A Whisper into the Wind

Every ending to a story is bittersweet, but I loved every moment of this journey with you. Be strong and embrace the world for everything it has to offer, you are worthy of it all.

I will always miss you.

Can't sleep

Its incredible how a single person can change your perspective on so many things in merely a few days.  Thank you for opening my eyes and for the memories.

The Weather Comes in Waves & Here I Sit

I lied when I said I'd be writing about mexicans and canadians, instead I'll be writing about things.  Yes, very descriptive, but in short it'll be about how things are going out here. Lets start with the depthless necessities then shall we?

In my last post I said it took about four weeks before I saw any kind of rain. Well since then, the weather has alternated between sunshine and rain on a daily basis.  I'm not talking about some sissy London drizzle rain here. It's a dramatic visual spectacle preceded by a low rumble of thunder, featuring walls of low hanging clouds that slowly drift over the entire sky. When it does swallow up your gaze, sheets of water pour forth in the darkness, occasionally lit by the muted light of the lightning strikes that crash through the sky like clockwork. Moments like this are peaceful and help to momentarily pull me out of the reality of my situation.

The reality of that situation is that I now find myself at the six week mark of the internship. At first the experience was of discovering somewhere new and meeting a new diverse group of people I'd be interacting with for the next while. Activities were planned on an almost daily manner and a grand time was had by all. Slowly things have slowed down due to the fact that we're all here to work, so from 8-5 everyday we find ourselves milling away on a computer doing the menial tasks that are generally associated with temporary hires. The project I work on is definitely interesting and allows me a week to travel at the end of the internship, which I'm grateful for. If I'd been tasked with developing a worthless unused feature - the final result of which I wouldn't see - like some of the interns, then the work would definitely be chipping away at my ability to ascribe a certain sense or purpose to my function.

That aside, a certain sense of tristesse has been coming and going in waves of late, resembling what I imagine MDMA is like, but with melancholy replacing the intense feelings of joy. I can't pinpoint the exact source of these feelings, but certain suspects come to mind. At the beginning of the contract, my closest friends from home have all been occupied with individual travel, school, and other priorities. However as we approach August, most have returned and their festive reunion, combined with arguably one of the nicest summers the city has seen in a while have, in all honesty, stirred up some feelings of jealousy at my inability to share in the fun.

This is not to say that I'm not having a good time in Austin. There are a lot of activities here in the summer to enjoy, however I suspect a lot of my feelings of isolation arise from my mobility situation here. I live and work in the suburbs of a great city, but without a car it's nearly impossible for me to be independent and do things at will. My extended stays in Paris and Singapore while on vacation may have corrupted my mind with the expectation that all major cities have easily accessible transport alternatives to cars. When I was in Singapore staying at PGP with Haomiao, we were a decent ways away from the city. Despite this, buses came frequently and the metro could bring you to any destination in short time. When this wasn't an option, taxis were an extremely cheap alternative, never costing you more than $15 SGD. Paris, where I stayed for two weeks and treated as a travel hub was also infinitely easy to navigate around. The city proper is massive but the metro network extended literally everywhere, and as long as you stayed within city boundaries, you were never more than 400m away from the nearest metro station. I could wake up on the weekend, decide that I felt like roaming the other side of Paris for the day, and do exactly that without depending on a car. New York, not unlike Paris is covered in subways and owning a car is the opposite as it is here.  No one drives in NYC because you'd have to be insane to want to be stuck in gridlock and hunt for parking spots, its effectively a colossal waste of time to drive.

I live in a tiny 600-800 sq ft apartment with three other roommates. It's cramped as hell, and theres absolutely zero privacy. I'm never really alone but my complete dependence on them for transport has taken away one of the freedoms that I've taken for granted. I've never had to live or travel in a place where my two feet aren't a viable transportation option. Even out in the west island the buses come every 10 minutes or less to whisk you away onto the transit network. That's not an option here, and I can tell when I ask to borrow my roommates' cars, they're understandably reluctant to do so. I can suggest things to do with them, but if they decline, then I'm left disappointed at their reluctance to go out. Instead, I find myself at home, occupying myself with indoor hobbies to no great success. A person can only cook so much in a single day (I've become a pretty damn good cook if I say so myself), and my eyes can only stare at a book for so long before the urge to jump outside and do something kicks in. When I do, a long, empty, highway and a cactus pointing down the stretch of road remind me that, at least for the next few weeks, I'm still trapped.

Texas is large & name change

Hello ladies and gents!

You may have noticed I changed the title of my blog and the url, this was done to protect my online anonymity in the off-chance an HR rep from work stumbles across this.  All should be well though :)

It's been a number of months since my last significant post, but I feel that perhaps my temporary residence in the foreign land of the United States would count as travelling.  As such, you are about to be blessed with another one of my delectably random rant-posts.

Raise your hand if you never expected me to take residence in a place typically viewed to be about as ass-backwards as the developped world can get? *Raises hand*  I desperately fought for other opportunities closer to home for the summer, but nothing significant ever materialized.  I was disappointed at being unable to spend the summer at home, which as many of you know is the the highlight of a long and mostly cold year in the city.  But fear not, they said Austin is fun, full of things to do and generally a liberal oasis amidst the most conservative state in the US.

Yes, I'm aware of how redneck this looks.

And boy were they right,  Austin truly is an oasis.  That's not to say its even close to what i associate with being a liberal, but they're a generally more accepting group of people here.  Their party district is on par with crescent/st-laurent in terms of madness, but man cops are dicks here.  I've only been here 4 weeks, and I've seen double digit arrests for public intoxication, most of whom weren't really doing anything wrong apart from stumbling a bit.  Not only that, but they were arrested with what could be construed as excessive force, they didn't resist but were brought to the ground and pinned by 3 cops whilst the other cuffed them.

The alcohol laws here are kind of bizarre, you can drink whilst floating down a river in an inner tube, but the moment you step onto land, theres police there to arrest everyone, and I mean EVERYONE seen with a container holding alcohol in it.  The tubing itself is fun, the water is a cool 20C all summer long, and you just float down it lazily for a couple of hours and pack a cooler full of drinks to keep yourselves entertained.

Oh I forgot to mention its hot here, dry and ridiculously hot.  This is my first experience with dry heat, and although I can say that I prefer this over humid hot, the absolute temperatures it hits here (think consecutive days over 40C) are enough to literally kill you if you find yourself outside somewhere without shade.  On a more amusing note, it's been four weeks since I arrived, and it was only a day ago that I witnessed rainfall for the first time.  Never thought I'd miss rain, but damn the heat to hell, I have no idea why some european colonists would choose to settle in a place with rattlesnakes, a summer that can cook human flesh in a couple of minutes, and virtually no water.  No wonder the spanish empire failed at establishing some useful territories.

Ok, onwards to the fun part, AKA my observations about this place and subsequent negative commentary:

My god, les gens sont gros. From a distance you could mistake them for slow moving tumbleweeds.  Thats not to say there aren't thin people, but I believe Texas is one of the top 10 fattest states in america, thereby making it one of the top 10 fattest places in the world.  Their lifestyle habits here are just not conducive to being healthy at all.

Allow me to elaborate, the population of Greater Austin is just under 2million, from my observations, the highway network here consists of THREE north-south 4-lane highways, two east-west highways, and a ring road to bypass the city.  You can't exist here without a car, everyone drives, even if its to go to the store that's literally one block away.  Fuel prices are under $1/litre so no one really bats an eye at the cost of fuel.  I dont think I've seen a single city bus yet, so public transit is non existent.  And to imagine that I live about as far from downtown as i do back in montreal, where the buses come frequently and only take 45m-1h to reach the downtown core.

Then theres the food, Every week we have meetings with our mentors and go out to eat lunch somewhere nearby.  EVERY destination is a chain or a franchise of some sort.  The amount of fastfood-derivatives is astounding.  I've asked local interns on whether the concept of small non-franchised restaurants exist and they were hard pressed to name more than a few.  Portion sizes are the equivalent of a newborn texan baby.  You could feed yourself for an entire day on 10$ worth of fast food from this place.

