I feel like I've lost my voice, I really don't know what to put in this place. I demand a muse! Someone find me a muse!
A lot has happened, not too much I really care to share though. So why post? Not sure really, I guess sometimes it's just nice to see your thoughts existing somewhere other than the cavity between your spinal column and the top of your skull.
"Feel the rhythm! Feel the rhyme! Get on up, its bobsled time! COOL RUNNINGS!"
Wish me luck, I'm joining the Jamaican bobsled team. Just kidding. Really.
Work is sending me to Arizona next week, then I head over to Jamaica for two weeks, then another week in Arizona. After that I park it here for a little while and do some more stuff.
So far work is fun:
1) My buddy is friendly, but not too friendly
2) Instead of training for 30-45 minute blocks, I had to do full day blocks...
3) My laptop is sweet
4) 0 bear attacks
I'd have to say I'm doing pretty good for myself
And so it ends, my little hiatus from the life I used to live. College life is officially over, this is my last "real" summer break. Tomorrow, I work. At 6:00 AM I'll wake up, take a shower, shave, and then, get this, DO MY HAIR. I haven't even touched a hair product in a long long time thanks to my pseudo-vacations. At around 7:00 AM I'll leave home at a leisurely pace enjoying the morning rush hour, probably yawning a ton and praying that the day will be fun. At 8:00 AM, I'll wander around inside the building until 9:00 AM which is my start time.
Here's my wishlist for my first day a work:
1) My assigned buddy is friendly, but not too friendly
2) I don't have to sit in training for longer than 30-45 minute blocks at a time
3) The laptop they issue me is pretty nice
4) 0 Bear attacks. I know it's not bear season, but I always have to be vigilant.
I guess that's it for now. No sappy revelations. No big epiphany. Just hoping for the best.
Onwards,
Neal
Officially 16 days removed from my departure from the states, let’s consider this a third of the trip summary. I’m going to recount some stories I’ve had abroad.
Bum’s House
I think is one of my favorite moments of the trip. This was my last night in Japan so Marvin decided to take my sister and I out drinking. Before we can officially start drinking, we do some shopping and do some waiting to round up the troops. In the midst of all this, I get tired so I look around while we’re waiting. I spot a clean piece of cardboard and begin making my motions to go sit on it. One of the guys with us jokes “Watch out man, that might be someone’s house.” I think “har, har, no way in hell someone’s house is a clean piece of cardboard sitting in the middle of the street.” Surely enough, mid-squat, a homeless guy wanders over and starts yelling at me in Japanese. Indeed, it was his house, and I was definitely embarrassed for some reason. Come to think of it, why in the world did Marvin bring us to such a shady area in the middle of the night obviously looking like tourists? That should rank up pretty high on the lists of things-not-to-do when you’re on a trip.
Phone Tag
This one was in Japan again. The day after we came back to Tokyo from Okinawa I was trying to meet up with Marvin to reunite with one of the M’s. So my sister and I set off nice and early to try to meet him at a neat (not really) little (yeah right) train station (that it is) named Shinjuku train station. Little did I know, this colossus of a station has two floors and over 4 major separate exits devoted to the two major systems, Japan Rail and Tokyo line. I’m talking big, it’s got a department store attached to it and God knows how many places to shop in it. So my sister and I get off and call Marvin, he says he’s at a different platform and he’ll come find us. We wait. He calls us this time and tells us to come upstairs because he can’t get to our platform. I’m going to use a chart to illustrate how far we thought we were, us being the O and Marvin being the X.
We thought
| ---------O-|-X--------- |
It was actually
| O----------|----------X |
As you can tell now; not a very good start. We go upstairs off the platform and look for him. We call him and then asked him which exits because we see two, he says just check both. We check both call him. He asks if we’re sure, we’re not, so we walk around in the circle again. Called him again then we realize that it’s possible we’re not in the same area.
Up another set of stairs. We call him again:
“Where are you?”
“Still there. Are you sure you are at the Oedo exit?”
“Yeah man, this sign is in English, it says Oedo exit.”
“Are you at the right station?”
(look up) “Yup same sign it says Shinjuku-nishisomething.”
“Ah I think I know where you are try to walk over to Shinjuku station.”
(up a flight of stairs, call him again)“Aight, now we’re in the station proper.”
“What exit are you at?”
“Exit 2.”
“Huh? I’m at South. Are you sure it’s 2?”
