The Decision

This is M Dog, the light of my life. He has the worst mood swings in our house and knows how to give attitude. If he were a girl, he would surely demand to be called, "Princess". I think he has taken on some of mommy's qualities, including his adorableness. :) Aiight, back to the story...

Ok I think I simplified my decision too much. It wasn’t just about money vs. stress. I knew that I couldn’t make a decision based solely off money because it had already led me to a very dark, depressing hole, i.e. my first defense job. Also, I knew I could deal with stress. In fact, I do my best work under extreme pressure. I recognize that I need the constant threat of imminent, disastrous consequences to push me. But, did I want to deal with that pressure day in, day out? The company was very prestigious and known for its cutting edge technology and the benefits were amazing. Could I really turn it down? This company had given me the most rigorous screening (2 phone interviews, a 5 hour in-person interview and an actual test) and I had come out on top. That was something to be proud of in itself and showed me that I had what it takes to make it at this particular company, but did I want to?

On the other hand, the second company barely had a screening process and I knew I had the job pretty much from the interviewer’s first line, “I know you’re too smart for us, but let me tell you why this company is an awesome place to work.” Everyone was in shorts and flip flops, there were no miserable, depressing excuses for work stations (read: cubicles) and I was even told I would get my own office. Helllllllllllz yeah! I would report to the CEO and I would have a huge impact on change if I took the job.

I struggled with the decision. The first company was offering slightly more money, but they were also stringing me along during the interview process. It took them forever to give me an answer, and to be honest, it soured me on the company. But did I want a job that was almost ridiculously easy to get? Also, I would be starting a new department and the role wasn’t quite developed at the time. This made me slightly nervous.

In the end, I chose the laid back company because I saw it as a better fit for me as a person right now. After traveling for 6 months, doing whatever the hell I wanted, and answering to no one (well, HBF liked to think he kept me in check), I don’t think a high energy/high stress position was where my mind was at.

After I accepted the position, I had immediate buyer’s remorse. Did I make the right decision? Is the other company better? Did I chicken out on life? I struggled with these thoughts for about 2 days and ultimately came to the conclusion that I couldn’t do a damn thing about my decision. It was done, and I was officially employed after 1 year off. I felt relief and very, very nervous. I hadn’t worked in a year.. What if there were crazy changes that had taken place in the work world and I had no idea about them? What if there were 3 shells instead of toilet paper? (That’s right, a Demolition Man reference) I didn’t want to look like an idiot, but maybe that just couldn’t be helped.

I had 4 more weeks of freedom, and I did my best not to think about work. AT. ALL. I went home to hang out with the fam for 2 of those weeks, and it was bliss. No more self doubt, no more tears, no more indecision. I could finally enjoy my time that I was not working, only to have it end in 4 weeks. Aint that a pisser. But hey, it’s my own fault. My mind works in weird, wonderful and sometimes irrational ways. HBF can attest to that. Lemme just give a shout out to him for sticking by me through these hard times, and poking me gently when I needed it. You da best.

A Turning Point (aka Part 4)

Dark times people… Dark times. But not too dark. I was alive and healthy, had HBF to support me and could basically do whatever I wanted, if only I could decide. All of my necessities were taken care of so my mind was free to wander the ends of the earth and figure out what the next step in my life would be. Unfortunately, my brain didn’t get very creative and insisted on Law & Order for nourishment. I was happy to oblige. As I tried (and pretty much failed) to teach myself Dreamweaver in order to create my pet sitting website, I would invariably let any small defeat ruin my day. If I couldn’t get a button placed right, I immediately wanted to take a nap. If a page wasn’t loading correctly, I would take a ‘break’ and watch TV for 5 hours. Basically, I was highly unmotivated and used any excuse to do nothing. But ultimately, doing nothing made me so unhappy. I was definitely ashamed most days when HBF would come home and ask me what I did today. I would try to elaborate the tiniest thing I accomplished in order to sound important. Sad, I know. I was very sad.

But, it wasn’t all sad. There were definitely fun times, and they usually happened when I wasn’t home by myself all day. I say by myself, but I wasn’t totally alone. M dog was there, but he doesn’t say much. Occasionally he winks at me, but I haven’t quite figured out what his winks mean. Most days we would go on walks, but there were days when I couldn’t even get off the couch. Or rather, I didn’t want to get off the couch. Let me give credit where credit is due..

I came to the realization that I needed to be challenged in life. Would I be happy walking dogs and picking up poo every day? Probably not. I made up my mind to start looking for an engineering job, but I vowed to apply only for jobs that were in my actual field. This presented a little bit of a problem, as there aren’t very many job openings for actual industrial engineers. But, we go by many different names in the business world, i.e. process engineer, manufacturing engineer, quality engineer, and the list goes on… HBF had always told me that I would be a really good project manager since I like to boss people (him) around, and I took that to heart. I started looking for project manager positions as well. Now, I had my rules: Only jobs with my specific engineering or project manager jobs, no defense jobs, make sure I submitted a tailored resume and cover letter to each possible position.. blah blah. Translation: I was actually going to try to get a real job.

Now, if you’ve been recently unemployed, then you can prolly relate to a lot of what I’m saying. But you’ll relate most to my next sentence: Applying for jobs is the second suckiest thing to do, but ultimately trumped by interviewing. More on that later. I started applying to jobs, but I didn’t get many responses. I had a company call me up randomly, telling me they found my resume on Monster.com. I went for an interview and the guy really liked me. The only problem was that this job broke one of my rules. It wasn’t a real engineering job. It was sort of an engineering job, in that I’d be estimating how much it would cost to put alarm systems in a building, but I also had to sell these alarm systems too. From past experience, I knew that I wasn’t really cut out to be a salesman, but this guy that I interviewed with said these things sold themselves. I was slightly intrigued, and agreed to go on a second interview with the owners of the company up in LA. The guy prepped me, saying the owners are all salesman, but he thought I would do great and had no worries about me passing it.

The interview was pretty much like grinding glass into my eye. All these guys wanted to know about was my selling experience (basically 0) and why the hell I had left my previous job in a horrible economy to go traveling. They left the door open so my fan boy could listen in to me getting a stern talking to, but afterwards he was still sold on me. He was determined to talk the owners into hiring me even though I pretty much bombed the interview. Talking with HBF, I could tell he sort of wanted me to take it because it would get me off my butt. But, he also wanted me to be happy and encouraged me to make the choice for my happiness, whatever that was. I turned down the job and continued to sit on the couch, still a little sad.

The beginning of the end of this little saga began with an e-mail. The e-mail was from my professor with a job opportunity. An older alumni was going to quit her job at a hospital and wanted to recommend someone to follow her to make a smooth transition. My professor knew I was looking and offered to pass my resume to her. I was ecstatic, but first he wanted to check out my resume. We met later in the week and in no uncertain terms he told me my resume was lame. It had no buzzwords and lacked the right experience to get the jobs I was looking for. Not that I didn’t have the experience, I just wasn’t presenting it at all. Shocked, I took his advice and basically rewrote my resume that night and to my delight, he loved it. He submitted it, and I waited. Impatiently.

It was actually a job I was interested in, but it wasn’t typical engineering. The job was to help make a hospital more efficient, working projects that would reduce labor time, or save the hospital money. Basically, using my brain to make things better. I started to hunt on the internet for those specific jobs, but there weren’t many. I kept applying with my new and improved resume and the response was overwhelming: 5 companies wanted to interview me within a span of 2 weeks. I did both phone interviews and in-person interviews. I had a 5 hour interview with 10 people at one company, and even had to take a test (my fault though. I may have eluded to knowing something that I didn’t know.. and they wanted to test me on that knowledge. Aw shiiiiii… I studied for a day and a half and passed with flying colors). All these interviews sucked the life out of my since every brain cell was on high alert for hours at a time, ready to answer any question posed. The more interviews I had, the better my stories got and the more responsibilities I had in my previous positions. I didn’t lie per se, I just exaggerated, but I had no doubt in my mind that I could have done any of the jobs I interviewed for.

