Since I've been home

I'm home in CO now, and it feels great. I was really ready to get home after being gone for two full months. It's strange as I was gone much longer when I was studying abroad in India, but I guess that is how it goes sometimes.

Overall my trip was amazing. I met wonderful people, ate marvelous food, bought some interesting things, and saw phenomenal places and sights. Now that I'm home I'm looking forward to my grand entrance into the real world. I feel like my 'entrance' will be more of a stumble, catch myself, try not to trip again, stutter at the microphone and awkwardly curtsy more than the flawless leap and pirouette I'm going for. But never the less, I'm going. I'm excited and I'm nervous.

I don't own a bed yet... that will have to be purchased once I arrive in Chicago and I see just how much space I actually have to play around with. It's quite painful having to buy it there with the OUTRAGEOUS 10.25% sales tax (seriously!!). I'm not 100% sure what I'll do just yet, but whatever it is, I'll figure it out I'm sure. I've got a list of other things that Mark and I need for our apartment which is going to be so wonderful! Ghetto fabulous is what we are going for here. My mother has generously offered us the couch and chair from our family room and the kitchen table with chairs. So we are partially furnished! Mark's family has also generously offered various pieces for the apartment, so we are going with the ecclectic theme I believe.

I'm nervous about starting work, excited for a new city, concerned about finding new friends, anxious about driving in a new place, thrilled about having another life adventure, saddened about not returning to my marvelous friends of Purdue... and many other emotions all swirling about. I'm laughing it off now, but movers come in two days - I really need to get going on organizing my life!!!

Back on US Soil

So I made it!! Around the world going east to west! I landed safely in LA, California and made my way via Amtrak to Anne and Zach's in San Diego. It feels really great to be back 'home', better than I was expecting. The greatest part I found is being able to walk up to anyone and know they will speak English. As a tourist you know that not everyone will speak English, but to a small degree you sort of expect those associated with tourism will. Usually this is the case, hotels and travel agents usually speak passable English which is GREAT. However, sometimes you are in a restaurant or on a bus and you need something answered and no one speaks English, and you ashamedly do not speak the local language, so you rely on gestures and pointing. That is part of the experience I suppose and it is terribly arrogant to believe or expect that those people should know English. So I can't say I'm upset when they don't, more that I got frustrated that I couldn't communicate effectively. I went an entire day without eating because I couldn't be sure that the food didn't have beef or pork in it when I was traveling. Thank goodness Coke is sold everywhere and has calories, because that was all I consumed that day - not the best day of my trip that's for sure.

So now I'm back home. The customs agents even welcomed me that way, once with a "welcome back" and then later with a "welcome home." I must admit it felt great and wonderful. So I'm attempting to readjust to US time, which usually isn't too hard for me. However, this might be a bit more difficult than previous times because I was traveling for over 27 hours (really closure to about 33 with the taxi to the airport and then the train to San Diego) so I slept for over 12 hours last night. I didn't wake up until 1:30 pm today. So I need to adjust and catch up on sleep which seems to be hard to do because I'm not sure I'll be sleeping again until much later tonight - we'll see though, I'm trying my best!

After a few days here with my Big I'm heading back to CO for the whirlwind of moving to Chicago. In about 10 days I'll be enjoying the wonderful view from my new home near the Belmont Station in Lakeview. I'm not sure but the view might be of the building next door - but I'm going to love it! So much change is going on right now in life which is both wonderful and overwhelming. I'll feel like I can manage everything when life settles down a bit - after Rachael and Michael's wedding of course! Thought that wedding will be great fun to see everyone :)

Until I get to the real home (Denver? Chicago?) I'm still traveling, only now on US time - maybe soon... hahaha

BANGKOK!!

