lotus the other day (ahhhh how I missed Tesco), and there was a sign for a Thai food festival. I had to laugh.

I don't really have much internet access, so it may be awhile before I write again, But on the upside I should have something more interesting to write about than work (I'll spare you details on the health check up I had to do this morning at the CDC......but let just say there were lots of poo jokes going around our group, and lots of very odd pictures of people in an xray machine......)

practicing my Chinese daily. Today we were trading Thai, Chinese, and English words....not to mention I have to speak Australian too.....

Gallery: Thai Cooking Class

stephhef — Thu, 15 May 2008 08:45:00 GMT

Gallery: Hue

stephhef — Thu, 15 May 2008 08:44:00 GMT

Gallery: Hoi An

stephhef — Thu, 15 May 2008 08:44:00 GMT

Gallery: Bangkok

stephhef — Thu, 15 May 2008 08:44:00 GMT

Gallery: Sapa

stephhef — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:45:00 GMT

Gallery: Halong Bay

stephhef — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:45:00 GMT