“Yeah man, “ (Look up) “ this sign definitely says exit 2.”
“Alright, I’ll come find you.”
At this point, we thought
| ---------O-|----X------ |
It was actually, notice the change
| O----------|----------X |
(Marvin calls) He says, “Where are you?”
“Still here, I’m looking at this map apparently this station has a lot of levels, where are you?”
“Well, I can’t find this exit 2 of yours.”
“Hmmm, I guess we’ll go into the station and try to find something…what does it look like around you?”
“Dude, I have no idea it looks like every other part of the train station.”
“Shit. Ok I’ll call you back in a second.”
(we go into the train station, then call Marvin) “Hey dude, we’re at some lockers, where are you?”
“Still at the South entrance, just to let you know there are lockers everywhere in the station.”
“…”
“…”
“I’ll call you back.”
At this point, we thought
| ------?----|-----?------ |
It was actually, notice the new change
| O----------|----------X |
(call Marvin) “Hey man I’m at a place called C and C curry.”
“Awesome I’ll be right there, I’m close to it I’ll call you in a second.”
(ten minutes pass by)
(Marvin calls) “Dude, where are you?”
“I’m at C and C curry, where are you?”
“No I’m at C and C curry, I don’t see you.”
“I’m definitely here.”
“So am I.”
“…. I guess there are more than one C and C curries.”
“I guess so.”
“I’ll call you back.”
(I find a map, call Marvin) “Hey so it turns out we’re in a whole different section.”
“Shit.”
OH CLARITY!
We realize this is our positioning
| ----O------|-----X----- |
“Yeah we’re at the west exit.”
“Be there in a sec.”
(Marvin calls) He says a little out of breath, “I think I’m here, but I don’t see you.”
“Uh describe where you are.”
“It’s got this shopping area.”
(I look closely at the map) “Yeah you are definitely at the SOUTH West Entrance.”
“FUCK!”
“Yeah we can come find you if you want us to.”
“No, I’m sick of this game of phone tag, I’m coming for you.”
Then he found us. That whole sequence took us an hour. There were some other calls there that I neglected to mention, but you get the gist of it. In that one sequence, I managed to kill all his minutes for the MONTH. He managed to run up about 8 bucks worth of phone charges for me.
Good times. That was as exhausting to write as it was to experience it.
The Flight
On the way to Thailand from Tokyo I was stuck on a pretty empty flight. Two hours into it everyone was passed out in their own row. I have pictures as proof. I ended up talking to a flight attendant for a while to placate our mutual boredom. She noticed I was from UT because of my hat and gave me the Hook ‘em sign. Not bad.
There’s more to this, but that last story took all the creativity I have. If you noticed, none of these happen in Thailand. I’m pretty bored here. Someone save me.
After spending the last few weeks traveling, I’ve decided to put together a list of tips to impart some wisdom I’ve gained over the years for those intending on traveling heavily in a short period of time.
1) Pack light – You want to be able to move at a moments notice, so don’t pack to heavily. Limit yourself to a big backpack and possibly a small rolling case. But even that might get cumbersome
2) If you don’t want to carry it, don’t buy it – There are a lot of neat knickknacks sitting around souvenir shops but a lot of the time they weigh a lot, are awkwardly shaped, or are too fragile for easy transportation. If it’s kind of awkward to carry around the shop, then it will be awkward to carry around the world. Best thing to do, leave it and hope you can find a smaller less awkward counterpart or the object itself on eBay.
3) Bring a bottle of water with you everywhere – You never know where your trip might take you and sometimes those places don’t have water.
4) Bring toilet paper – You never know where your trip might take you and almost all of the times those places won’t have toilet paper.
5) Don’t expect people to do things for you – This goes back to tip number 1. If you don’t think you can carry something up 2 or 3 flights of stairs, it is probably too heavy and you shouldn’t expect people to help you if they see you struggling. Don’t get me wrong, most people I’ve met traveling have been really nice, but being self-reliant is important while traveling.
6) The grocery store is your friend – Everything in grocery stores is usually cheaper. If you can stock up on certain foodstuffs (i.e. granola bars, snacks, drinks) you can cut out a meal a day and some of the excess spending to save you tons of money.
7) Be flexible – Changing plans is a part of the experience. Taking day trips or over night trips to unplanned areas will give more opportunities for adventure so do not hesitate to cancel a reservation or cut out some things from the list of things to do. You’ll thank yourself later.
