Boston Boston

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...

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!

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).

My mermaid fantasy has been realized, I'm diving again tomorrow, don't be surprised if I don't return to land again!

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!

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

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..

Easy Rider Guide, An, a Hilary Clinton supporter
Crazy times on a waterfall

Goodbye Vietnam

Goodness, I can't believe I've been here for a month! I was so petrified of Vietnam when I first arrived and now I've grown accustomed to the noise, hassles, suicidal cyclists--I think I'm going to miss the chaos a bit, it makes life exciting despite the stress. I made a list of things I want to remember about Vietnam since there's so many things that I observe while traveling that I'll probably forget. A small sample includes:

--How moto drivers say "yes yes" to wherever you say you want to go and then drive a block and ask a buddy what the hell you're talking about
--In restaurants, food comes out at different times, people just eat whenever they get the food
--The negotiating--they give you a price, you say 1/3, they laugh at you in disgust, you walk away, they grab you back and negotiate better.
--The bathrooms are horridly made, with the shower over the toilet and incredibly slippery floors
--Things are horridly misspelled on the menu so you have to use your imagination to realize that "eutard affle" is "custard apple".
--The lack of copyrights so its not common to see a good shop or restaurant with a knock-off copy next to it with the exact same name.

In any case, I've been surprised that I will miss Vietnam. My last days have been great, I went to Dalat, a french town in the mountains (only place in Vietnam under 90 degrees), where I went abseiling down a huge waterfall and went with an "Easy Rider" to tour the countryside. The Easy Riders are guides in Dalat who give you great tours to small less touristy niches, all on the back of a motorcycle and for a cheap price. They are quite funny informal guys, though they are pretty aggressive in following you around town trying to get you to sign up, but it really was worth while to do.

I went to a silkworm farm/factory, vegetable/flower farms, coffee plantation, waterfalls, pagodas, and "Crazy House", a hotel that is like Gaudi on crack. My tour got combined with another girl's which was nice, so I got to do it all with an icelandic girl Sara, who has proclaimed herself to be the future president of Iceland in 16 years. She and I had a great time and the guides, Hip and An were really interesting. They were surprisingly quite giddy about the US since they loved that "Clinton opened doors to Vietnam, business and money come! Good for Vietnam! I want Hilary Clinton now for president!". I had to disappoint him by giving him the news about Obama.( "Always men, we need women for change!"). It was interesting to their stories, like one of the guides had fought with the US in the war and then was sent to a "re-education" camp for two years. In any case, it was one of those days where I wanted to remember every detail, good times!

Here are pics:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2083567&l=b3d63&id=1700835

Cu Chi Tunnels

Today I went to the cu chi tunnels which were where some viet cong lived and hid during the Vietnam War. It was nuts, there were three levels and it was so small, you had to crawl on your hands and knees. It was definitely not for the claustrophobic at all, I was blindly feeling in the dark for meters at a time and you don't know when it goes up or down, it was crazy!!

We also saw an old propaganda film applauding the "American killers" of the war (one woman received a medal who had killed 118 americans). It definitely is interesting to see the other perspectives of things since we probably have propaganda like that against the viet cong. In addition, we saw the old booby traps with spikes that they used to set on doors and in the ground, it was pretty grimace-worthy. After seeing all this, my impression was that there is no doubt that the viet cong were pretty clever fighters, they had amazing tactics with very little resources.

The Squeeze

Here is the a hole the vietcong used to hide in during the war, ridiculously small!

Water!!!

It's ridiculously hot and stuff in Saigon (and Vietnam in general) and since I suffered from uncomfortable heat rash for 4 days and had to be cooped up indoors, when we went to a water park yesterday, I went berserk. I got some phenomenal energy and just ran around straight for the 2 hours we were there (which is quite the adrenaline and cardiac workout). It was a bit surreal because the park was like anywhere else except I was surrounded by vietnamese, and nobody seemed interested in the big slides. I had pretty much no lines the whole time! My travel companions chilled out by the pool and I just kept racing around. The lifeguards at the slides were reading magazines the whole time since noone was coming and it was funny to see the look of surprise they had when they looked up and saw me for the 10th time. After a while, I got a good repoire with them since they started applauding me and giving me thumbs up everytime I went down which only added to my crazy energy. It was pretty funny. So all in all, the water bug in me came out and it was just a lovely time.

Another interesting park attraction is they literally had a sign that said "New Sunbathing deck for foreigners!". Why just foreigners? Because there's no chance any native in Vietnam wants to bronze since white skin is desired. I even have a hard time finding regular sunscreen without extra whitening cream added. Quite the irony.

This is the coolest moment of my rockclimbing life

Saigon

I'm in Ho Chi Minh City, Saigon, whatever you call it. It was a lovely 12 hour day bus ride here (that was sarcasm) and I spent half the morning taking a motorbike taxi to and from the chinese consulate trying to get the right papers to go to China. Yep, I'm trying to go to China, but amid all the issues they're having, it seems a bit difficult. Fingers crossed! Anyways, I'm hanging out with a chilean right now and exploring chaotic Saigon. It's a bit hard to just wander around the city, it's loud, chaotic, and dirty, so it's not quite pleasant, but it's still nifty to be here.

Nha Trang

You'd never think it'd be possible to get sick of beaches since I would have killed to spend all my time on a beach last year, but really, if you spend too much time anywhere, you get a bit burnt out--beaches, temples, mountains, all the good stuff. So I guess thats why you keep traveling, because the change is what is exciting (and at times, stressful). So it sounds quite spoiled to say "oh, not another beach town", but my travel companions and I are wishing for a change of scenery. It also doesn't feel like a more authentic Vietnam, it feels like a beach town which could be in any country. It's like visiting different malls in different countries. Back when I was shattered in Hanoi, it was a quite a stressful experience, but that's when I felt most in contact with the culture since people were going about their daily lives there, it wasn't a town made just for tourists. In any case, I'm hoping to find something besides beaches and temples in my asia travels, since it all seems to blend together after a while.

Right now my group and I seem a bit busted up--one guy has a busted knee, another had a sprained foot, another with a motorcycle exhaust burn, and I have heat rash and a completely scraped up thigh and leg from an incident with coral barnacles. The anti-malaria medication makes me photosensitive and the sun is incredibly strong here so I guess it finally caught up with me despite my best attempts at putting on sun screen and staying out of the sun. So hopefully we'll recover soon, travel battle wounds!

Here are more pics:
Central-Southern
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2081794&l=63c96&id=1700835
Central Vietnam
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2081714&l=3e821&id=1700835
Ha Long Bay
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2080883&l=5f401&id=1700835

Hoi An aka Clothes Heaven

Hoi An is a pretty touristy town in Vietnam--I think the fact that they sell many winter coats is a dead giveaway that it's not quite a market for vietnamese. It's pretty flippin hot here. In any case, it's known for having over 400 tailors that will take whatever design, picture, whatever you wish, and will replicate it for a very small price and tailor it perfectly to your body. So it's enough to make many go crazy, even the someone like me who isn't a clothes junkie. I don't even wear dresses and I ended up buying 4. The tailors are not only quite talented at their craft, but at flattery and manipulation as well, so they know how to get you to buy more. I"m leaving today, thank god.

Other good parts of Hoi An are the food and hotels. I'm staying in a pretty decent hotel with a pool for $12 (and I pay $6 since I split a twin room). How crazy is that? The food is also quite cheap and really great quality. I did a cooking class today with a group which consisted of me poorly constructing spring rolls, rice paper, hoi an pancakes, eggplant curry, and "decorations" (I was supposed to make a flower out of a cucumber and a rose out of a tomato, but they just looks like a poorly cut salad in the end). Next stop is Nha Trang! I'm on an open ended bus which cost about $40 and had 5 stops, each which take 12 hours, so it's quite a good way to get around. Just a bit rough, but that's part of the adventure!

