Poems of a Past Life

So here's me. I'm at my parent's house in Guilderland for approximately one month. As I am here for an extended period of time, I have decided that I will finally clean up all the boxes in the basement... so that I know where all my crap is, should I ever actually need to put it someone one of these years.

Productivity on the home front has been pretty good so far, because my jet lag won't allow me to sleep more than four hours a night. And I refuse to use up good daytime hours with shut-eye, so I'm getting in like a twenty hour day... almost every day. It's kind of frustrating not to feel like you can adequately think or speak straight, but while I'm going through boxes I need to do neither, and the people that I get to be around now have known me since I was 13 so they knew me before I actually COULD think or speak straight. And that really goes a long way.

But during the day, when it is dumping down snow and I can't ride my bike anyway... I am homebound. So inevitably, I have been forging through old poems and songs and stuff. I put them all in a little box, and mailed them to myself -- a good suggestion from my cousin -- to prevent plagiarism. Not that I think anyone would really want to steal my little ditties... but hey, best to do what you can do, eh?

Anyway, since these little pieces of me aren't doing any good just sitting around in boxes, i have decided to post some of them, burn some of them, and recycle some of them. Since the blog is just going to be chilling out while I'm home, I figured that's a good forum for it.

So anyway, here are two poems that I found that I kinda liked. It's weird, for the most part I'm generally a happy girl, but most of the time when I write it sounds like I'm a torture victim. So, pardon, I guess. It's my therapy...

This one doesn't have a title, or a date on it, but it looks like the book it was written in started in 2004, so it was probably written in 04 or 05. And I sound terribly sad!! :(

Ask me why I want you and I'd tell you
"It beats me"
And sometimes man, it does
Leaves welts in places no one sees
caresses and then crushes me
Suddenly I'm sinking and what's left is something you can't see
A ghost of what I used to be

Yet you're still there, somewhere inside
lurking like a child learning to seek and hide
Except I can always find you
Even when I don't try to --
like when I hear Dan Bern sing about Key West
and I remember how I like you best
and he tried to escape
but baby I just want to rest
Cuz I can't sleep beside your memory --
which is irony at its best

And I remember that old morning
you took my hand and curled my toes
and I was peeking through my hair, from the pillow
in throes of disbelief and happiness
of what could come from all of this
but
nothing comes from nothingness
and that's all there is to say
I guess



Aaaaaaaand this one looks unfinished. And I think I actually like it enough to maybe play around with it and turn it into a song. It is needy, and it's about singing. And I haven't written a song since I came back from New Zealand. This one doesn't have a title either. Or a date. Dammit. I used to be so good at that!

Somewhere there's a radio station playing out loud
I can't tune it out
and I can't tone it down
It blankets the world in static and sound
and everything beautiful wades in
and drowns

There is a babbling brook that spills from your mouth
and your words build a bridge from your thoughts to my doubts
But your waters run dry
you can't quench my thirst
and I hate how
you never let me come first

Still the kids in Uganda, they sing their songs
rising from the pit of all the pain in Patong
and the tears they flow like the mallet along
the old-souled wood on the xylophone
and the beauty beguiles me, intrepid and strong

And what I know is I understand
a hollow box of wood in my hands
and strumming out from within, whatever I can
to match what I can no longer stand

I wish that I could talk to you the way we sing at night
5 little fingers and 6 sweet strings spring up out of the blight
that light can't usually get through
that tries to crawl out of my mouth whenever it has the chance to

But not when we're singin'
When we're singing' we're free
Shedding lies like skin
skin like gravity
and we're up, we're just floatin'
my guitar and me




... and that's where that puppy ends. but i think with some tinkering that could turn out nice!

Anyway, if you liked that round, I will probably post some more as I come across them. I still have a lot of stuff to get through......... :)

S T U C K

This past week has been so strange. I am now on the third day of what will turn out to be a four day journey home. I will not miss overnight train or bus rides, sleeping in the airport, or smog.