I did get my booty handed to me at one point, when they brought out the mathematical equations that I hadn’t looked at in many years and expected me to do something with them. I kinda sat there, stunned, and mumbled something incoherent and felt like an idiot. Needless to say, I didn’t get that job. And I vowed to be more prepared in the future.

At one interview, they didn’t interview me at all. Rather, the guy exclaimed ‘We know you’re too smart for us, but let me tell you why you should work here’. He put forth a very compelling argument and I believed it was definitely a place where I could work. People walked around in flip flops and jeans and there were no cubicles at all. I would get my own office, but I wasn’t exactly sure what I would be doing, and that worried me. I knew I was the type of person that needed concrete projects that would produce a result and action would be taken. No more busy work, and no more pretending to be busy. I wanted to actually make a difference in a company. Is that so wrong?

Out of the 5 companies, I received 2 offers from 2 very different companies. One company was super intense, high level of responsibility, high number of work hours, great benefits, great salary. The other company was laid back, smaller but growing, benefits a little lacking and a smaller salary, although more than I had made at my last job. So, it was like this: More money, more stress, or less money, less stress. Hmm.. Which job would you take?

The Aftermath: Part 3

Part 3 is complicated. Part 3 deals with my inner psyche and of course, so HBF tells me, I’m complicated. While in Oregon, I can honestly say I was hiding out. I didn’t really want to see any of my friends (family was ok) and I’m not sure why. Maybe it was because I had been spending 24 hours 7 days a week with HBF and I didn’t know how to talk to anyone else. I couldn’t poke some random friend in the ribs and make him scream like a girl if I didn’t like what he said. Another friend wouldn’t be able to tolerate playing cribbage for hours and able to entertain me all the while with witty banter. Or maybe they could. I think really it came down to the fact that I had a hard time relating to people. This is already tough for me, as girls are usually too crazy for me to tolerate, but boys just aren’t girls. Make sense? Hmm, maybe I’m crazy too.. (HBF hurt his neck by violently agreeing with this point). Ok, who cares about the reason, but I did hide out. I hung out with mi madre and absolutely drank up any television I could (along with milk). All the while, HBF had made his way down to San Diego and was trying to start life again. Life goal #1: Find a house. This was tricky, as I was up in Oregon and I had a pretty strong opinion on what I want in a house. I would look at craigslist and send HBF possible options and then proceed to pester him until he went and looked at them. He would send me back videos and I would ultimately veto them for one reason or another, usually because they didn’t have a dishwasher. After about 2 weeks of this process, HBF got fed up and demanded I come down to SD and help find us a house. The only problem: M dog. I had to bring him down with me and since we didn’t have a house, where would we stay? I don’t think any of our friends even had a yard and I hated the thought of imposing on someone with my smelly dog for who knows how long. Logistics, logistics. I finally told HBF I would only come down if he came back up to get me because I didn’t want to drive alone. Apparently he was just that desperate (and loving) and he flew up to Oregon, had delicious Easter brunch with the fam, and we started the trek down south. About 2 days before he was scheduled to fly to Oregon, he found a great place near Mission Hills and I was pretty happy with it. So, he put a deposit down and our logistics nightmare ended. We could move straight in.

The ride down was pretty uneventful, and by uneventful I mean my car broke down and could only go 45 mph for the last 200 miles to Santa Rosa. But, that’s the beauty of dating a mechanical genius: HBF fixed it and after a wonderful night hanging with HBF’s parents, we were on the road again going 90 (sorry mom). We arrived in San Diego on April 8th.

HBF had set up a sweet deal with his previous company to work 3 days a week while looking for another job. He was bringing in enough income to float us for awhile, so there wasn’t too much pressure to find a job. In the first few weeks, it was sweet. HBF would have 4 day weekends and I had non stop weekends. But then, HBF got a real job, and he started wondering aloud when I was going to follow suit. He had a good point, but I also started wondering aloud, louder than him, that really I had no idea what I wanted to do with myself and maybe I should figure that out before I found another job. He wondered even louder when I was going to figure that out and I would give him the evil eye. The stink eye. Whatever you want to call it, I was giving it to him. But inside, I wondered if I would ever know what I wanted to do with myself and these thoughts were very troublesome.

Here’s the thing: I had spent a crap load of money on college and would continue spending a crapload on college for the next 20 years thanks to my crushing educational debt. I studied engineering, and I felt stupid for even entertaining the idea that I wouldn’t get another engineering job. Of course I would get an engineering job! I owe all this money, right? I studied it and liked it, right? Well engineering classes and engineering jobs are very very different, people, and anyone who tells you different should be poked in the eye. Hard. My last 3 engineering jobs were terrible (see previous post) and I just couldn’t bear the thought of repeating my misery again. Every engineering job posting I read filled me with dread, and none of them were really what I went to school for anyways. My heart was telling me to pursue my love: Animals. I volunteered at the local animal shelter and I loved it. Giving those dogs and cats love and helping them get adopted into good homes after they have had horrendous lives made me feel really good, and it was really the only thing that I was passionate about. This led me to conclude that maybe I should be pursuing a job in animal rescue. The only problem was that any available job was minimum wage. Now, this looks like a black and white issue. Passion vs. money. But it wasn’t just about that. I wanted a job I wasn’t embarrassed about and that I could explain exactly what I did and people would understand. I would have been mortified to explain that I went to engineering school, and now I work for 9 bucks shoveling dog poo. Or, now I’m some ‘systems’ engineer that goes and sits in my cube for 8 hours and puts together PowerPoint presentations that no one pay any attention to.

Neither of these options sounded very good to me, and I let this be my excuse for inaction. I would volunteer, I would look for jobs, but I would never really pursue either path. Now, you’re prolly asking yourself, ‘what the heck did she do from April 8th until she started her job on July 26th?’ This is a very good question, and I have a few answers for you.
Accomplishment #1: Watched all 11 seasons of Law & Order: SVU available on Netflix.
Accomplishment #2: Watched all 6 seasons of Law & Order: Criminal Intent on Netflix

Let me stop here. I know you are all galled at just that amount of TV that I watched, but you gotta remember, I had like 15 weeks of totally free time. I basically could do anything I wanted (except find a job) and I guess what I wanted to do was watch TV. There was no one to talk to, since everyone else worked. HBF would measure the success of my day by how much time I spent outside. Each day he would come home from work and ask the inevitable question: ‘Did you go outside today?’ 80% of the time I would fail. The TV was like a black hole I could fall in to and not think. When HBF would get home, the brain would turn on and the animal/engineering debate would ensue. There were tears, yelling, outrage, hugs, indecision, etc, etc… Each day I would come to a different conclusion of what I was going to do. There was a time I thought I would start my own pet sitting business, but even then I waffled. I didn’t really want to do that, but I had no idea what else to do…

This is a really long story, but the end is nigh. Stay tuned for part 4.

The Aftermath: Part 2

Wait, wait, wait. I skipped a semi ridiculous part of the story in part 1. Let’s back up to the Philippines, specifically, we’re in Boracay, I have a tan now (it’s true!) and we are about 20 hours from leaving paradise. We spent our last day on the beach of course, soaking up the rays and contemplating what life was going to be like when we returned home. Just as I couldn’t fathom what it was going to be like traveling, I had a really hard time picturing how life was going to unfold when we stepped foot on US soil. It was definitely a quiet, introverted day, both of us saying our goodbyes to the land that had given us so many adventures, blah blah blah. Since we were now tight wads, and our plane left very early in the morning from Manila, we decided that we would skimp and not get a hotel for the night. You read that right. We were going to stay up all night in order to sleep on the plane. The plan was flawless! And by flawless I mean it was a pain in the butt and around 3:00 am I was really wanting to get in a bed and cursing my cheapness. When we arrived in Manila around 8:00 pm, we tried to drop our bags at the airport so we didn’t have to lug them around. Wellllll, the Manila airport doesn’t have anything like that. Then we had a big miscommunication with our taxi driver, who was trying to take us to who knows where.. There was yelling, and there was no paying. Yeah, it was that bad. We eventually made it to the Mall of America (hooray!) for dinner and had a delectable meal, even with our 30 lb bags attached to us. Our next stop: 24 hour internet café. We had decided to spend the rest of our time surfin the web instead of sleeping. So, fast forward about 6 hours and it’s 4 o’clock in the morning, I’m all surfed out (yeah, it happened) and we roll into the airport to check our bags. The flight to Hong Kong isn’t all that long, and I have to go through another round of convincing HBF that we can accomplish Mission: Impossible. Oh, and HBF has left his coat at the internet café, so he has no warmth. Good thing the airplane has blankets. Unfortunately, SFO does not and he paid dearly for his forgetfulness (see previous post).

