So I arrived back in Boston last week! It was quite surreal to find myself back in Harvard Square wandering around and it felt like nothing had changed. I guess the whole city would have had to be re-done in order to surprise me since I'm used to quite a high level of change right now. It felt like quite a shock to be back in Boston and after a week I'm adjusting still, but feeling a bit better. It's strange not talking to every single westerner person I see (which would take quite a while in Boston), and not having that hope wandering around when you're lonely of "oh-I'll-meet-someone-soon", because it doesn't work like that. It's definitely a stranger feeling, feeling alienated in your own society, since when you're abroad, that's considered normal, and you always think that you can always go back to the US where you'll be understood. Here, there are no fall-backs.
In any case, I'm up to my proactive ways by job-searching, joining activity groups and trying to put myself in new situations. With meetup.com, I climbed Mount Washington! That was pretty amazing. It's also funny that I feel more in my element right now when I don't know whats going on, like meeting a new group of people at meetup.com or getting my haircut (badly) in a chinese hair salon while the stylist's whole family is sitting watching me and chatting in chinese. I'm used to not understanding anything!
So I guess I'll see what opportunities come up while I'm back here and just figure out things as I go...
Monday, August 4, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Back in the States!
I'm on U.S. soil! It definitely has been a bit of a culture shock being back, especially in California which has a quite different culture than I'm used to anyways.
My last two days in Bangkok, I had mixed emotions about leaving depending on how the day was going. One day was really dull without much to see, and the last day was a surprisingly fun adventure. I searched for the National Museum and asked a thai couple who were coincidentally going there and so they took me there and then insisted on being my "guides" to the museum despite their below-basic grasp of english. Luckily 4 months in Asia has made me fluent in "simple english" so I basically can figure out a person's grasp on the language and speak accordingly. Nook, Bum and I explored the museum and then they took me to a little known food market and then we went to a museum that they knew about that just opened a couple weeks ago.
Another funny incident was when I came into the museum, some school children all ran over to me and wanted me to take a survey about thailand for their english class, so as I was filling it out, they all pulled out their cameras and starting taking photos of me. Even though there's tons of tourists in bangkok, I guess it's still exciting to have a photo taken with "farang". Then as a small thank-you gift, they handed me a necklace with a skull and crossbones--interesting choice. I asked if it had any meaning, which evidentally it did not, they just thought I would somehow really want to wear skull crossbones. These types of surprise interactions are what I'm really going to miss!
It's also funny the thoughts that I find being back that still show my travel mindset, like seeing something on my toothbrush and thinking "Oh it's probably just a bunch of ants that attacked it again". Or looking next to the toliet for the bucket of water to flush it with. So it's been interesting coming back!
My last two days in Bangkok, I had mixed emotions about leaving depending on how the day was going. One day was really dull without much to see, and the last day was a surprisingly fun adventure. I searched for the National Museum and asked a thai couple who were coincidentally going there and so they took me there and then insisted on being my "guides" to the museum despite their below-basic grasp of english. Luckily 4 months in Asia has made me fluent in "simple english" so I basically can figure out a person's grasp on the language and speak accordingly. Nook, Bum and I explored the museum and then they took me to a little known food market and then we went to a museum that they knew about that just opened a couple weeks ago.
Another funny incident was when I came into the museum, some school children all ran over to me and wanted me to take a survey about thailand for their english class, so as I was filling it out, they all pulled out their cameras and starting taking photos of me. Even though there's tons of tourists in bangkok, I guess it's still exciting to have a photo taken with "farang". Then as a small thank-you gift, they handed me a necklace with a skull and crossbones--interesting choice. I asked if it had any meaning, which evidentally it did not, they just thought I would somehow really want to wear skull crossbones. These types of surprise interactions are what I'm really going to miss!
It's also funny the thoughts that I find being back that still show my travel mindset, like seeing something on my toothbrush and thinking "Oh it's probably just a bunch of ants that attacked it again". Or looking next to the toliet for the bucket of water to flush it with. So it's been interesting coming back!
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Gettin "Narc'd"
I'm one dive away from being an advanced diver! I've got two more days left here and I'm trying to eat up the cheap diving opportunities while they last. I've absolutely loved diving, it's been a completely surreal experience. I did a deep diver today down to 30 meters where nitrogen narcosis can set in, which is basically that the deep depth can lead so much nitrogen to flood into you that you feel a bit drunk. It can vary by depth, individual physiology and a variety of other factors how bad people get "narc'd", but I had a nice little buzzed feeling down there.
They gave us a test to make sure we weren't blasted out of our minds by showing us a certain number of fingers and we had to show the fingers that would make it all add up to 9 (it confused me a bit on land, so I was crap at it underwater). I passed, but barely--I definitely had to count it out slowly and had some of the symptomatic giggling in the process. It definitely is similar to being a bit drunk. There are stories of people being so narc'd that they start offering their breathing regulator to sharks as they swim by. In any case, I'm doing a night dive tonight to finish up my certification which probably would have been a nightmare for me years ago, but now it seems pretty exciting. Tomorrow I'm doing another deep dive in a place where there are normally groups of sharks, woot! (don't worry, not so much the people-eating types).
