Back to Life

So I haven't been blogging. Writer's block I guess one could call it...or something of the sort. I've been having a difficult time wrapping my head around my last few weeks, where I'm at right now. Not gonna lie, getting back into Madcity life after my past 8 months has been hard, to say the least. Over and over again I had heard about reverse culture shock, about reintegrating into what used to be the norm, and how difficult it can be. I heard it, but I never actually...heard it...if that makes sense. I mean, I have lived in this city a greater portion of my life, and it is the closest thing I have to home, but right now it feels as if I've been gone too long and kind of missed a good chunk of college life; like my madison life kept moving forward, but without me in it. When does it get easier to be home?

HOME

Back from an 8 month journey which ended with an incredible IC... 30 Minutes until my first class starts. Today is filled with classes, student org fair, Jill's arrival, and a new trainee! There's no easing into this semester baby, we're divin in full force.

Yes, I have a lot to update and reflect on: AIESEC, IC, London, NYC, HK...the blogs will come soon. Patience friends.

Memories of a New York Subway

-God bless you, Sir-

-Mommy why is that man sitting on the ground?

-Well honey, he's homeless just like we are.

-Mom, we're not THAT homeless!

-We're lucky because we're a mother and daughter so we get to stay in a shelter. This man is probably a war veteran or something.

-Oh.

My View

This is the view from my room's balcony at my dad's apartment in London...

A Big Responsibility

Soora, I hope you can accomplish everything you want to accomplish with AIESEC...The world needs it right now.

-My Mom

Time to Decompress...?

Well, six months of Hong Kong, two internships in NYC and an amazing SSC in none other than Fort Wayne Indianer, I am finally back in Madison...for six days until I take off to IC. In the meantime, how will I spend 6 days in the MADCITY, you ask? Getting my lovely wisdom teeth yanked.

Thoughts run rampant, but until I have time to decompress, they will remain jumbled and away from my blog...

Till next time.

A Snippet of Work Talk

I used to be terrified of clowns, like mortally terrified...But it wasn't until I started working here that I began to really understand...and develop a whole new level of respect and appreciation...for the performance art of....of clowning...

An Epic Journey

Stepping out from the JC diner with the overwhelming menu at some ambiguous hour in the early afternoon on one of the four days that have somehow blurred themselves together in my mind, three dazed individuals embark on an epic journey: buying coals from the Egyo place. With the greasy gyro I'd just devoured weighing down my every step, I force my feet to inch toward the PATH station. The sun is out to get me man, but I'll take it god damnit, there are coals to be bought. To my left, T-rent diligently recites road signs, and to my right, Arnaub engages in an equally pressing conversation...with himself. This continues for a good bit. Arnaub proceeds to trip over his feet, or the sidewalk, or run into a pole or a door or something....for probably the 5th time in our short journey to the PATH. This fuels my giggle fit, which has loyally accompanied me since we stepped foot out the diner. God Bless the Giggles.

The subway ride is somewhat of a blur, as is the egyo place and the purchasing of the coals. Arnaub suddenly has an uncontrollable yearning to purchase Eurotrip, and so, our three-beats-off minds set out in search for a video store. Since neither "Jesus Loves Us" nor "Big Ass Sistas" were adequate replacements for Arnaub's unreasonably demanding movie tastes, we proceeded to head back to the PATH.

Thirsty and exhausted, we trudge towards the PATH, our epic journey near completion. The path station in site, smiles slowly creeping across our eager faces, we stand a bit higher and Creep forward a bit faster... well, except for Arnaub, who still dodges the trash cans and fire hydrants jumping at his feet. Damn stationary objects.

Of course, its our special day, so our epic adventures can't possibly end without little surprise! Trent manages to place his foot perfectly on a full HI-C juice box just waiting patiently for three unsuspecting pedestrians, and its explosion, which could not have been more perfectly-timed, showers Arnaub and I thoroughly in the red, sticky sweetness of HI-C.

And with that, we completed our journey, and made it back alive.
That, my friends, is impressive.

Mejorando mi espanol

I just had an entire conversation with my director at Teatro IATI, entirely in Spanish, about her experiences in Cuba. I love this job.

A slice of HK

Walking down the ol' Newark Ave in JC and stumble into one of the endless 99 cent stores in my sweats and tshirt. I'm at the register paying for my banana chips (soo good)...a guy shoots me a puzzled look and asks: You study in Hong Kong?! I look back, slightly confused, and then remember I'm wearing a shirt with the name of HKUST written in Chinese down the front...I smile, the two of us proceed to chat about a place half way across the world, and strangely, the city of Hong Kong and the memories made within it inch a bit closer to home.