Ok. Fast forward, Hong Kong, hooray! Get the watch, hooray! Hong Kong to SFO, hooray! Flight canceled to Portland, boo cry curse scream cry again. Made it home, hooray! Loved on Midas, bunny hop whine. Bed, hooray!

The next few days are a blur of delicious food, wonderful milk, hot showers, a soft bed, and seeing the family. It ended up the company that I did a phone interview with wanted to interview me in person, only they were in Berkeley. Time was of the essence, but I wasn’t ready to head south yet. I had just gotten home! I needed more pampering time.. but HBF was ready to head down to Santa Rosa to see his parents. So, we devised a plan. We would drive down to Berkeley in his car, I would do the interview in Berkeley and fly home, meanwhile he would continue on down to visit his parents and eventually visit his friends in SD, too. At this point, there was a very real possibility that we would move to the Bay Area, but all of our worldly possessions were in San Diego. The logistics of everything is mind boggling, but stay with me. If we did end up in Berkeley, HBF would already be down in SD to get our crap and hopefully I wouldn’t have to be a part of moving it all.

The interview went well and we spent the rest of the day in San Francisco and checking out Berkeley. It was a glorious, sunny day, the kind they rarely get in March, and we kind of felt that the universe was trying to tell us that the Bay Area was the right place. I wasn’t super jazzed about the job, but I’ve never been super jazzed about any job and it was really our only bite. There was an option for HBF to go back to his old job, but he really didn’t want to and we were both really feelin the Bay Area that day. I got on the plane thinking I would take the job and we were moving to SF as long as the offer was decent.

Decent was the operative word, and decent the offer was not. It was such a low-ball offer that I was kind of upset. But, how upset could I be? It was really the only thing on the table… I immediately didn’t want to take it, but what about the signs given by the universe? What about the blissful, sunny day in Berkeley the one day we came? Apparently the universe was drunk that day because there was no way I was selling my soul out to work for a fraction of what I was making before. Ok call me greedy, but at the time I would have had to keep HBF afloat too, since he didn’t have a job or any prospects. It just wasn’t enough. So, I turned down the offer and HBF and I decided to go another way. HBF would take it for the team and work part time at his old job to bring in some income while we both looked for new jobs in SD. What a man.  I wasn’t stoked about going back to SD.. I had basically said my goodbyes and I had said throughout the trip that I was done with San Diego. I had been there a long time and I just didn’t think it was the place I wanted to be at the moment. I always thought we would end up somewhere else, but… Here I was, agreeing to go back to SD. Sometimes ya just gotta go with it, and that’s what I did. Well, sort of. I stayed up in Oregon livin the dream life at my parents’ house for as long as possible. HBF had to drag me out of Oregon kicking and screaming because I knew as soon as I stepped foot into SD, the pressure was on to find a job. I just didn’t want to face that. AT ALL.

Friends and family would ask me constantly what I was going to do now. I would play it all cool and pretend I had it all figured out and that it was no big deal.. ‘I’ll get a job, no problem.’ But inside, I had no idea. My 3 previous ‘engineering’ jobs were horrifically soul crushing and I just wasn’t sure if my sanity could take another job like that. I put ‘engineering’ in quotes because the term engineering was in my title, but I don’t think I ever did any real engineering. Maybe if you count being a PowerPoint master engineering, but I sure don’t. Anywho, the thought of getting another job that I hated gave me anxiety and I was so turned off of engineering. The cube farms, being a minion and not really understanding what I actually do or what impact I have on anything is basically my idea of spiritual murder and I didn’t want to take that anymore. *Deep breath* Go to a happy place Go to a happy place Go to a happy place.. Oh wait, I don’t work at those places any more. Thank GOODNESS.

Part 3 to come.

The Aftermath: Part 1

Alright it’s been awhile. I’ve been putting off writing this blog because I wanted to wait until I was back on the right path and not embarrassed to talk about my life. I know, I know, I just explored the world for 6 months with HBF. How could I possibly be embarrassed? I literally just did what 90% of the population dreams of doing.. But there’s The Aftermath. I knew the day would come when we would return home and have to integrate myself back into the daily grind, i.e. working, cooking, cleaning, bathing on a daily basis, etc. That day was always soooo far away that I never really worried about it. Ok ok, I did worry about it, but HBF would always tell me, ‘No stress on holiday’ with some weird Russian/Eastern European accent and I would put off thinking about it for a week or so. Also, while in the Philippines, I did a phone interview with a company that I would not have minded working for and I had high hopes that I would have a job fairly soon. I wasn’t sure that I wanted a job (ever), but I knew that at some point I would (probably) need to get a job to carry my weight in the relationship. Everything seemed to be falling into place at the time. I was ready to go home, see the famdamily, then pick up where I left off before we left, albeit in a much happier and rested mindset. Well, things did not go according to (my) plan and I had somewhat of a hard time dealing with it. What follows is the story of The Aftermath, divided into parts because I think it’s too long.

I was beyond excited to go home. Like, tear my hair out dance on tables excited. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Philippines SO MUCH, but I hadn’t seen my mommy and daddy in 6 months and I was dying for some family time (it’s a sickness). 6 months was the longest I had gone without seeing a family member ever in my entire life . I was also soooo excited to see Midas. I had a mild fear that he wouldn’t remember me, but I still couldn’t wait to see my lil lion dog. But first, there was a mission to accomplish, Mission Impossible, according to HBF, but I had faith. El Dub reeeeeaaally wanted a ‘Rolex’, but the last one I mailed home got stolen right out of the mail. Thank you Bankok postal service for that. I forced HBF to book flights home that went through Hong Kong so we could go find El Dub another watch. The layover in Hong Kong was 4 hours, but we had to:
• Deplane
• Go through Customs (Our bags were checked through all the way to USA)
• Get on a train to Kowloon
• Find the guy who sold us the first watch
• Talk him down to the price we paid last time
• Get back on the train to the airport
• Get through airport security
• Be at our gate at least 30 minutes before the plane left since it was an international flight

Now, I had no doubts that my plan would work, but HBF had some reservations. It took some coaxing as well as a thought out timeline of ‘turn back’ time (if we hadn’t reached a certain step by such and such time, we turn back) until he finally agreed we may be able to do it. We power walked everywhere, and it took awhile to find the right guy, but in the end, we got the watch and we got back to our plane. Mission Impossible = Mission Accomplished! I knew El Dub would be so happy and I was happy to drag HBF along in order to make a wish come true.

The flights to the US were seamless and even enjoyable. I think I slept for like 20 hours and felt pretty good by the time we were deplaning in San Francisco around 8:00 am. It was our last leg left until I could reunite with M dog and the fam. My excitement was palpable. That is, until the flight that would take us to Portland was canceled. Enter hysterical tears. We were so close, but so far away. They automatically rebooked us on a flight the next day, but I was not about to stay in SF when I could find a way to make it to Portland. At this point, it’s 10 am and I’m thinking there has to be a flight to Portland that we could catch that day. Unfortunately, everyone else that was booked on the plane had that thought as well. We found an airline representative that was moved by our story of no sleep, international travel and my yearning to see my family (I was not ashamed to use my tears to gain some sort of advantage) and she was able to book us on a flight at 5:00 pm. Ok, so we now have 7 hours to kill at SFO, but HBF has no sweatshirt, no pants either, and he’s wearing flips. For some reason, SFO had the air conditioning on full blast and it was like 40 degrees in the airport. He’s cold. And for HBF to admit he’s cold then he reeeaally must be cold. So, we started shopping around for a sweatshirt that he could possibly wear. The problem was, we just got back from Asia where everything is like $2 and under. These sweatshirts were at least $35 and HBF was balking at the idea of spending that kind of money so soon out of the land of cheap things. We were not able to find a sweatshirt for $2, so HBF did not buy a sweatshirt. He huddled close to me instead and continually muttered about how expensive things were. At 8 pm (our flight was delayed, of course) we boarded the plane for home with our sanity barely intact and HBF’s lips looking a little blue.

