This is a video I took for you guys in Yangshuo, China as we motored down the Li River in a "bamboo" boat made of pvc pipe. Te extrano! Te amo! Enjoy!
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Friday, May 14, 2010
Thursday, August 6, 2009
La Selva
Wow, what a couple of weeks.
Basically, the last two weekends have involved me partying my balls of with my brother and a small group of two close friends. Last Friday night, Tristan threw a going away party for our friend who is going to be a Vista volunteer in Maine. Halfway through the night, he got punched in the face by a girl.
Here's what went down: I got Tristan a pair of Groucho Marx glasses that has a turn-y thing on the nose and when you wind it up, the eyebrows and mustache go up and down creepily. So anyway, there was this girl at the party who was trying to fuck everyone, and she was flirting with people while wearing the glasses. Tristan said, "Be careful with those glasses." To which she replied, "What, these glasses?" *SNAP.* That snap was the sound that was made as Bitch broke the glasses while looking at Tristan, like some bully would do in High School Musical. To this, my brother said to Bitch, "You're a stupid bitch." Apparently this went on for a couple of minutes until, finally, Bitch hauls off on my brother four or five times before he put her in a very calming, humane headlock for a moment and sends her on her way. He spent the rest of the night and most of the following day absolutely ecstatic that he threw a party in which he got punched in the face by a girl.
So now I'm in Costa Rica. I met up with my boyfriend yesterday in San Jose, and we took an 8-hour bus down to our jungle cottage this morning. By "cottage," I mean "palace." Apparently, dad spent the entirety of this past year adding shit onto the house, and now we have a second bathroom, an upstairs office with a 50" plasma television, and wireless internet. Meanwhile, China's blocked the fuck out of any social networking sites. I'm sad that I'm going to be less connected to my cyber community back in Shanghai than I am here in the fucking jungle.
So I recently made my biggest adult purchase to date, which was a 30 GB iPod touch, a Gateway netbook, and a Bamboo Wacum tablet, all of which have changed my life, probably for the worse (but definitely the more pleasurable). Things I am currently into because the robots allow me to be:
Basically, the last two weekends have involved me partying my balls of with my brother and a small group of two close friends. Last Friday night, Tristan threw a going away party for our friend who is going to be a Vista volunteer in Maine. Halfway through the night, he got punched in the face by a girl.
Here's what went down: I got Tristan a pair of Groucho Marx glasses that has a turn-y thing on the nose and when you wind it up, the eyebrows and mustache go up and down creepily. So anyway, there was this girl at the party who was trying to fuck everyone, and she was flirting with people while wearing the glasses. Tristan said, "Be careful with those glasses." To which she replied, "What, these glasses?" *SNAP.* That snap was the sound that was made as Bitch broke the glasses while looking at Tristan, like some bully would do in High School Musical. To this, my brother said to Bitch, "You're a stupid bitch." Apparently this went on for a couple of minutes until, finally, Bitch hauls off on my brother four or five times before he put her in a very calming, humane headlock for a moment and sends her on her way. He spent the rest of the night and most of the following day absolutely ecstatic that he threw a party in which he got punched in the face by a girl.
So now I'm in Costa Rica. I met up with my boyfriend yesterday in San Jose, and we took an 8-hour bus down to our jungle cottage this morning. By "cottage," I mean "palace." Apparently, dad spent the entirety of this past year adding shit onto the house, and now we have a second bathroom, an upstairs office with a 50" plasma television, and wireless internet. Meanwhile, China's blocked the fuck out of any social networking sites. I'm sad that I'm going to be less connected to my cyber community back in Shanghai than I am here in the fucking jungle.
So I recently made my biggest adult purchase to date, which was a 30 GB iPod touch, a Gateway netbook, and a Bamboo Wacum tablet, all of which have changed my life, probably for the worse (but definitely the more pleasurable). Things I am currently into because the robots allow me to be:
- Twitter. I held out because it seems to be destroying the integrity of internet publishing (har), but turns out, it's addictive. I especially like it because it requires next to no commitment. (If you want to follow me, my name's moplumsy on there too.)
- The iPod touch. I know I mentioned this above, but have you guys seen this thing? It's pretty much the goddamned future. Seriously, I've got two Chinese dictionaries, a Spanish translator, the entire first season of The State, and a game called Globall that shows me where every other person playing Globall is in the world. Shit could probably do my laundry if I downloaded the right app.
- "Stuff You Should Know" podcast by howstuffworks.com.
- StumbleUpon
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
I'm so ronery...
Sorry for the lack of updates recently...China has blocked blogspot and it's nearly impossible to get to these days.
Anyway, I'm back in the States, thus the writing. I've been here since July 2nd, and I've gotta say, I'm in a horrible rut. Unlike last year, I truly feel out of place in America now. My friends are back in Shanghai or traveling this summer. My brother's really busy (though in a totally awesome way...not only is the kid working and going to school, but he's getting his goddamned pilot's license and has flown solo several times so far). I have people to visit in NYC and Boston, but not here in WV. It doesn't feel like home anymore. I'm lonely. Ick.
July 4th was special, though. The brother, three friends and I went up onto a secret rooftop fire escape to watch the fireworks over the Mon. River. It was lovely, and then we went to 123 for the Mayday! party with Big Ass Manatee and brought the club down. And did I mention the ribs for dinner? All in all, a good, old-fashioned WV July 4th.
And to sum up my schedule in a sort of nebulous manner, summer looks like this, in order: Williamsburg, VA with Mom and David, NYC/Boston, Costa Rica with Ming :-), DC for a few days (Brit? Alisa?), then back to Shanghai.