Hue

I spent one last day in Hanoi, where it got so hot that I decided to head off to a pool that was open to the public with a girl in a group I'm traveling with. It was in a five-star hotel, and we asked at the counter about the pool use and then they directed us upstairs and we had a lovely time swimming and sitting outside and didn't seem to have any place to pay (tho the rate was $6 in the guidebook, so it wasn't a really large sum), so we thought we had gotten away with some lovely facilities for free. As we were leaving, we were met by a personnel who escorted up to a reception on the floor that we hadn't seen, who informed of the actual rates and that they did not allow outsiders. I'm glad I had to book otherwise we would have looked like complete nutters. It seems that they had actually been watching us the whole time because we didn't fit with the other clientale and just waiting for us to leave. The giveaways must have been that we:

-had our cheap-backpacker clothes with us
-were actually making use of the pool instead of lounging on the side
-weren't using cellphones
-actually seemed happy

So, we were informed of the "real" rates which were $30 a day (ridiculous!!), and they tried to make us pay. We talked to the manager and explained the misunderstanding and got away with pleading poor and paying $10 and then were escorted out. So that was the ugly side of a five-star hotel. Its all plush and beautiful unless you don't pay major bucks, then you get the stern manager who is unwilling to listen.

In any case, I took a bus to Hue (central vietnam) last night on a sleeper bus. The sleeping beds turned out to be beds on the bus that are so tightly together, that you get to have an involuntary one night stand with the stranger next to you because it's impossible not to spoon. So I ended up next to a posh 20 year old english guy who didn't seem creepy, so at least I didn't have to worry about being groped during the night. Other highlights of trip were:

--Carrying our luggage in sheets of rain and stepping into a puddle on the roadside that went up to my knees (no joke)
--Peeing outside on the side of a road in the rain somewhere in central Vietnam (our "toliet break")
--Stopping at an actual toliet stop which made any gas station toliet look sparkling- it had two cement blocks to squat on with just a floor that slanted a bit backwards. And almost no separating walls from anyone.

So this was the type of bus trip that you'll always remember to try to make you appreciate normal luxuries and is pretty funny in retrospect. In any case, I'm in Hue which doesn't have much except temples (which get a bit repetitive in Asia), but I'm traveling with a group of 10 people from the Ha Long Bay trip which consists of aussies, irish, and a belgian. I'm glad to be with people since it's really hard to meet westerners right here and there's not too much to do . In any case, I'm off again on the bus to Hoi An tomorrow!

Ha Long Bay

So I just arrived back from an excursion to Ha Long Bay which is in the running to be one of the seven wonders of the world. It was an organized trip so I came with a group of backpackers and got to know some good people. We came on a small boat and got to sleep one night on it which I've never done before. The next day we got to go rock-climbing on these isolated beaches which was amazing. I haven't rockclimbed in 9 months so it felt incredible to be able to do it. The highlight was when we did deep sea cliff climbing where the boat drops you on a cliff face over the sea and you just climb up it til you fall off. Only a couple people and I did it since it looks pretty freaky, but I'm so glad I did because it was such an amazing feeling! I got to about 15-20 feet up and then I just jumped since I didn't want to fall off really high at a weird angle, which would be a bit painful. Some people took pictures and I can't believe that's me! I think my entire rock-climbing career is downhill from here..

In any case, so things have looked up since feeling absolutely frazzled before in Hanoi. I met a english girl the day before I left for Ha Long Bay so we wandered the crazy streets of Hanoi together. We went to the Prison Museum where John McCain had been held during the Vietnam War. It was basically a tribute to the communists that had been held there in the french colonial period, but they also had an exhibit of the American POWs which was quite ridiculous since they stated that they gave the prisoners the best treatment possible and put up pictures of them playing sports and painting pictures. It basically looked like a club med where they forgot to mention that they fit "torture" in the itinerary between the basketball and bingo hours. They also listed prisoners there as if they were alumni, like a "where they are now!" piece. I read John McCain's description of the experience which was anything but warm and fuzzy. In any case, the Americans probably didn't treat vietnamese POWs so great, but the exhibit just seemed a bit ridiculous. In any case, I'm leaving Hanoi today for Hue!

I need a traffic guardian angel

Hanoi is absolutely ridiculous. There's about 89% motorcycles on the road with no traffic lights and no sidewalks (well slight sidewalks, but blocked with motorcycles). You just need to cross basically in the motorcycle stream and they go around you..barely. Having a fear of busy traffic since my near-death Greece experience has made this incredibly stressful, just walking three blocks gets me all anxious. I guess this is the stuff to make you feel alive, when you're ducking in and out of traffic and parked motorbikes. Also, you constantly feel like you're being ripped off since Hanoi is the capital of scams and bargaining, so you always have to be on your toes and be a stringent bargainer but you still always feel ripped off in the end. With the traffic and the bargaining hassles, I'm absolutely shattered after an afternoon.

Its not very easy to meet people, you really have to put in some effort and approach people at cafes and such. Everyone I've met so far has been leaving Vietnam the next day or in a couple hours because they started in the south and worked their way up north. I give myself credit for trying at least, I approached about 10 people total today, asking about what to do around here and what's the best way. I met some nice people but they were all leaving, but I at least learned a lot. I arrived last night and approached some people about where a cafe was and ended up eating with them at a nifty vietnamese restaurant (I paid $2 for two plates of food and drinks), and then a water puppet show which was interesting. Unfortunately the people were not quite my type, but at least it worked out well that I got to experience two places that I would never have found myself. Another exciting point of Hanoi is I get around by going on the back of motorbikes (the Vietnamese taxi basically), it's nuts! I got an "asian tattoo" which means I burned the side of my leg on the exhaust pipe. Crazy. In any case, I'm going to go lay down, my brain is still spinning...

Here are Laos photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2080076&l=66c55&id=1700835

Vietnam photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2080358&l=ce968&id=1700835

Daily Life Quirks in Laos/Cambodia Asia

Since there are so many little things that make this experience in Asia unique, I thought I'd write them down before I got used to them and ignored them:

-Tuk-tuk drivers and motorcyclists at every corner, normally with three times the capacity
-Squatting toliets, work those thigh muscles!
-Geckos on every room corner
-fun diseases like malaria, japanese encephilitis, and dengue fever (hopefully not to be experienced)
-straw huts with tv satelites outside them
-backpackers with all the same $2 clothes and accessories from market stands
-bargaining with everyone, about everything, and doing the classic-walk-away-and-pause-while-they-pull-you-back-and-agree-on-price
-Extremely adorable and charistmatic kids who beg or try to sell things with either an adorable puppy face or a cute english saying that they learned, who totally know how to work tourists
-Dodgy looking men with their asian "girlfriends" (an unfortunate common sight)
-Having a love-hate relationship with profuse sweating (so cooling, yet so disgusting).

