Why buy a McMansion when you could have the real thing for less?

The weather today was beautiful (the past several days have been dreary and drizzly), and as I was up early (gasp!), I decided to take a walk through the historic district along Gilmore Street. Gilmore Street is where the wealthiest of the railroad barons built their homes over a century ago, back when Waycross was in its heyday. While some of the houses on Gilmore have fallen into disrepair over the years, there are still many to gawk at... and several that are up for sale, if anyone is interested! The pictures below are of houses on Gilmore which are for sale. (No, I am NOT a realtor or affiliated with one in any way; I just feel like people should be aware of how far their money can go if they move to Waycross. Hint, hint.) Let's start with this house:

Actually, it no longer looks anything like this picture,
which I took in July 2006, as they've totally remodeled it.
See the image below for its current look!

It's hard to believe it's the same house as the one in the picture above, isn't it? I couldn't get a good shot from the front, as the contractor's truck was parked there. They're asking $329,000 for it - which is a rather absurd sum for Waycross - although check out its listing and see how beautiful it is inside! (The listing also has a good shot of the front.)

This house is catty-corner across the street from the one above.
It's going for $199,000 and its listing is here.

This one's going for $189,000, and its listing is here.

This one's for sale by owner, so I've no idea of its price.

This one is also for sale by owner, so no price info.
Also, it's been subdivided into a triplex.

I need a name!

This is the cat that showed up on my doorstep on Sunday. Her paw was swollen and she couldn't put any weight on it, so I began calling her Limpy. I took her to the vet Monday. Her paw had an abcess which had to be drained, and now she's doing much better... and I can't keep calling her Limpy! Any suggestions? Also, know anyone who might be interested in a seven or eight month old frisky little kitty?

Learning about Kyrgyzstan

This is the first time in a long while that I've planned an extended sojourn in a country about which I know next to nothing. I've been trying to educate myself on this topic, although I must admit that I'm finding it quite difficult to relate to Central Asia from Waycross, GA! Nonetheless, I've gathered a whole bunch of links which I've been perusing, and which perhaps you'll check out too. Here's some of what youtube has to offer:

A nice introduction to the capital city Bishkek, where I'll be living.

Photo and video clips set to music

Different photo and video clips set to music.

Here are some English language Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia
blogs and news sites:
GenderStan
Eurasianet Kyrgyzstan Archive
neweurasia: kyrgyzstan
neweurasia: central asia
Tolkunistan

Kyrgyzstan's been in the news recently, although you might not have noticed if you weren't looking for it. As I know very little about Kyrgyzstan's politics at this point, I figure it will be better for me to link you to the articles, rather than to attempt to summarize them for you :-)

President Strives to Finish Off Political Opponents

Does new constitution strengthen democracy - or President Bakiyev?

Kyrgyzstan's President Dissolves Parliament

I've also ordered a huge stack of books from amazon.com. Some I'll try to read before I leave in January; others I'm planning on taking with me. In case you're interested, these are my purchases:

The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia

Kyrgyz Republic (Odyssey Illustrated Guide)

The Lost Heart of Asia and Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron

The Great Game by Peter Hopkirk and

Everyday Life in Central Asia: Past and Present

If you have any book/news/blog suggestions for me on this topic,
please share!

Scantastic: Pass the baby the wine edition

I've spent the past couple of days scanning in photos from family photo albums before the print copies finally disintegrate and vanish into dust. My mom kept photo albums from my birth in 1978 though 1988. When I was 10 I began to look ridiculously unphotogenic, and I'm somewhat convinced that this is why she stopped keeping albums. Post-1988 photos are all in a box in her house. I'm not sure I've got it in me to tackle the task of sorting through them! Anyway, I've uploaded sixty-nine of my childhood photos to a set in flickr. While they will probably only be of interest to family and childhood friends, you're all welcome to take a look. The photos can be seen by clicking here. This is my favorite of the photos, taken on Christmas 1979 - it looks like I'm asking someone to pass me the bottle of wine!

Me, Christmas dinner 1979

Justice, Moral Reasoning and Boredom

I mentioned the other day that I'm covering local community college classes while the teacher is away. This involves little other than taking roll and showing movies. The classes that I covered at the college today got to watch a video on justice and morality in political philosophy. I expected it to be pretty dull. I majored in PolySci and know that it takes a very engaging professor to bring political philosophy to life; sadly many of the PolySci profs out there are lacking in the needed skill to prevent one from nodding off. This film turned out to be quite interesting. It consisted of excerpts from a lecture class at Harvard University. The professor doing the lecturing was quite witty, and I (and the Harvard students) frequently laughed out loud. Meanwhile, my classroom was filled with blank expressions. At one point in the film, pi was mentioned. One of the students, confused, looked at the one next to her and said, "Wha's he talkin' 'bout pie for?" to which the response was a bewildered "Dunno." Sigh.

