i would rather be here.
Monday, August 29, 2005
meeting, anyone?
I am so sick of meetings. Ever since school started, it's meeting this, meeting that. Maybe it's my fault for having gotten involved in far too many meeting-generating organizations, but this is ridiculous. "Let's have a meeting to discuss our upcoming meetings!"
Fuck meetings.
Fuck coordinating your schedule with five to ten other busy, frazzled law students who have overlapping meetings. Fuck administrative fucked-uppedness. My skin crawls whenever anyone says the word "meet." My little blue dayplanner is more used than a two-dollar whore.
Okay...I feel better now. Just needed to vent.
off to my next meeting!
Fuck meetings.
Fuck coordinating your schedule with five to ten other busy, frazzled law students who have overlapping meetings. Fuck administrative fucked-uppedness. My skin crawls whenever anyone says the word "meet." My little blue dayplanner is more used than a two-dollar whore.
Okay...I feel better now. Just needed to vent.
off to my next meeting!
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Monday, August 22, 2005
one day at a time
it's strange being back in san diego, especially since this place has never really been "home" to me. i've always associated this city with school-induced headaches and my burgeoning inferiority complex.
it was even more strange when i drove back "home" to OC to visit my parents in a house so remodeled that it hardly resembles the house i grew up in. the hallways and bedrooms are in the same familiar places, but my dear baby sister is all grown up into a beautiful young woman and my father and stepmother have gone completely psychotic with religious zeal.
these past few days i have laughed and cried and shouted at the top of my lungs. i have climbed on precarious shelves to reach inside cobweb-festooned carboard boxes of my old things in the garage, untouched since i left the house after college, and pulled out old favorite books to bring home and old photos to smile at, and old journals to read through.
it's strange, but good, being back.
it was even more strange when i drove back "home" to OC to visit my parents in a house so remodeled that it hardly resembles the house i grew up in. the hallways and bedrooms are in the same familiar places, but my dear baby sister is all grown up into a beautiful young woman and my father and stepmother have gone completely psychotic with religious zeal.
these past few days i have laughed and cried and shouted at the top of my lungs. i have climbed on precarious shelves to reach inside cobweb-festooned carboard boxes of my old things in the garage, untouched since i left the house after college, and pulled out old favorite books to bring home and old photos to smile at, and old journals to read through.
it's strange, but good, being back.
Sunday, August 21, 2005
The Beach
On an island off the coast of Thailand, I found the closest aproximation yet of "The Beach (you know, the Leonardo diCaprio movie).
It's a place we heard through by word of mouth, doesn't exist on any map. Bungalows directly on the beach. A deck over the crashing waves, where people sit on pillows on the floor or lounge in one of the many hammocks, playing with the cats or sipping a fuit shake or wicked cocktail or eating delicious food.
At night, some of the best DJs I have heard spin buddha bar loungey music, breakbeats and house, and we all dance under the stars.
In December, the whole place is picking up and moving to an undisclosed location. The beach is getting to crowded, and they are moving to a lonlier place, now only accessible by boat.
We made friends with the bartender who told us where they are moving. Sweet.
It's a place we heard through by word of mouth, doesn't exist on any map. Bungalows directly on the beach. A deck over the crashing waves, where people sit on pillows on the floor or lounge in one of the many hammocks, playing with the cats or sipping a fuit shake or wicked cocktail or eating delicious food.
At night, some of the best DJs I have heard spin buddha bar loungey music, breakbeats and house, and we all dance under the stars.
In December, the whole place is picking up and moving to an undisclosed location. The beach is getting to crowded, and they are moving to a lonlier place, now only accessible by boat.
We made friends with the bartender who told us where they are moving. Sweet.