They gave us a test to make sure we weren't blasted out of our minds by showing us a certain number of fingers and we had to show the fingers that would make it all add up to 9 (it confused me a bit on land, so I was crap at it underwater). I passed, but barely--I definitely had to count it out slowly and had some of the symptomatic giggling in the process. It definitely is similar to being a bit drunk. There are stories of people being so narc'd that they start offering their breathing regulator to sharks as they swim by. In any case, I'm doing a night dive tonight to finish up my certification which probably would have been a nightmare for me years ago, but now it seems pretty exciting. Tomorrow I'm doing another deep dive in a place where there are normally groups of sharks, woot! (don't worry, not so much the people-eating types).
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
Thailand
Goodness I thought I'd spend most my time in Thailand when I first came to Asia and I ended up only spending my last two weeks here, how plans change! After China and having an end date, I'm a bit burnt out of the travel world, I think your brain starts to check out after a while once you know it is ending. When I arrived in Bangkok, I was just mentally exhausted and I spent a whole day helping a friend get a visa in which nothing went well, so the exhaustion just made me homesick (for whatever home I had) and just sick of travel. After another exhausting bus ride, I am in Koh Tao, an island in the south, which is really gorgeous and supertouristy, so it's actually quite nice to relax in. I used to desire a bit more authentic experiences (yes, I was being one of those travel snobs), but now its so nice to have everything in english and be able to access everything easily. So hurrah!
I'm taking a dive course to get PADI certification since it's the cheapest dive course in the world so I thought I should take advantage, especially since its something I've always wanted to try. I'm really looking forward to it since I think I was meant to be a mermaid in another life. I did 4 hours of theory today, not the funnest, but tomorrow we go into the pool and then two days doing dives! I'm staying at the place that I'm getting certified at, and it's on the beach which is gorgeous, though the free room is not what we'd call luxurious (or decent...or clean..), but like all travel experiences, it's all temporary and the location is worth it!
I'm taking a dive course to get PADI certification since it's the cheapest dive course in the world so I thought I should take advantage, especially since its something I've always wanted to try. I'm really looking forward to it since I think I was meant to be a mermaid in another life. I did 4 hours of theory today, not the funnest, but tomorrow we go into the pool and then two days doing dives! I'm staying at the place that I'm getting certified at, and it's on the beach which is gorgeous, though the free room is not what we'd call luxurious (or decent...or clean..), but like all travel experiences, it's all temporary and the location is worth it!
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
The end of a chinese adventure
So I can officially access my blog again after quite a few weeks of chinese censorship, woohoo! China was an interesting country to travel, as my friend described it--it was much more westernized than one would expect, but you still feel quite alienated. In the past few weeks, the highlights were:
--Getting "married" in a culture show in Longjii. I was selected with a guy in the group and I had to get on his back and he had to run to break out of a circle of people. Afterwards, we were given cups of rice wine to down in different romantic positions. Probably the cheapest wedding I'll ever have.
--Biked through rice fields and the countryside in Yangshuo, bumpy on the dirt roads, but just gorgeous!
--Teaching our chinese guide how to flirt. He has now mastered the wink and the head nod. And later got a girl's number!
--Keeping my vegetarianism in the most meat-filled country ever. Even celery seems to soaked in some type of pork grease. I have no clue if some things I ate had meat elements, but I tried my best!
--24 hour train rides on three tier bunk beds. Gotta love the half-naked, drunk men sitting in the aisles.
--Terracotta Warriers
--The Great Wall!! Amazing! We went at 4am one day and had an experience close to a tim burton movie.
--Good ole chinese censorship.
--Being on a rice fields on a mountain top in Longjii with women with the longest hair in the world
--Karaoke in Beijing, quite a drunken night to remember (or forget depending on your experience)
Anyways, there was such an amazing amount to experience in China, I'm so glad to have been able to see some of it!
Here are a ridiculous amount of photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2086032&l=ffe66&id=1700835
Great Wall
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2086044&l=83501&id=1700835
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2086046&l=0321b&id=1700835
Beijing
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2086043&l=b1bd7&id=1700835
Hong Kong
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2086028&l=15ffe&id=1700835
Yangshuo
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2085320&l=fc340&id=1700835
--Getting "married" in a culture show in Longjii. I was selected with a guy in the group and I had to get on his back and he had to run to break out of a circle of people. Afterwards, we were given cups of rice wine to down in different romantic positions. Probably the cheapest wedding I'll ever have.
--Biked through rice fields and the countryside in Yangshuo, bumpy on the dirt roads, but just gorgeous!
--Teaching our chinese guide how to flirt. He has now mastered the wink and the head nod. And later got a girl's number!
--Keeping my vegetarianism in the most meat-filled country ever. Even celery seems to soaked in some type of pork grease. I have no clue if some things I ate had meat elements, but I tried my best!
--24 hour train rides on three tier bunk beds. Gotta love the half-naked, drunk men sitting in the aisles.
--Terracotta Warriers
--The Great Wall!! Amazing! We went at 4am one day and had an experience close to a tim burton movie.
