Thank You

Thank you for working your ass off this past year, and still managing to be there for me whenever I need it. I'm so proud of you!

Making the Time

I realized recently that I have deprioritized most every aspect of mental sanity time, such as working out, theater, art, dance...and man, it has been taking its toll. I didn't realize how much I've depended on one or all of the above things to keep the stress level down until I took them each out of my daily routine little by little.

My excuse was: I have no time. Every time I tried to pencil time for myself, I thought of the hundred other things I needed to be doing instead. After some much needed conversations with people that mean a lot to me, I have realized that I have to prioritize my health and my sanity, or else I just won't be happy doing anything that I am doing.

So today, I made time for the gym. Yes it's ramadan, yes I had classes, and a conference call, and a meeting, and yes I have a quiz tomorrow, but I made the time. And man, it felt so good. I am now penciling in free art Friday before class this week, some much needed time with me and a ball of clay. I think I'm liking this...

Attempts at a monologue

For our first coach groups today, we had to bring in three objects that told a bit about our personality. I grabbed two of the objects with ease: my sketching pencils and mi caja de cigarros de Nicaragua. The latter is where I keep a plethera of pictures, old letters, postcards, notes... As I sat there emptying the box of its contents, I stumbled upon an crinkled old sheet of paper. I carefully unfolded it and read its contents. On the long forgotten sheet, scribbled at the top in my handwriting, were the words "first attempt at a monologue"...I read on. Performed in front of my entire high school with Multico my senior year of high school, this monologue spells out the gray line between culture and religion, between family and personal beliefs.

In my hand lay a monologue, a snippet of my life, spelling out my first attempts at grappling with what I truly found important. Today, reading over words that had once taken incredible personal courage to write, and were an incredible personal feat to perform, I sat and thought about how far I have come in the past three years. While I still haven't found that perfect balance, and still have questions that remain unanswered, I know I've come a long way. That, my friends, is a good feeling.

Reflecting with Helen C

As midterms surprisingly sneak up on my unsuspecting self esta semana, endless spanish vocab streams through my vains, mezclando con el cafe que ya esta circulando. I'm starting to feel productive. HK was a lot of play, and not so much work. Weird to say it, but I had missed the feeling of productivity. And now, while at times exhausting, a busy schedule keeps me going. It keeps my sangre flowing.

On a different not: Rowdie ROKS this weekend.
New members are rocking my world.
But right now, tis time to rock my espanol.

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.