Luang Prabang

I'm in a small town in Laos which is a bit less touristy and has a much nicer atmosphere, so I'm a bit happier. Nice to get away from the Friends soundtrack. It is surrounded by a pretty river and mountains. I arrived alone and the town was completely empty, so I started getting that feeling of dread of "how the hell am I going to pass two days here?". As my friend Laura said though "When you are traveling alone, you know you will be alone for a while, but you don't know for how long--it could be a few hours, or a few days til you meet some decent people". So that was going through my mind when I was wandering around, and luckily within a few hours, I sat next to some people at a 50 cent vegetarian buffet and hung out with them all night and then took a tuk-tuk with them to waterfalls today. I hung out mostly with a canadian and an aussie, but we stuffed the tuk-tuk (more of a truck with a bench in the back) full of people to save money, so it was filled with people who were french, german, dutch, and swedish--quite a mix. I ended up on the floor of the tuk-tuk with a guy hanging out the side--we were doing it Laos style!

Tourist City in Laos

I somehow thought southeast Asia was this far-off undiscovered wonderous place, and I'm sure that it is like that somewhere, but it seems that there is a very beaten path (more like beaten to death) around Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. I hardly know any americans that visit this area, but it seems like half of England and part of Europe settled in here a long time ago. This is just my frustration at being in a small touristy village in Laos which is populated completely by tourists and has the series Friends playing non-stop in every restaurant (no joke, I can hear the laugh track from this internet cafe). It kind of feels like a tropical transplanted english village, with a mix of asian and english cuisine. It's strange, and nothing feels very authentic. In any case, I'm heading out of here in a day after doing some trekking, who knows how that will be.

I came here from Vientiane, the capital of Laos, which also was a bit surreal. I saw tons of foreigners (and creepily enough, tons of dodgy-looking lone males), and ate a recommended cafe which could have easily been in the States. We even went bowling. So, still quite beaten path. In any case, what I did get from Laos is that it has incredibly chilled out people, and it is a communist country, but it seems more capitalistic when you walk around. Welp, those are my thoughts.

Angkor Wat-ness

I'm in Siem Reap, basically a tourist town for the huge temple attraction Angkor Wat. It's much more ordered than Phnom Penh and has many more high-class places since Angkor Wat attracts many wealthy tourists. At some point, it almost feels like a cambodian disneyland since almost everything is set up for tourism for Angkor Wat and they even have a place called the Cambodian cultural village which looks like an amusement park.

Nonetheless, my english friend Andy and I had a good time going around to temples, which were pretty spectacular. The amount of detail on them is amazing and just the grand scale on which they were built is astounding. However, the last day and half, you do hit the point of temple-saturation. Its about 95 degrees everyday, so you do get a bit worn out, but the cheap prices and amazing food are good compensation. I'm staying in a cute little hotel for half the price that I paid to stay in hostel room with 5 other people in Paris.

Despite the quaintness of Siem Reap and it's prosperity, I still keep seeing signs of all the many problems that afflict Cambodia such as a poor health, corruption, poverty, landmines, lack of accessible education, child prostitution, etc. It's got a rough past and seems to have a long way to go, but hopefully things are improving.

Cambodia

So I'm currently in Phnom Penh! The first night, we just sat in a cafe outside which ended up being a front row seat to the chaos of Cambodia. In two hours, we saw people playing a foot-toss game, a drunk man pass out in the street and almost get hit by cars, a strong wind caused tamarind fruit from a tree overhead to fall which caused great excitement from people picking them up, and a major storm rolled in and we watched the torrential rain. Goodness.

Cambodia seems to have infrastructure in some places and lacking in others and it just seems to be a jigsaw puzzle of poverty and slight prosperity, with things like university next to shanty town. There are a lot beggars with lost limbs due to land mines, which can be quite shocking to see sometimes. We pretty much get around in tuk-tuks, which weave in an out of the ordered chaos of traffic. It looks terrifying, but the mass of cars, tuk-tuks, and motorcycles just weave in and out of each other effortlessly. Motorcycles often have a whole family on them, including two parents, two children, and a baby.

The only accident we've seen was when a van crashed into the lobby of our hotel. Yep. Not completely, but the van must have pulled in too quickly or fast and shattered the glass wall and bent the iron gate that was protecting it.

Other observations are that there are a lot of dirty perverts around here. The plane seemed to have quite a bit of possible sex tourists, and after reading a book on sex slavery in Cambodia, it all just makes me sick. I was sitting next to a man who looked a bit dodgy and it just made me disgusted to think that he possibly could be going to a brothel that night. Obviously, I could have misjudged, but it's quite common here--there are constant brochures announcing "sex with children is illegal".

The second type of pervert here is the 65-year-old western men I see walking around here with 18-year-old Cambodian old girlfriends. I had to go to the american embassy and I saw that same type of couple except the woman had his baby, and he was trying to help her get her visa to the states (neither spoke a word of each other's language, interested to know how that relationship worked).

It was really strange being in the embassy and seeing people's attempts to get visa. You could hear the conversations at the windows and the interviews given to them, so I saw them show pictures to children to verify that the people in the states were their parents (which was probably a lie since he couldn't identify him), and then a man seemed to have gotten a lot of girls to the US under different circumstances and they were questioning him about his motives. It was strange.

My last thought is that it was another weird moment when I was in a market today and saw some really cheap H&M, Gap, and Hollister clothes, and saw that they were "Made in Cambodia"". I remember being in the H&M in the US before coming here and buying things and noticing their tags, and now I'm in Cambodia. It always seemed so foreign and now I'm here, still buying an H&M shirt, but for two dollars. Strange. The one positive thing that I've heard is that Cambodia was part of a special subsidies program and had one of the best work conditions compared to other asian countries. Unfortunately, they just took away the subsidy this year, and now Cambodia is starting to struggle to keep up their standards with keeping prices low, so that is a current struggle.

So it's definitely true that you never know whats around the corner when you're traveling. I arrived two days ago with no idea what I was going to do and now I've got a $30 flight to Cambodia with a fellow traveler I met yesterday. So surprises, surprises. I met a good group of people at the hostel and ended up going to huge weekend market with them today where we wandered around hundreds upon hundreds of stalls of cheap stuff. I got all my shopping jollies yesterday so I don't have any space in my bag, so I didn't buy anything. In any case, I did enjoy a wonderfully amazing mango with sticky rice, the ripest mango I've ever eaten, just fabulous!

So I continue to feel fortunate and things have gone well so far. I now have to go to the hospital to get anti-malarial medication, which is quite fun since everybody gives you a different opinion, from your fellow traveler to your pharmacist (and different pharmacists), so it can be quite frustrating, so I think I'll just do it properly and go to a doctor and hopefully get this new stuff with less side effects since malaria tablet side effects are normally not considered fun. I won't be in considerable risks zones for extended periods but malaria isn't quite something all warm and fuzzy that I really want to get acquainted with.

Here is the link to pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2078820&l=3965d&id=1700835

Bangkok Madness

I am on a new continent!! I had my usual "crappy first 4 hours" that I experience in every country/city when I arrive, but it all seemed to work out in the end. I stopped in Dubai for two hours, which felt quite strange, the airport had all the usual Starbucks, and duty free shops, but full of men in large robes and women with burkas. The bathrooms had ablution rooms (which I looked up and said was a relgious body washing ritual) and you would see women dressing themselves in their burkas or headscarves. The flight attendants also had headdresses on the plane.

I arrived in Bangkok at night and took a cab into my hostel which is quite nice, but though I had problems getting into the room, finding a bed, lost my key, all part of the 4 hour crappness period I always experience. But I chatted up some brits and ended up walking around a night market and having a good time. Nothing was open so where did I end up to have my first meal? Subway and KFC. I wasn't thrilled but there wasn't another option close by.

