i have officially booked my ticket home. October 21st at 615pm i will be in buffalo, ny after a 33 hour plane ride.
we went to penang, malaysia on wednesday last week with lindsay and his girlfriend. met this guy linus from finland in the airport so he hung out with us all week. we had to go to make a visa run since i am only allowed in the country for 30 days at a time. I really really enjoy being in penang, we stayed in china town near love lane. the food was fantastic in malaysia, we were really close to little india, so i hit that shit up pretty often, pretty often being 3 times in one day. lol. we went to a huge buddhist temple called kek lok si, its one of the biggest in asia, it was really beautiful and the view was amazing. i bought alot of postcards so expect mail. we didnt really do that much except drink and relax. on sat morn we went to the beach, batu ferringhi and stayed in a guest house right on the beach. the ocean was so incredibly warm, i couldnt believe it. there was a night market in town but by this point i didnt have much money left. we drank a 26er of tequila on the beach, and the last time i did that, i threw up bubble tea in a bird bath and left my shoes at some party. this time, i lost my shorts with my wallet and new earrings, my wallet thankfully only contained 10 ringits, which is like 4 dollars. but i ended up being really hungover with NO water. not as bad as linus though, he lost 50 ringits, his pants, tshirt and shoes. thus he had to ride the bus back with no shoes or shirt on. it was pretty ghetto. oh they got stolen.
i only have 3 days left of work before idul fitri holiday, in which i am not going thailand, but going to bukit lawang, an orangutan sancutary. i will be going trekking in the jungle for 3 days!! so yes, i will sleep in the jungle and hopefully not be killed by a tiger, or sucked by too many leeches. i am really really excited though because there are only 3 places on earth that there are wild orangutans. and as scary as it would be i really hope to see a tiger probably wont happen though.
after the holiday i only have 2 weeks left of teaching! i am so so excited to come home. i cant wait to hug and hang out and love so many people. oh gosh. i will be working a shitty job but i think i actually sort of have a life plan. lol. maybe not so much but i have been thinking alot about what i should be doing. i think i will work until next mid summerish and then move somewhere to aupair, probably england for a year. save as much moola as i can, then come back summer 2010 and try to find a high paying job, maybe my dad's work again if they will let me and save save save. and try to go to school again to be an environmental technologist, i need to look further into the programs and who offers them cuz i am hoping conestoga will so i can live at home. by the time i graduate i will be 27 and be ready to actually start a career. hopefully i can figure all this out.
AHHHHHHH i need to plan now for my classes. I CANT WAIT TO EFFING SEE YOU!
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
SO.
first off.
i am coming home. october 21st.
I feel really terrible, but also excited. In a way i feel like a failure, not because i originally felt that, just because people are making me feel that way. But i dont really understand it, how can you be a failure when you try different things, isnt it good to try things? I believe that i took a chance, a risk, and it just didnt work out. believe me, i wish it did, its pretty amazing here, but now is not the time. i have had an absolutely amazing cultural experience. it really has been unreal, and will be for the next month. i am not going to sit at home and mope around and be depressed cuz i am not, i feel good, i just feel like i need to be at home. i havent been with my family and friends for over 6 months, and i just really really miss them. would i take it back? probably not. i mean, there are things i could have done differently, but i am not going to look back on it, seeing it as a regret, not in any way what so ever. there were mistakes i made, and i will learn from those.
i just hope nobody sees this as me failing.
on another note.
i am going to penang tomorrow to get our visas extended, and i am SO excited. penang is in malaysia, and we are flying there with a guy from BC named Lindsay(who is super cool). we are there until sunday and i am just so excited to get away for a bit. I am however sick, which totally sucks, but i will try to enjoy my time as much as i can!
also, idul fitri holiday is coming up. the muslims here have been fasting during the day for the whole month of september, and it ends very soon. so we get a week off PAID holiday. I want to go somewhere because i am here and i dont wanna sit at home all week. Lindsay and Stacie are hitch-hiking to Nias, a surfing paradise, apparently. but i think the flight home will be over my budget, (which isnt very much). So, Adam is going to Thailand to go to Phi Phi Island, which is the island that the beach was filmed at, and its pretty close to here, so i think i will head over there with him. it should be exciting, and i think i should be able to snorkel and surf too. its just so cheap over here, you have no idea. the flight is definitely alot, but once you're here you're golden.
the bell is going to ring and school will be over, so this is all for now.
i will see you all soon. oh yeah, i am going to live at home for a while.
first off.
i am coming home. october 21st.