However, looking back just a few days, my last night in Krabi rivaled my last night on Lamma, give or take a few degrees. It was a wonderfully clear sky, with a bright full moon, and there was just something lurking in the air. For the first half of the night I was laying around on these beautiful platforms, listening to the ocean with one ear, and to the music with the other. Watching fire spinners working out their stuff. Among other things that night, I am now in love with this band called the Bedouin Sound Clash... I think. No one could really tell me much, except that they are from England and have a pretty good following. As I have been out of the country and most of the music scene for the past three months... if anyone has any idea what band I'm talking about, I would LOVE more info. Cuz I need the music. Asap.

The next day was a late start and a bit of a let down on the island. Apparently the guy that Elle and Emma had met the night before kind of blew us off, as we were supposed to use his rope to go climbing so that we could get out of a crazy fee for only a few hours. At this point I went solemnly wandering the island, hoping someone would see how pathetic I looked and tell me they would take me out climbing. And it worked! Except, my new friend Mic is a really good climber and his new friend Jess is NOT. So we went to the Fire Wall, where the two of us managed to scramble me up this one crazy hard route, and then I got halfway through another one before my arms decided they were going to take the rest of the day off. Quitters. It didn't really matter, though, because I was headed off to Ao Nang to head to Bangkok to head back to Hong Kong to head to San Francisco to head home.

Lucky for me, I met a lovely British fellow on the pickup truck in Ao Nang and we were able to accompany each other all the way to Bangkok Airport the next day. It worked out so well, our flights were leaving within ten minutes of each other. This guy works for British Airways and was making me wildly jealous with his tales. He gets to fly pretty much anywhere for next to nothing, is funny, fun to talk to, makes enough to vacation whenever he wants and gets loads of time off. In addition to all that good stuff, his girlfriend gets to fly wherever SHE wants pretty much for free. So I casually asked him if he thought he would be needing a new girlfriend any time soon. Turns out he is quite attached to the current one. Go figure.

It doesn't REALLY matter though, because though I joke about the British Airways dude, I did meet a nice man I actually would marry. Of course, he doesn't know that, cuz he is pratically married off to someone who is not me, so there's no need in making a fool out of myself. But that's the rub about meeting so many people all the time. It seems like I am constantly nurturing a smarting heart.

And now I'm stuck in the Hong Kong airport. Yesterday was probably the worst day I have had in a very long time. Everything was fine until I realized that $3000 in traveler's cheques were missing from my money belt. So as I was trying to deal with that, my plane (unbeknownst to me) was taking off without me because I forgot to set my watch forward an hour from Bangkok time. I could see the plane rolling away as I got to the gate, and I thought to myself, "why is there no one here? They must have moved the gate... again" But then as I was walking up, the woman at the boarding gate said "Miss Brown?" and then in my surprise that this woman would know who I am out of alllllllll the passengers on this flight... it hit me exactly what was happening. And from two nights of no sleep and not eating properly, I just broke down and started sobbing on the floor. It was so awful. I was so thrilled with the idea of getting picked up by my dad, and then heading to a hotel - which is oddly something that is really fun for me, staying in hotel- and then goign home without ever having to navigate my way through ONE subway with my huge bags. Plus with the advent of the traveler's cheques and the fact that I didn't have any more money, and that I KNEW they were going to steal that stupid change fee from me... I wajust lost it. Oh man, it was horrible. I effectlively bought another plane ticket just because I made a stupid mistake. That 250 bucks gets me a whole week of Spanish school, or a one way ticket to the Bay area, or a round trip ticket to Guatemala. I tried telling this to the woman behind the counter, through sniffs and sobs, but she wasn't hearing it. I hope if she's ever in a state like I was yesterday, she doesn't run into herself somewhere. Cuz that was not fun at all.

But there are nice people all over the place, and as I was huddled in a corner trying to make sense of myself, feeling really stupid and lonely and trying to blubber quietly, this wonderful man... whom I will refer to now as my Balinese Guardian Angel... came over with a sandwich and some water and sat and talked with me for a long time. He did some breathing exercises with me, and we chatted for a long time about Hinduism and spirituality and meditation. It was great. It made me almost want to cancel my trip home and head to Bali with him and his family. Which is good, I like being excited about that. But Bali will be still be there when I actually have money, so like most things, it will have to wait.

So it's now ten o clock and I am going to check in for my flight. With any luck, in another 24 hours I will be in a car, with my dad, heading home. Finally.