Today I went into town with a dutch girl and a german guy and we just wandered the streets and went in and out of shops. It was pouring pretty bad and will continue to do so everyday. It is pretty hot here, but if you aren't in air-conditioning, you seem to get used to it better than when you are going in and out of air-conditioning. In any case, I had a good time buying cheap clothes (the american dollar finally helps me out somewhere). Sadly, the dollar isn't what it used to be so while things are cheap, I'd say that it varies between a 20-40% discount on things in the US. It was quite a lot stronger when my brother was traveling, so he got to live like a king. In any case, I had fun bargaining constantly, some shop keepers seemed to enjoy it and some were a bit more cross. We got around on tuk-tuks which are little carts connected to a motorcycle engine, which makes for a thrilling and terrifying ride. Almost like a rollercoaster, but without the sense of security. Lets just say, I'm glad there were metal bars to hold on to or the poor german guy next to me would have had red marks on his arms

Surfin' Sligo!

Right now I'm in Strandhill, on the west coast right near Sligo and got to go surfing today! I've done it once before so I could stand up a good amount of times, which was great. The waves weren't by any means huge, but a good size for a beginner like me. It is quite cold around here (despite being late April) and ironically I was warmest in the water in my wetsuit than I was all bundled up walking around.

Driving out here I got to see the irish countryside which reminded me of New Zealand a bit--big open fields, hills, mountains, and sheep. I got a little country-hospitality when I bought an ice cream in a small shop on the way there, with an old irish woman saying "Ah, thahnk ya, that'll be graaahnd". Being in Strandhill is a quaint little town but it's quite touristy since I hear tons of americans around, but I still got to experience a quaint irish pub feel (basically like every other irish pub in any country, but at least it felt genuine!).

So this is my little weekend-country trip with Neil, otherwise we just hang around the house, and go out for sandwiches and pizza, and occasionally venturing out for a game of bowling or air hockey. (I got my bowling record: 142!). A little break from the backpacker lifestyle has been quite lovely.

I'm also proud that I finally made a big gain on those coin-gambling machines where you put 20 cents in and it falls onto a stack of 20 cent coins that the machine pushes. I won 7 euro! If you add up all that I've lost in total on machines this weekend, I probably have a profit of 3 euro, but I still like to look at the handfull of euro coints and feel proud. Yeah, gambling in arcades is really big in beach towns, you can just see how they just hook children (and adults) and then when the kids become 18, they can wander over to the next room, to the slot machines.

Leaping Leprechauns!

I'm now writing from Ireland, goodness! I had a great time with Jason for two days in Barcelona, then I went to London for two days where I stayed with one of my new aussie friends and his housemates. I got the 3rd-degree again going through London customs, they really really do not want Americans travelers who seem like they might not be the kind to work there. Each time I've passed, I give a different answer to the questions (what nationality are your friends you're staying with?) and each time it seems to be wrong. They evidentally can't be aussie, english, or basically exist. The correct answer is probably, "I have no friends, I'm staying in a hostel, here is my return ticket, and I have 5 million dollars to spend in your country". But alas, that was not true, but despite my poor answers, they let me in.

It was nifty to experience the foreigners-living-London crowd which included canadians, aussies, and south africans (oh my!). My backpackerness came out when I was in absolute awe to be in a spacious house and have a whole couch to myself. I had an awesome night out with them at a nifty quaint bar, which is rare since I'm not much of a night person. Good times!

Between being in London and getting to Dublin, I had a couple frustrating days where I had to be going all around town on public transportation with a huge backpack, where everything was breaking down, it was raining on me, and it was one of those experiences that could really burn you out of traveling, but I got through it. It was a 5 hour debacle getting to Dublin and when I finally arrived, I saw 5 people in the non-EU passport customs line, so I thought my luck was changing finally and I'd be out in no time. Unfortunately, all those 6 people were coming from Mauritus to study in Dublin and had a huge load of paper work so it took at least 10 minutes per person with only two agents, so it took me 45 flipping minutes to get through. But when I saw my irish friend Neil at the airport, everything turned roses. I was absolutely floored by the lap of luxury I got to experience--cable, internet, food, my own bedroom, I could hardly believe it! I was really excited to be in a spacious house in London, here he has a home that would normally have had 6 or more occupants in London, I mean, hell, people in London would turn a closet into a bedroom.

In any case, we've had a splendid time so far, and today I got to play golf! We did the pitch and putt, which is basically a smaller golf course and I ended up having a knack for long drives. My putting was pretty poor, but it felt really great to be able to wack that ball so far. I felt so classy on that golf course in Ireland with all these old men around, it was like being in an english novel (but in Ireland). I've been around so many backpackers where I go, it's strange to realize that I'm the only foreigner around these parts. He's outside of Dublin so there's really not many others, so he said it was funny when I asked for "tomato" on my sandwhich in a deli instead of "to-mah-to", and about 5 people stopped and turned their heads at me. I'm also being influenced by Neil's habbits and getting into a 3 cups-of-tea-a-day habbit. The irish and english love their tea!

Pictures

For those not on facebook, here is a link to see my pictures:

Ireland: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2077626&l=2ef69&id=1700835

Greece: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2076864&l=522b8&id=1700835

Barcelona: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2076803&l=17837&id=1700835

Paris: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2076600&l=69487&id=1700835

Berlin: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2074152&l=9b4a6&id=1700835

Berlin 2: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2075130&l=c22c8&id=1700835

Roadtrip in England: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2074122&l=8c01b&id=1700835

London: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2072989&l=e7d96&id=1700835

Singapore: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2072988&l=a99f4&id=1700835

Sydney: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2072986&l=9caa8&id=1700835

Barceloooona

So the past two days I've been on my own, and have just wandered around. Again, my international approachability factor has led to more interesting experiences. I was in an art museum and an thai man motioned over to me to take his photo (people continually ask me for directions and to take photos of them).

It wasn't a great place, it was between two lamp posts and he signaled that he wanted them in the picture and then made some strange motion pointing to the spot where he wanted it taken, bent down, smacked his leg, said "okay!" and signaled to me, and then made the gesture if I understood what he meant. After multiple attempts, I just signaled for him just to go and do whatever it was he wanted. He went to the spot and then got on one leg and lifted his body up in some strange yoga position and then said "okay!", and I took the picture. It was pretty interesting, at first I had started to wonder if this was some elaborate plan to rob me since 4 days in Barcelona has made me suspicious when anyone does anything that seems a bit strange, but he wasn't getting close to me and he was handing me his expensive digital camera, so that seemed counterintuitive.

My paranoia comes from seeing 3 almost robberies in the 4 days I've been here. And I got to take part in one of them! I was walking and a beggar woman was holding a cardboard sign saying she was hungry and did the usual approach asking for money, but I thought it was strange she was getting so close to me and then I realized that she was shoving the cardboard sign close to my side so that I wouldn't see her hand go in my pocket. I instantly slapped my pocket (along with her hand) and yelled "Oye!" (Hey! in spanish). She acted all innocent and got away with a dirty look from me. Maybe I should have notified the cops or something, but I felt like, it looks like she's already got it pretty bad and they probably couldn't do much to her anyways, though I feel bad if someone else fell victim to her because I didn't do anything. She was gone 10 minutes later so maybe she moved on realizing someone had caught her. Well anyways, I'm obviously not well-versed in the world of pickpocketing.

Today I went to the Catalan Museum of Art and walked around the endless halls. There weren't many people there and it was pretty cool being in absolute silence for most the time I was there. Not a single sound. I'm still surprised that I'm getting into art museums, I seem to like the 20th century and earlier paintings, and it's not like I stand there analyzing them, I just seem to like to be surrounded by colors. I guess art history majors like my brother can explain in better terms my evoked feelings and sensations, but I'll just settle for that.