Friday, August 19, 2005
places i've been, places i want to see
I think I should start listing the places I’ve been since I graduated from college. So here it is:
Places I’ve been in the past four years, in no particular order (times in parenthesis if visited more than once):
Paris (3)
Lyon
Marseilles
Iles du Frioul
Cassis
Barcelona (2)
Mallorca
Cinque Terre (2)
Amsterdam (4)
Lisse
Siena
Prague (2)
Vienna (2)
Rome (2)
Venice (2)
Florence
Shanghai
Guangzhou
Hangzhou
Suzhou
Taipei
Kaoshuing
Hong Kong (2)
Bangkok
Phuket
Phi Phi
Ko Chang
Oahu
Vegas (10+)
Puerto Nuevo (4)
Places I want to see in the next four to five years (chosen because I want to do the adventurous, out of the way stuff while I am young, and leave the tamer locations for later):
Macchu Picchu
Teotihuacan
Tulum
Tortuguero
Galapagos Islands
Palau
Buenos Aires
La Coruna
Costa Rica
Honduras
Maldives
Goa
Mumbai
Seychelles
Laos (Vang Vieng)
Myanmar
Pamplona
I don’t expect to see all these places in four years, since I suppose in a year I will have to get a real job and actually work, but let’s see how far I get…
Places I’ve been in the past four years, in no particular order (times in parenthesis if visited more than once):
Paris (3)
Lyon
Marseilles
Iles du Frioul
Cassis
Barcelona (2)
Mallorca
Cinque Terre (2)
Amsterdam (4)
Lisse
Siena
Prague (2)
Vienna (2)
Rome (2)
Venice (2)
Florence
Shanghai
Guangzhou
Hangzhou
Suzhou
Taipei
Kaoshuing
Hong Kong (2)
Bangkok
Phuket
Phi Phi
Ko Chang
Oahu
Vegas (10+)
Puerto Nuevo (4)
Places I want to see in the next four to five years (chosen because I want to do the adventurous, out of the way stuff while I am young, and leave the tamer locations for later):
Macchu Picchu
Teotihuacan
Tulum
Tortuguero
Galapagos Islands
Palau
Buenos Aires
La Coruna
Costa Rica
Honduras
Maldives
Goa
Mumbai
Seychelles
Laos (Vang Vieng)
Myanmar
Pamplona
I don’t expect to see all these places in four years, since I suppose in a year I will have to get a real job and actually work, but let’s see how far I get…
from my tattered brown travel journal:
Entries from my travel journal: Bangkok and Cambodia
Sawasdee House, Bangkok, Thailand July 31, 2005
There is something immensely freeing about being somewhere completely, utterly removed from home, where all you lay claim to in this world fits into a small backpack.
Spending the afternoon sipping cocktails and lounging around on a triangle cushion. Being able to say when someone asks you where you will be tomorrow: “I don’t know.”
The bottoms of my feet are not black yet, which means I haven’t yet really begun to travel.
I have been eating everything in sight lately. The street stalls are so enticing, especially those that have huge pots of god-knows-what that you just gesture at for a scoop.
August 2, 2005
Last night Stella and I went drinking at this mobile bar that folds out of a van. It’s called Shark, and they serve 180 baht (approx. US $4.50) huge buckets of alcohol. The guys who throw this party were there drinking, and they attached a big bell to the top of the tarp that formed a makeshift canopy. Every time one of the guys got up and rang the bell, everyone at the bar got a free drink. The drunker the guys get, the more often they ring the bell. Stella and I started out with two buckets of alcohol, but then the guys rang the bell and we had four buckets of alcohol. They ended up ringing the bell 5 times.
We got smashed and met a group of cool travelers. When the bar-in-a-van closed, we somehow fit all eight of us in a tuk-tuk (which comfortably seats three small people) to go drinking some more. Fun night!
Siem Reap, Cambodia August 3, 2005
WHAT A DAY! Woke up at 6am in Bangkok to catch the bus to Siem Reap, which was supposed to take 11 hours. Of course, everything was delayed and it ended up taking us 18 hours to get to Siem Reap.
Before the border at Poipet, we got kicked off our comfortable double-decker bus and into the back of a modified pickup truck, which we rode to the border. Then they took us to an exchange house that looked very official but ended up totally scamming us on the exchange rate. My fault, though, for not checking the exchange rate before I left Thailand.
After the exchange scam, about 20 of us were herded into the back of what can only be described as a cattle truck, and we rode for about 2 hours on a bumpy, dusty dirt road, trying to avoid falling through the holes in the floorboards. The dirt eventually turned into mud, and we were forced to get out, put on our backpacks and walk 2 kilometers in the mud and heat to our dingy, waiting bus.
We didn’t arrive in Siem Reap until almost 1AM.
Angkor Wat, Cambodia, August 5, 2005
I don’t know how long I’ve dreamt of sitting here, writing this. I am near the central tower of the sanctuary of Angkor Wat (equal in height to the towers at Notre Dame). A strong, cool breeze blows at my back, I am seated facing inside, looking into an empty basin that may have been used as a reflecting pool.
This place is breathtaking in its harmony, immensity, detail. Every inch is covered with the most intricate carvings. It feels so great to have finally made it here.
