Happy New Year! A couple of web updates

Hello Everyone,

First, I'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year as 2009 comes to a close and 2010 opens for new opportunities!

In regards to the website, I have fixed the COW Gear page so that purchase can be made with PayPal. There have been issues with using Google Checkout so PayPal has been our best solution. One new feature with the page is that you may now purchase more than one item in one transaction. This means you can purchase a shirt, a sweatshirt, a sports bag, and a window decal and have it all shipped in one order.

On the side, I have placed the facebook link back online. Notice that there is a Group page and a Fan page. Both were started around the same time (Summer 2009), but it seems the group page has received most recognition. Ideally, I would like our followers to either switch over to the fan page or sign up for both since there are more features on our side with the use of the fan page. I intend on implementing Facebook Connect at some point, although it will require some time and research before it becomes fully implemented.

I have received a couple of e-mails about pictures. Pictures will be the next biggest addition to the website. We are currently looking at our options for publishing pictures and intend on completing this soon.

Thanks for staying tuned, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact any member of COW!

Best Regards,
Tim Chen

Attacked while sleeping

Today I woke up to anything but a friendly face. I was sound asleep on the bottom bunk of a 10 bed dorm/room. It was about at 6:15 when a felt someone crawl on top of me and place there hand around my neck. My first thought was that it was Tate trying to scare me.... I was wrong. The next thing I knew, I had flipped the man off me onto the ground and put my foot across his jugular pinning him to the ground. From where I was standing I was able to turn on the lights and yell at Tate to wake up. It all happened in an instant, I was asleep at one moment and the next thing I knew I was standing over this man in his late 30's pinning him to the floor. It would have been quite a sight, me in wearing just my boxers choking out this creepy old man.

I tried to question him but with no luck, probably because he was gasping for breath. We got him out of our room and a few other kids in the dorm next to ours came out to see what was going on. When we finally put everything together and realized the guy was not even staying in the hostel, he took off and ran out of the hostel. Unfortunately he got away.


That was how i woke up today, crazy huh?


That was i woke up today, crazy huh?

The Others

Barcelona has been a nice change of pace, we have met a lot of very nice people who after hearing our story have joined the "herd." COWS are joining from all around the world stretching from Brazil, to Spain to Australia. This unexpected layover in Europe has helped us spread the word to far more people then I could have ever imagined, I just wished we had access to more COW gear to hand out along our journey.

I have been in contact with the other teams which have all taken various routes to Dakar. One American team that was going to attempt to cross Mauritania got in a car accident in Morocco and are now trying to sell whats left of their car and make it to Dakar. A few other teams from the U.K. managed to get there cars on different ships and are waiting in Dakar for their cars to arrive.

Two teams managed to actually drive across Mauritania without any trouble, and have already started there journey to Cameroon. Crazy huh?

We are crossing our fingers and hoping everything goes smoothly with our ship, I can't wait to get to Africa.

-Keegan

Barcelona!!!

We made it South to the warmer Climate!!! Its been great! I love this city! We got here late Christmas eve night and didn't know what to expect. We are staying in the Kabul hostel which is GREAT! If anyone ever comes to Barcelona this is the place to stay! We spent Christmas day roaming around enjoying the 75+ degree weather and sitting on the beach for a while. This is by far my favorite place so far! Las Rambas is the main street and is full of street performers and people trying to sell you everything! We are here until the 1st of January when we head into Africa and to Morocco!

Paris on a shoestring

It is about time to move south and leave the wonderful city of Paris. Our visit here was amazing, from visiting the Mona Lisa to touring Notre Dame, Paris was a great stop on our long journey south. The one draw back of Paris would be the price of living. Paris ranks among some of the most expensive cities in the world along with Tokyo, New York, Seoul and London. However, being on a strict budget Tate and I managed to tour the city completely while spending a very little.

To get a full experience of the city you have to walk but to save time and your legs the subway is an affordable and quick means of getting from point A to point B. The subway can even be free if you are willing to hop the lines or sneak under barriers (we would never do that of course). You can also visit many of the museums and art galleries for free, if you visit during designated times. For people under the age 26 you can visit the Musee du Louvre which houses thousands of pieces of art including the Mona Lisa for free on Friday and Wed after 6 pm. Many of the cathedrals are free as well and definitely worth the visit.

For a good night out instead of spending 15 or 20 euros on dinner, you can pick up a delicious baguette and a bottle of wine for less for a less then 4 dollars. It is also worth the trip to a local market to buy noodles and vegetables to cook up a decent pasta. You can then spend the night watching the FREE, yep FREE light show at the Eiffel Tower, and instead of spending the 8 euros to visit the top of the tower to get a view of the city. You should head over to the Sacre Coeur which has an amazing panoramic view of the entire city and is absolutely positively FREE.

