I'm a double geek -- perfectly happy spending a Friday rearticulating human skulls, or 12 hour block watching all three Lord of the Rings movies, back-to-back.
    I can't justify not doing something at least once, which is why I can ice skate well enough to do one jump, play one song on the violin decently, and I can cook one meal really well. All vestiges of former hobbies or endeavours!
    The things I always stay with or come back to are music (singing especially), crafting, reading and swimming.
    I think that it becomes especially important when living abroad to have things that make you feel alive, at home, and yourself because it's very easy to lose it in the process of cultural acclimation. For a list of my favorite music artists and movies, click here.
    Humor also gets me through it all. Everything feels better if you can find something funny about it, and, in Africa, there are a lot of things that are so ridiculous you can either choose to be frustrated or laugh at their absurdity. And I choose laughter!
    Laughter and sarcasm. I'm enamoured with anyone who possesses biting wit or shares my one-liner cynicism, and fiercely loyal and hard-working for those in my inner circle. Being away from my friends has, by far, been the biggest test for me.
Yes, I'm an internet junkie, but the thrall of the net is really the people whoit connects me to -- my blog is my confessional, and before arriving in Africa I never realized how excellent the opportunity to blog really was. Or how therapeutic!
I've really honed my writing too since I've been here. I enjoy it immensely and even now look back at the entries I wrote when I first arrived in Uganda.