Eating Cake with Chopsticks

Bac Giang

2009-04-26T21:37:00.000-04:00

Today was amazing! I went to sleep somewhat early last night so that I could be somewhat awake when one of my new friends picked me up at my hotel at 6:30 am. While I was totally not excited to wake up so early, I couldn’t wait for the rest of the day.

To start off, me and one of my students’ uncle had pho and bananas at a sidewalk restaurant. It was very delicious, but I woke up with a slightly strange feeling in my stomach, so I was a little weary of eating street food today. All is fine though (for now at least), so it was a good call. After we finished breakfast, we drove to his house (which was beautiful!!!) and met up with his wife and two sons (1 year old and 7 years old). Vietnamese houses are incredibly different than western houses. For starters, they are very narrow – basically all of them are only one room wide. There is definitely a French feel to the architecture – but is also clearly Chinese inspired as well.

Anyway, after my tour of the house, we drove for about 1.5 hours to a village called Bac Giang, which is the home town of my student’s mother and 8 sisters and brothers. Along the way, the 7 year old son and I chatted in English, and he tried his best to teach me some Vietnamese. All I can really remember is “thank you,” “hello,” and “goodbye” though haha.

Bac Giang was amazing! It’s not the kind of place you’d find on any tourist maps of Vietnam, but it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see what real Vietnamese life is like. First, I was introduced to many of my student’s aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, grandparents, etc… Then, my student’s mother gave me a tour of the village pagoda – which the grandmother is in charge of. It was really great!

After we walked back to the house (passing a variety of cows, chickens, and other livestock along the way), we had a HUGE lunch. Apparently, Vietnamese families often gather up the extended family and have elaborate meals whenever there is a special guest. I really felt very honored, and everyone was so nice and friendly to me.

The lunch consisted of many different dishes. There was a rice noodle soup, sticky rice with corn, strips of some kind of pork, tofu, fried tofu, greens, chicken (with the bone, skin, and marrow still attached), big chunks of pork with the skin on, and the most interesting dish I’ve ever eaten… Now, I know what you are saying – how much more interesting can you get than beating cobra heart?! Well – I definitely topped it today when I ate a sort of soup made out of congealed pig blood, some sort of meat, and peanuts. I was definitely nervous, but being the guest of honor, it would have been rude not to try it – so, I did! It actually wasn’t half bad. (but I don’t plan on going back for seconds any time soon :)

While lunch was taking place, my student’s mother informed me of a special Vietnamese tradition – apparently, it was her job to take me around to each of the 6 or so seating areas and get introduced and have a drink of wine with each person! Now, I learned earlier in my trip that what the Vietnamese call wine, is actually VODKA! Luckily, it turned out to be a shot per area – not per person. Thank goodness. 25 shots of vodka would surely kill me haha.

Anyway, after lunch, we all chatted a bit more, and then my student’s mother had her driver (she is a very important business owner) drive me, her, and her brother and sister in law to the airport so I could catch me flight to Laos. I am so thankful to her for the amazing experience she provided me – I really feel like I made about 25 new friends here! My student’s aunt has also arranged for one of her friends to show me around Ho Chi Minh City when I get there later in my trip.

So – after the goodbyes and a few photo ops at the airport, I boarded my 1 hour flight on Lao Airlines to Luang Prabang. The flight was okay – It was a very small twin propeller plane, so you really could feel the turbulence and the movement of the plane more. But, the flight crew were very friendly, and I was impressed with the meal they served – especially since it was only a 1 hour flight!

So, now I’m in Luang Prabang! My guest house is pretty basic, but my room has a nice balcony that looks right into a temple across the street, has cable tv, and a good working air con (which is most important in Southeast Asia in Apirl/May!) I already went exploring a bit and stumbled upon the night market, which was really cool. (I saw lots of souvenirs that I have my eye on.)

There are lots of various tours, treks, boat rides, elephant rides, etc… available, but I think I will spend tomorrow just wandering around and exploring all of the local temples and sights. I’ll save some of the tours for days 2 and 3 here.

Anyway, it’s getting late now and I should get some rest for tomorrow. I LOVE THIS TRIP!

Halong Bay

2009-04-25T07:15:00.000-04:00

Today was a great day! After a quick breakfast, I was picked up by my tour guide for my trip to Halong Bay, which is about 3 hours away.

The ride was relatively pleasant, and the other people in my tour group were all friendly and came from all over the world. We arrived in Halong City around noon (after the obligatory souvenier shop/tourist trap pit-stop), and boarded the boat for our cruise of the bay.

Unfortunately for us, it was raining. And not just a little rain - it was pouring! We were all soaked, but the view was so amazing, that it was well worth it.

We cruised around the bay for about an hour, and then stopped to eat a fresh seafood lunch at a floating restaurant. Once we finished our lunch, some of us (the brave ones) went kayaking in the bay.

I ended up in a 2 person kayak with a French man named Patrice - a very nice guy. Neither of us had any idea how to kayak, but after a few mishaps, we got the hang of it. I wish that I had brought my camera with me, because we were able to kayak into some secluded caves and coves that were just breathtaking. I felt kind of like I was in an episode of Lost. I had a blast, and would really like to try kayaking again some time.

After our kayak adventure, we went to a really big cave that clearly was a part of every tour of the bay, since there were hundreds of people there. Don't get me wrong - it was really cool. But, it was definately very touristy and over crowded. Eh...

Anyway, once we finished up at the cave and passed the 900th souvenier stand, we took the boat back to the shore and drove home. While I'm usually not a fan of organized tours, this really was a great day :)

Tomorrow, I'm spending the day with my new friends from yesterday, and am flying to Laos in the evening. I was originally planning to see a few more sights in Hanoi, but the chance to spend time with a local family and see what Vietnamese life is really like is an opportunity too good to pass up. I'm really excited!

Welcome to Hanoi!

2009-04-24T22:00:00.000-04:00

Welcome to Hanoi: A whole new world!

I pride myself on being fairly well-travelled and easily adaptable to any situation, but Hanoi, Vietnam is like no place I have ever been before! I arrived last night after two relaxing flights totalling 17 hours on Asiana Airlines. I was lucky enough to convince the ticket woman to give me window seats in rows that were entirely empty for both legs of my journey. This was great because I got to lay down and sleep for both flights. The food was also great, and it was definately one of the best flights I've been on.

After going through immigration (with some minor confusion) and customs, some friends of one of my students met me at the airport and took me to my hotel (which is actually quite nice). I got a good night's sleep and don't really feel any jet lag (thanks to some strategically taken sleeping pills :).

This morning, I ate a delicious breakfast at my hotel, and immediately felt the French influence in Vietnam. For example, I ordered chocolate pancakes and ended up with chocolate filled crepes. After that, I decided to venture out for a walk in the neighborhood around my hotel: the Old Quarter.

Well, stepping out into the street was like stepping back in time in a whole new world. I have literally never seen more people and motorbikes in one place in anywhere I have ever been. Simply walking on the sidewalk was an adventure. But daring to cross the street was a death-defying feat. Seriously! At first, it seemed kind of fun - like a game of Frogger or something. BUT, the fun ended and the terror set in when one came within one inch of hitting me and running over my foot! Words really can't describe it - watch the video below!

After nearly dying 58 times, I went back to my hotel and met Lucky, Sweety, and Mr. Lam (all friends of one of my students). They were very nice and took me to the Temple of Literature, and then to a delicious lunch. After that, we went to the Museum of Ethnology. This was one of those classic examples of locals knowing what is cool - I wasn't even planning to go there, but it turned out to be a highlight of the day! On the inside, it's just a regular museum, but on the outside, there are old-school ethnic houses and lots of cool interactive displays. It was so much fun!

Once we finished there, we drove to my student's mom's office, and then headed to Le Mat Snake Village. There, we met up with about 8 members of her extended family, and had an amzing meal of cobra - served many different ways. Eating cobra was a goal of mine, and is sure to be a highlight of my trip! Not only that - it tasted great!!! I drank the blood and bile mixed with alcohol, and ate the fried skin, ground bones, stir fried meat, spring rolls, soup, and several other snake entrees. It was such a great experience, and was the kind of thing I never could have experienced on any tour. I also drank a lot of snake and bee wine - maybe too much haha!

Tomorrow, I've booked a boat and kayak tour of halong bay - I really can't wait!!!

I Heart GW Bush

2008-07-07T23:31:00.003-04:00

Okay, those are a few words I thought I'd never say! haha

But, I got my $600 economic stimulus check in the mail today, and for that reason only, GW Bush for this one day only has won my heart haha.

I had the day off today (during the summer, I have Mondays off) so I laid out in the sun at the park, and then like a good American, I headed straight downtown and shopped till I dropped! I haven't bought much of anything since I moved here, so this was so exciting for me.

I even got a box of my favorite candy - See's Candies! And I dyed my hair today - not sure why. I just kind of felt like it. haha (just a lighter shade of brown for summer- I think it looks pretty good actually)

Anyway, today was an excellent day. Hopefully an excellent week will follow!

4th of July Road Trip!

2008-07-06T15:18:00.003-04:00

For the 4th of July long weekend, my friend and I decided to go on a road trip together. It took us a while to decide where to go, but we finally decided on Yakima and Leavenworth, Washington.

We left for Yakima early Friday afternoon and got there about two and a half hours later. It was a really cool drive: one minute we were driving through dense mountain forests, and the next minute you felt like you were in the Nevada desert! I couldn’t believe that we were still in Washington!

Once we got to Yakima, we checked into our hotel – definitely not the nicest hotel, but Yakima isn’t exactly a 4 star hotel kind of place. We rested for a bit (after changing rooms once) and then drove around the city for a bit. We went to a park by the river and to Starbucks, but aside from that, Yakima doesn’t really have many big tourist sites.

A little bit later, we headed to the Yakima Fair Grounds, where there was a big country fair with rides and music and food. We hung out there for a while and then watched a pretty big fireworks show. I was surprised at how big the show was seeing as how Yakima isn’t really a major city.

All in all, it was a pretty fun day. The only drama had to do with the sleeping arrangements, which somehow left me sleeping on the floor of the room that I had booked and paid for. Nothing makes a guy feel good like the guy you once had a big crush on telling you that he doesn’t want to even sleep in the same bed as you. Sigh…

Anyway, after that ego boost, I woke up the next morning pretty early (and with a slightly sore back) and laid outside by the pool for a while. Then we went to an orchard nearby and got to pick our own cherries. This was really fun!

After that, we drove about an hour and a half to Leavenworth, WA which is a touristy fake German town. We walked around for a bit and it was a pretty nice place. Of course, I had the obligatory German sausage for lunch haha, and then we walked around the riverfront park before heading home.

All in all, it was a pretty fun trip and I had a really good time. I don’t know that either place is worth going to again, but it was nice to get out of the city for a few days. And a road trip with a good friend is always a good time.

Brooklyn Waterfall?

2008-06-26T03:23:00.005-04:00

Apparently they will be adding a waterfall to the Brooklyn bridge for a few months as part of a temporary exhibition. Hmmm... so they can turn a bridge into a waterfalll, yet somehow my landlord can't seem to fix my leaky bathtub faucet. Something seems wrong here...

You Don't Mess with the Zohan...

2008-06-07T21:49:00.002-04:00

...should be titled "You Don't Want to Waste $10.25 on this Movie" instead!

I should have followed my gut and watched Kung Fu Panda instead. haha

Portland

2008-05-26T21:19:00.002-04:00

This weekend was pretty fun. I relaxed a lot on Saturday and had lunch and dinner with some friends. I also tried Bolivian food for the first time and it was pretty good.

On Sunday, Marvin, Sebastian, Cory, and I took a road trip to Portland, Oregon! I've heard that Portland is really cool, so I was pretty excited. Though the day turned out to be a lot of fun, it really was a comedy of errors: We went to the Japanse Garden, and it rained. We went to what we thought was a rose garden, but turned out to be the sports stadium (whose name happens to be the Rose Garden). Then we almost ran out of gas driving up this really windy unpaved road to the this scenic viewpoint, which turned out to be closed due to snow. Then we drove some more to a lake with a cool view of Mt. Hood, but that too was closed due to snow. Finally, we gave up on all outdoor activities and decided to drive to the outlet mall - but when we got there, it had just closed too. haha

Writing it out like that probably makes it sound like an awful day, but it actually was a lot of fun in the kind of way that road trips almost always are. Good friends, good food, good stories, etc... And the Japanese garden and waterfall that we went to were really cool too. And I got to see snow in May! At the end of the night, we went back to downtown Portland and hung out an Irish Bar and had dinner and some drinks before heading home.

I think Portland is definately someplace worth visiting again. (though next time, I think I'll definately make sure everything is open first haha)

Great weekend!

2008-05-19T02:14:00.003-04:00

This was a near perfect weekend!

It's been chilly and overcast most days since I've lived in Seattle, but all of a sudden, the sun came out on Thursday, and it's been warm and sunny all weekend! It's as if mother nature just all of a sudden decided that it was time for summer to start! (But in true Seattle fashion, the clouds and rain are back tomorrow haha)

Anyway, I really took advantage of the nice weather and spent a lot of time outside. I even got a little sunburned! I hung out with some friends, got to tour Boeing and Microsoft, went to a really cool street fair near UW, went to the Japanese Garden (sooo awesome), had a few drinks, and went to an international festival to see my friend perform today! I also ate a ton of KFC!! (mmm...finger lickin' good!) It was a busy weekend, but it was a really good one. The only bad part about the whole weekend is that it's over already!

Yay!

2008-05-19T02:03:00.001-04:00

I am so excited: I just found out that there is a Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwich Shop francise here in Seattle less than a 15 minute walk from my apartment!!!!!! I am totally going there for dinner tomorrow!

Seattle just keeps getting better!

How you can help

2008-05-13T13:05:00.003-04:00

The death toll from the earthquake in central China has already climbed abover 12,000 and there are awful pictures of destruction, make shift hospitals, and people trapped beneath tons of concrete debris such as in the photo above all over the news. As many of you know, the Chengdu area has a very special place in my heart, and this trajedy is one that has affected a large number of my friends and current and former students.

I know that quite a few people keep up with my blog, and I ask that if possible, you do something to help out with this situation. It is difficult to donate money to many of the major Chinese relief organizations such as the Red Cross Society of China because of currency and banking differences. However, Operation Blessing is an international relief agency that does really good work and is actively helping out both in the Chengdu area and in Mynamar. If you would like and are able to help, you can find out more information about OB and make a small donation by visiting the following link: https://secure.ob.org/site/Donation2?idb=180354110&df_id=1320&1320.donation=form1&JServSessionIdr007=yygkgnqcm1.app45b

Up Up Upside Down

2008-05-12T23:03:00.002-04:00

Lately it seems that every time I on turn on CNN, there is some major crisis or disaster happening in the world. Strange illnesses killing children in Beijing, devistating cyclones in Myanmar, hundreds of homes destroyed by tornadoes and wild fires in the US, and now major earthquakes in central China: seriously, what is going on with the world lately?

With all the suckiness happening these days, there sure is an awfully lot of good that can be done in the world this week.

One week in...

2008-05-01T23:25:00.002-04:00

It's Thursday night, which means that I have officially been living in Seattle for one week. AND IT JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER!

I know I'm still in the honeymoon phase of moving, and that before long, the newness will wear off and I'll start to miss the friendships and familiarity that I have left behind. But until that point comes, I truly am loving every minute here. I love Seattle. I love the weather. I love my apartment. And my neighborhood. And with each passing day, I love my new job more and more.

I just have this oddly strong feeling that this is the place I was meant to be. The job; the apartment; everything. It's as if everything that has happened thus far in my life has all led me here. And although I'm reluctant to say this out loud for fear of jinxing this uncharacterist run of good luck that I've been having, I can't help but have a similarly strong feeling that Seattle is the place where I am going to meet the person I'm supposed to spend the rest of my life with.

I know this all sounds silly, and it's probably all just a load of crap. But hey, a feeling is a feeling right. And who knows, maybe I'm right. I guess we'll find out!

Sushi Maki = Sushi Heaven!

2008-05-01T23:06:00.003-04:00

Seattle has tons (and I mean tons!) of sushi restaurants. And anyone that knows me, knows of me, or has ever read my blog knows that this makes me a very happy man! So, as part of exploring my new neighborhood, I decided today to try at least one new sushi joint each week to find out which restaurant is best.