Seven wonders of the world: two down, five to go.
Smiley’s Guest House, Siem Reap, Cambodia August 6th, 2005
What else can I say about Angkor, except that words cannot do it justice? Climbing around the temple-mountains, staring face-to-face with the Bayon, I could not find the wherewithal to write.
Sawasdee House, Bangkok, Thailand July 31, 2005
There is something immensely freeing about being somewhere completely, utterly removed from home, where all you lay claim to in this world fits into a small backpack.
Spending the afternoon sipping cocktails and lounging around on a triangle cushion. Being able to say when someone asks you where you will be tomorrow: “I don’t know.”
The bottoms of my feet are not black yet, which means I haven’t yet really begun to travel.
I have been eating everything in sight lately. The street stalls are so enticing, especially those that have huge pots of god-knows-what that you just gesture at for a scoop.
August 2, 2005
Last night Stella and I went drinking at this mobile bar that folds out of a van. It’s called Shark, and they serve 180 baht (approx. US $4.50) huge buckets of alcohol. The guys who throw this party were there drinking, and they attached a big bell to the top of the tarp that formed a makeshift canopy. Every time one of the guys got up and rang the bell, everyone at the bar got a free drink. The drunker the guys get, the more often they ring the bell. Stella and I started out with two buckets of alcohol, but then the guys rang the bell and we had four buckets of alcohol. They ended up ringing the bell 5 times.
We got smashed and met a group of cool travelers. When the bar-in-a-van closed, we somehow fit all eight of us in a tuk-tuk (which comfortably seats three small people) to go drinking some more. Fun night!
Siem Reap, Cambodia August 3, 2005
WHAT A DAY! Woke up at 6am in Bangkok to catch the bus to Siem Reap, which was supposed to take 11 hours. Of course, everything was delayed and it ended up taking us 18 hours to get to Siem Reap.
Before the border at Poipet, we got kicked off our comfortable double-decker bus and into the back of a modified pickup truck, which we rode to the border. Then they took us to an exchange house that looked very official but ended up totally scamming us on the exchange rate. My fault, though, for not checking the exchange rate before I left Thailand.
After the exchange scam, about 20 of us were herded into the back of what can only be described as a cattle truck, and we rode for about 2 hours on a bumpy, dusty dirt road, trying to avoid falling through the holes in the floorboards. The dirt eventually turned into mud, and we were forced to get out, put on our backpacks and walk 2 kilometers in the mud and heat to our dingy, waiting bus.
We didn’t arrive in Siem Reap until almost 1AM.
Angkor Wat, Cambodia, August 5, 2005
I don’t know how long I’ve dreamt of sitting here, writing this. I am near the central tower of the sanctuary of Angkor Wat (equal in height to the towers at Notre Dame). A strong, cool breeze blows at my back, I am seated facing inside, looking into an empty basin that may have been used as a reflecting pool.
This place is breathtaking in its harmony, immensity, detail. Every inch is covered with the most intricate carvings. It feels so great to have finally made it here.
Seven wonders of the world: two down, five to go.
Smiley’s Guest House, Siem Reap, Cambodia August 6th, 2005
What else can I say about Angkor, except that words cannot do it justice? Climbing around the temple-mountains, staring face-to-face with the Bayon, I could not find the wherewithal to write.
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
picture album of southeast asia trip
I've put together an album of a few pictures from my trip. There are over 380 but I just chose around 80 to share-editing takes forever!
Click here to view
Click here to view
Sunday, August 14, 2005
Friday, August 05, 2005
Angkor Wat
(Siem Reap, Cambodia)
words cannot describe. i can't even try. you just have to come here yourself.
i will probably not be online again until i get back to Bangkok on the 12th. Taking a rest from technology, spending one more days wandering Angkor and then headed off to the beach on Ko Chang.
words cannot describe. i can't even try. you just have to come here yourself.
i will probably not be online again until i get back to Bangkok on the 12th. Taking a rest from technology, spending one more days wandering Angkor and then headed off to the beach on Ko Chang.