Home...or something like it

I'm back in the good ol US of A, and life is good. Highlights of the past week include:

1) One last hoorah with the glorious HK crew...
2) Surviving the 16 hour plane ride and landing in NYC baby!
3) Flopping
4) Eating every meal I'd craved in Hong Kong
5) Finding my way around without getting lost...much
6) Starting my two internships, and actually liking them
7) Free Eels concert followed by a pirateship ferry ride
8) Movie nights in Hoboken
9) T-rent making me food
10) Roofdeck bonding with Betsy and Clarali.
11) Applying for LCP.
12) Roofdeck Movie Nights
13) Getting accepted for IC
14) Sitting through a two hour all-Spanish meeting and understanding it.
15) Spacehogs with narration

It's good to be back...

Back From Nam

Tanja and her boyfriend Mike blessed me with their presence for the past two weeks, and after much manic shopping and siteseeing for the 2 days we had in HK, we took off to Ho Chi Minh last Monday. HCMC is vibrant, hectic, and overwhelming. I loved it. We learned to cross the the motorbike-infested streets pretty damn quick...Usually by just throwing Mike out into oncoming traffic and following alongside with eyes half shut hoping we wont die. We took a video crossing the street if you want proof of the madness.

This trip was a bit more lax than Cambodia and Vietnam, since I went into it with no agenda, and in some ways that was great. The only downer is that we ended up booking a three day tour of the Mekong Delta, and I don't dig tours, I quickly came to learn. I'm not a fan of the structured, 30 person boat rides and dinners with no wandering time, and definitely less a fan of the "people zoo" feeling a tour like that gives. Also, not a big on our tour guide. After a slight suspicion that he was making shit up, halfway through the tour my suspicions were validated when he started explaining the religion of islamism. BUT, bitching aside, parts of the trip were definitely worth it. We hopped into these long, narrow, rickety wooden rowboats where a women stood on the back of the boat and rowed us through the houses on stilts while her little girls crawled around and played games with Tanj and I. We also went to an island where the Cham people, an ethnic minority in Vietnam, live (they practice "islamism"). So in the middle of a small island in the Mekong Delta, we went and saw a beautiful white and blue mosque. What I was not ready for was looking off the side of the mosque and seeing a 14 year old boy's circumcision...I don't want to talk about it....so in a nutshell, long bus rides, shitty tour guide, snake wine, boat rides, circumcisions...that pretty much sums up those three days.

We were ready to kill everyone on the bus by the time the third day rolled around, and nearly cried for joy when we finally made our way back to Yellow House, our hostel in Saigon which now felt like home. 5 dollars a night, free breakfasts and internets...Beautiful.

But, now, fastforward a few days, and I'm back in Hong Kong in the YMCA lobby in TST, sans Tanja and Mike. The two made a gruntled and confused departure at 6 in the AM after a rather ridiculous night last night, which started at Lan Kwai Fong and ended with Jefferson hijacking our cabdriver with his sneaky Cantonese and taking us to the top of Victoria's Peak instead of to our hotel.

Two more days of HK...

Winding down

I have two weeks left, and everything is happening fast. Tanja is here and gets back from the Philippines tomorrow. Rusty gets in on Sunday. Tanj and I take off to Vietnam on Monday, back the 6th and I leave the 10th. The 9th I will find myself surrounded by great company: Rusty, Digs, Tiffany, Yat Wan...a fitting way to go.

Anxiety is high, emotions rampant, and I can't possibly begin to articulate how weird saying goodbyes and packing my semester away has been.

I'm going to miss this place.

Senile Old Men

Dear Tiffany,
I don't know you yet but I already don't like you. The reason is simple. You are young. I hate young people. Like Sara. I especially don't like her because she is young and ugly. She's like a baby yeti. UGO. Plus she's Egyptian. I don't like them either. Living in the glory days of the past, trying to forget that even the Albanians and Georgians colonized them. The fact that you are friends with her puts you in bad standing already.

Anyway from my observations on your blog it looks like you are a real trouble maker. I won't tolerate that, I won't stand for it either. You will learn to respect authoritah!!! I don't think I would want to get to know you at all actually. All my years as an undercover agent for IASTE within @'s evil empire instilled in me a distaste for foreigners. @ would be a lot cooler if it wasn't for all the damn foreigners.