I started off my quest today with a place called Sushi Maki, which is conveniently just a few blocks away. I read a lot of great reviews on the web about it, so I had pretty high expectations going in.

Well, not only did this place meet my expectations: it was by far the best sushi I have ever had. The place itself is a hole in the wall and couldn't be more than 8ft by 15ft big, including the kitchen area. But from this tiny kitchen sprung forth one hell of a meal! The sushi rolls are huge, and one roll is easily an entire meal. I ordered two rolls (a spicy dragon roll, a 2x4 roll, and a (very) spicy scallop roll appetizer. Normally, I can eat and eat and eat when it comes to sushi. But the portions were so big that I couldn't even finish one whole roll! And the scallop appetizer was easily one of the top 10 things I've ever eaten.

Not only was the food great, but the prices were very reasonable, and the presentation was nice, even for take out. Needless to say, the number for Sushi Maki is now stored in my phone and will be used very very often.

I'M IN LOVE...

2008-04-27T19:42:00.002-04:00

...with the city of Seattle!

Seriously, I love this place. My neighborhood, Capitol Hill, is full of coffee shops, restaurants, and brownstones. And it has a great community feel to it. It's only a 3 minute walk to downtown, and I can see the Space Needle from my street!

Everything is so close, and I love how independant I am here even without a car! Today alone, I had coffee at Starbucks, went to the grocery store (even nicer than Whole Foods!), got sushi for lunch, and walked to the Pike Place Market and bought some fresh fruits and vegetables. The fish mongers were tossing fish around to each other just like in the FISH! video!

There are cherry trees in bloom all over the city, and I even got hit on at the T Mobile store! (I somehow lost both of my cell phone chargers in the move, so I had to buy a new one.) And it's such an international city: everywhere I went, I could here people speaking different languages, and there are restaurants of every kind all over. (including a sushi place that is dangerously close to my apartment haha)

I feel like a kid in a candy shop! I only wish I had a few more days to relax and explore before I have to start working.

New Apartment!

2008-04-27T13:04:00.000-04:00

I'm officially a Seattle resident!!!

I arrived in Seattle Thursday night and my landlord picked me up from the airport and took me to my new apartment. After traveling all day, I was anxious to see my new place and get some sleep before all the craziness started the next day.

On first impression, I was a little dissapointed. Having lived for the past year and a half rent free in a huge three bedroom apartment, I knew I would be dramatically downsizing. My landlord estimated that the apartment is about 500 sq feet, which is pretty small, but when I actually measured it that night, I found that it is actually only 350 sq feet, which is super small! Other than the size, the apartment seemed pretty nice: there is nice molding, lots of windows (and a view of a courtyard), hardwood floors throughout, and good lighting. I was pretty pleased, and I felt like the apartment definately had a lot of potential. The only other downsides that I saw were that the kitchen countertops were a mauve color, and the shower has a decorative portrait of the Pacific Northwest printed on it:

The next day was a busy one! The cable guy came to hook up my cable, internet, and DVR in the morning. Then, the FedEx guy came and delivered all 23 of my moving boxes. Shortly after that, the UPS guy came and delivered my new TV. And just a few minutes after that, the IKEA delivery guys came and delivered all of my new furniture. Needless to say, there were boxes everywhere and I could barely even walk in my apartment haha.

I spent the rest of the day and Saturday unpacking and putting my new furniture together. And I am spent!!! Since the apartment is so open and there isn't much storage space, I had to put a lot of thought into where to put things (don't look under my bed haha!). But, after two and a half days of hard work, my apartment is finally ready. I'm not allowed to paint, but I still managed to give the apartment the clean, calm, asian/zen, peaceful feel that I like. And if I do say so myself, it's looking pretty darn good!

I need to buy a trash can, and eventually I need to get a kitchen table and chairs, but that can wait. Other than that, I'm all set! I start my new job tomorrow morning and I am very excited. I'm also really nervous, but I'm sure that everything will go well.

Moving tomorrow!!!

2008-04-23T22:51:00.002-04:00

Today was my last full day at work, and I have only one thing to say: I HATE GOODBYES!!!!

As excited as I am to be moving and starting my new job, I've made some really great friends here and I can't even begin to describe how much I am going to miss not only them, but my coworkers, my staff, and even my students. Already, I've teared up more times than I can count, and I'm not even leaving until tomorrow!

Through the difficult goodbyes though, I ended the day not with sadness or regret in my heart, but with a smile and the sense that I truly have made a difference here. All day long, and all week for that matter, students and staff have been taking me to lunch/dinner, coming to say their goodbyes, and giving me hugs, cards, and farewell gifts. One of my coworkers even baked a HUGE (and delicious) cake for me today. At the risk of sounding cheesy, it makes me feel good inside to know that so many people care about me and want to wish me well.

So with only a few goodbyes to go, I can honestly say that I have nothing but excitement for my move tomorrow. Not only that, I just can't even begin to put into words how good it feels to have everything completely wrapped up at work and to know that I will never again have to be on-call or woken up in the middle of the night for work! I'm just so happy.

So, wish me luck tomorrow. If all goes according to plan, I'll be able to post again on Friday evening in my new (and furnished) apartment while watching my new tv on my new cable (or my DVR!!!!) while unpacking all of my boxes. Keep your fingers crossed! Seattle, here I come!

Time flies!

2008-04-22T18:47:00.001-04:00

I can’t believe how quickly the past few weeks have flown by! It seems like only yesterday that I was sitting in my office complaining about how badly my job search was going. Now, I’m sitting in my empty apartment getting ready to leave Worcester forever and move to Seattle on Thursday! Where did all the time go????

Usually I’m such an introspective and thoughtful person; a real processor. But things have just happened so quickly that I haven’t really even had time to do that. I’ve just been too busy to feel sad or anxious or nervous or excited. I’ve just been focused on crossing things off my huge to-do list before I leave.

Now that the list is done though, and the goodbyes have started, I’m definitely starting to feel it. Today was my last day in one of my two offices, and it was really sad leaving and knowing that I’m never going back. As bad as that was, I still have many more goodbyes coming and I’m totally dreading them all. It’s a strange feeling actually: on one hand, I wish I could just get it over with. But on the other hand, I wish that these next two days would last so much longer.

Either way, I’m getting incredibly excited to move into my new place, get settled, and start my new job on Monday.

The Turkey Is Done!

2008-04-06T19:00:00.001-04:00

Earlier this week, I somehow found myself engaged in a discussion over whether or not it is possible to cook a turkey by putting it in a clothes dryer. How this came up in conversation, I really couldn't say. But after a quick google search online, it turns out that you can't.

Here's a funny Youtube video of someone who tried though!

New Job!

2008-04-06T18:59:00.001-04:00

I haven’t posted a blog in quite a while, but it’s not for lack of interesting things to write about. Let’s see: In the past few months, Chelsea Clinton, Hillary Clinton, and the Governor of Massachusetts all came to speak at my university, I went to Seattle, discovered a love of blood oranges, and went on a diet and have lost 5 lbs so far. But one thing in particular has dominated my time and interest this winter: my job search.

Up until this week, there wouldn’t be much to write about really. I’ve been applying for jobs since January and had a few phone interviews and one on-campus interview. But weeks passed with no prospects, and few jobs were being posted in my field: sometimes only one or less per week for the entire country. Needless to say, I was getting concerned and started to really doubt my abilities. In fact, I spent several hours last weekend coming up with a backup plan for what I would do if I didn’t get a new job before my current job ends in June.

Well, talk about timing! Just when I was about to give up hope, my supervisors let me know that someone had called them to check my references on Tuesday. Not only that, but by the end of the day, I had a job offer! And it wasn’t just any job offer, it was my top choice at a great school near downtown Seattle!

(And in a stinging dose of irony, once I received that job offer, invitations for phone interviews started streaming in. In fact, I’ve had 5 such offers since Tuesday! I guess that saying “When it rains, it pours” is true!”

Anyway, things since then have moved at light speed! I formally accepted the position on Thursday and will start my new job on April 28: just a few weeks away! Already, I’ve started packing, repainted my apartment (sigh), and found an apartment in Seattle! It’s a great little place right in the heart of the city and just a few blocks from downtown and my office. It’s a large studio in a nice brick building and comes with nice hardwood floors and a separate sleeping area and kitchen/dining area. I was hoping for a 1 bedroom, but this is pretty close and is a lot more affordable.

Even with those things done, I still have a zillion things to do to wrap up my job here, pack, and get ready to move into my new place and start my new job. The hardest thing will definitely be saying goodbye to some really good friends that I’ve made here. But, I’ve got a job, an apartment, and a one way plane ticket to my new home of Seattle, and I couldn’t be more excited!

Into the Wild

2008-01-17T15:57:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine showed me the following quotation from "Into the Wild:"

"We like companionship, see, but we can't stand to be around people for very long. So we go get ourselves lost, come back for a while, then get the hell out again."

Seriously - could this be any better of a description of me?!?!

Stupid Jet Lag

2008-01-07T07:57:00.000-05:00

I hate jet lag!!!! I was only able to fall asleep for 3 hours last night, and now I have to somehow stay awake through a 2 day work retreat out of town. Sigh...

I see a grande Starbucks soy hazelnut latte in my future. Or two.

Home Sweet Home!

2008-01-06T22:04:00.000-05:00

Finally, after 17 days of travelling, I am back in my apartment! As much as I loved my trip, I am so excited to get to sleep in my own bed tonight!!!!!

Tomorrow, I have to go back to work - vacation's over. sigh... :( Speaking of work, as of this past Friday, I've officially been at my job for a full year.

Even though I'm happy to be home, I always feel pretty down when I come home from a big trip like this. It happens every time I go abroad: all the weeks of planning and built up excitement leading up to the trip, then the excitement of the trip itself, suddenly are all over and it's back to life as usual. Watching tv on my couch on a Sunday night and getting ready for a week of work as usual just seems so boring compared to travelling around China, where every day was an adventure. Oh well...it's nothing a pizza or some KFC can't fix haha.

Vacation Video

2008-01-03T09:57:00.000-05:00

Here's a video I made displaying some of my best photos from my trip - Enjoy!

Full Circle

2008-01-03T09:37:00.000-05:00

So, today was last full day in China. We spent the day mostly just lounging around our hotel room in Xi'an before checking out and having lunch at an Italian restaurant nearby. The food was actually quite good, though we were the only two customers there, so we had about 20 restaurant workers staring at us the whole time haha.

After lunch, we took a taxi to the airport and checked in for our flight on Hainan Airlines. Somehow, the taxi ride was half as much on the way to the airport as it was from the airport to the hotel a few days ago, confirming our suspicion that the first taxi driver was scamming us. Sigh...

Anyway, the flight was uneventful and they even fed us dinner despite it only being a 1 hour and 45 minute flight.

Now, here's the best part: We were able to get a room at the Ritz Carlton again in Beijing!!!! As soon as I got the confirmation email this morning, we were so excited. This is just such a wonderful hotel, and it felt very reassuring driving up to it in the taxi this evening. Not only did the bellman remember us and have a nice conversation with us, but they also sent us a fruit basket and personalized note!!

I just came back from relaxing in the jacuzzi and sauna, and I feel so relaxed now. Coming back for one last night at this hotel was truly the best way to end this trip: it is definately ending on a high note! As the note on the room service cart says: "a good beginning makes a good ending."

Tomorrow, I'm going to get up early to relax in the jacuzzi/sauna one last time, have breakfast at the hotel (sooooo looking forward to this - it was so delicious last time!), and head to the airport for our flight home.

I'm a little bit sad to leave, just as I am whenever a vacation abroad comes to a close. But, I've really had a great experience on this trip and I'm sure that I will remember it always. It's definately rekindled my desire to live abroad a little too. But, it will be nice to be back in my apartment where I can sleep in my own bed and eat out of my fridge whenever I feel like it.

Here's to great adventures and great vacations! And here's to the Ritz Carlton!

Xi'an

2008-01-02T07:01:00.000-05:00

Today was our first of two days in Xi'an. We had originally planned to take the bus for a few hours to Luoyang to see the Longman Caves, but we decided last night not to. So, we slept in a little today (and watched Snakes on a Plane on HBO) and then started our day.

First up, we took a taxi to the Xi'an Train Station, where we caught a minibus to the Terra Cotta Warriors about an hour away. The trip was less than pleasant - the scenery was boring and grey, and the road was super bumpy. But, it was only 7 Yuan (1 USD), and compared to the prearranged tours which cost upward of 500 Yuan per person, the ruggedness was worth it.

Once there, we bought our tickets and headed in. The site itself is really large and consists of a museum, gift shop (of course), lots of grounds/gardens, and the three excavated sites. The 2nd site was still be excavated, so we couldn't see it, and the 3rd site was pretty small. But, the 1st site was huge and pretty impressive. There were hundreds (probably thousands) of carefully detailed warriors all lined up and ready for battle.

After we finished up there, we caught a minibus and headed back to the city. From there, we took a taxi to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, which is Xi'an's biggest highlight. It was pretty cool, and there were some nice views and architectual elements. You could also climb up to the top of the pagoda for an extra 20Y, but neither of us really had any desire to walk up and down all those stairs, so we decided to have dinner instead. Interestingly, despite it's name, we didn't see a single goose there, real or statue - not sure what's up with that. haha

We ate at a pretty touristy restaurant on the pagoda grounds, but we were so cold and hungry that we didn't really care. My food was pretty good. I had a curry chicken set with rice, steamed greens, vegetables, steamed egg custard, and a really horrible smelling/looking soup that I didn't even try. I also had some picked cucumber dish, a few types of dim sum, and 2 plates of egg tarts. I was a very happy man. :) They also had some really delicous jasmine tea, which I couldn't get enough of. Not only was it delicious, but it was also not too hot. I love tea, but I hate when they serve it at such a high temperature at some restaurants that you can barely even hold the glass. This one was just right!

All in all, I am pretty unimpressed with Xi'an. Honestly, I wasn't super excited to come to Xi'an in the first place, and perhaps if I had come here first, I would have liked it more. But there just doesn't seem to be anything special or extra charming about it. It's just a small city. It reminds me sort of of Reno - it's a big tourist destination, and in it's hay day, it used to be super cool, but Vegas is so much better. haha

At any rate, since we didn't go to Luoyang today and there isn't much else to do here in Xi'an that is of interest to us, I think we are just going to relax during the day tomorrow before our flight back to Beijing. It's a little dissapointing, since I would have liked to have ended our trip on a strong note, but relaxation isn't a bad thing. We are also trying to book a room in the Ritz Carlton in Beijing for our last night in China tomorrow since we liked it so much the first time - I hope it works out!!

Karaoke on the Mini Bus

2008-01-01T21:56:00.000-05:00

This is the silly music video that the people on the mini bus from Jiajiang to Emei Shan sang along to yesterday!!!

Farewell to Chengdu

2008-01-01T07:59:00.000-05:00

Today was our last day in Chengdu, which was unfortunate because Katie and I both woke up with pretty low energy to start the day. All that hiking yesterday at the Thousand Buddha Cliffs really tired us out I guess.

Anyway, we eventually got up, checked out of our hotel, and took a taxi to the Wenshu Temple in Chengdu. The outskirts of the temple are lined with so many alleys and side streets that are full of shops, tea houses, and food stands. It was a really nice walk.

Since today is a national holiday, the temple itself was super crowded with worshipers. Despite that, we managed to walk around the grounds a lot and take some good pictures. Although the temple was really beautiful, it felt a little strange to be walking around as tourists when so many people were there to worship. And to be perfectly honest, we have seen so many temples since we've been here, that we are pretty temple-d out at this point. So, rather than going to see some of the other temples in the area after that, we decided to take a taxi to the People's Park.

Lonely Planet said good things about the park, and it turned out to be quite a nice place. Though, like the temple, it was super crowded. There were some koi fish lakes, some cool buildings, and a garden made entirely out of potted bonzai trees. The definate high point though was the animatronic haunted house that was there. It was like a primitive version of "It's a Small World" at Disney World and was soooo cheesy that it was actually funny. (Katie was scared though haha)

After that, we headed back to the hotel area to have lunch and decided to just go to KFC since we didn't have much time. This was a big mistake though - it was soooo crowded, the lines took forever, and we couldn't even find a table to eat at despite looking and walking around in circles for about 10 minutes! It was really frustrating.

But, food is food, and food makes me happy :) Once we finished eating, we got our bags and headed to the airport for our flight to Xi'an. The flight was really nice, and really short, and with the exception of the super long taxi ride to our hotel, Xi'an seems like a nice place so far. Our hotel is really nice/luxurious, and we just had a nice dinner at a restaurant nearby.