The most expensive part of Paris is finding a place to stay, if you are willing to rough it you can always camp out but you can also stay at decent hostels for about 15 to 25 euros a night. The other option of course is to make a friend but that could get kinda sketchy.

Some other highlights of our trip include visiting Hotel Des Invalides which has Napoleons tomb and houses a vast array of ancient weapons ranging in date from the mid-evil days to World War II. We also visited the graves of Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde and walked around the Arch De Triomphe all of which were....... yep you guessed it FREE!

That concludes our time in Paris so far. I also got a recent update on our vehicle situation and our car finally got delivered to the right port. Thanks to Deeks! The COW mobile is set to arrive in Dakar, Senegal around the 13th of January. We got a late start but our luck is finally turning around and it was worth all the trouble bypassing Mauritania. Yesterday two Italians were kidnapped bringing the total to six people in the past 2 weeks. The government also fears that local gangs in the area are beginning to target westerners to sell them to Islamic extremest groups in area. Its all fun and games until you are being bound by islamic terrorists in some dark cave.

For now we are safe and are working hard to plan the rest of our trip in order to remain as safe as we possibly can on our road trip across Africa!

Enjoy the holidays and good luck tonight Beavers!!

Since it is the season of giving now is a great time to donate to charities, a few dollars here and there can go a long ways.

-Keegs

Paris

Paris has been a blast! We went around and saw the normal tourist sights like the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre which were pretty cool, but the highlight of Paris so far has been our tour guide! We were lucky enough to meet up with one of my friends since kindergarten Casey Gagliardi (Special Mama ). Since she has been living over here a while she showed us around the not so "Touristy" parts of Paris! It was great to see what the actual city is like! Hopefully we will be able to upload some of the pics we have been taking to the website before to long and show you all how it is! Au Revoir

Paris

Bonjour,

I hope everyone's break is going great! Life over here has been crazy. It seems that bad luck is following us on this journey, and we have received bad news, followed by more bad news, followed by a little more bad news. We found out a few days ago that the original boat we had planned to ship our car to Senegal got cancelled for reasons unknown to me. No biggie, we just had to find another ship to send it on. So we worked away and found a boat, but the only catch was that we had to have our car delivered to a specific boat dock one hour away by the 18th of December. Our shipping agent said that he could deliver the car for us as long as everything went smoothly. THINGS DID NOT GO SMOOTHLY! London had a snowstorm, which is very, very, rare. Our car could not be delivered and we were already in Paris.

Right now the COW mobile is set to leave Jan 4th from London to Dakar, Senegal, far later than we ever imagined. Sometimes I start to think that I was not meant to go to Africa, but we have made it this far and we are not going to give up now! We just might be the last team to finish ha ha. Now I am off to get a baguette for breakfast and explore a bit of Paris before I move south again.

-Keegs

Site is up!

Hello Readers,

After finishing my finals, I have finally found time to finish up the site with a new layout. As you may have seen from the under construction page, the new COW page focuses on a black background. I have tried to make the site as user-friendly and clean as possible.

As a viewer, if you believe you see an error, or if you believe the site can be improved in anyway, please don't hesitate to contact me. I am open for constructive criticism and ensuring that the website provides the information you're looking for!

Best Regards,
Tim Chen

PARIS!!

We have finally made it out of London! Late last night we were able to hop on board the expensive Euro star Train (thanks to striking British Airway Employees) and have arrived in Paris! We didn't do too much last night as just about everything was closed when we got here. We woke up to quite a surprise this morning... Paris has been blanketed in SNOW!!! and we thought we were getting away from the cold! Today will be our first day out in Paris and hopefully it doesn't slow us down too much!