The welcoming party at PDX was just as I pictured: My parents plus a sign that said ‘Welcome Home’ greeted us as we exited the terminal. It was such a happy reunion and so great to see my parents! All the bad feelings were washed away with hugs and I was filled with glee at finally being home and relief as well. Midas remembered us and marked our return with lots of bunny hopping and whining (as is his custom when he is excited). I was home. I took a long hot shower and fell into the softest bed I had been in since leaving home 6 months prior. It was heaven.

Part 2 to come soon.

Lost and found (sometimes)

Here is a list of the things we've lost and broken along this crazy 6 month adventure. I'm sure I missed a couple of things, but I'm pretty sure I hit the highlights.

LOST
1. My bag - lost during a flight to Lijiang in China. Later found at the Chengdu Airport and returned later that same day. It got a tearful embrace from me upon arrival.
2. Alarm clock - Lost somewhere on the east coast of Thailand. This presented quite the problem because we had no alarm and no internal clock. It set off a frantic search at 10 o'clock at night to find a watch with an alarm. We found one.. (See item #1 in Broken section)
3. My hat - Riding on top of the cab of a truck during a safari on Ko Samui, it flew off. I convinced the driver to go back for it. 10 minutes later, it flew off again. The driver wouldn't go back that time.
4. Hbf's hat - Left on a bus somewhere in China. Someone now has a black O'Neill baseball hat to call their own.
5. $40 in Laotian money that Hbf had been saving for 2 years. He had the money from his last trip to Laos in 2007 and brought it along since no one would exchange it in the US. He lost it a month before we got to Laos and we think a maid helped herself to the envelope. The joke's on her though.. No one will exchange Laos money unless you are in Laos.
6. 9 pairs of sunglasses between the 2 of us - 2 in China (1 left at a hostel, 1 dropped and broken), 1 in Cambodia (dropped during a particular difficult river crossing), 4 in Laos (Those things never seemed to stay on while we floated down the river), 1 in Vietnam and 1 in Thailand. We now have 3 pairs of sunglasses between the 2 of us. Never can be too careful.
7. 2 pairs of flip flops - 1 night in Cambodia, we left our shoes in front of the hotel with everyone else's since shoes are not allowed inside. The next morning, Hbf's flips were missing. He wore other shoes throughout the day and later returned to the hotel to find that his shoes had been returned. Someone had warn his shoes for a day. Also, Hbf left his flips at a very nice beach while island hopping in El Nido. Maybe some explorer will find a nice pair of flips waiting for him in the sand someday.
8. El Dub's Rolex watch - Purchased with extreme care in Hong Kong and sent Fed Ex back to Oregon, only the box made it. The watch didn't. Luckily, I took out insurance and we received a full refund. El Dub still wants a Rolex though..

BROKEN
1. 4.5 Watches - I jumped off a bridge into a river in Yangshuo and the watch that I had brought from the US stopped working about 20 minutes later. I bought an awesome watch in China that had Mao waving to me every second. Turns out it was a wind up watch and it didn't work very well. I think it lasted a week. Hbf bought a digital watch for the alarm function. It was super crappy and never really worked at all. It did provide an alarm a couple of times, but we eventually found out Hbf's camera had an alarm and tossed that watch. Hbf later bought a fake Rolex in China. It was maybe the worst copy I've ever seen and it was also a wind up watch. It was so crappy Hbf just stopped wearing it. I think it didn't really keep time that well.. I bought a very unique watch in Thailand that I really loved. It stopped working after about a month. I held on to it for awhile and eventually found a new battery for it. I am still wearing it and it even keeps accurate time!
2. 1.5 iPods - In Chengdu, Hbf's iPod stopped working. The front screen said Contact Customer Support and had a sad face. A couple days later, it magically revived itself and has worked fine ever since. Unfortunately, mine wasn't so lucky. Hbf bought some speakers for our iPods and plugged in my iPod to the speaker charger. It immediately fried my iPod and wouldn't even turn on. Sadness...
3. 2 Cameras.. I mean zero cameras! Both of our cameras broke around El Nido but Hbf nerded out and fixed both of them. He's my hero :D
4. My earphones - Broke around the time of the horse trek. I don't think they could take the extreme cold of Ice Mountain. I don't blame them.. I later found replacements at the Chinese Walmart in Dali. Although Walmart was a big let down at the time.
5. Hbf's flip flops - Broken in Laos. Too much love, I guess.
6. Numerous other things - Headbands, buttons, belts, shoelaces, a head lamp.. That's all I can think of for now.

Is there anything I wish I hadn't brought? No. I have used my curling iron, contrary to what Hbf told me over and over before we left.. And I'm glad I brought a little make up. It's always nice to get dressed up when it's been days since you've showered and you finally reach a place with hot water. Know what I mean? Prolly not..

The end is nigh

Noooooo.... I don't want to go home! I can't believe these past 6 months have gone by so fast. It seems like just yesterday I was hiking the Great Wall on a cloudless day in China. Actually, it seems like ages ago, since that was the first week of our trip. I have a feeling once I get back, this whole experience will seem like a dream. Hopefully Hbf and I will reminisce frequently and maybe start planning our next adventure.

Now, the real question is: Who won in my family's pool about how long I would last? I'm not sure.. Not El Dub. I think he only had me at like 5 weeks. Maybe my sister, SweetPea.. I think she had faith that I would make it through. And here I am! Alive, and I have actually acquired new foods that I like. Shocking, I know. I also contracted food poisoning twice for my efforts, but no pain, no gain. There were times, particularly in China, when I thought I couldn't go on. It was mostly because of the food issue (no english = no idea what you are eating). But, I surprised myself and a lot of my family members by sticking with it and persevering to the end. I think I'm a stronger person now, being sooo out of my comfort zone for such a long time and I had a blast.

These last few days Hbf and I have talked a lot about our trip, what we would change, etc. The consensus is that we have no regrets. I think this adventure turned out the best it possibly could. No major monetary snags, only a couple of tears and no one got lost along the way. We're coming back together and we're excited for the next stage in our lives. Of course, we may have a hard time adjusting to having some sort of responsibility other than where to lay our towels on the beach, but I'm sure it won't be too hard.

We're in Boracay now and loving it. The sun is hot, the sand is white and the waters are clear. We're just going to relax and enjoy these last few moments of peace. Hopefully I actually come back with a tan, or I'll never hear the end of it from the fam. T-5 days until delicious milk!

P.S. Swimming with whale sharks was so ridiculously awesome! I recommend it to everyone.

I heart Rice Krispy treats

I think my new favorite hobby is island hopping. There's something about snorkeling in crystal clear waters and laying out on pristine white sand beaches that speaks to my soul. I know some of you are wondering how my pale skin could possibly manage this hobby. I'm tan. Yep! OK, maybe not extremely tan, but tan enough to only use 30 spf when I could use 50. My previous burn has flaked off to reveal honey colored skin. I'm pretty dang proud of it. I've come a long way from the pastey, blinding white I used to be. The beaches are treating me pretty good and we are having a great time with Hbf's parents.

I pretty much inhaled all of my Rice Krispy treats in the first 2 days. I would eat at least one after every meal, and sometimes before, too. They were so delicious... But this has only increased my appetite for Rice Krispy treats. Those Rice Krispy treats were only my Rice Krispy treat appetizer, and now I am anxiously waiting for my Rice Krispy treat entre. Hbf and I try not to talk about it, but we will be home in about 15 days. A part of me is excited (Helloooo Rice Krispy treats!) and a part of me is very sad (hello daily grind).

