Zed

Zaneboy is migrating!  It was only time.  Come check out the new digs at http://zanestreet.wordpress.com
Sooner or later I'll figure out how to move all my old livejournal posts over to wordpress, or I'll run out of time and look upon a new blog as a blank slate...

Jet-Lag: otherwise known as "Why couldn't this have hit me on the plane so I could have actually got some sleep?"

Two weeks left in South Africa.

I can barely comprehend that what I arrived to in January is almost here at an end. I just finished my first course exam this morning, have a second one on Monday...and then soon it will be tied neatly with a bow. If the (minor) freakout on the plane here, realizing that I was about to spend 6 months of my life in South Africa of all places, is any indication, I am intrigued by my approaching flight home.

Most of all this semester has made me realize that one can be happy anywhere. Our happiness is not solely tied to our understanding of place, and our understanding of who we are is free from it as well. Will I be able to fit a trip to Swaziland in, in-between finals? These are the questions I find myself asking. Entering head first into a different culture has been an unimaginable gift. That is exactly it, my time in South Africa is a gift. I know I sound like one of those crazed people who "studying abroad changed their life," but I am realistic about my time here; South Africa was not 'paradise found,' nor is my return home my 'salvation' but rather the travel between two spaces. I think this is what happens when one feels "bicultual?"

I will return to roughly 1 year left of college, then the lovely ideas of a career, graduate school, or yet more travel...if anything, this semester has made me realize that life is what happens all around you, while you claim you are waiting for it to start. Cliche, I know, but true. Friends graduated college while I was away, this summer there is another wedding of a friend, my brother has a girlfriend..it continues.

Once back in Iowa, I will continue; to go to class, to grocery shop, to 'hang out' doing nothing much, but with the (beginning) grasp of the sheer enormity of it all.

What's that feeling, oh yes-contentment.

Trip Blog: http://zanetravels.blogspot.com

3 months from my last post, I will be on a plane to South Africa of all places for six months. Earlier this year I wrote someone "We'll have to get together before I leave for Africa," and then had to delete it because for some reason it didn't seem right when I read it through the first time. My nervousness and crazed excitement has transformed itself into a feeling of serene calm brought on by the oxymoron of realizing that by leaving everything I have known and everyone I have loved for half a year, I am the happiest I have been in a long while.

I'm leaving on a jet plane.

May 2008 bring you exactly what you need, hope, and wish for.
http://picasaweb.google.com/zscotttunkin

So I am actually studying in South Africa next semester. From applying to having a bought a plane ticket and having received an acceptance letter from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Coming next semester: Facebook Photos and a Picasa Web Album, with lots of photos, of me in South Africa.

life is good:
-In the process of applying to study abroad in South Africa this spring!! each time I think about it I go into childhood giddy happiness mode.
-Have filed the right papers to create a Baha'i Campus Association at the University of Iowa (Kara Prior and I)
-Started in the College of Education, beginning to see "teacher" as part of myself, responding when people ask questions referring to my future classroom..
-am enjoying the slightly more practical/hands on aspects of ed classes, I love History but it's a very intellectual discipline
-research assistant to a History professor looking at eugenic sterilization in the US, during the early 20th century-likely to be turned into a senior honors' thesis about eugenic sterilization in Iowa
-minor: new cell phone
-i am getting paid for said research which makes me feel oh so official
-trip to San Francisco (for a weekend) with parents in October (i get to wear a suit!)
-beginning to see graduate school as a tangible possibility
-a friend of mine told me I always had interesting buttons on my bag :)

life is good, can't complain.

Downside:
I am never at my apartment.

I am scared for the semester during which I will have to student teach. Not that I will fail horribly, but rather-that I will love it more than I could possibly imagine and can't begin to describe.

There is exactly two weeks until I can break out the non-textbooks, aimless bike rides, and just about every movie I feel bad about not having seen yet. Yes folks, it is almost summer. I will be taking a class, but what is one class compared to five?

I can taste the Whitey's Ice Cream, late nights at Hamburg Inn, and oh so many porches.
I can hardly wait.

Oh!I'm going to be published. Granted it's the new undergraduate online(pdf) historical journal-but hey, that's Zane Scott-Tunkin Published Historian to you.

