Tao’s 2 Cents

I suppose I should start out with a little back story as this is my first blog post about my life. Ten days ago I returned from a year and a half living in rural El Salvador. I initially went with Peace Corps but had a “falling out” with them. The bureaucracy wasn’t what I had expected and I wasn’t too sad to be disassociated with them. Before that happened though I met a certain young lady, namely Christine from Spokane, Washington who was also part of the “falling out”.

I’d go into the details of what happened if it weren’t so convoluted, bizarre, and infuriating that it could take up several posts on its own. Frankly, I’m also just tired of talking about it. The separation from Peace Corps would end up being for the best as I wasn’t particularly keen on spying for the state department anyway. Since Christine and I weren’t ready to go home we decided to stick around and do what we came to do.

We spent the next year and a half living in the pueblo of Berlin, named after a German immigrant. We organized a youth group, taught life skills and English, and numerous other minor projects which I won’t go into. During that time Christine applied to Law School and one of the places she applied to was the University of Baltimore. The only reason being because I had begun applying there to get a masters in web programming but later decided against it. It turned out though that they decided to give her a full scholarship. Far too much money to pass up even if it is a fourth tier school.

My only stipulation when we came back was somewhere on a coast so I could learn to sail and Baltimore fit that criteria. They’ve got a great cheap non-profit sailing club downtown. I haven’t gotten to check it out yet though. Baltimore also happens to be the murder capitol of America, but since El Salvador is the murder capitol of the western hemisphere I figure we’re pros at surviving by now.

Christine flew straight here to meet up with her parents who happened to be at a conference in D.C. at the time. They helped her look around for an apartment, which is probably why we ended up in a fancy one but I’m not complaining. Meanwhile I packed up all my stuff that had been collecting cat hair in my mom’s garage into my trusty Honda and headed out on a 1600 mile trek.My family reunion was happening in Florida the weekend after I got back so I spent 3 days on the beach hanging out with them. It’s a strange feeling going from a dirt house to an 11th floor condominium on the beach. One thing hadn’t changed though, and that was the sun. I might have sat out in it more if I hadn’t already had my fill in Central America. All in all though it was a good time. I didn’t get to hang out with everybody but enough so that I still felt like I was part of the family, even if I may fall on the far left side of it.

After the reunion I stopped off at my Dad’s house in Jackson, Mississippi and spent the night. I had a good time talking with Charlotte and my Dad and got stocked up on activist books and political bumper stickers. We had planned to go golfing too but it decided to rain. It seems the whole south has gotten quite a lot of rain this summer, meanwhile Central America hasn’t gotten what it should. It’s easy to blame everything on global warming. If it keeps happening then we might have something.

Anyway, I could’ve easily spent a couple days hanging out by my Dad had to work and Christine was lonely so I decided to get up at 4am and try to make the 1,000 mile drive to Baltimore all in one go with two angry cats. Leaving that early was a good decision. The sunrise got me going and I just went and went. The miles just seemed to melt away and the 17 and a half hours it took to get here wasn’t as bad as it sounds.

Along the way one of those angry cats, Mr. Pink, figured out how to use a zipper and let himself out of his carrier. I put him back in and less than a minute later I heard “zzzzzzppp” as he hooked his claw in the zipper and pulled it open. I let him ride shotgun until I stopped for gas and then switched him out with Audrey into the hard shell carrier. I wouldn’t have minded leaving him out but he kept walking around and cat hair was getting everywhere.

Our new place is in a part of town called Mount Vernon in the historical district. It’s only 3 blocks from Christine’s school in a newly renovated apartment building. The buildings used to be an old fire station and the one we live in was a printing press. It’s a very oddly shaped building and the apartments are all uniquely laid out to fit the curved building. I don’t mind, I would have been bored in a standard rectangular apartment.

Since we’re the first people to live in this place all of the appliances are new which is great. On top of that it’s got a washer/dryer in the apartment. The floors are cement so we can just sweep up the cat hair tumbleweeds as they form and we’ve also got a balcony for the cats if they ever get on our nerves too much. The balcony is kind of strange. It doesn’t overlook anything but the 2nd floor roof which is literally inches beneath the deck. I would have preferred a view but I’m not that picky.

We’re still getting furniture and settling in. The cats have found their safe place on top of the kitchen cabinets. It’s not quite home yet but that always takes a little time. Gayle, a girl who has been keeping up with my blog just happened to live here in Baltimore and she’s been really great in giving us the scoop on the city. She came by earlier today and dropped off a welcome package of sorts with a local newspaper, maps, guide, and VIP tickets to something called Artscape. It sounds like South by Southwest in Austin with all kinds of arts, music, movies, etc. I’ll definitely be posting about that next week. So that’s a somewhat lengthy and boring story on where I am and how I got here.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 19th, 2007 at 9:48 pm and is filed under Travel, Crime. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.