Today featured an afternoon game drive in Tangire National Park.! I am sure I will not be the only person to say this, but the landscape is constantly changing it seems. The big difference I noticed is Tarangire seems much drier, flat, and the trees aren’t as lush as they were in Arusha.
Let me backtrack to our arrival after the airport! We had dinner and met Brooke's boyfriend Ben. They are a good match, and our class of girls all agrees on that! After eating we departed down a lantern lit path to our rooms. My friend Kurt would love this place, again I’m constantly finding myself thinking of more people I wish I could share this with.

At night, the avocado trees dropped their fruit, and I don’t hear one fall, not one.
What else fell while I slept? In the morning, we packed and left for breakfast. couldn’t help feeling I was leaving something behind, even though I checked the room. I suppose I’m speaking metaphorically here, because we’re each leaving a part of ourselves behind.

Special mention : Christina landed us each an avocado from Joe at the lodge.

*note* Got slightly stressed to find I needed to call home today! But, thanks to Bailey I made a quick call from her phone and there was nothing to be worried about---just minor misunderstandings concerning study abroad.


*additonal notes*
In Tarangire this afternoon, well, the park was much different from Arusha! Not as close to the monkeys as we were in Arusha, but this park featured many Wildebeast, zebra, and..elephants! Also Impala, guineas, this eagle..and the Superb Starling a lot (quite a name!). Yesterday was really exciting in Arusha, today was a bit more "relaxed" in my opinion. We come back to this park tomorrow morning, in search of lions and a leopard!

Gray Sky Morning : Today, woke up early for breakfast, then raveled to Arusha National Park. But, prior to this, a large water buck pranced through the lodge! These are the spontaneous moments I live for. Brooke saw him take a dive through the pool first. Anyway, I hopped into the safari vehicle with Mi’chel, Nicole, and Christina, driven by Elisa. It was an invigorating day on safari. Meryl couldn’t join us because she was sick, so Brooke stayed behind with her at the lodge leaving us in “good hands.” This definitely had an impact on the morning, and I think our hearts sunk a little because it could have been any one of us that was sick. But she has a mountain of a medicine bag, very well equipped. The morning and afternoon it was kind of grey and cloudy. These are my favorite days to photograph. (grey, clouds, haze, fog, the elements... you name it!) Nicole (Brooke's best friend traveling with us college students!) spotted three giraffe right in front of us! I was able to walk close and really “see” the giraffe! Spokes of light emanated from tiny stars deep in his eyes. I truly enjoy the first gray of early morning. Let me just close and say I really bonded and enjoyed the peaceful presence of the giraffe. I look for him and find him still anywhere, in any distance, in any gray.

*additonal first day safari notes*

We did so much more than cruise through the foresty-like park standing up with the rooftop of the LandRovers open and watch monkeys soar from trees and bark at one another as they ran across the road. We finally saw a huge lake of flamingo, and soon these beautiful (exotic!) black crowned cranes, as we made our way down to a salty lake to go canoeing, and possibly approach animals on the shore to photograph them from the water!
Never been canoeing before, seriously this trip is all "firsts" for me! So, I ended up in a canoe with one of the guides (not one of ours, Jackson or Elisa, so sadly I don't know his name), and he was such a smart teacher! He spoke rapid Swahili across the water to the other guide, who was canoeing with Christina. I really loved this guide though, he was encouraging and told me I did "really good" and he didn't know I'd never canoed before. He asked me what I wanted to see, and broke out in laughter when I told him I'd love to see a snake. Now that would be true Africa! ...he seemed surprised! But he actually kept us closer to the shore than the other canoes, I believe, and actually as if he were looking out for snakes! We saw a deer, and a hidden buffalo that was in the grass. Surprisingly I never was tired while paddling, but I had a feeling once the excitement wore down I'd just wanna go to sleep at the end of the day!



-Once back in the Rover, everyone was pretty exhausted. We cruised for animals on the way out, and saw the carnivorous Hyena! He was hurt, limping, in fact.



Our initial view after entering the park. See--cloudy!