As nice as Xi'an is, Chengdu left a really strong impression with me and I miss it already. Tomorrow, we are headed to Luoyuang to see the Longman Caves. We are planning on taking the bus there, and based on our bus experience yesterday, we are a little nervous. Hopefully it'll be okay!

The Blog That Almost Wasn't

2007-12-31T09:16:00.000-05:00

Today was an adventure!!!

We got up medium early and had a huge breakfast at the hotel. After that, we took a taxi to the long distance bus station here in Chengdu. Buying tickets and getting on the bus was a mini adventure by itself, but the bus ride itself was really smooth and enjoyable and it only took us 2 hours to get to Leshan.

As we got off the bus in Leshan, a woman approached us offering to take us to see the Giant Buddha in her pedicab for only 15 Yuan. This seemed fair enough and we had mostly recovered from our pedicab adventure the night before, so we agreed and hopped in. This ride was much better than the one last night, but when we got there, the woman totally scammed us and said she wanted 50 Yuan, not 15. What a rip off - but whatever.

From there, we took a (barely floating and definately unsafe) boat on the river to see the Giant Buddha, and well...it was giant. It's the world's largest Buddha, and it was quite impressive. I'm a bit of a Buddha connosieur and have seen a ton of Buddha statues in my time, so it takes a lot to impress me. This one was definately worth the trip! After that, we had the option to go across the river and climb the hundreds of steps to the top of the Buddha, but that seemed like a lot of work and neither of us really felt like it, so we decided to take another long distance bus from Leshan to Jianjiang.

Getting on the bus to Jianjiang was much less confusing since we had already done it once, and the bus ride was only about 45 minutes. When we got there, we took a pedicab operated by an older man to the 1,000 Buddha Cliffs. According to my guide book, there are well over 1,000 Buddhas carved into the cliffs in this area. However, it's not a very well known tourist destination.

It was kind of a long trip to the cliffs, and at several points, I wasn't sure if our driver was going to be able to make it the whole trip. But, he eventually got us there and even offered to wait for us to take us back to the bus station when we were finished. This was a huge relief, since the place was kind of in the middle of nowhere and there were no taxis (or cars) in sight. In fact, Jianjiang is super small and there were hardly any cars period.

At any rate, we had to walk along this really narrow street to the entrance which was lined with small shops, dogs, and chickens casually walking around. It was pretty surreal. Once we got there, we saw 5 Buddha carvings but then took a turn onto a path near a sign that said "entrance." We assumed this was the way to see the other 995 Buddhas, but it turned out to be just a path up to the top of a really steep mountain. And when I say steep, I mean STEEP. I was so tired by the time I got to the top, but the views were amazing and I even got to see a cute little bunny.

Once we got down to the bottom, we got back on the main path and eventually found all the other Buddhas, which were pretty breathtaking. There were just sooooo many!!!

According to my guide book, the last bus left Jianjiang for Leshan at 5:30, but this turned out to be totally wrong!!! When we got to the bus station at about 5:05 to buy our tickets, the woman said we couldn't. She (and everyone else there) didn't speak English, and she was quite rude. Despite the language barrier, I could understand that she was telling us that we couldn't take the last bus to Leshan or to Chengdu!!!

I was totally confused and a little worried because this place is super small and I doubt there were any hotels we could have stayed at. In fact, I suspect that most of the houses didn't even have electricity! Luckily, I went up to the counter again hoping the answer would be different this time, and a woman helped us out. She spoke a lot of Chinese, made a few phone calls, and took us to the street where she put us on a minibus to who knows where!

I wasn't sure where we were going or why, but I was about 35% certain that she the minibus was heading for a place called Emei Shan about an hour away, and that we could take the last bus to Chengdu from there. At least, this was what I hoped.

The bus was a surreal experience. For starters, I am pretty sure that none of the people on the bus had ever seen a westerner before and they were all quite fascinated with us. They were so excited to see the American money I had in my wallet when I went to pay for the ticket and ended up passing it around and talking about it for a good 5 minutes. It was like show and tell haha. Add to this that nearly the entire trip was on unpaved back roads, and there was a tv in the front of the bus with a karaoke machine!!! It was just one of those things you had to see to believe!

When we got to Emei Shan bus station, we ran inside and bought tickets for the last bus (7pm) back to Chengdu. We made it with only 13 minutes to spare!! Just a little more traffic and we would have been stuck there over night!

Needless to say, today was quite an adventure. However, it was one of my favorite days so far of the entire trip. I got to climb on rocks (again!), see some really cool stuff, see great countryside scenery, and go on several bus/minibus adventures - what could be better!

Tonight is going to be pretty chill since we are both so tired, even though it is New Year's Eve. We had dinner at a fast food place called Dico's, which was so so (mainly because my chicken was so raw that it was pink). Tomorrow is a public holiday here, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything will still be open so that we can see a few more sights in Chengdu before we fly to Xi'an tomorrow afternoon.

Chengdu: Home of the Panda!

2007-12-30T09:04:00.000-05:00

Today was our first full day in Chengdu, and it was a great one!!

We got a slow start to the day since we were both really tired from our late flight the night before. But, eventually we made our plans and headed out.

Our first stop via taxi was the Chengdu Giant Panda Research and Breeding Center, which was soooo amazing. We got to see so many pandas and red pandas, and they were all so cute. The red pandas were definately my favorite and I totally would keep one as a pet if I could haha. We had read that there is a place where you can hold the pandas while getting your picture taken, but after looking around for some time, we couldn't find it and gave up. Oh well.

After that, we took a taxi back to our hotel and decided to go to Wuhou Temple. It's really hard to get a taxi around dinner time here for some reason, so I eventually convinced Katie to take a bicycle operated rickshaw with me. I flagged one down and hopped in, assuming we were in for a peaceful stroll through Chengdu. Boy was I wrong though! It was the most stressful and scary thing of our trip so far. I literally thought we were going to be hit by cars, buses, and motorcyles at least 5 times every minute!

Eventually we made it there, but it had already closed. However, there is this cool restored shopping district which was decorated in so many beautiful red lanterns called Jinli Lu. We walked around there, and it was super cool. We also had our first try at eating food from the street vendors! I had some rice cooked in a pineapple, which was delicious, and some spicy fried vegetables, which were so so.

After that, we walked down the street and ate at a hot pot restuarant. Chengdu is famous for its super spicy food, particularly the hot pot, so I was very anxious to try it. The menu was entirely in Chinese, so we basically had to order exclusively by pointing at food at other people's tables, and using our fingers to show how many we wanted. We said we wanted it only medium spicy, but it was by far the spiciest thing I have ever tasted!!! I could only even eat a little bit of it, though it was delicious. The best part is that the whole meal, including 3 huges bottles of beer, was only 84 Yuan or about 11 USD for both of us!!!

Chengdu is such a beautiful city, and there is such a good mix of old and new here. Shanghai is someplace that I could totally live in, but after only one day, Chengdu is someplace that I absolutely want to live in. There's just something really special about it that's impossible to put into words. I just really love it here.

Tonight is going to be an early night for us since we have a busy and early day tomorrow, with short trips to several temples and parks, and a long distance bus ride to Leshan to see the largest Buddha statue in the entire world! I hope it will be another great day!!

"Good Tea Makes Good Friends"

2007-12-29T11:58:00.001-05:00

Today was a very interesting day to say the least. We checked out of our hotel around noon and each went around to explore some more of Shanghai before our evening flight to Chengdu. My plan was to walk along Nanjing Street, take the underwater sightseeing tunnel across the river, visit the Chinese Sex and Culture Museum, Pearl Tower, and Shanghai Museum. Ambitious, but I knew my way around pretty well, so I didn't think there would be any problems...

Nanjing Street was nice, and very different during the day than at night, and I even bought a new coat (mainly just because I had packed my coat in my suitcase thinking it would be warm, only to find out that it was a good bit colder than yesterday.) After that, I made it the underwater sightseeing tunnel without any problems, and headed across the river. The tunnel takes you under the river in little tram cars and the whole tunnel is illuminated to look like several different environments. While I'm sure they built it with the greatest of intentions, it mostly just seemed like a really slow and low tech version of Disney's Space Mountain haha.

Once on the other side, I searched with map in hand for nearly an hour trying to find the Chinese Sex and Culture Museum. Eventually I found it, or at least where it used to be - it appears that they demolished the building and are building a new high-rise at the site. Oh well...

After that, I walked around and took some pictures of the Pearl Tower and then took the tunnel back to the other side to go to the Shanghai Museum. This turned out to be quite a hike, but there was plenty of nice scenery, so I didn't mind. Finally, after about 45 minutes of walking, I reached the entrance to the museum and got my camera out to take a picture of it. However, as I did that, four Chinese people came up to me and asked me to take their photo, which I happily did. After taking their photo, we chatted for a bit, and it turns out that they are from Chengdu and one of them is an English teacher there. They were all very nice and they suggested that I probably wouldn't like the museum very much and offered to let me go with them to a Chinese tea house for a traditional tea ceremony.

This seemed like an excellent opportunity, so I happily accepted. The tea ceremony was quite cool and I was really impressed by all the tradition that is associated with it. We got to try six different teas and the man (Peter) interpretted the whole thing for me. We laughed and exchanged stories and had an overall great time. I liked the tea so much that I bought some (in a really fancy box). Actually, we all did. However, it turned out to be insanely expensive, so I spent way more of my travel budget than I was hoping to today. Oh well...

Once we finished the tea ceremony, we exchanged contact information and I headed to the hotel to meet Katie and then to the airport for my flight to Chengdu. I'm really excited to be here in Chengdu, since I've heard so much about it from my students. We have a pretty fluid itinerary here, but two definate highlights include a trip to see the baby giant pandas and a trip to see the world's tallest Buddha statue in Leshan. I'm so excited!!

I LOVE Shanghai!!

2007-12-28T08:03:00.000-05:00

Today was our first full day in Shanghai, and after a day of exploring, all I can say is that I love this city!!!

I started the day a little late since we didn't get settled into our hotel until about 1:15am last night. After taking a shower and planning out my day, I headed out. My first stop was the Jade Buddha Temple, which was totally awesome. Well, the Buddha statue itself was only so-so (I've seen so many amazing Buddha statues in Thailand that it takes a lot for a statue to impress me at this point), but the grounds of the temple were amazing. There were tons of bonzai shaped trees and wandering alleyways, and the whole place was decorated with red lanterns and ribbons for the upcoming new year.

It was a little crowded, but nowhere near as bad as it would be if we went during the real tourist season. Most of the crowd was actually Chinese people going to worship there - there were very few tourists, so it still had a relaxing feel. I just love going to temples of all kind. It's just such a spiritual feeling for me.

There were of course the usual pushy sales people there, but it didn't seem to be quite as bad as at the places we went in Beijing.

After I finished there, I walked around for a while in that area and saw something that I haven't seen at all since I've arrived in China: blue skys!! It is also much warmer here than in Beijing so it was much more enjoyable to explore here. I probably didn't even need a jacket - just a sweater would have been fine.

The area was full of little shops and restaurants, and I ended up eating at a noodle place that had pretty good food. I ate soo much!! (it's hard to tell what things I'm ordering are side dishes and what are main dishes, so I am constantly ordering way too much) After that, I found a grocery store and bought some cool snacks and food items, and then took a cab to the Yuyuan park/shopping area.

This place was just awesome! It's part shopping mall and part park. But the shopping area was just amazing to walk around in, as it was all constructed to appear like a Chinese temple. The park was even more breathtaking and was pretty free from tourists which made it quite relaxing. I took a ton of pictures!!

After that, I walked around some more. I won't say I got lost, since you can't get lost if you don't have a destination in mind. But I definately had no idea where I was haha. After a while though, I was able to get a general idea of where I was and decided to walk down to this area called the Bund near the river for dinner and sight seeing.

Somehow however, I ended up at the docks. And since I was there, I decided to take a cruise of the river. It was so awesome! The sun had already set, so all of the buildings in the bund and the skyscrapers were lit up, including the famous Pearl TV Tower. It was pretty breathtaking, and I felt really lucky to have accidentally stumbled upon this opportunity. Once again, I took a ton of pictures! (302 to be exact haha)

After the cruise was over, I realized that the boat dropped us off at a totally different spot than where I had got on it. I really had no idea of where I was and tried unsucessfully to get a taxi. So, I got out my map and realized that I wasn't really that far from my hotel, so I decided to walk and grab something to eat on the way back.

Well, not only did I find the hotel, but I also found this Las Vegas Strip-esque street just a block away that is essentially a huge neon light-filled open air shopping market. There were so many neon sights that I thought I was in Tokyo haha. I walked around there, grabbed something to eat, and then came back to the hotel to have a swim and a steam. I am so relaxed now!

Today was probably my favorite day of the trip so far. Not only did I see some pretty amazing things, but I also travelled by myself all day, so I got to do exactly what I wanted to do and at my own pace - I am totally a solo traveller! Shanghai is so different than Beijing (or at the least the parts that I saw of it). Parts are wildly modern, but other parts right next door seem centuries old and full of tradition and history. Things seem more orderly here, the driving is less insane, and there is definately less polution. I like this place a lot!

What a great day!

(Tomorrow, I will explore some more in Shanghai and then fly to Chengdu in the evening. I only hope that tomorrow is half as good as today was!)

Summer Palace

2007-12-27T13:30:00.000-05:00

Today was our last full day in Beijing, but we were both still pretty tired from hiking on the Great Wall yesterday, so we decided to have a leisurely morning in the hotel and then head to the Summer Palace for the afternoon.

It was sad to leave the Ritz Carlton - I miss it already haha. But after we checked out, we went to a Japanese noodle restaurant for lunch. (I had miso soup, curry pork, and some chocolate covered/stuffed frozen strawberries - all very delicous) From there, we caught a taxi and headed to the Summer Palace, which was a good 45 minutes away.

Unlike most of the cab drivers we've encountered, this guy was actually really friendly and tried really hard to chat with us in English for a while. Of course, this turned out to be all a ploy to get us to hire him to be our guide/interpreter for the day...sigh. The constant pushy sales tactics here geared for tourists are really off-putting. In fact, as I got out of the taxi at the Summer Palace, I was immediately accosted by three men trying to sell me souveniers - one even put a souvenier hat on my head and tried to make me buy it!

Anyway, upon first impression, the Summer Palace didn't seem like anything too special. But boy was I wrong! It turns out that it is this HUGE park filled with amazing structures, trees that are hundreds of years old, ancient ruins, and a gigantic lake! It was definately a highlight of our trip so far. I especially liked the parts of the grounds that had all of these awesome pagoda like structures built into the side of a rocky mountain that we actually got to hike and climb. I think I somehow wandered someplace I wasn't supposed to also and ended up surrounded by these treacherous ruins of former structures that were destroyed during the anglo-french invasion, on this cliff overlooking a snow/ice filled riverbed. There was nobody else there, and it was just the perfect chance to spend some time out in nature. It made me really happy :) It was sort of an oasis from the craziness that is happening all around it in Beijing.

Unfortunately, Katie and I had our first big fight today, and it was a real doozie! While normally I wouldn't describe myself as the most macho of guys, every once in a while I guess I get a big burst of testosterone or something that makes me want to do really manly things like paint houses, watch sports, drink beer, and build things. And it turns out that today was one of those days. As soon as I saw all the rocks and hills and ruins, I became like a 7 year old boy and just wanted to run around and play on them - and I did. This made Katie pretty mad :(

In reality, we've both just spent too much time together during the past week so little things are starting to get on each other's nerves. Plus, I'm sure that the culture shock isn't helping either. Eh...we were bound to fight eventually haha.

Anyway, after we were done with that, we had a few more taxi adventures while trying to find a place to eat dinner and ended up only having time to quickly grab some McDonalds. Then we headed to the airport and took our flight (which was delayed for 2 hours) to Shanghai.

The flight was pretty nice (and short) and a woman and little girl sat next to me that spoke decent English and wanted to chat with me, which was a delight and definately helped pass the time.

Our hotel in Shanghai is pretty nice, but it definately isn't the Ritz Carlton haha. Actually, it almost wasn't even our hotel, since the taxi driver accidentally dropped us off at a totally different hotel haha.

Tomorrow, we will explore Shanghai (seperately) and I hope it will be a really fun day. Here are some pictures of the Summer Palace:

Country Road, Take Me Home...

