Happy Late New Year!

2014!

Wow, it's been a while! I don't really know what to say. How can explain my prolonged absence from this blog?

Well, that's a tough one. Four months ago, I had promised to myself that I would post an update about returning to America, right after we got settled in. Heck, I was even trying to finish up a post while in the airport in Dubai. But for some reason, it never got past the planning stages. I never hit "send".

And here I am, writing this at a crazy hour in the night. I don't know where all of the months went. It's like they slipped through my fingers, snaking right around me before I could even blink. That's a good thing, I guess. That means I'm busy!

That's one thing I'm sure of. I'm definitely busy.

I'm not buys doing anything specific, but I just feel like I'm doing a lot of things. I'm highly active in an online writers' forum, I'm taking a high school chemistry class...As you can imagine, I'm happy to relax over the weekend.

But why do you want to hear about the rantings of a crazy teenager? (Well, if you're reading this blog I don't really know what you'd expect...)

"This blog is supposed to be about travel!" That's probably what you're saying, shaking your fist at the screen. "How dare you plague this site with your personal issues!"

Maybe it's because I don't want to write something boring. I want to post something that's really intriguing, something that'll make you think about different world views and stuff. You see, that was an easy feat while in Nigeria; I was experiencing conflicting world views all the time. But now that I'm back in America, it's hard for me to spot the idiosyncratic habits in my life. To put it simply, I don't feel like I'm travelling anymore.

Does that mean this blog is dead? No, not by a long shot. This just means that I have to try harder to find interesting and new things to write about. I'm a creative guy, so I surely haven't used up all of my imagination juice. I keep a whole bunch in the fridge, anyway.

I'm not sure if anyone reads The Xplorer anymore, and that's okay. I'll keep posting, though. From now on, I'll figure out something, anything, to say. There's no need to worry about that.

Before I submit this post, I would like to mention that it's been more than four years since I started this blog. Four years! That's a long time. My younger sister is the same age I was when I made my first post! That just blows my mind; there's four years worth of blog here. I successfully documented my life in Nigeria, and I've gotta admit that I'm super proud.

Signing off,
The Traveler

Two Days

In two days, we'll leave Nigeria for six months.

This time, it's back to the States for real! Not for three weeks, but half a year. It's what we've all been waiting for. Now it's time for us to go back to Durham, catch up with friends, get our lives back home started again. We had a little test thing back in April, so this time it's not going to be as shocking. But it'll still leave an impact, that's for sure. This isn't just something you decide to do overnight. Just like in '09 when we left for Nigeria, returning to America is a pretty big deal.

To be honest, I'm super super excited. I really want this, very badly. I know that the people we met here are going to miss us; some have already said "Just stay here!" I understand...whenever you leave some place for a while, people want to latch onto you. Even so (I'm being honest again here), I'm not giving Durham up, not happening. Yes, Nigeria has become a second home. Yes, Ife is a pretty nice place. But would a Nigerian like to be in a foreign country for years on end without returning to their home? I know a lot of Nigerians do that a lot, but I believe that they miss Nigeria after a while. And that's just human nature, I guess.

Another reason I want to leave is NEPA. *shudders* I certainly won't miss the inconsistent power supply. Or the messed up water system. Or malaria...

I will miss the people I've met. And some of the dishes here. And the relaxed atmosphere of Ife...

It's alright though. Nigeria isn't going anywhere. I'll be back in six months. So I'll enjoy Durham as much as I can!

Signing off,
The Traveler

P.S. I'm still debating over whether I should update this blog while in the States. If I continue posting in Durham, I probably won't be doing it as frequently. I don't want to get repetitive.

Group Reaction

This is going to be a short one.

So I was on the OAU campus today, I was buying some suya--a beef jerky sorta thing. I must have mentioned it in an earlier post so I'll let you do all of the hard work and find it. Because I'm lazy. DEAL WITH IT

As I was saying. I was buying some suya, and it was pretty dark. It was 8:45 PM after all. So all of the streetlights were on and there were all of these bright buildings and stuff. You know, how it should look? And people were going about doing weird stuff and I was there buying the suya on the street corner and everything was normal and--BAM. PHCN strikes again! All of the power goes out, simultaneously. Every building, every streetlight, goes dark. Here comes the cool part.

All of a sudden, I hear this huge collective sigh! Like, everyone on campus rolling their eyes and huffing in exasperation. I know it might not sound so cool, but it was an amazing experience. It was as if this experience kinda brought everyone together. We all hate PHCN's unreliability. So we can all unite under that. Alright, maybe it's not the best thing to agree on; hating the electric company? But it was still really cool to hear. Like this huge...wave of sound! You know, similar to that Marvel superhero, the one that can't say a word because if he does he'll like explode everything in sight or something like that? Because his voice is so loud and immense and all that stuff? (Okay, you can take my nerd creds away.)