Back home, when you go to a grocery store, the fresh produce, boucherie and poissonerie sections account for about 1/2 the floor space.  At our local grocery store in Austin, about 1/4 is for fresh produce, the rest is pre-prepared meals, frozen meals, you name it.  It's no wonder people aren't healthy when you give them options like that.

Well, that sums up some of my first impressions of Texas.  Next time, I'll talk about canadians and mexicans.

Exception to the rule

Ahoy there,

It seems like I only post when I'm traveling, which makes sense, cause I have a lot of things to say about what I'm experiencing and seeing. That's not to say I don't a lot to say when I'm not traveling - just that there's people here that I can talk to in person instead of over the internetz. Anyways, I don't know what I'm writing about, its 4am during finals period, I'm not feeling particularly motivated for the exam I'm about to write so I'm writing to you instead.

Caramel and Chocolate clearly belong together.

SINGAPOOOOOOOOOORE

Today is April 7th. It's been a long time since I last wrote. I was too busy having a great time in Singapore. I hope that's a good enough reason for you all.

I arrived in singapore on the friday the 25th of march at around noon. After getting settled in and getting a sim card/MRT card, I made my way to the NUS campus where Haomiao lives. This is where i found out there were parties almost every day for the next week.

Singapore is located 1 degree north of the equator, so as you can imagine, its hot all the time. Daytime highs are around 35C and night time lows are around 28C. You'd find yourself taking at least 2 showers a day. Sleeping simply involves putting the fan on a less noisy level and lying on your bed uncovered. I love it, it takes a while to get used to but the heat is oddly satisfying, at least more so than winter. That's not to say I don't like seasons, having no change in seasons must kind of suck.

Clarke Quay, Singapore

Anyways, I don't really know what to write here about singapore, i saw a lot of the people i met a week earlier at the full moon party. We had barbeque with Haomiao's familia out here, and went out a lot. One of the clubbing events was at the top of swissotel - a skyscraper - from which you have a great view of Clarke's Quay where all the bars are located. Nearby you can see the amazing Marina Bay Sands hotel (which looks like a boat ontop of 3 skyscrapers). This is one place I have to go to in the future, a room costs around 300$ but you get access to the infinity pool on the roof. Some of the NUS students went and showed us photos and it's breathtaking.

My experience in Singapore left me feeling like an idiot. I've always known I love asian metropolises, but I chose to go on exchange to a tiny town in europe. What on earth was I thinking? Everything about Singapore/HK/Shanghai/Tokyo plays to my tastes. Food costs nothing, weather's warm, the setting is more adventure-centric than museum-centric, and excursions don't cost an arm and a leg. Oh the things I'd do for a time machine. Mistakes have to be made I guess, else I wouldn't have known just how much I identify with asia had I not come to europe.

Speaking of mistakes, my flight back to paris was at 1am on Friday Apr 1, and... i missed that cause I'm an idiot and thought it was the night of friday. The best part was I only realized in the middle of dimsum on friday. When I got to the airport, they told me i could either rebook for the 4th, or leave the same night and wait on standby in Sri Lanka (HAHAHA im not that stupid). 3 extra days in Singapore? I'll take it! I even tried to change my paris->mtl flight to singapore->mtl with no luck.

Anyways, I don't dislike europe, the pastries are to die for, and the sights are beautiful. But it's a much quieter continent with tourism focused more on "observing" than "experiencing". I just have a hard time dealing with the cost of living, the retarded amount of urban sprawl, and the early closing hours here (shit's NEVER OPEN HERE, while nothing ever closes out east). I'm busy stuffing my face in Barcelona currently, and will continue to do the same in Paris before i head home.

Crossing my fingers for an internship. Need money to buy RX-7. That baby will be mine!

Amusing things in asia

Asian food in asia is amazing, as you would expect, i've been stuffing my face full of curries and other thai food of late, not to mention the amazing mangos and pineapples that are everywhere. However one of the other food highlights of asia might be a little unexpected: it's McDonalds. Good old mcdo and KFC in asia are DELICIOUS. Those of you that have been here know exactly what i'm talking about, not only is everything crispier, its also tastier, and i wish we could get those regional specialties back home. Mcdo serves spicy crispy chicken wings here... it's so freaking good i could eat it everyday (...i did for 4 days straight).


Also, in asia you'll see tons of street carts serving food, typically they'll get you sick the first few times you have them. But after you evacuate your bowels a couple of times and adjust to the bacteria zone, street carts are the cheapest, and sometimes the best food you'll get out here. NYC streetcarts are shit compared to this, skewers actually have taste, and cost like 20cents. Ok, the cleanliness part might be a bit off putting, but you can guess your way around the good carts. Some carts you should obviously avoid, unless you have a death wish:


Speaking of sushi, im friggin excited to be headed to singapore later this week. Ending 'trips' in large cities has become a de-facto tradition for me now. Can't wait to have sushi and dimsum and everything else that i can't have in thailand. Also theres the bit about visiting haomiao & fan, who i already met with at full moon party. Full moon party was insane, easily 20k people on a beach hopping up and down to techno. You can find long stretches of guys taking a piss in the ocean, people doing the nasty in the ocean itself, and tons of fire dancers. At one point, we found someone who was waving a canadian flag, which led us to a huge group of canadians all singing the anthem, which attracted even more canadians. It was definitely a unique experience that had to be done at least once. Probably wouldn't go again unless i'm with a lot of friends though.

Anyways, i'll end this post with a funny picture of what the stray dogs here do. They're literally everywhere on this island, and because its so hot and they're furry (duh), you'll find them in 7-elevens doing this:

Consumer ABUSE

So back in bangkok, where its muggy and smoggy and you can't really see the sun, sunblock costs like 3usd for a nice sized bottle.

Down here on Ko Tao, an isolated island, a small 100ml bottle will cost you 12USD minimum.... so im just going to try and get dark slowly so i dont need to buy it. Crossing my fingers i don't catch on fire here. It's seriously hot.

Hope you're all jealous muahhahaaahah.

:)

Quick update

So for those of you who are wondering where I am, i'm in bangkok right now. I came down to thailand for the diving and to visit some friends on exchange in singapore so it should be a fun and relaxing couple of weeks.

I know it sounds mental that i'd leave europe... to come to asia, but according to my math, its cheaper for me to come here for a few weeks than to stay in europe. Living costs in europe are prohibitively elevated, plus who could turn down a chance to enjoy the sun, beach and cheap food?

Anyways, on my last day in Rome, this really sneaky brazilian fucker waited for me to go brush my teeth before nabbing 200euros from my jacket pocket. I only realized once i got back to paris and wanted to buy something to eat. I figured it was him and not one of the other ppl at the hostel cause he gave off a sketchy vibe, I felt like he was watching my every move. At least he was too retarded to steal my passport, i'd much rather give up 200euros than to lose that. What goes around comes around, he'll probably have a nasty encouter in the favelas or something...

On the way to asia, i had a layover in Dubai, and oh my god is dubai ever beautiful. From the plane at first all you see is the sea, then these strange man made islands, and then all of a sudden you see a city that doesnt look like it belongs in the desert. Not only that, but the burj khalifa more than doubles the nearby skyscrapers in height. the buildings are all on one main street, so from the sky you just see a row of tall structures, and then its just sand huts. It's too bad i don't have time to exit the airport and look around. Even in the airport, you could see and smell the wealth, there were emiratis circulating about on segways, and a huge fountain/waterfall in the airport!

Lastly, I don't really hate bangkok as much as i did last time, maybe it's cause it was my first destination last time around. It still isn't anywhere near my preferred cities, its a sprawling megacity with 11 million people and some serious sanitation issues. However, it's close enough to asia to make me feel comfortable right now. It's an odd thought that despite how similar europe is to canada, I still feel like i have an easier time navigating and doing things in asia.

Anyways, no pics in this update, maybe there'll be some in the next one!

Rainy Rome

Bongiorno!

This has been my fourth day in Rome, and only the first day i've seen blue sky and the sun. Up until last night, Rome had been a dreary wet place where people keep trying to sell you umbrellas and roses. I came here with my friend Ziyi and met her friend Debbie who gave us a pretty amazing tour of the heart of Rome. This city is OLD. There's ruins scattered everywhere in the Roman sector, it's a shame theres no way to let you just roam around on the grounds next to still standing pillars, i think it would make for a great park. To keep the ancient taste, they've decided to make most roads out of cobblestones, and theyre never flat. Walking is a bloody effort here, roads are rough, and people walk slower than an amputated tortoise. The cracks between stones are practically an inch apart too. This makes me wonder how women in heels dont fall in and snap their shoes. Anyone care to enlighten me?

Anyways, unlike Paris, all the sights to see in Rome are outdoors, it's kind of nice how everything somewhat free to see, but the outdoorsyness results in an obscene amount of tourists in the city. There's probably a piazza every few streets, yet each one manages to be filled to capacity with tourists. A latte in hotspots like piazza navona costs 6euros instead of 1.50! Despite this, they are absolutely beautiful, especially the Trevi fountain. Like most fountains, you toss in coins for certain reasons, 1 coin brings you back to rome, and 2 ensures you find true love. I threw in 3, we'll see what happens.

The Vatican is a whole other sight to behold, despite my "lack of culture" according to ziyi, I can still appreciate the art and architecture and history behind these sights. Plus she bombards you with history and art facts anyways so theres no point reading it up yourself. The vatican is huuuuuuuuuuuge, its just a shame the only time it's empty is at night, when you're not allowed onto the grounds. I haven't seen the sistine chapel, don't really plan on it after seeing all of michaelangelo's other works. La Pieta is a BEAUTY. Absolutely stunning, no wonder no one believed he sculpted it when he was 23.

The other highlight of Rome is the food of course! The only downside is its freaking expensive, sooooooooooooo expensive to eat here. I've had pizza an obscene amount of times, i actually find it greasier here, but the ingredients taste better. And gelato, i had 3 cones in 1 day, on a rainy cold day. That's canadian right there. After a while, the 3 of us finally found some decently priced trattorias to dine at. We ordered enough to stuff a family. Buffalo's milk mozzarella is delicious, it's probably my new favourite cheese. Having bread anywhere after having it in Paris is going to be a disappointment. The meals are amazing though! An antipasti + primi + secondi will kill you, I'm sure the waitress stared at us in disbelief when the food vanished into our tiny asian bodies. Here's a photo of pasta with lobster ziyi had, i wish i had ordered it...

(she eats like a monster.)

Withdrawl from EPFL

Just a quick update for those of you who read this, I've officially withdrawn from my exchange semester at EPFL. I feel disappointed for not having completed the experience, however I am incredibly relieved that I no longer have to deal with McGill dep of ECE<->European credit transfer system. Instead of giving a convoluted reason as to why I'm withdrawing, it's probably better if I just tell you I trust my gut, and my gut was telling me that shit was becoming too bothersome to deal with.

On the bright side I get to travel now until I come back for the summer session. I will return bearing many gifts, mostly consumables. I'm off to Rome soon too! Can't wait.

Paris, je t'aime

Alright folks, it's time for an update. I got myself out of Switzerland and into Paris yesterday. For some reason I feel like most of the comments about paris aren't very positive. So I was expecting dirty streets with dog/human poop everywhere on the sidewalks. But what a pleasant surprise! Very little human and dog poop to avoid!

My hostel for the time being is in the city core right around l'Hotel de Ville. I went for a short walk the day i arrived, and in front of HdV was some fountains, a massive carousel... along with a skating rink packed with people in it. Safe to say it left a pretty awesome impression of the city.

The whole core is absolutely beautiful, the buildings have immaculate exteriors that just scream "Paris!". It's almost as if you took the old port from Montreal, widened the streets and ctrl+v'ed it a hundred times over the city. Very picturesque. The city regulations prevent residents from hanging things outside their windows and balconies to protect the image of the city, they also regulate the maximum height of buildings. This results in a pretty uncommon cityscape where almost everything is of the same height.

As a side note, old european cities are impossible to navigate, theres no grid overlay here at all, you could take 2 rights and end up back where you were. Nothing is consistent! "sense of direction" is absolutely USELESS now. This even translates into their metro system. New yorks looks complicated but is easy to figure out, tokyo has seperate rail and metro lines and is in a FOREIGN LANGUAGE but you can figure it out easily. However, looking at paris' metro map is asking for a brain hemmorage, it feels like they just blindly tunneled wherever they wanted to go and then put a bunch of rails down and proclaimed "voila! metro."

I'm so happy to be in a city that offers real food at decent prices. Switzerland is for rich people that wear rolexes and drive R8s. It's also mostly for german's who primary diet consists of sausages of varying colours and beer. Paris is a more for me. I like food. I like paris.

Perplexing discovery

Two posts in a row! Whilst doing my business in the bathroom, I realized something about the toilet bothered me. No it wasn't the odd panels on the wall that you have to push to flush, I've already been accustomed to bizzare manners of flushing. What perplexed me was the missing "water housing" part which we're all used to, this makes me wonder: when a toilet doesnt flush properly here, what do they do to fix it?

It looks awkward as hell too without that extra tub doesnt it?

I loveeeeeee cold winters

Back by popular demand (jun and milton... cough)!

Let me start this off by saying the first person i met in Lausanne was an asshole. Overall the swiss are very nice, although I think theres something pervasive about reclusivness and the french language culture. Anyways, the asshole is my dorm concierge, he's a stubborn arrogant twat of a frenchman that refused to answer questions and spoke to me as if i had a lobotomy at some point in my life. Infuriating asshat.

Anyways, back to my original post.

Many of us from cold climates have a deep seated dread of winter. For us it means bone-chilling temperatures, layers upon layers of clothing (except for you canada goose people), short daylight hours and various other irritating winter precautions that must be taken. Naturally, when we hear about Vancouver and their mild winters we think about how great it would be if it were like that. Lausanne experiences a similar kind of winter.

You might be thinking "Thats great! you must be loving it!", but I'm writing to tell you that you're completely wrong. I have a newfound distaste for mild winters as well as a new love for freezing winters (I'd still prefer to have no winter at all, but if I had to choose, i'd choose the f*cking cold one). To put it briefly, the mildness of the weather makes it humid, and humidity in winter results in tons of fog. Theres supposed to be a majestic view of the alps from my dorm room window, but I've only managed to see a few buildings away due to the fog. Not only that, but mild winters means theres no snow on the ground. I know most of us hate having to walk through the snow/slush in the winter months back home. But the snow brings another great quality to winters: light in darkness. After the sun sets, the streetlights & moonlight shine on the snow and it reflects everywhere, winter nights are bright to the point where you could read outdoors (only someone truly stupid would). This isn't the case here, not only is there no snow to reflect light, the fog gets trapped in the narrow european streets and prevents any real sunshine from getting through. We're used to getting intense sunshine on cold winter days in Montreal, I still haven't seen the sun here yet. I'm pretty sure they don't load up their milk with vitamin D either, so the lack of sunlight is really getting to me.

[edit] Admittedly, snow on the ground really wouldnt work in a place like this either cause of how the streets are organized and how narrow they are. In fact, snow would make navigation here impossible by my guess. [/edit]

Oh, almost forgot, our underground city back home is the bomb. All cities that experience winter should have one, its so convenient to hide from the cold AND get around.

Anyways, the experience out here in europe has not been what I was expecting, and the realization of the facts of life on exchange have sunk in. I have a more thoughtful post coming in the next few days once I'm in Paris, but I thought i'd bless you guys with one of my wonderful rants.

Bureaucracies

Does it really need to take 3 months to have a student visa application approved? Come on. Give me my damn entry ticket already.

La la la la la. Ra ra ou la la...

Less than 3 months

Less than 3 months to go until my exchange program begins. Quite exciting. I promise not to put myself in any danger (probably no running with bulls, but i definitely want to see the festival).

Glaciers!

Met Jen and Kristin from Maine today on the glacier hike. They're
traveling for the weekend only and are headed back soon. The glacier
hike is absolutely unreal, the ice under your feet is a mystic shade
of blue that perpetuates forever underneath you. Walking along ridges
you can see where some of the melt forms rivers and archs. On this day
there was a consistently strong wind that forced us to double back on
our tracks multiple times for fear of being blown into a crevasse. The
only way to tell the deepness of one is by chucking a block of ice in
and listening for the crashing to cease. Near the end we found an
icewall to scale, so with pick axes in hand we climbed (or attempted
to) one at a time. It's probably one of the most exhaustive activities
I've ever done.

Almost all the terrain we drove by today was barren. Not a single tree
or shrub in sight. There were rocks and volcanic ash everywhere and it
really felt like an anolog of mars. Opposite to the mountains is flat
land that extends to the Atlantic, occasionally dusted with some moss.
Iceland truly is unique in terms of landscape.

Suhan (mobile)

Impressions of Iceland

66 degrees north. You really don't realize just how far north this is
until you see how low the midday sun hangs in the sky. Admittedly,
it's not so bad considering we're a month away from equinox, but it
still feels odd seeing darkness at 9:30am.

Let's back pedal a bit because I just want to comment on how nice of a
city Boston is. I was only in the city center for an hour or two but
the place feels clean and friendly. Buildings are packed next to
eachother in the downtown core giving a slight resemblance to how
European cities feel. Apart from that, the architecture is really
stunning. Those art deco(?) styled facades are rich in detail and give
off an aura of timelessness that modern buildings lack.

The flight from Boston to reyjkavik was an overnighter on which I
really hoped to see the northern lights. Aurora activity has been at a
peak the past few weeks but to my dismay none appeared in the sky on
the way over. I'm crossing my fingers for a string of cloudless nights
here, I'd trade the rest of my trip just for a glimpse of those
magical lights.

You're all probably wondering what there is to do and see in Iceland.
Well let me tell you, this young island is a hiker's delight in the
summer time and has equal visual appeaL in the winter months. It's
recent geologic volcanic activity means there are geysirs left right
and centre. There are also glaciers that cover large swaths of land on
which you can hike and climb. Also, there's some pretty majestic
iceberg fields outside of the city that are worth a visit. Finally,
let's not forget the famous Blue Lagoon spa which is home to a scenic
and huge aqua blue silica thermal pool.

So far, I've only gone to see Gullfoss, a waterfall, and the geysirs,
of which I took an fun sequence of photos. Tomorrow I'm going to go
glacier hiking and then (attempt) to climb an ice wall. And then the
day after I'm going to go scuba diving (yes you read that right)
between the American and European continental plates. Visibility in
that water is supposed to be over 50m so I'll be taking lots of
pictures of that!

Anyways, I'll update again in a day or two!
PS. It's around the same temp as Montreal here, except. The wind can
have a nasty bite.

I think I forgot a part of me out there.

After a series of prolonged and delayed flights, I finally made it back home at 3am this Saturday morning. I thought I'd be more excited to come home and see mom & dad and eat home food, but the world works in mysterious ways and I'm not very satisfied with being here. As much as I love the city, since its where I grew up; the place is a dump. I think I finally understand was Mark/Fan was going on about while i was still in Laos. Montreal has a lot to offer to those who seek no riches or to those who have little. But it also doesn't please those who seek opportunities as much as I thought it would. The thought is difficult to explain, in fact its probably impossible to explain, but the city truly is lacking some economic pzazz (or something similar) to erase the ghosttown vision I have of its future.

In any case, its great to be home although i haven't seen any friends yet. It's surprisingly more humid here than in Tokyo. Despite the lower temperatures, it feels just as hot.

This may be a little premature, but I've pretty much decided that I will pursue an exchange program for the 2010-2011 academic year. I still have no idea where I want to go yet, but the short list that comes to mind are the following four countries: the UK, France, Germany or Japan. The main reason is the opportunity to learn a new language or improve one I already know, and to just have easy access to travel while im abroad. The friends I've made during the past 2 months have really left me with an impression that I should do everything in my power to not stay in one place. Plus it's kind of lonely here now that most of my friends from highschool have gone in their own direction, and are spending less an less time together.

