Zach's 2007 Year In Review

As the year comes to an end, here’s a list of some of my best and worst of the past 365 days or so. Enjoy.

Best movie: Top Gun…even better with wine and cheese.

Best music venue: Preservation Hall, New Orleans

Best sandwich: Softshell crab at Jazz Fest

Best Sunday San Francisco afternoon fun: Frisbee then Golden Gate Park drum circle.

Best Bay Area discovery that I wish I had discovered sooner: Fruitvale

Best picture: Abercrombie and Fitch at Bay to Breakers

Best last weekend in a city…EVER: Bar hopping with coworkers; skydiving with the gang; live music, burgers, and beer at Hotel Utah; Bay to Breakers with all of San Francisco.

Dizziest moment: Up-and-down swirly swings with Nick and Chelsea in the Cub Foods parking lot, Apple Valley, MN.

Most used Africa purchase: Buck knife - every night in the kitchen

Biggest waste of suitcase space: a three month supply of toiletries. Peace Corps recommended that we bring a three month supply of toiletries. In retrospect…we’re going to be here for two years. If there’s something you can’t find in the first three weeks that you can’t live without, it’s probably time to think about going home.

Biggest mistake: Not filling my iPod before coming to Burkina.

Funniest host family moment: Playing Frisbee with my host siblings.

Biggest rainstorm: 14 solid hours

Hardest thing to miss: Chelsea’s first day in Madison.

Best worst last words: “I know it’s a bad idea; that’s why we have to do it.” -Julia

Longest unintentional bike ride: 140km, 10 hours…see above

Best teaching moment: I couldn’t think of a mnemonic device in French for the order of mathematical operations (parenthesis, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction). I told the kids the first thing that popped into my head: “We’re in luck! PMDAS is my mom’s name!” She was an instant celebrity.

Favorite student: The girl in that back who is always smiling but never has any idea what’s going on.

Biggest oops: Asking the wrong lady to do my laundry. (Not as bad as it sounds, but embarrassing nonetheless.)

Best market find: Green onions. Well, they were exciting the first week. Now there are mountains of them everywhere.

Longest bush taxi ride: 3 hours “late” (whatever that means), minivan, 200km, 6 hours, minimum of 17-25 people…with a few on top.

Comeback of the year: Brett Favre.

Happy holidays and here’s to a healthy 2008! Miss you guys. Love, Zach