2007-12-26T19:47:00.000-05:00

I woke up this morning and was thinking about how cool it was to go to the Great Wall yesterday. I also was thinking of all of the quite country roads that we drove on to get there and it made me think about how nice it would be to live in a quiet place like that. People were riding their bicycles everywhere and there were children playing and dogs barking and a feeling of general happiness in the faces of the people we passed.

It seems that no matter how old I get, I still can not balance my desire to lead a quiet and simple life like that or to have a super stressful and successful career. Even now, when I have found what I think to be the perfect career for me and am quite happy with how things are going in my life, there's still a huge part of me that just wants to pack up and go be a farmer on my friend's green tea farm in Japan. I really wish I could just take a peek about 25 years into the future and see which path I finally end up choosing, so I could just go ahead and do it now and stop always feeling so conflicted about it haha.

Sigh...

Good News!

2007-12-26T19:45:00.000-05:00

Today marks day 7 that Katie and I have spent together on our trip, and we haven't killed each other yet!! In fact, we have been getting along quite well and haven't even had our first big fight yet. (we almost had a little one on Tuesday night, but I think we both quickly realized it would have been a bad idea.) When we are at work and we get on each other's nerves, we can just close the door between our two offices, but since we are sharing the same hotel rooms here, closing the door only keeps us together longer haha.

Beijing, Day 2: Great Wall MADNESS!!!

2007-12-26T07:45:00.000-05:00

Today was quite an adventure!! We booked a private car/driver and English speaking tour guide last night to take us to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall today. We thought we booked it for a great price, but boy did we end up paying for it today!!

Our guide "Sofie" picked us up at our hotel around 10am and took us to the car parked across the street. We should have known when we saw the light blue piece of crap 1970s car that this was a bad idea. But, we decided to be brave and got in anyway. (FYI, the seats were lined with floral patio furniture cushions!)

Once we got in the car, our guide made small talk with us (Katie wanted no part of that), but it was quickly evident that "English speaking" really meant only that she had memorized a few key facts about Beijing in English. Oh well - no big deal. We told her that we wanted to go to Mutianyu and to the Ming Tombs (which she arranged last night), but she said that first we would go to some Jade gallery and then to Mutianyu, and then to the Ming Tombs only if there is time.

We were a little annoyed by this, since we figured that the Jade gallery was going to be some tourist trap where foreigners were heavily pressured to buy overpriced souveniers - and we were totally right! We arrived at the gallery and were told that she had arranged for us to have a special English speaking guide. However, this really meant that we had an English speaking sales woman. I was a good sport though and listened to the sales pitch and browsed around for a bit before telling our guide that we were ready to go. BUT....

When we told her that we wanted to go, she said "No. You can't go yet." WHAT??? I asked for clarification and she told us to keep shopping and that the car wouldn't be back for another 35 minutes. (This was a lie - the car was in the parking lot the whole time) Katie and I didn't quite know what to do - we were basically being held there against our will and attacked by high pressure sales ladies everywhere we turned. We weren't sure if we had to buy something to leave or what was going on.

Finally, after the super long 35 minutes had passed, we went back to our guide and told her again that we wanted to leave. She begrudgingly took us outside of the store and sure enough, there was the car- in the same spot it was before!

Thank goodness - we were finally free!

Anyway, with that adventure over, we were totally skeptical about getting back in the car - but we were kind of in the middle of nowhere and had no choice. So, we got in and headed to the Great Wall.

This would have been fine if the driver didn't drive at like 100mph and if traffic rules actually existed in Beijing. Seriously, driving here is just so crazy that words don't come close to explaining it. Driving is literally like playing a game of frogger, with bikes and people and cars coming at you from all sides. Lanes are also suggestions only too...with upwards of 2.5 cars or more squeezing in to one lane at a time! I was about ready to hurl from car sickness by the time we got there.

But, we finally got there, and boy was it worth it! We told our guide that she could wait in the car, and we headed up to the top. It's really high up, so we had to take this delapidated ski lift to get up there (made complicated by the fact that there were no English directions about what to do). We were pretty sure that we were going to fall off and plummet to our death, but we eventually made it to the top.

Walking along the Great Wall is definately one of the high points of my entire life! It was one of those surreal moments when I had to pause and say "whoa! we are actually standing on the Great Wall of China - how cool is that!!" Parts of the walk were quite a hike - and soo steep! (I put pictures below)

We walked around for about an hour and a half and took lots of pictures, and then had to take a luge down to the bottom! Total count so far of how many times we almost died today:

Crazy driver in the death trap of a car
Being held captive against our will at the Jade Gallery
Almost plummeting off of the ski lift
Almost falling on the steep steps of the Great Wall (times 8)
Taking the luge of death to bottom

But, we weren't almost dying yet! We still had the drive back! (during which, the car stalled twice, and the battery light kept coming on!)

Our guide at this point told us that there wasn't time to go to the Ming Tombs (which we were totally okay with) but that we could go to see the Olympic buildings. So, we said okay, and our guide took off like a maniac down the highway!! We literally came within inches of hitting small animals, small children, bikes, adults, and many other cars about every 5 minutes. Katie and I just kept looking at each other in pure terror!

Finally, our guide pointed out the Olympic stadium on the side of the highway (which we could barely even see because of the incredible amount of smog and polution in the air) and we thought that was it. BUT no...to our amazement, the driver actually stopped on the side of the highway and made us to get out next to the crazy cars to take pictures! We thought we going to be roadkill!

Anyway, after that near death experience, we told them to just take us home as fast as possible. I've never been so happy to see a hotel in my entire life!!!! (or to be out of a car) We payed the driver and headed inside.

The rest of the night has been pretty low key and has been totally geared at helping us recover from the craziness of the day. We went to a Japanese restaurant and had sushi, went to Starbucks to get coffee, and then came back to the hotel so Katie could get a pedicure and I could go for a swim/steam/sauna/massage. After all that, I feel so relaxed now, and I never want to leave this hotel! The Ritz Carlton is by far the best hotel I've ever stayed at, and if I had my way, I would cancel the rest of our trip plans and just stay here and get massages all day haha!

But, tomorrow, we are heading to the Summer Palace, and then leaving Beijing and heading to Shanghai. Hopefully tomorrow will be less of a harrowing experience than today was!

Here are some pics:

Beijing, Day 1

2007-12-25T05:54:00.000-05:00

Today was our first full day in Beijing, and it was a busy day at that! We started off pretty early, since neither of us slept late due to the time difference, and headed downstairs for breakfast. The breakfast at the hotel was so delicious, and consisted of dim sum, pastries, fruits, and western style breakfast items.

Our first stop of the day was the Forbidden City, and it's definately named that for a reason - because it's GIGANTIC like a mini city. We spent several hours wandering around there and checking out all the buildings and gardens. Each building has a name, such as the Hall of Cumulative Purity - but the names seem to have nothing to do with what is actually inside of the buildings. The whole place was amazing, and after walking around for so long there, my feet are killing me!! Oh - one really strange/interesting thing is that several Chinese people actually came up and asked to take pictures WITH me!

After that, we walked to Tianeman Square and took some pictures and got approached by about a zillion tour guides trying to sell us tours to the Great Wall (which we are going to do tomorrow). I didn't mind talking with them, but some of them were annoyingly pushy.

Once we finished there, we searched for a really long time for a place to eat lunch and eventually found a little restaurant a few blocks away. This was our first time eating at a restaurant in the city, so we were both a little nervous. But ultimately, it was totally fine and we ordered without any problems. In fact, the waitresses were all giddy and acting like school girls actually fighting to get to take my order. Apparently I am hot stuff here in China - who knew?!

For lunch, I had a pretty interesting meal:

rice
steamed pumpkin cakes
candied potato wedges
donkey and scallion stir fry

Yep...I ate DONKEY for lunch!!! It was actually quite tasty too! (It kind of freaked Katie out a little though haha) Lunch made me think of the Donkey from Shrek haha

Once we finished lunch, I had my first terrifying experience in the super gross public restrooms here, and then we took a taxi to the Temple of Heaven. By the time we got there, the temple buildings were already closed, but we were still allowed to go into the huge park and look at the outside of them.

By this point in the day, we were both pretty tired and it was getting quite cold, so this was fine for us. The grounds were amazing and filled with these strange bendy trees, which looked so eerie in the fog/smog. We walked around and saw most of the sights, but as the sun quickly set, we suddenly found ourselves completely in the dark in the spooky woods in China! To be honest, it was more than a little creepy, and we hauled ass to get out of there as quickly as possible, and then took a taxi back to our hotel. The whole thing made me think of the spooky forest from Harry Potter haha.

We are both pretty tired at this point, so I don't know that we'll do too much tonight, but so far, we are having a great time and haven't gotten on each other's nerves too bad yet. Beijing is a cool place so far despite the terrible smog and the traffic rules that seem to be more of suggestions here and make even riding in a taxi a near death experience. In fact, the language barrier hasn't even been that bad!

Anyway, here are some pictures from today:

Christmas in Beijing

2007-12-24T10:55:00.000-05:00

I'm in China!!!!

Getting here was quite a journey - 13.5 hours to be exact. And Air China definately didn't impress me either.

At this point in my life, I consider myself to be a seasoned traveller, and I've flown on most of the major transpacific carriers. Because of this, I go into these long haul flights with pretty high expectations - most of which Air China didn't meet. Don't get me wrong, the flight was fine and the food wasn't too bad. It just wasn't great either. There were no tv screens in the back of the seats, which is pretty standard now on flights of this length, and the flight attendents were a little rude at times and were really stingy with the drinks.

I miss Japan Airlines!!!!

It wasn't all bad though: There was a really hot male flight attendant in my section! :)

So, eye candy aside, everything is going pretty well here so far. We went through customs and immigration fine, and made it to our hotel with hardly any problems. Speaking of our hotel, it is freaking amazing!! I've never stayed at a Ritz-Carlton before, but I can easily see what all the hype is about. Some room highlights include:

All marble bathroom complete with TV
Frosted glass shower/toilet area that you just have to see to believe
Huge bathtub with spa kit
Huge flat screen tv
The most comfortable bed ever
Fresh flowers
Chocolate truffles on the bed
Curtains that are operated by remote control!

It's just amazing, and will definately be one of the high points of the trip. However, after getting up to the room, it suddenly dawned on me that Katie and I are going to be together basically 24 hours a day for the next two weeks with little to no privacy! I think it'll be fine, but I tend to be a pretty private person, and getting alone time is important to me - so we'll have to see how it goes.

Anyway, tomorrow is our first full day of sight seeing. I can't really remember where it is that we are going exactly, but I'll write about it and post pictures tomorrow night. (the language barrier is already an issue, so tomorrow should be interesting. I keep wanting to speak Japanese to everyone - I really wish I learned more than just how to say hello and thank you in Mandarin haha)

Oh yeah, and it's Christmas here now - so merry Christmas everyone.

Cheers!

Snow, China, and a New Tattoo!

2007-12-18T21:53:00.000-05:00

Wow – it’s been a long time since I’ve posted a blog! I have some pretty cool things to share though…

I guess the first piece of excitement is that over the past few days, I’ve seen more snow than I have ever seen in my entire life. We got nearly 2 feet of snow in less than a week!!! Most everything is still covered in a ton of snow and it looks really pretty – but winter doesn’t even officially start until Friday!

The next piece of exciting news is that as of Friday afternoon, I am officially on vacation until January 6th!!! AND, I’m not just wasting the time here in Worcester – I’m going on a 14 day adventure trip to China!!!!!!! I’m traveling with my friend/coworker Katie, and we are going to Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Leshan, Xi’an, and Luoyuang! Best of all, we are staying in the Ritz Carlton while we are there!!!!! I can’t wait!

The final piece of excitement happened today – just a few hours ago to be specific. As those of you that read my blog frequently or know me well know, the past year since I’ve come home from Japan has been really difficult for me. I’ve struggled with everything from depression, to regretting my decision to come home, to confusion over what type of job I should be doing, to dating difficulties, to general unhappiness with several aspects of my life here in Worcester. But, after a lot of reflection and hard work, I can finally say that I’ve made me peace with the whole experience and am in a very good and happy place in my life now.

To bring closure to everything and to mark this milestone in my life, I decided to commemorate the occasion by getting a new tattoo – my 4th and largest. I originally had the appointment scheduled for the actual anniversary date – last Thursday, but it got rescheduled to today because of all the snow last week. My appointment this afternoon lasted nearly 6 hours, and hurt like a ******, but it was all worth it. And the finished product, a half sleeve on my left arm, is totally awesome. Here are some pictures of it. (my arm is still really swollen and red – I’ll post better pictures when it’s all healed up)

Past few weeks

2007-11-11T22:46:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted anything in a while, but the past few weeks have been quite eventful. Here are some of the big things that happened:

I'm still dating someone, and he's pretty wonderful. New relationships are the best!
My new iPod broke. Luckily, I called Apple customer service and they sent me a brand new one in less than a week. Talk about great customer service! - well I guess better customer service would have been if they sold me a product that never broke in the first place, but whatever.
My office computer had a "fatal hard drive error" and I lost most of my files :( That was a sad day.
My friend/coworker and I bought tickets to go to China during winter vacation! We'll be there from Dec. 23 - Jan. 4. I'm so excited!!
I injured some muscles in my back pretty badly a week or so ago and spent literally 4 whole days laying on my back because I couldn't move at all without being in agonizing pain. Thank goodness for Icy Hot, Doan's, and Motrin.
I impulsively drove for nearly 2 hours to Foxwoods Casino at 10pm last night with one of my friends. I love slot machines, especially the Wheel of Fortune game!!! But unfortunately, they love me too, and I lost all the money I played with.

At any rate, things have been really good lately. I've made some big changes, and much to my surprise, I've actually become really glad that I stayed here and didn't take the job in San Francisco. Dare I say it, I'm actually pretty happy here now.

Sushi Lesson

2007-10-21T17:17:00.000-04:00

Today, two of my friends took me to my favorite restaurant for the sushi lesson that they got me for my birthday. It was so much fun, and making sushi is definately more difficult than it looks. Well, making sushi is actually very easy. Making sushi that actually looks good and is appetizing on the other hand is really difficult.

At any rate, I got to actually go behind the counter and wear a chef's shirt and make all of the sushi that me and my friends ordered. We had tuna and salmon sashimi, edamome, spicy tuna rolls, spicy yellow tail rolls, tiger eye rolls, and dragon eel rolls.

It was so much food and I wasn't sure that I could even eat it all. But it was so delicious and I managed to finish it. (well, Amy had a few pieces to help me out too haha)

After lunch, the owner made me a special banana dessert with a candle in it for my birthday. It was so delicious, and was covered in this sugar and butter sauce. And as we all know, sugar and butter are two of my favorite things!

I'm so full now, but this was so much fun! What a great present!

There's nothing quite like...

2007-10-13T22:20:00.000-04:00

... a really great first date.

Two Sites You Should Know About

2007-10-12T07:29:00.001-04:00

There are two websites that I've discovered recently that are really awesome and worth sharing.

The first is Post Secret. For those of you that may not have heard about it, Post Secret began as an art project that allowed people to annonymously share personal and intimate secrets through postcards. It has since grown and become very popular. There are several books available where you can look at the postcards and the secrets. You can also go to http://postsecret.blogspot.com/ to see some of the postcards/secrets as well. Some of them are really creative, some are really moving, and others are just really strange. But, it's defintely worth checking out.

The other website that I want to share is KIVA.ORG. KIVA is an online community that matches people in developing nations that are in need of small loans to develop and expand their businesses, with sponsors in developed nations. KIVA is not about giving donations. Rather, KIVA utilizes the micro loan concept made popular by Muhammad Yunus, who won the Nobel Prize for his work with the concept in Bangladesh. Sponsors are able to browse through the profiles and business plans of all of the people requesting loans, and then help fund one or more people with contributions as low as $25. The loans are generally repaid monthly with repayment terms of 6-12 months. I think that this is a really easy way to make a big difference in a family's life, so check it out.

Old Minus Four

2007-10-08T22:59:00.000-04:00

Today was my 26th birthday. 26 ---- so old!!! Sigh…

Normally, I hate my birthday. I’m happy to celebrate other people’s birthdays, but mine always just suck. Something bad always seems to happen (ie my parents getting the day wrong or forgetting all together, my significant other spending the day with his ex-girlfriend instead of me, etc…). So, I never make a big deal out of it, and when possible, I even prefer to go on vacation to just avoid the whole day all together.