I feel really terrible, but also excited. In a way i feel like a failure, not because i originally felt that, just because people are making me feel that way. But i dont really understand it, how can you be a failure when you try different things, isnt it good to try things? I believe that i took a chance, a risk, and it just didnt work out. believe me, i wish it did, its pretty amazing here, but now is not the time. i have had an absolutely amazing cultural experience. it really has been unreal, and will be for the next month. i am not going to sit at home and mope around and be depressed cuz i am not, i feel good, i just feel like i need to be at home. i havent been with my family and friends for over 6 months, and i just really really miss them. would i take it back? probably not. i mean, there are things i could have done differently, but i am not going to look back on it, seeing it as a regret, not in any way what so ever. there were mistakes i made, and i will learn from those.
i just hope nobody sees this as me failing.
on another note.
i am going to penang tomorrow to get our visas extended, and i am SO excited. penang is in malaysia, and we are flying there with a guy from BC named Lindsay(who is super cool). we are there until sunday and i am just so excited to get away for a bit. I am however sick, which totally sucks, but i will try to enjoy my time as much as i can!
also, idul fitri holiday is coming up. the muslims here have been fasting during the day for the whole month of september, and it ends very soon. so we get a week off PAID holiday. I want to go somewhere because i am here and i dont wanna sit at home all week. Lindsay and Stacie are hitch-hiking to Nias, a surfing paradise, apparently. but i think the flight home will be over my budget, (which isnt very much). So, Adam is going to Thailand to go to Phi Phi Island, which is the island that the beach was filmed at, and its pretty close to here, so i think i will head over there with him. it should be exciting, and i think i should be able to snorkel and surf too. its just so cheap over here, you have no idea. the flight is definitely alot, but once you're here you're golden.
the bell is going to ring and school will be over, so this is all for now.
i will see you all soon. oh yeah, i am going to live at home for a while.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
HEY GUYS!!!
so many of you are settled and love where you are or are in school but i just thought i would let you know that maybe you should come to medan and teach.
they are hiring for i think decemberish. and pretty much all year, whenever you would want to come.
if anyone is interested just message me!!!!!
so many of you are settled and love where you are or are in school but i just thought i would let you know that maybe you should come to medan and teach.
they are hiring for i think decemberish. and pretty much all year, whenever you would want to come.
if anyone is interested just message me!!!!!
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
volcano climbing 101, plus my job
http://benlisch.name/pictures/Resorts%20Around%20Medan/Berastagi%202.jpg
this is a photo of the volcano we climbed, i will post this so you have an idea, but when we get our laptop this week i will post my pics! along with a bunch of others.
berastagi was the name of the town we went to for the weekend, we stayed in a guesthouse for 50 000 rupiah, which is 5 bucks canadian. there was 9 of us that went, my roomates and significant others, plus another girl from school. we took a bus up which was about a 2 hour, squashed hot ride. it is much cooler in berastagi than medan, medan is HELLA hot. berastagi we got to wear sweaters at night time, it was SO nice. on the ride there we saw monkeys on the side of the road, they were gibbons, they were so cute and i just wanted to reach out and high five him.
we got to berastagi and searched around for a place to stay and get a great deal, we went to some places that had chained up gibbons, they were chained up by their dick. it was really sad, so we said fuck that place, they also had a owl and a weird looking thing that none of us knew what it was.
we drank some beer, which is pretty good, and cheap. 17000 for a tall bottle, so 1.70$, then headed over to the veggie and meat market, NEVER EVER will i go to a meat market again. I have been having a really really hard time being a vegetarian because they dont eat any beans here and all i want is some fucking chickpeas, or kidney beans. and its very sketchy to eat veggie because they are sneaky little bastards and think that if there is only a little bit of meat in it, its all good. anyways, so i have kinda been thinking about eating meat, but after this weekend i dont think it will happen for quite a while, if at all. there were dead cows just hanging all over, and lots of dead chickens and chickens just all stuffed in little tiny cages, and fish with their heads being smashed and heads cut off live. it was SO disgusting. i got some veggies for cheap though, i think 4 or 5 beets for 50 cents, and 1 kilo of sweet potatoes for 50 cents. and i got 2 kilos of mangosteens for 1 dollar, and 5 avocados for 1 buck. it was wicked.