Signing off,
The Traveler

Stuff Can Get Boring

That title might seem like an obvious (and vague) thing to say.

Well, I can agree. But it got your attention, right? :P Anyways, stuff really can get boring. For example, have you ever realized how much you depend on electricity? Stop for a second, and think about what you're using to read this blog. Whether it's a tablet PC, a laptop, a desktop, a smartphone--it has definitely got something to do with electricity. If you're reading this after sunset wait a minute. What if you couldn't turn on the lamp next to you because there was no electricity? You wouldn't be able to read at night. And if you use an electric stove you definitely wouldn't be doing any cooking soon. Do you see where I am going with this? In the modern world with all of it's digital thingamajigs, an individual without access to electricity is seriously handicapped. And trust me, it can be boring; I've experienced this firsthand. I've talked about this frequently in the past so I'm not going to go over how unstable PHCN's service is again. All I'm saying is that you really don't understand how boring things can get without electricity. How can I check my mail? Or even turn on a light?

I've been thinking a lot on the differences between America and Nigeria. I was wrong to say that there wasn't a shock when we came back here. Now, I've changed my mind. I was shocked when we came back to an unstable cycle of power outages and electricity. Whenever PHCN starts to act up, I always wish I have a good book to read. Unfortunately a lot of my books are digital, and battery life doesn't last forever.

The only upside to all of this is that I spend more time with my family and stuff. You know, talking to my parents about some weird video I saw on YouTube or petting one of our cats. And I love drawing, so sometimes I'll just sketch, write things down. I'll get hit with inspiration and I'll write down a chapter or two of my novel. These things are nice, but they shouldn't be forced on us. We should be able to choose when we want to go digital and non-digital. We don't need PHCN to decide that for us.

Signing off,
The Traveler

An Edit and an Update

Remember that post I wrote about Lagos undergoing renovation?

It's not only Lagos. I was wrong about that. This is happening all over the country. Even here in Ife. Ife is considered a rural sort of place by most Nigerians. A place where nothing is happening to put it simply. (To be honest, sometimes I agree with them. :P) Even here--though the progress is much slower than in Lagos--I'm starting to see differences than when we first came to Nigeria. In 2009, there was no pizza delivery. Now there is. So what if the pizza tastes like fuel? It's still pizza delivery. In 2009, there was no fiber optic cabling. Guess what? They're lying down the foundations for that right now. Do you see what I mean? It's not blazing fast progress, but it's progress nonetheless. Heck, it's more than what we had back in '09. That's gotta mean something. Besides, Ife is always getting bigger, at a freakishly fast rate. Our city in the States, Durham, has a population of 228,000 sumthin. Ife's population is 372,000. And that's a rough approximation. I think you're starting to see what I'm talking about. Ife is going to become one of the biggest cities in Nigeria in couple of decades. And with a growing middle-class in Nigeria anyway, you're going to need more amenities if you want to avert discontent from the masses. Maybe that's why the government is allowing foreign companies to fill in these spots.

Here's the update part: We're leaving in a week for Durham and my laptop is completely messed up. At first I thought it was my HDD. I was sort of right; it was part of the problem, but I also think that my graphics card could also be going bad due to overheating. Not good news, right? Well, at least I can go and see my friends again back in America! That is going to be too much fun. (Goodness, I wish that I had posted more pictures in the last 3 years! I have to get a camera...)

Signing off,
The Traveller

6 FOLLOWERS!

I'm so happy,

I've got 5 new followers, which gives me a total of six! Thanks to Danny21 who has stuck with this blog for almost two months now. We're about to drive to Lagos tommorow so then we can pick up our container that I talked about in an earlier post.
    I really, really want to post some pictures, but I'm still using the Think Pad, which doesn't have an SD slot. Don't worry though, if we can find a cord that can connect the camera and the laptop, I'll post a whole treasure trove of pictures on the site.
    I also have some great news; I met two new friends! One is 13, the other 11. They are also from America, and they are staying in Nigeria awhile too. This is really exciting for me, because even though we've been interacting with a lot of people, we hadn't met anyone close to my age.

Signing off happily
The Traveler

Welcome to Adventure!

Hello,

My name is The Traveler, and i'll be posting my xplorations and adventures right here in the blog called The Xplorer. I've been outside the country about four or five times. I've been to France, London, and Nigeria, and I'm only 11! Don't believe me? I'll post some pictures in my next blog. Anyway, I'm moving to Nigeria, a country in West Africa that has awesome cuisine, amazing cities and very kind people. We'll be moving on October 28, so soon i'll be talking all about Nigeria. More info about Nigeria will be told later in other posts. Until then, signing off.

The Traveler