I seem to start getting really hungry in the middle of museum touring, but I've realized that its worth coughing up money for the expensive museum cafe food than it is to just leave the museum early due to hunger. And I don't know why, but that tomato and cheese bagguette sandwhich with a cup of milk was absolutely sensational when I was hungry. I guess I should try all traditional foods in countries when I'm really hungry and I'll fall in love with all of them no matter what.

Barcelona

Ah, it´s quite nice now being able to speak a country´s language instead of grunting and pointing and things. I feel human again! It seems that my first day in every country is never that great, it´s always a bit disorientating and frustrating. One highlight was when I went to a restaurant and ate an omellette at the bar with all the other individual Spanish businessmen. We all just stared straight ahead, minding our own business--I felt one with the Spanish people...

The second day turned out much better, I took a free tour, which was not part of the tours that I´ve gone on in other countries, and it was definitely not as high quality. Evidentally the Spanish guy running the free tour was a horrible businessman since he thought that a good start time for the tour was 10:30am, in a town known for it´s late night partiers. So instead of finding 200 people waiting for a tour like in other cities, I found 3. It was essentially hearing a cocky-california surfer boy give a speech about the past of Barcelona and Spain, and his style was be funny at all costs, including making jokes about torture and disappearances in the different regimes. Classy. I wasn´t thrilled and so I decided to go to the Picasso museum which had a 45 minute line since it was a free day and I ended up having one of those moments of luck when I met 3 Aussie guys and ended up hanging out with them for the next 48 hours straight. Good times!

We went all over Barcelona, ate tons of ice cream (I probably single-handedly increased their risk of diabetes), went to the beach, and just wandered around to different sites such as the mosaics of Gaudi in a park, and La Sagrada Familia. It was quite a fun group, which I´m so glad to have found through such a random event such as waiting in line. I´m now on my own again and hope for some more good luck! Here were some highlights:

--One of the guys had taken out money and was trying to find something in his wallet on the metro, which blatantly showed the 50 euro bills sticking out and I nudged him and told him to be careful, and he said "oh come on, who is going to rob me on the train?". I mentioned to other guy that he looked like a perfect target since he had fiddled with his money and then put it back, so people would know exactly where it was. About a minute later, he runs up to us, "Someone just tried to rob me!". An unsuspecting looking couple had basically seen him and tried to distract him and steal his wallet while they got off the train. It was the epitome of a "I-told-you-so" moment.

--We went to the Barcelona Museum of Erotica and saw plenty of old phallic objects, drawings from the greeks, and a couple disturbing old iron machines that make you shudder. The highlight was the old 8mm rolling film that was from King Alfonso´s private collection, made in the 30s, of two ridiculously unattractive people having the most awkward sex you´ve ever seen. As we walked out of the museum, Joel said "Ironically, I don´t think I´ve ever been turned off this much from sex".

So I left good ole Paris, it was quite a nice stay overall. Yesterday I went an art museum where I go to see works of Degas, Cezanne, Renoir, and other big names, and though I´ve really enjoyed the art museums I´ve gone to in Europe (and art is normally not my thing at all), I kind of reached the threshold of seeing artwork for now. I then walked in the french gardens around the hedges, which accidentally became a game of how-many-making-out-couples-will-I-encounter, followed by how-many-perverts-will-hit-on-me when I was sitting on the grass. Some french men are really ridiculous.

So, as for other interesting people I´ve gotten to meet on my trip, I met my first russian (which sounds like a starter kit: My First Russian), but in any case, he was also from Kurdistan, that´s a first as well. I´ve met so many people from different countries, I was surprised when I realized I´ve never met a russian before. He said it´s not always that easy to get a visa to visit EU countries, but he was studying in Finland so he had taken a cheap flight to Paris. We were chatting about Finland and I asked him what finnish people were like:

Dude:Oh man, they drink a lot of alcohol, it´s nuts
Me: Aren´t russians known for drinking quite a bit? Don´t you serve pitchers of vodka in restaurants instead of water jugs?
Dude: OhYeah, but the difference is that we drink and go absolutely nuts, they drink and pass out on the floor. Yep, they´re strange.

Pariiiiis

So Paris has been another interesting experience. I came here when I was 16 years old for two days and I don't remember much and think I was a quawky young teen that was just trying to fit in with my friends and waste tons of film, so it's interesting to come back, and hopefully my fashion sense has improved a bit. I mean, hey, I actually match this time and my pants are not 3 sizes too big, that's gotta be an improvement. I got a picture taken of me in front of the Eiffel Tower which should be an interesting comparison of my 16 year old self in front of it and now. I somehow do feel that there is some classy Parisian lady perched on my shoulder who continually sighs when I'm trampling through the streets of Paris with sneakers and hair all wild, eating a piece of cake like a piece of pizza(they don't give me forks at bakeries), but hey, my imaginary parisian lady wears uncomfortable heels and probably smokes too much, so I'm okay with doing my own thing.

My first day in Paris was not the best, it was one of those days where you feel like the entire city is spitting and tripping you. I got lost with my bags, had multiple rude encounters, and was just overall frustrated. So by the time I was standing in front of Notre Dame, it was hard to take in the beauty while I was cursing Paris. Luckily things turned up, I had breakfast with a Taiwanese-kinda-Texan who now is part of the French Legion and is one of those who guards the Eiffel Tower with a machine gun. I got to learn lots of French Legion facts, I'm really tired of having the whole travel-conversation of where-did-you-go-where-are-you-from, so I am always quite excited to meet people who actually have a job, and an interesting one at that.

The next day I took at free tour of Paris and ended up spending the whole day with two zimbabweans (if you say it that way) who now live in England. We had such a giddy time going around Paris, we saw everything, climbed the Eiffel Tower, ate tons of crepes, it was maaaarvelously fun. I'm still sore today from all the walking (basically from 10:30am-12am). I probably was a bit of a loud annoying tourist, but I didn't care, I had a great time.

Today, I decided to go the Lourve and wanted to get a power breakfast since I didn't know if I would get food all afternoon since the Lourve is quite an experience so my mind created a new crepe combination--having egg (normal) and banana (normal) together (not normal). I chatted with the crepe man and asked it and he didn't seem to be bothered, but through understanding bits of french and random english, I was quite amused by the following conversation between him and his coworker (translated, accuracy questionable but overall idea):

Co-worker: So what crepe are you making there?
Mr.Crepe Man: Oh with egg and banana
Co-worker: Egg and Banana?? What the hell?
Mr.Crepe Man: Well, that's what she told me. I dunno, she's from America
Co-worker: So that's what they eat that there? Crazy americans.
::While Mr.Crepe Man prepares my coffee with milk::
Co-worker: You're giving her milk?? You're supposed to charge another Euro!
Mr.Crepe Man: Oh, its fine
Co-worker: You're not supposed to do that!
Mr.CM: ::Pouring:: Just a liiiiiittle bit of milk. Look, just liiiiiiitttle bit.
Co-worker: ::Hands up:: Man, but you can't--
Mr.CM::pouring more:: --liiiiiiittle bit of milk, not much, liiiiiitle bit.
Co-worker: Bah! ::To me:: Hey, in exchange for milk, you think I can have your address in America? I want to find work...

Probably need to witness the scene, but I was amused for the day. And no, I didn't give my address. Anyways, I went to the Lourve which was enormous, but quite enjoyable. I felt like I saw pretty much everything my heart desired, and being 24 instead of 16 years old, I enjoyed it much more this time and actually paid attention to the art instead of just running around all camera-happy. I then went on a night free tour around the burlesque-Moulin Rouge area as well as saw the bohemian area (with tons of places where Amelie was filmed). I got to learn fun facts such as the red light district has on average about 3000 prostitutes working every night, and where Pablo Picasso did his paintings while suffering from a venereal disease. Good times!