Oh, yes, and I'm also getting into some awesome Photoshop art and I'm developing a children's book with a REALLY good hook. But more on that later--I'ma go sulk and feel restless for a while.
Anyway, I'm back in the States, thus the writing. I've been here since July 2nd, and I've gotta say, I'm in a horrible rut. Unlike last year, I truly feel out of place in America now. My friends are back in Shanghai or traveling this summer. My brother's really busy (though in a totally awesome way...not only is the kid working and going to school, but he's getting his goddamned pilot's license and has flown solo several times so far). I have people to visit in NYC and Boston, but not here in WV. It doesn't feel like home anymore. I'm lonely. Ick.
July 4th was special, though. The brother, three friends and I went up onto a secret rooftop fire escape to watch the fireworks over the Mon. River. It was lovely, and then we went to 123 for the Mayday! party with Big Ass Manatee and brought the club down. And did I mention the ribs for dinner? All in all, a good, old-fashioned WV July 4th.
And to sum up my schedule in a sort of nebulous manner, summer looks like this, in order: Williamsburg, VA with Mom and David, NYC/Boston, Costa Rica with Ming :-), DC for a few days (Brit? Alisa?), then back to Shanghai.
Oh, yes, and I'm also getting into some awesome Photoshop art and I'm developing a children's book with a REALLY good hook. But more on that later--I'ma go sulk and feel restless for a while.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Journey to Hong Kong
Last week was our Labor Day four-day long weekend break. A certain friend and I decided that since it was his birthday, and since we'd been extended the invitation by recently-made mutual friends (his friends from college--new friends to me), and since it was, in fact, the longest break we get this semester, we should take the opportunity as it presented itself to head off to the exotic land of Hong Kong.
The journey began with a 20-hour overnight train from Shanghai to Kowloon Station. We got soft-sleeper tickets, and both happened to be on the top bunks. At first sight, I was certain that we'd both be sleeping in the hallway due to a sad physical inability to actually get up on the beds, but it turned out that flip-out foot placements in the walls in combination with a variety of strategically placed bars made the climb relatively easy for spry young people such as us (or is it "such as we"?). We got settled in our room quite nicely; our roommates were a young woman from Hong Kong who spoke no English and an old man who spoke relatively great English for someone I assumed was from the mainland (I forget where he was from). At around 5:00 P.M. on the 30th, we were off.
Accommodations (the top bunk...)
Happy birthday!!!
The train was simply fabulous, and I couldn't stop babbling about how much I was enjoying myself...I've always enjoyed travel by train and boat, and this was my first time on a sleeper. I brought a bottle of wine for the birthday celebration, and we enjoyed it in the dining car with an older couple from Liverpool who were traveling around Asia for 30 days. The food was simple Chinese fare--your basic tofu, Kung Pao chicken, sweet and sour pork, etc--and definitely not bad for a travelling kitchen. We spent a lot of time talking and playing cards and reading. The next day on the train wasn't much different...breakfast in the dining car (fried eggs, bread, jam, and instant coffee), and a lot of reading, chatting, and looking out the window.
We arrived in Kowloon at 1:00 the next afternoon and were met by our friend Will, who we were staying with. After dropping things off at his house, downing some noodles and grabbing a pineapple-barbeque roll at the local bakery, we headed off to hang out around the Midlevels escalator area and the Peak.
Protest for migrant workers' rights in downtown HK
Downtown skyscrapers
The Midlevels escalator is kind of the awesomest thing ever--a seemingly neverending series of escalators up the side of a mountain in downtown Hong Kong. The escalators are surrounded by lots of cool little shops and restaurants, and Ming and I eventually headed back a couple of days later to check out some used bookstores, which DO NOT exist in Shanghai. After reaching the top of the escalators, we continued up the mountain in search of the Peak, the highest point (I think) and supposedly best view that HK has to offer.
Views from the Peak
Our strategy for finding the Peak was to walk up the mountain, but after running into signs that said things like "The Peak -->" and "<--The Peak" right next to each other, we decided to taxi it for most of the rest of the way. The path at the top of the mountain was a beautiful reprieve from the concrete onslaught that is existing in Asia--HK incorporates nature into its cityscape pretty harmoniously. It was moderately crowded but still quiet and jungley at the top, and we rounded the mountaintop and took in the fresh air and some great views. After a long wait for the tram back down the mountain, we went to Nathan Road for dinner.
Now, at this point it's important to know that when in Asia, one is constantly harassed by men and women trying to sell stuff, beg, scam, give pamphlets for who-knows-what, and peddle fake versions of anything made by human hand. Nathan Road was no different, and being in walking-in-city mode, I naturally kept my focus forward and ignored the continual bombardment offers. By chance, Ming stopped by one of the men who was advertising a restaurant and took a pamphlet--surprisingly, it looked pretty awesome, and we decided to go.
The restaurant advertised was an Indian/Pakistani/Arabic restaurant. We were lead by a bearded man into a shady looking hallway with advertisements for strip clubs all over the walls. He then took us into an elevator that resembled a steel-reinforced cell at Camp X-Ray, and another questionably shady individual entered the elevator and began talking with our escort in hushed voices about "where'd you get that horrible scary big fucking scar on your face." It was at this point I was certain that the three of us were going to be brutally murdered. Turns out, the restaurant was quite pleasant, and the food was absolutely delicious. (Though I suppose that nothing whets the appetite quite like being presented with a delicious and satisfying meal only moments after expecting to be sold into a southeast Asian prostitution ring.) We then headed over to a bar called Carnegies, which just happened to be across the street from the hotel where people were quarantined for 7 days because of a possible M1N1 outbreak. We just roll that hard (actually, by the end of the night I was absolutely exhausted and practically dragging everyone back home).