The Philippines has been a really great place to wind down our trip. It's more like the states, but still has the SE Asia feel. Maybe I won't have such culture shock when I get back, but I'll surely have sticker shock. Meals for this trip have ranged from $1 - $10 for both of us. In the states, we'd have to eat fast food every day to rival that (and I don't want to die when I'm 30 from a heart attack). Maybe it will help us live a little bit cheaper in the states.. Who knows. I'm not going to miss the mosquitoes though. No matter how much DEET I put on, the mosquitoes find that teeny, tiny spot that I missed. One skeeter bit me in the eye bag. You know, the sensitive area right below your eye.. Yeah, it swelled up and I looked like Quasimodo for a day. A couple of days ago, something bit me on the lip and I looked like I had gotten a reeeeally bad collagen lip injection for awhile. I've also been bit on the tip of my finger and my forehead. How can these be good places? The mysteries of a mosquito.

Tomorrow we have another round of island hopping. So far, I think we have seen maybe 15 islands of the 7000+ here in the Philippines. So far, so good.

Back off ladies.. He's mine

After a charming week in Bohol, capped off by the best diving yet, we went back to Cebu City for 2 days. Cebu City is a typical big/small city with a mall (hooray!) and apparently what looks to be a river of garbage (boo.. and very stinky). After eating a delicious lunch at the mall, we headed to the Crown Regency Hotel, home of the Edge Coaster (which has a 3 verse song singing its praises). Basically, you sit in a roller coaster-like contraption and it tips you over the edge as your ride around. EXTREME! We made it back all in one piece and decided to head back to the hotel. Hbf claimed to have scoped out the way back to our hotel so we could walk it and save the dollar it would cost to take a taxi. Walk in the stifling heat and through busy streets to save 1 dollar? Sure... Why not.

Right off the bat things went wrong. I stepped in some wet cement and my flip flops flipped it all over the back of my legs. I started yelling about how my legs were going to turn to stone until Hbf informed me that it takes like 12 hours to dry and he was sure we'd be back to the hotel by then. I quieted down after that.

About half way there, a little beggar girl ran and jumped on Hbf's arm, screaming 'DADDY!' over and over again. It must have been her gang's signal because before Hbf could get her off, 8 more little kids ran over and surrounded him. One girl ran to me with her eyes on my purse, but when I covered it with my hands, she went for Hbf with the rest of them. I tried prying them off but they held on and were trying to reach in his pockets. He happened to have both of our cameras in his front pockets so I was a little concerned the chitlins were going to snatch them. All the while, Hbf is trying to shake them off and keep our cameras in his own pockets, but it wasn't until we both started yelling at them that they finally let go. I saw one girl had a hand in his back pocket and pulled out a receipt, but she let it drop once she saw it wasn't money. Fortunately, we escaped with all of our money and possessions and now I get to tease Hbf that he was assaulted by little girls.

Later that day we went back to the mall (hooray!) to see a movie and eat some dinner. We saw the Wolfman (Um.. I'm very disappointed in you, Benicio Del Toro) and ate at Shakey's (Don't go there). Today we flew to Palawan and we are meeting Hbf's parents in a couple of hours. They are bringing me Rice Krispy Treats and I'm wondering if I will eat all of them in one sitting. Probably.

Paradise is just how I pictured it

I think the Philippines should be renamed Paradise. Over 7000 islands, perfect weather, nice people.. I could definitely get used to this. Our first couple of days were spent with Hbf's college friend, who I'll call Pea. She lives on the island of Davao and is studying to be a nurse for prolly 1/4 of the price it would cost in the states. While she was in school, we spent 2 relaxing days at a place called Paradise Island (I'm not making this up). It was perfect.. White sand beach, warm, clear water, delicious food and even a towel swan upon arrival! There were crab races, a mariachi band with excellent harmony skills and LOTS of BBQ chicken. Hbf and I thoroughly enjoyed our time at Paradise, but we were excited to get back to the main island to hang out with Pea. Her uncle is the grand poobah of cock fighting, and it's the national past time (and Hbf was dying to see one), so I was coerced into attending a real cock fight. I did my best to protest politely because I hate seeing animals fight or die for human entertainment, but I was outnumbered.
I found myself at the cock fight and did my best to close my eyes when they fought, but there was no ignoring the ripped out feathers in the ring and occasionally I would glimpse the losing bird being taken away.. Needless to say, I don't think I would do that again.
After a great day hanging out with Pea, we headed to Bohol island. Yesterday we spent the day sun bathing and snorkeling off the shore. If you swim out about 100 yards, there's a cliff of coral where you can look down into the abyss and all you see is fish. Pretty amazing. After an awesome day of activities, we headed home and relaxed for a bit before I started complaining that my skin felt a little bit.. Burny. Sure enough, I am burnt to a crisp and will be staying out of the sun for the next few days, if that's even possible. Hbf is having an 'old man' moment and can't move his stiff neck more than 2 degrees either way. Apparently laying on the beach and snorkeling for an hour is just too much action for him. We're both recuperating by looking for jobs via the internet, with depressing results. Other than that, the Philippines is totally sweet. Once my skin blisters and peels off, I'll be right back out there in paradise!

It's so hard to say goodbye

It's almost time to leave Thailand for the island paradise of the Philippines. Thailand, round 2, has been a bit different from the first time we visited, but no less amazing. In November, we went south, focusing on the beaches and island life. This time, we went north and were surrounded by the lush country side. We rode elephants, played with tigers, saw countless caves and beautiful waterfalls.. I will definitely miss this place.
Last night, we went to another Muay Thai boxing match held in Chiang Mai. If you don't remember my stories about the first one, see my blog entitled 'Boys are strange..' This time around, there was no bathroom bouncer to give Hbf a chiropractic adjustment (I think he was a bit sad about that), but he did say there was a mirror positioned in a very strange place. Let's just say he saw more than he wanted to.
The main fight was a very large english man against an over weight asian. The white guy seemed very cocky, and I didn't think the asian had a chance. He took a heavy beating early on, and at times it was almost difficult to watch. But, in round 2, the asian connected his foot to the white guy face and it was all over. The england guy tapped out, to the delight of the entire crowd. It was pretty entertaining.
While out and about on the streets of Chiang Mai, we came upon a baby elephant, visiting restaurants in order to entice foreigners to buy bananas and feed it. It was a strange site to see, and the elephant didn't even have a leash on or anything. You would think there would be some sort of leash law for animals that can trample people. But, I'm sure that is the only time he gets fed (sadly) and he wouldn't give up the chance for food by going AWOL.
I think the highlight for me would have to be the baby tigers. We only got 10 minutes with them, but it was the most magical 10 minutes. I really wanted to cuddle them, but apparently that is a no no since they are more than 4 months old now. I think they could easily rip someone apart during the pretense of 'playing'. But, they are just so dang adorable! I got to lay my head and snuggle with one that was sleeping and it was just so precious. After the 10 minutes, we got to walk around and be up close and personal with all of the other 25+ tigers, ranging from 1 - 15 years old. There were even 2 lion cubs there.
It's going to be hard to leave, but I am definitely looking forward to crystal clear waters and pristine white beaches!

Ohhh irony.. You are so ironic

I like Pai, I really do. It just may not like me. From Laos, we made our way up to northern Thailand, through Chiang Mai to a small town called Pai. Imagine my utter delight when I see at least 5 restaurants that offer bagels and cream cheese! My favorite food in the whole world! I felt like dancing in the middle of the street and I may have even broken out in a little wiggle because of my pure joy. Now, of course they don't taste exactly like what I love from home, but it is pretty darn close. Close enough after having maybe 1 or 2 bagels in the last 4 months. I savored every bite of every bagel for 2 days. On the night of teh second day, something didn't feel right...

30 minutes later, I'm kneeling over the toilet watching my berry smoothy and bagel come right back out. Yep, I had food poisoning. Again. Did my bagels betray me? I refuse to believe it. That morning, I had eggs with cheese on them. I hate you eggs! I hate you cheese (No, No, not you cream cheese.. I could never hate you)! Anyways, gross story short.. The next day I ate very little, but I kept it all down. I laid in bed and tried to watch TV while I recovered. There is only 1 english channel, a sports channel, and it froze up about 1 hour into a soccer game. It still hasn't unfrozen, 3 days later. I guess I'm not meant to watch TV here.