Last note--I don't know what it is about me, but in every country, no matter how out of place I look, natives always seem to ask me for directions. Chile, Germany, France--women always approach me for directions. And I get to respond like a deer in headlights--"english? No?". Well except in Chile, I actually knew the answer there--which was still ironic because I would be standing next to a chilean sometimes and the person would still turn to me and ask. I must look very approachable or something! I could put that on my resume--"international approachability".

So Athens turned out to be an alright trip. It's not the most exciting city, but it does have some interesting bits. Like the Acropolis, not too shabby. I spent a day with three spaniards that I met from the hostel which was pretty fun. It was good practice hearing Spain spanish since it's the hardest form for me to understand. They got me up to speed on the Spain lingo, so I'm prepared. We went to the Acropolis, wandered around this small neighborhood that was the ultimate picture-esque quaint greek village on the side of a hill, and went out to dinner at a nifty place. Good times! Otherwise, I've just wandered to museums, eaten lots of pita with veggies (evidentally they consider a french fry a vegetable), and had some baklava. I did get out on a bus to the coast and saw the Aegean Sea and a temple, which was quite pretty.

The tour guide was not the most enthusiastic, but I'm finding that I'm liking the more "give you the facts straight" tour guides personally than the super enthusiastic ones. I almost feel like I can't trust the super-charismatic ones since I feel perhaps that they aren't as sincere with their sweetness. So I actually quite liked the old lady that just led us and said what needed to be said and was quite helpful if someone approached her for help, but wasn't aching for attention like I've seen with some. I guess that's how it is with most people-sometimes the most sincerest ones aren't the ones who need the spotlight.

Athens

So yesterday I arrived in Athens and so far I haven't been wholly impressed. It's got its slums, and it's really touristy/fake feeling area, and it's hard to find a good middle ground. The hostel isn't great and it's rainy and dark outside so I can't really go anywhere right now, so it's a bit blah at the moment, but I'm feeling okay since I know things will turn up and I'm leaving in a few days.

A good part of today was when I took on the alias of being an english student and got into the Archeological Museum for free, woot! The woman probably can't detect accents very well, but mine was passable and I had a youth travel card which seemed to convince her. It was a proud moment for me in any case. So I wandered around the museum and then it closed at 3, so I wandered around shops. Tourist shops are very cheesy, but the good thing is that they give me a place to wander when I have nothing else to do--some nice entertainment seeing a block of cheese in the shape of the Parthenon.

Berlin

Jewish History Museum

This was a strange experience..

Life and Times in Berlin

So I've had quite interesting perspectives of Berlin. In total on my trip in Berlin, I've hung out with a group of early 20s east germans, a group of early 30s west germans, and a group of mexican exchange students. So go figure. My friend Vanessa had a friend in Berlin, Marco, who I met up with and is a radio news anchor, so I got to see all the happenings at the German radio station. They weren't quite ready for an english-speaking American to start giving the news out, but maybe they'll change their minds in time. :)

So in any case, I spent a day hanging out in cafes and pubs with Marco and his friends who live in Berlin but one was actually Hungarian and another was Turkish, so I guess it's just like the US these days that there is a hodgepodge of people from different cultures. We went to a pub called Scotch and Sofa which was cozy and a reggaton guy tried to sell us cds for 7 euros and wouldn't leave until I started speaking Spanish with them and he was so impressed he gave me a cd for free, which surprised the other who had listened to him haggle with them for 15 minutes. It was a lingual victory for me since I had listened to everyone speak German all day and felt like an ignorant idiot as usual and so here my Spanish saved the day!

I ended up rooming with Marco for the next two days, so it was nice being in an actual apartment instead of a hostel. I went to the east gallery and saw the remains of the Berlin Wall and its graffiti, and then I saw the Jewish History Museum which was highly recommended to e. It was really interesting and really well done. It was kind of eerie to walk up to the building and see 5 police guarding it at all times as well as metal detectors. Nonetheless, the history was well-presented and the architecture was really interesting and added to the experience. Hard to describe, but some rooms were very narrow, had halls leading to nowhere, or were just empty to show the void in history when so many jews were killed.

Easter in Berlin

Yesterday I saw my german friend Tobey who I met in New Zealand which was fun. He showed me his old neighborhood in east Berlin where he used to live. He was about 2 years old when the Berlin Wall came down. We played pool and went out to his and his friend's favorite late-nite hang-out spot---McDonald's. It was quite amusing to me the idea of being taken to McDonald's by a group of germans in Berlin. Another amusing bit was when his friend said that his favorite thing at the McCafe was the "Blabber Muffin". It's spelled Blaubber or something like that and means blueberry, but they just couldn't get why I found that so funny. Oh Blabber Muffin.

Today, I went on a tour of Potsdam where the Conference of Potsdam took place. Bumped into a couple palaces because hey, we're in Europe. Anyways, I hung out with some mexicans in the group, so I'm continuing to get some good Spanish practice, it's cool that I get to speak Spanish in so many different countries. Strange! And it's Easter, so no day would be complete without being given jellybeans with my cereal at breakfast by the hostel managers, hurrah!

Current temperature: 30 degrees fahr.

Sauchenhausen

I'm feeling quite blog-happy since it's easier than writing in my journal and trying to make nice handwriting. Today I had a good day, despite it being somber since going to a concentration camp is not quite a happy affair. I went on another cheap walking tour where we went with about 30 people and I found one person that was worth talking to. It seems about right that I have a 1 in 20 chance of finding someone decent to talk to, so it's worked out well for me. Anyways, I went to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, and had an excellent guide from whom I learned a great deal. It's pretty hard to fathom the atrocities that went on there, but I guess you do your best to take it in the best you can. It was probably about -1 degrees celcius and probably less with the windshield, so everyone was shivering throughout it, but you couldn't really complain when you realized that people endured winters there wearing only cotton uniforms. Definitely made you think differently when we left and we heard people say phrases like "oh man, thats torture!" or "I'm starving!".

Afterwards, I left my hostel and took a train/bus to my new hostel which is an eco-friendly hostel that is self-sustaining in a foresty area of Berlin. Pretty spooky to find it at night when you walk for about 10 minutes on a non-lit dirt road with trees, but it seems like a great place with a nice vibe and freeeee internet. The owner seems great and accomodating and so I already feel quite at home, much more so than at the other hostel even though it was more convienent, because you felt like you were in a people factory. In any case, even if its not as great as I feel it is now, at least I'm reducing my carbon footprint a tad by staying here, and there's some great trails here to bike and hike. Hurrah!

Wow that's rough...

So as predicted, I got out into Berlin, met some people, and had a great time! Hurray less lingual isolation! I did a walking tour today which was great since its free and all you have to do is show up, and afterwards, you tip your tour guide what you deem worthy. In any case, I did the usual stand in a huge crowd of people and try to analyze who I thought spoke english. I spoke to a few people who were hit and miss, but the tour was quite lovely anyways so it didn't matter much. It was 3 and half hours of walking through Berlin and I heard so much about the history. I knew the basic history of the east-west Germany divide, but I had no idea just how bad east Germany had it. After getting beaten in two wars, suffering inflation and famine, and being stuck in a communist division basically against their will til about 1989, wow. It was crazy walking around bullet torn buildings. We went around to so many different locations where you would hardly know what the buildings meant, you would just think "oh that's interesting architecture" and have no idea about how there was a historic protest against socialism where 200 people died outside. We also walked to an area in front of apartment buildings, and then realized we were standing above Hitler's ex-bunker. Ironically, it's covered by a piece of lawn where people bring their dogs from the apartment building to take a crap. That's fitting.

