See You Soon in Cameroon!

Well, now I've really done it. I am at a hotel in Philadelphia right now, preparing for my departure tomorrow. I am leaving the country to become an Agroforestry volunteer in Cameroon for 2 years (28 months to be exact). I have to learn French since that's one of their official languages. So I get to use those funny symbols on top of letters like é (as in cliché) or è (as in 'pas de problème') or û (as in 'Je vais partir en août'). I probably also have to convert everything to the metric system. Sacré bleu! So until next time, au revoir!

Chicago

I didn't get to see Oprah's show, watch a game at Wrigley Field or check out Al Capone's vault. hehe. However, during my short stay in Chicago, I got to check out Millennium Park ...

... visit a blues bar ...

... go up the Sears/Willis Tower ...

... walk to Lake Michigan ...

... and try deep dish pizza. No picture taken for the pizza though.

It was great. See you again some time, Chicago!

One final note: Chicago's public transit system was pretty good. I didn't use a cab or rent a car the whole week I was there. Only light rail and bus.

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Andre Agassi

I just finished Andre Agassi's autobiography, Open: An Autobiography. Agassi describes his book as a story of redemption. For some reason, everything seems to be about redemption nowadays. I guess too many people have things they have to atone for. hehe.

Probably my favorite parts of the book are his stories on his coach Brad Gilbert and his future wife, Steffi Graf. Gilbert helped Agassi win several big tournaments and it was interesting to read how he did that. Agassi's courtship of Graf was also interesting. I like this quote from Agassi to Graf: "If you're not moving forward, you're moving backward." He told her that because she was dating some other guy for 6 years. He was trying to get her to give him a chance and forget about her then-boyfriend. I guess it worked. hehe.

Here are some other things I learned:

1) Agassi is not a fan of Boris Becker or Michael Chang. Becker said Agassi got preferential treatment from the tournament officials. Agassi disagreed with that assessment and held it against Becker ever since. Chang meanwhile was always thanking God and Agassi was annoyed by it.

2) He accused former player Jeff Tarango of cheating when they were playing as kids. Tarango now coaches tennis and denies the accusations.

3) He listens to soft rock (Barbara Streisand, Celine Dion, Richard Marx) despite his rebel image. Agassi hated the rebel image, btw. He never thought of himself as a rebel.

4) He hated tennis, but played because he didn't have any other skills. He only has a 9th grade education. Also, his dad was a bit of a tyrant -- the classic "sports dad".

5) In his youth, he once played in his jeans when he played an opponent becuase he didn't think his opponent was much of a challenge. Sounds familiar.

The book was written with the help of J.R. Moehringer, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his book The Tender Bar. How much credit Moehringer gets for the book, who knows. Either way, the final product was an entertaining read. Lots of good stories. Many of them funny.

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Native Americans

I recently visited Indian Grinding Rock State Park in Pine Volcano, several miles east of Jackson. The park features a reconstructed (Native American) Miwok village ...
... as well as a ceremonial house:

The park also had some limestone beds that the tribe used as mortars that were then used to grind acorns, hence the name Grinding Rock:

Here's some interesting trivia: the park spells it "Miwok" while the casino owned by the same tribe in nearby Jackson spell it "Miwuk". Another bit of trivia: nearby Jackson is named after Colonel Alden Jackson, no relation to former US President Andrew Jackson.

Speaking of Native Americans and guys named Jackson, I happened to watch The History Channel's episode on Andrew Jackson, who was president during the 1800s. The interesting part of that show was when they discussed Andrew Jackson's relationship with the Native Americans. They're apparently not fans of each other. Jackson forcibly removed them through the Indian Removal Act. The forced migration west came to be known as the Trail of Tears. Many tribes like the Cree and Cherokee view Jackson as a traitor and consider him a war criminal. Many refuse to use the $20 bill and have even considered banning the $20 bill at their casinos because Jackson is on that bill. If you get the chance, try to catch the episode if they air it again on The History Channel.

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My Dog Has Fleas

I attended a ukulele workshop by Michelle Kiba in Berkeley recently. There were about ten of us at the workshop and we strummed along as she taught us several songs. I specifically liked the song "Island Style". Since I didn't have time to tune my ukulele because I was late, I tried to tune the ukulele in between songs. I also just tried strumming the chords during the song to see if it sounded in tune. It didn't. So I kept fiddling with the ukulele's strings throughout the workshop. I noticed that the guy in front of me slightly turned his head in my direction every once in a while. He probably knew I was trying to tune my ukulele using the "My dog has fleas" tuning technique one too often. hehe. After several songs of an out-of-tune ukulele close to his ear and with about ten minutes left in the workshop, he finally turned around, handed me his electric ukulele tuner and said, "You wanna tune your ukulele real quick?" hehe

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