London

After hearing about the freezing temperatures back home, it doesn't seem like we picked to bad of a time to leave! London has been great, we have been lucky enough to stay with a fantastic English family the Gregsons! They have been more then helpful with us trying to find our way around and getting stuff done in this HUGE city! There always seems to be something going on over here, a little different than good 'ol Corvallis. Sunday was a very eventful day and marked the start of the Africa Rally 09! We found our way out to the Top Gear Test track (big thanks to the Gregsons!) for the start of the rally! The Rally is back on with the "adjusted" route of basically just skipping Mauritania due to the Extreme Terrorism Activity. Now that our car has finally made it across the pond to London we are loading it back on a boat and shipping it down below Mauritania to Dakar Senegal. Once it is all cleared through customs and back on its way Keegan and I will grab our back packs and start on our original route by foot. The plan now is to basically just do the first leg of the rally by foot. We are planning to back pack through France, down through Spain and into Morocco. Then we will travel around through Morocco until our car gets into Dakar, we will then catch a flight to Senegal and meet up with the Sami. The idea is to then finish the Rally and end up in Kribi Cameroon safe and sound and with our car. As we have already learned this is probably not what will happen at all and our plan will most likely change 100 more times before its over, but that is it as of now! Once we are out on the road we will try to get into more of a consistent rhythm of Blogging and keeping you up to date, but until then! Happy Holidays!!

-Tate

For more information about this Africa Rally announcement, please visit their website here.

-Tim

First Post!

What an eventful few days we have had since our arrival to London. After a short flight across the Atlantic Ocean, we arrived at the Heathrow Airport Tuesday morning with high expectations and a big to do list. We ended up finding a great little hotel right in the center of London; a ten minute walk and we could be having drinks with Queen at Buckingham Palace or checking out dinosaur fossils from around the world at the Museum of Natural History. Tate has already taken some 234 excellent photo's with his new camera and it turns out that I look really good in a Blazer jersey.

On Wednesday, we made our way to the Guinea Embassy to apply for our last minute visas, and as it turns out the embassy was located right next to Abbey road. Ya, the same Abbey Road the Beatles made famous way back when. We did some exploring while our visas were being processed and called it an early night. We were still experiencing some major jet lag and every night at around 6 o'clock we hit a major wall, unfortunately this meant waking up at 4 a.m!

Thursday was when the real big news came and I mean REAL big! We were riding the tube (that's what they call the subway here) when we received an email from the Adventurists (the charitable company who organizes the Africa rally) letting us know that the rally was cancelled due to extreme terrorism in Mali, Algeria, and Mauritania. CRAZY HUH? Imagine our predicament, here we are riding the "tube" thousands of miles away from home, rushing to finish some last minute details before the Rally which was scheduled to start in less then three days when we received an email calling off the rally!!! The email basically let us know that the head of Counter Terrorism here in the UK called off the rally because of the significant threat of terrorism in northern Africa. Due to the profile of the event, we could be targeted of militant action by the al-queda linked terrorist group. In the past week, three Spanish aid workers had been kidnapped and a British tourist was killed by the terrorist group. Scary huh? We all knew there was a risk entering the rally but purposely putting ourselves in immediate danger is reckless and downright stupid. Attempting to cross Mauritania would be like swimming with hungry sharks. For more information, checkout this statement made by the FCO: http://www.fco.gov.uk/content/en/travel-advice/middle-east-north-africa/mauritania/fco_trv_ca_mauritania

Yet despite all of our plans coming to a screeching halt, we have still managed to find a way to push forward without recklessly endangering our lives. So it is with great excitement and after a few days of panic that we have come up with a solution. We have tracked down a cargo ship that will take our vehicle from Tillsbury, England to Dakar, Senegal for a very reasonable price. Our car is set to arrive in Senegal around the first of January, in the meantime Tate and myself will trek our original route from London to Morocco where we will then catch a flight into Dakar. Easier said than done, of course, but right now we just have to take it one step at a time. Many of the other teams competing in the rally are following in suit and finding ways of shipping their vehicles to Senegal to start from there. I am sure there will be many more problems to solve once we arrive in Senegal but as for now we are still moving forward, promoting COW, and pushing to raise heaps of money for charity. This is just one more speed bump in our trek around the globe, and no matter what else comes up I can promise that we will find a way to keep pushing forward.


Keep your head held high and thanks you for all your support, we will not let you down.


Keegan & Tate

New Blog

Hello Readers,

Thank you for supporting COW and taking the time to check out our website. For quick introductions, my name is Tim and I am the new webmaster for Citizen Of the World. I'm very excited to help contribute my time and effort in supporting the organization Tate and Keegan have started.

In regards to the website, I am in the progress of rebuilding the COW page. Although the old page provided information, it was a bit difficult to edit since it was generated from a program. The new page has been built primarily through HTML code so that I know what sorts of code is implemented on the site. With reduction in code, I expect faster loading times than the previous website. Currently I have completed roughly 45% of the new page, I expect to finish the new website within this week.

Over the course of the next few weeks, expect to see more from the COW website. Until then, please donate to our organization (via. PayPal) or support us by purchasing some COW gear (see below).

Appreciating the support,
Tim Chen