In any case, it was quite lovely and then I ended up hanging out with a guy from Vanderbilt and had a good time walking around to different museums and parliment. It was so cold today, it even started snowing! I guess I'm getting my winter jollies here. Tomorrow I move out of my hostel, a big chain-hostel, into a small eco-friendly hostel outside of town that is completely self-sustaining. I thought it was the least I could do to reduce my enormous carbon footprint.

Deuschland

I'm in Berlin! Its probably good that it doesn't occur to me until the day of my travel that I'm changing countries, otherwise I'd probably get to nervous. Like realizing that I don't speak German! I forgot how isolating it is not to speak a country's language, first of all I'm having problems typing since the z is where the y is normally and there's plenty of searching time for the right symbol. First, I figured it may be harder to talk to people so I thought I'd be okay wandering around or sitting in a cafe reading a paper, but oh wait, the papers are all in German! So maybe I'll go to the cinema, nope, no subtitles. Or watch tv, nope. This is probably an obvious point, but it's been a while since I've been alone in a foreign-language country so it's a whole new form of isolation. Before I was just this foreigner wandering around cities and shops, now I'm an idiot that points at things and makes grunts since I don't know whether or not to use tid-bits of German or English and somehow Spanish seems to pop out. So, that's my culture shock which I'm sure I'll adjust to.

Anyways, I went through many ordeals arriving here and then I finally get here and start walking around and my hostel is not too close to much so I just walked for blocks and blocks until I found the zoo which has some stuff around it. I somehow wandered into an Erotik Museum, which shows the history of erotic toys and has a massive shop. It was funny to be able to look at such strange stuff in place where noone looks at you weird because everyone there is curious, but at the same time, it's strange seeing a wall of dildos with a grandfather on my right and a father with a baby carriage on my left.

In any case, I had a splendid weekend with my friend Jack in a campervan, going around the southern coast. We would just pull over to the side of the road when we got tired, and one night ended up parking near a military firing range so we heard bombs and machine guns all night. I hope that's the closest to warfare I ever get. We had many splendid times which involved walking around ridiculously quaint towns that looked just as we would imagine them in the 1800s with the cobble and old stones. We went by the ocean and went to an arcarde where I became addicted to those games where you put a coin and it falls on other coins in hopes to push out more coins. It costs 2pence and that is about the only game where I felt rich playing, so despite winning sometimes, I just kept feeding it like a gambling addict. Psychologists must have designed it and known exactly what would draw people in. You put in the coin and it slides in the right spot that you planned (first endorphine high), then it pushes just where you wanted it (it's coming, it's coming!), then the coins move (insane endorphine rush) and allllmost fall (doh). Put in another 2pence and repeat.

It was quite nippy and grey throughout most our trip, but it was still quite fun. As Jack can attest, people continually comment on the rain like it's a new thing, I thought they just wouldn't even notice. ("We do want good weather ya know" responds Jack). I'm still wondering if I can take the cloudiness of Seattle since it's on my short list of places to move to, and while it would be different, it still is kind of depressing. Anyways, for some reason I thought Germany would be a bit warmer, but it's barely above freezing. (What idiot decided to go to Europe in winter? Oh right.). Don't get me wrong, I do like brisk weather, but when all I have is a hoodie and a fleece, it gets bit nippy. So I invested 6 euros in being stylishly warm, getting some oliver-twist-esque mittens and a scarf. I may not be able to understand 99.9% of what people say here, but at least I fit in a bit better and am less cold.

Photos of Jack Roadtrip

London Fun

So I've spent about a full week wandering around London, spreading my cold as well as I can by endlessly coughing everywhere I go. It's been pretty cold and windy, so it's been harsh, but I still have had a great time. Enys has been a wonderful host and we've gone out to the pub every night with his friends. Not being able to drink anything due to my cold has been a blessing in disguise, since I just sip water with ice and lemon all night, quite cheap! We call them my 'gin tonics'. So I've been getting quite a taste of pub life in England. We even went to a bar/artsy area called London Dungeon, which was literally a old dungeon with art installations and a venue for music. Not to bad to be able to say to someone "Sorry you couldn't call me last night, I had no reception in the dungeon I was in".

I've wandered through most museums including the National Portrait Gallery and the British Museum (which should be more aptly labeled, "School children daycare"). Oh, and I've actually got the rest of my plans somewhat laid down! I'm going on Easyjet flights to Berlin, Athens, Paris, Barcelona, and Dublin, and then flying to Bangkok on April 24th, spending three months in Asia, and then flying out of Bangkok to LA on July 17th! It feels good to have a return date, I feel a bit less aimless. Though that means have only about 4 months left which is little in one way and quite a lot in another (unless I become fluent quickly in Greek, German, or French soon, I have a challenge ahead of me). So we'll see how that all works out!

It seems that the down part has passed mostly, I had a weekend full of bed-bugs bites and a cold that I'd like to forget, but at least things are looking up. I'm staying with my friend Enys now in the east end which is about 80% bangladeshi, so it's really interesting see another part of London. We are right behind the biggest mosque and muslim center in the UK, complete with a fitness center with a pool day reserved for women who want to swim in their burkas (or so I'm told). London definitely is mish-mash of cultures and economic backgrounds as Enys said, "The rich and the poor are all living on top of each other here", so it's interesting how many different types of people I see everyday and the mix of neighborhoods.

So far, London has proved to be quite expensive, but all I've had to pay for so far is transport (Oyster card!) and food, so it hasn't been too bad, but it is a shocker when I treated myself to a capuccino and a cookie in a cafe in Notting Hill and I realized that the £4 I paid is equivalent to $8. In any case, all I do all day is wander around different parts of London and wander in and out of free museums, which has actually been quite nice. I love observing people in each setting and it's relaxing to just wander alone in my thoughts. Especially having a cold and being all stuffy, it's nice not to have to make conversation when you're feeling fuzzy headed. And NOONE wants to have a conversation with you in London, at least strangers, so that's taken care of. The weather has been dreary, but I don't seem to mind it so much right now. It's ironic that I'm the least fashionable right now, all layered up with a raincoat and sweater, as I walk around swanky London, but eh, who am I trying to impress? Definitely not the people at F&M, the swankiest department store here where they even sell yachts. I wandered in for funnsies and was looked at like an ogre. I guess I don't blend in with the rich 60-something crowd.

How did I get here?

So I'm in London right now, it definitely jars my brain whenever I make a big trip, since it takes a day or two to register that "what am I doing in this kitchen in London?". Or finding myself at Big Ben and the Buckingham Palace 24 hours after eating in Little India in Singapore. Well, in any case, I arrived on a beautiful day and wandered around for hours around the big tourists hotspots. I've been told before, but they were right, London is swarming with tourists (with me adding one more to the population).

So traveling is full of ups and downs, on which I'm on a downer due to crappy weather, a cold, and millions upon millions of mysterious bites all over me, possibly from Singapore. So I'm a bit worried now about Asia since 48 hours in Singapore sucked half the blood out of me. In any case, things are bound to look up. I went to the health care walk-in clinic here since it was possible that it was an allergic reaction and they didn't even charge me, I love you NHS!