But, I woke up today and decided to change my whole outlook and think positively that maybe today would be really great. And it worked: today turned out to be a really nice day. A lot of my friends and family wished me happy birthday, my coworkers took me out to lunch, and my friends had a nice dinner for me. I had a really easy and fun day at work for a change, and I got a really cool birthday present: two of my friends arranged for me to get a private lesson on how to make sushi at my favorite Japanese restaurant. How cool is that?! I’m really excited!

And after feeling so sure that my parents had once again forgotten my birthday, they actually came through and sent me a happy birthday email a few minutes ago!

So, all in all, today was actually a pretty great birthday. Thanks everyone!! *o*

And even though people have been making fun of how old I am now all day, I’m actually pretty excited to turn 26. After all, 25 was a pretty shitty year for me, so being 26 is bound to be better, right?! *o*

New iPod!

2007-10-07T18:09:00.000-04:00

So after a long and tiring week, I decided to reward myself with a little present: a new iPod!!!!

I was having a hard time deciding between the Classic, Nano, and iTouch, but ultimately I decided to go with the new Classic. And I LOVE it!!!!!

Today

2007-10-04T00:14:00.001-04:00

I've been feeling really down yesterday and today: I have such high expectations for myself, but I feel like I've been falling short of those in a number of ways lately. If I were a stronger and less fearful person, today would have been the day that I flew out to SF for my final interview and probably would have come home with a job offer. Instead, today was the day that I took off from work and laid around in my pajamas, watched tv, shopped online, and cleaned my bathroom. Sigh...

But at least one good thing happened today: Hung was declared the winner of Top Chef. (did I call it or what?!) I'm not really sure why I was rooting for him so much, but I'm really glad that he won. He got such a bad rap from people - nearly every blog I read and person I talked to thought that he was a jerk and an a** hole. But no matter what people think, he's a hell of a chef and totally deserves to win.

Big decision

2007-10-01T23:02:00.000-04:00

Several weeks ago, I applied for a really great position at a university on the west coast. This position seemed to be my dream job and was in the perfect location, so I was very excited. It's no secret that I'm not super happy or satisfied here on a variety of levels, so when I received a call 2 weeks ago offering me a telephone interview, I was even more excited.

The interview went well, but the position is very competitive, so I wasn't expecting much. Therefore, I was even more surprised when I received another phone call last Wednesday informing me that I was the finalist for the position and that they would like me to fly there this week for one last short interview before offering me the job. I was extatic to say the least!

However, something didn't feel right. In fact, I spent the past several days feeling stressed and afraid of everything that taking this job would entail: leaving my current position, apartment, and friends, using all my savings to move clear across the country, finding a new (much smaller and more expensive) apartment, making all new friends and leaving my current ones behind...again, buying all new furniture, starting a new job where I'd be the "new guy," adapting to a different quality of life, etc... It's not that I can't do all these things - I've done them all before...several times. But the more I thought about all of these things, the more my dream job seemed less and less perfect. In fact, it made me realize that it comes with some pretty major drawbacks. Most importantly though, my gut was telling me that taking it would be the wrong choice. It's the same feeling that I had when I got on the plane to leave Japan last year, and I've regretted that decision for the past 10 months. So, if there's one thing I've learned this year, it's to trust my instincts.

So, this afternoon, I cancelled my plane ticket for Wednesday and notified the university that I am removing myself from consideration for the position.

This is a pretty huge decision for me, but I'm proud that I was able to think it through in a really rational way. It's also a pretty shocking decision - I never would have expected that this would happen. I'm still in shock that I was even offered an interview! Hopefully this isn't something that I'll end up regretting...

But, there is one really good thing that is coming out of this. Because the job required me to have a driver's license, I have finally started to learn how to drive! I got my learner's permit (yep...at almost 26 years old!) and have been taking driving lessons for the past two weeks. My drivers test is scheduled for Oct. 26, so I have my work cut out for me. But, I'm confident I'll be able to pass. So, although I may not be moving and ending up with my dream job, I am conquering my fear of driving. And I really do believe that getting my license and a car will change my life and open more doors for me professionally, socially, and romantically than I could ever dream of. So, wish me luck! And stay off the road... haha

Really great day!

2007-09-27T07:29:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a really great day!

First, I got some really great news. Unfortunately, I can't write about it on here....yet.

Then, something that I was really worried about at work went really well. Talking about work is boring though, so I'll leave that at that.

And finally, Hung made it through to the second part of the finale on Top Chef!

I seriously am on a TV high this week - all the new episodes of Heroes, SVU, Top Chef, Private Practice, Grey's Anatomy, the Office, Desperate Housewives, Brothers and Sisters... It's all just too much for me! I'm on new TV overload!

Moon Cake Madness

2007-09-24T20:18:00.000-04:00

Apparently in China, there is a famous festival at this time of year about the moon (today actually). And during this time, everyone eats these special cakes called moon cakes.

During a program that I facilitated at work last Friday, a bunch of my students from China told me about this festival, and since they know that I can cook pretty well, challenged me to make the cakes for next Friday's session.

It seemed easy enough, so I said "sure!"

Well, it turns out that these cakes are incredibly complicated to make, and most people just buy them from the store because they are so complicated! Regardless, I never back down from a challenge! So, I went online and found some recipes, and headed down to the Asian grocery store to buy some special ingredients.

The things I do for my students! Not only did I brave the dangerous streets of Worcester, but I also actually walked into a store and uttered the words: "Excuse me ma'am. Could you please tell me where the sweet red bean paste and salty duck eggs preserved in mud are?" (FYI, the woman's words told me where they were, but her eyes said "silly white boy...the Gap is over there!) haha

Anyway, I tried a test batch tonight to see how they come out before I serve them to people on Friday.

Preserved duck egg (for the center of the moon cake)

Preserved duck egg yolk - looks kind of like an eye ball

Actual moon cake I bought from the store.

And this is the moon cake that I cooked. As you can see, mine came out looking more like a muffin than a cake. But the taste is pretty much the same.

Anyway, I'm going to refine my techniques and try again later in the week. Either way, both versions taste really good!

test results

2007-09-24T17:44:00.000-04:00

Well, the lab results from the 11 blood tests I took a few weeks ago for my black eye problem came in the mail today.

Everything is normal, except the doctor thinks that I "may have an allergy to milk." He suggested the I avoid milk and see if it goes away.

Well, I know that I'm allergic to milk. I've been allergic since I was a baby, and I haven't had a glass of milk since I was a child. I'm careful about avoiding dairy products, and I only have a little when I do eat them. And most importantly, I told my doctor all this when I went to see him!

Thus, clearly, my allergy to milk is not the problem!!

Oh well...I guess I may never know what caused it. At least it hasn't happened since.

Good week

2007-09-23T22:28:00.000-04:00

Last week was pretty terrible.

I just really hope that this week will be better.

P-Town

2007-09-23T13:49:00.001-04:00

Yesterday, I co-chaperoned a student trip to Provincetown. For those of you that may not know, Provincetown is a resort town on the far tip of Cape Cod, and is home primarily to rich people, gay and lesbian couples, and their dogs.

I’d never been to P-town before, and based on stories I’ve heard and pictures I’ve seen, I was totally expecting to open the van door and be surrounded by thousands of tanned and toned shirtless hedonistic gay men frolicking on the beach. Not so much the case though. Actually, P-town was just this cute little town by the beach with lots of shops, restaurants, bed and breakfast type inns, tons of older gay and lesbian couples, and a handful of foreign tourists that appeared confused and probably got on the wrong tour bus by accident.

I had a really nice time and ate at some really great restaurants (I LOVE lobster!!), went shopping, relaxed on the beach, and even got winked at a few times. But for some reason, as I walked around there, I felt strangely out of place. There are so many stereotypes of gay men, both good and bad: neat, organized, fashionable, etc… And as I spent the day in P-town, I saw all of them. The thing is though, that as a gay or bi or whatever-my-sexual-orientation-du-jour-is man, I don’t really fit into any of them. I’m just this messy, laid back, lazy guy that can barely dress himself and couldn’t dance to save his life. Of course, stereotypes are just stereotypes, and everyone is different. But it was interesting that I felt like such an outsider in a community that I theoretically should have felt right at home in.

Yay! It's fall!

2007-09-15T16:27:00.000-04:00

This week really has been filled with some pretty drastic ups and downs. One of the “ups” is super top secret for now, but some definite downs include black eyes and blood tests! One other “up” for the week is definately the beautiful fall weather!

Autumn is by far my favorite season: temperatures in the 70s, the return of sweaters, beautifully colored leaves, Stove Top Stuffing, pumpkin pie, apple pie, sweet potato pie, pie in general… What’s not to love!

But, this newfound fall weather is making me really miss living in Japan. It’s hard to explain why exactly, but there is something really special to me about this time of year, and I remember autumn in Japan most fondly of all:

Riding the train and looking at all the leaves changing color through the windows;
Relaxing in onsens and watching steam rise off the warm water;
Riding my bicycle through the crisp country air;
Hot drinks and pizza man from the convenience stores;
Sitting under my kotatsu and eating soup to warm up after being outside;
Christmas “illuminations” at Nagoya station;

Thinking about these things makes me happy. Even 9 months later, there’s such a huge part of me that still wants to just pack up, flee my hectic schedule, and live a simple life there teaching English. Sigh… Why do I always realize I’m happy after the fact??

Anyway, I was listening to a mix CD that someone I once dated had made for me and I heard a song that I really liked. It’s strange: listening to this CD, it seems that in the one or two months that we dated, this person somehow got to know the real me better than maybe anyone else I’ve ever met. At any rate, the song is by Natasha Bedingfield and is called “Wild Horses.” It's as if the song is written about me: the metaphor she uses describes me so perfectly! Listen:

Top Chef Scandal!!

2007-09-14T07:26:00.000-04:00

So at the end of Top Chef, it says that the judges consult with the Bravo production team when making decisions. But, check out this tidbit from an interview with CJ (who was kicked off on Wednesday for serving some bad brocolini) from the online blog Grub Street:

So what happened with that broccolini? How could you send something like that out to the judges?

Well, I didn’t blanch it very much. I knew it had to go in those weird ovens and I didn’t want it to get overcooked. But they did, and looked bad, so I didn’t want to send them out. I said, “I’m not sending these out.” But they said, "You have to send them out."

Who did?

I can’t tell you specifically. But it was production. I said, “I lose if I send these out,” and I did. In retrospect I should have said, "Screw you," but I did send it out so it is my fault.

HMMMM....That's dissapointing to hear. I guess it makes for better TV, but it makes my favorite show a lot less credible.

trip to the hospital

2007-09-13T16:47:00.000-04:00

Today I went to see a specialist at the hospital about the problem I've been having with my random black eyes and other symptoms.

I have to admit that I'm pretty afraid of hospitals for some reason, and I've only actually been once that I can remember. (I spent several months in one as a child I'm told, but I was too young to remember)

At any rate, I went fully expecting to open the doors and step into a scene straight out of ER or Grey's Anatomy: not the case though! It was this quite building with an atrium in the middle and even a food court! If there were a Gap and a Banana Republic, it'd have been like going to the mall!

Anyway, I went to see the doctor and he was really nice and helpful. He couldn't tell me exactly what is causing the problem and admitted that we may never find out. But he gave me some medicine to try to prevent it from happening again and also prescribed an epipen in case the swelling were to move to my tongue or throat somehow.

He also made me do some blood tests. 11 BLOOD TESTS!!!!!! It was just so much blood, and I was so worried that I was going to pass out. Luckily I didn't...but I was feeling pretty light headed for a while towards the end. (they gave me some cookies, which made me happy :)

At any rate, I'll find out the results in about a week (hopefully they will all be good!!). Keep your fingers crossed!

Boo to TV this week

2007-09-12T23:13:00.000-04:00

TV is making me mad this week, and here's why:

1) I'm a super routine oriented person. Almost every weeknight, I am in bed at a certain time, and I've developed a routine of what shows I watch with the sleep timer on while I'm falling asleep. Things were going great all year ...until some idiot on the CW decided to replace the two shows I normally watch with the Family Guy and Everybody Loves Raymond.

Well, frankly: I don't love Raymond. .And I HATE Family Guy! ...And there is absolutely nothing else good on TV at this time slot.

Grrr.... So frustrating...

2) The judges on Top Chef are crizazy! For the second week in a row, they've eliminated people for really lame reasons, when others were more deserving of going home. This week, the judges eliminated CJ because he served some bad brocolini (not really even sure what that is). Okay...I get how serving a bad side dish could be grounds for getting kicked off. But, Dale forgot to cook enough food for everyone and didn't even serve one of his guests! How is some bad brocolini worse than forgetting to feed someone? Sigh...

It's starting to get good though: only 5 left. (Hung, Sarah, Casey, Dale, and Brian) I still think Hung is going to win, but I'm predicting that Casey and Brian will also make it to the finale. We'll see... On October 3!!!

3) The new season of TV shows seems to start later and later every year! There is such garbage on TV lately and I can't wait for my shows to finally start up again!

Heroes: September 24th
Grey's Anatomy: September 27th

I can't wait!!!!

My black eye came back... :(

2007-09-10T15:12:00.000-04:00

So what the **** is wrong with my eye? For the 7th time in less than 3 months, I've woken up and had a black eye!!! I didn't even go to class this morning because it was so embarassing!

This is literally the worst picture of me ever, but look at how bad my eye looks! I'm going to the doctor tomorrow, so hopefully he can fix whatever is wrong. Sigh...

Goals Update

2007-09-03T22:38:00.000-04:00

Just over a month ago, I posted a blog about some goals that I have for the rest of the year. So, in the spirit of accountability and progress, here are some updates:

Be able to carry on a basic conversation in American Sign Language - I have my first class on Wednesday after work!

See another cast of Rodin’s Le Penseur (the Thinker) sculpture - eh, decided to buy a new iPod instead. *o*

Get into better shape - Bought a home gym and have been working out 3-4 times a week ever since. I can already see some results! (now if only I stopped eating everything in sight!)

Double my circle of friends - Workin' on it. A plan has been put into motion.... (Details to come)

Learn how to prepare sushi - Not yet, but I'm having it for dinner tomorrow.

Introduce someone as my boyfriend or girlfriend - Not yet, but I'm working on it tomorrow over dinner ;)

Learn how to play늦게 핀 사랑 on the violin - gave up on this one. Seriously...who has time?!

Continue Learning Japanese - I started taking classes three times a week before work last week!

Design and get my next tattoo - I've almost settled on a design and location. It's going to be much bigger than my others though, so I'm taking longer to decide on this one. Look for a picture of it in a couple of weeks! It's gonna be hot!

Okay, that's all.

Why do weekends have to end??

2007-09-03T22:07:00.000-04:00

So, after a very long 33 day stretch, I finally had a weekend off! Who knew that simply not going to work could feel so darn good?!

And how sad for me: most people get excited to go on vacation or go to parties and special events. I on the other hand get excited to simply have a 24 hour period in which I don't have to work or be on-call. Sigh...

Anyway... Only 2 more days until the new iPods are released!

Whale Watching

2007-09-01T21:53:00.000-04:00

So yesterday, instead of going to work (aka what would have been day 33), our supervisor took us all on surprise road trip to show her appreciation for everything that we've done.
We weren't entirely sure where we were going. All we knew was that we had to be there by 10am. So, we all hopped into the cars around 8am and headed east towards Boston.

At about 9:45, we arrived at our destination, which turned out to be a dock where a really big boat was waiting to take us on a whale watching trip! Now, I had never been whale watching before, so I was pretty excited. But, I was also a little nervous to go out on the boat because I tend to get sea sick pretty easily.

Luckily, one of my coworkers had some Dramamine, so I took some, and didn't ever feel too bad. (though there were a few tense moments) And the snack bar had the BEST hot dogs and soft pretzels!

We travelled really fast out to sea for about an hour and then stopped somewhere in the middle of a whale feeding ground. Almost as soon as we stopped, the guide pointed out a whale named Valley, on the left side of the boat. Soon after, we saw a second humpback whale, which turned out to be Valley's child. We watched them for about a half hour, before heading back. It was really cool, and they are sooo huge up close. I tried to take some good pictures, but they all kinda suck.

The whole time we were whale watching, I kept thinking about Margaret Cho's stand up bit about whale watching, so I posted it below. She's freaken hillarious, so check it out.