On a happier note, we rode elephants today, bareback. I didn't even know it was an option, but we were given the choice of riding in a chair or on a blanket thrown over the elephant's back. I was thinking it was totally awesome until the elephant took 2 steps. Can you say ow? I think Hbf was more uncomfortable than me and actually asked to get off at one point. Luckily (and to my amusement), the trainer didn't understand and kept going. At one point, the chang (elephant, in Thai) went on a rampage and wouldn't do anything the trainer was telling him to do. I nearly fell off (at least, that's what it felt like. Hbf claims we were never in any danger) as he crashed through the jungle. Finally, he calmed down and the trainer explained that the elephant had heard a dog and got scared. The trainer never seemed to have any fear and continually laughed through out the whole episode, which I guess made me feel a little better.. Anyways, we reached the river and the elephant sprayed us with water and then rolled around in the river, throwing us off playfully. We would get back on and he would roll again. It was pretty fun and quite the experience.

Sometimes, having fun hurts

Laos has been a blast, and we aren't done yet. The past 10 days have been filled with kayaking, tubing, hiking, and exploring caves. The scenery is pretty epic and there are lots of people our age to hang out with and make friends. We actually met some other people from USA, which is quite rare. I think tubing in Vang Vieng (pronounced Wang Weng, so I'm told, but that just makes me laugh) has to be my favorite thing, because I've never seen any setup quite like it. You rent a tube for like 5 bucks and they drive you and your tube upriver. All along the sides of the river, there are places you can stop to grab a drink or a bite to eat (read between the lines). Each place has a rope swing, zip line, giant slide or a very tall tower to jump off, and every single restaurant tries to out-do the previous places. So, the rope swings get bigger and the platforms get higher as you float down the river. It's a pretty fun place, but let's just say the safety standards may not be what my fellow Americans are used to. I saw numerous people let go of rope swings at the worst possible time, aka when they were returning to the platform and where the water was the most shallow. I also saw so many people have bad landings off a slide or a zip line, but everyone managed to survive. All around town I saw people on crutches, or people who had knees and ankles taped up. I can guarantee it was due to a tubing accident.

Hbf and I didn't walk away unscathed, either. He had a bad landing on a zip line (on purpose, or so he says..), and I landed sideways off a very high rope swing. At the time, it stung, but not enough for me to call it a day. However, the next day, the right side of my thigh was black and blue. Not pretty. You can watch our bad landings on our flickr website, and maybe even Hbf's blog. Don't worry, we're both ok. We both lost our sunglasses though.. And Hbf lost another pair the second time we did it. If you fall into the river once, say goodbye to anything not securely attached to your body.

We're in Luang Prabang now, and the bus ride here was brutal. Not for me, but for the grandma sitting in front who constantly threw up for the full 7 hours. And for the other people who just couldn't handle the very twisty road and puked every time we pulled over. I actually had an ok time, watching Law & Order on the iPod and reading my book.

I'm so glad that I hate strawberry syrup

A couple of nights ago, Hbf and I decided to splurge a little and go to a 'nicer' restaurant in Nha Trang. He had seen abalone advertised at a particular place, so we headed there in anticipation of a delicious meal (don't worry, I wasn't going to touch the abalone). We ordered a cheese platter for an appetizer (I love cheese!), and he got his abalone. I decided on a steak, since we were going big. We usually play cards while waiting for our food, but since this was a 'nicer' place, we decided to just chat. Blaaaaah (kidding)! Our cheese plate arrived, and to my horror, everything was covered in strawberry glaze. Bread, cheese, plate, nothing was saved. Inwardly I cried about my lack of cheese, but I decided to just eat around the nasty strawberry syrup and leave the rest to Hbf. He was delighted.



About half way through eating the cheese, Hbf stopped eating and started inspecting the cheese. I asked him what he was looking at and he asked, 'are these seeds in the syrup?' I didn't really look that close and told them they probably were, but he kept looking at the platter. 'I think they are ants, not seeds.' Sure enough, on closer inspection, the strawberry glaze contained hundreds of dead ants, not strawberry seeds. Ohhhhh thank you, thank you, picky tastebuds, for not liking strawberry syrup. We immediately sent it back but the damage had been done. Hbf ate ants. Lots of them. Haahahaa



10 minutes later our food arrived, and Hbf is able to thoroughly enjoy his abalone. I, on the other hand, had a rough start with my steak. They only gave me a butter knife, which I dutifully tried to cut my steak with, to no avail. I flagged a waitress down and tried to communicate to her that I needed a sharper knife, using hand signals and monosyllabic words. She seemed to understand, but a minute later she brought out another butter knife. Soo, now I had 2 butter knives and I still hadn't been successful at cutting a piece to eat. We found another waitress and tried to convey the sharp knife need, and she went back to the kitchen for a couple of minutes. When she returned, she brought me a very newly sharpened butter knife. Ummm.. Has no one ordered a steak here? Why do they not have steak knives? Hasn't anyone else asked for a knife sharp enough to cut a dang steak? I gave the sharpened butter knife a try and it worked well enough to make it through the meal. Mission accomplished, I guess.



After all that, they tried to charge us for the cheese platter. I told them we weren't paying for anything that has bugs on the plate. I'm not sure they knew what I was saying, but they took it off of the bill.

Happy New Years!

So, I survived Christmas without being home for the holidays. I'm not gonna lie, it was hard. But, I'm 27 now and I guess it is about time I cut the apron strings (maybe my madre wouldn't agree). I just really love being at home when the fam gets together because it's always an entertaining time. El Dub in a pink Snuggie, delicious food, constant laughter.. Oh and of course, some sort of boys vs. girls game. I wasn't there to help my team! I heard all about it, though (a very disappointing showing, ladies) and my mom even emailed a bunch of pictures so I could feel like I was there. I almost did..

The holidays are over now, thank goodness. I can now focus on the important things instead of moping around, trying to find food that reminds me of home (apparently they have never heard of chocolate krinkle cookies in Vietnam, how sad for them). We're at the beach now, and we've already enjoyed some snorkeling, SCUBA and lazy beach days. More of that to come, I'm sure. But now that the holidays are over, Hbf and I will have to start thinking about what we are going to do with ourselves when we make it back to civilization. It's crazy to think we only have about 2.5 more months out here, and we're going to have to start contributing to the world again in a responsible way (blaaaaaaaggghh). Somehow I want to find a job where I don't have to work in an office, I'm involved with puppies on a regular basis, and I use my engineering skills that my very expensive education taught me. Does anyone know of an opening? My new skills include: figuring out a bus schedule in any language, SCUBA diving, and an unparalled ability to ride an ostrich.

Happy New Year to everyone! Mine has started out pretty darn good! OH, and here is a strange tidbit: I've recently taken a liking to sushi. Don't ask me how or why, because I have no answers. Suddenly, I can't get enough of it and it kinda freaks me out. The roll I like has cheese and chicken in it, and it's all cooked. But still, sushi? L Rass would be so proud of me :)

Oooh I think I have it! Wait, no.. No, I definitely do not have it

Hbf and I found ourselves in Mui Ne, a beach city that is world famous for its kite surfing. Hbf has wanted to try it since he laid eyes on the sport, but it was sort of a new thought for me. I figured I would give it a shot since we were in the right place. My instructor was named Hi and was tiny vietnamese man who had no qualms about yelling at me when I did something wrong.

Day 1

For the first 30 minutes Hi had me practice with a trainer kite, aka a normal kite, so I could figure out how to control it. I've flown a kite maybe once in my life (sad, I know) but I thought I had the hang of it when the time was up. Next, it was time to move onto the kite that is actually used for kite surfing. That kite was 5 x bigger and had to be inflated. The wind was very strong, so Hi thought it best for me to sit down and learn so I didn't blow off the beach when I messed up. Even sitting, Hi held onto my harness in the back and the kite still picked me up during some of the moves. I started to get a little nervous after getting a feel for the power that the kite had. In the beginning, I constantly did the wrong thing and Hi would yell, 'You have to control the kite!' and then grab it from me before it yanked me out to sea. 90 minutes later, I had gotten a pretty good grasp on the controls and Hi only yelled at my about every 5 minutes. Progress. Hbf had a different instructor. While I was still on the beach with my kite, he had made it to the next step which was flying the kite in the water. I tried not to take it hard that he was better than me already, but it burned a bit. Hi decided that tomorrow would be better for me in the water because the wind was too strong in the afternoon. Fine by me.