Saturday morning, we got up early to get out to Lantau Island to see what we first were told was "the world's largest Buddha." At some point later, we read it was actually "the world's largest sitting Buddha," which eventually was changed to "the world's largest outdoor sitting Buddha," and then finally summed up as "the world's largest outdoor sitting bronze Buddha." It was only about an hour into the line that someone mentioned that May 2nd happens to be Buddha's frigging birthday, and that it was likely that every person in Asia was headed where we were. Oops.
Spot the error.
Enormous effing Buddha on a crowded mountain
So the wait was long (decent though--2 hours when we were expecting 4 so all in all, not bad), the tram ride was terrifying (only to me) and beautiful, and the Buddha mountain village was a tourism clusterfuck. Seeing this thing up close, however, was totally worth it. It was ENORMOUS. We hung out for about 30 minutes or so, then bopped off back down the mountain for a quick change at Will's house and then a bus ride to a beach barbeque with Sarah and company at Deepwater Bay.
A Deepwater Bay picture I stole from Ming's camera
Apparently, beach barbeques are a very Hong Kong thing to do. After playing on the beach for a bit while people stoked the fire, we went over to our barbeque pit. The barbequing situation consisted of a large cement area with about 30 or so barbeque pits, each surrounded by four concrete benches. Every single one was occupied. People apparently go out early in the afternoon and spend all day roasting various meats, drinking, and having an overall great day in the sunshine. The whole experience, framed by the beautiful backdrop of the islands and the bay, was a relaxing throwback to summer barbeques in WV or Costa Rica and was the highlight of the trip, at least for me. We left around midnight, and heard the next day that about an hour after we left, the police were called in to stop a brawl in which 20 drunken Hong Kongers started battling with bbq skewers and beer bottles.
S'MORES
Our final full day was spent shopping, which was mostly uneventful...shopping in HK is pretty much exactly like shopping in Shanghai, though I DID find a hot dog stand! (No hot dogs on the mainland...what a pity.) The day ended with a final trip up the escalators for dinner at a great Malaysian mom-and-pop establishment and then a fast jaunt over to the entertainment district (I totally forget what this was called), where we went to a Russian bar with a special room set at like zero degrees Fahrenheit. They give you faux-mink jackets and you stand around sipping vodka in the freezing cold. It's fun for a minute or two, but quickly loses its novelty.
It was really cold.
On the final morning we bid Will adieu and headed out to what we expected to be a leisurely Western breakfast and the airport. Unfortunately, we left 30 minutes too late, got lost and ripped off by a taxi driver who charged us an extra 10 HKD for putting a bag in the trunk for 2 minutes, and couldn't find the restaurant. We settled for an impromptu 7-11-style fast food breakfast on the side of the road instead before catching the Airport Express train and heading for home.
All in all, and despite the rush of the last morning, it was a fantastic time and a great way to spend a much-needed vacation!
The journey began with a 20-hour overnight train from Shanghai to Kowloon Station. We got soft-sleeper tickets, and both happened to be on the top bunks. At first sight, I was certain that we'd both be sleeping in the hallway due to a sad physical inability to actually get up on the beds, but it turned out that flip-out foot placements in the walls in combination with a variety of strategically placed bars made the climb relatively easy for spry young people such as us (or is it "such as we"?). We got settled in our room quite nicely; our roommates were a young woman from Hong Kong who spoke no English and an old man who spoke relatively great English for someone I assumed was from the mainland (I forget where he was from). At around 5:00 P.M. on the 30th, we were off.
Accommodations (the top bunk...)
Happy birthday!!!The train was simply fabulous, and I couldn't stop babbling about how much I was enjoying myself...I've always enjoyed travel by train and boat, and this was my first time on a sleeper. I brought a bottle of wine for the birthday celebration, and we enjoyed it in the dining car with an older couple from Liverpool who were traveling around Asia for 30 days. The food was simple Chinese fare--your basic tofu, Kung Pao chicken, sweet and sour pork, etc--and definitely not bad for a travelling kitchen. We spent a lot of time talking and playing cards and reading. The next day on the train wasn't much different...breakfast in the dining car (fried eggs, bread, jam, and instant coffee), and a lot of reading, chatting, and looking out the window.
We arrived in Kowloon at 1:00 the next afternoon and were met by our friend Will, who we were staying with. After dropping things off at his house, downing some noodles and grabbing a pineapple-barbeque roll at the local bakery, we headed off to hang out around the Midlevels escalator area and the Peak.
Protest for migrant workers' rights in downtown HK
Downtown skyscrapersThe Midlevels escalator is kind of the awesomest thing ever--a seemingly neverending series of escalators up the side of a mountain in downtown Hong Kong. The escalators are surrounded by lots of cool little shops and restaurants, and Ming and I eventually headed back a couple of days later to check out some used bookstores, which DO NOT exist in Shanghai. After reaching the top of the escalators, we continued up the mountain in search of the Peak, the highest point (I think) and supposedly best view that HK has to offer.