Thailand

It's amazing how much you can feel in a matter of 24 hours. I actually wound up having a really fun last week in Hong Kong, and getting to do almost everything that I wanted. I met two super fun dudes on the ferry to lamma one day, who wound up accompanying me to do the Sharp Peak hike I had been trying to get to since, like, week 2. But, as per ususaly, it was well worth the wait, and it was nice to spend my last weekend away from the city.

The day I left for Thailand was an absolute mess. I arrived home in the morning from a sweet, but relatively sleepless night, in a pagoda that overlooks the South China Sea on one of the Lamma coasts. I came home to Emma and Elle throwing clothes everywhere. Another one of our co-workers arrived in at like 5 in the morning and was trying to sleep on the couch. When he realized that wasn't working, he instead got up and began to shout things at Emma and Elle when they were asking questions of each other regarding what to take with them. It turned into a joke show. For many reasons, I was laughing my ass off. And that was good. But the actual packing, after two nights on low sleep, was ridonkulous. I managed to get away with a 40 L bag that was only abot 2/3 full, so at least that was sweet.

So far I have been dealing with some crazy feelings coming up while having been here. Emma is so keen to beach it all the time, and Elle has been like a madwoman leading climbs. I have been having a little bit of a hard time with the fact that I feel like I wasted a bunch of time doing the 16 hour train ride up and back, for a day and a half of climbing. But... I think that's part of the bigger picture that I can't expect myself to melt into all the nuances of a new country, and then be gone, in less than a week. I *almost* wish I had stayed in Hong Kong and gone to the monestary I found... but I know when I can get home and actually process through whatever is going on inside my head that's giving me such squirrels in my belly... then I will be happy for having been. And will be keen to go back.

Until then, I leave tomorrow from this beautiful beachy, climbing paradise. I am: ________ (fill in the blank with any emotion and chances are you'll be right.) Tell ya what though, I'm NOT looking foward to snow on the ground in New York. So thankfully I will keep my head right here on this warm beach, until I ab-so-LOOT-ley have to. :)

Comfortable

If I were to set a scene for my life the past week, it would look like: Three girls, running around half naked or half sane, or both... trying to put some sense into the craziness of the world, and failing with gusto.

And now it's coming to an end. Truly. And all of a sudden I find myself wearing this strange hat I didn't know I had. Emma practically had to pack my bags for me as I was on my way to the airport. Most of the time I get such a high off of traveling alone and meeting people and letting the chips fall as they may. But right now, in this moment, I would rather hang out in stinky Hong Kong to hang with my roommies than explore and expand in the temples of Siem Reap. Before today I was sure I was angry about not being able to leave, but today I'm citting my hair, singin in the shower, and playing lonely games, as I was told to do. And honestly I am elated that I am forced to wait for my friends before I can fly out.

Creepily, I'm even more excited because I literally am FORCED to wait for them, so I don't actually have to own up to the fact that I'd really rather stick around then go exploring. Cuz if I had to own up to that, I would definitely have to scold myself. Which is silly anyway. Many times I have to remind myself to step back and laugh at it all. Like I did today. A lot. So much so that some patrons at the beach were looking at me strangely, which just made me laugh more. Ha, joke's on them.

I was thinking fondly on California today, and how nice it was going to be to head back to a job I love, and people I love, and weather I, well, you know... it's not bad. Working on the beach and spending days with the kayster and sasha and being able to be in contact with the people I love. It has been months since I spoke with Dale and that's not sitting well with me at all. I am young enough to want freedom in most of its aspects, but old enough to know that there are some things you must hold precious and need not take for granted.

Hopefully not wanting to be alone is a phase. Or, perhaps I'm just lonely and ready to go home. Ready to speak the language, ready to hug michelle belle and patio, linders and shawna, lengli and the el martin. Ready to wax philosophic with Janet and laugh out loud with Elise. There are myriad ways to keep in touch with people these days, but none of it suffices at the heart of the matter. Or at least, instead of filling my reserves it leaves me wanting for more. But I was always that way, I think. I can remember being really young and staying over at my Grandmother's house. Every night I would get sad and want to call my parents, and after every call I would just cry harder. If she were smart, she would have hid the phone and told me it was broken.

