It’s 8 p.m., and I just said bye to Shannan.  The next time I’ll see her we’ll be in Germany (she’s meeting up with Joe and me for Christmas).  Cannot flipping tell all of you how excited I am right now.

Before she left my place, we chatted about our next trip (Bahrain in February) and googled images of where we think we’ll go for spring break (Spain), and basically made a New Year’s Resolution we think we can keep:  Never go on a trip before booking the one after that.   At the rate we’re going, we’ll have as many trips in a year as we do months.  I’m good with that.

Since I’ll be busy the next few days finishing things up here, I wanted to pop in and wish all of you Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and all the good stuff in between.  I doubt I’ll get a chance to write much while vacationing, so I wanted to make sure my friends and family back ‘home’ know how much I love and miss them, and that despite how happy I am I do so, so, so miss all of you and wish we could do all of this traveling together.  Sadly, the dirhams do not stretch indefinitely.

Later this week I’ll be with my man, then we’ll visit my sister, do some touristy stuff, spend Christmas with my relatives in Wedel, then hop on a train (that will also hop on a ferry) and spend New Year’s in Copenhagen, and then we will cry as we head back to our real worlds, which aren’t bad at all; they’re just so far apart.  But, I’ll worry about that in January and February — good news is Spring Break is in March, so the time should go by quickly.  And then summer break will be right around the corner, and I’ll be back home hugging everyone.

Until then, though, Happy Holidays!  And may the new year bring even more love and joy into our lives.

Yesterday morning my cab dodged Dalla Dallas (local busses that sort of look like an old trolley glued to the back of a rusty pickup), donkey carts, rickety bicycles (some loaded with firewood), pedestrians on their way to work, school or prayer, oxen, and, sadly, one too-slow chicken who scrambled its own eggs on her way out of this world.  Today, it was my little Hyundai zooming past camels and construction trucks (while SUVs zoomed past me) on my way to work.  Oh how quickly my world changes.

Zanzibar, one of the spice islands off the coast of Tanzania, is an amazing place to visit.  Yes it’s a poor country, and, yes, not everything is pretty, but oh my goodness what the people lack in currency they have in abundance with the natural wonders of their island — including themselves.  This is my second time visiting a coastal region of Africa, and I’m in awe, once again, of what little I was lucky enough to see.

In just four days I swam in warm, turquoise water, fed tortoises, flirted with Red Colobus monkeys, which exist no where else in the world (except maybe zoos), learned a little Swahili from the locals, walked through ancient alleyways constructed out of coral stone, slept soundly tucked under the veil of a mosquito net, as well as all the other vacationy stuff I like to do — especially when lounging on a surprisingly comfortable chair made out of rope.  Ooooh, and I learned a new way to steep hibiscus tea — my friends are in for a treat the next time they visit (if I find hibiscus tea bags).

I have so much more to share about the island, but I think pictures will tell the story better than I can, so here you go.  Do know that I am now on a mission to visit as many African countries as I can while living so close to this part of the world — while also fitting in my Asian and European adventures.  Aaargh there’s so much world, so little time.

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And a few more to leave you with.