Views from the PeakOur strategy for finding the Peak was to walk up the mountain, but after running into signs that said things like "The Peak -->" and "<--The Peak" right next to each other, we decided to taxi it for most of the rest of the way. The path at the top of the mountain was a beautiful reprieve from the concrete onslaught that is existing in Asia--HK incorporates nature into its cityscape pretty harmoniously. It was moderately crowded but still quiet and jungley at the top, and we rounded the mountaintop and took in the fresh air and some great views. After a long wait for the tram back down the mountain, we went to Nathan Road for dinner.
Now, at this point it's important to know that when in Asia, one is constantly harassed by men and women trying to sell stuff, beg, scam, give pamphlets for who-knows-what, and peddle fake versions of anything made by human hand. Nathan Road was no different, and being in walking-in-city mode, I naturally kept my focus forward and ignored the continual bombardment offers. By chance, Ming stopped by one of the men who was advertising a restaurant and took a pamphlet--surprisingly, it looked pretty awesome, and we decided to go.
The restaurant advertised was an Indian/Pakistani/Arabic restaurant. We were lead by a bearded man into a shady looking hallway with advertisements for strip clubs all over the walls. He then took us into an elevator that resembled a steel-reinforced cell at Camp X-Ray, and another questionably shady individual entered the elevator and began talking with our escort in hushed voices about "where'd you get that horrible scary big fucking scar on your face." It was at this point I was certain that the three of us were going to be brutally murdered. Turns out, the restaurant was quite pleasant, and the food was absolutely delicious. (Though I suppose that nothing whets the appetite quite like being presented with a delicious and satisfying meal only moments after expecting to be sold into a southeast Asian prostitution ring.) We then headed over to a bar called Carnegies, which just happened to be across the street from the hotel where people were quarantined for 7 days because of a possible M1N1 outbreak. We just roll that hard (actually, by the end of the night I was absolutely exhausted and practically dragging everyone back home).
Saturday morning, we got up early to get out to Lantau Island to see what we first were told was "the world's largest Buddha." At some point later, we read it was actually "the world's largest sitting Buddha," which eventually was changed to "the world's largest outdoor sitting Buddha," and then finally summed up as "the world's largest outdoor sitting bronze Buddha." It was only about an hour into the line that someone mentioned that May 2nd happens to be Buddha's frigging birthday, and that it was likely that every person in Asia was headed where we were. Oops.
Spot the error.
Enormous effing Buddha on a crowded mountainSo the wait was long (decent though--2 hours when we were expecting 4 so all in all, not bad), the tram ride was terrifying (only to me) and beautiful, and the Buddha mountain village was a tourism clusterfuck. Seeing this thing up close, however, was totally worth it. It was ENORMOUS. We hung out for about 30 minutes or so, then bopped off back down the mountain for a quick change at Will's house and then a bus ride to a beach barbeque with Sarah and company at Deepwater Bay.
A Deepwater Bay picture I stole from Ming's cameraApparently, beach barbeques are a very Hong Kong thing to do. After playing on the beach for a bit while people stoked the fire, we went over to our barbeque pit. The barbequing situation consisted of a large cement area with about 30 or so barbeque pits, each surrounded by four concrete benches. Every single one was occupied. People apparently go out early in the afternoon and spend all day roasting various meats, drinking, and having an overall great day in the sunshine. The whole experience, framed by the beautiful backdrop of the islands and the bay, was a relaxing throwback to summer barbeques in WV or Costa Rica and was the highlight of the trip, at least for me. We left around midnight, and heard the next day that about an hour after we left, the police were called in to stop a brawl in which 20 drunken Hong Kongers started battling with bbq skewers and beer bottles.
S'MORESOur final full day was spent shopping, which was mostly uneventful...shopping in HK is pretty much exactly like shopping in Shanghai, though I DID find a hot dog stand! (No hot dogs on the mainland...what a pity.) The day ended with a final trip up the escalators for dinner at a great Malaysian mom-and-pop establishment and then a fast jaunt over to the entertainment district (I totally forget what this was called), where we went to a Russian bar with a special room set at like zero degrees Fahrenheit. They give you faux-mink jackets and you stand around sipping vodka in the freezing cold. It's fun for a minute or two, but quickly loses its novelty.
It was really cold.All in all, and despite the rush of the last morning, it was a fantastic time and a great way to spend a much-needed vacation!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Maybe I should write again?
Maybe I should get my thoughts down on pa...well, this electronic stuff a little more often. Tristan said there were like 20 people at Brittany's wedding that read this thing religiously, waiting with baited (baited?) breath for my next bowel-shatteringly hilarious insights into the world around me. Why doesn't anybody tell me these things? Shit! If there's anything I love, it's someone who thinks I'm awesome. If you read this and you like it, would you please leave me a little something that makes me think it's worthwhile to keep writing? Even if it's just a little, "Hiya, buddy. I don't know you, but sometimes your writing makes me pee a little."
So maybe you should expect more from me. Maybe. I say that with incredible flakiness. But while I'm here, let me go ahead and update you on, well, things since October here in Zhongguo.
November: Thanksgiving was celebrated at Punjabi just like last year. Afterwards, the Punjabi dancer mysteriously disappeared for several months, making us all very sad. But then he came back. All rejoiced.
December: Tristan visited! I got a migraine, which was not fun. The night before Tristan and I left for Beijing, we both got horrible stomach flus and were projectile vomiting up to and including our arrival at the airport. It was awful, but fun and memorable in retrospect. We climbed the Great Wall the next day, luckily without barfing, and I realized that day that I am very bad at physical activity that involves climbing and/or walking. So Tristan spent all day encouraging my winging fat ass up the 2000-year-old national treasure as I screamed things like, "LEAVE ME HERE TO DIE." Beautiful, though. Then we went to Xi'an (crazy Christmas party) and Chengdu (pandas!). Tristan partied like a rock star with my friends, while I mostly stayed at home and ate things.