The gods must really want me to have an eleventh cat.

After it turned out that Blue Eyed Brownie had a home, I felt quite relieved; eight cats plus two who stop by regularly for food is enough! Then this afternoon I heard children's voices shouting, "Miss Jane! Miss Jane!" I went outside and found three of the neighborhood girls pointing at a cat on my porch. "That your cat?" they asked. At first I said yes - as it was a calico tabby that looked just like Alley Cat. Then I realized that it was wearing a flea collar, which none of mine do. I'd actually seen it around recently, but figured that with the flea collar, it must have a home nearby. I told the girls it wasn't my cat and they said, "Oh. We thought it was yours. It's got a broke foot and was in the street crying." Sure enough Alley Cat's doppelganger had a swollen front paw which she was holding up off the ground. I figured I should bring her inside. She seemed very thin, and when I gave her some food, she inhaled more at one go than Daddy Cat does (which is a LOT, believe me). I took off the flea collar, as it seemed really tight - as if someone had put it on her when she was smaller and never bothered to adjust it as she grew - and Advantaged her. She seems about the same size as Blue Eyed Brownie; I wonder if perhaps they're from the same litter? I'll try and take her to the vet about her foot tomorrow. Right now she's curled up on my lap, purring away.

If you look closely at the paw in the foreground, you can see that there's a big welt on top of it. It's also swollen about twice the size of the other front foot.

Mia's Grand Adventure

Mia noticed early on that the other cats merely had to go and stare forlornly at the door, and I would open it and allow them out into The Great Outdoors. Initially, she simply seemed relieved that Those Strange Beasts were out of Her New House. Then she began to get curious as to where they were going, and would watch from windows and through doors. Eventually, she began trying to go outside, and I figured it was time to take her out. Her first two trips outside weren't the best: Daddy Cat chased her back into the house the first time, and rain started pouring on us the next. Nonetheless, she still wanted to go outside. Both yesterday and today I've had her out for about an hour, during which she seems to have had a lot of fun exploring the yard and smelling everything. Several of the other cats - particularly Shady - have been fascinated by the fact that their foreign visitor has finally decided to join them outside. Today I took some photos:

Gah! What's behind me?

Ahh, it's only Shady.

This tree smells nice.

Shady relaxes in the shade once Mia goes inside.

This land is OUR land :-)

Well, we've finally closed on the eight acres, so this morning mom and I took the dogs out there for a run. I should explain that my mom owns three dogs: Ursa, a 12 year old near toothless chow suffering from congestive heart failure, Blix, a 5ish year old, well-behaved German Shephard and Shiva, a year old lab/pit-bull mix someone abandoned at my house as a puppy while I was in Korea. Shiva is beautiful and well meaning, but she has SO MUCH ENERGY and she is also incredibly strong. The dogs have about half an acre at mom's house to run around on. Blix and Ursa seem fine with that, but it's pretty obvious that Shiva has been dying to have the entire Ware County countryside to run around in. The dogs had an incredible amount of fun, rolling around in every mud-puddle and patch of swampland (not on our land, just nearby) that they could find. Shiva even found a rancid deer leg (she was very disappointed that we wouldn't let her bring it home). Ursa got tired out pretty quickly, but the other two took quite some time to wear down. But we did succeed in tiring them out; all three slept all afternoon once they got home.

Mom with her dogs: Shiva, Ursa and Blix

Due to the close proximity to swampland, the mosquitoes are hella big:


(This one's for scale)

And on a totally different note: Mia was curled up in my bathroom sink looking cute, so I ran to get my camera. I came back in time to capture this stinky gem:

Mia watches as Daddy Cat poops over the edge of the box.

Escher... or a Korean backyard?

One of the themes for the next issue of JPG Magazine is Bird's Eye View, and I've selected this image, taken from the rooftop of my apartment in Korea. I'd love it if you'd click here or on the image below and vote :-)

I'm going to Kyrgyzstan!

In a fit of impracticality, I have chosen as my next destination the job which offered me the least in terms of salary, and have decided to head for Kyrgyzstan. The program only accepts teachers under 30, so I figured it was now or never. After all, when else will I get the opportunity to go to Kyrgyzstan? Assuming all goes as planned, I'll be leaving for Kyrgyzstan at the very beginning of January and staying for at least ten months. I'll be living in the capital city of Bishkek and teaching at The London School in Bishkek. In case you're scratching your head, wondering where the hell this Kyrgyzstan place might be, here are some maps to help you out: