So in the next year, if everything goes as planned, I'll probably be hitting the road for a good 1/4-1/2 of the year, throughout Japan and SE Asia. I'm SOOOOOO excited! Philippines, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia again (maybe even twice!), maybe even Hong Kong and Korea... not to mention JAPAN! Only thinking about this year, seeing the new places, meeting new people, trying new foods gets me pumped! Going back to Cambodia and seeing my friends there! Being the only barrang/gaijin/guailo around! It's all going to be very low budget, but I'm ok with all that.

Just the thought of having to leave in 2 years makes me so sad. I really love living in Asia, but I have to go back to America for some more schooling. But I think I will be working very hard in order to come back and stay!

I'll also be starting a few volunteer things which I'm VERY excited about. The last few months made me think about a lot of things, and changed how I see somethings, or gave me a perspective as to *why* I see things a certain way as opposed to the people around me. If I can build my own road, I don't have to walk anyone else's. Of course, I'm still the same person I ever was, but now I know that I don't have to follow the rules, because they aren't written for me

Just got back from a last minute trip from Hong Kong, sadly, not too many (if any) really good pics. It was just super fast paced, hardly any time to stop.

Got to try both dim sum and Kung Fu, and I loved both! The dim sum in Hong Kong is obvious. It's like going to NYC for the first time and not seeing the Statue of Liberty. I didn't know what was more fun, catching the cart ladies as they sped by, filling up on treat and tea, or watching all the families and happy people around us.

I was really excited about Kung Fu, I made my husband go with me. You see, my father loves the very old Japanese samurai movies, Toshiro Mifune, Akira Kurosawa, and some very old style spoken Japanese. The man can tell you the Japanese equivalent to just about every spaghetti western made. No one else in my family can stand those movies! But me and my brother did end up become big fans of Asian cinema. My brother perfers the Korean stuff, I dig through the discount bins for anything Bruce Lee/Jackie Chan/Jet Li. So when the chance came to go to a monastary and learn some Kung Fu, even if only for a day.. hells yeah!

I hear that on mainland China, the process is very comercialized. Shaolin is like a brand name. But this place in Hong Kong was quiet, peaceful, not even a gate at the entrance. While they were teaching us (all in Mandarin!) people could walk in, watch, mimic the steps... It was impossible to tell the ages of the master and the students. They could have been anywhere between 15-45. It acts more as a heritage center than a money machine. And the lunch ladies kept trying to feed us til we popped!

I really liked it, as it involved flexebility (which I have), strength (which I don't have), mind (which I need), and a certain element of grace (HAHAHAAAA!). It's probably the closest I'll ever get to ballet dancing! I've been looking for a martial art to learn while living in Asia, and I think I might have found it.

When I first learned about the Asian zodiac, I really wanted to be something cool, like a dragon or a tiger. As it is, I'm not even something nice, like a horse or a dog. Nope, according to the little place mat at that Chinese restaurant, I'm a rat. Yuk! Rats are dirty, they bite, make people sick, nobody likes rats.

For a long time I've been running, and I never knew what I was running from. I think if I never stop, never look back, whatever it is that is chasing me won't catch me. I laugh at jokes that aren't funny, accept things I don't understand, and ignore the misunderstandings of others. I don't push back, because I'm tired of politics and talking. I've learned to forget so well.

That is, until I end up in a bar in Siem Reap, snacking on grilled frogs and beer, laughing with my Cambo friend Aki, while Steve the Australian is trying not to look at the platter of frogs in front of us... (haha... those were some tasty frogs, brother don't know what he missed!) I have some serious respect for the Cambodians, what they've been through and how they push forward. They eat anything, make it all taste good (fried tarantulas anyone?) and are very generous! I think I gained like 3 kilos we ate so much. But when I would meet with other foreigners, I found a lot of them to be (not ALL thankfully)... snobby. In their faces I could see that look of disgust "this is once in a lifetime... and never again!" I felt so embarassed, these people live with dignity, work hard, make miracles from nothing and deserve all the new-found economic success that is trickling their way. Then I would see foreigners arguing with kids over the price of books they were selling (way below anything they would pay back in their home!), foriegners with young pretty girls in the clubs, complaining about the hard bed and the cold water...

And all that I saw, made me think, is it so bad to be a rat?

Dragons aren't real, tigers are endagered, horses, dogs, pigs are all domesticated. Nobody expects anything from a rat, but rats are smart, live anywhere and survive on anything.

Wow... this month is HOT and busy. Just got back from 9 days in Kyoto/Hiroshima, managed to unpack, upload my pictures on the PC, burn a (few) back up disc, now I'm packing and getting ready to go to Cambodia for 2 weeks, (with 1 night in Bangkok!).

After a week at the hostel with no hot water, I was looking forward to having a nice hot shower when I got home, unfortunately, my water heater is broken! As with all things in Japan, it will probably take 1 month to fix. So who knows when I can take a hot shower. At least it's HOT. A cold shower in Ireland in Febuary was pretty miserable.

Anyways, my trip was very interesting. Hiroshima is a beautiful city in many ways, especially in contrast to it's destructive history. Being able to enjoy Kyoto at a slow pace was nice too, saw many interesting things, I can't even get them straight in my head. Oh my god, and I had so much of the Japanese ice stuff... it was everywhere in Kyoto and I had it EVERY DAY.

Looking forward to Cambodia!

Then enough adventure and back to my studies for a little bit...

Was unpacking some boxes and found some OLD prints from my trip to Paris a while back. From the time Before Digital (which I only got a digital camera less than 1 year ago, but now I'm wondering what took me so long). My regular camera broke before the trip, so I had to borrow one and I ended up with this streak from the lense in the corner of most of the pictures, and a lot of them came out over-exposed, but oh well. Ended up taking mostly black and white, and I think it worked out good for Paris.