S'Pore

So I am in Singapore right now! I arrived a night ago and knew almost nothing about the place or what to expect and now 24 hours later, I have walked around it multiple times! I arrived at night and was a bit intimidated and the next morning, I met two girls while eating breakfast and ended up wandering around with one of them, an English girl named Claire. Singapore turns out to be quite a schizophrenic city, it has so many different districts that are drastically different. There's Little India, Chinatown, a very modern business district, old-style parks, and then a colorful mall-esque area with tons of crazy structures. It's weird to see a place that's run down and looks like it could be in India and then 6 blocks later, you're at a high-rise with fountains. I am currently staying a hostel with a mosque at the corner so you hear blaring prayers at 6am every morning.

Claire and I went to Little India and had a meal, which was nifty considering my greater knowledge now about the indian culture so I understood a bit more about what I was doing. So we ate with our hands on big trays with different cups of curry and random bread bits, it was delicious! That turned out to be the most delicious meal, since the rest of my experimentation turned out to be quite an "experience". There was the bowl of brown sauce with noodles that was called the "Brown Rice Box Set" (my friend continually was saying, "where's the rice?"), that was tasteless, yet spicy, explain that. Then there was the picture that looked refreshing and cold called "Papaya Dessert" which turned out to be steaming hot and with some strange clear cabbage-esque thing (not the most delicious to my palette either). I really don't know the names for most of what I ate, so that'll have to do.

The crowning winner for the Strange Food Award, was a shaved ice dessert that had fruit syrup, milk, and fruit. Sounds delicious, but the fruit was durian which turns out was banned on trains since it smells like rotting socks. And it had a mucusy texture, but was quite hilarious to try since we had no idea what we were embarking on when we ordered it. I'm leaving tonight, but more strange food experiences are sure to come today!

Last thing--it's hot and rainy here. The humidity is ridiculous, it constantly feels like it will downpour, and when it does, there's about an inch of water on the ground. It's supposedly ridiculously safe, but at the same time, they like to remind people everywhere that "Anything can happen" and on the trains, they have videos of the past train bombings in other countries. Nice. Oh, as well as an acted scenario of what to do if you see someone abandon a bag, ("oh no, we're in trouble!"). I thought the States were paranoid, but this was impressive.

Other fun facts about Singapore:
-An execution takes place ever 9 days
-Spitting and chewing gum are illegal with strict consequences
-Air conditioning takes up 1/3 of the electricity usage
-World's third biggest port
-There is free speech as long as you are Singaporean, register with the police ahead of time, aviod topics like religion and politics, and don't offend anyone.

Fun Foods I've seen in Singapore:
--Pig Organ Soup, complete with different types if you prefer Pig Liver, Pig Kidney, Pig Stomache, and so on.
--A storefront called Fishball Minced Meat Noodle. No idea.
--Sweet potato milkshakes

Leaving QT, Sydney City!

So I am in another country now! I had a good good-bye from Queenstown, I had many good-bye parties and ate tons of food at Tandoori's since I knew I'd be missing it. I'm seriously suffering through indian food withdrawal after eating it for 4 months straight. In any case, I arrived in Sydney a few days ago and basically have spent the last few days wandering around. It is a great city with tons to look at and really gorgeous. I went to the aquarium, market places, harbor, Sydney Opera House, and did a day trip today to the Blue Mountains. I haven't met anyone here really despite being in a quaint hostel, but after a bout of loneliness, I'm feeling a bit more adjusted to traveling alone.

Here are highlights:
-I found the step at the Sydney Opera House where I tripped 8 years ago and broke my foot. I was passing through Sydney that night while on foreign exchange and tripped on this step that was pretty hard to see. Eight years later, I've returned and there was a white line on it to help people see it!

-The aquarium was AMAZING. Sharks, stingrays, and turtles, oh my! The scariest animal was the screaming, destructive toddler that a woman was trying to control in the bathroom.

-Mardi Gras! The Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras happened on Saturday night, a huge event! This basically means that 80% of the male tourists in Sydney right now are gay, which would only be a problem if I was on a husband hunt (not quite). Walking home from the Mardi Gras was interesting, people were stomping on all the glass bottles and going mad. I passed 600 drunk people, saw three arrests, and got my ass slapped by a drunk girl who insisted that "it had to be done". I guess that's flattering.

-Blue Mountains Hike. I did a two hour hike down cliffs and around waterfalls, not too shabby!

I thought if any of you consider going abroad, you may want to know the simple and easy steps necessary to vote absentee, so I thought I would share my lovely experience:

How to Vote Absentee

1. If you are relocating your voter registration, you must register to vote before you depart abroad in person. Please look up the address and go the location.

2. The location will be quite hidden in the downtown area so you will be lost for about 30 minutes wandering around until you finally locate the correct address and then you will be sent to various offices before you arrive to the correct one. Talk to the most skillfully incompetent employees as they fumble for your papers and treat you as a nuisance.

3. Call 2 months before election to confirm your registration and abroad address. Wait to be transfered 4-5 times before they can locate the most incompetent and illiterate person possible to speak to, so you spend 10 minutes teaching them the alphabet and then give them the address.

4. Wait for absentee ballot.

5. Wait more for absentee ballot.

6. Speak with others who share their joyful experiences and ask how your voting went.

7. Wait for absentee ballot.

8. Write to Commission for Voting and explain situation and ask where your ballot is.

9. Receive response that unfortunately, it is too late to vote and they suggest that you register for an absentee ballot ahead of time in the future.

10. Use your skills gained from "Conflict and Resolution Class" in college to write tactful email (aka, keep making sure you delete all the expletives before you send the email) to state that, yes, you registered and followed all necessary steps and want to know how you can be sure that this absentee ballot thing will work in the future.

11. Receive notice that since your absentee ballot was not actually processed despite all your efforts, you receive an email ballot that must be sent in. You have to send the papers in three envelopes inside of envelopes so that the Official can pass it off as before the official deadline (worriesome ethics on his part, but good for you to vote).

12. Fill out papers, find all necessary identification numbers back at hostel, and have the internet cafe employee sign as your witness. You will now share a special bond with him as he will always stare at you strangely from now on.

13. Purchase envelopes and go to post office. Hurray it's Waintangei Day! The Post Office is closed! Rejoice the holiday by muttering expletives as you search for postage in other stores.

14. Since you have so many envelopes inside of envelopes, you are uncertain of postage amount (and no way in hell you are going to have this ballot sit around for another day after a 3 hour voyage), so you buy enough postage to send a cow to the US.

15. Walk back to post office and insert envelopes in mailbox. Look forward to November voting!


It's that easy!! So, I basically went on the internet and planned to take a hike around 1pm, and now it's 4:30pm and I've walked around town so much that I'm exhausted. Welp, I'm glad that's over at least.

In other news, I might have mentioned that my manager Saroj is leaving Tandoori Palace and he bought the rival indian restaurant, Bombay Palace, that is two stores down the street. He's the best manager I've had so I was sad to see him go, especially since the new one isn't so great, so when he offered me and the other waitresses more hours and more money at his place, we happily accepted. So even though I'll only be around for 2 weeks at that point, I'm starting work at Bombay Palace on Feb 15th. The new manager probably won't be happy to find out today that all 4 waitresses are leaving him, but I guess it will make him think twice about his managing style. It's pretty amusing the idea of these two warring indian restaurants that are two stores apart and now the waitresses are choosing sides. Also, if we have poor business for a few days, Saroj isn't bothered especially when he pops by to see how many people are at Bombay's and they have more people.

That's about all that has been going on, I've been spending my free time with hiking, trying to freakin vote, and reading. I hiked Ben Lomond with a couple of people the other day which was pretty tiring.