at night we just went out for dinner and layed low because we were going to climb the next day. i learned to play poker and it ended up down to me and adam and we kinda just played stupidly to end the game and i won. we werent playing for money cuz we were just learning! but the next night we played for money 10 000 each and i WON! well danny (american roomie) and me just decided to split it, so 25000 which is 2.50$ haha.
we started the climb at 930 on sunday morning, and walked to the base from town, which took about an hour, and then started the climb, we were with three indonesians and they do NO exercise what so ever, so it was a bit of a struggle for them at first. but the first part was just paths and really steep, but then we started to go downhill for a bit because we had to climb around a mountain before we got to the base of the volcano. we stopped for some lunch before the base, and it was about noon. then the next little bit was all paths but REALLY steep. it was getting cooler though so it was not so bad, beautiful amazing views though. there was a part where we were supposed to climb stairs but the stairs were actually just mud with steps that peoples footprints had made so we kinda got lost for a few minutes there, then the next part was like jungle trek, it was so cool. we didnt see any monkeys or anything because it is too cold for them up there. after the jungle you can see the hot spots blowing out hot air and the rest is just rocky mountainous climbing, mostly flat ground so that was good. adam pooed on the volcano, before the crater, it was ridiculous. i had to add that though. by this time we could fully see the crater and all the hot pockets blowing steam. after about 20 minutes of climbing we reached the top of the crater and it was just SO cool. there was water in the bottom, but we climbed down and it was not hot. but there were hot pockets and they were all flourescent yellow greenish, and some of them had water that was just boiling so fast. ( OH YEAH, its an active volcano.) it was so weird to be on top of the crater, obviously i kept thinking, holy shit, imagine if this just decided it was going to blow up now. it was scary, but exciting scary. we clearly would have died, but didnt, i am alive, no worries. i got some cool sulphur rocks, it STANK so bad like rotten eggs. it was quite windy on the crater, much more than anywhere else on the mountain. we stayed around the crater for about 30 mins and decided we would do the last of our uphill climb and start going down. Climbing down was definitely the hardest part of the whole thing, which i dont think any of us were expecting. it was all just mud for the first 30 minutes down and didnt even look like a trail and we all thought we were lost but kept going, we ran into a guy from switzerland, so we joined us. we finally made it to jungle and there were steps the rest of the way. it was really muddy and we all were so dirty by the end, with our legs killing. at the bottom there was a hot spring which was kinda lame cuz i was picturing a spring like in dantes peak when they almost die, but it just looked like a bunch of pools, i just put my feet in to relax them. it felt really good, but again smelt super bad, i def did not want to submerge in that shit.
we came home and ate curry and drank beer, got drunk and played poker. on sunday we just wandered around to the fruit market and i would have bought a dog if my roomates had allowed it. it was so cute and a little puppy and they treat them so shitty i wanted it to have a decent life. they were going to sell it to me for 300 000 which is 30 bucks but i could have got them down to 20. :( i am still upset about this little guy. we took the bus to dannys gf familys house and drank some fresh juice and sat on the roof with the beautiful view of mountains and volcanos all around us.
it was a great weekend, good to be away from this hot polluted city.
ramadan started yesterday which is where muslims fast between 5am and 630pm so SO many restuarants are closed for an entire month. its crazy, but we will deal! we only really eat out here because it is much cheaper than cooking your own meals. though tonight i might cook. i want to eat a salad, some beans and smoke a joint so bad. it is unreal.
my legs are in so much pain, i cant even think. i will post something else about my job because this one is just enough already.
i miss you guys more each day.
MUCH LOVE
this is a photo of the volcano we climbed, i will post this so you have an idea, but when we get our laptop this week i will post my pics! along with a bunch of others.
berastagi was the name of the town we went to for the weekend, we stayed in a guesthouse for 50 000 rupiah, which is 5 bucks canadian. there was 9 of us that went, my roomates and significant others, plus another girl from school. we took a bus up which was about a 2 hour, squashed hot ride. it is much cooler in berastagi than medan, medan is HELLA hot. berastagi we got to wear sweaters at night time, it was SO nice. on the ride there we saw monkeys on the side of the road, they were gibbons, they were so cute and i just wanted to reach out and high five him.
we got to berastagi and searched around for a place to stay and get a great deal, we went to some places that had chained up gibbons, they were chained up by their dick. it was really sad, so we said fuck that place, they also had a owl and a weird looking thing that none of us knew what it was.