So I'm finishing up my trip in Bangkok. I got many mixed reviews from other travelers on how much they loved or hated Bangkok so I didn't really know what to expect. I came in with an open mind and a wallet full of Baht for my spending pleasure - turns out that is the way to go in Bangkok. I'm staying at a place which costs 200B a night (about $7) with my own bathroom! I've been shopping at roadside stalls and trying my hand at bargining... but I'm not very good. Never the less when I buy a pair of capri pants for under $5 I guess I can't complain. As far as the shopping goes, my biggest purchase hands down of the entire trip even bigger than my coat in Morocco is my custom made suit. I decided to have a suit tailored while I'm here and surrounded by so many tailors. It's going to be beautiful when it is finished and I'll be sure to post a picture or two of it. Get excited!! Here are the snaps from the last few days :) enjoy!

Weekend market... this is a baby squirrel that I can buy as a pet.. maybe I should have and trained it to chase the Purdue squirrels (haha)

Baby parrot/bird things also for sale at the market

Famous floating market. Used to be really authentic and culturally unique, it has succumb to the tourist trap routine unfortunately :(

GIANT table and chairs at the Thai Arts and Crafts store - this is 'big people furniture' Daddy!

My historically significant stop - the bridge over the R Kwai. I can't decide if they hate America for bombing it so many times during WWII or if they were really happy that we were able to stop the Japanese from invading Burma and getting to India... very confusing

Super fun stop at the Tiger Temple! These are two little baby tiger cubs, super playful

I feel like I'm posing for my senior pictures again - but doesn't the tiger look drugged? It's not, I promise :)

Yay! Getting to spend some time with the tigers, how many times have you touched the tummy of a tiger?? (me - at least three now)

A bit of my diving... Koh Tao!!

So I spent the last few days (five days and four nights) on Koh Tao, and island off the eastern coast of Thailand learning to SCUBA dive. It was totally amazing and 100% fun and wonderful. 50% was the breathing underwater, 10% was the novelty of being in Thailand, and the remaining 40% were the great people got to learn and hang out with. A group of about 8 of us hung out all day from morning dives to night time beers and fire twirls. It was great!! Here are the snaps!!

Emma - my Irish roommate on the boat during the last day of my dive class. She has been diving since she was 13... her dad runs a dive shop in Dublin... I now have an open invitation to dive in Ireland - SWEET!

Some of the gang - Norbert (yes all I can think about is Harry Potter's Dragon...), me, Laura, Ornella, and our instructor Zigor. We are chillin on the roof of the boat.

Our dive site!! We dove on either side of this small island.

Home sweet home for Emma and I - our own little beach shack

The wonderful inside - fortunately we didn't have to spoon :)

So now I'm in Bangkok shopping and having a very fun time. At some point I'll tell everyone who remembers to ask about the Philippine who taught me how to cheat at gambling and wanted me to help him swindle money out of other gamblers for a 50/50 split of the winnings... um no thanks!!

Looking forward to CA though - yay for visiting the best Greek Family ever!! Gonna miss the little and grand little, and great grand little though... *hugs*

Finally in Bangkok

I finished my SCUBA lessons - yay!! I'm now certified to swim to a depth of 18 meters. It was such fun actually. There were 6 people in the class, two from Ireland, two Germans, and a Dutch/Ethiopian mix plus me! Our instructor was Spanish but spoke great English. We all had a great time. Our last few dives were really fun and we stayed underwater for around 45-50 minutes for each of our dives.
Other than the SCUBA, I didn't do a whole lot other than hang with my classmates and sleep. I met an awesome Irish woman, Emma, who I ended up sharing a little hut/house with - great fun. I'll try to get pictures up soon - internet is a bit expensive where I'm at so I don't want to waste the time with it.

Can't wait to get back home and move to Chicago though - thinking about all the crazy stuff Mark and I are going to do... Sunday brunch, gay people's leftover furniture, dinner parties, movie nights, shopping at Whole Foods.... gonna be great!!

Thailand anyone??