At any rate, with the advent of the Bangkok thing blowing over, at least for now, it looks like I will be booking my flight for the 8th and just hanging around here until then. I need to hit up some of the markets for presents, and I am planning on hiking a mountain called Sharp Peak on Thursday or Friday. So it's not as though I will have as much time to fill as I was imagining. Plus, I know have no need to buy any food, as everyone who left (which is EVERYONE) left food at the house I am now staying at. So I don't even need to spend money on food or drink. I was even gifted a dvd of strange Asian porn. I would like to think that I was accidentally gifted said dvd, but it was nestled so nicely in the middle of them all, that most of me has to believe it was hidden. Either way that should provide an hour or so of a party for one.

So I get to feast on everyone else's food, walk in the leftover shoes, wear the leftover clothes, watch the leftover DVDs and read the leftover books. Fortunately I have been so busy distracting myself for at least two weeks, that even though I do not like it, I think the very thing I need is to be is in this nice house with no one I know around to distract me. Plus, it's good to do things we don't like every once in a while.

10 is for everything, everything, everything

Tomorrow will be my second to last day, on my last program for this job I have had in Asia. I have been killing myself this past month with all sorts of anxiety, but other than that it has been great. I realized the other day that although the job was not what I thought it was going to be, so many good things have happened since I've been out here. And I think my personal skill set has benefitted, for both my work and play lives. Unfortuantely, my work skill set has not benefitted from the job I am working, but from the people who lend themselves to workin there. That part has been really nice.

I have taken pretty good advantage of my free time lately... getting out and hiking, as well as going climbing with some really rad people. My last venture I went out with my roommmate Emma and our co-worker/friend Megan (who works as a ski patroler in SLC, coincidentally) and I was able to get myself up an arrete climb called Blade Runner... which I think was only a 5.9... but it was probably the hardest thing I had to voluntarily do in a long time. Among being one of the harder ratings I've ever climbed, it was also a really high one. It was a 2 pitch that *could* be done in one, if someone belayed from the top. When I got up there, I couldn't even enjoy the view. But now that the airlines screwed up my thailand flight and I have another two days here... I'm hoping maybe to make it back and try again. :)

I also got truly swallowed by a wave while belaying on an island called Tung Lung, but that is a story I would like to save for late nights where there are beers and campfires and hopefully s'mores involved. If theres' one thing they just DON'T know how to do in Hong Kong, it's definitely S'mores. Chalk one up for America!

We are having a big end of season party on Thursday here, and then most of us will be disbanding and heading to all the different places one could head to from the Hong Kong hub. I was supposed to leave for Bangkok on Saturday, but Air Asia screwed me up and never processed my credit card. Which is really bogus b/c an old Hasher friend of mine and her new husband are randomly IN Bangkok on Saturday, and now I don' t even leave Hong Kong until Monday night. B-O-O, H-O-O. Hopefully, though I will get to see them that night, and possibly the next day depending on when their flight leaves on the 2nd.

Beyond that, I'm hoping to leave for Cambodia soon after I arrive in thailand, mainly to see Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. I am REALLY excired for travel, but a little nervous that there will be sooooooo many people that I will just feel incredibly overwhelmed. Either way, plans are to meet up with my rommates in Krabbi to check out the sweet crags and climb our little hearts out. I am especially psyched about this, because I figure by day 3 I will no longer have to remind myself to breathe, and I can actually get some enjoyment out of it DURING the actual climbing!!

I spent 500 bucks on tickets last night, and I'm wondering when I will remember that I am actually POOR. I am heading to Salt Lake in January to volunteer for the Sundance Festival. Old friends have already GRACIOUSLY accepted me into their homes, new friends will most likely be traveling over from the West, and there will tons of BRAND SPANKIN NEW friends to meet during the festival........ which is always a good time... but a better one now that I can enjoy the parties b/c I'm not workina day job :) FUN!


Ooh, AND plans are pretty much set for Guatemala coming in February. So if anyone wants any part of that... the more the merrier! :) I believe myself and my good friend Audrey will be attending Spanish School somewhere in that little country... we haven't yet decided. And I plan to go til I'm good enough to keep it up on my own (i.e., read Harry Potter in Spanish) or til the money runs out. (Or til I can salsa the socks off the locals... and kay-bear.) Oh, and anyone who knows Patio should tell him to come too.

