Holiday Inn Express Cobb Galleria Center/Cobb Pkwy Smyrna

Twenty six very different people have set out to be of service. Many without any idea what is to come and what to expect. What sort of adventure, outrage, fulfilling metamorphasis awaits us in Africa. After gentle prodding from family and friends to perhaps reconsider, to maybe wait another year to go (at least that's true in my case). After grabbing our Venti coffee from Starbucks (the last one for awhile for certain) we have ...

... gate before the colors faded;

· The hilarious e-mail Hillary sent about "College Night" at Head Royce, which she attended with Vince in our absence;

· Gabe’s sleepy face on the tiny laptop screen, mugging for the webcam, when we finally figured out how to make a Skype call home.

It’s been fun.

Before I depart for the great land to the South, I made the wise decision to remove the Great Dane that had taken up residence on top of my head.
Now sleek, cool, and low maintenance, my new do is ready for prime time, and skipping regularly scheduled showers...
This is how I look before the trip, hopefully my appearance does not alter too much, and I return much the same, with all limbs intact.

Stay tuned for my first days in Bs As...

Cheers

Mikey James Barnett

... br>So we wound up with 2 hotel vouchers, 3 meal vouchers each, and 3 free
drink tickets for our flights. We definitely don't think this
compensated us enough since we also had to contact our hostel in
Sydney to try to change our reservation.... No word back yet because
of the time change. We tried to call the customer care line for Delta
but of course it was already closed for the night.
We also have no new clothes for ...

... over and we talked about the cat which he believed was abandoned. Both of us fed it some cottage cheese (from Jack) and smoked kippers that we were carrying. Jack is a trip. He'll be 80 shortly and he full times in a camper that sits on the back of an old Ford pickup. Behind the pickup/camper he tows a 20 foot homemade trailer that carries his motorcycle, handtools and power tools including: a drill press, table saw, radial arm saw ...

... me in English? Did some idiot in France purposely forget to stamp my working documents? Could this Embassy official hear the fear in my voice, thus allowing him to take advantage in torturing me? Was I too bossy by constantly calling everyday to check on the status of my visa?

Excuse my profanity, but too much ******** went on this past year; I wasn’t going to let any idiot with an attitude ruin the next year because I looked at him the ...

... in 2007!!).

So why did this time feel more unfamiliar and different? I guess the longer time you spend away from the place you grew up, you don't have the same feelings for it as before. Atlanta used to be the place where I'd go on the weekends to hang out with friends and feel all high-and-mighty in a nightclub drinking my 10 dollar cocktail...the streets of Georgia Tech used to feel so familiar, as I've ...

... comfort rather than basic needs…”the bigger the better” seems to be more appropriate for American standards…

Compared to our tiny 2 room apartment, staying in my parents’ house seemed to be living in a castle. Staying in my parents’ house felt awkward, I felt more comfortable in my tiny two room apartment, half kitchen built into the living room…I guess you could say that we have our kitchen, living room, dining ...

... attractions, act as though I know a lot about the city, etc.

When he asked me "what is there to see in Atlanta?", all I could think of was "the world of Coke, the Aquarium, midtown..." The world of Coke didn't really interest him that much (I went to the original back in 2000 when first moving here, NOT worth it...), and since he's a vegetarian, seeing the Aquarium kind of goes against his principles of ...

... along in Alabama we pass a field of old beetles and buses so just have to stop. We meet Don of Dons Buggies who came here from Cali some 15 years ago. He builds sandrails and dune buggies and sells restoration parts for Beetles and Buses. We of course have a good chat over a few beers then we get back on the road toward Atlanta. We're supposed to meet up with Westy friends George & Joanne there. It's getting late so we decide to hole up at a Flying ...