0 This girl is the cutest thing, ever

via The Sartorialist

1 My blog is carbon neutral!

By posting this button, Kafuda will plant a tree, neutralizing the carbon dioxide emissions of my blog. How cool is that? Make your blog carbon neutral! (it's super easy)

2 Lost without LOST

I kid you not when I say that I was blubbering like a little baby last night at the end of LOST. I never used to cry at movies and TV but I find that as I'm getting older (okay, "older") I tend to tear up way more easily. By the time I'm my mother's age, I, too, might be crying at Cotton commercials. Last night, though, my family had to make sure I was okay because I was crying so hard. No, I wasn't okay! LOST is over!

All right, actually, what had the waterworks going more than this being the end of one of my favorite TV shows was the way that this series ended. The LOST guys never cease to amaze, so naturally this ending was kickass. And poignant. All the reunions between the long-lost couples made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside (especially Juliet and Sawyer because I love any scene that involves Sawyer), but, at the risk of spoiling things (too bad, you should have watched), it wasn't until the end that you understood the poignancy of the reunions: the flashbacks weren't memories of an alternate universe, but of life before death. And so the crux of the episode - of the series? - is that we are all reunited in death. We lose each other and we fail and die but it doesn't matter because everything is okay in the end. It's a gorgeous image, to think of heaven like that - a Unitarian Church where all the most important people in your life are waiting for you. And so I blubbered.

And for some LOST comic relief: This clip is slightly raunchy but ever-so-funny.

0 Happy weekend!

What are you up to? Tonight I have my first shift at my new waitressing job, and tomorrow morning I'm running my first ever 10k. Lots of firsts. Wish me luck! Hope it is sunny and bright this weekend in your corner of the world.

photo via we heart it

0 I sense a magazine cover trend

You might all remember my slightly large girl crush on Amanda Seyfried. I was going for a run yesterday thinking that my new Self magazine should be coming soon (it's the only magazine I subscribe to) and I went to my mailbox and found her on the cover.


I don't love the fake tan look on the cover here - I like that she's naturally pale - it leaves hope for us fair-skinned girls. Still, she can't exactly look bad, can she?


Do you think that's her real hair? Because it's kind of amazing.

I'd also just like to let you all know that I used my minimal knowledge of graphic design to make a new header for the blog. Yes, I drew that globe all by myself! And I am very excited about it.

0 Couldn't have said it better myself

via the new yorker

0 Pride and Prejudice Inspiration

My creativity comes more in the form of words than in colors and images, so I continually marvel at the artistic sensibilities that all my favorite design bloggers have. I absolutely love Amy M.'s "Living In" post over at Design*Sponge. She used stills from the 2005 film version of Pride and Prejudice for design inspiration. How fabulous would it be to feel like you're living in this movie, all the time?



Those boots. I die.



And this silk brocade is beautiful - feminine and old-fashioned in all the right ways.

Actually, all the Living In entries are awesome. What a fun job.

0 The kids

I took portraits of a few of students for the Mzuzu Academy website. I thought I'd post some here, since I haven't talked too much about them individually.

This is Emma, who draws pictures for me and likes to impersonate my American accent when she thinks I'm not listening.

Backeem, who prefers to be called "Beckham," and is the self-proclaimed best soccer player in Luwinga

Isaac is, like I've said, the resident charmer. Everyone who visits Kwithu and M.A. always remembers (and loves) Isaac.

Lusubiro. I have so much admiration for this girl. She's been through some unbelievably difficult times, and is this incredibly bright, resilient, courageous person.

Costance is quiet in class but I always saw her eyes working, searching out the answers, raising her hand tentatively when she thinks she's beginning to get it. Her compositions were always sweet and thoughtful.

Chimwemwe, another extremely bright girl. Her English is practically fluent.

Walani never got less than an A, on anything. He showed me his notebook once, filled entirely with words and their definitions that he copied - alphabetically - from the English dictionary.

Charity is so smart, and tough, and has been through so much, and has the best laugh.

2 I may be in the U.S...

...but the amount of pictures I have left to post from Malawi would suggest otherwise.