Tomorrow starts the firsts of lasts for me on this journey. I'm sad to be leaving the people I've met here, but really excited to be heading again into unknown territory.

The Best Day EVER

This is going to be short, but I am so EXCITED that I have to leave a post. There is NOTHING like having THE BEST DAY EVER! So not only did Obama win today (OH MY FLIPPIN GAWD) but I also did my first lead climb today... on like a 5.7 or something... and climbed higher than I have ever been... AND found the Cambodia guide book I've been looking for for only 5 USD. I mean COME ON. I feel as though the Universe has scooped me up and is rocking me in her arms. It is glorious. I had to say goodbye to a good pal recently and that made me kind of sad. So it was really nice to have a frickin BRILLIANT day... where I write about it in BIG LETTERS because it feels SO GOOD!

It's so rare that the macrocosm and the microcosm fall into place on the same day. But wow. ME = Happy Happy Smiley Girl. And that's all I can say. :)

Oh and HUGE HUGE THANK YOU to my co-worker Geordie who is incredibly patient and wonderful and a GREAT coach and awesome book finder. YAY GEORDIE!

Listening to Mother

I had originally planned to get up and head out this morning, being as most of my coworkers are actually working. But I opened my window to a crazy chorus of raindrops on the awning outside. As dark skies and wet clothes don't really appeal to me, I thought maybe Mother Nature was trying to me (and the rest of Hong Kong) that today should be more of a still day. So here I am, sitting inside, watching kids run up and down the street outside my balcony, listening to Ani sing to me about Independence Day, and finally focusing on what I am going to do with the next few months of my life.

My roommates are traveling to Thailand when we are finished with this job, and they have been talking about it for the past couple weeks. Originally I thought I was going to jump on that bandwagon with them, but then I came to the conclusion that the Unvierse had other plans for me. I have been thinking about Cambodia since I got here -- being that my cousin just went there, and I used to have a roommate a long time ago who used to talk about it. In mentioning this to a teacher who was working with one of my groups, he began telling me about a place called Siem Reap, which he believed I would really enjoy. But because I am spending a bit more money than I thought I was gong to here, I have really sketched myself out about doing any traveling. However, I went to a boostore yesterday and sat down with a Lonely Planet book for about an hour. (Note: This is a TERRIBLE idea if what you want is to be pracitcal and listen to your empty wallet.) And as you can imagine, by the end of that hour.... well, I was more than hooked. So it looks like I will be snagging a round-trip ticket from Hong Kong to Bangkok for about 250 usd, and then a one way from bangkok to phnom penh for about 85 usd. I can travel overland from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, spend some time there and then cross the border into Thailand by slow train or bus. From there I hope to meet up with my housemate... but that will be hard without a phone or anything. Either way we will have the same plane back to hong kong, so at least I'll have bookends of friends. And seeing as how I'm not leaving Hong Kong for my job, this is the next best thing I have to look forward to! And it's looking awwwwfully sweet.

Beyond that I'm trying to get my act together to be able to do some trips here inside Hong Kong. As I mentioned, I wanted to get up and out this morning, to go and hike a little tiny mountain called Stenhouse, which is the tallest on the island that I live on. However, the rain kind of thwarted me there, and so I'll have to do that another time. THe other two hikes I want to do are on islands seperate from mine. One is part of the Lantau Trail, which would consist of two peaks and a big buddha at the end, which looks like this. It's probably the biggest religious statue I have ever seen. And that should be sweet.

And the other hike I want to do is called Sharp Peak... which is very aptly named. Some of the people I work with were telling me that i can hike that peak and then connect it with one of the trails out here called teh MacLehose trail. It's weird... but because of the landslides and rain out here, many of the "backcountry" trails are paved. I was told that this one is better than most, but that I will still probably be very surprised to find how much of it is concrete. So my task for today is to play around on the computer for a while and do some planning... which has been absent from my life for the last month or so.

And last but not least, I have to attend to Audrey and Guatemala. If I can wrangle the money to do it, I'd like to head out to SLC for Sundance, and then head from there to Guatemala for Spanish School for a couple of months before heading back to THE BAY AREA which is my most favorite spot so far in all of the great nation I was born in.