Day 30 and a new iPod!?

2007-08-28T22:14:00.001-04:00

Today marks the 30th day in a row that I have worked without a day off! Only 3 more days to go...the end is finally in sight!!!!!!!!

And after all this hard work, I think a present is in order. Perfect timing: Apple is rumored to be releasing a new iPod next week! I can't wait!

After that, the rest of the year is going to be all about saving money. ...but for good reason...

A student again...

2007-08-26T15:23:00.000-04:00

As of tomorrow, I'm officially a student again!

I'm not part of a degree program, but I am taking two undergraduate classes for fun and to keep my mind fresh (Japanese and American Sign Language).

I'm such a nerd...

Next stop: second master's degree and a phd!

My Celebrity Lookalike

2007-08-25T21:24:00.000-04:00

Apparently, I have a B-list celebrity lookalike. His name is Shia LaBeouf and he was in the movie Transformers.

He also apparently shops at the Gap, cause I have the exact same shirt, and used to date Alexis Bledel from Gilmore Girls.

Maybe if I had a funny French name, I too could one day date a Gilmore girl. Sigh...French people have all the luck...

Three things I'm feeling today...

2007-08-22T19:38:00.000-04:00

1) On the cusp. I'm an introvert and have always sort of marched to the beat of my own metaphorical drummer. I really value my alone time and because of that, or maybe for no reason at all, I've always felt somewhat on the cusp of a lot of things and groups. I'm totally okay with this, as I have a great group of friends and I really like who I am, which is all that really matters. But every August/September, I always feel a little bit down...

In the college setting, August and September are all about community building and the forming of groups and friendships. Staffs come together and form teams. First year students meet for the first time and become roommates and lasting friends. Upperclassmen return from their summer breaks excited to reunite with their old friends and to make new ones.

But as a staff member, I'm someone left out of this; again on the cusp. The young part in me wishes he could join in. But the professional part of me understands that this is not my role. Regardless, being a young professional has its challenging times, and each August/September, I always feel a little bit down. Sigh...

2) Sick and tired: literally. It's now been 24 LONG days since my last day off and I have reached new levels of tiredness. And just for fun, my allergies are more out of control than me at an all you can eat dessert buffet. Basically, my days are a medley of yawns, sneezes, and brief moments of sleep in random places. It's not a pretty picture...

3) Defeated. I'm normally such a resilient person. I've been working really hard on something for most of this year that's very important to me. Along every step of the way, I've been met with rejections, sobering realities, and additional obstacles. And each time, I've regrouped, pasted a smile on my face, and tried something new. Until tonight, when I just discovered yet another setback....

Because of the combination of being so tired, not feeling well, and all of the obstacles I've already dealt with, I'm feeling pretty defeated. I'm not sure if I should just give up on it; if all of these obstacles are signs that this is just not meant to be. How do you know when to give up and just throw in the towel on a dream?

Sigh...this is a pretty depressing blog. But, they can't all be cheery, and it's just how I feel today.

Older and Wiser: Life Lessons by Chris

2007-08-18T21:49:00.000-04:00

I'm no stranger to the idea of privilege: I've studied it, presented it, and really internalized the concept. Usually, when I think about privilege though, I think about it in terms of qualities such as race, ethnicity, gender, class, sexual orientation, education, and religion. (ie, what privileges, good and bad, does being a middle class white man in America afford me?)

But for some reason, lately I've been really fixated on the idea of aestetic privilege. It's not that I haven't always known that being attractive comes with its perks. In fact, just writing this, I could easily rattle off at least a dozen privileges that attractive and in shape people experience that others do not.

Now, I have a really healthy and realistic body image and am generally quite happy with the way I look, so don't misunderstand. But lately, I've been really curious about what my life would be like if I were physically different. How would I be different now if I grew up to be tall and strong and Brad Pitt-esque? How has my appearance shaped who I am today? How would my personality differ if I didn't have to work to get a date? If I had a more main-stream look? If clothes fit me better? etc...

I'd like to think that I'd still be the same person, and I guess there's really no way to ever find out. But, this is just something I've been thinking about lately...

Also, I've learned three very valuable life lessons this week:

1) If your day starts off chasing after someone, it's probably not going to be a good day.
2) Only you can choose your attitude (somewhat in contradiction to life lesson #1, and also stolen from the Fish! Philosophy)
3) The more you do, the more you can do. This seems so simple and obvious. It's basically just a twist on the ideas of practice and conditioning. But until recently, I never really realized its applicability to life in general.

IT'S ALMOST SEPTEMBER!!!! ONLY 11 MORE DAYS UNTIL I FINALLY GET A DAY OFF!!!

Today

2007-08-15T22:21:00.001-04:00

Today I feel:

[X] delerious from lack of sleep
[X] totally in love with my staff (aka my small army)
[ ] energetic
[X] lonely
[X] liked
[X] addicted to coffee
[ ] in love with my job
[X] awkward
[X] excited for Top Chef in 33 minutes!
[X] that big changes may be coming soon

This morning, I received an email telling me that Yahoo! Photos was closing, so I had to move all of my digital photos to Flickr. As I sat there and looked at all of the photos I took of all of my old friends and from my many travels, I suddenly felt nostalgic for the adventuresome person I once was. The person that would randomly buy plane tickets to developing countries. The person that had such clear life and career ambitions. The person that dated and lived in the present and didn't go home after a 14 hour day and only to do more work at home...

Now, chained to a desk and a cell phone, this person seems only a distant memory; buried deep under piles of paperwork and orientation schedules. The constant dual between my ambition and my desire for happiness never ending... Not knowing which path to choose. Could I ever be happy not being a super hero?

Beyond exhausted!

2007-08-13T23:05:00.000-04:00

It's been 15 days straight since I've had a day off...

I have at least 18 more days to go...

Each day: at least 12 hours...

Sigh...

SOMEBODY GET ME SOME COFFEE!!

Who keeps punching me?!!

2007-08-07T23:17:00.000-04:00

I woke up this morning, took a shower, brushed my teeth, got dressed... The usual.

Only today, when I looked in the mirror, I saw that I had a black eye!

I have no idea why. And no, I was not in a bar fight!

I guess it's allergies or I'm sick or something. But this is the 5th time this has happened this summer!

sigh....

I miss my dog ...

2007-08-05T13:56:00.000-04:00

The Workout

2007-08-05T13:35:00.000-04:00

Those of you that read my blog somewhat frequently know that one of my goals for the rest of the year is to get in better shape. (and lose a little weight)

I've half-tried to do this a few times. But the problem is a simple one: I'm lazy. Very very lazy. And I don't particularly enjoy exercising. I'd much rather watch videos and eat.

I'm really committed to achieving my goal though and I decided that the only way that I will actually stick with it is if I literally remove all obstacles and make it as easy and convenient as possible. So, I decided to make one of my spare bedrooms into a fitness room, and went on Craigslist to find some good stuff to fill it.

I already had an exercise bike and ab ball. So, I was primarily looking for some type of home gym. And boy did I find one!!! And a great deal too!! The only problem was that the guy that was selling it was really really sketchy, even by Worcester standards. Oh yeah...and the fact that I had to carry all of it up 3 flights of stairs to my apartment (thanks for helping Katie and Amy!!!!), and try to put it together all by myself.

Normally, I'm pretty good at assembling stuff. And in typical guy fashion, I rarely look at instructions. But, this thing had 37 pages of instructions!!! And over 200 pieces!!! It took soooo long.

Finally, I got it all assembled (it took about 5 hours!) and it is ready to go! The only problem is that I'm too tired and sore from carrying it all upstairs and putting it together to actually use it for at least a few days haha.

Oh, and I also finished furnishing and decorating my sunroom last week. I love it!

I Heart Food

2007-08-02T18:17:00.000-04:00

I like to experiment with different flavors and to try to create my own recipes when I cook. Usually it doesn't turn out to be anything special...just average. Not super delicous, but not terrible or inedible.

But every now and then, something turns out so good that I'm just totally blown away!

First there was Peppered Chicken Sauteed in a Peach and White Wine Reduction.

Then, there was Chris' Famous Butter and Garlic Stuffed Steak: a cardiologist's dream! (I'm anxious to try this out with truffle butter...if someone buys me some, I'll cook it for them =p)

Most recently, there was Prawns Sauteed in Homemade Ginger Plum Sauce. Mmmmmm!

But tonight... Best of all! Chris' Chiang Mai Masterpiece - a fairly simple hot pot type dish inspired from the memory of something I ate a few times while in Thailand. Basically, it's just a hodge podge of different flavors: leeks, rice noodles, chicken, trout, homemade fish balls, bean sprouts, cabbage, shitake mushrooms, and a beaten egg, all cooked in a pot of chicken stock, then drained, and covered in my special spicy sauce. OMG!! Best thing ever!!!

I just love food so much :)

Top Chef Update

2007-08-01T23:18:00.000-04:00

Whoa! Tonight's episode was so good! And 15 minutes longer than usual!!

Sounds of a Sunday

2007-07-29T18:19:00.000-04:00

Here's some chill music that's perfect for a lazy rainy day like today. Give it a listen...

Track 6: featuring Micro of Def Tech!
Track 8: Japanese J-Lo?
Track 12: Cookie Monster? (listen and you'll understand)

Micro of Def Tech - Aug. 8!!

2007-07-28T16:29:00.000-04:00

I want this CD! It's by Micro, one of the two singers from Def Tech. Def Tech is this really great Jawaiin reggae (Japanese Hawaiin reggae) band that I love. Micro has a great voice and I love the melodies of all of their songs...very chill and laid back (as the title implies). Here's the video from the first single (which comes out on Aug. 8th):

hung up on Hung

2007-07-28T14:49:00.000-04:00

Realtity TV shows on Bravo...Mmmmm!

I'm totally addicted to them all, especially Top Chef.

Well, I woke up this morning and was watching this week's episode on TV and reading through a few Top Chef blogs (I told you I'm addicted), when I stumbled across Hung's MySpace page.

(Hung is the medium-attractive bisexual Vietnamese-American contestant that I predict will win this season)

Now, I know that most people think he's a bit of a jerk. And he definately is cocky. BUT, he's also a chef at one of my favorite Vegas restaurants, so I decided to send him a quick message to tell him that I like his food and to say "good luck."

Well...guess what! He actually wrote me back! Just a short message saying "thanks for the support" and offering some restaurant recommendations in my area, but still...how cool is that.

Big sigh...

2007-07-23T13:08:00.000-04:00

July 19, 2007

Dear Mr. Thomas,

Thank you very much for your interest in the 2008 Monbukagakusho Research Student Scholarship. Unfortunately, I must inform you that we cannot recommend you for a scholarship this year. I hope you understand that the competition for this program is exceptionally keen, and we are unable to recommend as many applicants as we would wish.

I hope that you will not be discouraged and that you will continue to pursue your interest in Japan. I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors.

Sincerely yours,

...

Consulate General of Japan

Sweden!

2007-07-22T14:59:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I grabbed a bottle of water, some sunscreen, and my passport and headed to Sweden, aka Ikea.

For those of you that have never been to Ikea and don’t know what it is: it’s basically the greatest store ever. Here’s why:

It has a restaurant and snack bar! With $.50 hot dogs!! And the best cinnamon buns ever!! (Why does my whole life revolve around food???)

The workers sometimes wear name tags with fake Swedish names like Lars and Thor. Come on…we all know that makes shopping more fun!

You can buy a 10 pack of batteries for only $.99!!

It’s a gay, family, and environmentally friendly company. (you have to pay $.05 for plastic bags now, but all proceeds go to replant trees!)

They have cool furniture and stuff for your house at super low prices.

It’s a great place to meet single people. (except the one near Boston seems to be a couples only kinda joint…not sure what’s up with that.)

I bought some furniture to finish my sunroom and to almost finish guest room #1. (I’ll post pictures later) But by far, the best part of the whole day was when Amy and I sat down in one of the living rooms in the showroom and had a serious conversation for 30 minutes as if it were a coffee shop or my apartment. Reclining, feet up on the chair, and everything! People kept walking by and browsing, so we moved to another living room, and then to a bedroom. But the other customers kept following us. Finally, with Amy sitting on a bed and me on a chair across from it, the ridiculousness of the situation hit me and I just started laughing. And laughed so hard that I actually started to cry! It’s definitely one of those things that you had to be there to understand, but it was definitely one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever done.

Still no news yet...

2007-07-21T12:06:00.000-04:00

...but, I’ve been doing some thinking, and I’ve decided that’s it’s time to spice up my life a little. I’m just way too bored here, and am a person that needs to constantly be challenging himself to be better and happier. So here’s what I’m going to do about it; my goals for the rest of the year:

Be able to carry on a basic conversation in American Sign Language – (taking a class in the fall!! So excited!)

See another cast of Rodin’s Le Penseur (the Thinker) sculpture – There are about 19 or 20 casts in the world (Turkey, Belgium, France, Argentina, the Netherlands, Mexico, United States, etc…). It’s my goal to eventually see them all, and so far, I’ve seen 4: Stanford Museum of Art, Baltimore Museum of Art, le musée Rodin in Paris, and the Kyoto National Museum. I don’t know why, but this sculpture has always been really powerful and relatable for me.

Get into better shape – for real this time.

Double my circle of friends – Yeah, it’s quality that matters, not the quantity. And I do have some really great friends all over the place. But I’d like to have some more in the area.

Learn how to prepare sushi - not really sure how or where I’m going to do this, but it’s definitely a goal of mine.

Introduce someone as my boyfriend or girlfriend – okay, so this is more of a hope than a goal. But it sure would be nice. (And preferably someone that is happy to sit around and watch sappy Japanese and Korean dramas with me.)

Learn how to play늦게 핀 사랑 on the violin – I’ve always wanted to learn how to play the violin and there’s no better time than now. It’s a Korean song (pronounced “neut ge pin sarang”) and I think it means “too late” in English. It’s such a wonderful and moving song for me; so full of passion. You can here it here: http://www.520music.com/play/122985.htm

Continue Learning Japanese - (trying to take a class in the fall)

Design and get my next tattoo - I’m not sure exactly what or where it will be yet, but I know that I want and am ready for my next one.

Tomorrow?

2007-07-19T18:55:00.000-04:00

Well, I still haven't heard anything about the scholarship I interviewed and tested for over 3 weeks ago...

Having been so long, I began to wonder if maybe they already notified the people that moved forward, and simply didn't let you know if you didn't get it. I didn't want to waste anymore time wondering about it and checking my gmail 9000 times a day if I didn't get it. So, I called the consulate on Tuesday to ask, and they told me that they hadn't made their decisions yet, but that they were aiming to notify everyone by the end of this week.

I didn't hear anything yesterday or today, so I guess tomorrow is the big day! Everyone keep your fingers crossed for me!!

Kuitan and my addiction to food

2007-07-15T11:22:00.000-04:00

So, I just finished watching another Japanese comedy/drama series. This one is called Kuitan, and it's about a detective that LOVES to eat, and solves crime mysteries each episode through his spot on sense of taste. It's basically the Japanese version of Monk, except that instead of having OCD, Kuitan has a serious addiction to food.

He's kind of my new hero. You can (and should) watch some of the first episode here:

This is a great series and the only downside is that because Kuitan is constantly eating delicious looking food, I've been hungry pretty much the whole time.

Now most of you know that I LOVE food, almost as much as Kuitan. One of my coworkers even calls me "hoover" because I tend to eat everything in sight, kind of like a vacuum cleaner.

So, here's a list of some foods that I'm craving right now:

Japanese Big Mac - I can't really explain how, but the taste is just different

Tuna sashimi - just the best taste in the whole world!

Crab Rangoon from Nancy Chang's

Bailey's Irish Cream Dream chocolate fondue from the Melting Pot!!

Grand Marnier suffle from Alize on the top of the Palms Casino

The #6 from Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwich Shop!!! Wait, make that 2 #6's from Jimmy John's!!!

Stuffed French Toast from IHOP

Okay...time for lunch now!

Itadakimasu!!!

Chris vs. Maya

2007-07-13T20:47:00.000-04:00

A few days ago, a friend of mine posted a really interesting blog about why it seems so many gay men are so eager to “settle down,” that they are practically ready to profess their love and move in together after the second date.

Now… those of you that know me know that I definitely don’t fit into this category. But the blog was interesting none the less, and one sentence in particular caught my attention:

“When people show you who they are, believe them, the first time.”

It’s a quote from Maya Angelou, and on first thought, it made perfect sense to me. After all, who really knows what a person is like better than him or herself?