These are some of my neighbors. Maureen, with her arms crossed, is the daughter of Phiri, our housekeeper extraordinaire.

Westlife insanity at its finest.

The night the Zoo became a disco

Just another Sunday at the market

Will's birthday!

Me and Bex - first night at Kande Beach

Melissa and Sophie

Good-bye party :(

Some of the women from Kwithu



Faith, I think I'll miss you most of all (name that movie, dear readers)





Class photo

I don't know what it is about this photo, but it makes my heart hurt (in a good way)

Boys in Luwinga

Me, Anna and Soph at my farewell dinner

I take it back - I'll miss YOU most of all!

0 On American soil

Dear friends, I traveled halfway around the world yesterday, and thankfully arrived at JFK Airport early this morning. An airport official directed me to Customs Booth 45, and, the first U.S. citizen in line, I happily sauntered over. I was waiting at the empty booth for a few moments when the officer at Booth 46 called to me, in his thick Queens accent, "Hey, lady? There's no one there." I laughed in spite of myself. I was home.

For reasons beyond my comprehension, my computer doesn't seem to want to accept my house's wireless network. There are many more pictures to be uploaded; but alas, tomorrow is a new day, one that I will spend at a cafe with free wireless and bottomless coffee. America the Beautiful, indeed.

0 Safari Pictures: Part 3

Whew! Here are the last of my safari pictures from Liwonde National Park, now about a month old. The good news is that now I have the the internet at my disposal again, so I can do some catch-up blogging and post all the pictures I know you've all been dying to see.

Meredith, Anna, and Phlyp on the river cruise the following morning

Hippos are awesome - I wish I could go on a hippo ride. According to my brother, though, they kill more people than any other animal. Probably not a good idea, then.


Crocodiles, on the other hand, are kinda scary. (My friend Bex is terrified of them, and when we camped on the beach during lake shore hike, she was convinced one was going to come into her tent while she was sleeping.)


I was SO excited about the elephants. Seeing them in the wild was probably one of the coolest things I've experienced in Malawi. I wish I could have taken closer pictures.



I like how a bird is resting on one of the elephants' backs


These monkeys were playing outside our chalets. I'm slightly obsessed.





I don't think I've ever seen anything so gorgeous

You can see all the pictures from the safari, a lot of which aren't up here, on my Picasa album.

The reason internet is so much at my disposal is because 1) it happens to be particularly good at the hotel today and 2) I'm leaving for Lilongwe tomorrow, where I will also have wireless. So, yes - this means that today is my last day in Mzuzu. I finished up teaching this past Friday, and had a party with the kids on Saturday (pictures to come, of course). Sunday I spent with Sophie, and Monday and Tuesday I went to the lake for one last time. We fly out of Lilongwe on Friday, and have a nearly 24-hour-long journey ahead of us. Right now I'm anxious to go home, to be in Nyack with my friends, to watch TV with my family on our big red couch. Maybe the missing here won't set it until I'm already gone. That's the way is always goes, though, isn't it?

0 More safari pictures, etc

Hello hello. It rained for seven days straight in Mzuzu, and since all electrical wiring is above-ground, this caused the Internet and the phone lines to completely suck all week. Then I went to Kande Beach for four glorious days. Some more pictures from Liwonde now.

Impala, which are nothing more than over-bred grass-eaters in Malawi

Waterbuck...note the bulls-eyes on their butts

Cute lil baboon

Cool tree

Apparently it's bad luck to see an owl during the day in Africa, but this one was really rare so the guide told us it was good luck for us. Later, our Jeep got stuck in a ditch.

Bushbuck

A "vegetarian sausage" tree. Apparently they don't taste anything like real sausages.

The prettiest sky I've ever seen



We stopped to watch the sunset...



...and then we got stuck.

But at least we had wine!

From left: Millie, Me, Phlyp, Anna, Gina, and Lisa

More soon...and more in my Picasa album.

Happy Cinco de Maio, by the way. I wish I could celebrate with a big Mexican feast, but without cheese or tequila, what's the point?