Hello

Hello!  Hi!  This is a blog!  I'm Harry, the person who writes the things and eats the food.

Image unrelated.

More than ever, I'm not entirely sure who this blog is for, which makes any kind of introduction or informational update kind of tricky.  If I don't know you personally or you're not the author of "Potato Pals" googling himself, I'm not sure why you'd be interested, so starting with the basics seems a little unnecessary.  On the other hand, I've made a fair number of friends, acquaintances, and traveling companions over the years, and I haven't always done the best job of keeping in touch, so some explanation might be helpful.  If you happen to go through any of the archives, way back to 2009, this uncertainty of audience has been a constant theme, vacillating between "I'm Harry, an American travel writer and carbon-based life form" and "Hi, Mom!"  I'd like to think that this blog has something to offer, though, even if you don't give any specific sort of damn about me—information, inspiration, entertainment, blurry sunset photos, etc.

And occasional hard-hitting journalism

Since the last post on this blog back at the end of 2014, Jenn and I have (*deep breath*) wrapped up our bike tour in Southeast Asia, studied meditation in Thailand, returned to Kansas, visited an incredible eco-village, biked across Missouri, taught English in Normandy, biked across Bretagne and southwest Ireland, bummed around Western Europe for a spell, returned to Kansas again, started graduate degree programs, and made absolutely no progress in kicking our karaoke habit.  More on these episodes to come (probably).

So without going too much more into the backstory (plenty of that in the archives), here's the most immediate skinny on why I'm firing up ol' Bloggy again: for the next six months, from January until June 2017, I'm going to be teaching kindergarten at an international school in Guinea that I'm going to try to avoid naming to preserve the privacy of my colleagues and supervisors.  This is going to be my first time in Africa, my first full-time classroom teaching position, and one of my final steps in getting my elementary teaching license so I can do more of this craziness in the future.  I've packed my antimalarials and very little else, and I've got a feeling there are going to be more than a few surprises in the immediate future.  Over the next six months, this blog will likely continue to be a mishmash of professional multicultural educator issues, travel pictures and anecdotes, and sundry personal reflections.  There will be puns.

Of course, the main reason I'm going to be restarting the blog now is because for the first time since this whole adventure started, I'm going to be getting into various shenanigans and escapades without my all-time partner-in-crime, Jenn.  This blog isn't just to keep something for posterity (blogs don't have an expiration date, right?), or just to hear myself talk (I do plenty of that already), but to share something of this experience with Jenn, who will be continuing her studies in Kansas while I'm off doing whatever it is I'm about to be doing.

😍

There's a lot to reflect on over the next few days, to say nothing of the next six months.  When I have the time, inclination, and internet access, I'll post something from Guinea.  I'll also try to share some odds and ends from the last couple of years, and I may tidy up the blog a bit if I get around to it.  Forgive the mothballs.