Or, all these thoughts might just be the beginning of post-travel blues. Whatever the case, I've learned that I usually waste a lot of time doing nothing So I vow to start doing more with what time I have available and to stop floating around aimlessly.

In any case, to those of you who I've met while traveling and read this. Thanks for all the great times, and hopefully we'll meet again in the near future.

To those of you at home... pictures will be up on facebook... within the next two weeks? There's much to go through, and I need a desk to work on instead of the floor.

Hong Kong, and now Tokyo!

Oy everyone, it's been a while since that last rant of a post i made.  Right now I'm in Tokyo, but ill start by commenting on my short trip to Hong Kong.

 

Ill let it be known first that while i was planning this whole trip, i only really focused on south east asia as far as planning goes.  I assumed that once i got to china there would be no planning, all I had to do was make it to HK by Aug 14th.  Luckily that held true and i didnt have to plan a thing, and i arrived in HK with a few days to see the city and meet up with some friends (Vivien, her sister Ellen, and Mansi).  Hong Kong is very... special(?), on the ground level of Kowloon there are the ubiquitous neon lights which define the city strung out over every major road, intersection as well as the small alleyways that give the city the feel that defines the asian street-stall way of life.  However as you peer skyward, the gleaming windows of the countless skyscrapers tell you otherwise; the city is rich, not only in money, but also in culture.  It has managed to gain wealth without sacrificing much culture which is quite a special feat in my opinion.

 

The MTR and the octopus card system is near flawless... the price might stack up if you use it often, but man it WORKS SO WELL. Take a lesson from a city that knows how to plan and manage itself Montreal, or else you'll soon fade into a city that 'was'.  Thanks to Vivien and her sister and her cousin Coleen(?) for meeting with me on the first night, i was pretty lost and amazed at seeing a big city again.  It was really nice having more than a few days to just roam the city as you want, but I have to say, most large cities really don't have much to offer.  See a few skyscrapers, go to the harbour, eat some seafood, and that pretty much does it.  Which reminds me: the view in Hong Kong is SPECTACULAR, especially by the harbour at night.  The lights, the buildings, aghh everything is perfect (except the blazing hot weather).  I also met up with jetlagged mansi and her friend Raymond, and we strolled about seeing the major sights once more, and had some sushi.  (Even low quality sushi out here is better than sushi back home).

 

And then i left for Tokyo.  Tokyo is huge, the kind of huge that only really applies to city with a metropolitan population of over 20million.  You really dont get an idea of how big 20million is until you stand on the roof of a tall building in one of these cities.  When i saw the cityscape from the observation window, my jaw dropped.  It's literally a sea of buildings, likely similar to what you would see in Sao Paolo, and several times bigger than NYC.  Tokyo is essentially Manhattan spread over brooklyn, queens, the bronx, and all other neighbouring land.  And then theres Shibuya.  Shibuya is.... shibuya, theres really no other way to describe it.  The JR Hachiko exit is ALWAYS full of people (side story, Hachiko is a dog that came to the station everyday to see its master.  When the master died, the dog did not forget and still came back to the same spot everyday until it died to wait for its master), you'll never see a piece of sidewalk without someone occupying it.  The crossing is another thing too (apparently made famous to the western world by the movie Lost in Translation), all lights at the intersection go red as thousands of people stampede to get from one side to the other.  I took a video, but honestly the feeling of being in that crowd is only a minute part of the experience at Shibuya.  Another experience in itself is sitting at the 2nd level starbucks at the corner of shibuya, squeezing into one of the window seats, and just watching all the people cross.  It might sound strange, but everyone does it, foreigners and locals alike, and trust me when i say it's really awe inspiring to see that many people and that much energy in one spot, in any city on the planet.

 

Ill probably only post once more after I hike Mount Fuji before coming home.  To think theres less than a week before I'm back in Montreal.  Almost makes me feel sad to have to go home now.