May 31: Short Story Behind the Door first published on Story Time

August 10: Made a first post on this blog. Well, not technically on this blog. It used to be this blog.

August 13: Arrived in the United States for the first time after travelling for almost twenty-four hours, and had my sorta first culture shock.

August 15: Discovered that America had mosquitoes too, and at first thought it had been sent after me from Nigeria.

August 16: Left Providence, Rhode Island for St. Louis Missouri, riding a Cadillac to Boston Massachussetts somewhere along the way.

August 17: Arrived at Edwardsville Illinois, and experienced my first and truly memorable power outage in America that lasted more than 12 hours.

August 18: Found out that I could be Jewish, after all.

August 21: Met Papa Rudy, my colleagues at the Department, and got a bicycle as a gift among many other surprises.

August 23: Visited Six Flags at St. Louis where I lost a camera.

August 25: Discovered the value of a quarter.

September 10: Moved from ktravula.wordpress.com to ktravula.com

September 29: Met Frank Warren of PostSecret.

September 29: Began writing Home Alone, Traveller, a poem.

October 3: Showed off my new camera.

October 5: Met Maya Angelou when she came to campus here at Edwardsville.

October 15: Visited Principia University. Became an American.

October 23: Wrote “America Tonight,” a poem on returning from a walk in the rain.

October 24: Visited the African American museum at Carbondale

October 27: Got news that short story Behind the Door will be published in an anthology in the UK in 2010.

November 11: Wrote my name on the “Berlin Wall” on Campus.

November 09: Published my translation of Richard Berengarten’s poem Volta online.

November 14: Visited Chicago, the windy city. Went to the Sears Towers, among other famous places.

November 21: Visited the museum at Cahokia, Illinois, and had my first taste of pounded yam at Nubia Cafe in St. Louis.

November 23: Visited the St. Louis Gateway Arch, and its Museum of Westward Expansion.

December 1: Wrote an unpublished poem titled This step, This spot.

December 2: Got a Secret Santa.

December 4: Found out that I couldn’t donate blood if I wanted to.

December 6: My poem Home Alone, Traveller and a few others published on Africanwriter.com

December 7: Fried Dodo to class for my students to eat on their last day of class.

December 10: Arrived in Washington DC where I’d gone to attend a Fulbright Event. I toured the city on foot, visiting the Lincoln Memorial, the Capitol, the Washington Monument and the White House, taking pictures.

December 11: Published the 200th post on KTravula.com

December 12: Went to the White House, again.

December 15: Visited Howard University, Washington DC in the rain.

December 15: Visited Maryland, where I met a few Nigerian bloggers, and ate food and drank wine like no man’s business.

December 15: Poem America Tonight and a larger Home Alone, Traveller published on Canada’s Maple Tree Literary Supplement, Issue 5.

December 19: Found out who my Secret Santa was.

December 20: My short story Behind the Door reviewed for Critical Literature Review.

December 25: Saw real snow.