6/15 The arrival to AFRICA, aka, the Kilimanjaro airport, is exactly how I thought it would be: Standing in a hot, crowded room, with almost nothing standing between us and the Africa land waiting on the outside. The lines were long and Africa has no reason to hold regard to what time it is or how long it takes to get things done—which is fine with me. I am writing from Rivertrees Lodge, and am happy to say the first African creature I was greeted by was nothing less than a lizard—He was very short, much different from any I’ve seen in the US.

I loved the dark ride from the airport to Rivertrees lodge. Something about the night and being able to only see what the car (rover) lights illuminate in front of you creates an aura of excitement and thrill about what is to take place. We also had Brooke (!) and all the wind coming through the window in gusts as we made our way over to the lodge, nothing can defeat us.

Writing again

Today is my 21st birthday. The idea of being 21 in Tanzania means nothing to me, but being in Tanzania means everything to me. So, here’s to that!
I still sure wish friend and confidant, Micah woodford could have made it. Looking back on the plane rides one last time, just wanna say I’ve been very lucky to be seated by pretty cool people that eased some of my traveling tension. This Math grad. student (rob) from Cali traveling to France, challenged me to the plane’s multi-player games, really funny guy. Meryl cracked out a "ya'll" on the plane also, after that everyone wanted to know where she was from! The other person I met was a guide that leads people up mount Kilimanjaro. This was impressive in itself because reading Rick Ridgeway's The Shadow of Kilimanjaro a few months ago, I know that hike is intense! I truly can’t imagine. (An interesting note is that when Kilimanjaro guy left to go to the bathroom, The math grad. informed me that he was on the last plane with him and he is a real jerk). I started to watch a movie, but am writing instead. I did watch 101 Dalmations under the ‘family” category I think, from Amsterdam, and man do I feel silly!
Will write more, after I LAND in Africa!

6/14 Memphis, Amsterdam, Africa!

*Note* In lieu of my first International travels, and the writing requirement to journal during our Tanzania trip, I started a journal specifically for the trip, and brought an extra (just in case).

6/14
I haven’t actually been seated by anyone in our photo class since traveling en route together, but I enjoy that it makes it all more of a personal adventure. The sounds on the plane are loud; the wind rings in my head like clothes hangers clicking against each other.

On the plane to Dar es Salaam / Kilimanjaro. This flight is by far the most exciting— everyone on the plane traveling to Tanzania! So this time I have some space and kind of surveyed the plane a little to see “who” exactly is traveling and interestingly there’s just a big mixture,but the group that sticks out the most are these people wearing “Tanzania mission trip” sweatshirts. And a couple next to me that is going on safari before they start a family.

I want to express this flight lends a special place in my heart because I can see the land via a window seat for the first time! As a first time traveler I guess I’m excited about a window seat, though with night settling in, I won’t see much in a little while. On the last plane I gave myself a headache peering over to steal someone else’s view the whole time while we the sun started to set over the Atlantic. I’ve never seen an ocean before—only the murky waters of the MS Gulf coast.

Africa Bound!

Alas, and I thought I would never be able to go....!

digital photo

sp 08

Rural MS

poplarville, ms

Alt. Processes

WI 08


the Van Dyke Brown process to develop the images generates a soft image quality which will create an individual, personal emotion to be associated with the insects. The printmaking paper, offering this worn and soft image, helps symbolize one’s personal relationship with the insects by bringing the human touch back to a progressively mechanical and digital medium.

Hairy the tight-rope walker

The artist is a receptacle for the emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web.
-Pablo Picasso

ps-merry christmas from harry the spider!

bird v2

bird

This afternoon, I was walking down a sidewalk, when overhead, a bird passed by me, and dropped a berry on me. my first thought was, "Thank GOODNESS this wasn't what I thought it was!" Then, I wondered, how often does it happen that a bird decides to share his lunch with you!

Bathed by the Gentle gift of the Universe

Project 1 cont'd; Photoshop and Photomontage, Print #2 A simple remembrance of the rain, seeks to connect the viewer with the outdoors, though using less stark greys and blacks, and creating a colorful array to display the sensation of wetness, and rain.

Photomontage

Faces appear to be searching for nature from the past, but cannot find it in this digitized world.

Funki Fungi

King of the Forest