Day 2

I actually got to enter the water, but no board yet. The waves were huge, and Hi controlled the kite while we attempted to make it past the huge surf. Waves crashed right on our heads, over and over. I clung desperately to Hi, Hi held on to the kite, and the kite dragged us out past the vicious waves. I was tempted to call it a day when I had drank about a gallon of salt water, but it had only been 10 minutes. The lesson must go on. Hi taught me how to body drag, which means that you let the kite drag you all around the ocean. This is in case you lose your board, you know how to retrieve it. He demonstrated, and then I did it with him hanging on to me. It went well, at first. Then, all of a sudden, a huge gust of wind grabbed my kite, and me along with it. Hi tried to hold on, but the kite yanked me out of the water and threw me like 5 feet. I heard Hi yell from behind me, 'You have to control the kite!' Yeah, yeah.. I finally got to the point where I could be in the water by myself, controlling the kite and not crashing it very often. I was pretty proud of myself, until I saw Hbf. He was already trying to get up on the board. *sigh*

Day 3

I actually get to try with the board today, but not by myself. Hi is with me, hanging on, which is makes it really tough to stay up for longer than 3 seconds. Each time I get up though, and I'm exstatic for those 3 seconds, before I fall and Hi yells 'You need to control the kite!'. I'm just getting semi-comfortable on my good side, when Hi tells me I need to work on my other side. So, I try the other side and the kite yanks me hard out of the water and then promptly crashes. Hard. 'You need to control the kite!' and then, 'You broke the kite'. Sure enough, I look over at the kite and it is a sad little deflated heap, rolling in the ocean waves. Apparently, breaking a kite ends the lesson. But a new lesson began called 'how to swim back to the shore with a broken kite and a kite board.' Basically that lesson involved me using the board as a flotation device while Hi dealt with the deflated kite. Even so, it took me about 20 minutes of hard swimming to make it back to shore. Hi made it back shortly after me, and gave me the good news that the kite didn't have a tear, the vent just popped open. Good, I won't have to pay $1000 after all. Hi told me that I probably needed more lessons (shocking!), but I was pretty pooped and we were leaving the next day. Oh well...

All in all, I had a good time. I will have another chance at kite boarding in the Philippines, if I want it. I haven't decided yet..

Vietnam at Christmas

It's been 3 months now traveling, and the new year is fast approaching. Usually during this time, I'd be home with the fam, soaking up the holiday spirit and eating sugar cookie dough. Mmm.. cookie dough. This is the first Christmas where I won't be home in Oregon, but understandably, no one there really feels sorry for me. My madre tells me about the freezing cold weather in the burrito, but I'm sweating in the non-air conditioned internet cafe at the beach. I semi-wish there was a way to make it home for the holidays, but I knew when we started this trip, I wouldn't be making it home. Maybe it's time to cut the apron strings anyways. Naaah.. Spending the holidays with family is what it's all about. Hopefully there won't be too many years where I am absent, but at least the first time that it has happened, I'm in paradise. Did I mention Vietnam is awesome?

We went to a water park in Saigon, which was amazing. We were severely punished by multiple water slides, but that just added to the fun (don't ask me how.. it just does). Now, we're at a beach called Mui Ne, the wind surfing capital of the world (or, that's what it seems like). We are taking lessons, and of course, Hbf has picked it up quicker than me. He actually made it into the water today, where as I wrestled the kite for 2 hours and then called it a day. Maybe tomorrow I'll actually get to go in the water and have the kite drag me around. Our room here is sweet and comes with a nice balcony that over looks the ocean. I couldn't ask for much more.

The food in Vietnam is.. well it's better than Cambodia, but worse than Thailand. I also think my standards have lowered considerably, so I hope that gives you a good idea of what I am eating. There are days when I'm really happy to eat, and days when I dread it. It all depends on my mood, oddly, and what sounds good at the moment. Lately, I've been craving milk and cereal. I had a brief taste of good milk in Cambodia, and I think it has unleashed my obsession with milk again. I went through withdrawl of milk while we were in Asia, but I was pretty resigned to the fact that I wouldn't get milk for 6 months. I'm very picky about my milk and I wasn't about to drink any warm, powdered, or otherwise different milk from what I am used to in the States. So, when I briefly tried it in Thailand and it tasted very different, I had given up on having it until I got back. At a grocery store in Cambodia, I spotted a box of Honey Bunches of Oats, the best cereal ever made! I was so happy, I didn't a dance right there and really considered buying 5 boxes. Hbf sternly insisted I only get one, and he also convinced me to try some more milk. I was very skeptical, but once that sweet, sweet nectar touched my tongue, I wanted more. I think I drank the carton in about 30 seconds. Since then, I have been on the look out for more milk, but to no avail. Water and juice is such a poor substitute for ice cold milk and the withdrawl symptoms are rearing their ugly head. Moodiness, restlessness, spontaneous shopping for milk.. I have all of them. I know I'll survive, but I want some dang milk!

A smattering of short stories

Mosquitoes
Hbf and I hunkered down in our bus seats, ready to endure a 8+ hour ride through the flatlands of Cambodia on roads that aren't really paved yet.. We got our books out to entertain ourselves for the morning. About an hour goes by when I started noticing mosquitoes buzzing around us. I haaaaate mosquitoes and have personally waged war against them, so I pointed out their existence to Hbf. He followed it with his hand, ready to beat it down, but it promptly disappeared and he shrugged and went back to reading. I'm semi-unhinged by now because I know the mosquito wanted my blood and no one elses, and I can't rest until it's dead. I kept my eyes peeled for any movement and I was soon rewarded with a glimpse of one in the curtains. It made the mistake of coming within striking distance and I clapped my hands around it. One down.. But it soon became apparent that he had friends. Hbf and I went on the offensive, him smashing them against the window, and me smushing them between my hands. We had at least 10 bodies between us when we were finished and we celebrated heartily. It wasn't until we got off the bus that we noticed all the bites on our feet. I guess they got one last buffet before they died.

Food?
We were told by our welcome host, self proclaimed Mr. Lonely, that Cambodians eat everything. I can bear witness that Mr. Lonely is no liar. Hbf and I were on our 3 day, 2 night trek with our guide, Mac and a forest ranger. Lunch on the first day consisted of rice, vegetables and beef. Ok so far.. But Mac went fishing and found himself a small crab. He seemed very excited, but I wasn't sure why. How much meat can you get out of a crab the size of a walnut, anyways? He threw it in the fire for about 30 seconds and then proceeded to pop it in his mouth. The Whole Thing. He crunched on the shell and laughed at the expression on my face, which I'm sure was pure horror. He even said it was very tasty. I doubt that.. That night, Hbf and Mac went fishing in the dark. They came back with a little frog, another crab and some craw daddies. I think Hbf had wanted a snake but they came back empty handed, thank goodness. Mac threw their spoils into the fire for a bit, then just started eating all of them in one bite. Well, except for the frog.. Mac and the ranger ripped it apart to share it. I was screaming the whole time and they just laughed and laughed.. And crunched on their 'food'.

The Drunken Village
Day 2 of our trek, and we found ourselves in a minority village. Apparently it was happy hour because everyone was drinking their homemade rice wine in groups of 10 or so. It actually looked like happy hour had started 2 hours ago, by the way they slurred and stumbled. Who's watching the kids? Darkness came, and Hbf and I settled into our bamboo bed to watch an episode on Lost on the iPod (I know, we're really roughing it). Suddenly, in stumbles a man and starts banging a rock against a metal bowl reeeeeally loudly. We were trying to get him to stop, but of course he doesn't speak english, and I don't speak drunken Khmer, so he kept right on for about a minute or so and then stumbled out again. Weird. 20 minutes later, he was back again with a buddy and wanted to bang the gong again. We endured it without saying anything this time and we just hoped that he leaves after he's done playing. But he doesn't. And more people joined him. Hbf and I looked anxiously at each other because we had no idea what was going on. The village people pretty much ignored us and our guide is nowhere to be found. Slowly, people started trickling in and I was feeling a little nervous. All sorts of scenarios ran through my head, especially a vivid one where we were brought forth as some sort of cannibalistic sacrifice. Turns out they were just having a town meeting. Haha.