So I go in to see one of my History professors, one of whom I admire, with a question over something we covered in class. I am not entirely sure, but in retrospect it seems he hinted at that I was of all things a:

Marxist Historian.

That's right folks. The truth comes out, I am a commie, or perhaps a pinko if you will. All due to the fact that I see a large majority of History(at least right now) in terms of "class struggle," the nature of my question. I will now take your questions and public stoning.

I am going to stay in school on a cycle because I am afraid of what I will discover about myself outside of it. School makes sense, organized, actions have reasons.

This last Sunday I was studying in my place of employment (a coffee-shop) and these girls near me, who were supposedly "studying" did nothing but make fun of and humiliate my coworkers the whole time I was there. One of my coworkers called out an order I heard an "Uh-Heloooo," one of my coworkers sang part of a song while behind the counter, I heard a smirk of laughter, finally after they got their order all they did was complain about it, and then the other girl went into how "Last time she was here, let me tell you, Oh My God..."

I wanted to say something, I wanted to throw them out, something about reserving the right to refuse service to anyone...but I was studying, they had no idea I worked there-so instead when I finished my reading I just left, disappointed.

They were more immature and whiny than some children I have babysat, it made my heart low. This is why I always tip, even if it's only a little on my college student budget...these two girls were older than me, appeared as if we had met through friends or in class we would get along, but Sunday they themselves were center stage.

Enough of my being sad and pissed-
my Lit professor thinks I'm awesome and one of my History professors thinks I should submit my paper to the undergraduate journal here, so otherwise life here is good, very good.

and if you haven't already check out: milky tea, blond redhead, and abebooks.com

My iPod is less than a year old, but now everytime that I plug it into my computer I get a message telling me that iTunes can't recognize my iPod and therefore I need to restore factory settings a reload my whole library! Has this happened to anyone else? Can I fix it or do I need a professional? Is it the iPod or the computer...?

Help Please!

You must go see Pan's Labyrinth. I will not take excuses.

Airline problems solved. Ticket bought. Spokane '07!

Does anyone have any insider tips on how to get cheap airfare? I am trying to go to Spokane to visit Devon over Iowa's spring break March 10-15, originally I found a flight for $239, then $290, now travelocity.com wants to charge me $370! The cheapest I have found, is on priceline.com at $298. A site advertising cheap student deals wanted $560....ugh. So if I am missing some bureaucratic loophole or awesome travel site please please let me know!

Umm..well I got a raise at work :) and moved. I should move less, while I think this move was needed, moving less would be a lot less stressful. Way too insane, I was insane to move this weekend, but it's done, I'm happy and off to bed. I've come to realize two things; standard of living differences really do make a difference and I have no idea, and I am ok with that?

So there is a restaurant in Iowa City, called Baldy's that I have decided is absolutely wonderful. Tucked into a small shop in downtown, they make hot wraps and nothing but hot wraps, including vegetarian and breakfast wraps. Cheeseburger wrap anyone? There is also a cookie underneath the chips because they know your inner-child has never died.

If anyone of you are ever in Iowa City, call me up and we will oh so go. Also come visit Iowa City!

I get to go home this weekend!! I am soo excited, it's rather needed. My couch, my family's food, our cat, and my grandma and I will do some serious bonding this weekend.

Sometimes I hate being a History major, I guess a simpler way to describe it would be sometimes I hate being white. I have been reading one of my textbooks and the only conclusion I can come to is "Boy were we racist fucks." (and possibly still are...) But in other terms, I love History, it is good.

I have been looking into masters programs in Historical Preservation, because I love it, stemming from me in elementary school and junior high reading my dad's Preservation magazines, and asking to be driven through historic neighborhoods of Des Moines and on famous building tours....UNFORTUNATELY so far any of the programs I have been interested in require a much more architectural background rather than historical, so we will see. We will see where I end up in general
As part of my love I have recently become a member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. I suggest you do as well. You can join at www.nationaltrust.org. Think about it.

I also have decided to begin working towards an English minor.

This month because of school, work, and transportation I have had to miss a Mountain Goats and coming up a MAN MAN concert...school I better feel some love soon...

I am looking forward to the weekend even though it still will be busy, I cannot escape!