January: I spent CNY holiday (Happy Ox Year, btw) in Amsterdam and Istanbul. That is all you need to know. Just kidding. More later.
February: CNY ended, the new semester began. Jingle and I went to a singles mixer (neither of us 100% single at the time) on V-day at Vinoteca for some chocolate and sparkling wine. Even though we tried our best to win the free bubbly offered to people who played love games the hardest core, we lost again and again. (We still got roses and chocolate, so not a complete loss.) Several days later, I stopped seeing someone right in the goddamned middle of an all-out body crushing sinus infection that had me snotting uncontrollably and sleeping for 48 hours straight in unbearable pain. It was a rough couple of days.
So all shittiness in my personal life aside, the Next Big Thing is my first art exhibition at Harley's Bar this Saturday! (Which I didn't know about until one of my office mates read the notice to me off the school's message board.) All in the Shanghai area should attend and offer to buy my stuff, though none of it will be for sale. You can offer though, and that would make me feel good about myself. The pieces are marker on canvas, black-and-white cartoons of the seven deadly sins, minus Pride, which I have not created yet. I may or may not have it available for Saturday. (Probably not.)
So maybe you should expect more from me. Maybe. I say that with incredible flakiness. But while I'm here, let me go ahead and update you on, well, things since October here in Zhongguo.
November: Thanksgiving was celebrated at Punjabi just like last year. Afterwards, the Punjabi dancer mysteriously disappeared for several months, making us all very sad. But then he came back. All rejoiced.
December: Tristan visited! I got a migraine, which was not fun. The night before Tristan and I left for Beijing, we both got horrible stomach flus and were projectile vomiting up to and including our arrival at the airport. It was awful, but fun and memorable in retrospect. We climbed the Great Wall the next day, luckily without barfing, and I realized that day that I am very bad at physical activity that involves climbing and/or walking. So Tristan spent all day encouraging my winging fat ass up the 2000-year-old national treasure as I screamed things like, "LEAVE ME HERE TO DIE." Beautiful, though. Then we went to Xi'an (crazy Christmas party) and Chengdu (pandas!). Tristan partied like a rock star with my friends, while I mostly stayed at home and ate things.
January: I spent CNY holiday (Happy Ox Year, btw) in Amsterdam and Istanbul. That is all you need to know. Just kidding. More later.
February: CNY ended, the new semester began. Jingle and I went to a singles mixer (neither of us 100% single at the time) on V-day at Vinoteca for some chocolate and sparkling wine. Even though we tried our best to win the free bubbly offered to people who played love games the hardest core, we lost again and again. (We still got roses and chocolate, so not a complete loss.) Several days later, I stopped seeing someone right in the goddamned middle of an all-out body crushing sinus infection that had me snotting uncontrollably and sleeping for 48 hours straight in unbearable pain. It was a rough couple of days.
So all shittiness in my personal life aside, the Next Big Thing is my first art exhibition at Harley's Bar this Saturday! (Which I didn't know about until one of my office mates read the notice to me off the school's message board.) All in the Shanghai area should attend and offer to buy my stuff, though none of it will be for sale. You can offer though, and that would make me feel good about myself. The pieces are marker on canvas, black-and-white cartoons of the seven deadly sins, minus Pride, which I have not created yet. I may or may not have it available for Saturday. (Probably not.)
Monday, March 10, 2008
Things That Cindy and I Do That Are Gay
- We take long walks together side-by-side, listening to our separate iPods.
- We sit and smoke hookah in silence, listening to love ballads.
- We sit on the same side of the otherwise empty booth at brunch.
- I double her to the gate on the back of my bike while she puts her arm around my waist and carries our parcels.
I guarantee there's more where this came from...
Meanwhile, inheritance may be coming through. Tristan MAY be coming to China and traveling with me this summer! Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Awesome Attack
SING IT WITH ME!
Cindy and I are walking to Xujiahui today. It's going to take 4 hours.
- Beijing
- Moscow
- Kiev
- Odessa
- Istanbul
- Sofia
- Prague
- Brandys nad Labem
- Amsterdam
- Brussels
Cindy and I are walking to Xujiahui today. It's going to take 4 hours.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
So I was having a chat the other day, and...
...I've been talked into circumnavigating the globe. Whaterya gonna do?
So as of two days ago, Cid and I had every intention of flying home together on the 1st of July. We were simply waiting for the paychecks to come in and the money to clear the Pacific and make its way into our bank accounts (at least I was). But then I got into a conversation with Joe. It went like this:
Me: Hey, I think I'm buying my ticket home tomorrow.
Joe: Really? Which way are you going?
Me: By plane, over the Pacific.
Joe: Oh. Well I think a bunch of us are gonna take the Trans-Mongolian Railroad west, through the stones of the Great Wall, across the vast dry spaces and sun-kissed steppes of the Gobi, hugging the glistening shores of fresh-water Lake Baikal, then on to Moscow, from where we shall head to Europe for an escapade so full of mischief and wonder that the gods themselves shall surely weep with uncertainty! You can come with us if you want.
Me: Okay.
So instead of east, I plan on going west, traversing Eurasia, flying back to Pittsburgh over the Atlantic, and finishing my journey having circled the entire world. (Which would put me at least in the top 5 on the Most Awesome People You Know list.) And I'ma do it in 31 days.