Oh and DON'T FORGET TO FREAKIN VOTE!!! I am SO SO bummed I will not be in the States for this party. I will be watching Michael Moore's SLACKER UPRISING tonight to prepare for tomorrow. You can download it here: http://slackeruprising.com/ and it's free to watch if you are from Canada or the U.S. Let's FINALLY kick some REPUBLICAN TRUNK!!

And for kicks, here's a picture of my most favorite thing so far in Hong Kong:

Good times.

Sundays are probably my favorite day of the week... when I am doing something that requires me to know what day of the week it is. This last week has been challenging for me, even though it will probably prove to be the least draining work-week I will have here. And of course, instead of using Friday night to sleep and heal myself, I chose to attend a party at the Big House, whre I drank too much in too little time and sang my heart out with my friend Mike who knows practically every Jack Johnson song there ever was. So the night was rad, and the following day was spent reminscing about what a bad idea the past night was.



Lucky for me, I am enjoying living on Lamma. My apartment is probably the most normal out of all of them. And my roommates are really cool, which makes coming home really fun. Here's us: We are all different in some ways, but the same in most ways. And normally I wouldn't go searching for it... but living here, man, it's just damn fun to hear about everyone's gossip!! Especially because our house has been a bit fuller since the drunk boat party. Two of us have gained new roommates, and that makes discussion at home even better when it is just the four of us girls. The only problem is that everyone lives together here, so it has been really tough for me to seperate my personal life from my professional life. Luckily, the people here don't really take offence when the personal part starts to creep into the professinoal part, or vice versa. Why, not 48 hours ago I was stupidly throwing beer cans at one of my bosses. And though I'm pretty sure I will hear more about it another time, I don't think my facilitation skills are being judged by my tipsy antics. Which is nice, because I am pretty sure that I would not be a very solid facilitator after a few cold ones.


So I have my schedule til the end of October. I really only have two weeks with students this month. Next week will be spent doing projects, because there aren't any kids. But the projects seem to be pretty cool as well. I am doing some sort of orienteering course, there are other people who are doing food projects, and other people who are doing environmental assessments of the land we are using. (RAD!) I don't think I would head back out here for another round of work, but I think for the time that I am here, I can still learn a lot. Plus, I got an email from the woman who runs LEAPYear, telling me that I can continue on to the next round of applications, which means I get a phone interview! Woo! All that won't even start until August of 09 but I have been wanting to work for them for some time. So not only is that exciting, but it also means that my pending trip to Guatemala this winter will really be good for something, because with LEAPyear I would be leading trips in South America.


Tonight is girls night in, here at the house. We are having a sushi party and probably watching a movie we can all laugh ourselves to tears with. Good times, baby. Good times. :)

~ PAR-TAY! ~

Staff training ended with a bang last night, as our bosses threw us a little party on a junk (aka small private boat for rent). We has a band, dinner, and WAY too much alcohol on the boat. Everybody got good and toasty, including my boss who was traveling around with a really nice single malt whiskey, gladly pouring for whomever even glanced at the bottle. However, the good part about being on the boat is that everyone is stumbling around and having a hard time with balance... so no one ever actually knows how drunk you are. In fact, you really never even know how drunk you are. It's fun.




We spent our last two days of training on a little island called Tung Lung. I did my first overhanging rappell:and my first my first "tyrolean traverse"... if you can see it, it's the line strung accross the gully in this pic. (something like a zip line) and climbed up a bunch of easy cliffs by the sea.












The one day I thought I was going to have so much trouble with, wound up being the best day of staff training for me. I am learning how to work ropes and belay people from the top of the system. Today I did my first rope rescue and learned a bunch of cool new knots and cinches that I am excited to get out and put to use. I feel like there are a lot of people in salt lake who would be very proud of my performance these past couple of days!