--Good ole chinese censorship.
--Being on a rice fields on a mountain top in Longjii with women with the longest hair in the world
--Karaoke in Beijing, quite a drunken night to remember (or forget depending on your experience)
Anyways, there was such an amazing amount to experience in China, I'm so glad to have been able to see some of it!
Here are a ridiculous amount of photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2086032&l=ffe66&id=1700835
Great Wall
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2086044&l=83501&id=1700835
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2086046&l=0321b&id=1700835
Beijing
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2086043&l=b1bd7&id=1700835
Hong Kong
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2086028&l=15ffe&id=1700835
Yangshuo
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2085320&l=fc340&id=1700835
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
China!
Goodness, no matter how much I've traveled, I still always feel quite overwhelmed the first day in a new place. Despite the more ordered manner here than in Vietnam, it's still rough to be here in Beijing with everything written only in chinese, so it's like wandering around a city being mute, deaf and illiterate. So I need to use more clever tactics like having the receptionist at my hostel write down some messages for me in chinese to show people when I go to eat like "Just give me a plate to eat that doesn't have meat, I don't care what it is". If a restaurant doesn't have pictures on the menu, I'm kind of screwed, so that at least helps.
I also had a funny realization since the only travellers I've met have been quite hardcore, and I realized that some travellers can be quite snobby, in terms of what they believe is the best way to travel, whether it be eating street food, knowing the local language, sleeping on the floor, whatever. When I mentioned that I'm going to be traveling on a group-tour-thing, they just turned their noses up at me, despite my defense that it's not a typical tour, it's a group of backpackers that have a guide to help us get around, and it's a way to experience stuff I wouldn't normally get to since we stay in local guesthouses and take public transport and is by no means luxurious. But I basically felt like I lost my travel cred, which is basically all a traveller has, so it was on my mind all day today as I wandered around today, and I even felt guilty when I ended up buying an ice cream from Dairy Queen today (yep, there's Dairy Queen in Beijing), since I just pictured their disapproval.
In any case, I resolved that everyone has their own limitations and levels of comfort, and you should always work to push your comfort levels out a bit, but not everyone starts at the same spot, and people experience things in different ways. I felt quite daunted wandering around alone since I felt so lingually-isolated, and despite my mental exhaustion, I kept going despite the blinking sign in my head that was saying "Retreat, retreat!!", and then I finally got through it and felt a bit more comfortable in my surroundings. So it was good that I resisted going back and taking refuge at the hostel all day, and that was my accomplishment for the day. And I can enjoy a Dairy Queen ice cream once in a while, damn it! Anyways, that was a funny observation I realized today, I never realized I could feel like an "underachiever" at traveling!
Oh, and here's the most interesting thing I saw today--I was walking and out of the nowhere, some cops ran up and grabbed a guy next to me. His shirt was white with permanent marker writing, so I assume it was somehow subversive. They pulled him into the cop car and went away.
Another tid-bit, evidentally it seems that the Lonely Planet for China is not looked on well by the chinese government due to certain references about Taiwan, so it's possible to have it confiscated at the airport and is not sold in bookstores. China is definitely an interesting place..
I also had a funny realization since the only travellers I've met have been quite hardcore, and I realized that some travellers can be quite snobby, in terms of what they believe is the best way to travel, whether it be eating street food, knowing the local language, sleeping on the floor, whatever. When I mentioned that I'm going to be traveling on a group-tour-thing, they just turned their noses up at me, despite my defense that it's not a typical tour, it's a group of backpackers that have a guide to help us get around, and it's a way to experience stuff I wouldn't normally get to since we stay in local guesthouses and take public transport and is by no means luxurious. But I basically felt like I lost my travel cred, which is basically all a traveller has, so it was on my mind all day today as I wandered around today, and I even felt guilty when I ended up buying an ice cream from Dairy Queen today (yep, there's Dairy Queen in Beijing), since I just pictured their disapproval.
In any case, I resolved that everyone has their own limitations and levels of comfort, and you should always work to push your comfort levels out a bit, but not everyone starts at the same spot, and people experience things in different ways. I felt quite daunted wandering around alone since I felt so lingually-isolated, and despite my mental exhaustion, I kept going despite the blinking sign in my head that was saying "Retreat, retreat!!", and then I finally got through it and felt a bit more comfortable in my surroundings. So it was good that I resisted going back and taking refuge at the hostel all day, and that was my accomplishment for the day. And I can enjoy a Dairy Queen ice cream once in a while, damn it! Anyways, that was a funny observation I realized today, I never realized I could feel like an "underachiever" at traveling!
Oh, and here's the most interesting thing I saw today--I was walking and out of the nowhere, some cops ran up and grabbed a guy next to me. His shirt was white with permanent marker writing, so I assume it was somehow subversive. They pulled him into the cop car and went away.
Another tid-bit, evidentally it seems that the Lonely Planet for China is not looked on well by the chinese government due to certain references about Taiwan, so it's possible to have it confiscated at the airport and is not sold in bookstores. China is definitely an interesting place..
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