***A big thank you to Tim, who I just got off the phone with and was a great influence in getting me stoked about this idea. He also planned mostly every little detail of the following, using his Enormous Brain of Travel Information:***
The Trans-Mongolian Railway is cheap, a very cool thing to talk about at hippie parties, the first of the three life goals I get to say I've accomplished on this trip, and gets me to Moscow, which just happens to be a one-day train ride to Kiev. If all goes according to our planned best-case scenario (and doesn't it always?), Tim will be able to get a few days off and meet me there, where we will frolic with glee in his ancestoral homeland and make our way down to Odessa, where we will catch the overnight ferry across the Black Sea to Istanbul. In Istanbul, I get to FINALLY visit the Hagia Sophia, the most architecturally brilliant cathedral/mosque in the history of the universe and number two of doable life goals in July.
From Istanbul, I can take the night bus to Sofia, Bulgaria and catch a 30-ish Euro plane to Prague, where I want to adventure out and find the family plot in Brandys nad Labem (goal number three). Maybe I'll go back to Hungary while I'm at it. From there, a short flight to Holland...to, uh, see the tulips...then finally to Brussels, where direct flights to Pittsburgh are moderately inexpensive and easy to book. Plan is to book my plane from Brussels (or whichever European city is the cheapest) to Pittsburgh for July 31st. I'm going to do this relatively quickly because if I get a ticket home now, I can't back out of it later, and we all know I have a tendency to do that. I really don't want it to come down to go time and back out with some hollow reason because I'm scared to adventure. I'm never going to get another opportunity presented to me like this again, and I like to think that if I do, I'll be on board.
See you in August.
So as of two days ago, Cid and I had every intention of flying home together on the 1st of July. We were simply waiting for the paychecks to come in and the money to clear the Pacific and make its way into our bank accounts (at least I was). But then I got into a conversation with Joe. It went like this:
Me: Hey, I think I'm buying my ticket home tomorrow.
Joe: Really? Which way are you going?
Me: By plane, over the Pacific.
Joe: Oh. Well I think a bunch of us are gonna take the Trans-Mongolian Railroad west, through the stones of the Great Wall, across the vast dry spaces and sun-kissed steppes of the Gobi, hugging the glistening shores of fresh-water Lake Baikal, then on to Moscow, from where we shall head to Europe for an escapade so full of mischief and wonder that the gods themselves shall surely weep with uncertainty! You can come with us if you want.
Me: Okay.
So instead of east, I plan on going west, traversing Eurasia, flying back to Pittsburgh over the Atlantic, and finishing my journey having circled the entire world. (Which would put me at least in the top 5 on the Most Awesome People You Know list.) And I'ma do it in 31 days.
***A big thank you to Tim, who I just got off the phone with and was a great influence in getting me stoked about this idea. He also planned mostly every little detail of the following, using his Enormous Brain of Travel Information:***
The Trans-Mongolian Railway is cheap, a very cool thing to talk about at hippie parties, the first of the three life goals I get to say I've accomplished on this trip, and gets me to Moscow, which just happens to be a one-day train ride to Kiev. If all goes according to our planned best-case scenario (and doesn't it always?), Tim will be able to get a few days off and meet me there, where we will frolic with glee in his ancestoral homeland and make our way down to Odessa, where we will catch the overnight ferry across the Black Sea to Istanbul. In Istanbul, I get to FINALLY visit the Hagia Sophia, the most architecturally brilliant cathedral/mosque in the history of the universe and number two of doable life goals in July.
From Istanbul, I can take the night bus to Sofia, Bulgaria and catch a 30-ish Euro plane to Prague, where I want to adventure out and find the family plot in Brandys nad Labem (goal number three). Maybe I'll go back to Hungary while I'm at it. From there, a short flight to Holland...to, uh, see the tulips...then finally to Brussels, where direct flights to Pittsburgh are moderately inexpensive and easy to book. Plan is to book my plane from Brussels (or whichever European city is the cheapest) to Pittsburgh for July 31st. I'm going to do this relatively quickly because if I get a ticket home now, I can't back out of it later, and we all know I have a tendency to do that. I really don't want it to come down to go time and back out with some hollow reason because I'm scared to adventure. I'm never going to get another opportunity presented to me like this again, and I like to think that if I do, I'll be on board.
See you in August.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
¡Hasta lauego, Costa Rica!
I return tomorrow from my two weeks of glorious sweaty jungle travel, and I´m really sad for the first time about my upcoming departure for Shanghai. C´est la vie.
Let´s see...what´s happened since last we spoke? Pues...
1. I wrecked the motorcycle. Keep in mind that when I say ¨wrecked¨I really mean ¨fell over while riding quite slowly¨and when I say ¨motorcycle¨I really mean ¨motorscooter.¨ But potato, poTAHto, my injuries still made me look relatively badass for a couple of days. All in all, I came out of it with my right leg a little banged up, a couple of cuts on my shoulder, and a massive knot on my head that forced me to sleep on my left side for a couple of nights. Speaking of which--
2. I got the most killer neck crick from hell the other day. Shit, I thought I was going to have to buy one of those attractive neck stabilizer things. Turns out, I didn´t.
3. I went to Golfito and played with dolphins. Dad and Sil went to the Deposito to buy Charlie some birthday presents (which is about an hour boat´s ride away), and on the way there a pod of bottlenose dolphins swam up to the boat and stuck with us for about 5 minutes, during which we got some great videos and some mediocre photos. I´ll get those posted upon my return.