But the more I thought about it, the more I began to wonder if Maya might have made a mistake this time. I began to wonder how well people really do know themselves.

I mean, how many times have you heard someone tell you that they need some time to “find themselves” or some variation of the like? Now, I’m not really sure exactly how people “lose” their sense of self in the first place, and this has never happened to me, but there sure are a lot of people out there trying to find it either again or for the first time.

Come on, we all know at least a few.

And what ever happened to giving someone the benefit of the doubt? …turning the other cheek? …forgiving and forgetting? I mean, is one action always a part of a trend? For example, if a person lies once, does that mean that he/she will always lie and should be written off as a liar?

Now it may just be me, but this sure seems like a pessimistic way to go through life, and it’s definitely not my style. It’s not like I’m some cheery glass half full optimist all the time, but I do believe that people are generally good and that a mistake can be just that.

In my opinion, defining people be one action alone fails to take into account just how wonderfully complex we all are.

I think you may want to rethink this one Maya.

Harry Potter Mania

2007-07-11T03:04:00.000-04:00

The new Harry Potter movie is AWESOME!!!

I went to the midnight showing with my friends tonight mainly so that I could make fun of the people that dress up in the costumes when they see the movie, (what's funnier than seeing grown men and women dressed as Harry Potter and Dumbledore? haha) but it turns out that the movie was actually really good. ...Maybe the best movie I've seen so far this year.

Definately a movie worth seeing.

Boing 787 Dreamliner

2007-07-08T22:38:00.000-04:00

I can't wait to fly on this plane!!

Waking up in 9th grade

2007-07-08T12:00:00.000-04:00

Yep. So I apparently went to sleep a few days ago and woke up as a 16 year old with a crush on someone.

Sure, I’m attracted to people all the time (maybe too much), but I haven’t had what I would consider to be a “crush” in years. To be honest, it’s been so long that I didn’t even realize that this is what it is until a friend pointed it out to me.

Nothing will ever come of it, for only about a zillion reasons. But the interesting thing is that once I started thinking about this person in relation to the other people whom I’ve been interested in this way, I noticed a fairly shocking trend:

It seems that I’m almost exclusively interested in guys and girls that are either really bad for me, or have some issue(s) that would make a relationship really challenging.

Seriously, what’s up with that??

At any rate, my crush will pass and I guess it’s better to know this than to not know this. I guess I just never thought of myself as the type that would choose the “bad” guy (or girl) over the good one. Who knew?

Fourth of July fun

2007-07-04T21:38:00.000-04:00

On Monday, I left work an hour early, went to the airport to pick up Amy, and then headed to my friend Katie's house in West Haven, CT for a mini-vacation. It wasn't anything super special; just your typical 4th of July family cookouts and fireworks displays, but it was really nice to get away for a little while.

And, it was definately a huge plus that Katie's house is just a few minutes from the beach! Going to the beach just makes me so happy.

Definately the funniest part of the whole trip was that one of their neighbors also had a huge BBQ party in their backyard at the same time as the one we were at and had something called an "ice luge." I had never seen one before, and it's kind of hard to explain, so here is a picture I found on the internet:

Basically, people put their mouth at the bottom of a big block of ice with a groove cut into it, and people poor shots for them from the top. I thought it was pretty cool.

But, the funny part is that everyone at their party got SUPER drunk by like 1pm as a result and thought it was a great idea to plug in the ol' karaoke machine outside! So, we got to watch random drunk strangers make complete fools of themselves all night to renditions of Footloose, Sweet Home Alabama, and other karaoke classics all evening. And the drunker they got, the funnier it was to watch! Some of them even danced!

Ah, the things that seem like a good idea while drunk... haha

2007-07-04T21:33:00.000-04:00

To the untrained eye, my phone looks innocent enough. It's nothing fancy, and barely has any features. Actually, it doesn't even have a calculator. (I really only picked it because it was free and I didn't have a lot of money at the time)

But don't let the cute little Doraemon strap fool you. This is actually an incredibly evil piece of technology that is slowly ruining my life! Here's why:

As part of my job, I am on-call a large percentage of the year, including the entire period from May through August, for a variety of emergency and work situations that happen after hours and on weekends. Rather than carrying a work cell phone and my personal cell phone for the entire summer, I decided that it would be easier to just set my work phone to forward all calls to my personal cell phone. ...and this seemed like a good idea at the time.

But, the damn thing has not stopped ringing in the 3 weeks since I got back from Japan! Case in point, I have made/received 23 seperate phone calls about work situations in the past 24 hours alone!!!

This phone is driving me insane!

...all the more reason to get an iPhone! At least if I had an iPhone, getting and making calls would be a little more exciting haha. But too bad I have a constant stream of friends and coworkers telling me what a bad idea it is to get one now. :(

Bizarre coincidence & presents

2007-06-30T08:45:00.000-04:00

I mentioned in my last blog that during my interview on Wednesday, there was one professor that was a real jerk and seemed to have it out for me.

Well, you'll never guess what! It turns out that not only is this person a high ranking administrator at the same university that I work at, but he also happened to be at 2 meetings that I had to go to during the two days following the interview!

Upon discovering that not only does he work here, but that our offices work closely together, I immediately emailed him to ask him if he had known that we worked together prior to the interview since he hadn't mentioned it and I definately talked about what I do and where I work during the interview. I guess I just wanted to find out if he didn't know and was a jerk to me, or if he did know we were colleagues and was a jerk in spite of it. (It's not that I would have expected special treatment or anything, but as a colleague, I would have expected him to be a little friendlier or to at least have acknowledged that we work together)

Well, as it turns out, the latter is the case, and he was made aware of it 2 weeks prior to the interview. Oh well...that's one coworker that's not getting a Christmas card this year. ...well, unless of course by some miracle I end up getting the scholarship afterall in spite of him. haha

Anyway, this has been one CRAPPY week, so as is often the case, I've decided to buy myself something nice to make myself feel better. The two contenders are a new iPod (because mine is all scratched and the battery doesn't last more than an hour or two now) and a sexy new iPhone. I'm leaning towards the iPod, and not only do I get paid on Friday, but I also just got a phatty big raise, so I definately see some purchases in my future :)

Okay...gotta go in to the office now to get caught up on some stuff for Monday...yep: even on a Saturday! :(

Disapointment :(

2007-06-27T19:17:00.000-04:00

Well, I had my tests and interviews today and they didn't go well at all... In fact, the whole day was awful.

There were only 5 of us there (but thousands of people apply at all of the Japanese consulates around the world) so at first, I felt pretty confident.

Then, the pissing contest began, as everyone introduced themselves to each other and I found out that nearly every person there had multiple degrees from Harvard and MIT and Yale and Brown and spoke near fluent Japanese. One guy was already almost done with his PhD, had two degrees from Harvard, lives in Japan, speaks Japanese fluently, is from a Japanese family, and is even married to a Japanese woman! Immediately, I started to feel insecure.

(Now, I know that I am a smart and capable person and am every bit as good as them and even got into an ivy league school myself, but the names that they were throwing around surely count for something, and it was pretty intimidating and discouraging.)

After that, we took the Japanese test, which is broken down into 3 one-hour long tests that increase in difficulty. The entire test is written in Japanese. Well...I could only answer about half of the questions on the first test. :(

I didn't feel so bad, because one of the girls that was there could only do the first test too. (she was the only other non-ivy leaguer) We then took an English language exam, which was easy except that there were lots of typos in it which made the sections where you are supposed to identify the grammatical errors somewhat difficult. (it was hard to tell which were intentional and which were just typos and misprints)

Anyway, I was done by 11:30 with both of these tests, but my interview wasn't until 4:15, so I had to spend nearly 5 hours alone on the streets of Boston killing time in near 100 degree weather! It sucked.

Finally, I came up for my interview, and guess who was the person that went before me: super fluent Japanese married Harvard guy! Of all the luck! And I could hear through the door that they loved him and were laughing and having a great time.

When it was my turn, I went in and sat across from 3 professors and one woman from the consulate. I'm not sure why, but one of the professors grilled me super hard, didn't care for my research proposal, and was dissatisfied with my research methods. He just kept asking really specific questions and it was impossible for me to try to throw in good stuff about myself to try to get them to see all the awesome things that they wouldn't see just by looking at my application and essays.

Finally, the Japanese professor asked if he could speak Japanese to me. On the application, I checked the box for "fair" for speaking and for "poor" for reading and writing, not really knowing what exactly "fair" and "poor" meant. Well, as soon as he started speaking super fast using words I'd never heard before, I knew that clearly "fair" was the wrong choice. This was obvious to everyone there, and yet he just kept on talking. Finally, after what seemed like forever, he dumbed it down for me and asked some simple questions about where I lived when I was in Japan and stuff like that, but at that point, the whole interview was soured.

I'll find out sometime next week if I get moved on to the next round, but after the shear crappiness of today, I am expecting an impersonal rejection letter to show up in my inbox :(

I guess this means I need to make some decisions about stuff and pursue some other options...

It just sucks, because I wanted this so bad. :(

The big day

2007-06-26T20:19:00.000-04:00

Well, after a week of non-stop studying and preparations, I am heading off to Boston for my language exams and interview tomorrow!

Am I nervous? You bet!

But, at this point, I've studied and prepared as much as I can, and the only thing I can do tomorrow is my best. Hopefully that will be enough and they'll recommend me.

At any rate, I'll post again tomorrow after it is all over and let y'all know how it went.

A weekend of studying...

2007-06-23T22:14:00.000-04:00

Well, after spending the entire weekend so far studying for my Japanese exam on Wednesday, I have now managed to increase my score on the practice exam up to 36%! That's an increase of 34 percentage points since Wednesday!

So, on the one hand, I'm pretty proud of myself for being able to get more than 25% of the questions right on a test about another language that is also written in another language.

But, on the other hand, a score of 36% sucks! And I wonder if at this right, I might be better off just choosing "C" for all the questions and hoping for the best haha.

Oh well...I still have all day tomorrow and Monday and Tuesday night to study and prepare. My goal is 50% or higher.

Wish me luck!

My Top Chef 3 Prediction

2007-06-20T23:03:00.001-04:00

After 2 episodes, I am now ready to make my official prediction of who will be the Season 3 winner of Top Chef: Hung

He's definately one of the most talented chefs on the show, despite the fact that he's kind of a cocky jerk. But, I'm rooting for him because not only does he live in Las Vegas and love tiramisu, but he also happens to have worked at two of my favorite restaurants of all time in Vegas: Guy Savoy and Aureole!

Man! Thinking about those places makes me hungry and makes me miss having dozens and dozens of 4 and 5 star restaurants less than a block away when I lived in Vegas.

Good luck Hung!

Saved by the Bell

2007-06-20T07:46:00.000-04:00

I woke up a little early this morning, and when I turned on the TV, Saved by the Bell was on. Saved by the Bell is by far the greatest 90's TV show ever, well except for Macguyver. That man could make anything out of a straw, some gum, and a little duct tape haha.

Anyway, in honor of my Saved by the Bell stroll down memory lane this morning, here are two videos from the best episode ever: 309 (the one where Jesse Spano gets hooked on caffeine pills)

4 hours of tests! sigh...

2007-06-19T18:58:00.000-04:00

I haven't really told many people this yet, but I have submitted a research proposal to a university in southern Japan for a PhD program for fall 08, and a few weeks ago, I found out that my proposal has been accepted. I still need to formally apply to the program, which is taught in English, but from what I understand, the application is just a formality.

I also applied to a special Japanese government scholarship. Getting this scholarship is basically the only way that I could afford to go to school there, and if I get it, it would pay for my tuition, room and board, a monthly stipend, and my airfare.

Well, I found out today that my application for the scholarship has passed the initial screening, and that I have to go to the consulate next Wednesday to sit for a 3 hour long Japanese test, a 1 hour long English test, and a half hour long interview. I'm not nervous about the English part or the interview, but I saw a few practice tests for the Japanese part, and they are super hard. The entire test is in Japanese, even the questions. And the questions aren't simple either.

I have forgotten so much Japanese since I have moved to Worcester, and I definately have my work cut out for me. I really want to be able to go to school there, so I'm really nervous. Needless to say, I'll be studying Japanese every free second until then. Wish me luck!

Sunday with the Water Boys

2007-06-17T17:15:00.000-04:00

Those of you that know me know that I have a small addiction to watching Korean dramas (with subtitles of course). Well, at the recommendation of a friend, I started watching an 11 episode Japanese drama called Water Boys last night. (it seemed like a lot more fun than unpacking or doing my laundry)

I got pretty hooked on it, and ended up finishing the who series this afternoon. It was totally addictive.

Basically, the plot (ridiculous as this sounds) focused on a group of 5 Japanese high school seniors that for whatever reason were incredibly passionate about wanting to form a synchronized swimming club and perform at their annual school festival. However, where's the drama in that? As it turns out, the entire school administration is out to get them and the 5 swimmers encounter numerous obstacles along the way, and even a few budding romances.

Although the plot is pretty ridiculous, the whole series was hillarious, entertaining, and kept me totally hooked for all 11 hours. It's definately one of the top 5 dramas I've seen. It's all available on youtube, so check it out.

Here's a bit of episode 1:

Anyway, it's back to work tomorrow :(

The best vacation ever!

2007-06-16T20:57:00.000-04:00

To start, I just have to say that my short trip to Japan definitely ranks among the top 3 vacations I’ve taken, maybe even the best.

Here is a picture video from my trip. Consider it the short version of my blog. But if you want to actually know what the pictures are of, read below :)

So, my vacation started on Thursday, when after checking into my hotel in Sakae (the cool and hip part of Nagoya), I headed to Kani for a party. Unfortunately, I just barely missed the last train to Kani for the night, so I had to take the train to Minokamo, and then take a taxi from there, but whatever…

Once there, I met Yumiko outside and she blindfolded me and guided me inside. Well, actually, she first let me accidentally walk into a plant, but eventually she guided me inside. Although I knew that there was going to be a party for me and for Masao’s birthday, I wasn’t expecting there to be so many people there, and even some students from Seki school! I was so surprised, and there was so much food. (Okonomiyaki and daikon salad, two of my favorites!) It was so great to see everyone and I could tell already that this was going to be a great trip.

We stayed at the party pretty late and then Yumiko took me and David, the teacher who replaced me, back to Minokamo, where I spent the night in Michael’s apartment.

Friday:

On Friday, I woke up medium late and then headed back to Nagoya, where I picked up my JR Train Pass and took a quick nap in my hotel. I was originally planning on heading to Gero for some good old fashioned onsen fun, but it was raining quite heavily, so I decided to hang out in Nagoya for the day instead. So, I went to Osu to pick up a new memory card for my camera since I lost mine somehow, went to the Nagoya Art Museum and saw a Dali exhibit, did a bit of shopping and eating in Nagoya, and then headed to Nan Nan, my favorite neighborhood gay bar.

At first, I felt a little shy there, even though everyone remembered me. But, eventually several people came in that spoke decent enough Japanglish and I ended up having a great time, a bunch of drinks, and even left with a few numbers and emails. (it turns out to my surprise that I am quite the Don Juan in Japan…who knew?)

Saturday:

I woke up pretty early on Saturday and headed to the station, where I took the Shinano line to Nagano to meet Ryo sensei and his new wife Morika. It was a pretty short trip of only about 2.5 hours, and there was some really great scenery along the way. Once I got there, Ryo and Morika met me at the station and we went for lunch at a new okonomiyaki shop in Nagano. The food was great, and the locals there had a great time staring at me in awe of the fact that not only could I use chopsticks proficiently, but also knew how to order food in Japanese and to cook okonomiyaki myself. Haha

After lunch, we went to a famous temple in Nagano called Zenkoji. The temple itself was quite large, and there was this really cool secret tunnel underneath that we got to go in to feel around for a hidden door. (we found the door, but Ryo wasn’t quite sure what the story behind the door was, other than that it was special haha) We then had miso flavored ice cream, which was well….interesting, and then headed back to Ryo’s house.

Once we got there, I got to see the pictures and DVD from Ryo’s wedding, and Ryo’s mother prepared a huge meal of sushi (the biggest plate of sushi I have ever seen), tempura, steamed egg custard, miso, rice, and other things. It was delicious, and his mother and I had a great time talking about all of the American tv shows that she likes to watch. (her favorite is 24!)

We spent the rest of the night talking and making jokes and having a great time. It was so great to see Ryo!

