Red Roof Inn Smyrna

... be called to do on our journey nearly halfway around the world.

The ones who have braved the trip before refer to the people in Soweto as friends...and a family of sorts. They all assure us that this trip will be life changing and one that we will never forget. So, those of use who are going for this frist time, we are caught up in their enthusiasm for the work that we will be doing there and anticipate similar ...

... only by the brightly colored hair ribbons that anchored the sea of little braids and ponytails;

· The sound of church bells, loud and insistent;

· The two 60-something American Southern lady tourists standing in front of Salvador Dali's The Great Masturbator, trying to figure out whether to be awed ...

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

We finally made it to our first destination: Atlanta. We originally
were supposed to fly to Detroit and then on to LA but our flight from
Detroit was delayed and we would have missed our connecting flight to
Sydney. Last minute we were able to get on a flight to Atlanta as per
Deltas recommendation. We did not get to sit together on this flight
but nick sat directly in front of me. Not terrible. Flight to Atlanta
was 2 hours.
Atlanta, Georgia, United States nickandsteph

9/28/09

Zac and I got on the small plane at Kona, HI at 4:40pm on Monday 28th. I dropped into Andy's arms in Crazy Fish at 3:30pm Tuesday 29th. That's a lot of traveling!! Felt so good to be with Andy, Maudie and Crazy Fish life once again. Nothing makes home sweeter than being away.

We found our site at John Tanner State Park on the border of GA and Alabama after leaving the airport in Atlanta. There are two nice lakes for ...

... in GA was, unfortunately, not quite enjoyable. I could easily talk about "domestic disputes" (key word: family problems), but here I’d rather much focus on the biggest problem I had, which was my visa processing.

I swear, I must have seriously done someone wrong in a former life to deserve this amount of drama.

What can we blame this on, shall we? Did I not give them enough time? Did he not respect me by constantly responding ...

... them many a time to visit my favorite Techies in their Frat houses and at work...

This time walking around Atlanta, I couldn't feel these things at all; I felt like a stranger who had abandoned this city a decade ago, memories long lost.

It's not that I've been away for 2 years, but I also felt different because I was showing Atlanta to my boyfriend, therefore I felt more obligated to show him ...

... and “study” all in one…the bathroom doubles up as a laundry room, while the bedroom is just the bedroom. Who needs all those separate rooms? Yeah the space is nice, but it’s just space! Why not use that space more something more productive and useful?

My apartment in Krasnoyarsk was basically 2 rooms…According to Russian standards, it was only “1” room because Russians don’t consider a kitchen a room. I had my ...

... treatment of animals, so I understood why he didn't want to see it.

But what exactly is there to see in Atlanta?
A MARTA station representative gave us a good response...: shops.
Because the world of Coke and Aquarium didn't interest us, he strongly suggested going to Lennox to do some shopping and eat at nice restaurants....

Did we really come all this way just to go...shopping and eat out?

... to be in the infield. Once again (like in Daytona) we have Ruth Ann and Frank's son J.P. to thank for getting us a great infield opportunity! There will probalby be LOTS of pictures to share after next weekend - and from there, we're heading back toward Charlotte, where we'll spend the following weekend at a big race at The Dirt Track at Lowe's Motor Speedway, while staying at one of our ...