4. I built a house. Okay, so it was Charlito´s playhouse--a present for his fourth birthday. Still, I put the fucker together myself, complete with skylight and working doorbell. I guess all that experience I have putting together particle board furniture really paid off.
Dad apparently bought an orange grove on top of a mountain since last I was down. He and Charlito and I went up to it and ate some oranges in the middle of the jungle. And at Bob´s (our neighbor and dad´s best friend) house, I spent the usual amount of time strumming a ukelele and watching Ed the enormous marine iguana and George the old and lonely howler monkey climbing around in the yard. Actually, over the course of the trip I only went into town twice, so I´m a little disappointed (but not too much) that I didn´t get to see the usual townies before I head to China. But oh well.
Get ready for facebook pictures, a few of which I´ll post on here. I´m off to the states at ass o´clock tomorrow morning and am without an alarm clock, so fingers crossed I make my flight.
Hasta mañana, baby.
Let´s see...what´s happened since last we spoke? Pues...
1. I wrecked the motorcycle. Keep in mind that when I say ¨wrecked¨I really mean ¨fell over while riding quite slowly¨and when I say ¨motorcycle¨I really mean ¨motorscooter.¨ But potato, poTAHto, my injuries still made me look relatively badass for a couple of days. All in all, I came out of it with my right leg a little banged up, a couple of cuts on my shoulder, and a massive knot on my head that forced me to sleep on my left side for a couple of nights. Speaking of which--
2. I got the most killer neck crick from hell the other day. Shit, I thought I was going to have to buy one of those attractive neck stabilizer things. Turns out, I didn´t.
3. I went to Golfito and played with dolphins. Dad and Sil went to the Deposito to buy Charlie some birthday presents (which is about an hour boat´s ride away), and on the way there a pod of bottlenose dolphins swam up to the boat and stuck with us for about 5 minutes, during which we got some great videos and some mediocre photos. I´ll get those posted upon my return.
4. I built a house. Okay, so it was Charlito´s playhouse--a present for his fourth birthday. Still, I put the fucker together myself, complete with skylight and working doorbell. I guess all that experience I have putting together particle board furniture really paid off.
Dad apparently bought an orange grove on top of a mountain since last I was down. He and Charlito and I went up to it and ate some oranges in the middle of the jungle. And at Bob´s (our neighbor and dad´s best friend) house, I spent the usual amount of time strumming a ukelele and watching Ed the enormous marine iguana and George the old and lonely howler monkey climbing around in the yard. Actually, over the course of the trip I only went into town twice, so I´m a little disappointed (but not too much) that I didn´t get to see the usual townies before I head to China. But oh well.
Get ready for facebook pictures, a few of which I´ll post on here. I´m off to the states at ass o´clock tomorrow morning and am without an alarm clock, so fingers crossed I make my flight.
Hasta mañana, baby.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Hola y all that jazz
Hey guys. Sorry I haven't blogged in 300,000 years. I know, you're probably upset with me. We probably can't be friends anymore. It's sad, but I guess I'll have to move on...
Okay, so Costa Rica. I've been here for a few days, and will be here for a few days more. First things first: my torso hath been attacked. There must have been a spider in my bed or something because the first morning I woke up in Canaza, I discovered I had become the proud new owner of about 100 angry, red, itching bug bites all about my sides. Just my sides. Not my legs or my arms, or even my belly or my back, really, but when I look in the mirror, all I can think of is a horrid, warty toad. And they haven't faded in the least. Charlito even asked me today, "Why your picas (bug bites) not get better?" and the only answer I could give was a feeble, "I don't know, child, I just don't know." Though I guess I can't expect too much--Costa Rica has never been kind to me in the looks department. I now have a bee-oo-ti-ful sunburn and with my short black hair going all curly in the humidity, I've come to think of myself as looking like some crazy escapee from clown prison.
Not that the babies mind. Charlie and Naomi are great. Naomi is a massive fat toasted marshmallow baby who doesn't do much except sit around and be pleasant and agreeable (though I have to say, she's nowhere near where Charlie was in the looks department, but then again, nobody is). Charlie is a cherubic almost-four-year-old with the capacity for movement of a hummingbird whose diet consists soley of sugar water and crack cocaine. His favorite thing is to start banging on my door at 5 a.m. with the ever-enticing question: Do you want to play? We nearly went through all the sidewalk chalk I brought down on the first day I was here, tracing each other and drawing dinosaurs. Oh yeah, Charlie's gotten into dinosaurs. Neato.
On an unrelated note, I've finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows after slowly reading the story over the course of 7 hours of plane trips, 1/2 day hosteling, 8 hours in the death bus from hell, and several consecutive hours locked in my air-conditioned cave garage whilst Charlie screamed over and over again from just outside my door, "MORGAN, WATCHOO DOING?!" I really enjoyed it, and found myself rather satisfied with the resolution of the story on the whole. This comes as a nice Potter-related surprise after the recent release of the fifth movie, Harry Potter and the Mutilated Plot Points.
Now I'm sitting in Anna and Tom's house (crawling with geckos-a-plenty) in town in my underwear and a shirt I made myself solely from calamine lotion. Tom's in the States, Anna is in Canaza with Johan and Maggie, and I'm alone manning the bike station today and tomorrow, which is great--their room here is air-conditioned, they have hundreds of bootlegged movies AND internet access, and are moments away from a number of bars where I can get plastered at reasonable prices. I've also been spending a lot of time driving around Silvia's Yamaha scooter-Vespa thing.
Other than that, it's just been the regular day-to-day pura vida and its associated onset of isolated jungle madness. More to come...