Sunday:

On Sunday, I woke up, had breakfast, and headed to the station. I said goodbye to Ryo and Morika, and just barely made my train to Nakatsugawa. Once I arrived in Nakatsugawa, Yumiko met me, and we had a great sushi lunch and caught up with one another. It was a lot of fun.

Yumiko then surprised me by taking me to our friend Rie’s house near Tajimi, before we headed to Minokamo to pick up David. (I have a bit of a straight crush on Rie, so it was really cool to see her J)

We then headed to Seki and to a yakiniku restaurant called Mori Mori for a party with some of my old students from Seki school. It was a lot of fun and it was great to see my former students and Tommy, my former manager. There was also soooooo much food there. We could barely fit it all on the tables haha. We ate as much of as we could, had some drinks, and took lots of silly pictures.

After dinner, we went to David’s apartment and Yumiko, David, and I watched Borat. (which FYI is hilarious!) It felt sooooo strange to be in David’s apartment, since it used to be mine. But, David is a cool guy and the students all like him, so I am happy.

Monday:

On Monday, the weather was finally nice and sunny, so I spent some time hanging out by the river in Minokamo and then hopped on the train to Gero, or as I like to call it, onsen paradise.

Once there, I put bandaids on to cover my tattoos, and headed to 2 of my favorite onsens. Ah, kimochi!!!!!!! I then headed to a famous footbath/fountain that is said to have healing powers.

As I was sitting there, a girl named Sayuri, and her sister and father, came up to the fountain and begin speaking to me in English. It turns out that not only is Sayuri super cool, but she also has spent the past 6 years studying in America. We talked for several hours, and I showed them around a bit in Gero. (I have been there so many times that I should consider a job as a tour guide haha) Sayuri then invited me to come and hang out with her at her home near Kyoto the next day, and I headed to the train station and back to my hotel in Nagoya for the night.

Tuesday:

As planned, I the Hikari Shinkansen to Kyoto in the morning to meet up with Sayuri. One problem, I forgot to bring her phone number with me!! Stupid!

So, since I had already been to Kyoto several times and seen most of the touristy things there, I simply walked around for a while, and had lunch in the station. I then called my friend in Tokyo to see what he is doing, and ended up taking the Shinkansen all the way to Tokyo to meet up with him for dinner.

The train to Tokyo only took about 2 hours and 45 minutes, and I slept through most of it. Once I got there, I met up with Sho and had a good dinner in Shibuya. I also had coffee in the Starbucks at the famous pedestrian crossing there (the busiest in the world) and walked around in Shinjuku for a bit before heading back to Nagoya.

It was a busy day, but it was a really good one.

Wednesday:

I woke up early on Wednesday so as to get some shopping done for omiyage (souvenirs for friends and family), but mostly for stuff for myself. I ended up getting a little bit of both, and also bought the coolest pair of shoes from Burberry Black Label that I have ever seen! (and exchanged emails with the cute guy that worked there)

Once I was done shopping, armed with directions and Sayuri’s phone number in hand, I again ventured to Kyoto, and then to Kizu, and then to Kamo to meet Sayuri. Once I got there, Sayuri and her mom picked me up from the station and drove about 15 minutes to their home/green tea farm.

Sayuri then showed me around her home for a while and then had her brother drive us around the mountains of Wazuka to give me a tour. It was really fun and I couldn’t believe how random it was that I was in pickup truck on a mountain in a green tea farm in rural Kyoto!

We then parked and hiked a bit up a mountain to a really cool old temple from the Edo period, and had a great lunch of sushi, okonomiyaki, breads, and beers. It was great!

Afterward, I met up with Sayuri’s dad again, and then headed to the station and back to Nagoya.

Thursday:

I woke up really early on Thursday and took 3 trains to Seki. Once I got there, I took some pictures at the temple there, visited the shop keeper at the Yamazaki convenience store that I went to everyday (he was sooo surprised to see me haha), and then did some shopping for Japanese treats and food at the Uni.

At noon, Tazuko and her friend picked me up and took me to an amazing sushi restaurant close by, where we talked and ate great food. We then went shopping at a famous (by Gifu standards) shopping area and had coffee.

Later, I came back to Seki school and hung out with Tommy for a while before more of my former students came to see me. Hiroshi, Asuka, Kaoru, and Rina all hung out with me and talked for a while, and it was great to spend time with them.

David then informed me that there would be a party for me at Kani school later that night, so we invited the students and we all headed there after there lessens were over.

Once we got there, Yumiko had prepared a nice meal, and we talked and made fun of the tv show that was on, and even gave a mini lesson about the idiom “it’s like watching paint dry” to some of the students.

Afterwards, Yumiko and David took me to my hotel in Nagoya, where I packed everything that I bought into my suitcases and a few shopping bags and grabbed about 2.5 hours of sleep before I had to get up and leave for the airport.

Friday:

After waking up at 5:20 am, I headed took the Meitetsu line to the airport and checked in for my flight, and even somehow convinced them to let me sit in business executive class again for my flight from Nagoya to Tokyo. Unfortunately, I was stuck in economy class for the rest of the trip home L

My flights were fine, but after flying in uber luxurious executive class on the way over, economy class seemed to downright suck! There were no slippers or noise reducing headphones. There was no wine list or dessert and cheese cart! And horror of all horrors, me seat only reclined about 5 inches! What is this crap!!

Anyway, I arrived in Boston at about 3pm and Bethany picked me up and took me back to scenic Worcester, MA, where I arrived about 24 hours after I left!

All in all, this was a wonderful trip and was exactly what I needed to de-stress a little and to gain some closure on my Japanese experience. There were definitely some awkward feelings, but I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect vacation. And it definately helped me to make up my mind about some things.

Getting groped at customs

2007-06-08T01:25:00.000-04:00

So, I finally arrived at Chubu Centrair Airport last night at about 8pm Japan time after an unventful flight from Tokyo to Nagoya. I sailed through immigration and got my passport stamped, got my luggage, and headed to the customs counter (the last step in the process).

Usually, you simply show the inspector your passport and he asks you a few questions and then you are on your way. But for whatever reason, the guy was quite intriqued that this was my 5th trip to Japan. He then asked why I had been to Indonesia and why I travel so much. This is a common question, and to be honest, ever since I have been there, I get questioned a lot at every immigration counter I go to.

But for some reason, this guy must have thought I was extra suspicious...or he was just bored, and asked if he could search my bags. No big deal, right?

Well, what I had forgotten is that in my suitcase (on the very top) is a Japanese book that I had bought in Nagoya last year called Gay Navi '06, which is basically a big book of information about and maps to every gay bar, hotel, etc... in the entire country of Japan.
(it's not illegal to have the book or bring anything like that into the country)

With my luck, the man of course reached for the book and spent about 5 minutes (literally) thumbing through it and periodically looking up at me. I wasn't quite sure whether he thought the book was cool and had never seen it and was impressed that I could read it in Japanese, or if he was silently judging me. I was so embarrased and didn't really know what to say. So, I took a chance that he thought it was cool, and said "So goi, ne," which means, very cool isn't it?
He responded with "ne, so desu," which means yes, it is. Immediately he smiled at me and asked me to empty my pockets and asked, and I quote: "May I touch your body now?" (Japanglish translation: could he frisk me)

I said sure. Why not, right?

He then spent literally 3 minutes "frisking" me in a mannor that very clearly was more of a caress/fondle than a frisk. (particularly when considering what parts he was focusing his attention on)

Seriously! Who else but me gets groped by a random customs inspector in a foreign country???
But hey, it's been a while, so I'll take what I can get. haha

Anyway, after that, I headed to my hotel in Nagoya and then to Kani, where some of my friends and several of my former students had a party for me and had cooked some of my favorite Japanese foods! It was so nice to see everyone, and I already have most of the rest of my trip planned out with various parties, lunches, dinners, and other outings with my friends and former students.

It's definately weird being back here though and meeting the teacher that replaced me and is living in my apartment now. But the weirdest thing is that as soon as I got off the plane in Nagoya and was on the train to the city, I had the strongest feeling that I was finally coming home.

Anyway, I'm off to take a quick nap, then am heading to the onsen in Gero for the afternoon, and then for a night at my favorite gay bar, Nan Nan in Sakae in Nagoya.

This is a really great trip so far!

See you suckers in coach!

2007-06-07T04:32:00.000-04:00

So, today marked the beginning of my Japanese vacation. It started at 4:15am (ugh!) with an uneventful ride to Boston Logan Airport, followed by an even less eventful flight from Boston to JFK.

That's when the un-fun began...

The woman on the plane told me and about 10 Japanese people that were connecting to the Japan Airlines flight to Tokyo that we needed to go to gate 6. So we did.

However, once we all got there, we were told that she actually meant for us to go to gate 6 in Terminal 1. We were in terminal 9. So, they instructed us to exit the building and take the Sky Train to Terminal 1.

Well...we all got on the train at about 8:45. And as soon as we got on, there was an announcement that all trains were being held because of "congestion ahead." This announcement continued until about 9:20. Then, they shut the doors to the train so that people couldn't get off, and continued with the announcement. (keep in mind that our flight was at 10am)

Finally, at 9:40, the train still not even having moved, the doors opened and a woman came in and told us that we all needed to leave the train immediately and take a bus instead. So, like cattle, we all headed to the bus stop and waited for the bus until 9:55.

Finally, me and this Japanese family, in a last ditch effort to try and make our flight, flagged down a cab and made it to the terminal at exactly 10am. But unfortunately, our flight had just left without us :(

I was so pissed because the whole situation was ridiculous. The woman at the counter was super nice though and told us that we could all probably get on the 1:30 flight and to come back in a little while. However, because I am a Japan Airlines Mileage Bank member, she decided to immediately give me a ticket for the flight, and bumped me up to Executive Class!!!!!!

How sweet is that! I did feel medium bad for a second because the woman and her 3 children and elderly grandmother that I was with were only put on standby and might not get on the flight, but I was not about to give up an Executive Class flight to Tokyo! It doesn't get much better than that.

Now, flying on Japan Airlines is pretty luxuriuos to begin with. The food is good, there are tons of movies for you to watch at your seat, and the chairs are pretty comfortable.
But, now that I've flown Executive Class, I may not ever be able to go back to flying coach again! Let me tell you about my flight...

Got on board and found my seat (I'll talk about that later) and was immediately greeted by a flight attendent who asked for my cocktail order. She then provided me with super comfortable slippers, a cardigan, and an amenity kit that included a toothbrush and stuff like that, rejuvinating face mask, and special Sony noise eliminating headphones.

The food was amazing, and not only were there multiple courses to each meal, but a wine list, and unlimited premium alcohol. (which I totally took advantage of with 2 glasses of champagne, 2 glasses of wine, and a Bailey's on the rocks with dessert =) There was also a list of hot snacks and sandwiches and other things that we could have at any time by simply pressing the call button! There was even a dessert and cheese cart! And, it was all served on fine china!!

As if that wasn't enough, Executive Class features these special shell seats with electronic controls, a back massager, and a built in tv. The best part though is that somehow, by pressing only one button, a footrest pops up and extends outward, and the whole back goes down to form a completely horizontal bed for you to sleep in!! You need to see this thing to understand just how cool it is:

Honestly, this was the best flight I've ever been on. It was like going to an international day spa! The downside is that actually buying a ticket for these seats costs thousands of dollars, so I doubt I'll ever afford to fly it again. So I guess I'll have to slum it with the common folk in economy on the way home haha.

Now, I'm in the Tokyo/Narita airport killing time before my short connecting flight to Nagoya. Once I get there, I'll check into my hotel, and then head to Kani, where some of my friends are having an okonomiyaki party.

Okay...WHOAA! A really hot guy just sat down across from me...

This is shaping up to be a great trip!!

The loniest year

2007-06-04T05:05:00.000-04:00

It's about 1:30 am. It's a windy night, and the pitter patter of rain drops hitting my windows should be easing me into a gentle sleep. But instead, I'm staring out the windows gazing at the tree limbs as they sway back and forth in the breeze, totally preoccupied with today's date.

June 4; a date that used to mean so little. It was a day before my sister's birthday, three days before my parents' anniversary, and a week or two before Father's day. Nothing too important.

But last year, this date took on a meaning of its own, as exactly one year ago today, I said goodbye to my friends, job, and life in Las Vegas, and boarded a plane bound for Japan, the unknown, and the unexpected.

I remember it all so vividly. The days and weeks leading up to it. The packing. The goodbyes. The unsuccessful efforts not to cry.

In fact, at this exact time last year, I was just getting home from my farewell dinner with my closest friends out on the Strip. It was my last night in Vegas. My last night with a safety net. And my last night in America for who knows how long.

And in only a few short hours, I had said my last (and most difficult) goodbye and was sitting on an airborne plane with my fingers pressed against the window as I looked through tear filled eyes down at a shrinking Las Vegas skyline for one last time.

It was a day filled with so much sadness. But for all the sadness; for all the sacrifice, I knew in my heart that going to Japan was a dream worth following and that goodbyes are only as permanent as I make them.

After all, a life full of adventure awaited me.

Flash forward one year, two jobs, and a whole lot of frequent flier miles later, and here I am in Worcester, Massachusetts and living a life that I hardly recognize.

Since I haven't posted any blogs in quite a while, here are some of the items of interest from the past five months:

- Briefly dated a stalker.
- Temporarily co-adopted a devil cat that bit me while I slept.
- Learned how to make sangria in my Brita pitcher.
- Adopted the most wonderful dog ever.
- Had to give my dog away because she was too loud L
- Did a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle.
- Discovered that Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List is my new favorite show.
- Got a new high score on Text Twist.

And that's it in a nut shell. Exciting, huh?

Don't get me wrong, things could be so much worse. And I realize the triviality and insignificance of my woes in the big picture. In fact, as I write this, a friend is grieving the loss of a parent, another is dealing with the loss of her long-time partner, and there is war, famine, poverty, illness, celebrities being photographed by paparazzi while not wearing underwear, and other "real" problems happening all around me.

Still, the bottom line is that I am just not that happy here. I don't love my job, yet all I do is work. I really don't love the place where I live. My love life is non-existent. And my social circle, while great, consists primarily of two people, really making it more of a triangle than a circle, and definitely making it lame.

Now, it's not that I'm not trying. And it's not that I don't have a plan and lots of hope. There are just lots of obstacles to overcome here. And I realistically don't think that I will ever be very happy here in Worcester.

But staying for another year is part of the plan, so I'll make the best of it.

I think this anniversary is just leaving me in a very reflective mood. And I'm feeling so many things, ranging from disappointment that my "life full of adventure" has turned out to be THIS, to examining the choices that brought me here, to a determination to make things better.

But mostly, this day just makes me remember how much I miss my friends and my life back then and how important it is to appreciate the good things in life while you have them. Beauty is indeed fleeting.

At any rate, I'm headed to Japan for a much needed vacation and to visit some friends on Wednesday. I'm really looking forward to it, though I'm sure it will be a somewhat emotion filled trip as I return to the place I once lived and made so many wonderful memories.

Here's hoping that Monday and Tuesday fly by.

Guess what...

2007-03-01T10:00:00.000-05:00

There's no convenient time for a quarter-life crisis.

Expect some interesting blogs and changes in the coming weeks and months.

Eh...

2007-01-26T01:38:00.000-05:00

I am a child holding a green balloon at an amusement park. It's a cloud free day and the smell of hot dogs and cotton candy lingers in the air. Each day, each job, each degree, and each relationship is a new ride that I anxiously wait in line for, thinking it will be the biggest and best…until the next one comes along. And on each ride, there are ups and downs.

In my non-metaphorical life, I hate roller coasters and I typically avoid amusement parks. Yet there is no escaping the ups and downs that go along with them, and yesterday was a definite down.

It's not that it was an awful day. It was just one that was busy and full of challenges and mistakes.

Life for me is moving at light speed these days and in a hop, skip, and a month, I went from teaching English in Japan to living in Worcester and diving head first into a busy new job. It's all going okay and I've even managed to find a friend that I really connect with and a new love interest. But, I'm feeling overwhelmed and tired.

I know that things will slow down as I continue to get more settled, but in the meantime, I need to remember that I'm not Superman. And if the lack of six-pack abs and the ability to fly doesn't remind me, hopefully I'll at least be able to pace myself a little better and apply the brakes on all of the pressure I have been putting on myself.

Here's to "glass half full" days and blind optimism. And here's to hoping that today will be one of them.