Now in Nairobi

A new chapter in my PhD career is beginning. I arrived in Nairobi early yesterday morning (21 May 2010) and plan to be in Kenya for the next ten to twelve months doing field research for my dissertation. My camera was not stolen this time (or has yet to be stolen), so I might actually get some pictures posted this time. Anyway, wanted to experiment posting to this neglected blog. Look for more exciting news in the coming weeks and months.

Happy New Year!

Another year has come and gone…all without a single posting to this blog...shame on me! But since I’m my own blogmaster, I can retroactively update you on 2006. A year ago I was celebrating the coming of 2006 with Medair friends in Maasai Mara, a game park in western Kenya. So I’ll start there and bring you to the present…which is me poolside on a cloudy day in Gainesville Florida, enjoying a raspberry/lemon scone and cup of Earl Grey. By the way, tea for one is just not fun, so an open invitation is extended to all for tea with Steve (read below for tea time details). Or grab a cup yourself where you are and read on…

Christmas tangerinis…

were quite the hit this Christmas. I was hanging with Steph and her family in Tampa when we stumbled across tangerini mix. I always thought I would be fun to be a bartender, so here was my chance to practice my skills. I even got an orange martini shaker for Christmas.

My mistress moving in with me…

was quite the excitement recently. For several years I have considered purchasing a road bike. I ride my mountain bike to campus often, but at 35 pounds it is not fun for longer rides. Several friends in the area ride, so I thought with Florida’s ideal climate, the flat geography, and the need to pedal some stress away, I would join them in cycling adventures. Now I know what I’ve been missing the last few years! In December I found a used Specialized carbon road bike in Ocala. It weighs 16 pounds and flies like a kite through the air. A 30 mile ride seems like a walk in the park. I feel like a 16 year old with a new driver’s license placed in a NASCAR race. I have more bike between my legs than I know what to do with…rather scary when I think about it. I’ll keep you posted when I complete my first century race.

Four months of academic labor…

came to end 15 December. I’m not sure how many thousands of pages I read or hundreds of pages I wrote, but it is all over now. Hard to believe it is all water under the bridge. This semester I had five hours of Swahili (East African lingua franca), an African bibliography course, and two general political science courses, one on methods used in the discipline and the second exploring the various epistemological approaches utilized.

Day hammocking…

is fast coming a favourite pastime…combining hiking and napping. When I don’t want to hike, I just set up my technicolor hammock poolside in the backyard and lounge away. In June Steph and I found a great spot in Rock Creek park in DC for some hang time. There are many more places to explore for day hammocking in the area.

Kindergarten all over again…

is how it feels to enter the halls of academia once again. I and 16 other students started the PhD journey the end of August. I soon discovered I have a great cohort. All together there are 12 of us studying African politics. I would venture to guess that this is the largest amount of any school in the world. The University of Florida has a strong African Studies Center and three faculty devoted specifically to African politics. On Friday afternoons the center sponsors a lecture series. These were always informative and a chance to meet other scholars with interests in Africa.