I start my first program on Monday, and it is a week-long program. I am taking tomorrow totally off, because i really haven't had one day to myself since I got here. I locked mylsef out of my apartment today and spent about an hour tryying to climb up my buidling to the balcony where the doors are open. I was quite close when a woman who lives downstairs came out and told me she was going to call the cops. Only, the first six times she said it, I didn't understand her, so I kept shaking my head at her... which apparently wasn't making the situation any better. Then she started yelling. GOod times, good times. After that I spent the next hour trying to find someone who could tell me who owned the building, so that I could find a key. After spending almost two hours learning new climbing stuff and not sleeping but a small wink last night, it was a little rough. But things are better now and I am probably going to crash as soon as this little posting goes up. I am also going to try to put up some pictures. So we'll see how that works. The view we have from our apartment's bottom deck is really pretty, and i snapped some pics of the sunset today that are really nice looking. I think I'll just leave it at that. :)

Six days in

Today is day 6 in Hong Kong. Tomorrow will round out a solid week for me. Basically, my life consists of my three awesome roommates, work, work, work, dinner, beer, and topless dishing. We basicallyare training 7am to 8pm with half hour travel times on either side. It's a little nuts right now, but it makes for a really good conversation when everyone gets home at night. We are split into four different groups, and I am in different groups from all my roomies. So yeah. That's helpful for conversation 'round the house... though I don't any of us needs help in that area.

I still have crazy jet lag, and it's been hard for me to sleep through the night. So I'm drinking a lot of tea -- which is DEEEEE-licius -- and spending a lot of time staring up at the glow-in-the-dark stars on my celing. And finding new things to attach duct tape to. There are a LOT of things that duct tape will stick to, and NOT come off of, coincidentally.

All in all, I am having a good time, but am spending a lot more money that I thought I was going to. None of my food or transportation is covered, so that's been a little bit of a bummer that I need to put behind me. I hope that it won't ruin my chances at hoppin down to Guatemala after this job is over... but I may in fact have to stick around for a month or so and do a little temp job. We'll see. The good thing is that dinner really only costs between 2 and 4 american dollars and it's really good. The bad thing is that dairy is scarce, so an ice cream cone can cost more than a meal. And anyone who knows me from eve knows that I would gladly take an ice cream cone over dinner any day.

Tomorow we are going to an island off the coast of our island, which is off the coast of hong kong island. We are going to spend a couple of nights there, and do high elements stuff. DALE if you are reading this... I really wish you were here. :)

Off to pack, and then off to bed! Long couple days tomorrow before the chaos that will be our three days off before programs actually start.

I miss everyone today. Especially my girls. Lots of love out there...

Arrived!

I am typing this (very short!) message from Lamma Island directly off the coast from Hong Kong. Me and five of my coleagues flew in from the states yesterday and were able to have most of today to get acquainted with Hong Kong... by which I mean, find a cheap happy hour somewhere and talk to each other in english.

Tomorrow I will start training. There are 46 of us staff members here. I have only met about 10 so far, but everyone seems really rad. I think it will be a good two months.

A more sufficient update will come when I don't have to wake up so early the next morning! :)

Getting There

You know honestly, I'd like to identify with Tom Petty when he says "The Waiting" is the hardest part. But most times I feel like: F*ck waiting. Who has time for that? Getting there always seems to be the part that comes back to bite me in the ass.

Procrastination. It's what's for dinner. ... Or, maybe breakfast the next day.

It's about 12:30 am on the morning of which I leave for the city (again), from which I leave for JFK and then I leave for Hong Kong. I am hoping to be in bed by 2, but we'll see. This is the first real post for the blog that I am attempting to use to convey stories and stuff from this incredible opportunity that I have to go and work in Hong Kong for a couple of months.

I don't really know what kind of access I will have to computers, or how often I will be able to keep up. But it's more a good way for me to not have to send mass emails... which I hate. I never know how many people actually like to read those massive things I use to cram a month of ineffable memories into 5000 characters. So, now people can keep up when and if they want to. And I can use that time much more effectively to send personal emails, which are so much better anyway.

So at any rate, I already miss everyone. I am really excited for this opportunity and I think that it will be a phenomenal experience. I hope to be in touch. My cell phone will be turned off, so don't call it! :) Email and Facebook will be the only ways to be in touch. But I will return before the holidays, and catch up with everyone face to face at that point.

Love to you folks. Here we go!

TESTING, TESTING...

one, ta-hoo, thddreee