So I said goodbye to Malaysia and now am in the Land of Smiles, Thailand!! I'm currently awaiting my night ferry to an island of the coast, Ko Tao. I plan on being there for around 4 days while I learn to SCUBA dive. The certification is really inexpensive and I've got the interest and the time. I might not have internet there so if you don't get any updates, that is why. I'll be sure to take loads of pictures. I just wish I had a waterproof camera (darn you Gavin why didn't I swipe yours when I had the chance?!?!) to take pics of the fishies.

From Ko Tao it's off to BANGKOK for the last few days of my trip - shopping until the Baht run out - that's the name of the game. Basically I'm hitting the weekend market and I'm not leaving until my wallet is empty. I then will sleep on the street surrounded by my stuff - I can't wait.

Off to the island life!!

A few pictures

So my camera had/has a virus. It was making all my photos folders hidden so I'm not sure what to do about that. I got one of the issues resolved so now I can put a few pics up!! They are in no real order - enjoy!!

Me on a mini trek in the Cameron Highlands. I was rinsing off my feet after they got covered in mud...

The Highlands are known for their strawberries and everything the sell is some version of a strawberry - pretty crazy!!
Me at the butterfly farm!!
Scones and tea!! Mine is the strawberry fruity scone - yum!

In Maleka... seems that US politics are always worth a laugh and I must admit, I laughed pretty hard. :)
The giant needle thing in Kuala Lumpur
The hibiscus garden, no really these ARE hibiscus not something else and I'm just trying to sound smart.
Me and the Petronas Towers at night in KL
A little bridge we came across during our mini trek in the Cameron Highlands.

Camera woes

So I know I keep promising pictures... but I may be full of hot air... My camera seems to be infected with a virus of sorts. The file name is autorun.inf. I have no idea how I got it or where, but I cannot access my photos on any computer. They appear on my camera, but I cannot see them when I plug into the USB. I'm trying to see if there is any way to fix this problem, but I might need to buy a new memory card. We'll see how that goes.

In more happy news I've spent two GREAT days in the Cameron Highlands. It is simply beautiful here. The town and weather remind me a lot of Ooty in India. It's a hill station and very cooling. I went on a little hike/trek the other day with some other travelers which was great fun. We visited the butterfly park and I got to hold a bunch of them along with a chameleon and snake. Very fun.

Tonight I'm taking an overnight bus to Kota Bharu where I will cross into Thailand. From there it is 10 days until I fly home!! Yeah for a great trip - only minor bumps along the way.

Malaysia!!

Well I was hoping to upload some pictures today of Malaysia but this computer is fighting me tooth and nail!! So hopefully soon I will be able to post some photos.

In the mean time, here's what I've been up to:

I left Mei and Singapore on Monday morning and headed to a small town on the western coast called Melaka for two nights. I met a great Canadian lady Robin and we've been traveling together for the last three days now.

In Melaka, the guest house I stayed in was pretty basic, but then again what do you expect for $5 a night?? The owners were interesting, I think they were high sometimes... but pleasent enough. The town in pretty small and everything is walkable which is nice. Robin and I spent a lot of time exploring the town just meandering down streets and into shops.

On Wednesday we left for Kuala Lumpur (KL) the capital of Malaysia. It is an impressive city really, very modern and surprisingly clean. We had a mad hunt for this Orchid Garden which we finally found, the flowers were pretty but not worth the freakin' long walk we took to get there. We ended up finding this really cute place to eat lunch, no one spoke English, so we just sort of winged it. We ended up getting rice with pineapple, fried tofu with chili sauce, and fried bananas. Quite tasty!!

In the night we went to visit the Patronas Twin Towers. They used to be the tallest towers in the world until Taipei (?) 101 overtook them, now the tower in Dubai is passing 101. They were STUNNING at night. I wish I could put up pics... later I suppose.

Today I leave for the Cameron Highlands to do some hiking and chilling out there. Robin is staying in KL so I'm on my own for a bit :) They have a butterfly museum so I'll be on the lookout for mating butterflies to add to my collection!! haha

All for now - hope pics are coming soon.