Disappointed
Our last day on the trek and I was so close to a shower I could taste it. After a particularly difficult climb, Mac decided to give us a rest. Hbf and I took seats on our back packs and watched as Mac tried to tear down a vine from a tree. As he was tugging, he tried to explain the reason he wanted it, which never really became clear to me. It involved women, fertility, and birth, but that was all I understood. All of a sudden, Mac started hacking at the tree that the vine was attached to. Hbf tells him to stop, and I tell Mac that maybe he shouldn't be cutting down trees. He just smiled and kept chopping. Hbf and I both got up and insisted that he stop cutting the tree down, but it was too late. A moment later it tumbled to the ground and Mac got his vine. I was pretty upset, seeing as cutting down trees has always been a big no-no in any forest. Hbf told Mac that he really shouldn't cut down trees in front of tourists because it will probably offend them. We left the tree, and Mac's tip dropped considerably. Hopefully he learned his lesson.

Holes
We arrived in Phnom Penh and decided to head to the lakeside area to stay. We had read that it was where the backpackers were, so we figured we could find a semi-cheap room to stay while we waited for our Vietnam visas. We had to go to 3 places just to find a room with hot water and A/C. When we finally found the room, it was pretty much the crappiest room we had seen, but it met all of our criteria, so we decided to spend one night there. The hotel itself was a mess of hodge-podge construction, with gaps everywhere and walls made of the thinnest ply-wood. El Dub would definitely say it would never pass a building inspection. As we were getting into bed, Hbf noticed that he could see a hole in our floor and we laughed about it. I got into bed and Hbf plopped down right beside me. As he sat, the bed fell through the floor on one corner, the corner where the hole was that Hbf had found. We heard people exclaiming in surprise below us and we hurredly got the bed out of the hole. Since there was a hole already there, we figured we wouldn't be charged for any damages. The next morning, we told the manager about the hole in the floor and his reply was, "yeah, yeah, hole." Ok then, if it's cool with you it's cool with me.

It's a holiday in Cambodia!

Ohhh Cambodia, how I love thee. We made it Siem Reap without much of a todo, which was such a pleasant surprise. From what we had read, there were tons of scams waiting for us at the border and it all depended on how big of suckers we were. We showed them. We sucked so little that we got them to pay us (not really). Siem Reap is home to Angkor Wat. Angkor what, you ask? Angkor What is actually a bar in Siem Reap, but Angkor Wat is temples, temples and more temples. My max quota for looking at temples is about an hour, but I decided to suck it up and spend the whole day with Hbf seeing the big ones. They are one of the wonders of the world, after all.. They didn't disappoint, either. We had a lovely day and I surpassed my quota 10 times over (I survived).

We were able to meet up with a college friend of mine that has moved to Cambodia for a year to work for a non-profit organization. I hadn't seen him for a couple of years so it was nice to see a familiar face and catch up. What are the odds that someone you know is in Cambodia at the same time as yourself? Pretty cool.

Our next adventure took us to Banlung, with a stopover in Kratie. Kratie is home to some freshwater dolphins and we decided to take a tuk-tuk (a motorcycle with a trailer in the back that has seats for 2-4 people) out to the river to investigate. We ended up sharing a boat with some belgium girls and hunted dolphins for about an hour. No one spoke above a whisper for all that time.. I think we didn't want to scare the dolphins away. It worked though, and we saw no less than 20 appearances by our freshwater friends. Our boat had floated down the river quite aways, and the captain tried in vain to get the motor started. He rowed us to the bank and proceeded to change the spark plugs, siphon out gas with a straw, choke on the gas a little bit, and who knows what else. After about 20 minutes, he got it rolling again and we were motored back to the correct shore. We had a bus to catch in an hour and a half, and it was a 30 minute ride back to town so we hurried and got on our tuk-tuk. 10 minutes later, we have a flat tire.
Our tuk-tuk driver did a little off-roading at the beginning of our trip that I think he quite regretted at that moment. We stopped at a local gas station (someone's house that sells gas) and got the tire fixed. There was even a little puppy for me to play with! We made it back with time to spare and were shortly on our way to Banlung.

I have to say, I am enjoying cambodian food. They have delicious baguettes everywhere and you can get little slices of laughing cow cheese. It's breakfast for like a dollar, sometimes less, depending on where you get your bread. Also, I have had some authentic cambodian food (I'm not lying!) and I liked the flavors. We had something they called BBQ mountain, where they had marinated beef and mixed it with egg, then cooked it right in front of us. I also had something they call luk lak, which is marinated meat over vegetables with rice. It has a very nice flavor. I know! It's crazy!

Puppies!

I found a local animal shelter in Koh Samui to volunteer at for a day since it is something I have wanted to do on this trip. I went to the shelter's smaller location, aka the owner's house, which turned out to be a swedish couple. This was surprising because foreigners are not allowed to work in Thailand. I asked how they opened the shelter, and they said since they are non-profit, and are giving free vet services to all the animals on the island, the police look the other way. They employ all thai people though and foreigners can only volunteer. The house itself was filled with cats and smaller dogs, which they said we either blind or couldn't make it at the bigger location. Their yard was filled with diseased dogs, most looked they had severe cases of mange and many were missing limbs. These dogs were strays from around the area that locals had brought in because they didn't want to look at them anymore. Their mission isn't to necessarily get these dogs adopted (this would be near impossible since dogs aren't really valued in Thailand). They just try to give the dogs medicine and vaccines, along with neutering them to control the population. Once they are deemed healthy they are released back out to the streets. It's kind of sad, but they are doing the best they can, and they give all the medicine for free (who would pay anyways?).

I hopped in the minivan with some of the workers, all male, and we drove to the bigger location on the other side of the island. Some of the workers spoke very broken english, but they immediately pointed me to the puppy house. I couldn't argue with that.. There were 5 rooms with litters of puppies, and a room full of individual cages to house sick puppies that were dropped off at their door. They were almost all full. Some of the puppies were so young that they hadn't even opened their eyes yet. Since they leave the puppies in there the whole day, they have no choice to poo and pee in those rooms. The first item on the agenda was to clean out the rooms. They gave me a hose, and scrub brush with a long handle, bleach and a squeegie and set me to work. Cleaning those rooms took up most of the morning. After that, I watched one of the workers examine the sick puppies in their cages and tried to give them some love too.

We went to lunch at an authentic Thai hole-in-the-wall (or rather, shack on the side of the road) restaurant and they ordered me what looked and tasted like top ramen. We sat silent since none of them could speak very good english and I only know about 2 words in Thai.

After lunch, I ventured to the cat house which housed at least 80 cats and had an inside and outside. I cleaned their beds and swept the floor and then sat down to snuggle with some of the cats. It seemed as though the cats yearned for love too since I had a bunch rubbing themselves against me and trying to get me to pet them.

Besides the puppy and cat houses, there were 10 sections that the shelter was split into. Each section had about 30 dogs which seemed to be in various stages of recovery. About 90% looked to have mange, but were getting help. Dogfights broke out maybe every 20 minutes, but there were always workers there to quickly break it up. Usually a yell would stop them in their tracks, sometimes there needed to be more intervention. There were also other volunteers giving baths to the dogs, but some dogs just didn't want to get in the bath water.. One volunteer was bit and it drew blood. He seemed to be ok but they didn't end up bathing that particular dog.

After that, it was about time to go. The workers all piled in the car and we headed back to the house so I could meet Hbf. On the way home, they stopped for some whiskey and let it flow in the car.. So much so that they made a second stop to buy more whiskey since they had ran through a bottle so quickly. Once the drinks were flowing (I did not partake, of course) the boys started trying to talk to me. They knew a surprising amount of english, and they asked me all sorts of questions about USA. They also started asking me out and asking me to marry them. I told them Hbf would hurt them and that seemed to settle things. It was all good fun and we laughed together the whole time.

It was a really good experience, but definitely so different from the shelters in San Diego. I'm going to keep looking for shelters to volunteer at as we move on to different places because at the end of the day, I felt really good. :)