8) Don’t be shy – Make some friends at the hostel, they are usually in the same boat you are (whatever boat that may be) and are more than willing to go somewhere with you.
9) Bring a light jacket – Weather is unpredictable, a light jacket makes you better prepared for that kind of weather.
10) This is the most important for me – Take a break if you’re tired. If you find yourself exhausted, take a day off to relax and recuperate before doing any kind of stressful activity. Slow down the day by taking longer meals or cutting certain things activities out of the day. You’ll enjoy your trip more.
These tips may not be new to you, but I felt like they just needed to be stated.
Happy Travels!
I'm changing these from days to normal titles because I can't keep up the grind of updating daily. So far, not much has happened, just gotten a lot of traveling and eating out of the way. Currently parked in Okinawa enjoying the humidity and Japan's rainy season.
Sober Fun
We've done a lot of sight-seeing and even more eating. It kind of feels like we're taking a tour of subway stations and airports though considering how much time we've spent going from place to place. But all is well, the food is great and I'm becoming a pro at pointing at the food I want and then hoping it isn't something too exotic. Not much else to say really, we watch a lot of movies during our many breaks. We also completed season 4 of family guy.
Non-sober Fun
Yesterday the weather was pretty bad so Nar (my sister) decided that we should start drinking at 3....
So we did.
It wasn't a good idea. Here's why:
1) Sun came out right after we started but in our condition we weren't going to do any driving
2) My sister stopped at two drinks (Good Idea) We stopped after 7 hours (Bad Idea)
3) I have bruises all over for some reason
4) Sam's door where the dart board is located now looks like a woodpecker with the shakes had its way with it
5) We had 4 meals yesterday before drinking then proceeded to eat half a large pizza a piece
That's pretty much it, this trip has been relaxing. I've done a lot of introspection as well as bonding with my sister. So far, so good.
It's six AM local time and I'm wide awake. My sister and I spent the last day meandering through different areas of Tokyo. Not because we were exploring though, but because I got us lost. So, what do I do? I vox.
The Flight (musings)
It was 13 hours long and it started off with my sister spilling my 44oz. Strawberry lemonade from Auntie Anne's on the floor where I sit. Half a stack of paper towels and two blankets later I got it cleaned up but the smell taunted me the whole entire trip. Great way to start.
I'm fairly sure every asian baby in Texas was on this flight because it seemed like every other seat was filled by a toddler/newborn. Also, I think babies know have an innate cry sensor because they managed to alternate crying the entire flight. I was more impressed than mad. Well, I started off mad and ended up impressed. So it goes.
The movies on the plane weren't very good either... I had to watch Ghost (Swayze), Music and Lyrics , Dirty Dancing (more Swayze), Bridge to Terabithia (Really good), King Kong (Way too long), and The Score (Good enough to put me to sleep). They had a few episodes of the Office though so all was not lost.
The Train Ride
We caught a train into town and took a lot of different trains to get to the area we were trying to go to. I caught up on a lot of sleeping here.
The Hostel (Ride)
I'm an idiot and booked the hostel for the wrong day so the one we went to was full up.
The bathrooms here are fancy. When you enter, the lights turn on automatically and the toilet has a built in bidet and seat warmer. I thought I wouldn't like the seat warmer, but there's something to be said for a warm tush. It was pretty complicated though, thank god for my MIS degree. It helped me work the gadgets on the toilet.
That's all for now, I'll probably have more to say/be more interesting later but this is all I got for the day.
Peace, Word to your mothers.
A toast to Austin, for tomorrow I leave.
To the friends you keep,
the friends that have left,
the college I beat,
to your concert venues I danced in,
to the places I've eaten,
and most of all,
the memories I've made.
Cheers!
four years give or take a few days, I finally beat college*...
*with very few cheat codes.
my summer can now officially start, even though I've been coasting since january.
I'm glad these guys came to see me walk:
Also, my family:
So, now I grow up. Here's my schedule of where I'm going to be/doing if you care to keep track :
(I'll probably write more later)
May 19th: Start growing up
May 20th: Back in Dallas
May 21st: To Japan!
May 22nd: Tokyo
May 23rd: Okinawa. Gotta raise hell while setting a good example for my sister. This will be tough.
May 26th: Tokyo
May 29th: Thailand. Specifically Bangkok. <Insert Bangkok joke here>
July ??: Back to Dallas