I just wanted to take the effort to give you a glimpse of how miserable you will be in Shanghai. Let me know when you are coming, where you will be staying blah blah blah and I will personally take it up on myself to ruin your life while you are here. It's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it.

Love and peace or else,
Digs

PS: I'm very creepy, avoid me at all costs if you know what's good for you. All the rumors you heard about me are the tip of the iceberg... The bad ones are the tip of the iceberg, the good ones are lies.

Oh Goody, A typhoon...

Tomorrow should be an interesting twist to life on this beautiful seaside campus when Typhoon Chanchu meets the HK shores. Notice that experiencing a typhoon is NOT on my list of HK goals.

Crapola.

Why am I still here?

I'm sad, frustrated, and demoralized. Why am I still in aiesec?

1) The unyielding belief in creating an organization that at this point doesn't exist.
2) The people

That's it.

Good Day, Sunshine

Two goals accomplished today:

1) Get really lost

2) Have a near death experience


Some may disagree with the latter, but to two already-freaked-out and very lost ladies on what was meant to be a relaxing hiking trip through Sai Kung, a huge snake encounter directly followed by a WILD BOAR encounter definitely qualify, and "near death experience" can be crossed off my list of goals.

Aside from that little adventure, this has been an absolutely incredible day. Life is falling into place beautifully...I'm still in disbelief. There's just no way to describe how relieved and happy and lucky I feel, so I'm not even going to attempt to do it...BUT, one thing I do need to say is that I have some pretty fucking amazing people in my life, and I am so grateful for that.

On that note, 28 days till I'm back in the US of A!

Border Crossings and Teddy Bear Kingdoms...or lack thereof

I woke up this morning in eager anticipation for my long-awaited shopping trip into Shenzhen. Consumer goods were waiting for me across the border, and I was ready. I had my fanny pack on, my passport ready, my knock-off northface glued to my back, and pictures of my soon-to-be tailored suits printed and ready for action. After the 25 minute MTR ride, followed by another 30 minute KCR ride...Jess, Jacqui and I eagerly arrived at the borders. SZ and the glorious shopping in store were only a few short feet away.

One slight problem: my visa expired YESTERDAY.

I sat staring at my passport in disbelief. How the fuck did it get to be May 7th?! Three months have passed since I was in Shenzhen? I asked if there was anything I could do. Nope. I asked if they gave visas at the border. Yeah, unless you're from the good ol' US of A. Fucking A man, Fucking A. So, after I proceed to beat myself up over my idiocy, I had to turn my ass around as the girls proceeded on an epic shopping adventure without me. It took about another half hour in between the SZ and HK borders as I waited to be cleared to go back into Hong Kong. I cried. A nice man gave me a napkin. That helped a bit.

after a rather disappointing start to my morning, I decided there was only one thing to do with the rest of my day to make me feel better...find Teddy Bear Kingdom. For the longest time, I have heard tall tales of the mystic lands of Teddy Bear Kingdom located somewhere in the heart of Hong Kong. I was told I would encounter it on one of my HK endeavors. A certain person got lost in the midst of the land of the Teddy Bears, and his eerie retelling of the events only escalated my anticipation of the adventures I would encounter when I made the discovery.

I was given no clues as to location before journeying to Hong Kong...only that it was inevitable I would stumble upon it. I came to Hong Kong confident in the certainty of finding it..but as my time here progressed, I began to second-guess myself. What if I was never to discover the magical place? What untouched part of Hong Kong did it consume? If I can't find this place, how much of the rest of HK am I missing out on?

I finally asked for a hint. HK museum of art. Noted.

My search was temporarily forgotten through the excitement of travels and the daunting week of school work which followed (yea, I actually take classes). But, today, after my piss-poor morning, I was determined to find it once and for all. I took the MTR to the TST stop, speed walked down Nathan road, under the subway to the upscale mall SOGO. I then began to ask questions...people pointed left, they pointed right, looked at me funny and shook their heads. you know, the usual.

Finally, I get the answer to the puzzle: This is it. SOGO. Teddy Bear Kingdom was replaced by the mall one year ago.

NOOOOOO!

Summertime

I've decided to raise the middle fingers up to resume-fucking for the summer and go with my gut. I'm working at Teatro IATI the non-profit Spanish theater company as an intern to the administrative director. And, if all goes as it should, I'll be living with Clarali. Come August if I'm not fluent you all have a right to punch me in the ass.

What I've learned in Org Management 121:

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