200th Post!

Yes, I've hit it!

Another milestone for this blog. It took me a while, but I made it! :D So now that I've gotten to this point, I'm going to take a look back at my first posts on this blog, back in 2009. Goodness. That was four years ago. It shocks me to see it so blatantly; right in front of my face. I made this blog back in 2009. Well, at least I've seen how much progress I've made! Some of my earlier posts look so...ignorant from my perspective now. Of course, you can't blame me; I was thrown into a completely different culture. New foods, new experiences. Surprisingly I haven't even written all of my adventures in this blog. There are just so many which have helped me to realize...I'm not so ignorant anymore. I know what an Okada is. I've learned a bit of the native languages. I've met new people. I definitely would not have participated in the WRO in Abu Dhabi if I had never come to Nigeria. So many things would be so different. When we first arrived in Nigeria I didn't know how to take care of a dog. Well, now I do. I can say pretty confidently that if I hadn't come here I would have never gotten Shep. Or Night. Or Harry Potter. I would have never met the friends I've made here. But you know what? I'm ready to go back home too.

So after two hundred posts, I've learned a whole world of info on this country. Not as complete as my experience in America. Actually, I don't think it will ever be as complete as my knowledge of the States. But I'm okay with that. :)

Signing off,
The Traveler

Plans

Hey everyone,

My life for the past few days has been a little hectic. Well, to be precise, my parents' lives have been a little hectic. They have all of this planning to do for our trip back to the US. I still can't believe it whenever I write that out. Our trip back. It's really happening. I've already told all my friends over there and they're pretty psyched like I am. I wonder how much has changed? I've looked at my neighborhood in Google Earth a couple of times, but it looks the same. Wow, I must sound redundant. How many posts have I made like these? But I still can't help but think about it. It's like...it's like if you lived in a faraway country for a couple of years with barely any contact with your friends and family back home. Actually...that's exactly what it is. :P The contact stuff is mostly our area's fault. For the longest time we haven't had phone or internet access, but if you've been following this blog for a while you already know about that. And if not, trust me. I've mentioned those two problems a lot. Now that the internet is solved our phone reception is even worse than usual. Meh, whatevs. I'll get over it right? Until we find a solution there's no point in going on about it. Anyway, that's really what's been on my mind the most these days. Going back to Durham.

Signing off,
The Traveller

Connected Like Crazy

Best news ever!

We have broadband satellite internet access! One megabyte per second, 32 GB download limit for each month. It’s crazy! I’m still trying to adapt to using the internet anytime I want. I can surf YouTube. I can get that IDE I’ve been eyeing for the past few days. I can keep up to date with all of the blogs that I like (including this one). You really REALLY can’t appreciate the internet until you’ve been severed from it. But I think I’ve said that a hundred times before. J Now I’m able to go to Khan Academy, play online games…the list goes on. We’re using an Internet Service Provider called YahClick. It’s pretty good…most of the time. Like when we picked up the equipment for the dish—that was a hassle! We thought it would be a quick easy process. How we were so wrong. It took us more than an hour to get it, and that was after threatening the YahClick office that we won’t buy from them if they don’t bring the darn stuff. And right now is another annoying moment with this ISP. It claims that we’ve surpassed our daily bandwidth limit which is 1.2 GB. This is pretty much impossible. We haven’t come close to downloading a GB of data in one day. So we’re going to Lagos tomorrow anyway. We’re planning on telling them off. I’m sort of laughing right now. Isn’t it a little ridiculous? A few weeks ago, we were pretty much offline. Now, we have one of the fastest internet connections in town. Yeah, there are other broadband satellite setups about Ife, but they’re usually shared. That means that the download/upload speeds are unbearably slow. What do you have to say about that, Multilinks?! Satellite internet, for the win!

(now I can upload my harlem shake video now…>:D)

Signing off,

The Traveler (ONLINE)