we drank some beer, which is pretty good, and cheap. 17000 for a tall bottle, so 1.70$, then headed over to the veggie and meat market, NEVER EVER will i go to a meat market again. I have been having a really really hard time being a vegetarian because they dont eat any beans here and all i want is some fucking chickpeas, or kidney beans. and its very sketchy to eat veggie because they are sneaky little bastards and think that if there is only a little bit of meat in it, its all good. anyways, so i have kinda been thinking about eating meat, but after this weekend i dont think it will happen for quite a while, if at all. there were dead cows just hanging all over, and lots of dead chickens and chickens just all stuffed in little tiny cages, and fish with their heads being smashed and heads cut off live. it was SO disgusting. i got some veggies for cheap though, i think 4 or 5 beets for 50 cents, and 1 kilo of sweet potatoes for 50 cents. and i got 2 kilos of mangosteens for 1 dollar, and 5 avocados for 1 buck. it was wicked.
at night we just went out for dinner and layed low because we were going to climb the next day. i learned to play poker and it ended up down to me and adam and we kinda just played stupidly to end the game and i won. we werent playing for money cuz we were just learning! but the next night we played for money 10 000 each and i WON! well danny (american roomie) and me just decided to split it, so 25000 which is 2.50$ haha.
we started the climb at 930 on sunday morning, and walked to the base from town, which took about an hour, and then started the climb, we were with three indonesians and they do NO exercise what so ever, so it was a bit of a struggle for them at first. but the first part was just paths and really steep, but then we started to go downhill for a bit because we had to climb around a mountain before we got to the base of the volcano. we stopped for some lunch before the base, and it was about noon. then the next little bit was all paths but REALLY steep. it was getting cooler though so it was not so bad, beautiful amazing views though. there was a part where we were supposed to climb stairs but the stairs were actually just mud with steps that peoples footprints had made so we kinda got lost for a few minutes there, then the next part was like jungle trek, it was so cool. we didnt see any monkeys or anything because it is too cold for them up there. after the jungle you can see the hot spots blowing out hot air and the rest is just rocky mountainous climbing, mostly flat ground so that was good. adam pooed on the volcano, before the crater, it was ridiculous. i had to add that though. by this time we could fully see the crater and all the hot pockets blowing steam. after about 20 minutes of climbing we reached the top of the crater and it was just SO cool. there was water in the bottom, but we climbed down and it was not hot. but there were hot pockets and they were all flourescent yellow greenish, and some of them had water that was just boiling so fast. ( OH YEAH, its an active volcano.) it was so weird to be on top of the crater, obviously i kept thinking, holy shit, imagine if this just decided it was going to blow up now. it was scary, but exciting scary. we clearly would have died, but didnt, i am alive, no worries. i got some cool sulphur rocks, it STANK so bad like rotten eggs. it was quite windy on the crater, much more than anywhere else on the mountain. we stayed around the crater for about 30 mins and decided we would do the last of our uphill climb and start going down. Climbing down was definitely the hardest part of the whole thing, which i dont think any of us were expecting. it was all just mud for the first 30 minutes down and didnt even look like a trail and we all thought we were lost but kept going, we ran into a guy from switzerland, so we joined us. we finally made it to jungle and there were steps the rest of the way. it was really muddy and we all were so dirty by the end, with our legs killing. at the bottom there was a hot spring which was kinda lame cuz i was picturing a spring like in dantes peak when they almost die, but it just looked like a bunch of pools, i just put my feet in to relax them. it felt really good, but again smelt super bad, i def did not want to submerge in that shit.
we came home and ate curry and drank beer, got drunk and played poker. on sunday we just wandered around to the fruit market and i would have bought a dog if my roomates had allowed it. it was so cute and a little puppy and they treat them so shitty i wanted it to have a decent life. they were going to sell it to me for 300 000 which is 30 bucks but i could have got them down to 20. :( i am still upset about this little guy. we took the bus to dannys gf familys house and drank some fresh juice and sat on the roof with the beautiful view of mountains and volcanos all around us.
it was a great weekend, good to be away from this hot polluted city.
ramadan started yesterday which is where muslims fast between 5am and 630pm so SO many restuarants are closed for an entire month. its crazy, but we will deal! we only really eat out here because it is much cheaper than cooking your own meals. though tonight i might cook. i want to eat a salad, some beans and smoke a joint so bad. it is unreal.
my legs are in so much pain, i cant even think. i will post something else about my job because this one is just enough already.
i miss you guys more each day.
MUCH LOVE
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)