Monday, August 01, 2005
bangkok!
sawasdee-ka!
arrived in bangkok the day before yesterday, after my last night of partying in HK, which i spent at a small hidden bar called pruple six, talking and drinking with friends.
stella and i are staying at a guesthouse called "sawasdee house" on a street behind the monasery next to kao san road. it's well-decorated, full of chill young travelers, surprisingly clean, and our room has a balcony looking out onto the street.
it has been drizzling lightly for a good amount of the time we have been here, which is a good thing because it's less hot.
yesterday was our first full day, and we started it by eating breakfast at a small roadside stand. then, we headed to chakuchat, or something like that--the weekend market. it was the mother of all swap meets, so big we got lost numerous times, and impossible to exit from without buying a few (incredibly cheap!) items of clothing.
today, we went to the royal palace, and two temples, one housing the seated buddha and another called the temple of the dawn.
sitting inside the temple in the royal palace, gazing at the jade buddha, i felt a very different energy than when i felt at the various magnificent christian cathedrals of europe. today i felt a heat rising from inside me and radiating out to my fingers. in both christian and other churches, i always feel--how can i describe it--a pressure, like a pressing down, on my soul. and i am always overcome with awe. these are the houses that love built. whatever tyrannical and misguided methods led to the completion of these buildings, they are filled today with peaceful monks and priests, and visited by pilgrims who stand humbled before the reflection of the divine in what human hands have built.
the story of the jade buddha moved me. nobody knows who carved this huge 66-inch buddha from a single piece of jade. it was found in the 1400's when an abbott that had rescued a cement buddha from the ruins of a temple in chang mai noticed that some of the plaster had chipped off the nose, revealing a luminous green stone underneath. the priceless jade buddha had been disguised under a layer of cement. made me think inarticulable thoughts about the metaphorical diamond-in-the-rough that exists in all of us.
many of the temples around bangkok are covered with breathtaking mosaics made from the discarded remnants of chinese porcelainware. how poetic that one can literally build a temple out of broken teacups. it reminds me of stephen hawking's arrow of time, where he ponders at why we can remember the past but not the future, why teacups that have broken on the floor do not pick themselves up and become whole again. hawking's answer to this quandary came in the form of increasing entropy in the universe. but today i thought: some have taken broken teacups and made them, not just whole, but transcendent.
tomorrow at seven in the morning i head out on a 12-hour bus ride to angkor wat. i have been dreaming of this day for years, and i can't wait!
arrived in bangkok the day before yesterday, after my last night of partying in HK, which i spent at a small hidden bar called pruple six, talking and drinking with friends.
stella and i are staying at a guesthouse called "sawasdee house" on a street behind the monasery next to kao san road. it's well-decorated, full of chill young travelers, surprisingly clean, and our room has a balcony looking out onto the street.
it has been drizzling lightly for a good amount of the time we have been here, which is a good thing because it's less hot.
yesterday was our first full day, and we started it by eating breakfast at a small roadside stand. then, we headed to chakuchat, or something like that--the weekend market. it was the mother of all swap meets, so big we got lost numerous times, and impossible to exit from without buying a few (incredibly cheap!) items of clothing.
today, we went to the royal palace, and two temples, one housing the seated buddha and another called the temple of the dawn.
sitting inside the temple in the royal palace, gazing at the jade buddha, i felt a very different energy than when i felt at the various magnificent christian cathedrals of europe. today i felt a heat rising from inside me and radiating out to my fingers. in both christian and other churches, i always feel--how can i describe it--a pressure, like a pressing down, on my soul. and i am always overcome with awe. these are the houses that love built. whatever tyrannical and misguided methods led to the completion of these buildings, they are filled today with peaceful monks and priests, and visited by pilgrims who stand humbled before the reflection of the divine in what human hands have built.
the story of the jade buddha moved me. nobody knows who carved this huge 66-inch buddha from a single piece of jade. it was found in the 1400's when an abbott that had rescued a cement buddha from the ruins of a temple in chang mai noticed that some of the plaster had chipped off the nose, revealing a luminous green stone underneath. the priceless jade buddha had been disguised under a layer of cement. made me think inarticulable thoughts about the metaphorical diamond-in-the-rough that exists in all of us.
many of the temples around bangkok are covered with breathtaking mosaics made from the discarded remnants of chinese porcelainware. how poetic that one can literally build a temple out of broken teacups. it reminds me of stephen hawking's arrow of time, where he ponders at why we can remember the past but not the future, why teacups that have broken on the floor do not pick themselves up and become whole again. hawking's answer to this quandary came in the form of increasing entropy in the universe. but today i thought: some have taken broken teacups and made them, not just whole, but transcendent.
tomorrow at seven in the morning i head out on a 12-hour bus ride to angkor wat. i have been dreaming of this day for years, and i can't wait!
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