Okay, so Costa Rica. I've been here for a few days, and will be here for a few days more. First things first: my torso hath been attacked. There must have been a spider in my bed or something because the first morning I woke up in Canaza, I discovered I had become the proud new owner of about 100 angry, red, itching bug bites all about my sides. Just my sides. Not my legs or my arms, or even my belly or my back, really, but when I look in the mirror, all I can think of is a horrid, warty toad. And they haven't faded in the least. Charlito even asked me today, "Why your picas (bug bites) not get better?" and the only answer I could give was a feeble, "I don't know, child, I just don't know." Though I guess I can't expect too much--Costa Rica has never been kind to me in the looks department. I now have a bee-oo-ti-ful sunburn and with my short black hair going all curly in the humidity, I've come to think of myself as looking like some crazy escapee from clown prison.
Not that the babies mind. Charlie and Naomi are great. Naomi is a massive fat toasted marshmallow baby who doesn't do much except sit around and be pleasant and agreeable (though I have to say, she's nowhere near where Charlie was in the looks department, but then again, nobody is). Charlie is a cherubic almost-four-year-old with the capacity for movement of a hummingbird whose diet consists soley of sugar water and crack cocaine. His favorite thing is to start banging on my door at 5 a.m. with the ever-enticing question: Do you want to play? We nearly went through all the sidewalk chalk I brought down on the first day I was here, tracing each other and drawing dinosaurs. Oh yeah, Charlie's gotten into dinosaurs. Neato.
On an unrelated note, I've finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows after slowly reading the story over the course of 7 hours of plane trips, 1/2 day hosteling, 8 hours in the death bus from hell, and several consecutive hours locked in my air-conditioned cave garage whilst Charlie screamed over and over again from just outside my door, "MORGAN, WATCHOO DOING?!" I really enjoyed it, and found myself rather satisfied with the resolution of the story on the whole. This comes as a nice Potter-related surprise after the recent release of the fifth movie, Harry Potter and the Mutilated Plot Points.
Now I'm sitting in Anna and Tom's house (crawling with geckos-a-plenty) in town in my underwear and a shirt I made myself solely from calamine lotion. Tom's in the States, Anna is in Canaza with Johan and Maggie, and I'm alone manning the bike station today and tomorrow, which is great--their room here is air-conditioned, they have hundreds of bootlegged movies AND internet access, and are moments away from a number of bars where I can get plastered at reasonable prices. I've also been spending a lot of time driving around Silvia's Yamaha scooter-Vespa thing.
Other than that, it's just been the regular day-to-day pura vida and its associated onset of isolated jungle madness. More to come...
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Happy Endings
So, all were present for a sunny week of spending far too much money, eating a lot, getting pretty drunk, and watching our beloved Jon-a-thon (and Kat and Shawn and Leora and Hanna and Allyn and on and on...) graduate from Brown University. The group is SO hot, in fact, that they made Brown's homepage. (Scroll down to "About Brown.") In case the picture is removed any time soon, here she be:
(Original size was much bigger. I don't know why it shrunk in the saving.)
Here's a day-by-day play-by-play of my vacation's festivities, you know, if you're like, having a slow day or something:
Thursday: Get up at 5am and are almost too late to catch the plane. See Aaron randomly in Harvard Square and stash our stuff in his room while shopping in Boston. He's just finished Harvard Law Review competition and is out of his goddamned mind. Makes a bat out of lettuce. Stay the night with Mandy's lovely friend Rachel from Quaker Cottage and get to meet Kylee. All play Wii.
Friday: Providence in the morning. Mall. Barbeque in the backyard with the families of Shawn, Kat, and Jon. Mostly, Jon's family, Jon, Sam, Mandy and I sit in the parking lot smoking cigarettes and talking about boobs. People leave, we get all dappered up and head out to the Alumni Campus Dance, a Gatsby-esque festival of alcohol that's hard to wait in line for. I manage drunkeness, and we all go to a house party where I meet Ben, my new colleague in Shanghai, by busting in his bedroom door and demanding that we create a code word for cool people that will be allowed in our friend group. That word? "Pelican."
Saturday: During the Baccalaureate, Sam, Rose, Sherry, Mandy, Emily, Josh, and I head to Horseneck Beach. I fall asleep on my tummy and get horrible leg/lower butt sunburn. Lunch at restaurant located by GPS. Excellent chowda. Got the stink eye from old Rhode Islanders. Then Water Fire, a festival themed for and decorated with Salvadore Dali's exploded brain. Got mesmerized by androgynous statue man who gave me a note that says, "Choose to be forgiven. Confession is good for the soul."
Sunday: Graduation hullaballoo. Cut out on the Latin part to get some more chowda, but missed B.B. King. Lots of merrymaking. Angry old ladies. Huge root sculpture. Dog usurped my ice water. Returned to see Jon receive his diploma. Got cheese and cookies. Nap.
Monday: Slept in. Most of day at the mall. Mandy slashed her face pretending to be Tinkerbell. Haircuts. Dinosaurs 3D. Group picture with Alan Shawn Feinstein at Alan Shawn Feinstein theatre. Saw the WV relatives off. Italian dinner in Federal Hill. Decorative cakes. Fountain. Later, Betty Boop.
Tuesday: Lunch @ Zog's. Shopping. Plane ride home. Direct TV on Jet Blue lets me see exactly 1/4 of the season finale of House. Crashed with Tristan in Motown.
So that's pretty much it. About 6 new albums will be on Facebook soon. Get ready.
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