Saturday, May 28, 2011
MINESOTA: Attending a Graduation at University of Minesota
The reason I, traveled to Minnesota, was to attend the graduation ceremony of my oldest and truest of friends. Agnes and I, are childhood friends. We went to two schools together and continued to nurture our friendship through the years, it has grown stronger both socially, emotionally and professionally. I could ask for no better friend. A year ago, Agnes was one of only ten Ugandans who were awarded scholarships under the Fulbright program to pursue Master’s, PhD, Post-Doctoral Research and Hubert Humphrey fellowships in 2010. Agnes was attached to the University of Minnesota as part of the Hubert Humphrey International Fellowship Program. If any of you know about fellowships, you know that the selection process is grueling, and only the best of the best get chosen. My friend Agnes has served 14 years in the Government of Uganda’s Ministry of Internal Affairs. I still remember when she got the job. She is currently a senior immigration officer/training coordinator for the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control in Kampala. .She is responsible for planning, designing, and conducting training activities on such topics as irregular migration and counter trafficking, passport/document fraud, organized crime, and effective boarder management.
On arrival in Minneapolis, I was picked up at the airport by Agnes’ boyfriend Don. I had arrived 5 hour later than previously scheduled due to delayed and canceled flights by US Airways. This was the second time in 7 years that US Airways had delayed a flight I was on, and ten rescheduled it for 5 hours later. I cannot begin to describe my frustrations at the situation that day. Nonetheless, I made it to Minneapolis on the same day. I had called Don ahead and explained the change in arrival time, which apparently worked pretty well for both Agnes and him. Both had spent their day running around trying to meet deadlines: Don, for tax filling, while Agnes needed to submit in her paper.
I waited patiently at the airport upon arrival, as Don made his way through the rush hour traffic to pick me up. My wait was not long; soon we were headed towards Minneapolis. As we approached the city, the Minneapolis Skyline came in view, unfortunately due to the bad weather; the sky was gray and gloomy, making it impossible to take a good shot. We had to pick up Agnes who was still at the University finishing up with some assignments. When all was done, the three of us headed off to get a bite before going to watch a play at Guthrie Theater.
ARIZONA: Celebrating My daughter's 11th birthday!
She wanted a pool party, and my thought was OMG!
We live in Tucson, and if you have been to Arizona in summer, you know being by the pool can be a challenge unless it is indoors. I asked her to write a list of 5 birthday locations for me to choose from as I was not sure the pool should take precedence over other locations. She wrote down 4; pool, peter Pipper, skate country or the bowling arena. Guess which one won? yes, you guessed right. The pool won and I decided right away, that the party will have to be sooner than July. Besides her friends would be on summer break and getting them together would be that much harder. So we decided to have the party at the YMCA pool the last weekend of school. She was to invite up to 10 friends. The YMCA actually hosts birthday parties, you can host smaller or larger groups. For $175 we were able to have up to 10 people at the party, the cake and drinks were provided as well as music for the occasion. I was glad not to have to do all the work.
Since the scheduled time was between 12:00 noon and 3:00 pm, Mark and I, decided to order subs from subway for the kids. We picked up a few drinks, mainly punch and caprisan. Well now I know little girls love punch, we brought home all the caprisan because no one touched them, neither did they eat the popcorn. Most of their time was of course spent in the pool where they played and laughed like there was no tomorrow. The drive bar was made available for them with 2 lifeguards to keep an eye. It was hot of course, but nothing compared to how hot it gets in July. As I write this we are in the 3 digits already. June is yet to begin and I should not be going out to the pool or hiking. The birthday girl had 5 friends in total, I was glad we did not have 10 because the 5 were as active as 10 would have been. They ate so much that I was afraid we did not have enough sandwiches. I guess it was the fact that they were swimming and burning enough calories (smile!)!
We live in Tucson, and if you have been to Arizona in summer, you know being by the pool can be a challenge unless it is indoors. I asked her to write a list of 5 birthday locations for me to choose from as I was not sure the pool should take precedence over other locations. She wrote down 4; pool, peter Pipper, skate country or the bowling arena. Guess which one won? yes, you guessed right. The pool won and I decided right away, that the party will have to be sooner than July. Besides her friends would be on summer break and getting them together would be that much harder. So we decided to have the party at the YMCA pool the last weekend of school. She was to invite up to 10 friends. The YMCA actually hosts birthday parties, you can host smaller or larger groups. For $175 we were able to have up to 10 people at the party, the cake and drinks were provided as well as music for the occasion. I was glad not to have to do all the work.
Since the scheduled time was between 12:00 noon and 3:00 pm, Mark and I, decided to order subs from subway for the kids. We picked up a few drinks, mainly punch and caprisan. Well now I know little girls love punch, we brought home all the caprisan because no one touched them, neither did they eat the popcorn. Most of their time was of course spent in the pool where they played and laughed like there was no tomorrow. The drive bar was made available for them with 2 lifeguards to keep an eye. It was hot of course, but nothing compared to how hot it gets in July. As I write this we are in the 3 digits already. June is yet to begin and I should not be going out to the pool or hiking. The birthday girl had 5 friends in total, I was glad we did not have 10 because the 5 were as active as 10 would have been. They ate so much that I was afraid we did not have enough sandwiches. I guess it was the fact that they were swimming and burning enough calories (smile!)!
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